But I would find out the truth.
“I can tell you why.”My father’s quiet voice made me spin around to face him.He stood outside the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hand and his pipe stuck between his teeth.“Sit down, Piper.”
I moved into the living room and perched on the edge of the same chair I sat in when I learned Alice had willed me everything.My father took his place on the sofa, setting his cup on the nearby table.
“You shouldn’t have talked to her that way,” he said in his quiet scolding way.
Perhaps not.But I had been through a lifetime of disappointment with that woman.Even so, I felt the need to apologize.
“I’m sorry, Dad.”
He leaned back and puffed on his pipe.“I understand why you think she hates you, though.She’s not the most affectionate woman.She never has been.”
Cold was the word that came to my mind.I leaned forward.“Tell me the truth, Dad.Was Alice my mother?”
“Yes.”He said it without hesitation and I knew it to be true.
I leaned back in the cushion of the chair, exhaling a breath I hadn’t realized I had even sucked in.
“I don’t understand.Why did she never tell me?”
“We were sworn to secrecy,” he said.“She made us promise that we would never tell you.”
“But why?”
He puffed out a cloud of white smoke.“When Alice learned she was pregnant, she knew she could never keep you.She begged your mother to take you and raise you as her own.She was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“Losing you.”
I considered this.If Alice was a witch, then what did that make me?“Dad, is Mom a…” I paused, unwilling to squeeze out the word.
“A witch?No.Gladys is not a witch.But Alice was.She feared you would be one, too.”
I glanced at my father, wondering.Had he and Alice had an affair?Was I half his?I had to ask.
“Are you… my father?”
“No.”He cut a glance to me.“I mean, yes.But not your biological father.I’ve always thought of you as my own, though.Since the day Alice handed you to us.”
“Why did she?Why did she do that and then stay in Hickory Hollow?”
“She thought she’d be safe here.It was so isolated from the real world back then.She was sure she could watch you grow up.”
“That’s why I spent so much time with her,” I mused.“But then why did Mom make me stop seeing her?I was in high school then.”
“Your powers were starting to manifest.Gladys felt that if you were with Alice, then you would start to suspect and you’d want her to teach you.”
“So why didn’t she?”
“Because she didn’t want you to know what you were.She wanted you far from that life.As far as possible.”
He was quiet then, his mouth tightening around his pipe.“She didn’t hide you because she was ashamed.She hid you because she was afraid your father would find you.”
That got my attention.I stared at him.“My father?”
“That’s all I know about that.”
