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“Emily, this is Wolf. I need you to schedule a press conference. I want it in our conference room sometime this week.”
“Mr. Outen! How wonderful to hear your voice! Yes, sir! I’ll get right on that and let you know.”
“Thank you, Emily. Good to be back. I await your call,” he said, and hung up.
Chapter 18
By noon the next day, the press release from Outen Industries was the lead story on every media outlet.
Wolfgang Outen was about to make his first public appearance since before the chopper crash. The media already knew his wife had been arrested and charged with multiple murders, as well as the attempt on his life, and they were anxiously awaiting his comments. The conference would be inside his office building. No outside guests were allowed. Media only, and questions would be taken. Wolf was braced for whatever they asked, but hoping the existence of his daughter had not been leaked. Coming at the Bullocks unannounced was his goal. After that, he wanted to tell the world of their miraculous reunion.
Wolf wasn’t the only one making plans for Amalie. Sean had plans for her, too. All the time he’d been healing, he’d thought of little else but Amalie. In his heart, shewas already his, but he wanted the world to know it, too. She just needed to be properly asked before he put a ring on it.
He’d been online for days, looking at engagement rings in every size and shape, in every setting imaginable, and while they were all beautiful, he hadn’t found one that spoke to him.
Shirley had gone up the mountain to Ray and Betty Raines’s place this morning to help Betty with housework and laundry. Betty had taken a bad fall, and cousins were bringing food daily to help out. Ray was at work every day, and Charlie was in school, which left Betty on her own, so Sean was on his own.
He’d been working since before daylight and had just finished up a remote fix for a client when his cell phone rang. He glanced down, surprised at the caller, but quickly answered.
“Hello…Aunt Ella?”
“Yes, it’s me. You bought that ring yet?”
He was long past the need to ask her how she knew he was even looking. “Uh…not yet, but I’ve been looking.”
“I have my granny’s wedding rings. I wondered if you might like to take a look at them. If they don’t suit what you want, that’s fine. I never felt called to offer them to any of the kin before, but you and her…well… Full circle, son. Full circle.”
Sean was stunned. “I don’t know what to say, but I’d sure love to see them.”
“Then come on up,” Ella said. “This is just between you and me, and nobody else will know. The only people who know I have them are dead and gone now.”
“Is now okay?” Sean asked.
“If you’re feeling up to driving, now is fine with me.”
His heart skipped. “I’m up to it. I’ll see you soon.” He grabbed his coat and keys, left a note on the kitchen island, and was out the door.
He hadn’t been behind the wheel of a car in weeks, but it felt good to be in control of his life again. He’d lost track of time when he was in the hospital, and then ten more days of recuperating at home after that. Basically, the last half of January and a few days into February now. Once he reached the blacktop, he turned right and headed up the mountain.
Ella’s place was just below John and Annie Cauley’s. It was the house she’d been born in, and the house she would die in. There were stories about a man she’d once loved and lost, but there were just stories. Ella never confirmed or denied any of them, other than she’d made peace with the single life.
He couldn’t wait to see the rings. Something told him she already knew they would suit, or she would never have called. When he reached the turnoff to her house, he stopped to see if the mail carrier had run, and when he saw mail in the box, pulled it out and took it with him, and then carried it up the porch upon his arrival.
He knocked, then heard her call out… “Door’s open! Come on in!”
“Brought your mail, Aunt Ella,” he said.
“Thank you, Sean! Saved me a trip down the road later!” she said, and took it out of his hands and laid it aside. “Come to the kitchen where the light’s better. I haven’t looked at Granny’s rings for a good fifty years, but after I met your girl, I took ’em out and cleaned them up a bit.”
Sean followed. “Which grandmother is this? Your dad or your mother’s mother?”
“My papa’s mam. Her name was Annabelle, but they called her Belle. I don’t know how Papa’s daddy came to have that ring to even give to his wife. Nobody had money back then. Maybe it came from the old country. Maybe he won it in a poker game. Who knows? People didn’t dwell much on family history back then. Mostly because if their lives were bad enough to leave their homeland, they didn’t like to be reminded of it.”
“I can understand that,” Sean said. “Sometimes I almost forget we were ever anywhere but here, and Arkansas is someone else’s story.”
Ella patted his shoulder. “Yes, boy…like that. Now sit yourself down here and open up the box. Be honest. It won’t hurt my feelings none at all.”
Sean sat and picked up a small black box with a tiny hinge on one side. He could see it had once been covered in some kind of fabric, but there was little left to it but a few pieces of fuzz. But then he lifted the lid, and as he did, sunlight coming through the window caught in the facets, and for a heartbeat, it was like holding fire.
