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“He looks a lot like Luc, doesn’t he?” The black-and-white newspaper clipping had no caption. Of course not—why should anything in this quest for answers beeasy?But she saw what Zoey meant.
“Very much so. Only his skin tone is super pale. But look at his hair in this one.”
A man with red hair and Luc’s face stared back from the photo that had to be a good sixty-something years old. Probably seventy or more, actually. He was no older than forty in the photo. But man, the guy had the redhead freckles of doom—much like Sydney herself.
Except the smile.
Paige and Pen had the man’ssmile. No denying that. And all of Zoey’s sisters had that same pale skin—minus the freckles that guy had, though. “Denise’s parents, possibly?”
“Red hair is recessive. Maybe Jillian’s kid will pop with red hair?” Zoey asked. “From the clothing styles, I’m going to say more like Denise’s grandparents? Maybe. Who the hell knows? Yet.”
Sydney grabbed the newspaper clipping of the woman in the retro-wear. It was freaky how much that woman looked like Zoey, but with slightly lighter hair. “Whoever she is, the genetics within you is strong, young one. Very, very strong. If I believed in past lives…”
“I found a few other photos, but these were the ones I thought would have the most potential for lead generation. The article on the back of that is about a specific medical discovery. If we can track that article down somehow—long shot, I know, but with Google…maybe? We can hopefully find the original paper that came out of, and if there are any microfiches out there still… I just want her name. But mostly, I found this. Find me what you can on a Cole Daviess. And we’ll go from there.”
“Aye-aye, Captain Zoey.” Sydney took the birth certificate. “How much you want to bet Jillian and Rafe’s next kid comes out with red hair?”
“Not a penny. I’ve seen Sweeney. This next one is going to look like you, with my hair and eyes. It’s almost a given.”
“We’ll see. We’ll see. Whatever he looks like—he’s going to be gorgeous. Just like his aunties.” And Sydney was going to adore the baby her sister had soon with Zoey’s brother, too. Just like she did his older brother. And if this Cole Daviess was out there somewhere, well, Sydney was going to find him, too. Family…family was everything. Nothing could ever matter more.
5
Oakley knewshe wasn’t a baby. She wasseven.
She was probably beingreally, really willfulright now, too. Grandfather said she was willful.
Sometimes he said she wasflawed.
But she just had to do bad things. Sometimes, she justhadto.
She knew how to get into her grandfather’s office. There was a heat vent tunnel from his office to the guest bedroom next to it. Her bedroom shared a bathroom with the guest room. Sometimes she played in the guest room. When Nanny locked her in her room for being bad.
Oakley could kind of bereallybad sometimes.
She didn’t mean to be. It just happened.
The vent tunnel didn’t have all the screws in it, and she could push it in and slip through. She was still little enough to fit.
She had to. It was the only way out of her room when it was locked.
Her little brother needed her at night. Nanny never heard him when he cried.
Oakleyalwaysdid.
She was his sister. She was supposed to take care of him. No matter what.
Sometimes, when Grandfather was gone at his other house and it was just her and Orion and Nanny, she would sneak in his office and just look at stuff.
Thestuff. Thesecretstuff.
Themommystuff.
Oakley had found it back when it was summer and really hot out. On his desk. Bunches and bunches of pictures.
Oakley loved those pictures.
Her mommy was so, so pretty. Like a princess from the cartoon movies Nanny let them watch so they’d stay out of her way.
