This would make the third mother she’d done. Dazzled by the beauty of this estate, Annie rang the doorbell. As she waited, she eyed the shiny brass knocker and the carefully trimmed shrubbery. The two-story brick house was enormous. It was centered on beautifully landscaped acreage framed by old oak trees. Her heartbeat accelerated with the approaching footsteps on the other side of the door.
She clutched her good leather purse to her side, knowing it was just the right touch. It was important not to look too poor, or too rich. Seconds away now. She had her speech down cold. Every word, every gesture worked out in advance.
It wasn’t as though this was a cold call. She had spent two months collecting information. This mother was a widow, worth a small fortune, with a platoon of lawyers and accountants guarding the gates. Today was the downstairs maid’s day off. Mrs. Elaine Simms would answer the door herself.
Like the other two mothers, Elaine Simms had given a baby up for adoption. Looking back, Annie decided it was as though the first two women were for practice.
For the first mother, it hadn’t taken much. A little gold cross, some scruffy loafers, run-down heels. She would never forget the face of the good Christian woman when she answered the door.
“Mrs. Woodruff?” Annie had asked cautiously. Then, “Mother! You’re my mother.”
“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” the woman cried out. “Oh please no.” Furtively, she’d looked around. “My husband. Please. Please. He doesn’t know.”
“I’ve had a terrible life,” Annie said. “You abandoned me to a cruel home. Terrible people.”
“I didn’t know,” Mrs. Woodruff whimpered. “I swear to God I didn’t know.”
From there on, it had been easy. All she’d gotten was ten thousand dollars. But it was enough for Annie to realize the potential. Working in the state adoption agency gave her access to all the records. Once she found her mark, she did not have to fake any of the feelings. An adopted child herself, orphaned now, she had never really fit in.
“You’re special,” her parents had told her. “We chose you.” Well, she had never thought they were very special. Not special at all. They were mediocre middle-class little worker ants, and she knew in her soul she had been born to better. It was just a matter of finding them.
The second mother was solid, shrewd. Sized her up in about three minutes. But she believed me, Annie thought with a smile. Oh yes, she believed me. The big secret was worth twenty-five thousand to that one. But Annie had known better than to ever come back.
Annie’s stomach tightened with anticipation. The deadbolt clicked. She had big plans for this mother. Her blood pounded in her ears. She’s old, Annie reminded herself. Going to die soon anyway. What’s life worth to an old bat like her?
Through her snooping around, she had learned this woman had an invalid daughter, on dialysis. Perhaps Elaine Simms’s life is worth something to the daughter, she thought with a grim smile. Invalids did best with a mother’s care.
At last. The woman on the other side peered through a crack, then slid back the chain and opened the door.
Elaine Simms was a slim woman, patrician, with beautifully arranged white hair. She had perfect carriage, and wore a brightly embroidered denim tunic over matching pants. On her wrists was an array of slender turquoise and silver bracelets.
“Elaine Simms?” Annie asked tentatively, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Mother?”
But the well-rehearsed words stuck in her throat. Before she could get them out of her mouth, the woman’s face drained of color. Simms gave a little gurgle and silently worked her mouth as she clutched her hand to her chest. She fell against the door jam, her head bent.
Terrified, that she was having a heart attack, Annie reached to steady her. This mother couldn’t die now. It was too soon. It would ruin everything.
“Oh please,” begged Annie. “Please, please be all right.” Dazed, she tried to make sense of the woman’s reaction. All she had done was say her name.
Then Mrs. Simms’s head shot up and she clasped Annie’s cheeks between her palms and smothered her face with little kisses. “Darling, darling girl,” she murmured.
“Laurie,” she called loudly. “Laurie. Annie’s here. Your sister is here!”
Disoriented and light-headed, Annie took a series of deep breaths. From the hallway, she could see a flash of chrome; a chair rapidly propelled by strong, efficient hands silently whooshed down the long oriental runner. She stared at the woman who wheeled into the doorway. Stared at her own features. The face before her was broad, beautiful, faintly Slavic with high cheekbones and a distinctly cleft chin. Her eyes were blue. Even their honey-blond hair was styled in the same tousled cut.
Annie’s hand trembled as she touched her own face; to assure herself that her nose, eyes, and mouth were in the right place. She had an eerie sense they had been snatched from her body and pasted onto this Laurie, this stranger. Laurie Simms wore a long gathered white linen skirt, and a bright scoop-necked appliquéd top, extravagantly Southwestern, reeking of money. Exactly the in-your-face kind of outfit Annie would have chosen if she were an invalid.
Even in Annie’s superior physical condition, the woman in the chair seemed to have the advantage. She sat beautifully erect, her eyes confident and judgmental. Annie winked back tears. You couldn’t buy this kind of poise. It comes from being sure of your place, she thought bitterly.
“Annie,” said the woman in the chair. “I’ve waited, waited so long for this moment.”
“My darling baby,” gushed Mrs. Simms. “My own darling little girl. You were twins, of course, identical twins.”
Jesus, Annie thought. What a gold mine. Her mind whirled. Stocks and bonds and land and this house. This fabulous house. The potential was slowly dawning on her. Then she was jolted by another thought; this wasn’t just any old mother. This is my real mother. She had actually found her real mother. Her very own sister. How had this happened?
“I don’t understand,” she said limply. “I just don’t understand.” Confused, she realized it was not a total coincidence. After all, she had concentrated on mothers who had given birth the year she was born. In fact, even before she knew Elaine Simms was worth a fortune, Annie had focused on her because she had a daughter named Laurie. The Annie-Laurie bit had appealed to her sense of poetic justice.
“We’ve been looking for you for the last three years,” said Laurie. “We hired a private detective.”
“Why didn’t he call us?” Mrs. Simms wailed. “I can’t understand why he didn’t let us know he had found you. We hunted everywhere.”
“He didn’t find me. I found you. I’ve been looking for you too. I was in a number of foster homes before I was adopted. So many it would have been hard to track me,” Annie said carefully, knowing they would be put off by her raw rage that could well to the surface if she didn’t keep strict control of her feelings.
“Oh my darling, we are all together again now. Reunited. And you are to start calling me Mother.”
“And you can start calling me Sis,” Laurie insisted with a charming smile.
“Are you sure?” Annie asked. Suspicious of her own good fortune, she looked into Laurie’s eyes. Did this sister resent the intrusion? How would it set with her to be an invalid, then have a healthy identical twin walk in, bold as brass? Not well, Annie thought. But that’s tough, sister. I’m here to stay.
“Of course I want you to call me Sis,” said Laurie. “Of course. How can you doubt it?” The tears in her eyes appeared to be genuine. They literally pulled her inside and led her to the kitchen, insisting she was one of the family, not parlor company.
Sitting at a huge oak island, Annie was astonished at the sheer size of the room. All the appliances were disguised by oak panels. A vast array of copper pans dangled on wrought-iron hooks. There was a glassed-in porch on the south side, containing a jungle of green plants.
I should have grown up right here, thought Annie. I should have gone to a finishing school. Learned to fence and play tennis. For an instant, she was swept by a wave of hatred for this sister who had had all the advantages.
“There are so many things I want to know about you. Where you live, what you do.” Elaine Simms brimmed with tears as she settled beside Annie.
“Excuse me,” Annie pleaded. “Bathroom, please?” She needed to escape. Think. She was terrified she would say or do something that would screw her up later.
She nearly ran down the hallway. Inside the ornate gold and rose powder room, she ran cold water over a washcloth and pressed it against the hot blood surging into her cheeks.
Then it dawned on her she could say anything, do anything, and they would believe her. If it didn’t ring true, she could simply explain that she had been trying to impress them. She had wanted them to like her.
She pulled herself together and walked back into the kitchen. The two women were weeping and clutching each other’s hands. Then, moved to tears herself, she laughed and joined them.
She and Laurie couldn’t keep their eyes off one another. They had an irresistible urge to play favorites. What’s your favorite book? What’s your favorite color? Your favorite movie? Annie realized everything she had learned about twins was true. Even raised apart in totally different backgrounds, they had developed nearly identical tastes.
They doted on her. Believed every word she said. She stuck as closely to the truth as possible, and when they asked her where she worked, she smiled tearfully and said, “For an adoption agency. That’s where I got the idea that you just might be my mother. But I had no idea I was a twin. None.”
And that’s the God’s truth, she thought, or I would have been here a long time ago.
“My sole reason for keeping such a painful job was to find you.” She peeked at them from between her fingers splayed across her face. “I’ve been told I was vastly underemployed. Working far below my capacity. At a salary that’s laughable to say the least.” Then overcome, she whirled around and left the room again.
When she returned, Laurie and Elaine’s faces were alive with joy and the quiet resolution of persons who have come to a decision. “We have so much to make up to you,” said Elaine. “So much we want you to know. Would it be possible for you to move in here? There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for us to catch up!”
Annie trembled as she walked toward them. “This house? This wonderful house? I could live in this house? With you?”
“Oh, my darling child,” Elaine said. “Of course. You’re entitled.”
You bet your butt I am, Annie thought. “There are a few arrangements I have to make.”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. I’ve been told I have problems with relationships, because of what was missing in my early childhood.” She said this with a brave little shudder and bright smile. She noticed a flash of guilty pain in Elaine Simms’s eyes. “And I need to let them know at work. I won’t bother with a full two weeks’ notice.”
Then seeing the frown on Elaine’s face, as though she did not approve of a daughter who took her responsibilities lightly, she added, “There’s been a few problems with my boss. He’s a bit handsy.”
It was the right thing to say. Elaine’s face relaxed, and Annie knew she should think Midwest from now on. Man’s word was his bond and all that.
“Can we send someone to help you?” asked Elaine.
“No,” Annie blurted. “I don’t want you to see where I live.” That was the absolute truth, and she was intrigued at how often now she was well served by the absolute truth.
Elaine’s face softened with pity. “Oh, my own darling little girl. I can’t believe how we’ve wronged you. We’re going to make it up to you.”
Annie packed quickly. Looking around at the sheer squalor of her apartment, she couldn’t wait to get out the door. Her pitiful pieces of furniture, her second-rate clothes belonged to another life. She didn’t need them anymore. For anything.
Her new bedroom contained a splendid walnut four-poster bed with an antique lace spread and curtains to match. That night she sank into the feathery warmth of soft luxurious bedding, fit for a princess. But before she drifted off to sleep, her mind buzzed with questions. Why did Mother keep Laurie and not me? Why was I abandoned?
The next morning, she was slowly coming up from the deepest sleep she had ever known when there was a timid knock on the door.
“Come in,” she called with a guilty glance at the clock. Ten in the morning. What must they think of her?
The door opened, and a maid came in bearing an enormous breakfast tray. Elaine followed her into the room.
“I can’t imagine what came over me,” Annie said. “Honestly. You must think I’m a terrible slugabed—”
“No, no, no,” protested Elaine. She yanked up the raw silk shades and let in a blazing shaft of light. Her white hair gleamed like a halo against the window. “Darling girl. We want you to lie back. Enjoy! Let yourself be pampered. When was the last time you had breakfast in bed?”
The maid arranged the tray and began propping up the vast array of feather pillows. She handed Annie the morning paper and a remote for the TV hidden in the wall opposite her.
“I am so very, very grateful,” said Annie.
“We’re the ones who should be thankful,” Elaine said.
She handed Annie a clipboard. “I want you to sign this. I’m adding your name to my credit card at Neiman Marcus. You’re to have a whole new wardrobe. There’s a woman who will come here to fit you and show you fabrics, styles.”
“No need for that,” Annie protested as she signed the form. “I can go down to the store.”
“Nonsense. You’ve never had the pleasure of someone working to satisfy you and you alone. You’ll love it!”
That afternoon, Annie was overwhelmed by the array of expensive clothing.
“Don’t even think about the price,” Elaine said. “It’s not even a consideration.”
Oh, somebody pinch me, Annie thought. This has got to be a dream. She signed for a makeover from a well-known salon and a masseuse and approved of the fresh flowers to be delivered to her bedroom twice a week. She signed the forms adding her name to their health insurance and their car insurance.
“I’m going to get writer’s cramp,” Annie protested.
“You’re part of this family now,” Elaine said with amusement. “We want you to enjoy all the privileges. But when there’s money involved, all the forms and legalities can be overwhelming.”
When Elaine urged her to sell “or junk” her old car, Annie hoped she would volunteer to replace it with a racy little sports car.
“I don’t want you driving,” Elaine protested. “You’re too precious to us. Our chauffeur will take you anywhere you want to go. I’ve spent so many years worrying about Laurie’s health, I’m afraid you’ll find me a bit of a prevention fanatic. Please! Wear your seat belt, take vitamins, and all that.”
Although Elaine smiled to soften her words, Annie soon learned her every health habit was under constant scrutiny. She missed the freedom of driving her own car, and even more, the freedom to run around and do as she pleased. In her own velvet-gloved way, Elaine Simms exerted an iron control over the plethora of people required to run her household, and this attitude was extended to her daughters.
After studying all the processes for Laurie’s dialysis, Annie volunteered to stay with her and monitor the machine during the triweekly process. It gave her a chance to visit with Laurie.
When she made the offer, Elaine was thrilled. “It will be a big relief to me to know I can leave this house safely from time to time. Laurie’s own sister will be here to cheer her. Even though there’s always a nurse right in the next room, it will be a comfort to me.”
Annie smiled gamely. She hated blood, urine—anything to do with medicine. She wasn’t about to spend all of her days taking care of a sister with a bum kidney. They would have to go. Both of them, Annie thought grimly. But it would have to come after she was so entrenched she would be included in Elaine’s will.
Just as she was giving the ways and means her full attention, Elaine floored her with another move. It was as disorienting as opening a door two weeks earlier and finding her real mother.
Her mother came into her bedroom early that morning, trailed by a nurse carrying blood-typing tubes and all kinds of medical paraphernalia. The nurse wound an elastic tube around her arm. “All you’re going to feel is a little sting.”
“What’s going on? What are you doing to me?”
Elaine positively glowed. “I have a wonderful surprise for you, darling. I’m going to adopt you. This shouldn’t be necessary, but my lawyers insist that you have a complete medical workup. Given all the miracles people can work with plastic surgery nowadays, they want to be sure you’re really Laurie’s sister. They want blood typing, DNA testing. All that. We’ll need your consent, of course, for all these proceedings.” Elaine smiled as she handed Annie a clipboard containing stacks of papers requiring her signature. “I can’t adopt you against your will.”
“Why now?” asked Annie. “Why now, when I’m an adult?” There was a hole inside her nothing could fill. It was too late. Nevertheless, she reached for the pen, zipped through the piles of required forms, then patted Elaine’s hand to take the sting out of her words.
“Why now? There must be no question that you’re my legal heir, the same as Laurie. Adoption is the best way to eliminate any complications.”
Annie sank back into the bed, so ecstatic her toes curled. She beamed at the nurse. “Take plenty,” she said as she watched the vial fill with her blood. There was no doubt in her mind that Laurie was her identical twin; and her own health was perfect. Just perfect. Now her biggest hurdle of all—one that had driven her crazy for the past two weeks—had been cleared as easily as if someone had waved a magic wand. When Elaine died, she would inherit equally with Laurie. And then, she smiled. Then after a decent period, she would inherit her sister’s share. Just like that.
She hated the dialysis machine, but didn’t let a trace of that show. She now looked forward to the three-hour sessions three times a week with Laurie. At last, she was able to gain some information about her mother.
One day, she looked at Laurie and realized how much she liked her. For an instant, she wished this sister were well. She would be the family she had never had. She wished Elaine were not so domineering. Wished Laurie were not so sick.
After she had checked all the monitors and tubes, she glanced at the array of medications the nurse had left out on Laurie’s table. Lining them up, tidying the tray gave her a chance to read the labels.
She picked up a small bottle of morphine and turned to Laurie. “Are you in pain often?”
“No, I really do very well, but we don’t like to take any chances. When it hits, it’s terrible. We keep everything I might need possibly on hand,” she said with a weak smile. “As you can tell by the dates, I don’t need any pain medication very often.”
Just a bit too much morphine could fatally suppress respiration, Annie thought triumphantly. It was the perfect way. But first Elaine! She still had the problem with her mother. There was no real rush. The perfect way for her would present itself too.
Annie picked up a magazine and pretended to leaf through it. She and Laurie had quite a confidential relationship by now. Today, after her sister was relaxed, she would ask the heartbreaking questions that had always plagued her. She had a right to know. She waited until Laurie was drowsy, and the sun was warming the cheery yellow room Elaine had furnished especially for this process.
“What can you tell me about our father?”
Laurie stiffened. “We will never know who our father was,” she said softly. “Mother has never said.”
“I just supposed hers was a young have-to marriage and that her husband, Howard Simms, was our father,” Annie said truthfully.
“The man I grew up calling ‘Daddy’ was not our father.”
Stunned, Annie sat silently for a moment before she asked the question that had plagued her all her life. The one asked by all adoptive children; “Legitimate or not,” she said bitterly, “why didn’t they keep me?”
Laurie was totally silent. Absolutely rigid.
Then Annie asked the question that had been tormenting her ever since she came to this house. She had not known before that she had a sister. “How could any woman, any mother, give away a twin?”
“There are some questions you must never ask,” Laurie said softly. “Never.”
“I’ve got to know.”
“She didn’t know we were twins.”
“How could that be?”
“She’s not our birth mother. I’m adopted. And you will be too, from what I hear.”
“Oh my God,” whispered Annie. “But the records show she gave up a baby for adoption—not that she was the one who adopted a child.”
“She did give up a baby,” Laurie said. “She became pregnant and her parents made her do it. They were very prominent socially, and couldn’t bear the stigma of an illegitimate grandchild. But Elaine nearly went crazy with grief. She married the man of their choice, nearly immediately afterward. It was more a financial merger than a marriage. In hopes of saving her sanity, Howard Simms agreed to adopt a child at once. Her parents’ lawyer put it all through at warp speed. A private arrangement, of course.”
“No state agency would have been that careless,” said Annie. “The lawyer didn’t bother to find out too many details about the birth, or he would have known we were twins.”
“Big bucks for the lawyer, and a one-shot deal,” Laurie said.
“So the state records I saw just showed that she had given up a child. I didn’t have access to ones showing that she also adopted another.” Annie rose from the chair and stared out the window.
“So, she’s not our real mother then.” Just any old mother after all. It explained so many things, such as their Swedish blonde beauty that didn’t seem to belong with the patrician hawk-faced woman. Most of all, it explained the slight antipathy she felt for Elaine Simms. If she had any qualms before about what she planned to do, they were now all swept away. “Not our real mother.”
“No,” Laurie said fiercely. “Put that thought out of your mind right now. I mean it, Annie, don’t ever, ever let on that I’ve told you. She freaks out over this. As far as I’m concerned, she is my real mother.”
When the dialysis session was over, Annie delayed asking the nurse to begin the elaborate dismantling and cleaning process. She needed the answers to several more questions.
“Why did she start looking for me just three years ago? Why would she start looking at all if she didn’t know I existed?”
“My kidneys started to fail, and we needed medical information,” Laurie said. “It was a terrible time for us both. Just terrible. She had to tell me. It just killed Mother to admit she wasn’t my biological parent.” Her chin quivered. “I grew up thinking I was their little girl. I, we, sort of looked like Howard Simms. He couldn’t have any children. And really, they didn’t need any more. They had me.”
Annie’s stomach lurched. She should have been in on this fairy tale childhood.
“In fact, I had to beg Mother to let me out of her sight long enough to go to college. Vassar, you know.”
Community college and night school for me, you know, thought Annie.
Two days later, Elaine came into the room during Laurie’s dialysis treatment. She beamed as she announced to both of them, “Adoption proceedings are formally under way. My lawyers are satisfied that you are not a pretender. You will soon be a full heir in my estate. Now I have the satisfaction of knowing if anything happens to Laurie, our name and traditions will be passed on.”
Tears of joy gushed from Annie’s eyes. For an instant, she felt real warmth toward this woman. “Thank you,” she said. “Oh, thank you, Mother.”
“There will be one more medical test. Since you’re twins, I want to make sure you don’t have Laurie’s problem. And would you mind terribly, darling, taking the name of Annie Simms? While we’re finalizing the paperwork, it would be a good time to make the legal name switch.”
“I would be honored,” said Annie. “Nothing could please me more.”
Hell, honey, you can call me Scarlett O’Hara, if it suits you, she thought. Frankly my dear, I Just don’t give a damn. After the paperwork was final, she would put her plans into motion. During the remainder of Laurie’s dialysis, she spent the time daydreaming about a shiny black Mercedes and expensive trips. The money. The lovely, lovely money.
The next morning, as Annie waited for the maid to bring her breakfast, she heard the nurse’s voice in the halfway.
“This is the last round of tests?” asked Elaine.
Annie could not hear the reply, but in a moment, Elaine spoke again.
“Be careful what you leave lying out in Laurie’s room. Annie has volunteered to sit with her during dialysis, and given her past, it’s simply not a good idea to leave drugs lying around.”
Annie shot up in bed, stunned that Elaine would put such a false wicked idea in someone’s mind. She had never done drugs. Not ever. She liked being in control too well to risk the vulnerability. She didn’t drink much either.
Steaming at Elaine’s suspicion, she was barely civil to the nurse. She sullenly signed the papers, then thrust out her arm so she could draw blood. She tried to settle down. Elaine hadn’t said she was a drug addict. She had just implied the possibility, given her past. Well, what in the hell did that woman know about my past? She had never shown any interest before.
“Are you awake?” Elaine called softly that night long after Laurie had gone to bed.
“Yes,” said Annie, “come on in. Is it Laurie? Has something happened to Laurie?”
“No, darling. Nothing yet. But tomorrow is going to be a very big day for her. The biggest day in her whole life.”
Annie looked curiously at Elaine, who was carrying a tray of medical paraphernalia.
“We need more blood,” said Elaine. “The nurse called and said a lab technician dropped the sample she took this morning. I’ve been trained to do this, so there was need to have her come back tonight.”
Christ, thought Annie. Not again.
“Just once more, darling.” Elaine injected the needle into the big vein at the crook of her arm.
Annie was hit by warmth and a deep sense of peace. The room blurred as she stared at the needle. Blood was not flowing into it. Her mouth was dry. Elaine had injected her with something instead.
“Why? What?” she mumbled.
“Why? Oh you must know,” said Elaine. “Surely you do? On your own, you would never have consented to donate a kidney to Laurie. Although you’ve signed consents to that effect.”
Stunned, Annie remembered the array of documents. Papers she had barely glanced at. The myriad of blood tests.
“You’ll never, never get away with this.” The words were fuzzy, garbled, but Elaine understood them anyway.
“No? What could be more likely? A known drug addict. An overdose. And as often as I’ve warned the nurses to keep drugs locked up when you’re around? I’m going to call 911 at once, of course. I’ll ride with you in the ambulance. Pity they’ll never be able to bring you out of the coma. They’ll find an overdose of morphine. They’ll see an arm with a few scars in the veins. And we will all decide together there is no point in wasting a good kidney.”
Annie gasped, closed her eyes, tried to speak.
“A perfect, genetically-matched kidney.”