At the sound of the doorbell, Gloria wrung her hands with mounting dread. Moving towards the front door, she hoped beyond all measure this wasn’t Judith. She didn’t think she could bear seeing the woman’s distraught face again as she spoke about the escalating unrest between her sons, knowing she could do something to quieten the rumours ripping the Stoker family apart.
Her heart suddenly brightened. Maybe Gary had returned and everything had sorted itself out? Perhaps she wouldn’t need to break the code of silence she and Len had promised each other after all?
Reaching the door, Gloria peered through the inset spyhole and her heart plummeted further. Samantha? And Sebastian Stoker?
‘Samantha!’ she exclaimed on opening the door, praying she looked brighter than she felt. ‘You got my message?’ Standing to one side, she gestured for them to enter. ‘Hello, Sebastian.’
‘Mrs Reynold,’ Seb smiled, ushering Sam over the threshold.
Gloria followed Sam and Seb up the hallway into the lounge. ‘It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?’ she babbled. ‘Can I get you both something to dri…’
‘You left me a message?’ Sam interrupted, sitting down awkwardly in an armchair. ‘I didn’t get a message.’
‘Oh!’ Gloria waved her hand dismissively. ‘I left a message for you at the Orchid.’ Now Sam was here, her plan of telling her daughter the truth had gone out the window. She couldn’t go into those details with Sebastian Stoker present.
Gesturing for Seb to also take a seat, Gloria sat opposite. It was only then that she fully took in her daughter’s strained, pale face. ‘Samantha? Whatever is the matter? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!’ Her eyes darted to Seb. ‘Is it Gary? Have you news on Gary?’ Her hands flew to her mouth. ‘Oh, please tell me he’s okay? I don’t think I could bear it if…’
‘There’s no news on Gary, Mrs Reynold,’ Seb said, his voice low. No news he could possibly tell Gloria Reynold, anyway. That he could not breathe of until he’d told his own parents.
Relief washed over Gloria, only to be replaced with the initial worry. ‘Then what’s wrong? Don’t tell me nothing, because I can see that the…’
‘I need to ask you something, Mum,’ Sam said. This was it. Suddenly feeling ridiculous with the need to voice the question, her eyes darted to Seb, who nodded, pushing her to continue. He was right. Regardless how stupid it might seem, she still needed to hear it.
Gloria watched her daughter exchange glances with the Stoker man and fear pulsed. Had something happened to the Orchid? Perspiration beaded. ‘Samantha?’
Taking a deep breath, Sam looked into her mother’s eyes. ‘These rumours about Gary… I was told earlier today that it concerns me, not him…’
Gloria blinked, her mind scrambling. ‘You? What do you mean?’
‘That I’m not your daughter. Or Len’s daughter,’ Sam said, her voice brittle, strained.
Gloria’s nails dug into the armrest of the chair. ‘Who said that? Why d…’
‘Mum,’ Samantha interrupted. ‘Tell me it’s not true.’
Gloria’s mouth opened, but no words came out.
Sam’s face paled further. She glanced at Seb, his eyes trained on Gloria. Clamouring rang loudly in her head. That her mother hadn’t immediately denied it told her nothing, yet everything at the same time and, at that precise moment, her world folded in on itself.
Gloria heard her daughter’s voice, heard the questions, but they were muffled. Her brain shut out everything short of her own speeding thoughts.
No one knew. Len had promised her no one knew. More to the point, they had both agreed that whatever happened, Samantha was never to find out. But Samantha had found out, and not from her. How?
Her eyes mechanically moved to Samantha, who was reading the letter she’d handed her – the letter that had been received around the time Len died.
A trace of a sad smile passed across Gloria’s face. She knew she might once have been the envy of her friends but it was her who had envied them. They might not have had the big house, fancy cars or successful husband, but they had the one thing she wanted and the one thing she was unable to manage. The one thing money couldn’t buy…
Children…
She’d tried not to become disillusioned. After all, it had taken a couple of her friends a year a so, but when five years passed and then ten, the problem had become all-consuming.
Len could have left her, she knew that. He could have left her for a woman who would provide him with children, or even got himself a mistress on the side to give him kids, but he hadn’t. Instead, he’d promised her that one day they’d have a child. But by the age of thirty-nine, she’d sadly accepted this was unlikely.
When it was finally confirmed by a private gynaecologist that it was ‘impossible for her to conceive’, Gloria’s world had shattered.
That was until Len had come home one night with news.
She hadn’t taken him seriously at first, he’d had a few too many drinks, but when he’d repeated the same thing the next morning, a glimmer of possibility flickered.
Gloria hadn’t been able to relax – not entirely, but Len was adamant it would work. He’d said it was all above board and that no one would ever know the child wasn’t naturally theirs. After all, she rarely went out and it was true that no one had seen her for the last few months, so it was feasible…
Still, it had been almost too good to be true until the day it actually happened. That day thirty years ago when he’d arrived home with what he’d always promised.
The minute Len had handed her the tiny, two-day-old bundle, Gloria realised more than ever there was nothing he couldn’t achieve and her heart had melted into molten lava.
She had a daughter. They had a daughter and her life was complete.
‘Were you ever going to tell me?’ Sam whispered, her shaking hands passing the letter to Seb.
Pulling herself away from her thoughts, Gloria looked up, then averted her eyes, unable to bear the betrayal on Samantha’s face. ‘We, your father and I, always agreed that whatever happened, you were not to find out, but… but that’s why I left a message… I knew it was time to tell you…’
As the two women talked, Seb’s eyes scanned the typewritten letter Sam had passed to him:
Dear Mr and Mrs Reynold,
I respectfully request payment for the gift of my child. Many years have passed and unless I am fairly and adequately reimbursed, I will ensure everybody knows what you gained at my expense.
I will be in touch.
Seb glared at Gloria, not only for the pain he could taste radiating from Sam, but from what he’d just realised. ‘I get it… You only decided to tell her because you knew our family was being wrongly targeted, yet it was you all along! That’s why you’ve been so interested in Gary. I’m right, aren’t I? You felt guilty!’
Tears rolled down Gloria’s cheeks as she nodded. ‘Yes and I’m sorry. I couldn’t allow it any longer for you boys to think that your brother wasn’t y…’
‘But they sold me?’ Sam cried, her voice strangulated. ‘And you paid for me?’ Her head swirled with the impact. She’d expected her mother to instantly deny it. She hadn’t expected this…
Gloria dabbed her face. ‘I – I don’t know the exact details. I know your father gave some mo…’
‘He’s not my father though, is he?’ Sam raged, jumping up from the chair.
‘Of course he is, sweetheart,’ Gloria exclaimed. ‘Len loved you more than anything, as do I and…’
‘But who am I?’ Sam screeched. ‘Who am I really?’
Reaching up, Seb placed his hand on Sam’s arm. ‘You need to keep calm.’
‘Oh, shut up!’ Sam snapped, batting Seb’s hand away. ‘I have a right to know.’
With trembling hands, Gloria pulled a small age-worn canvas bag from the side of her chair. The one she’d dug out especially when deciding she had to tell Samantha everything. It had gone wrong. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. ‘This was all that came with you,’ she whispered, handing Sam the bag.
Sam stared at the bag in her mother’s outstretched hand like it was poisonous before gingerly taking it. Sitting back down in the armchair, she opened it, seeing a handful of tiny unwashed baby clothes. These were hers?
Shaking her head in disbelief and a torrent of confusing emotions, Sam was about to throw the bag on the floor in disgust or horror – she couldn’t decide which, when she saw it.
Along with the clothes, there was a scrawled note. Her shaking hand pulled it from the bag:
Her name is Violet.
Feeling she might drown in her own tears, Gloria watched Sam staring at the note. She knew exactly what it said. It was all the woman who had given birth to this treasure had written. Nothing else. Just that.
When she’d shown Len that piece of crumpled paper, he’d been almost as surprised as she was and they’d both agreed the baby girl was destined to be theirs.
What were the chances of the child being called Violet – the very name he’d given to his successful casino years before? It had been fate, he’d said.
‘My real name is Violet?’ Sam muttered, her tone devoid of feeling and life.
‘We’d already decided you were to be called Samantha, but your father promised to honour the note that accompanied you by giving you a violet orchid every year.’ Gloria watched the realisation sinking into Sam’s brain. ‘It was the least we could do as a silent and anonymous thank you to the woman who gave us the greatest gift of all, as well as gratitude for the prosperous existence the casino provided.’
‘Have you any idea what you sound like?’ Sam roared. ‘Spouting about honouring this and honouring that, yet you paid for me? Where did you find me? The black market?’
Gloria shook her head vividly. ‘It wasn’t like that.’ She glanced at Seb embarrassed. ‘I couldn’t have children… My brother knew of a man whose girlfriend was pregnant and so…’
‘Who else knew? Anyone else apart from Jimmy?’ Seb questioned, his mind working ten to the dozen. And, of course, John Maynard.
‘No one,’ Gloria whispered.
‘Who are they? My real parents?’ Sam spat. She had to know. Had to.
Gloria looked down sadly. ‘I – I don’t know…’
Sam gasped in amazement. ‘You don’t know? Was I even legally adopted? I have a birth certificate. I’ve seen it! You and Dad are named on it!’ She spat the word ‘Dad’.
Gloria held her hands up. ‘Your father arranged everything, so I don’t know how and I – I didn’t ask. I’m sorry… All I cared about was that I’d got you. My darling girl. The daughter I thought I’d never have. You made our lives complete.’
Sam stared with resentment at the woman she’d always believed to be her mother. ‘But you lied to me…’