Back All About Evie
Chapters (43)
  1. Also by
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Chapter 1
  6. Chapter 2
  7. Chapter 3
  8. Chapter 4
  9. Chapter 5
  10. Chapter 6
  11. Chapter 7
  12. Chapter 8
  13. Chapter 9
  14. Chapter 10
  15. Chapter 11
  16. Chapter 12
  17. Chapter 13
  18. Chapter 14
  19. Chapter 15
  20. Chapter 16
  21. Chapter 17
  22. Chapter 18
  23. Chapter 19
  24. Chapter 20
  25. Chapter 21
  26. Chapter 22
  27. Chapter 23
  28. Chapter 24
  29. Chapter 25
  30. Chapter 26
  31. Chapter 27
  32. Chapter 28
  33. Chapter 29
  34. Chapter 30
  35. Chapter 31
  36. Chapter 32
  37. Chapter 33
  38. Chapter 34
  39. Chapter 35
  40. Chapter 36
  41. Chapter 37
  42. ALL ABOUT EVIE
  43. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

There were two people on my family tree—Betsy Baturra and Johnny Kandinsky—who were married. It said that these people were my parents. There was also another woman . . . Tilly Kandinsky. It said it was highly likely she was my aunt.

But this couldn’t be right. Betsy and Johnny were not my parents. Poppy and Henry Lindsay were my parents.

Tilly Kandinsky was not my aunt. Aunt Camellia and Aunt Iris were my aunts.

Where had I heard those names before? Johnny and Betsy. Johnny and Betsy. I racked my brain. Tilly.

“Oh, my God,” Jules said, looking at my screen. “This isn’t right. Those are not your parents. This DNA company has royally screwed up.”

“I’m looking them up on Facebook.” I found the woman’s name and her page. My breath stuck in my throat, my heart pounded. “That woman, Betsy, looks exactly like me.” Looking at Betsy was like looking at me in twenty years. She had thick black hair, like mine, although she had a few streaks of white. I have gold eyes. She had gold eyes. My eyes tilt. Hers tilted. We had the same mouth, same high cheekbones.

Jules was breathing rather heavily beside me as we stared at the photo of Betsy.

“We’re not listed as sisters,” Jules said. “And that . . . that woman . . . who is listed as your mother . . .”

I stared at the screen with Jules, her cheek almost touching mine.

Yes, something was very wrong.

“You look like her,” Jules breathed. “It’s like looking at you in twenty years.”

“She owns Rose’s Market.” I touched the screen with a trembling finger.

“That’s my favorite market,” Jules mused quietly. “Great wine. I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“She has a daughter,” I said. We stared at the girl’s photo. Her name was Kayla. Black hair. Gold eyes.

“She looks so much like you did when you were a teenager,” Jules breathed.

I was starting to understand, even as my brain pushed back, unable to accept. I remembered where I’d read those names before.

It all came to me in a rush. Like a tsunami. Like a hurricane. Like a thunderstorm.

Betsy and Johnny were the young couple who were jailed for murder.

They had to give up their baby. The baby was born in Portland, like me, in 1975.

Tilly, Johnny’s sister, remembered what happened that night after years of not remembering anything, after years of not speaking.. . . Dead women in a dirt cave under the ground in Idaho, dead women in a crawl space under the basement in Portland. . . . Betsy and Johnny found innocent in their next trials.

They fought in court to get their baby back. They lost.

They had named her Rose.

Oh. My. God.

* * *

“Evie, I want to apologize to you.”