Kate made herself a cup of coffee and sat down on the sofa. Just as she laid her head back and closed her eyes for a moment of peace, her phone buzzed in her jean pocket. She lifted her hips in the air and dug it out. The number didn’t look familiar, so she sent it to voicemail and leaned her head back again. Moments later, her phone buzzed again. Same number. Worried that it was an emergency of some kind, she finally answered.

“Hello?”

“Is this Kate Miller?”

“Yes, it is. Who is this?”

“My name is Carl Stowers. I live in Carter’s Hollow Georgia.”

“Carter’s Hollow? That’s the name of a real place?” Kate didn’t like to think of herself as uppity, but this man’s thick Southern accent and podunk town name didn’t make her take him too seriously.

“Yes, ma’am, it surely is.”

“And you’re calling me because?”

“Well, I don’t exactly know how to put this, Miss Miller. I guess I should just say it. Your birthmother has passed away, and she left you something. I was hoping you could come to my office so we can chat?”

Kate sat there frozen. Her birthmother? She wasn’t adopted. Her mother died when she was twenty years old, and her father hadn’t been around since she was a kid.

“Sir, you must have me confused with another Kate Miller because I’m not adopted.”

He cleared his throat. “Oh dear. I assumed you knew.”

“There’s nothing to know, Mr. Stowers, because you have the wrong woman.”

“Did you set up an account on a DNA site recently? A few weeks back?”

“Well, yes, but I’m sure a lot of people do that.”

“Have you looked at your results?”

She froze in place again, her heart thumping a million miles a minute in her chest. “No.”

“Why don’t you go take a look at that, and give me a call when you have a little time to digest the information. I’m sure my number is on the…” Before he could finish, she pressed the end button and walked like a zombie to her laptop.

This just wasn’t possible. No way. She opened her laptop and navigated to the website, her hand shaking as she typed in her password.

Within moments, she was staring at her family tree, her closest relative match was a sister.

A sister? She had a sister?

She couldn’t catch her breath.

“What’s your problem?” Evie said from beside her as she took an apple from the fruit bowl in front of her.

“I have a sister.”

“Um, no you don’t.”

Kate pointed at the screen. “Yes, I do. And some attorney just called me and said…”

Evie stared at her. “Said what?”

“That my birthmother died.”

“Your birthmother? But I thought your mother died before I was born? Her name was Helen, right?”