Legacy Read online

  Chapter One

  “Are you Harris Bradley, the brother to Tanya Anderson?” he heard a man ask after he had sluggishly answered the phone as he continued to lie in bed.

  It was the first Tuesday of October at 3:58 A.M., Savannah, Georgia time within the first two decades of the twenty-first century, and the phone call had awakened Harris and his wife Allyson.

  The twenty-six-year-old man glanced at the alarm clock before he answered with his British accent, “Yes. Who is this?”

  “This is Detective Sykes of the Kansas City Police Department. Your sister Tanya and her husband Michael were involved in a serious auto accident. I’m sorry, Mr. Bradley, but your sister and brother-in-law had died soon after reaching the hospital.”

  “My God!” Harris uttered as he shot up into a sitting position, along with swinging his feet around until they were touching the floor.

  “What is it?!” Harris’s twenty-three-year-old wife asked worriedly in her southern accent as she too sat up.

  Harris gestured for Allyson to wait as Detective Sykes continued with, “The doctor was able to deliver your sister’s daughter in time though.”

  “Oh God, that’s right!” Harris uttered in a tone as if the memory of his sister being pregnant was brought back suddenly. “She was eight months pregnant with a girl. How is she?”

  “What’s going on?!” Allyson demanded.

  Harris again gestured for Allyson to wait as Detective Sykes replied, “In spite of her being born premature she’s doing excellent; however, according to my paperwork, you, your wife and Michael’s sixteen-year-old sister Ellen are the only ones listed as being Tanya and Michael’s next of kin.”

  “Yes, well, we are the only ones living within the States,” Harris said. “To Tanya that is. Ellen does have relatives, but I don’t know where or how to get in touch with them.”

  “Okay, well, Ellen is a minor, and so I’ll need you and your wife to come to Kansas City and claim custody of Ellen and your newborn niece. Otherwise the two will be placed in foster homes.”

  “Yes, of course. My wife and I will be there as soon as humanly possible,” Harris assured Detective Sykes.

  “Where will we be as soon as humanly possible?” Allyson again demanded to know.

  When Harris again gestured for Allyson to wait, Allyson just grunted her annoyance of not being answered.

  “Okay, I’ll see you and your wife when you two get here. Bye,” Detective Sykes said during Allyson’s grunt.

  “Bye,” Harris said in a low and distant tone.

  As Harris was hanging up the phone, Allyson demanded, “Will you tell me what in hell is going on?!”

  In the same low and distant tone, Harris said, “Tanya and Michael were in an accident.”

  “Oh my God!” Allyson uttered as her worry deepened. “Are they okay?!”

  “No; they’re not,” Harris said. “They both were killed, but the doctor was able to deliver their daughter before it was too late.”

  “Oh my God!” Allyson uttered in a shock tone.

  “We have to leave for Kansas City tonight,” Harris informed as he went to stand up.

  “Yes; of course,” Allyson said as she quickly stood as well. Harris went to put on his pants as Allyson went to put on a robe. “I’ll pack and you can call the airport for flight schedules.” Once Harris put on and buttoned his pants, he stood introverted as tears filled his eyes. “Harry?”

  Harris came out of his thoughts and looked at Allyson. As tears flowed down his cheeks he said, “Tanya’s dead.”

  Allyson moved to and gave Harris a consoling hug. As she gently stroke Harris’s hair, Harris cried harder.

  After a few seconds Allyson told Harris, “Tanya still needs you, Harry. Her daughter needs you.”

  Harris broke the hug and as he collected his composure, he said, “Right.” He then gestured towards the bedroom door. “I’ll call the airport.”

  When Allyson gave Harris a sympathetic nod, Harris turned and left the room.

  In Kansas City, Missouri, at a two-story house within a nice neighborhood, an attractive and socially liked sixteen-year-old girl—a girl who actually looked slightly younger than her actual age—had been awakened from her sleep from the noise of someone pounding on the front door.

  As she moved from the stairs towards the door with a baseball bat in a ready-to-strike position, she yelled out, “I called the police!”

  “We are the police—I’m Detective Bradshaw of the Kansas City Police Department!” a male voice shouted back. The teenager went to the peephole and saw three men who were each dressed in a business casual manner. “Ellen Anderson?! Did you hear me?! I’m Detective Bradshaw of the Kansas City Police Department!”

  “Hold your badge up at the peephole to where I can see it,” Ellen ordered.

  “For Pete’s sake,” Ellen heard before watching one of the three men holding up a badge. “There! Satisfied?”

  Ellen slightly hesitated and without verbally answering Detective Bradshaw she put the bat down and went to unlock the front door.

  Once the door was open, Ellen demanded to know, “What’s this about?”

  “Can we come in?” Detective Bradshaw asked politely.

  “Can you give me a second so I can stash my drugs?” Ellen jokingly requested. When the three shot her disturbed looks she quickly continued with, “Come in and look. I’m joking. I don’t even do drugs.”

  As the three men stepped in, the second man said, “Yes, well, all joking aside, we’re here on serious business.”

  “I didn’t think you woke me to sell me tickets to the Policemen’s Ball,” Ellen retorted as the third man shut the door. “And I know I didn’t do anything wrong, which brings me back to my recent question—what’s this about?”

  “Ellen Anderson, I am Jared Claiborne… a social worker,” the second man said while extending his hand to shake hands. Ellen just stared at his hand as if it was disease-infected, and after a brief moment, Jared dropped his handshake offer. “Yes, well, anyway, I’m here… we’re here because we have terrible news about your brother Michael and sister-in-law Tanya.”

  “What about them?!” Ellen demanded to know in a worried tone.

  “There was an accident on the highway…” Jared was only able to get out.

  “They’re okay though, right?!” Ellen quickly interrupted with.

  “I’m… I’m afraid not,” Jared informed. “They died after reaching the hospital.”

  Ellen’s knees buckled slightly and before she fell completely, she went to sit down at where she was standing.

  Detective Bradshaw went to catch her, but before he could she uttered, “No! I need to sit!”

  “Okay,” Detective Bradshaw said while backing off and allowing her to sit.

  Just after Ellen sat down she cried into her hands.

  Jared waited for a brief moment before squatting next to Ellen and saying gently, “Before Tanya died, the doctor was successfully able to deliver her daughter.”

  Ellen raised her head slightly before asking in a slight stupor, “The baby’s alive?”

  “She is,” Jared said before stating at what hospital her niece was in.

  “I’m an aunt,” Ellen said somberly.

  “Ellen, I’ll need you to come with me,” Jared informed her before he stood again.

  “Come with… where?” Ellen asked somberly.

  “There’s a foster couple with a room prepared for you,” Jared said. “They’re caring for two kids already so…”

  “No!” Ellen quickly uttered in an unyielding tone.

  “Being that you’re a minor, you can’t stay here alone,” Jared told her.

  “I want to see my niece,” Ellen insisted.

  “I’m sure Mr. and Mrs. Hunter will allow it during visitation hours,” Jared said.

  Ellen stood up and demanded through her clench teeth, “I want to see my niece now!”

  Before Jared or the two detectives could respond, there was a
knock at the door followed by a woman calling out, “Ellen! It’s Jane.”

  “She’s my neighbor,” Ellen supplied as Detective Brad-shaw moved towards the door.

  Detective Bradshaw pulled out his badge, and once he opened the door, he held it up for Jane to see.

  After a second of staring at the badge, Jane faced Ellen before saying, “Ellen can be headstrong and at times a smart-aleck, but she’s no criminal or troublemaker.”

  “Mike and Tanya are dead,” Ellen got out before she began sobbing again.

  “Dead?!” Jane uttered in a shocked tone. “How?!”

  “They were involved in an accident on the highway,” Detective Bradshaw said. “The doctor was able to save their baby though.”

  “Okay, well, may I enter?” Jane strongly requested. “So I can console her.”

  Detective Bradshaw gestured for her to proceed while saying, “Come in.”

  Seconds later, as Ellen was embracing Jane’s consoling hug, Jane asked, “Is there anything I can do for you?”

  Ellen pulled back and as she wiped the tears from her eyes, she asked, “Can I stay with you tonight?”

  “Yes, of course,” Jane said.

  Ellen faced Jared before asking in a snippy tone, “That’s okay, right?”

  “It will be okay for tonight… what’s left of it anyway,” Jared said. “Until you reach eighteen though, a more stable residence for you must be found. Of course finding you a stable home would be a lot easier if you had living relatives.”

  “I do have living relatives,” Ellen quickly said.

  “You do?” Jared questioned in a surprised tone. “I was under the impression that Mike was your only living blood relative.”

  Ellen shook her head while saying, “My dad—Mitchell Anderson—is still alive and kicking… somewhere. Of course the last report on him was three years ago just after he had gotten out of prison, so that could’ve change since then. And my dad has a twin brother… who I’ve never met, so spin the wheel on if he’s still alive…”

  “Okay, so you don’t know the whereabouts of any living blood relative?” Jared asked.

  Ellen shook her head before saying, “I consider Tanya’s brother Harry and his wife Allyson as family.”

  “Yes, well, for you to live with your sister-in-law’s relatives is one option I can bring up to my supervisor,” Jared told her. “Of course Harry and Allyson will have to agree to it.”

  Ellen grinned before saying, “They like me, so I don’t think that they will refuse to let me live with them for a couple of years.”

  Jared nodded before saying, “Okay, well, I’ll let you go home with Jane for right now and I’ll see you in a few hours. And hopefully by then, I will have better news for you.”

  Ellen nodded before saying, “You can take your time getting back to me… unless Harry and Allyson agree for me to move in with them.”

  Jared amusingly grinned before saying, “Goodnight, Ellen.”

  Ellen slightly waved while echoing, “Goodnight.”

  Detective Bradshaw, his partner and Jane also echoed, “Goodnight.”

  Detective Bradshaw, his partner and Jared then left the house, and once the door was shut behind them, Jane told Ellen, “Go grab what you’ll need, honey.”

  “Can you take me to the hospital… to see my niece?” Ellen asked before she told her which hospital.

  “You should rest a while…” Jane was only able to get out.

  “I don’t need to,” Ellen insisted.

  “You look exhausted.”

  “I’m fine,” Ellen again insisted.

  “Humor me and sleep… actually sleep for an hour, and then I’ll take you to the hospital,” Jane prompted.

  Ellen slightly hesitated before sighing and saying, “Fine. I’ll sleep for an hour.”

  “Okay,” Jane said with a grin. “Now go get your things. You’ll sleep at my place.”

  Ellen nodded before turning and walking towards the stairs.

  Within a short time, Jane was lying alongside Ellen in Jane’s guest bed, and after a minute of Ellen lying still, Ellen’s tears flowed uncontrollably. Jane put her arm over Ellen and allowed her to cry. Within an hour Ellen had cried herself to sleep, and once Jane knew for certain that Ellen was asleep, she eased herself out of bed and went to her room.

  Jane didn’t want to wake Ellen after she was asleep for an hour, and so Ellen had awakened on her own while needing to use the bathroom after five hours of sleeping.

  Jane was in the living room while dusting off her wooden furniture, and when Ellen stepped in, she accused in an unhappy tone, “You failed to wake me.”

  Jane looked at Ellen before saying, “You needed your sleep more than you needed to see your niece. Plus I’d never said that I would wake you after an hour.”

  “Okay, well, I’m up now,” Ellen retorted. “I want to go to the hospital.”

  “Would you like to eat first?” Jane prompted.

  “I’ll eat later!” Ellen quickly and impatiently uttered.

  “Okay,” Jane quickly agreed. “Let me finish what I’m doing—it will only take a minute—and then we can go.”

  “Fine,” Ellen agreed unhappily.

  “Oh and I called your school,” Jane said as an afterthought. “I told them why you wouldn’t be in school today and possibly for the rest of the week.”

  “Thanks,” Ellen said in an appreciative tone. “School had never even crossed my mind.”

  Jane grinned before saying, “I didn’t think it had… and you’re welcome.”

  Ellen just responded with a slight grin.

  Within twenty minutes Ellen and Jane were told to take a seat in the waiting room, and within an hour after that, the hospital staff gave into Ellen’s relentless nagging on wanting to see her niece.

  Ellen’s niece was only wearing a pamper, and being that she was four weeks premature, Ellen and Jane were only allowed to look at the baby through the clear hood of the infant incubator that the staff had her in. Other newborns were in the room as well.

  Ellen had only looked at her sleeping niece for a second before saying, “She’s beautiful.”

  Ellen then noticed a birthmark just below her niece’s left collarbone that looked like a waning crescent moon. The birthmark’s diameter was seven-sixteenth of an inch, and to the right of it from an onlooker’s point of view (on the side towards the left arm) were three freckles. The first freckle missed touching the birthmark at what would be the moon’s equator by only one-sixteenth of an inch. Again from an onlooker’s point of view, the second freckle was one-fourth of an inch to the right of the first one. The third freckle was above the first two by one-fourth of an inch and centered. The third freckle was the darkest of the three.

  “Oh my God!” Ellen uttered delightfully before pointing. Jane looked to where she was pointing. “There. I’ve seen pictures of my grandpa… my dad’s dad and he had the exact same moon-stars birthmark…”

  “Cool.”

  “Except my grandpa’s birthmark looked as if it was one day to a new moon while hers looks as if it’s three days to a new moon,” Ellen continued. After a short silence, Ellen told her niece, “I wish your mom and dad could be here, baby girl.”

  Jane put her arm around Ellen’s shoulder while saying, “Perhaps they’re here in spirit.”

  Ellen thought for a second before saying, “Perhaps they are.” Jane then heard Ellen’s stomach growling.

  “Ellen Anderson, you need to eat something,” Jane insisted. “And don’t tell me you’re fine.”

  “Okay, I’ll go to the cafeteria.”

  “There are several fast-food restaurants around here. Wouldn’t you rather go to one of them?” When Ellen glanced at her niece, Jane continued with, “You can’t camp out here and be with her twenty-four seven.”

  Ellen slightly sighed before announcing where she wanted to eat.

  Jane nodded with a grin while saying, “Let’s go.”

  “I’ll be back, baby g
irl,” Ellen told her niece before she and Jane left.

  Forty-five minutes after Ellen and Jane had left the hospital, a nurse led Harris and Allyson to their niece’s infant incubator. As they were approaching the room, the nurse told them, “A teenage girl by the name of Ellen Anderson was here earlier.”

  “She’s no longer here?” Harris quickly asked.

  “She left… I believe to get something to eat,” the nurse said. “I overheard her telling one of the other nurses that she’ll be back.”

  “Good, I need to see her,” Harris said as they reached the room.

  The nurse continued through the door. As she stopped at the infant incubator, the nurse said, “I would like to introduce you two to your niece. She’s sleeping right now, and as of yet, she has no name.”

  “When her other aunt gets back we three will come up with a name for her,” Allyson said as Harris stared at the moon-stars birthmark as if he was seeing the mark of the devil. “Right, honey?” When Harris didn’t respond Allyson turned to look. “Harris?!”

  Harris broke the stare that he was giving his niece’s birthmark, and as he turned towards Allyson he uttered, “Huh?”

  “Are you okay?” Allyson sympathetically asked.

  Harris did a quick glance at the birthmark again before facing Allyson and answering with a façade pleasant grin. “Yes. I was just admiring our niece’s birthmark.”

  “Yes, everyone here thinks that it looks like a moon and three stars,” the nurse said. “A unique birthmark to say the least.”

  “Yes; it is very unique,” Harris agreed in a tone that Allyson detected a bit of worry.

  Allyson stared curiously at Harris as the nurse said, “Okay, well, I’ll let you two have a little privacy with your niece.”

  “Thank you,” Harris said as he turned towards the birthmark again.

  As the nurse was leaving, Allyson accused, “You’re staring at her as if she was some demon.”

  “She’s not a demon,” Harris said earnestly as he continued to stare at the birthmark.

  “Okay,” Allyson said when Harris didn’t elaborate. “I’m glad that we agree on that. Would you mind explaining to me as to why you’re staring at her as if she was one though?”

  “That mark ended with my great-grandmother,” Harris quickly said. “I never heard of it resurfacing… or becoming more prominent than before after vanishing from the bloodline.”