Chapter One
Paige Coker stared at the bustling activity behind the uniformed police officer at the front desk of the station. The flurry of voices and movement struck her as chaotic, though that couldn’t really be the case. Several men and women were seated at desks, islands of calm surrounded by the constant, swirling hum of activity.
“Can I help you?” the officer asked.
“I’m Paige Coker,” she replied with a smile. “Detective Lewis asked me to come by.”
The officer lifted his chin toward the chairs lined up against the wall. “Have a seat.”
She sat down to wait, her mind wandering. She remembered visiting this same police station on school field trips through the years. They’d come by in fourth or fifth grade the first time. Years later, her high school criminal justice class toured this station, as well as the courthouse, in order to observe the system in action. The detective she was meeting today had been a classmate and friend on that trip.
Those visits had left her feeling proud of the people who served her community and several of her peers had been inspired to study law or go into police work, like Ronnie. Paige had known she would need to find a different way to contribute. The front lines weren’t the right place for her, an only child groomed from the cradle to take the safe and secure path through life.
Not that she didn’t crave her share of adventure, she just chose her battles carefully. The daughter of wealthy parents who often hosted or headlined the guest list of elite Charleston, South Carolina events, her dreams were carefully analyzed and moderated for risk factors. Anything that had the potential to stir up scandal or, more importantly, to upset the delicate emotional balance at home was set aside.
Her mother, Cora Alden Coker, had a history of debilitating depression that went back to before Paige was born. She recalled times as a child when her mom was off limits for a few days. Her dad, Jack, always made the best of it, taking time off work or inviting his sisters to come and stay with them. Paige had been trained to always be cautious and thoughtful with her mom and though Cora hadn’t had an episode in several years, those habits were set in stone now. Whenever Paige and her dad could shield her from potentially upsetting news, they did.
Cora wasn’t a burden, but her tolerances always factored into Paige’s choices from education to career to where she chose to live.
There had been private academies from kindergarten through high school. She’d been encouraged to choose an in-state university where she earned both her bachelor’s degree and an MBA. And while she enjoyed her time not-too-far-away, her parents cleared a corner of the estate and built a house for her to come home to.
She didn’t resent those allowances because she adored her mother. And when she had to compromise, Paige considered the trade-off of a happy and content family worth the effort. It never occurred to her to press for more independence. She had the freedom she needed and she was close enough to help her dad if her mom’s depression started to take over.
Her dad’s retirement party—a big surprise in the works—was the most current example. Jack Coker was wrapping up thirty years with his financial firm and looking forward to shifting his priorities away from the office to more relaxing pursuits. Cora had started making the arrangements for the event from the menu to the guest list, but after their first meeting with his assistant, she panicked and asked Paige to take the reins. Cora had been overwhelmed by the details and though she was excited, she feared making a mistake with the very public event.
Naturally, Paige adjusted her schedule. She handled similar events for her clients all the time and she’d been honored to create a memorable send off for her dad. Her mom’s excitement for the event, and what retirement would mean for them as a couple, was growing now that Paige was handling the details.
And today she had a long list of tasks to follow up on. Some personal and some for the party. Last night her mother had finally narrowed down the dessert options, so she pulled out her phone and sent the final choices to Melissa Renner, the chef and owner of the catering company handling the party. They’d reached crunch time with the party just ten days away. Her dad believed the party was the typical firm holiday event and with luck no one would slip up and spoil the surprise.
It dawned on her as she continued waiting that someone might have seen her entering the police station and could mention it to her mom. An unlikely scenario, but definitely possible and Cora was a devoted worrier. Paige started to send a text to her mom and realized she didn’t really know why Ronnie had called. Being vague would make things worse and a fib would be one more thing to keep track of, so she closed the app and hoped for the best.
Glancing around, she didn’t see any sign of Ronnie. She shifted her attention to her email app. She and Gloria Pelham, her father’s assistant, had reached out to dozens of people over the past few months, gathering anecdotes and pictures. Gloria had even managed to get her hands on some of her father’s more personal mementos, using the guise of helping him pack up his office.
The materials to finalize the event scrapbook were in her home office and she still had to make some tweaks to the slides and script for the video they’d been working on. She wanted it to be special, to honor his hard work and dedication to his clients and the firm. When he saw it, she wanted him to feel loved and appreciated. She wanted to put a beautiful cap on a stellar career.
And when the party was over, she wanted him to answer some serious questions about a few items she’d found in that box from his office. All her life she’d believed she could go to her dad with anything, anytime. Not this. Not right now.
There had been photographs of her father tangled up with another woman and an envelope with receipts from a hospital stay and doctor visits for psychiatric concerns when her mother should’ve been pregnant with Paige. Not a single statement from an obstetrician.
Her father’s assistant had explained the photos easily enough. Although Gloria couldn’t recall the name of the woman in the pictures, she remembered that the woman had worked at the firm for several months and earned a reputation for flirting with the executives. It was generally assumed that the woman had been let go after the holiday party when she’d been caught on camera draped all over Jack.
Gloria hadn’t seen the receipts and she seemed oblivious to what had shocked Paige. The woman in the pictures bore a striking resemblance to Paige. For as long as she remembered, she’d been told she resembled Jack’s side of the family, with his dark hair and blue eyes. But the more she studied those pictures, the harder it was to deny that she looked a lot like the woman hanging all over her dad.
Uncertain how to interpret any of it, she’d been surfing the web and making a few anonymous inquiries about how to proceed. At FamilySecrets.Life, a website known for straightforward articles and common sense advice on family dynamics and relationships, she’d reached out for suggestions on how to cope with unexpected family discoveries. The best advice so far had boiled down to starting that conversation when she was in a place to listen. Paige wasn’t in that place yet.
She couldn’t just walk up to her dad—she wouldn’t dare approach her mom—and ask if she was adopted. The receipts implied that was the only possible answer, and yet… What if there was more to the story?