Unbreakable 2, The Mystery of Lilly (Cypress Grove Series) (20 page)

Chapter 28

              "You're not going to believe this," Lucy yells at me when I walk by the office the next morning.  Going in, I sit in the chair against the wall.  "Dr. Sheldon Piper was sentenced to forty years in prison for selling babies on the black market."  Lucy reads from her monitor. 

             
"What?"

             
"It seems that the blue eyed, blond haired, good looking Dr. Piper, who was an OBGYN, had a little side business. He found homeless blue eyed, blond haired girls, fixed them up, made them healthy, and then impregnated them only to sell the perfect little babies to rich baron couples. He made a fortune and is said to have fathered at least forty children that he sold to the highest bidder."

             
"What in the world?  Can any of this get any weirder?" I ask.

             
"Well, he's at Louisiana state prison serving out his sentence."  Lucy explains clicking her mouse around searching for any more information. 

             
"How does someone do that?  Why is his name in a lock
box in my mother's house?" 

              Lucy shrugs her shoulders at me with a confused look on her face, "Got me, but this does just keep getting more interesting."

              I call Emma and tell her what Lucy has just found.  Not surprising she has the same reaction as me.  She is busy helping her mother finish up with her packing so she tells me she will call me later.  I wander outside to see how the progress in the backyard is going.  With all the rain yesterday, they decided they couldn't mow.  Luke wanted to walk the perimeter though to get a layout of the land.  It is so massive that none of us really know how far back it goes.  We know the stone wall goes for a ways, but not if it goes for the entire property. 

             
Jeffrey was able to get a geographical map, but it is hard to tell what is all out there.  On the map it looked as if there was possibly an old dirt road with what looked like a structure, making us all very curious as to what was behind all the overgrowth at the very back of the land. 

             
When I step out onto the patio, I feel like my hair does an instant frizz.  It is so humid and hot that when I don't see anyone in the first few minutes I go right back inside.  Not wanting to be out in heat, I call Luke instead.

             
"You'll never believe what is back here."  Luke reveals what he and Jacob had found, "There is a building back here. It almost looks like a small stone church." 

             
"What's inside?" 

             
"We can't get in. There's a tree that has grown close to the door and we need to cut it down.  There are no windows.  It's small though, about twice the size as one of the crypts." 

             
"What about the wall? Is there a road?" I throw questions at him. 

             
"The wall stops about a hundred yards before the stone building.  If there was a road it is over
grown now.  It will be easier to tell when we can get the tractor back here
to clear this stuff out.  We're heading back now, the heat is getting to both of us.  I think we are dehydrated and still a bit hung
-
over,"
Luke says. 

             
When they get back to the house they are both drenched with sweat.  Jacob still has a greenish hue to him and looks as though he is going to vomit at any second.  He takes his ice tea and sits down almost downing the whole glass in one gulp.

             
"You know, Emma drank just as much as you guys and she's fine." I tease the two pathetic looking men sitting in front of me.  I take their glasses and refill them. 

             
"I'm not all that certain that Emma is human." Luke chuckles giving me a wink when I hand them back their glasses.

             
"She also didn't just walk eight miles in weeds taller than her in one hundred degree heat." Jacob grunts, definitely not in the teasing mood right now.  "I'm going to go take a very cold shower then take a nap." He states walking out of the kitchen grumpily. 

             
"Have you talked to your dad?"

             
"No, but Mom said he hasn't left the bed for more than five minutes."

             
"What about Sarah?"

             
"She texted me earlier, said she was sorry.  I told her that she needed to be telling you that," Luke says getting up and coming around the counter to me.  He has bits of grass and weeds stuck to him. 

             
"Yeah, well I think we need to have a talk.  I really don't like that she thought all of that about me so easily.  She's going to be my sister-in-law and I want us to have a good relationship."

             
"You will, give it time.  She is under a lot of stress with her internship. Give her some time," Luke says, putting his hand on my hip and giving it a squeeze.  He furrows his brows and gives me one of his wicked grins.  "Do you want to help me clean up?" 

             
"If I help you I won't be able to keep my hands off you.  Are you up for it?"  I turn to walk out of the kitchen.

             
"Always, baby," Luke groans following me. I take off not wanting to get all dirty from him, but he catches me from behind.  He lifts me carrying me up the stairs draped over his arm like a towel.  I'm laughing hard while he man
handles me into our bedroom. 

              "Now you've got me dirty." I slap his chest when he sets me down. 

             
"I guess you'll just have to take a shower with me then." It takes him two seconds to lift my shirt over my head.  Lifting me again so my feet are dangling and we are eye level, he carries me into the bathroom kissing me as if there is no tomorrow. 

Chapter 29

             
That night I am curled up next to Luke on the couch watching a movie with Jacob and Lucy who are just as cozy in the overstuffed chair. 

             
"I think I should go visit Dr. Piper." I blurt out in the middle of the movie.  My mind is everywhere but on the movie we are watching.

             
"Why in the hell would you do that?" Luke says, pausing the movie.

             
"What he said," Jacob interjects.

             
"To find out what he knows. It can't hurt, can it?"

             
"I'm not too keen on the idea of you going to visit a man who got several women pregnant, only to sell his children," Luke grates. 

             
"He's in prison, it's not like he can hurt me.  Aren't you even just a little bit curious as to what he knows?" I sit up enough to glance at Luke, who doesn't look happy. 

             
"You've already made up your mind, haven't you?"

             
I nod slowly.

             
"Fine, but only if you take Jacob or me," Luke orders.

             
"Well you can go with me, but I want to talk to him on my own."

             
"What? Why?" Jacob is brooding now.  Lucy puts her hand on his chest to calm him down.  He kisses the top of her head, relaxing into her. 

             
"Because, I think that he is probably the type of guy that is not going to open up in front of an overprotective He-man. I think I will get more information on my own," I tell them.  Luke sighs so heavily I can feel his chest rise under me, which means he knows I'm probably right, because there is no more arguing. 

              Lucy calls the prison the next day and finds out visiting days are on Mondays and Thursdays.  She arranges for me to have a visit with Dr. Piper on Thursday.  The couple of days leading up to it I'm a nervous wreck.  I hide it though because if Luke or Jacob knew they would start to protest the idea again. 

             
Luke drives me the two hours to the penitentiary.  He wanted a break from all of the outside work.  I don't know why he didn't hire more guys, but he said something about wanting to make sure that nothing that could be important would be destroyed.  I think it's the provider in him. It's his way of taking care of me, at least that is what I guess it is. 

             
He holds my hand as we walk up the sidewalk to the prison.  It's huge, with guards in turrets with guns and tall fences with barbed wire at the top just like you see on TV. 

             
Luke waits in a small room with vending machines and avocado green vinyl chairs.  He hugs me tight telling me he will be right here when I am done.  The officer takes me into a room with round plastic picnic
-
like tables.  At each one sits a prisoner in an orange jumpsuit.  Some are already sitting with their visitors while others are waiting patiently for theirs to come.  The guard points to the man in the far corner telling me that he is Sheldon Piper. 

             
As I walk toward him, I am taken aback. I don't know what I expected, but I don't expect what I see.  He's a very distinguished looking, almost handsome man, in his early sixties maybe, and clean shaven with thin gold rimmed glasses making him look, well, like a doctor. 

             
"Somehow I always knew I would get a visit from you some day," Dr. Piper says softly as I sit across from him.

             
"You know who I am?"  I ask shocked at his recognition of me.

             
"Of course I do, I delivered you.  You are the spitting image of your mother." He lowers his head placing his hands in front of him crossing his fingers like he is praying.

             
"You remember her?"

             
"I know a lot of people think I'm a monster, but your mother is the only woman that ever died in my care.  One doesn't forget something like that." He looks solemnly at me.  "I replay that night in my head over and over wondering how I could have done things differently," he says not looking at me now. 

             
"My mother died five days after I was born." I'm surprised I'm able to speak right now with questions swimming through my head. 

             
"That might be what it says on her death certificate, but your mother died about two minutes after I took you from her." He turns to me slowly, blinking.  I truly feel as though he has remorse. 

             
"How did she die, I mean, what was the cause of death?"

             
"I'm afraid I wasn't fully informed of her condition.  She had preeclampsia, it's a condition pregnant women have sometimes.  Their blood pressure is high and they have greater risks of blood clots.  I didn't know, and when they brought her to me she had been drugged.  They told me it was to calm her down.  I didn't know she was there against her will."  His words stir a pot of questions.  Every sentence is confusing, leading me to ten questions I need to know answers to. 

             
"Who brought her to you?" Who were they?"

             
"Her sister and her friends," he says, looking at me like it is something I should have already known.  "They were doing some sort of ritual and told me it was a blessing.  It was clear to me that what they were doing was no blessing, it was dark, dangerous stuff.  But it was too late, I had to stay.  Your mother was dying and if I didn't get you out of her you would have died also." He's wringing his hands together now as he talks, reliving that night like it was some horrible nightmare.

             
"I. . .what were they doing?"

             
"I had to take you by C-section, you were breech. Your mother was unconscious by this point from the loss of blood, and with the lack of equipment there was just nothing I could do."  I can tell he is getting frantic, as if he is reliving that night.  He has a blank stare on his face.  "If I had known I wouldn't have agreed to it.  They paid me to be there.  An easy home delivery is what it was supposed to be.  The room was dark, it had no running water." He's defending himself to me.  "They had those black hooded cloaks on and those masks." He shivers remembering the details. 

             
"Do you know their names?" I see out of the corner of my eye that the guards are taking the prisoners one by one. I don't have much more time.

             
"I don't know?" He shakes his head frantically like he is trying to get an image out of his mind.