A Year of You Read Online Free PDF Page A

somehow, someway. Whether it was a legitimate blood tie or one of Ruth Ellen’s complicated schemes, he couldn’t figure out.
    The imposter stared at the enormous portrait. West hated her for that moment. No one had been happier to learn their Elaine was coming back to them than he. The little girl lost had fueled his every day for the last twenty years—until Emeline had become his life’s breath.
    The minute he saw her in that terminal, he’d known. There was no way this woman was a child of James McKendrick’s.
    Her eyes were too warm—damn the similar shape—her cheeks too rosy. She lacked their stature, and had far too many curves.
    What would her hips feel like under my hands?
    His brain took him to some crazy place where he was kissing her and she was biting his earlobe, begging him to sing to her. He shook his head to dispell the thoughts and hoped Em wouldn’t notice the beginnings of his erection. He adjusted his pants and followed Emeline to McKendrick’s office.
     
    ***
     
    The woman in the bed wasn’t yet seventy, but she looked ancient. Her skin hung in thin folds and wrinkles, and most of her hair had fallen out. She was skeletal, the white blankets resting loosely over her form, exaggerating the lack of flesh.
    Mattie knocked softly on the doorframe. “Hello?”
    The emaciated woman on the bed opened her glazed eyes and managed a weak smile. “Evelyn?” Her voice was nothing more than a rough whisper.
    “No, I’m Mattie,” Mattie answered, edging into the room. Ruth Ellen Carruther’s bed was raised high, mostly for ease of care by her nurses in the facility. Mattie set the vase of colorful daises on the nightstand near a spray of withering roses. She glimpsed the card stuck in the dying flowers. West’s name was scribbled near the bottom.
    What a sweet guy . She suppressed a smile and turned her attention to Ruth Ellen.
    Ruth Ellen’s eyes bore into hers and swept every inch of her face and form. She sighed after a long moment. “Karen named you Evelyn.”
    “I—” Dear Lord, not another name!

    “I told Carmen not to change your name. What was she thinking, calling you ‘Mattie’?”

    “It’s actually Matilyn.”

    “I know what your name is. Evelyn Claire Carruther. I wasn’t even sure who your father was. Karen named you Evelyn after her grandmother, but she vowed you’d never be called by it.” Ruth Ellen Carruther sighed and shifted her shoulders against the pillows. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’re going to be Elaine for me.” The woman looked stronger suddenly. Her eyes lost the vacant glazed look. “My Elaine is dead. I know it in my heart. He killed her.”
    “Who?”

    “My son-in-law.”
Shocked, Mattie reeled back half a step. “Why? When?”

    “Money. Jealousy. Anger. Hatred. You see, like you, she wasn’t his child. She was the product of an indiscretion of Karen’s.”
Ruth Ellen’s color improved, her sunken cheeks pinking. Her voice grew more confident. “I know who you are, Matilyn Delacourt. I know your history. I know about the man you conned in Reno. I know about the year you spent in jail, and the technicality you got off on for the other incident.”
    At the mention of her past, Mattie choked on her own saliva. “Kirkland made me do all that. I don’t want to hurt anyone. I have never wanted to hurt anybody.”
    “I don’t care about that. My life is just about over, but I refuse to die and let the bastard my daughter married get away with taking the only thing I ever loved away from me. Losing Elaine nearly killed me.”
    “What do you want me to do?” Nearly breathless, Mattie sank into the bedside chair.
    “Find Elaine. She’s somewhere on Brant’s property. I’m the only one that believed the poor boy when he said he’d seen someone outside his window.” Ruth Ellen slumped against her pillows, paling considerably. “You aren’t McKendrick’s child, so you won’t inherit his money. You