To get away from Cliff and the fallout caused by the divorce? Staying out of sight for a while might be a good idea. People on the internet can be ruthless.
Her going has nothing to do with Cliff. She’s flying over there to meet her younger sister.
Sloane frowned at his response. How could Charlotte be going to Italy to meet a younger sister? She was an only child.
Unless...
Shocked by the implication, she called her brother, who answered on the first ring. “Don’t tell me Don has a love child!” she said, keeping her voice low since Rory was working at his desk directly across from hers.
“Nope. Her sister is no relation to Don or Penny.”
“So... how could she have a sister?”
“Turns out Charlotte was adopted at birth. The sister is her biological mother’s.”
“What?”The outburst caused Rory to glance up, so she lowered her voice again. “Didsheknow she was adopted? Because I’ve never heard a word about it.”
“Just found out. Got a letter from an attorney telling her that her birth mother has died and left a twelve-year-old girl who needs a guardian.”
Sloane shot to her feet.
“Everything okay?” Rory asked, sitting up taller.
She lifted a hand to let him know there was nothing to worry about and hurried out the back, into the alley, so she wouldn’t continue to interrupt her partner while he was trying to work. She’d known Charlotte and Charlotte’s parents almost her entire life. There was no way what Julian had just told her could be true. “There’s got to be some mistake,” she said as the metal door clanged shut behind her.
“I might’ve thought that, too, except Charlotte’s already confronted her father about it.”
Sloane edged away from the reeking dumpster between her store and the Thai food place. “Oh, my gosh! She must be devastated!”
“She was already devastated. Cliff took care of that. But, yeah, she’s reeling from this second blow.”
“I’m shocked! Absolutely stunned. You could never have guessed the Williamses weren’t her biological parents. She even looks like them.”
“Not really,” he said.
“She doesn’t look as though she’s from a different family!”
“True.”
What’d happened in the past and how would it inform—and transform—the present?
Sloane had so many questions. But she started with “Why’s Charlotte’s little sister in Italy?”
“She lives there, in Praiano, which is close to Positano on the Amalfi Coast.”
Someone came out into the alley from the restaurant and dumped two food crates in the garbage, prompting Sloane to step even farther from the dumpster. “Was she born there?”
“I don’t remember if Charlotte told me that. She doesn’t know a whole lot, just what came in the letter. This morning, she tried calling the attorney who sent it, but he wasn’t available. She should learn more when he calls back.”
“How’d her birth mother die?”
“We don’t have that information yet, either.”
She nudged a rock in the loose gravel with the toe of her high heel. She usually dressed up when she was in the studio. Looking her best helped create credibility in an industry where people were relying on her to have good taste. “Will Charlotte’s parents be going to Italy with her?”
“No. She said they wouldn’t be able to stay very long even if they did, and she doesn’t want to take the girl out of the environment she’s accustomed to until she’s decided what would be best. Charlotte’s not even sure whether she should take custody. Depending on how close the girl is to other relatives, maybe someone in her birth mother’s family would be a better option.”
“Those people would be Charlotte’s family, too,” Sloane pointed out. “Wouldn’t it blow your mind—to find out you have this whole other family you never knew about?”
