Read Online All Roads Lead Home by Mary Wasowski - Free Book Online Page B

to Wendy, but Wendy politely refuses. I opened up my case and took out the FedEx envelope that contained Jamie’s letter.
    “Did you send this to me?” I asked.
    Wendy’s eyes roamed over the envelope in my hand, and they said it all.
    “Well? Did you send me a letter from my dead brother?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “Why? How could you do this to me, Wendy? You of all people knew how much I loved him. How could you pick the anniversary of his death to remind me of how much I have lost since he died? I never thought in all of my wildest dreams that you could hurt me like this. Why, dammit? Why did you do this?”
    I threw the letter at her, hitting her in her chest. She just sat there quiet and reserved until I was done with my outburst. A trait of hers I always hated and resented. She would always let us vent, and when it was over, she would never react, just calmly speak. She was doing it right now. Processing what I just said, and it was making me increasingly angry.
    “Are you finished?” she responded and waited for my answer.
    “No, I’m not. You haven’t answered my questions yet, so how could I be done?”
    “I will answer you when you calm down and listen…just listen. Can you do that? Because if you can’t, then this trip will truly be a waste of my time, and I would have let down the one person I vowed to help.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Are you ready to listen?”
    I sat up and leaned forward in direct line to Wendy. “Do I have a choice?”
    “No, you don’t.”
    “I’m not a child, Wendy.”
    “Then stop acting like one. Are you ready to talk?”
    “Fine! Let’s get this over with.”
    “Well that’s a start. I can only assume by the condition of the letter that you have read it through and through and are left with many questions. I’m here to help you. I will do my best to answer your questions. It was never my intention to cause you any pain or suffering, Tumbleweed. He didn’t want that for you, and neither do I.”
    “Wendy, I am not in need of any help. I’m fine. What gives you the impression that I’m not what I say? I was doing just fine on my own until this letter appeared yesterday. You’re right, I read that letter multiple times, and I know what it says and what it means, but I can assure you that I’m fine. You can’t change the past, Wendy, nor do I want to. No, I’m wrong. If I could, he would be here right now, but that’s not how my story was written, now was it? I’m sorry you traveled all this way. Please allow me to buy you a first class ticket home.”
    I knew how I sounded, my stomach was coiling with my words. Hurting Wendy was the last thing I wanted to do, but seeing her here was taking me down a road I did not wish to travel on.
    “Tenley, thank you for the offer, but when I leave New York, you will be leaving with me. This is not your home. This is your escape. You have been in your own witness protection program for the last five years, not allowing anyone in. That stops today. You have a family waiting for you to come home. They love you. They miss you. They need you.”
    “You are wrong, Wendy. The family I knew ceased to exist when I watched my brother get lowered into the ground. My parents were so lost in their grief, they didn’t even know I was there. My mother closed herself off, and my daddy worked his ranch. I grieved alone…they grieved alone. We should have been together, but it’s not what he wanted for me. He wanted me to finish school and make my dream come true. I made that promise to him, and I refused to let him down. If I spent every waking minute regretting and going over what I should be doing, or should have done, I would be at a dead end with no direction. You’re wrong, Wendy, I’m doing just fine. Everything I do in this life and how hard I work is for him.”
    “He has a name, you know. Say it. Say his name aloud, and stop treating him like he doesn’t exist.”
    “Stop it, Wendy.”
    “Stop what? Reminding