Mommy knows best

Chapter 27

Eleanor Rugges Watson looked at Angela and kept staring at her as if it was supposed to mean something. When Angela did not react she said,” Are you not going to ask me why I am saying this to you?”

Angela said,” Mrs. Watson…I am..” but before she could even say a word more she was interrupted.

“I am not married, my dear. I am a spinster. You can call me Eleanor. I am sure that it would be easier for a girl like you who has been born in the city,” said the old woman.

“Look, Ms. Watson, I know that you are telling all these things to me for a reason that I am sure that since you have begun saying me this you would be explaining all the things as well. It is not like I am going to be too excited about things which might not mean anything in the end. So I would suggest that you would better go on with your tale. Because neither of us have any further time to waste.”

As Angela was speaking Alex just wondered how on earth had his mother become so confident all of a sudden. Then he recalled that his mother was a salesperson and she had lost her confidence just because she had been dealing with men who did not like her for the person who she was unlike him.

“You are quite straight forward. No pretense at all. How very American of you…but we do not do things this way in Texas,” said Eleanor as she winked and then she said,” Are you not going to offer me any kind of refreshments?”

Angela raised her brows and said,” Are you here for refreshments? Really? As far as I understand you are here imposing on the both of us. So I suggest that you better tell what you have to say and then leave.”

“Wow! If you were at home then regardless of how old you are you would have been put over your man’s knee and then spanked,” said Eleanor and Alex said,” Despite you being old, if you forget how to give dignity and respect to the person in whose home you have been sitting then I think you need to leave.”

“Alex, it is fine. You go to your room. I shall deal with it,” said Angela as Alex left in a huff.

“Your boy toy seems to be very protective of you. You have chosen well. However he is right. My apologies for the appalling way that I have behaved. I am here to tell you your family history and ask you if you are interested in coming back to your home,” said Eleanor and then she waited.

“I have known since birth that I am an orphan and that I was taken in by a couple who wanted a child for very long. They told me that I was their adopted daughter when I was six years old and God rest their souls they gave me everything that I could ever need. I never knew my own parents and the ones who brought me up were my Mom and Dad. They passed away in a car crash quite sometime ago, so I don’t understand where from suddenly would my family crop after all these years,” replied Angela. She was not speaking loudly but she was speaking clearly.

“Yes you know only what you have seen and what you have been told. And that is true. What you know is the truth of your life but you don’t know what happened before you came or why you were an orphan and why you never came to know your real family or your parents. I am going to tell you about them. You are my grand niece which means that your father was my nephew. The only one who was going to be the heir of the entire ranch of Texas. The older sister was a woman and she was married so she was exempted from that thing that makes her eligible for getting the property. However you are lucky that you are divorced, it is a good thing that you are unmarried. But let me come to the story. You know how old people are. Once we start telling the stories we begin to deviate in all the angles and we forget how we were going to tell which one in the first place.”

Angela said,” I do understand what you are saying. But tell me what you want to say in the first place about my parents.”

Eleanor nodded and then began again,” Charles, your father was the black sheep of the family. He was almost a delinquent as it could be said. Drinking underage and driving when he was fourteen, shooting animals and hunting boars and partying all night with friends and everything that could be done at his age. His father was desperate to get him on the path, after all he was the only one who was supposed to be on the receiving end of all the property. His mother and his sister both had failed to bring him on the right track, his father thought that only a woman in his life was going to make him better. So he made sure that he found the worst girl in the town. The one who was an ardent feminist, the fact that she was the daughter of the mayor helped a lot and then Charles fell in love with Victoria. And it was the greatest love story of the Wichawichita. And then once they were twenty years old they got married. We all were happy that Charles was finally getting the life that had been thought for him. He started learning the work of the ranch and everything but nothing could be given to him until a child was born to the couple. And then finally after four years you were born. However the happiness in the family did not last for a very long time.”

Angela was listening to her and then said,” Why? What happened then?”

“Then it so happened that there was a fire at the ranch. You were still in hospital with some sickness or pneumonia as I rather remember, when the house caught fire. The fire was the worst in the last fifty years and your grandparents and parents both perished in that fire. Since I was already forty-five and your aunt was adamant that with her own three kids she was never going to be able to take care of you as your own you were given up for adoption. But look at you now….After all these years I am the one who is still alive and you have grown up to be a strong and independent woman,” said Eleanor.

“How do I know that you are telling the truth?” asked Angela.

Eleanor looked a little bit iffed at the question.” What do you mean by that, young lady?”

“Don’t young lady me. You are no one to me and how am I supposed to know that you are not lying to me and not here for some bogus purpose? If I was your family then why was I not contacted earlier? Why did no one even come to meet me when you knew that I was here?” asked Angela. Her voice was gradually rising in crescendo.

“Because the couple who adopted changed your name and they took you away from Texas to California before we could even track you. I have been searching you for all these years and now finally you are here…” said Eleanor with an expression on her face which said as if she was telling the truth and Angela was supposed to take her word for it.

“And I am supposed to take your word for it? Is it?” asked Angela with a mocking expression on her face.

“Why not? I am not here to take anything from you. Instead I am offering you the life that should have been yours all those years ago. I am giving you the chance to become an heiress because that is what you should have become. The only thing that you were born for. But instead you had to live a simple life and that is not what I wanted at all. However then I did not have the control of the family business, however now I do. And you are the one who deserves all of it.”

“If you are saying this with this much certainty then I am sure that you have me investigated? Because I am pretty sure that when you made sure to wait this long after all this time that can mean only one thing. You needed to see if I was legitimate or not. Now I am also going to need those reports to check so that I know that you are legitimate or not. Leave the reports with me and give me your contact number and the information bout this property that you are talking about. I shall find out on my own if you are saying the right things or not. And when I am satisfied, and only if I am satisfied then I shall make sure to contact you,” said Angel and Eleanor raised her brows hearing the words of the woman sitting before her.

“You are definitely my blood. Of that I have no doubt any longer. The reports shall be with you and so will the will and the testament where you will have to fulfill the clauses to make sure that you are going to be the heiress of the property of which I am a Guardian,” said Eleanor Watson and Angela did not reply anything else to her.