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  Flying Home

  Rachael Ann Nunes

  © 2007 Rachael Ann Nunes.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Shadow Mountain®. The views expressed herein are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the position of Shadow Mountain.

  All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Nunes, Rachel Ann, 1966-

  Flying home / Rachel Ann Nunes.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-59038-798-6 (pbk.)

  eISBN 1-60641-700-2 (eletronic)

  1. Orphans—Fiction. 2. Adult children—Fiction. 3. India—Fiction. 4. Identity (Philosophical concept)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3564.U468F59 2007

  813'.54—dc22 2007025621

  Printed in the United States of America

  Publishers Printing, USA

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  To my sister Mary Liechty,

  who is always there when I really need her—

  just like a sister should be. I love you!

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  About the author

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks to Jana Erickson for the suggestions that made this book better and to Suzanne Brady for her editing. This novel wouldn’t be what it is without the help of these two talented women. I also acknowledge all the others at Shadow Mountain for the efforts they have made in typesetting, design, and promotion. You are a great team, and I enjoy working with you.

  Additional appreciation goes to Tami Bradley for showing me Nevada. Your generosity and kindness knows no bound. I’m further indebted to Kellie and Brad Nielson for sharing their experiences in Ukraine. Finally, thanks to my husband, TJ, whose love and support makes it possible for me to follow my dream.

  Prologue

  Saturday, August 29, 1981

  Unalterable and unforgiving as a gaping hole in a cemetery, the event would forever after stand out in memory. There was nothing out of the ordinary to signal its coming. The pans sat on the immaculate stove as they always did each afternoon in preparation for dinner, their empty interiors open, ready, beckoning. Sounds from the television floated in from the adjoining family room. Somewhere outside a dog barked, and a horn honked as a car passed the house.

  Clarissa Winn set out the vegetables. Steamed broccoli florets with sliced carrots would go nicely with the meatballs and spaghetti. She picked up a knife.

  The shrill of the kitchen phone broke through the sounds of the television. Clarissa looked up from the broccoli and reluctantly reached for the phone, hoping it wasn’t someone from the PTA asking her to take on another project, or the pastor needing a pianist for services the next day.

  “Hello?” she asked, tucking the phone between her ear and neck. If it was one of her friends, she’d get a start on cutting the vegetables while they talked.

  “Is this Mrs. Clarissa Winn?” a man asked, his rich, melodic voice boasting a distinct British accent that made her think of exotic places to which she had never traveled.

  “Yes, I’m Clarissa Winn.”

  “My name is Dr. Mehul Raji. I am calling from Calcutta, India, from Charity Medical Hospital. It is about your sister.”

  “My sister?” Clarissa’s grip tightened on the knife in her hand. Sister. She hadn’t heard the word in relation to herself for far too long. “You mean Karyn?”

  “Yes, Karyn Olsen Schrader.”

  “Has something happened?” The words hurt Clarissa’s throat.

  “Indeed. It is with great regret that I must inform you of the death of your sister and that of her husband, Dr. Guenter Schrader. They were killed in a plane accident last Saturday as they traveled to give medical care to the inhabitants of several remote villages here in India.” The words were measured and exact, but now the doctor’s British English was heavily accented with whatever language he called his own. “Please accept my heartfelt condolences. Both Karyn and Guenter were valuable members of our staff and will be deeply missed.”

  Clarissa’s eyes filled with tears. My sister is dead.

  The hand with the knife shook. Her reflection in the shiny surface of her four-quart saucepan was distorted—as distorted as her soul.

  The television blared. Outside came the happy ringing of the ice-cream truck. Life as usual.

  “I would have called you sooner,” Dr. Raji continued, “but only today did we find your number in a box of Karyn’s belongings. I am happy to be able to reach you.”

  Clarissa barely heard his voice. Karyn is dead. The words came with a furious pounding of her heart. Still, she gripped the knife, poised over the broccoli, her hand turning white.

  “I wish to know what instructions you have for me regarding their four-year-old daughter, as you appear to be her only living relative.”

  Suddenly Clarissa was listening again. So Karyn had given birth to the daughter she’d longed for. “Is she okay?”

  “She is unhurt, but there is concern. She has not spoken to anyone since the accident. At the moment, she is in the care of a woman in whose house Dr. and Mrs. Schrader were living, but we expect that you will want her sent to America. Is this not correct?”

  Sobs pierced Clarissa’s awareness—bitter cries that hurt her to hear. She tried to answer the doctor, but words refused to come.

  Karyn is dead.

  Her husband’s arms came from behind, wrapping around her body. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  Only then did she realize that the bitter crying was coming from her own throat. She swallowed her sobs with an agony that threatened suffocation. The knife moved in her hand.

  Travis reached for it, rubbing the flesh and loosening her grip before taking the knife. “Give me the phone,” he said softly.

  Clarissa watched as he talked with the doctor from India, her own disbelief and shock mirrored in his dark eyes. Finding a pen in the drawer, he wrote down a number. Then he set the phone on the cradle.

  “It’s my fault,” Clarissa moaned. And it was—as surely as if she had forced Karyn onto the plane that would eventually crash.

  “No, it’s not. It’s not anyone’s fault.”

  “It is.”

  He sighed. “If it’s yours, then it’s mine, too.”

  She shook her head. “No, no. Mine. I’m her sister.” Was, her mind corrected. She was my sister.

  Travis put his arms around her. She gazed up at his familiar, dearly loved features, stared into the eyes she would never have known had it not been for Karyn, the sister she had betrayed. Oh, dear God—how did I let this happen? There was no chance for making amends now.

  “Her daughter,” she said aloud. “What about that poor little girl?”

  “She’ll come here, of course.”

  She nodded. “We’ll raise her as our own.”

  An u
nexpected—unwanted—surge of joy welled within Clarissa’s breast. Only fleetingly did she consider that someday they would have to tell Karyn’s daughter the truth.

  CHAPTER 1

  Liana Winn’s fingers flew over her calculator, making long tallies of numbers that spewed onto a long curl of white paper. She hated working on this account for more reasons than one. Wealthy Jim Forrester, the obscenely young owner of a computer consulting firm, didn’t exactly cheat on his taxes, but there were many points she felt stretched the realm of belief: vacations in Hawaii, elaborate gifts for clients, deluxe hotel rooms with heart-shaped bathtubs.

  After two years of doing Forrester’s taxes and avoiding his blatant advances, Liana had tried to refuse being assigned to his case. But he was Klassy Accounting’s most important client, and when he had requested her personally, her boss made it clear she had no choice but to accept.

  “You about done with the Forrester case, Liana?”

  Liana’s fingers stiffened over her calculator as she looked up into the small watery eyes of Larry Koplin, her boss. He was a tall, balding, barrel-chested man who wore tailored suits and who might have been commanding if not for his swollen cheeks, thin shoulders, and scrawny limbs.

  “Nearly, Mr. Koplin,” she said, keeping her voice calm. “I’m just finishing a few numbers. Once I put them into the computer, I’ll be finished.”

  Koplin’s pale face darkened with a brief frown, which Liana knew was because he had invited her time and time again to call him Larry instead of Mr. Koplin. Liana had tried, briefly, half-heartedly, but the time when he had inspired friendship was long past.

  “Good.” He twisted his thin, too-long fingers, as though washing them. “I knew you’d be done soon. I told him to come over in an hour. He’d like to take you to lunch.”

  Distaste rolled through Liana, but she was careful not to show it. “Thank you, Mr. Koplin, but I won’t be able to go. I need to finish at least two more accounts before I leave tonight.”

  Koplin’s smile did not reach his watery eyes. “Nonsense, a girl has to eat.”

  Liana stifled a sharp retort that would have detailed her womanly capability of buying her own meal. She had learned to do at least that in her nearly thirty years of life, thank you very much. Instead, she said, “I think we promised Jones and Dean that their accounts would be finished by morning, didn’t we? Lunch with Forrester could take hours.”

  She watched contrasting emotions battle in Larry Koplin’s puffy face as he pitted the money he would receive from those accounts against the points he would earn if he could coerce her to have lunch with Forrester. Liana remembered a time when she had believed in him—a time when his smile and a promise of a bright future had drawn her away from her previous job. It was an offer he still touted, but Liana had discovered that his “bright future” meant this minuscule office and nothing more.

  Koplin’s greed for money won out. “I’ll tell Mr. Forrester you can’t possibly get away now. Just see that you finish those accounts.”

  Liana felt the sudden urge to quit right that instant, to turn her back and walk out, just to see him scramble for a replacement. Maybe then he would recognize the four years of hard work that had earned her this pitiful closet she called an office—an office she now despised. But she had bills to pay, which her monthly paycheck barely covered, so she had no choice but to swallow her anger. “I will, Mr. Koplin.”

  He nodded sharply, causing the loose skin under his chin to wobble, and turned on feet that seemed small for his towering height and protruding chest. As he walked down the aisle between the gray cubicles, he was followed by surreptitious stares from his employees. One of the nearest women, a new employee named Jocelyn, cast Liana a sympathetic glance through the door, and Liana smiled politely before returning to her work. The anger gradually faded as she put the incident aside. She would not allow anything to affect her work or her state of mind. She was in control. Anything else was unacceptable.

  When the phone rang, she reached for it, eyes glued to her computer screen. “Liana Winn,” she said. Tilting her head to support the phone, she continued entering numbers. Earlier in the day, she’d hoped to finished work early, but that hope was fading fast.

  “Hi, it’s me.”

  She smiled despite her dark mood. Her brother’s voice was always a welcome sound. “Hi, Christian. What’s up?”

  “Actually, I need a favor.”

  “Ha, what else is new?” She rolled her eyes. He was forty, and she was still bailing him out of one thing or another.

  “Well, a friend of mine has to get a bit of tax work done—pronto.”

  “Sorry.” The phone pressed hard between her ear and shoulder, and already her neck was beginning to ache from the awkward position. “I’d like to help your friend, but I can’t. Maybe next month, after the fifteenth.”

  Her brother wasn’t having any of it. His voice took on a pleading note, one she always found difficult to ignore. “Oh, Liana, come on. The company he works for is a client of mine. If I lose that account, my boss will kill me.”

  Through the open door of her tiny office Liana could see a buzz of activity in the cubicles where she had worked until her promotion a few months earlier. Fingers typed at keyboards, creating an unlikely symphony that hummed evenly on the air. There were voices, too, but lower, almost covered by the incessant tapping. Ringing phones added shrillness to the din. March was one of the accounting firm’s busiest times of the year, surpassed only by the madness that consumed the first half of April.

  She willed herself to be strong. “If this guy changes advertising firms because I can’t work him in, then he’s no friend of yours.”

  “It’s his company I need to impress, not him, and that means if they need a favor, I deliver. This accounting thing really isn’t even Austin’s department. He got stuck with it because of me.”

  Not again! She stifled a sigh. “And how on earth did that happen?”

  “Well, I was in this meeting yesterday, and they were discussing my new advertising design—which they seemed to like, by the way.”

  “Christian,” she groaned.

  “Okay, okay. So they started in about how their financial manager had run off on them and how the new one—the owner’s nephew or something—can’t start until he finishes college next month. Bottom line, they’re in a big bind and need help quick if they want to avoid paying more penalties. Next thing I know, my mouth opens all on its own, and I’m telling them I know someone.”

  “Know someone? Who do you think you are—the Mafia?”

  He gave a short laugh. “Come on, will you just meet with him? If it’s too much work maybe you could file another extension. Pleeeeease? His office is just outside Vegas, only a couple of miles away from yours. It’s a quarterly thing, I think, so it can’t be too big, can it?”

  Liana sighed. Christian had no idea how difficult quarterly filings could be. He was a genius at dreaming up creative advertisements, but numbers escaped him completely. “Depends on the size of the company. Can’t your friend come in and meet with my boss? Maybe someone else could work him in here.”

  “Can’t see that happening. Austin would never trust a company with a corny name like Klassy Accounting.” Christian’s voice rose in mimic of the commercials that were being run on the radio. “Klassy Accounting—no job too big or too small.” He snorted. “No offense, but it’s true. Please, Liana Banana? What do you say? Do it for me?”

  The use of her childhood nickname made it more difficult to deny his request. “Let me think a moment,” she said, raking her hand through the long strands of her dark hair. If she skipped her twenty-minute lunch down at the corner deli—again—and didn’t take her afternoon break, she might be able to finish work by seven or so, and that would leave enough time to see Christian’s friend. Even as she thought this, the strong aroma of a TV dinner, coming from the small alcove that lamely served as an employee break room, wended its way into her office, making her stomach ach
e with emptiness.

  “Okay, okay,” she agreed with resignation. “I’ll take a look. But you’ll have to pick me up and stop at McDonald’s or somewhere on the way so I can eat as you drive. I’m famished.”

  “Deal. You won’t regret this, Banana. I love you.”

  “Hmm.” She hung up the phone.

  * * *

  Daylight was already beginning to fade as Liana exited the front door of her building. Outside, she found Christian parked in a no-parking fire zone, lounging against his green BMW, a car he was still paying for and would be for at least another three years. He greeted her with a wave and a grin that always made people feel he shared their secrets. “I got you Chinese,” he said as he opened the passenger side door for her. “I know how you love it.”

  “I enjoy it.” She slid into the car.

  Christian rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, I forgot. You don’t love anything . . . or anyone, right? Except for me.” Grinning, he placed his hands on his khaki dress pants and leaned down until his eyes were even with hers. “Come on, tell me you love me. Tell me I’m your favorite brother. Why don’t you ever say it?” They both knew he was teasing, and yet there was an undercurrent of sincerity to his plea. To him things like saying “I love you” made a difference, but Liana knew that saying so only set a person up for loss.

  She snorted in annoyance and pulled her door shut. Her brother barely had time to jump out of the way. “Hey!” He slapped the side of the car, but lightly so there was no chance of damaging the finish.

  She watched him saunter around to the driver’s side. Handsome by any standard, Christian had dark, laughing eyes and longish brown hair combed back from his square face. He was fun-loving, adventuresome, generous—and completely irresponsible. Though Liana was more than ten years his junior, she often lent him money, patted his back when his relationships didn’t work out, and handled all his finances. He joked that he’d never marry until he found someone just like her. What he didn’t seem to realize was that someone like her was unable to maintain a stable romantic relationship.