Almost A Bravo

Percy nodded slowly. “You were born at Wild River Ranch during a punishing storm with catastrophic flash flooding and power lines down across much of the state.”

Chapter Three (#u1df4fed5-fe79-594a-864e-2d51a731a953)

Before she left Valentine House, Aislinn agreed to contact the PI who’d found Madison and Paula Delaney. She agreed to arrange it so that Percy could get a copy of the final report on the search and ask questions about the case.

Percy, who loved playing detective, promised not to try to get in touch with Madison Delaney until after Daniel and Keely returned from Bora Bora and they could call a family meeting to bring all the Bravos up to speed on the strong possibility that they had a sister they didn’t know they’d lost.

Next, Aislinn went to the Bravo family house. The short trip to the house she’d grown up in wasn’t really necessary. She believed what Daffy and Percy had told her, that she’d actually been born at Wild River Ranch. But it had occurred to her that there was one more proof she could easily check.

Gretchen Snow, Keely’s aunt and the mother of Daniel’s deceased first wife, Lillie, answered the door. The plump, sunny-natured Gretchen was looking after Daniel’s twin toddlers, Frannie and Jake, while Daniel and Keely were gone. The twins were already in bed. Gretchen gave Aislinn a hug and then left her alone in the study at the front of the house.

Daniel had a twelve-drawer wooden file cabinet in there that used to belong to George Bravo. In a folder labeled with her name, Aislinn found her childhood immunization record, her original social security card and a few random report cards from middle school and high school. And also, her birth certificate, which listed her place of birth as Astoria, Oregon.

Wild River Ranch had an Astoria address.

It was enough to completely convince her of one thing, anyway. The story of her Montedoran birth was just that: a sweet fairy tale told to her by her mother—or at least, by the woman she’d always believed was her mother.

* * *

As she was leaving the Bravo house, she got another call from Jaxon. She ignored it. Instead, she went home, took care of her rabbits and ate some leftovers. After dinner, she went out to the shed she used as a studio.