Wild Ambition

Chapter 20

She seemed to understand a little bit about why Charlotte wasn't welcome at her parents' house. I'm sure she didn't know what had recently gone on in Charlotte's life, but I think she knew that Charlotte wasn't exactly the best person and she made a whole lot of mistakes that weren't exactly that forgivable. Although it seemed like my grandparents had been a little bit more tolerant of their daughter's mistakes before I had come along, it probably wasn't a surprise to this woman who said she was Charlotte's best friend that my grandparents had finally had enough of all the trouble that Charlotte had caused over the years.

"Well, I'm sure I can find her myself. I know Charlotte isn't the type to spill that much so if you ever want to talk about your mother, then give me a call," she said as she pulled a pen out of her purse and then wrote down her number on an unused napkin from the pile of extra napkins that our waitress had brought over with her when she had served our food to us.

"Thanks. You haven't mentioned your name yet so who do I ask for when I call," I replied. She smiled at me and then said, "Melissa Doherty. If I recall your name is Taylor."

Melissa wrote her name down on the napkin and then put the pen back into her purse before looking back over at me, obviously waiting for me to reply back to me. I could see out of the corner of my eye that Nathan looked confused as to why Melissa would think that my name was Taylor when he knew it was Rhiannon. He didn't know that Charlotte had told everyone that she knew in this town that she had named me Taylor Anne Mallory after I was born. When she had actually named me Rhiannon Taylor Blake so no one would be able to find me once she made her getaway from this town. She had fooled so many people.

"Actually, Charlotte didn't name me Taylor. She just told everyone that was my name because she didn't want anyone to find us after she had left California. My name is actually Rhiannon, but Taylor's my middle name so that part of my name is true," I said smiling at her. I still hadn't forgiven her for mistaking me for Charlotte, but I was going to be nice to Melissa since I was hoping to eventually get some information about Charlotte out of her.

"Well, that doesn't really surprise me. Nothing about Charlotte surprises me anymore. Back then it did, but after she left and I had so much time to think about all the things she did, now it's not so surprising when someone tells me something crazy about Charlotte. I have to go but call me sometime and we can set up a lunch. I'd love to talk more about your mother," Melissa said.

She smiled at me and I nodded my head. Before I could even think to ask if she knew who my father was, Melissa was gone. I guess I would just have to wait until I had lunch with her to find out if she knew who my father was. It would be a surprise to me if she actually knew who my father was since I was starting to get the feeling that no one really knew who my father was. Charlotte seemed to keep things a secret even from her best friend.

If Charlotte hadn't told Melissa my real name, then it was very unlikely that she had even told Melissa who the father was of her child. I would have to wait to know for sure. First I was going to ask my grandparents about Melissa and see what they said about her.

"You okay?" I heard Nathan ask me. I looked over at him and nodded my head.

"You didn't look all that thrilled to be recognized as your mom," Nathan said.

"No, I wasn't. I like to think that I'm nothing like her and I certainly don't want to be mistaken for her especially with all the things she's done," I replied. He smiled and nodded his head but didn't say anything. Nathan probably wasn't sure what to say to that.

I think he still wasn't used to the fact that Charlotte and I didn't have a very good relationship like he seemed to have with his parents. Nathan probably knew that there were kids out there that didn't have good relationships with their parents, he just had never met anyone who had a bad relationship with their parents until he met me. So it was probably weird when I said things like "I like to think that I was nothing like her" since I didn't want to be like Charlotte at all. Some kids looked up to their parents, but I didn't look up to Charlotte at all.