Billie and Brandon: Untamed

11

"What's my real name?" she asked, "I know my last name isn't Donahoe."

"Well, you're an O'Connell. Billie O'Connell to be precise. It's not a common last name here in the West. But it is in California."

"California?" Billie questioned in awe, her voice muffled because her face was buried in her mother's shoulder.

"That's right. Your father and I were from California. Los Angeles to be exact."

"What is it like?"

"It's a beautiful place. With lots of different people. Always warm throughout the entire year. A place where dreams can become reality. But it was hard to find work there. When we got married, your father bought a deed of land out west so we moved to this town for the brand new opportunity. We started up a restaurant business in the town. One of only two."

Billie sat slightly up, frowning. "Is the restaurant still there?"

Maggie sighed a bit wistfully, "Honestly, I wouldn't know. I've been pretty much stuck here for so many years..."

"I'm sorry..." Billie said quietly.

"You don't have anything to be sorry about, Billie." Maggie rubbed her back soothingly, "We named our restaurant O'Connell's, you know. We wanted it to be a family restaurant passed through generations. You were going to inherit it."

"I don't think there are any restaurants named O'Connell's in this town."

"I wouldn't expect there to be any. Nobody else would be able to run the resturant with me in the whore house. It's probably been long gone."

That's right. The debt.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you get your lifelong debt?"

She let out a soft breath, "Your father always was a gambler of sorts. Not in the traditional sense of the word, but more like a risk taker. He took big risks. The higher the stakes, the more interested he was in playing. But he never gambled so much that it would affect either of us. If there was one thing I truly loved about him, it was that he made sure the risks he took would never negatively affect his wife and child. He made sure we never had to deal with any consequences. He was thoughtful and caring that way."

Maggie continued, staring off into the distances, "A little less than a year after you were born, your father came home one day, shamefully crying and begging me to forgive him because he had lost all our money dealing with one of the chief advisors on the mayor's town council. That he had wagered our restaurant and lost that too and that because he owed money to that man, he was being sent to work in a mine, but that he'd be back as soon as his debts were cleared."

That sounded way too familiar to Billie's ears. She frowned, her breathing slightly quickening and the wheels turning in her head. It couldn't be a coincidence.

"Who was the mayor back then?"

"His name was Leon Carson. He wasn't particularly aggressive or a go-getter as a mayor, but he was kind and fair and more than helpful in getting your father and I set up in the town once we moved."

"Leon Carson? Don't you mean Wesley Carson?"

"No honey. Wesley was his older brother. Back then he was chief town council advisor."

"Was?"

"You were still probably only a small child so you might no remember, but Leon, his wife, and their son died while he was still in office. Wesley became the mayor after that."

Billie nodded, thinking something was a little but off. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was definitely something a little wrong. "What happened to my father?"