Distant Waves by Suzanne Weyn Read Free Book Online Page B

this woman. They shared the same luxuriant mane of black hair; they were very close in height and of a similar slim build; the large, black eyes were exactly the same.
    "Marguerite?" the woman asked, calling Mimi by her given name.
    Mimi nodded cautiously.
    The woman turned to her husband and spoke excitedly in French. Then she turned back to Mimi. "Marguerite, you do not know me because I have not seen you since you were an infant."
    "You know me?" Mimi asked.
    The woman nodded. "When I saw you on the street, I thought I had seen the ghost of my sister." She laughed in an embarrassed way. "I thought you were so pale because you were dead. But by the time I reached Madam Anushka's, I had done the mathematics and figured it out. I came here to find my sister's spirit, and her spirit led me to you. I am your aunt Yvonne. Your mother was my sister."
    Mimi's head snapped around to find Mother. We all looked at her as she stood with tears over brimming her eyes.
    "It's true," she whispered.
    ***
    Chapter 8
    " H ere's the truth," Mother said about an hour later. She and Mimi were seated in the front parlor, side by side on the window seat. Both of them had eyes puffed and red from crying.
    Emma, Amelie, Blythe, and I hovered outside the room, crushed together behind the narrow right-hand wall of the arched entry, holding our breath for fear of being discovered. We all felt guilty about listening in on their private talk, but we had to know what they were saying. Our entire reality had been rocked. Mimi had a different mother? It just didn't seem possible.
    "Your father had a first wife whom he married while doing missionary work on the island of Haiti in the Caribbean. The wife was named Louise, and she was a black Haitian. She died of malaria when you were an infant. Father returned to America with you."
    My sisters and I looked at each other, our eyes wide with amazement. Father had a first wife? A black wife?
    "You were less than a year old when I married your father. I had known and loved him ever since I was a girl,  so the decision was easy for me. You were such a sweet and lovely baby that it was easy to love you as my own, as well," Mother went on. "And you are my own daughter in every way but biology."
    "Why didn't you tell me?" Mimi asked quietly.
    "We thought it would be better if you grew up thinking of me as your mother. Your complexion was so fair that it was possible that you were mine by birth."
    "Does anyone else know?"
    Mother shook her head. "My parents knew before they passed. Grandmother Taylor never approved of the marriage, so Father didn't tell her about you until after he and I were married and living in Massachusetts."
    "He was ashamed of me," Mimi deduced sadly.
    "He didn't want her to know that..." Here Mother's voice trailed off as though she wasn't sure how to express what she wanted to say.
    "That I'm black," Mimi supplied.
    "Half black."
    From behind, Blythe tugged on my sleeve. "How can she be black when she looks white?" she whispered. "Shhh," I replied sharply.
    I'd tried to be quiet, but both Mother and Mimi looked in our direction. "Show yourselves, ladies," Mother commanded.
    Sheepishly, we emerged from our hiding place. Then, seized by an overwhelming rush of love for my older sister,  I dashed forward and threw my arms around her. Emma, Amelie, and Blythe followed my lead.
    "Nothing has changed," I gushed. "Nothing at all!"
    We clung together there, rocking, a pile of teary-eyed females, consumed with sisterly love for one another, desperate to assure Mimi that it didn't matter if she was a half sister. Our love for her was whole, complete, and unconditional.
    After several minutes of this, we loosened our grips and settled into our own seats, apart yet still sitting close together. "It can be our secret," Blythe suggested. "No one need ever know."
    An expression of indignation swept across Mimi's face. "Why should it be kept secret?"
    "I wouldn't tell anyone I was black if I didn't have