Lost Daughters

By Mary Monroe

“A spicy mixture of family scandal, mother-daughter betrayal, and good-for-nothing men” from the New York Times bestselling author of God Don't Like Ugly (Publishers Weekly).

Everyone from Louisiana to Florida knows Mama Ruby—a small-town girl who became one of the South's most notorious and volatile women. Now Mary Monroe reveals how Mama Ruby's past haunts the family she's left behind . . .

Mama Ruby has died, and Maureen Montgomery is finally taking charge of her own life. With her beautiful teenage daughter, Loretta, by her side, she returns to Florida and settles into a routine any other woman would consider bland. But for Maureen and her brother, Virgil, after Mama Ruby's hair-trigger temper and murderous ways, bland is good. Yet Loretta has other ideas . . .

Set on becoming rich and famous, Loretta convinces Maureen to let her start a modeling career with the help of a Miami photographer. But even as they move in promising new directions, they can't escape Mama Ruby—including Virgil, who's concealed one of her most shocking acts for most of his life. To make a future that's truly hers, Maureen will have to take on a bit of Mama Ruby's strength, forge new bonds—and face down the past.

Praise for Mary Monroe

“An exceptional writer and phenomenal storyteller!” —Kimberla Lawson Roby, New York Times bestselling author

“A remarkable talent.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Monroe is a masterful storyteller.” —Philadelphia Inquirer

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kensington Books
• Release date: Apr 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9780758294685

Mary Monroe

Mary Monroe is the award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels and six novellas. She is a three-time AALBC bestseller and winner of the AAMBC Maya Angelou Lifetime Achievement Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the J. California Cooper Memorial Award. The daughter of Alabama sharecroppers, she taught herself how to write before going on to become the first and only member of her family to finish high school. She lives in Oakland, California, and loves to hear from her readers via e-mail at [e-mail]. Visit Mary’s website at MaryMonroe.org.

Book preview

PROLOGUE

Silo, Florida, 1956

E

LEVEN-YEAR-OLD VIRGIL MONTGOMERY WAS SO TERRIFIED OF HIS MOTHER

that he would do almost anything to keep her happy.

Against his better judgment, Virgil made a pact with Mama Ruby on a sultry night in July that would have a profound effect on him for the rest of his life.

He promised her that he would never tell anyone she had just kidnapped her best friend’s newborn baby girl and was going to raise her as her own. Virgil knew even back then that he would experience an enormous amount of guilt and shame and that it would probably destroy him someday, but nobody said no to Mama Ruby. . . .

"I’ll kill anybody who tries to take this baby away from me," Mama Ruby vowed as she gazed at the beautiful baby in her arms that she had named Maureen, after her former beloved madam.

Virgil would never forget how Mama Ruby looked that night in that hideous, shapeless, black flannel duster that he had always hated so much. She sat at her kitchen table feeding the baby a concoction she had made with cornmeal and goat’s milk.

Virgil had never seen his mother so nervous. Her hands were shaking, and sweat was streaming down her face like melting wax. No matter how fast he handed her a can of beer every few minutes like she demanded, she scolded him for being too slow. Even when he handed her a fresh can before she finished the previous one, he was still too slow for her. More than two-dozen empty beer cans had already been dumped into the trash barrel on the back porch of their shabby rural house—and that was what Mama Ruby had drunk in one day.

Mama Ruby couldn’t keep her false teeth from slipping and sliding in her mouth, so she jiggled them out with her fingers and placed them on top of a pot holder on the table. Every few minutes she glanced toward the door. Each time she heard a movement outside, she held her breath. She had scratched her head and fussed with her hair so many times since she’d come home with the baby in a shoe box that it looked like she had combed it with an eggbeater.

It was a very long night for Virgil. After he got too tired to remain in his mother’s company, he put on his long john pajamas and crawled into his tipsy rollaway bed in the tiny bedroom behind the kitchen. Before he could get to sleep, a bat squeezed through a crack in the wall and entered his room. Virgil flung some balled-up socks at the creature until it squeezed back out the crack. He was convinced that the bat’s sudden appearance was a bad omen, and that frightened him. He lay there for hours gazing at the ceiling and out the window at the full moon, wondering what kind of mess his mother had gotten them into this time.

Virgil was not surprised when Mama Ruby entered his bedroom a couple hours later and ordered him to get back up. He had just dozed off, so it took him a few moments to realize what was going on. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, staring at Mama Ruby as she hovered over his bed. Her suitcase was on the floor in front of the doorway. The baby was still in her arms, rolled up in a towel like a cocoon. Even though she had already told Virgil that she was keeping Othella Johnson’s baby, he had not believed her until now.

Boy, drag your tail out of that bed and shake a leg. We fixin’ to haul ass, Mama Ruby growled with her jaws twitching. She clamped her ill-fitting false teeth more securely onto her gums, hoping they wouldn’t fall out of her mouth during the night like they often did. Grab you a few sugar tits and some tea cakes out the ice box. Then go empty out your bladder and your bowels so we won’t have to make too many stops.

Despite an assortment of crimes that Mama Ruby had committed over the years with Virgil as her accomplice, they had avoided jail so far. He didn’t count the month that she had spent behind bars for leaving some white kids in her care unattended when she went to go shoot and kill her unfaithful husband, who was also Virgil’s father. That had happened before Virgil was even born. But what Mama Ruby was about to do now scared him. He was well aware of the fact that kidnapping was a very serious offense, even if the victim was a black child in a racist, Southern town.

Virgil looked from the suitcase to Mama Ruby’s face and opened his mouth to speak. But before he could get a word out, she gave him one of her grim don’t ask me no questions looks, so he didn’t. He scrambled out of bed and got dressed. After he had stuffed only what he could carry into a shopping bag, Mama Ruby made him creep around outside the house to make sure that the coast was clear.

We ain’t got nothin’ to worry about. I even checked to make sure that everybody at Othella’s house had gone to bed, Virgil reported, chewing on a sugar tit as he tiptoed back into the house.

What about Othella’s hound dog? Mama Ruby’s voice was hoarse. She had just raked a comb through her hair, braided it, and covered it with a plaid scarf. She had taken a birdbath in her kitchen sink, sprayed lemon-scented toilet water behind her ears and on her wrists, and changed into a fresh duster. She had even smeared on some lipstick and slapped rouge across her bloated cheeks. She had plain features, but she was still a very vain woman. Making herself look more attractive was one of her better habits, and it had always paid off. She had been a very popular prostitute back in New Orleans fifteen years ago, and she was still able to draw men in like a Venus flytrap.

Oh, we ain’t got to worry about that mangy creature. I gave him a hambone and tied him to Othella’s pecan tree. Even if he was to see us leavin’ and start barkin’, he can’t get loose. Virgil paused, swallowed the last piece of his snack, and gave Mama Ruby a curious look.

What’s wrong with you, boy? Why you lookin’ at me like that? she asked. She was still nervous and had begun to sweat even more.

Um, I was just wonderin’ . . .

Wonderin’ what?

I was just wonderin’ . . . uh, can you . . . uh . . . run real fast? It was a question that Virgil didn’t feel safe asking a woman who weighed almost four hundred pounds. There were times when Mama Ruby could barely stand up, let alone run real fast.

Mama Ruby glared at Virgil and said hotly, Yeah, I can run real fast if I have to! Why?

Well, things might get real serious, Virgil pointed out. You ain’t no spring chicken, you a little on the heavy side, and you kinda clumsy. There was an edge of sarcasm in his voice. He averted his eyes from Mama Ruby’s and glanced down at his feet to make sure his shoelaces were tied—in case he had to suddenly run real fast from her.

Look here. I got news for you, boy. Things is already real serious, Mama Ruby growled, ignoring Virgil’s remark about her age and weight like she usually did.

Mama Ruby, what I want to know is—and I ain’t tryin’ to be funny—do you think you can run fast enough for us to escape in case Othella’s hound dog starts barkin’ loud enough to wake her up?

Oh, Mama Ruby mouthed, scratching the side of her face with three fingers. Well, tonight I bet I could outrun Tarzan, she whispered, looking toward the door again. Make sure you pack my Bible and blow out all the lamps, and let’s make tracks. Lickety-split!

Yes, ma’am, Virgil whispered back. By now he was almost as nervous as Mama Ruby. Other than a few pennies from her coin purse, a piece of candy, and some peanuts from the local grocery store, he had never stolen anything before in his life. Yet here he was now, involved in a conspiracy to steal another woman’s baby!

e9780758274724_i0003.jpg

Mama Ruby died suddenly in the first week of January 1983. Despite her unhealthy eating habits, her love of beer, and her dangerous weight, almost everybody believed that she had died of grief. She couldn’t bear the thought of going on after Maureen had moved out on her own a few months earlier.

Two weeks before, the last time Virgil had seen his mother alive, she had reminded him of his promise to keep her crime a secret. I’m so proud of you, boy. You been a good son, done almost everything I told you to do all your life. I knew you wouldn’t blab to nobody about me stealin’ Othella’s baby, she said with a touch of sadness in her voice.

No, I never told nobody. I ain’t that crazy, Virgil said, and then he added, My mama didn’t raise no fool.

Ruby chuckled. I sure didn’t! She chuckled again, and then she got serious. The sadness returned to her voice. I swear to God, I would rather die than ever tell anybody what we done back in the summer of fifty-six.

What do you mean, what we done? I didn’t do nothin’. You was the one that stole Mo’reen and run off with her. If the law ever was to catch up to you, they ain’t got nothin’ on me. Besides, I was only eleven when it happened! Virgil snorted, giving his mother a defiant look. He was the only man on the planet who could be so bold with her and live to tell about it.

Well, you ain’t no eleven-year-old boy no more. You pushin’ forty now. I couldn’t have avoided gettin’ caught and gettin’ locked up without your help all these years. That’s what the law will look at. Mama Ruby paused. She glanced from side to side. Then she shaded her eyes and looked up the dirt road toward the pyramid-shaped hill that faced her house. The palm trees and thick bushes on both sides of the road were good places for busybodies to hide behind. The last thing she needed was for one of those busybodies to sneak up and overhear this conversation and report it to the one person in the world she wanted to keep it from. That person was not the sheriff. It was the victim herself: Maureen, who was now twenty-seven years old.

Mama Ruby occupied her front porch glider that Saturday afternoon, two weeks before Christmas. Virgil sat on the banister, facing her. They couldn’t share the glider like they used to when he was a small boy and she was still a fairly normal size. Mama Ruby’s four-hundred-plus-pound body, the weight that she had maintained for the past twenty years, lay slumped to the side, almost covering the entire glider. The same shabby Bible that she had been reading a few hours before she kidnapped Maureen now lay in her lap, splayed like a filet. A check mark, in red ink, highlighted a proverb that she had made Virgil memorize: He who guards his lips guards his life, but he who speaks rashly will come to ruin—Proverbs 13:3. A half-empty can of beer—her tenth one in the last four hours—was in her hand.

Mama Ruby was a wise woman. She even possessed supernatural abilities if you believed her and some of her associates. She had made a few lame predictions that had eventually come true, and she had laid her alleged healing hands on a few sick people and made them feel better. But even with her special powers, she couldn’t predict how her precious Maureen would react if she knew that Mama Ruby had kidnapped her—and it was the one thing that Mama Ruby never wanted to find out. Kidnapping a baby was a secret that she was determined to take with her to the grave. She had told Virgil that on more than one occasion.

Well, even if you told Mo’reen what you done now, you wouldn’t have to worry about her real mama causin’ no trouble and takin’ Mo’reen away from you, Virgil eased in. You took care of that when you killed that woman.

That was self-defense, boy! I had to chastise Othella! She came at me with a blade in her hand—and in my own house at that! Even the cops sided with me! Mama Ruby shot back with a nod and a grunt. She finished her beer and let out a mild belch. Why you bringin’ up this subject again anyway?

You the one that brought it up this time! Virgil reminded.

Oh. Well, anyway, we don’t need to be talkin’ about this incident no more, no how. What’s done is done, and ain’t nothin’ goin’ to change it.

Virgil dropped his head and rubbed the back of his neck. When he looked back up at Mama Ruby, he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. She was as rough and tough as a person could be. But she was also so sensitive that she would often burst into tears at the drop of a hat. She set her empty beer can on the floor and fished a large white handkerchief from inside her bra. She immediately began to weep like a baby.

Now you stop all that bawlin’! Virgil ordered. I feel bad enough—and have for years—about you kidnappin’ Mo’reen, he fumed.

I can’t help it! Mama Ruby wailed, blowing her nose into her handkerchief. I don’t know why you won’t lay this . . . this . . . situation to rest like I did. Mama Ruby stopped crying and gave Virgil a look that was so frightening it would scare a ghost. The past is the past and we can’t change it. I advise you not to mention this kidnappin’ incident to me no more as long as I’m still breathin’. Do you hear me, boy?

Yes, ma’am. I . . . I . . . won’t never bring this up again as long as you still breathin’, Virgil sputtered.

And he didn’t.

CHAPTER 1

Goons, Florida, 1983

N

OBODY WAS SURPRISED WHEN MAUREEN AND LORETTA, HER NINE

-year-old daughter, returned to Goons, Florida, from San Francisco just two months after they’d left, three days after Mama Ruby’s funeral.

Virgil had purchased their tickets to San Francisco, one way like Maureen had requested. She had assured him that she would never return to Florida. He had also given her a credit card and a little over two thousand dollars in cash, but he had also tried to talk her out of leaving.

Runnin’ away ain’t goin’ to help you get over losin’ Mama Ruby, he had told Maureen.

That ain’t the only reason I’m leavin’ Florida. This place has caused me too much misery. If I don’t get up out of here now, I’m goin’ to go stone crazy, Maureen replied in a bone-dry voice, already feeling like she had lost most of her mind.

This is your home, Mo’reen. Everything you love, and everybody that loves you, is here, Virgil continued. He was worried about his baby sister moving so far away, but he knew that she had made up her mind.

I know that. I just need to know more about life than Mama Ruby allowed me to learn. The way she kept me hemmed up in that upper room in that spooky old house of hers made me feel like a prisoner when I was growin’ up. I need a fresh start, and I can’t get that here.

Maureen got a fresh start all right, but not a very pleasant one. California was the land of dreams and hope for a lot of people, but it was more like a nightmare for her. Before she and Loretta could even claim their luggage and get out of the San Francisco airport, an earthquake hit. It lasted for only a few seconds, but it was strong enough to shake some common sense into Maureen’s mind. Moving from one end of the country to the other, to a city where she didn’t know a single soul, had made no sense at all, and now this. It had been a strong tremor. One that had people scrambling for cover and newspapers and books tumbling from racks.

Baby, what did we get ourselves into? Maureen asked, looking at Loretta, who had tumbled to the floor in front of the baggage carousel. I heard about the earthquakes out here.

Well, Mama, at least it didn’t last as long as the hurricanes we have back in Florida, Loretta pointed out. She wobbled up off the floor, brushed off her jeans, and looked around. These people up in here just keep walkin’ around like zombies, like that earthquake wasn’t nothin’. Maybe all of the folks out here do stay doped up on drugs, like everybody told us before we left Florida.

Us bein’ in a damn earthquake before we can even get out the airport ain’t a good sign of things to come, Maureen said in a worried voice.

Why did we come out here in the first place? Especially if you already knew about these earthquakes? Loretta said.

Huh? Oh, we just needed to get away, that’s why. A change might do us a lot of good, Maureen insisted with a dismissive wave. We’ll get used to this place. We’ll be all right.

But they wouldn’t be all right.

They checked into a motel that rented rooms by the hour in San Francisco’s seedy Tenderloin district. There was a massage parlor with tinted windows on one side of the motel and a porn video store on the other. Each day, Maureen and Loretta ate crackers, cheese, and bologna sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Their neighbors included hookers, marauding drug dealers, runaway teenagers sleeping under filthy blankets in doorways, and horny men beating a path to the nearby strip clubs.

Maureen enrolled Loretta in a school that was filled with gang members, some as young as seven. When she picked Loretta up after school one day during the first week, Loretta had a black eye because two mean girls had attacked her and taken her lunch money. That incident, and the fact that Maureen couldn’t find a job or an affordable apartment by the end of the second month, was all she could stand. She used the credit card that Virgil had given her to purchase tickets back to Florida. It was more of a relief than an admission of defeat. She belonged in Florida where everything was familiar and, she prayed, where she would eventually find true happiness.

Maureen and Loretta returned to Florida on Loretta’s ninth birthday, which was March 15. Loretta was still pouting about having to celebrate her special day with a Happy Meal at McDonald’s near the San Francisco airport instead of a birthday cake. This is the worst birthday I ever had! she complained.

I’ll make it up to you once we get settled back home. I’m goin’ to treat you like a princess from now on, girl! Maureen promised, ignoring the simmering scowl on Loretta’s face.

You better do that, Mama, Loretta said in a voice that was disturbing coming from a child. Or I’m goin’ to make you real sorry. Loretta laughed and Maureen laughed along with her.

Many years later, Maureen would recall Loretta’s ominous threat....

Maureen’s legs almost buckled as she ran toward Virgil in the baggage claim area in the Miami airport. He looked even more frazzled than Maureen. He had been worried about her and Loretta since the day they left.

Let’s get the suitcases and get the hell out of here and back home, Maureen told Virgil as she hugged him.

Loretta glanced from Virgil to Maureen. Home? Back home to Mama Ruby’s old house with the upper room where Uncle Virgil lives now? she asked in an excited voice, picking at the dried snot beneath her nose. Yippee!

No, sugar! I don’t want to go anywhere near that place. I don’t even want to be in the same house where Mama Ruby lived and died. Not for a while at least, Maureen said quickly, her eyes blinking like an owl as she looked from Virgil to Loretta. Maureen had loved Mama Ruby from the bottom of her heart. Mama Ruby was gone forever, though, at least from the physical angle. Maureen knew that if she wanted a chance at a normal future, she would have to let go of Mama Ruby from the emotional angle too. Uh, we’ll be stayin’ with Catty until I find us a place. Maureen looked at Virgil again. I have to move forward without bein’ haunted by anything that’ll remind me of Mama Ruby too much. She controlled every move I made. I can’t let her control me from beyond the grave. I hope you understand.

Virgil nodded. I do. Once Mama Ruby got her hooks in you, you either had to sink or swim. If I hadn’t run off and joined the army when I did, there is just no tellin’ what kind of man she would have turned me into. Virgil rubbed his nose and sniffed. If I was you, I wouldn’t step back into that house no time soon either. Ain’t nothin’ but bad memories there for you. Mama Ruby gave you a lot of protection and spiritual guidance. She raised you to be strong, too, so you’ll do just fine on your own.

Maureen had no idea how far she would get without Mama Ruby’s protection and spiritual guidance. Mama Ruby had controlled Maureen’s life from the day she was born, and she knew that Mama Ruby’s influence would remain with her for a long time to come. Jesus was Maureen’s main source of spiritual guidance now, and she prayed to Him every day of her life, but Mama Ruby’s crude words still rang in her ears: Listen, girl, ain’t nobody in this world, other than Jesus, can make you happy except me. You ain’t goin’ to do nothin’ unless I approve it. Otherwise, you will suffer like a mad dog. It had been a while since Maureen had heard those chilling words. They continued to haunt her on a regular basis.

Virgil’s chest tightened as his hands gripped the steering wheel during the ride back from the airport. He had promised himself that if and when Maureen returned to Florida, he would tell her that Mama Ruby had kidnapped her. She deserved that much from him. He knew that with Mama Ruby out of the picture now, he had a moral obligation to come clean. He decided that it was just as important for Maureen’s peace of mind as it was for his.

Uncle Virgil, did you forget that today is my birthday? Loretta asked as she bounced up and down in the backseat.

Oh, that’s right! I been so busy lately it had skipped my mind! he yelled, glancing over his shoulder and giving Loretta a huge smile. Happy birthday!

Loretta waited a few moments for Virgil to reveal what he planned to do to honor her birthday. But he didn’t mention taking her to Disney World or even to a pizza parlor like he had done last year. That made Loretta angry. What was wrong with her family these days? Didn’t they realize how special she was? Well, one day they would....

I wish Mama Ruby was still alive. She would never let me down, Loretta said with a whiny sniff. She never let nobody down.

Virgil had more important things on his mind than celebrating Loretta’s birthday. But she was right about Mama Ruby. She had never let anybody down. For the first time in his life, Virgil knew that he was going to let Mama Ruby down in the worst way. He had to tell Maureen that she was not who she thought she was and that he was not her brother, or even related to her. The guilt was eating him alive. He had to tell her soon. Until then, his conscience would continue to torment him until he could no longer stand it.

Unlike Mama Ruby, he was determined to not take the secret to the grave.

CHAPTER 2

Five years later

V

IRGIL COULDN’T BELIEVE THAT SO MUCH TIME HAD PASSED AND HE

still had not told Maureen that she was the victim of a bizarre kidnapping. Every time he had thought the time was right to tell her, he found an excuse not to.

Some days and nights the facts of the case were all he could think about. Maureen’s biological mother, Othella Mae Johnson, was dead. She had been Mama Ruby’s last victim. She had experienced Mama Ruby’s wrath when she’d tracked her down and attempted to reclaim Maureen when Maureen was twenty-five. Othella had a lot of relatives back in Louisiana, though. Virgil admitted to himself that it was not fair to Maureen to keep her cut off from that family.

However, he knew how important it had been to Mama Ruby for Maureen not to know the truth about her background. Would he be betraying Mama Ruby if he told Maureen now—especially since she was no longer around to chastise him for doing so?

I don’t know what to do about this mess now, Virgil said out loud to himself one evening while driving the two miles home to Goons from his job in Miami. He didn’t need to work. Injuries that he had sustained while a prisoner of war in Vietnam had made him eligible to collect disability payments from Uncle Sam for the rest of his life. He worked anyway because it made his life seem more balanced, and he enjoyed being the chauffer for one of Miami’s most powerful lawyers. Besides, Maureen is happy now and I don’t want to mess up her mind, he reasoned. Let me shet my mouth, he snickered, looking around. Somebody was to see me talkin’ to myself they’ll swear I done lost my mind. He stopped talking, but he couldn’t stop thinking about his sister.

Maureen was happy in many ways. She had returned to her old job as a file clerk at a lobster factory in Miami, and she and Loretta lived in a nice little apartment about a mile away from Virgil. They visited each other several times a week and talked on the telephone almost every day.

Maureen didn’t have much of a social life, even though she had resumed her relationships with her hard-partying old friends Catherine Catty Flatt and Emmogene Fast Black Harris. Every once in a while, Maureen accompanied them to the clubs and the neighborhood parties. She even went on an occasional date.

Unfortunately, romance was still as elusive as it had always been for Maureen. She was thirty-two years old now and had never been married or even involved in a serious relationship. She was lonely, but she didn’t complain about it that often. As long as she had her daughter to keep her company, she was fairly happy.

Loretta had always been an attractive child, but by the time she was fourteen, she was so beautiful that people stared at her and complimented her on her looks everywhere she went. It was no wonder. She was five foot ten and had the body of a goddess, slim but curvy in all the right places. She had Maureen’s beautiful brown eyes, high cheekbones, full lips, and long thick black hair. She had long legs and fair skin that she had inherited from the father whose true identity she would never know—a father whose true identity nobody else would ever know either, Maureen had decided.

Everybody, including Mama Ruby and Virgil, had believed Maureen’s lie when she told them that she’d been seduced by an albino drug addict called Snowball. He had conveniently died of a drug overdose right after Maureen realized she was pregnant. The truth of the matter was Loretta’s father was John French, the deceased son of Mama Ruby’s Caucasian landlord. As toddlers, Maureen and John had played in the sand together and frolicked naked in the Blue Lake, near Ruby’s house. They had ridden together on John’s old mule and played marbles and hide-and-go-seek. They had romped in the blackberry patch behind Ruby’s house. That was where John had overpowered Maureen one afternoon and raped her when they were seventeen. She didn’t see or hear from him again until a few weeks later. She had tracked him down to let him know that she was pregnant and he was the one responsible for her condition.

She had asked John for the five hundred dollars she needed to get an abortion, so he’d attempted to rob a gas station. The attendant shot and killed him for his trouble. When Loretta and her identical twin, Loraine, had come into the world with very light skin, everybody believed Maureen’s story about her tryst with the albino.

Mama Ruby had always wanted a baby girl to replace the one she’d given up when she was fifteen. Suddenly she had three, and it didn’t matter to her that they didn’t share her bloodline or that the twins’ father was the dead albino. Mama Ruby told several people that if that all-white devil had not already died, she would have killed him herself for taking advantage of her baby girl.

Shortly after the twins turned eight, Loraine fell into the Blue Lake and drowned. Mama Ruby was devastated. She whooped and hollered for days. It had taken some powerful tranquilizers from her doctor to calm her down. I don’t know why Satan keeps messin’ up my life! Mama Ruby complained from bed where she remained for three days after Loraine’s death. Once she was able to get up, she crawled to the upper room. She made Maureen and Loretta join her in prayer. The three of them got down on their knees and thanked Jesus that they still had each other.

Now that Mama Ruby was gone, Maureen was more attached to Loretta than ever. She knew that if she lost her, too, she couldn’t go on. She promised herself that she would do twice as much for Loretta to make up for the loss of Loraine. She felt it was her responsibility to make every sacrifice she could to keep Loretta happy.

No matter what Maureen did for Loretta, though, it was never enough. When Maureen gave Loretta twenty dollars for her birthday one year, Loretta was horrified. She glared with contempt at the twenty-dollar bill in her hand and asked, Is this all I get? Maureen immediately gave her twenty more dollars. Loretta had more than a dozen Barbie dolls, a TV in her bedroom, and more toys than several of her friends combined. When Maureen treated Loretta to a weekend trip to Disney World to celebrate her tenth birthday, Loretta demanded a trip to Epcot the following weekend to make up for her disastrous ninth birthday during the San Francisco fiasco.

When Maureen bought Loretta her first bicycle, Loretta decided that it was too plain. Loretta sold it to a friend the same day. Then she begged and whined until Maureen purchased her the one she really wanted, even though Maureen had to borrow money to do so.

Maureen purchased her own clothes from discount stores, Goodwill, and the Salvation Army. Everything that Loretta wore had to come from places like the high-end stores on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach where a lot of the A-list celebrities shopped. Once when Maureen didn’t have enough money to buy Loretta the designer jeans she wanted, Maureen found the same pair in a consignment shop. Even though the jeans looked brand-new, once Loretta found out they were secondhand, she exploded. You have to do better than that, Mama! The next day Maureen used her rent money to purchase Loretta the jeans she wanted.

Virgil was concerned about the way Maureen was raising her daughter. If you keep treatin’ that girl so special, she’ll end up believin’ she’s better than everybody . . . includin’ you, he predicted.

Maureen didn’t want to remind Virgil that Mama Ruby had raised him and her the same way and that they had turned out all right. "Lo’retta’s so beautiful and that means she is special. Let’s let her enjoy it, Maureen said instead. I’m so proud of my beautiful daughter."

"Beauty is a double-edge sword. It cuts both ways. I’m tellin’ you, if you let that girl get too stuck on herself, sooner or later that sword’s goin’ to swing in your direction," Virgil warned.

Maureen knew that Virgil meant well, but she laughed at his comments anyway. Only a man would say somethin’ that silly, she scoffed. He had never raised a daughter, so what did he know? Besides, Maureen enjoyed spoiling Loretta. She had to give her the love that she could no longer give to Loretta’s deceased twin, so that meant doing double of everything. She would triple everything if she had to, if that was what it took to keep Loretta happy. Besides, she loved seeing the huge smile on Loretta’s face when she was happy.

Loretta looked much older than fourteen, so grown men were among her many admirers. She thought that beauty was the ultimate reward. However, she had no use for other beautiful girls. She didn’t want to share the spotlight. That was why she surrounded herself with plain-looking, frumpy girlfriends, and they had to be docile enough to suit Loretta’s needs. Her best friend since fifth grade was Mona Flack, the ultimate flunky. Mona looked like Olive Oyl—Popeye’s long-legged girlfriend—even down to her thumb-like nose, polka-dot eyes, and beaver-tail hairdo.

One of the few things that Mona had going for her was the fact that she was tall. Unfortunately, that didn’t do her much good because she had wide hips and such an enormous butt that her body resembled a long pear. She usually wore loose-fitting dresses and skirts to hide this flaw, and she rarely wore jeans or shorts like Loretta. For some reason being close to a girl as beautiful as Loretta made Mona feel attractive. It was an illusion that Loretta milked like a cow. Mona was her own personal servant, her fool, and Mona was glad to be in such an important position.

Maureen was glad that Mona was so loyal to Loretta, but she had no idea just how loyal Mona really was. All Maureen knew was that Mona, the daughter of a nurse and the manager of a black-owned car wash, idolized Loretta. Like Maureen, Mona’s goal was to keep Loretta happy. No favor or chore was too inconvenient, difficult, or nasty for Mona to perform when Loretta asked.

Each day, Mona sank lower and lower. She had become such a wuss that she even sacrificed her virginity for Loretta. When an older boy offered to take Loretta to a beach party if she had sex with him, she persuaded Mona to do it for her. Loretta had other plans for her virginity. It was a prize that she was saving for the right man. . . .

CHAPTER 3

L

ORETTA HAD A FEW QUIRKS THAT SEEMED HARMLESS TO MAUREEN AT

the time. One was that Loretta was so impressed with her looks that it was almost scary. She couldn’t walk past a mirror without stopping to check her makeup and her hair.

One day Maureen passed by Loretta’s bedroom doorway and saw her sitting at her dresser staring at herself in the mirror. Twenty minutes later when Maureen passed by again, Loretta was still sitting in the same spot, still staring at herself in the mirror. Maureen thought that was strange, even for Loretta. She was pleased to know that her child had so much confidence and pride in her looks, but she was worried that Loretta might lose her perspective and think that looks were all it took for a girl to be happy. Maureen knew firsthand that that was not true. Even though people had always told her that she was as beautiful as a film star, Maureen had never felt like one. Especially now that she was in her thirties, working a dead-end job, and still unmarried. That was all the proof she needed to know that looks didn’t mean everything. She prayed to Jesus that Loretta would do more with her life than she had done. With the Lord’s help, Maureen would make sure that Loretta got everything she desired.

You look beautiful already, Maureen told Loretta as she watched her apply a fresh coat of lip gloss one morning as she got herself ready for school.

I know, Loretta replied with a smug look on her face. I can see what I look like.

Then don’t keep puttin’ on more lip gloss or anything else, Maureen advised.

"Mama, you wouldn’t understand. I have to be the one to decide when I look beautiful enough," Loretta replied with a casual shrug. She applied another coat of lip gloss.

Maureen rolled her eyes and shook her head. Loretta continued to work on her face.

Loretta always looked like she’d just stepped off the cover of a fashion magazine. She didn’t wear ripped jeans or oversized T-shirts like a lot of the other kids. On this particular day, she wore a white silk blouse with ruffles at the end of the sleeves, a plaid skirt, and white tights with black pumps that she had wiped and waxed so thoroughly she could see her reflection in them. She never wore sneakers or flip-flops, not even to the beach. She wore her long black hair with bangs almost touching her eyes, like Cher used to wear hers back in the sixties.

When Loretta joined Maureen in the kitchen a few minutes later, she had changed into a pink silk blouse and black leather skirt with a split up the side. A white silk scarf was around her neck.

Lo’retta, why did you change clothes? You looked so cute in your plaid skirt.

I know I did, Mama, but I just remembered that I wore that outfit last month. It wouldn’t be cool if everybody saw me in the same clothes again so soon, Loretta explained. She smoothed down the sides of her skirt and brushed off the sleeves of her blouse.

Even though Maureen showered Loretta with compliments on a regular basis, she always countered them by telling her that looks were not everything. That only made Loretta suck on her teeth, roll her eyes, and shake her head.

A beautiful girl is special and has to act special. If she behaves like regular girls, that’s what she’ll be—regular! Loretta insisted a few days after the lip gloss and plaid skirt episode.

A lot of beautiful women lead regular lives, Maureen told her.

"Mama, you need to get with the program. The whole point of bein’ beautiful is so you don’t have to be regular. I bet if Liz Taylor hadn’t acted special on account

Reviews for Lost Daughters

[amilligan_13 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This was a new genre for me and I was eager to see what it was like. I found the plot very slow and the character Maureen very weak,and nothing of consequence happened for ages. I kept putting it aside and going back to it hoping I could get into and have the desire to finish; but in the end I gave up.

[aeisen_3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have not read "The Upper Room", however, I don't think it was necessary to enjoy the book or get invested in the characters. I thought the story was interesting and I enjoyed reading it, the story had way too many strange coincidences though.

[lavermeer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Maureen believes she is living a good and happy life. Little does she know that her family members are hiding life-changing secrets from her. As these secrets are gradually revealed, Maureen must decide how she will respond and adapt to challenging circumstances that threaten everything she values.LOST DAUGHTERS is a sequel to 2011's MAMA RUBY. If you liked that book, or if you enjoy contemporary melodrama, you might like this novel. Some of the characters are thoroughly unlikeable, but the author has a firm sense of consequences, justice, and redemption, so people in this book get what's coming to them. An omniscient narrator does much of the telling, underscored by highly dramatic character interactions. The number and scale of troubles the characters in this book experience may test a reader's patience, and the central coincidence of the novel truly defies belief. It is, however, a fast-paced novel of personal adversity and triumph through faith and would make a fair summer-reading selection, particularly for readers drawn to Christian themes.

[Alyna Davis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Mary Monroe has done it again! I couldn't put it down!