Hating Her History

By Becky Lunt

Jessica Coghlan was secretly removed from her small hometown nineteen years ago. She was believed dead and long forgotten. Returning was just meant to be for a short time to help her father through the sadness of losing his own dad, but circumstances change when she develops an appreciation of a stranger's firm bottom.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Becky Lunt
• Release date: Apr 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215749739

Becky Lunt

My name is Rebecca but I prefer Becky. I could start waffling on about my work and life but that would bore you just as much as it does me so I will just tell you that my imagination is awesome.... Come and get lost with me in my dreams.

Book preview

Hating Her History

Copyright 2023 Becky Lunt

Published by Becky Lunt at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this eBook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

The main characters in this eBook are fictions.

Any resemblance to any person either alive or dead is purely coincidental.

Chapter 1

The priest’s deep intonation continued while Jessica Coughlan watched from a distance. Standing in the shade of a large elm tree, she was invisible to those in her gaze. Although, Jess reflected, she had not been standing there long enough to be noticed anyway. The faces regarding the deep brown wood coffin were family in name but strangers in every way. That is, all but one face. The one person she knew sat beside a hunched, frail old woman; his eyes covered by dark lensed sunglasses. He sat so still he may have been sleeping, or even dead himself. She should have been here hours ago!

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. The ceremony was approaching its end. The old woman, dressed in a plain black blouse and ankle-length skirt, rose unsteadily to her feet, and paced forward to stand beside the coffin. Her palm rested momentarily on the shiny surface before it began its final journey into the grave. The grinding of the ropes sounded loud. The one red rose within her hand fell into the darkened depths, only to be followed by others, as those gathered whispered their goodbyes. Slowly the crowd dispersed, and the sound of sobbing echoed through the cemetery, as people moved in every direction. He finally moved, sitting forward to put his head into his hands, and Jess could feel the grief as though it were her own. Felt it so strongly her heart ached, although she had never even met the man being buried.

He needed her.

Jess hurried forward, closing the space quickly to kneel at his feet, her hands resting lightly on his shaking shoulders. The unexpected contact startled him into looking up.

Jesus, Jessica, what are you doing here? He lifted the sunglasses away to look at her directly. His grey eyes were red from fresh tears, and with the few days of greying course growth over his cheeks, he looked so many years older than her memory.

I’m here for you.

Oh, love, you shouldn’t have come. It will only cause trouble.

Shush, you can yell at me later. Jess knew that he did not want her near this town. They’d spent most of her life avoiding it, but it was where his family lived; where his father had just died and been buried. She had no choice but to travel to the little tight-knit community of Wilson Wells. The town where she’d been born almost twenty years ago, and from where she’d been sent away for nineteen of those long and lonely years.

Oh, love, he repeated, standing, and in the same motion pulling her up and drawing her into his strong embrace. His wet, whiskered cheek rested on the top of her head.

I’m sorry, Dad, Jessica whispered, leaning against his chest, I needed to be here … with you … to help you. I’m not afraid.

I am. These people are cruel and hateful, and I don’t want you to be a part of that. I have never wanted it for you.

Please, Dad, don’t send me away again. I will leave when I need to, but not right now.

You have no idea how much I love you, Jessie.

I think I do, Jess spared a glance around the small cemetery, but how many people know about me?

Here? Everyone knows about you but only two … sorry … only one would know you’re alive still.

Well, I think people are starting to get curious, and from the looks of horror, they’ve imagined something very sordid.

Stiff shit, he replied, but he released his hold with a soft sigh. The church has organized refreshments in the hall, but we’ll stay only a little while.

No, you stay as long as you need to, your mother should be your focus today. I’ll see you at home.

Stay.

Jessica thought her choices through, but in her mind, it was not right to take the focus from her grandfather’s memory, and even as unwanted as the attention was, her return not only to the town, but to life would be the subject of much gossip. It was not fair.

No, Dad, I’ve been driving all night, so I’ll just go home and have a bit of a rest on the couch until you get there.

Alright, but you’ll have to meet the family eventually … if you’re staying. He removed a jingling set of keys from his suit jacket pocket and twisted one from the ring. Here’s the house key.

I know what has to happen, but just not at this moment. Today, people should just grieve … and remember your dad. It’s not about me. She pushed the key into the pocket of her faded jeans, beside her mobile phone and reached up to place a quick kiss on his cheek. We will talk more when you get home.

You know where you’re going?

I’ve got the address and my trusty GPS. If I could find this place by myself, I think I can manage to work it out, she gave a little push in the direction of where several people were waiting and watching with undisguised interest. Very quickly Jessica returned to her vehicle. The journey had taken much longer than she’d thought, and her faded jeans and stretched fleece shirt were hardly acceptable attire for a funeral. She had planned to arrive before and change at home, but like other things, plans were always changeable, particularly when rust bucket old cars broke down. She keyed her father’s address into google maps on her phone and waited while it recomputed the directions.

Rick Coghlan could hardly believe what was happening. His father had died so suddenly a week ago and left everything unprepared. He and his brother Jack had been forced to stand up and straighten matters out, as their mother was simply not able to. She was lost in her grief. They’d spent more years as man and wife than they had on their own and it had been such a shock to her.

And then to have Jessica turn up … Oh God … if the wrong people saw her and recognized her, there would be so much trouble and heartache. She was the mirror image of her mother; green eyes the shade of freshly cut grass, flawless complexion slightly olive in color, and bronze hair, though the fact that Jess preferred to wear her hair in ponytails rather than free, as her mother had favored, may disguise her somewhat. She hadn’t changed at all since he’d seen her six months ago. But now she was here, he couldn’t send her away. Jack and his wife Molly waited with their three sons. He’d so often been jealous of his brother; with Jack’s blessed life … he had a loving wife and three healthy happy boys. He’d seen them grow from babies to the proud young men grieving today, unlike Rick himself with his only daughter. Jack knew what had happened all those years ago, he’d even helped when Jessica was secretly removed from town, but the wife and boys knew only that he’d had a daughter who died soon after the accident that had claimed his wife. It had been better that way because Jessica’s safety had been paramount, so the secret was held tightly. His father knew … didn’t agree with the plan back then, but after all that had happened over the years, had he changed his mind?

Rick? Molly asked.

Yes?

Who was that? Her tone was soft … concerned.

What was he to say? He couldn’t lie now.

Leave it, Moll, if it is who I think it is, we will find out soon enough, but now is not the time. Jack advised. Are we ready?

Rick was once again grateful for his elder brother’s level head. They began the short walk to the church hall. Several tables covered in white cloth held an extraordinary selection of hot and cold foods, but all Rick wanted was a good strong scotch. His father would understand this desire to get ridiculously drunk on this occasion. But being on consecrated grounds, strong liquor ... hell, even a light beer was out of the question.

Tea or coffee? Molly asked, looking from Jack to him. Her eyes lingered longer on him than Rick was comfortable with.

Coffee, better make it black please, Molly. He answered, and she nodded once before making her way over to the far table that held the old hot water urn. Jack waved the boys away gifting them a measure of privacy.

What are we going to do? he asked, looking about.

What can I do? Rick answered. I should send her away so bloody fast, I know that, but she’s … He lost words. How could anyone understand all he’d had to endure with sending Jessica away as a baby, pretending to the world she was dead?

I know, Ricky, it will be alright.

But they were just the words one said. There was no real promise to them.

Jess pulled her battered four-wheel drive Jeep up to the fence line and stopped the engine. Her father’s house was an older style two-story home, with vibrant green creeper vines wrapping around the half dozen pillars of the porch. She could see a two-person swing chair at one end with several cemented pot plants spaced about. The lawn was mowed and the garden beds weed-free. The very image of what she had imagined her childhood home would have been. In a perfect world!

Berkshire Lane was far longer than she’d imagined, showing how large a block of land her father had a claim to. The picture on Google Maps was very deceptive when it voiced the turn off the main road. The space was amazing compared to city living.

Pulling on the latch to release the back door, Jess left the cabin and lifted her battered bag from the boot. It wasn’t heavy, only had a few spare changes of clothes and a small bag of toiletries. Life had taught her to travel light.

The front door opened inward with a slight groan, and the lounge room was strewn with discarded clothes, as though her dad had not been there for a while. The small gust of air that followed her lifted the bottom of the cream lace curtains over the window. The room was decorated with beautiful wooden furniture and the carpet was made of soft wool in a deep brown color. The table by the door was one of those old oak tables with a drawer and mirror. Jess dropped the key and her phone onto the shiny surface and drew a deep breath before she slowly walked in, shutting the door to the world behind her. The duffle bag dropped with a thunk in the otherwise silent house. Her house … the house she had no memory of, but as she looked about, Jess saw how her father had turned it into a memorial for her and her mother. Baby pictures; wedding … her parents graduating. Their love was choreographed in a timeline … right up until even she could tell when they no longer loved each other. Her father’s pain was haunting.

Jess turned from the photos and wandered through the house.

Downstairs was the lounge room, kitchen, laundry, toilet, and dining space while upstairs had two bedrooms, joined to the full bathroom on both sides and the main bedroom with its ensuite. Her father’s bedroom was just as disorganized as the living room with mess everywhere, but his room also felt lived in … not just the memorial downstairs was. Only one of the two remaining rooms held a bed that she could use but at least the sheets looked clean and the bedspread warm. Her heart ached again when she looked into the last room and gazed upon the outdated baby furniture. Her cot, a rocking chair, and changing table ... probably never touched again after he whisked her away all those years ago. Had he hoped she could come back? Is that why he’d kept them?

Jess walked back downstairs and into the kitchen. A bowl of fresh fruit was on the bench and when she looked into the fridge found that it was full of food and a single six-pack of what must have been her father’s favorite beer. She boiled the kettle and made herself a cup of tea before settling down on the couch. It hadn’t been a lie when she’d said she had driven all night. The series of calamities her vehicle had suffered was almost laughable with a flat tire, broken windshield, and lastly cracked radiator. The last one had been outside her ability to fix reasonably quickly, and the mechanic needed to source several parts from other workshops to get the job done himself. But as exhausted as she was, sleep still eluded her under the gaze of her mother’s eyes, so like her own.

Oh, Dad, she sighed, what the hell happened? A single tear slipped unwillingly from Jess’s eye as she looked along the series of photos. He loved her mother so intensely; it was almost tangible in all the early pictures.