Plain Paradise by Beth Wiseman Page A

Matthew. We don’t know why, but the Lord graced us with the boys, and—”
    “I’m not your daughter! I have no parents. I have no brothers.” Her sense of loss was suddenly beyond tears, quickly being replaced by anger. She backed away from her parents. “I have no one.”
    “Linda, my beloved daughter. I am your mother. We are your parents. It will always be that way. We love you, Linda. Please forgive us for not telling you this sooner. Please, Linda . . .” Mamm reached for Linda again, and this time Linda stepped even further away from them.
    “We know this is hard, Linda, but over time you will realize that we are still your parents, no matter what.” Her father continued to fight a buildup of tears in his eyes, and there was a part of her that wanted to run to him, to them both, to comfort them, ease their pain. But she felt suffocated by her own grief.
    “Why are you telling me this now?”
    Her parents looked at each other, and then her father spoke. “The Englisch woman, she wants to see you. She wants to meet you tomorrow morning and spend some time with you.”
    “But you don’t have to go.” Mamm stepped forward. “We will just tell her that you are not interested in meeting her, and—”
    “I want to meet her. She is my mother .” Linda kept her voice steady and cut her eyes at Mary Ellen. Mary Ellen —the person who raised her. She should have felt remorse at the way her cutting words sent tears streaming down Mary Ellen’s face. But instead, she twisted the dagger. “What am I supposed to call you both now? Mary Ellen and Abe ?”
    “Watch your tone, Linda,” her father said as he wrapped a protective arm around his wife.
    Linda grunted, stood taller. They can’t tell me what to do. They aren’t even related to me .
    “We know that you’re hurt, dear, but nothing has to change, and—”
    “Stop it! Everything has changed.” Linda wrapped her arms around herself, never needing a hug from her mother more than at this moment. The woman she thought was her mother. From someone. Someone who loved her.
    “Please, Linda . . .” her mother cried as she reached out to her. “Please, my darling baby . . .”
    “I’m going to Stephen’s. He’ll be my family someday! Then I’ll have a family!”
    She ran out the door, down the porch steps, and didn’t stop running until she got to Black Horse Road, where she collapsed onto the gravel shoulder and sobbed. It took a few moments for her to realize her toe was bleeding, and only another minute or so before a buggy came along. She wiped her eyes, then blocked the sun’s glare with her hand until the buggy came into view.
    Her cousin David. She waited while he pulled to a stop beside her.
    “You okay?”
    David was two years older than Linda, and he’d been through a kidney transplant, so she wasn’t sure he’d have much sympathy for her throbbing toe, but her bloody foot was the least of her worries. David jumped from his topless courting buggy and ran to her side. He knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.
    “Here, let me see.” He lifted up her dirty bare foot covered in blood. “Ouch,” he said as he crinkled his nose. “That’s a nasty cut, but I reckon it doesn’t look like you need any stitches. I’m on my way to Onkel Noah’s clinic. You wanna go and have him clean it up?”
    Linda stood up, wiped her eyes, and shook her head. “No. Can you just take me to Stephen’s haus ? Please, if you don’t mind.”
    “Sure.” David helped her into the buggy, then went around and got in beside her. He’d barely settled into a steady trot when the tears started again. She just couldn’t seem to stop. “Does it hurt that bad?”
    She heard the concern in David’s voice, much like that of a protective brother. “It’s not my toe. It’s—it’s . . .” Linda covered her face with her hands. “David, I’m adopted. My parents aren’t my parents.”
    “What?” He twisted in the seat to face her, a confused