Finding Bailey Copyright © 2020 Dana Mason ISBN: 9798679635470 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events other than those clearly in the public domain are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author. Cover Design: Carrie Butler, Forward Authority Photo Credits: Mariusz Blach & Сергей Шуневич Editing: Nancy S. Thompson and Mo Sytsma, The Scarlet Siren Formatting: Mo Sytsma, The Scarlet Siren You can find Dana Mason at: Facebook: www.facebook.com/danamasonromance Instagram: www.instagram.com/danamason06/ Twitter: www.twitter.com/danamason06 Website: www.danamasonromance.com Contents Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Chapter Forty OTHER BOOKS BY DANA MASON MORE FROM DANA ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR ABOUT THE AUTHOR “Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all” ~Emily Dickinson CHAPTER ONE If she disappeared, would anyone notice? Would she matter to anyone ever again? A mother’s love was the strongest power in the world. Who was a person without a family? At twenty-seven, Bailey still felt like a child who belonged to her mother and her family. Now, her mother—both her parents—were gone, and she wasn’t sure who she was without them. After lying on her mother’s bed for a solid ten minutes, she opened her eyes and focused them on the large trunk in the corner of the room. Her grandmother’s steamer trunk had always been in her mother’s bedroom, but she didn’t remember ever seeing it open. She crept off the bed and wandered toward it, gliding her hand over the fluffy quilt that sat on top, the stitching as fine and tight as the day her mother had finished it. She lifted and hugged the quilt before resting it on the bed. Then she flipped the old latches on the trunk until they popped, and the lid lifted from the release of pressure. With a creaking noise, it gave way as Bailey raised it slowly. Two more handmade quilts sat cramped inside. She picked them up, inhaling the scent of cedar before she laid them on the floor next to the trunk. She looked inside, surprised to see a baby book in the center of the stacks of photo albums and scrapbooks. She pulled it out and quickly paged through it, getting glimpses of her own face as a baby. She couldn’t wait to spend some time reading the notes her mother had so carefully written inside. She thought she knew every nook and cranny of this house, but she’d never seen this book before. One by one, she lifted the books out and stacked them next to the trunk in a neat pile. The last and largest scrapbook, with its wood panel cover and threadbare binding along the spine, looked older than her. She placed the scrapbook in her lap as she rested against the trunk before lifting the old, wooden cover. The first page was a newspaper clipping dated a few weeks after she was born. Baby found by local couple dubbed ‘Baby Bailey.’ A tingle traveled down her spine as her back went erect. Then her eyes rested on the text below the headline. Appleton, WI – At approximately 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, Ernie Morton went outside to check on a noise in his side yard. “I thought it might be some neighborhood kids. You know, sometimes they come prowling around looking for trouble. They’ve smashed my aluminum cans, knocked down a portion of my back fence, and trampled my wife’s garden there in the side yard. I planned to chase them off,” Mr. Morton said. But when 31-year-old Morton unwrapped the bundle resting between a juniper bush and a garbage can in his side yard bordering Bailey Drive, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Inside the bundle of blankets was a tiny baby girl, wide-eyed and alert. “I yelled at my wife to call the police, then I just picked her up and took her inside.” Officer Harper, of the Appleton Police Department, said the infant, dubbed “Baby Bailey,” appeared to have been well cared for. This led police to believe the mother might have a change of heart and return to claim the baby. “If it weren’t for the Mortons, she would have frozen to death in a matter of hours,” said Officer Harper, who seemed a little shaken at the heartless act of abandonment. Paramedics transported Baby Bailey to the emergency room, which reported her as perfectly healthy. Doctors determined her to be about six weeks old. Police are investigating the crime. So far, they have no new information, but they hope to have something to report within the next couple of days. Neighbors said they were shocked by the news. “I can’t believe someone would do something like this,” said Jeanette Roberts, who lives nearby on Mulberry St. “I’m just shocked. There are so many people who want families.” The Mortons said they want to adopt the little one. “It was fate,” Mrs. Morton later told reporters. If anyone has any information about the baby, they’re asked to call the Appleton Police Department. Bailey’s breath caught in her throat. She lifted her hand to her mouth, still staring at the article. When a hand clamped on her shoulder, she bolted to her feet, dropping the scrapbook on the hardwood floor with a smack. “Why didn’t you answer the door?” Ryan said, staring down at her. She tried to talk, but her mouth had gone dry. She
