A FAMILY SECRET (standard:other, 24612 words) [1/3] show all parts
Author: Kenneth Nash	Updated: Nov 09 2006	Views/Reads: 3474/2610	Part vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A story of how a family secret influenced a young woman's decisions in life.

A Family Secret 

Her dark curls, damp from perspiration, made a striking contrast to the
stark white linen sheet. 

Adrienne slowly opened her eyes. “Where am I?” She listened to the
distant chatter outside the room. The antiseptic smell of the hospital 
and the clanking sounds of food trays being delivered to patients down 
the hall brought back the memory of last night. 

“Adrienne, you had a baby girl; she weighed in at 7 ½ pounds and
measured nineteen inches,” she remembered the nurse saying. 

The feeling of joy flooded her thoughts. “A little girl! I always
dreamed of having a baby girl!” “What does she look like?” pondered the 
young mother. 

She would never know the answer to those questions. The adoption agency
had already been notified. Someone would be coming soon to pick up 
Adrienne's baby. 

Knowing she would never see or hold her baby, the young girl turned
toward the wall sobbing quietly. 

The Nicholson's were one of the oldest, most prominent families in the
Charlottesville area. Their family had occupied the gray, two-story, 
stone house on Magnolia Drive for generations. 

Phillip Nicholson went to work for Citizen's Bank after he graduated
from the University of Virginia. He came up through the ranks from loan 
officer to being president of the largest bank and mortgage company in 
Charlottesville. 

Mr. Nicholson was neither unattractive, nor what one could call
handsome. His dark brown hair was now graying at the temples. Usually a 
jovial man, his tanned face displayed crow's feet wrinkles near the 
soft brown eyes. A little under six feet tall, and 190 pounds, he could 
still be the star halfback of the University's football team... if he 
were thirty years younger. 

Phillip and Yvette Nicholson had inherited the home, commonly known as
the Nicholson Manor, from his parents before he graduated from college. 


Yvette was a strikingly beautiful bride, with long blond hair and large
hazel eyes. The couple met on the University of Virginia campus in 
their senior year. Phillip has, on more than one occasion, said, “It 
was love at first sight.” 

With the inheritance and salary Phillip received from the bank, there
was no need for Yvette to work. She was able to devote her time to 
their first child, Phillip Andrew, born three years after they moved 
into Nicholson Manor. Andrew looked like this father, except he had the 
same sparkling hazel eyes of Yvette. The parents soon discovered that 
he was, indeed, a gifted child. He learned to read and write early. He 
would rather watch the news or weather channel on television than play 
ball with the other boys in the neighborhood. Andy became a voracious 
reader. He could devour books that would take the ordinary child weeks 
to read. 

“That boy needs to get out and get some sun...he be pale as a ghost!”
stated Miss Sophia.  Miss Sophia had been both maid and cook for the 
Nicholson family since Phillip was a young lad. 

When Andy started to public school in the fall of his fifth year, a
second child was born to Phillip and Yvette. Adrienne Yvette had 
features like her mother, but had curly, dark hair similar to Phillip. 

She was a gregarious child making new acquaintances easily. When she
wasn't in school, she spent time with her best friend, Amanda. They 
first met when they attended kindergarten at the Charlottesville 
elementary school. 

“What does that cloud look like?” asked Amanda as the two girls, age
eight, lay on the grassy hill in front of the Nicholson Manor. She 


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