by Shay Savage
“Not necessarily.” Threes reads through the paperwork again. “Leanne Ramsay had some pull in this town back then, and I don’t think she’d let just anyone raise her kid. Families are stronger with more people in ‘em, so even if the baby wasn’t Roland’s, they would have kept her around. Either way, it doesn’t tell us who took Virginia Bay’s place.”
“Maybe I should ask Cherry,” I reply.
“I’m not so sure she knows, boss.” Three shakes his head slowly. “I have a thought, though. Give me that picture from Micha’s file—the one with the pregnant woman.”
Antony hands it to him, and Threes heads down the hallway to his room, muttering to himself.
“She knows,” Pops says again.
“Well, I’ll just have to stop asking nicely.”
“Nate, are you sure you want to do that?” Antony glances down the hallway where Threes disappeared. “Maybe you should wait until Threes gets back. He’s got that look in his eye. He is right about something not adding up.”
“She’s a Ramsay,” Pops says. “You know that now. What else matters?”
“Nothing else matters.” I feel my chest tighten as my heart goes cold. Without another word to Antony, I head back into the office and stand in front of Cherry.
She leans back on the couch with her arms crossed over her chest and glares at me. Her jaw is set and her eyes are narrowed. She looks positively infuriated, and it’s not a look I’ve ever seen from her before. Her posture reminds me a little of the way Nora gets when she’s angry. I stare at her, trying to process what I’ve just learned.
“It’s all an act,” Pops whispers in my ear. “You need to see that now.”
Pops is right. I’d been blinded to the truth. I’d been convinced Cherry was my perfect match, and I needed to get married quickly. I simply couldn’t see what was right in front of me. Now, I need to see the truth. Clearly, Cherry is a good liar, or I never would have fallen for the innocent act. The only way I’m going to get to the bottom of what she knows is to trip her up. I need her to make a mistake and reveal her true self.
Cherry knows who her family is. She might have been involved in my brother’s death. She’s been manipulating me from the beginning, and it’s time to get some answers.
I glare down at her.
“You came here for the first time in February.”
“Yes.”
“What about before February?” “What about last year? Did you come to Cascade Falls last year?” I ask my questions in quick succession, not giving her time to think as I watch her reactions.
“No! I’d never even heard of Cascade Falls before my aunt died!”
“Ah yes, your Aunt Ginny. Your aunt, Virginia Bay. Where did that name come from, Cherry?”
“Where did the name come from?” Cherry throws her arms up in the air. “What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense!”
“You said you came here to find your birth parents,” I say.
“Didn’t we go through this, Nate? Yes, I came here to find my birth parents, just like I told you.”
“Because your aunt told you to go find them?”
“No, she didn’t.” Cherry sighs. “I found the incomplete adoption records after she died. That’s when I figured out she wasn’t really my aunt.”
All right, I have to admit that fits with her original story.
“She’s good at this,” Pops says. “An accomplished liar to the end.”
“And who is she, then?” I ask. “Who was Virginia Bay to you?”
“I have no idea! I don’t know if we were really related or not, not for sure.”
“And the woman in the Virgin Islands? What do you know about her?”
“The Virgin Islands?” Cherry tosses her arms in the air and shakes her head at me. “What woman? Nate, please tell me what’s going on. Why are you asking me all these questions?”
I grab one of the extra chairs we use when we hold large family meetings and pull it around so I can sit in front of her. I lean in a little closer—almost close enough to touch.
“I am going to need some straight answers, Cherry. Right now, things don’t look good for you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Cherry blinks rapidly as she tries to push herself away from me, but she has nowhere to go.
“It means I don’t believe you. If I don’t believe you, you’re hiding something. If you’re hiding something from me, it’s going to get ugly around here.”
She sucks in a breath and her face goes pale. She glances around the room, but I’m sure she can see she won’t get any help from Pops. She turns back to me, her eyes narrowing as she grits her teeth.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Cherry suddenly yells. “I’ve never been to the Virgin Islands, and I don’t know anyone there! I have no idea what you’re ranting about! Why would I hide anything from you?”
“You have been hiding something from me,” I say. “It was clear on your face when I asked why you didn’t call the cops.” She glances away from me. “Yes…there it is again. Don’t try to deny it. I know you’re here because the Ramsays sent you to me.”
“The Ramsays?” She snaps her head back to look me in the eye. “Why…Nate, I don’t understand.”
“The people who pushed you into my life. Are you trying to deny that?”
“Pushed into your…what? I didn’t push you! You approached me, remember?”
“That doesn’t mean you weren’t sent by them.”
“I don’t even know them!”
“Because you’re not from around here.”
“I told you that when we first met.”
“Just here looking for work, huh? And you’ve never been here before, right? You weren’t here last year when my brother was killed…or were you? I think you were here. I think you found out he was looking into your past, and you wanted to put an end to it.”
“Your brother? Why would your brother be…? Nate, are you drunk or something? I keep telling you, I don’t know what you’re going on about!”
“Don’t fucking play games with me!” I yell. “Not anymore!”
“This is ridiculous.” Cherry lets out an exasperated sigh. “You aren’t going to just keep yelling at me like this! I’m going home.”
Cherry starts to stand, but I put my hand against her shoulder and shove her back to the couch. She pushes my hand away and starts to get up again, but I stand up first. I place one hand on the back of the couch, caging her where she sits, and place my other hand on her chest to hold her in place.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” I say quietly, “not until you’ve answered all my questions.”
“I’m a prisoner now?” She shoves my hand away. “What the hell is the matter with you?”
“Why are you here, Cherry?” I sneer as I lean in, my nose just an inch from hers as I place both hands against the couch, near her shoulders.
“Why don’t you enlighten me, Nate?” She tries to push my arm away but is unsuccessful. “You obviously think you know, so why don’t you just come out and say it?”
“I think you’ve known who your parents are this whole time. I think you’ve been working with them to infiltrate my family.”
“I don’t know my parents!” she cries out as tears begin to form in her eyes. “I don’t know what’s going on, Nate! Stop it!”
“She’ll break soon,” Pops says.
“Why did you really move here?” I yell again, grabbing her upper arm and putting a little pressure against it. “Who was the woman who raised you? What is your connection to the Ramsays?”
“I don’t have any connection!” Her tears begin to flow freely. “I don’t know them! I’ve never met them! Nate, please stop!”
“Lies,” I growl. “I know why you’re really here, Ms. Bay or Ramsay or whatever your name really is. You can stop denying that.”
“Ramsay?” Cherry’s teary eyes stare into my eyes. “Is that what this is about? Are…are you trying to
tell me that my birth parents were Ramsays? Those people who live on the west side of town—the ones you have some kind of rival with—that’s my real family?”
“Are you saying you didn’t already know?”
“No, of course not. That’s why…it’s why I’m here in the first place.”
“So you say.” I grab her other arm, squeezing them both. “But you did know. You always knew. Now, tell me what you know about my brother’s murder!” I shake her. “Tell me what you know!”
“I’ve told you everything!” Cherry cries. “Please stop, Nate! You’re scaring me!”
“She’s lying!” Pops screams at me. “You know she’s fucking lying!”
“Nate, think! If I wanted to keep my identity from you, why would I ask for your help finding out who my parents are?”
“You’re lying!”
“I’m not!”
“Tell me! Fucking tell me what you know!”
“Nate, please let me go!” She sobs and turns her face away from me, tears streaming down both cheeks. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I don’t know anything about the Ramsays. I swear!”
I relax my grip on her arms and swallow hard. What if she’s telling the truth? My chest aches and my breathing becomes more labored as doubt seeps in.
“You can’t let that influence you, Nataniele.” Pops places his hand on my shoulder. “All that crying is just a weapon they use, you know. You can’t let a woman’s tears stop you from doing what needs to be done.”
I inhale, and my breath is ragged, nearly choking me.
“You came here because your family wanted to infiltrate mine. You maneuvered your way into my life in order to take control of this town. You know my brother died because he found out about you, and you probably had something to do with his murder. You’ve known all this time exactly who you are, and you used me. You fucking used me!”
Cherry’s mouth hangs open as she shakes her head wordlessly.
“I was falling for it, too.” I lean in, nose-to-nose with her. “I was starting to think I was actually in love with you.
“Nate…” I can barely hear her whisper.
“That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” I growl into her face and tighten my grip on her arms until she cringes. “You wanted me to fall for it all. You wanted me in so deep, I wouldn’t be able to turn away from you. Well, it didn’t work. You are going to tell me the truth, Ms. Ramsay. You’re going to tell me now.”
“I…I don’t—” Cherry turns her head to the side, squeezing her eyes shut.
Outside the office, I hear shouting.
“Get the fuck out of my way, Antony Orso!”
Suddenly, the door is thrown open. I see Antony trying to block my sister from entering. A moment later, Nora’s knee comes up, and Antony cries out. He crumples where he stands as he grasps his crotch, and Nora shoves past him and marches straight up to me.
“Get your hands off of her!” Nora yells as she grabs me by the shoulders and pulls me away from Cherry. Without missing a beat, she turns me around and smacks me across the face.
“Nora, get out of here!” I shove her and take a step back, knocking the chair over in the process.
As the chair crashes to the floor, Cherry yelps. I glance at her and see her pulling her knees up to her chest as she turns to press her shoulder against the back of the couch, still crying.
“Have you lost your motherfucking mind?” Nora screams at me. “Antony just told me about all this so-called evidence, and I swear to God, Nataniele, you are all a bunch of complete morons if that’s how you put it together!”
“Leave, Nora! Now!”
“I didn’t know anything about this, Nora,” Cherry cries. “I swear I didn’t!”
“I know that, Cherry.” Nora glares at me, hands on her hips. “My brother just forgot how to spell the word ‘assume.’” She turns back to me. “Really, Nate, how could you think all of this added up to Cherry deceiving you?”
“Micha knew about her, Nora! He knew, and that’s what got him killed! He was killed to protect her identity, and she knows it!”
“How would she know any of that?” Nora says.
“He had a file on her. That woman—Virginia Bay—that wasn’t her real name. Cherry is Leanne Ramsay’s daughter, dammit!”
“How do you know that?”
“The picture. The forged birth certificates…it all adds up.”
“None of it adds up!” Nora takes a closed-fist swing at me, but I duck out of the way this time and continue to dodge her as she comes at me. “Even if it did, none of this points to Cherry knowing anything. You put two and two together and ended up with nine, you idiot!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” I yell back. “I’m protecting our family!”
I move to the back of the desk to put some distance between us, but Nora grabs a cup full of pens off my desk and hurls it at me, scattering its contents all over the room. Pops laughs.
“Clearly I know a lot more than you do!” Nora slams her palm on the top of the desk. “Do you think I’d ever put this family second? Did I question your motives when you killed my husband? If I had any notion that Cherry was working with the Ramsays, do you think I would hesitate to point it out to you myself?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Of course you didn’t because none of it is true! You are jumping to conclusions, just like Pops! You aren’t thinking it through, Nate! Stop reacting and start thinking!”
“But she’s Leanne’s daughter!” I say again.
“Is she? Did you find a real birth certificate, seal and all? Did you go to vital records and view the original? No, you didn’t. None of you have. You have a fucking picture of Roland Ramsay with a pregnant woman—that’s what you have! You don’t even know if that’s his wife in the photo!”
I pause for a moment, considering her words.
“Just because your sister can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Pops shifts from one side of the room to the other, leaning toward me and then away again. The motion makes my head spin. “She’s a liar, and you fell for it. You never should have been entrusted to lead this family.”
Family first—always.
“I have to assume, Nora. I have to protect us. I…I know we don’t want to believe it, but we have to consider…” I shake my head trying to clear it as the words get stuck in my throat. I look down at the desk and Micha’s file. I take a deep breath and try to speak calmly. “You have to consider it, Nora. Worst case, Cherry knows who killed Micha.”
“Best case, Nate,” Nora sneers, “she doesn’t know a damn thing! It’s also the most likely case. If she were here for the Ramsays, she’d be asking about our business, trying to get information, not making fucking PB and Js!”
That knot in my stomach has returned. In the back of my mind, I recall a moment in childhood when Micha and I had been playing by a nearby creek, throwing rocks into the water and occasionally at each other. He had hit me on the shoulder with a small stone and laughed. I was mad, picked up a much bigger rock, and threw it hard. It hit him in the head, and the gush of blood from his temple was like nothing I had ever seen before. He’d fallen to the ground, half in and half out of the water, screaming as blood covered his face.
I feel the same way now as I did then.
“Look at her, Nataniele.” Nora reaches across the desk and grabs my hand. “Look hard. Is that the face of someone who has been betraying you all this time?”
I look at Cherry, still huddled on the couch and crying, and my throat tightens up. Antony is standing in the doorway, rubbing his crotch and looking confused as he glances from me to Nora to Cherry. When our eyes meet, he just shakes his head. All the confidence he had in our suppositions is gone.
Did we jump to more conclusions than the information warranted? Had I been so quick to pursue the first tidbit of information we had about Micha’s death that I hadn’t stopped to think about other possibilities? Was Cherry, in fact
, completely ignorant of her heritage?
And I’ve been interrogating her like she’s an enemy infiltrator.
“Cherry?” I whisper. When she looks at me through red-rimmed eyes, my chest tightens.
She looks exactly how she has appeared to be all this time—completely confused and unaware of the illegal happenings in this town. How sure am I that she really is related to the Ramsays at all?
“She is,” Pops snarls. “You know she is.”
“I’ve never lied to you, Nate,” Cherry says softly.
I want to believe her. I need to believe her.
“Cherry, I—”
“Nate! I got it!” Threes bursts into the room with a stack of computer printouts. “It’s all starting to make sense now!”
“How about you try opening up that tiny brain of yours, brother?” Nora says quietly. “We will figure all of this out, and Cherry might even be able to help if you’ll just listen for half a second instead of acting like Pops and going off half-cocked.”
I swallow hard, glancing quickly from my sister to Cherry.
What have I done?
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Pops growls at me. “She’s one of them.”
I shove past him and go to the couch, crouching down and trying to capture Cherry’s gaze. I reach out, tentatively taking her hand. She lets me hold it but won’t turn her head to look me in the eye.
“Are you telling me the truth?” I ask.
“Of course I am!” She yanks her hand away but finally looks at me. “I’d never lie to you, Nate!”
“But you were holding something back. Why didn’t you call the police if you saw what happened outside your apartment?”
“Because…because…” she stammers, glances away again, and finally gives me a hard look, “because I figured it out already. I know what…what your family is—what you do. That’s why I didn’t call anyone. I figured you already knew.”
I take in a long breath, close my eyes, and let it out slowly.
“I didn’t lie,” she says. “I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if…if those people are my parents.”
“We can talk more later,” I say quietly, reaching for her hand again. “Let’s see what Threes has, okay?”