by Lauren Dane
“Everyone has a bad childhood, Galen.”
“Bullshit. I didn’t. It’s more than that and you know it. She abused you, mentally and physically. Does your father know?” The wash of his anger rolled over her, strangely comforting.
“He was gone a lot when I was growing up. She didn’t have to marry a man with a kid. It was a huge job for her when she took me on. I wasn’t easy to deal with. She didn’t know how to process the magic stuff. She was trying to help in her own way.” Mechanically, she kept eating, but it fell to her stomach like a rock.
“Why are you making excuses for her? She hurt you! It makes me want to rip her throat out. How can you be so calm?”
She stood, knocking her chair to the floor. “It’s either that or let it hurt me more! Do you think I wanted that? I tried. I tried so hard to be what she wanted. Nothing I did was enough. I can either move on, or I can obsess about something I can’t change. To what end?”
He stood, hugging her. “I’m sorry. I can still hear your sobs. Every time I close my eyes I see that closet. It tears me apart to know you endured that. To know I’ve had dinner with those people after all they did to you.”
“This is why I didn’t tell you. I don’t want to burden you with this stuff. It’s over. Past. You’re my now, my future, my everything.”
“And yet, you were in that closet last night, hiding. Do I scare you like that? Does Jack?”
She cupped his cheeks. “No. It was just, I don’t know. I was upset. It was stupid. I just...old habit I guess.”
The doorbell rang. “That’ll be your aunt and sister. I’m staying in the room. We don’t know these people, Renee.”
No shit. She nodded, agreeing.
“Max is running a background check today. Until we know more, I think we should keep our guard up.”
“Galen?” she called out as he neared the hallway.
He turned.
“I love you. You make me feel safe. Last night had nothing to do with you at all.” She wanted to say it though she hoped he knew it anyway.
The smile he gave her smoothed away his frown lines and made her all warm again. “I love you too. And we’re going to get naked and sweaty this afternoon when everyone is gone.”
“I’m going to hold you to that.”
Renee blinked, feeling caught between memory and the present, when her aunt came through the door. “You look just like her.” Wonder warred with nervousness.
Her aunt laughed, rushing forward with open arms. Galen sprang into action, ready to knock the woman away if she proved to be a threat. It was sweet really, but unnecessary. This woman was part of her. Even if she hadn’t shared any resemblance with Renee’s mother, she’d have known they were connected. She didn’t know how or why, but she knew it just the same.
“I can’t believe we finally found you. I’m Rosemary, your mom’s older sister.” She took the hand of the woman standing behind her, pulling her forward. “This is your older sister, Kendra.”
Renee didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t stop staring. Tears burned her throat, anger churned in her gut, confusion ruling everywhere else.
“Look at you. It’s been decades since I’ve seen you, and even then it was when you were a baby and a toddler. And yet, I’ve known you all your life.” Kendra hugged Renee, who gave over to tears. She wanted it to be true so much she didn’t trust her feelings. The chaos of the last week had knocked her off balance in a way she hadn’t experienced in a very long time.
In the background, Galen’s phone rang, “Imperial March” from Star Wars. His brother’s ringtone.
“Please, come and sit down. Would you like some coffee? A smoothie? I got some blueberries at the farmer’s market a few days ago.” She moved from foot to foot.
“Please, it’s okay. We’re here to see you. We’ve wanted to so long. You look better, I’m glad you got some rest,” Rosemary said, patting her arm and leading her toward the seating area.
“I’ll bring you all some juice and a carafe of coffee,” Galen called out.
“He’s not hard to look at. How long have you two been together?” Kendra asked.
“Four years. He’s the only person in my life who has always been there when I needed him. So you must understand this isn’t personal, I am beyond excited to know I have other family out in the world. A sister. Oh my God.” She took a deep breath. “I need to know, why now? Why are you here now?” She twisted her fingers together. “I’m sorry. I know it sounds rude, I guess it is rude. But my mother’s been dead twenty years now. My father told me he tried to contact her family when she died but none of them cared to have contact. He certainly never told me I had a sister.”
Galen put a tray on the table between the couches and poured her a glass of juice she’d made just yesterday. Yesterday when she thought she was overwhelmed. Before someone tried to steal her mind and before her aunt showed up out of the blue.
Rosemary frowned, bristling with anger. “I can’t speak to what your father said or did, but I can tell you what it is from my perspective. Your mother came to me thirty years ago. She had a baby, she was scared, worried for its safety. She begged me to keep her and raise her. Kendra was a week old. I tried to get your mom to stay, to call the police, to hone her magic enough to protect herself, but she was convinced the best thing to do was run. So she did.”
Renee crossed her arms across her stomach, nauseated. “Why?” She turned to Kendra. “Do we share the same father? Does he know?”
Rosemary answered, “Your mom met your dad when she was young. Away from home at school. She...she was sheltered in a way the rest of us weren’t. She was sick a lot as a kid, so my parents were overprotective.”
Despite her best efforts, Renee’s foot started to bounce, a nervous tic. “I remember her. I was seven. I remember her voice. I remember the way it felt when she brushed my hair and when she whispered to me to keep my gifts secret. I remember she didn’t come home and the police came to the door. Yesterday I remembered her death as something accidental. That’s not true, is it?” Galen pressed the juice into her grasp and she drank it, needing something to do with her hands and taking the comfort he offered. Her aunt and sister had some coffee and began to nibble on some coffee cake Renee couldn’t remember making.
“Yes. Or, no, she didn’t die from an accident. She was killed in a mall shooting. Or that’s the official report. Yes, he’s my father too and yes he knew.” Kendra’s voice was small, filled with the emotion of a girl who’d been forgotten or ignored. Empathy poured from Renee; she knew what that was too.
A chill passed over her heart. Galen put an arm around her, kissing her temple.
“You say it like you don’t believe it was what happened. Why?”
“I don’t know what happened. Just what the report says. I have my own reasons for doubting much of what I’ve been told by your father and others.” Rosemary crossed her arms over her chest, closing her body language.
Kendra reached out and squeezed Renee’s hand. “We can talk about all that later. We’re not here to make you mad at your, um, our father.”
Renee shook her head. “I don’t understand! He knew? He knew she tossed you away and came back to have me? He never said anything? Never wondered where you were? Never told me? Why would he do that? Why can’t I remember everything?”
“I don’t like your father, but I don’t know the whys and I don’t want to put you in the middle. We just want to know you.” Rosemary heaved a sigh. “We saw part of your memories last night, Renee.”
“As for Susan, okay then, so you know it wasn’t a picnic, being her stepdaughter. But I turned out just fine. She did the best she could. But my father is another story. Why would he abandon a child?”
“More than the horrible treatment by your stepmother, I saw places in your memory that were smooth as glas
s. Memory is like landscape, it’s rarely flat. Something or more likely, someone, did that to you. I don’t know what. I may know someone who’d have more answers though. I called and left a message. As for your mother leaving Kendra? She never told me what the story was. I asked her, many times, but she would get agitated, fearful, if I pressed too hard. The important thing was that she’d brought Kendra to me where she’d be safe. I figured he had threatened her or the baby and she ran. I didn’t know she’d gone back to him for three years. When she had you, I got an announcement in the mail. She called from time to time, came to visit once a year but was always nervous.”
“And when I was ten, she never came again. No calls, no letters.” Kendra’s lips trembled.
None of this made sense, damn it.
“Finally, frantic with worry, I called the house and he, your father, answered. I’d met him a few times. He made it clear he didn’t think I was a good influence on your mother. Anyway, he hung up on me. But I knew something was wrong. Kendra’s birthday had passed with no contact.”
Renee noticed Kendra had some of the same physical tics she did. The finger twisting, the one-shoulder shrug. Odd and comforting all at once. “Each birthday she sent me a new spell. We’d work on it when she came to visit in the spring. She didn’t even call.”
“My brother, your uncle Bill, he finally called the police station in Goleta and got the news that Karen had been murdered. Bill called Andrew back, thinking perhaps your dad would talk to him, but your dad refused to let us see you or to come to the funeral. We showed up anyway, I left Kendra with my mother because we didn’t know what would happen and it was obvious your father didn’t know about her. He had us thrown out.”
Grandparents? Uncles?
“We got an attorney to work through the proper channels so that we could visit with you. And then you disappeared. He was supposed to go to a hearing and he never showed. His attorneys protected him at first, and then I think he ran from them too. We never stopped looking. Is he here? In Boston?”
“I have an uncle? Grandparents? I don’t understand. Why would he do this? Why would he keep me from you?” It felt as if they all spoke another language. Nothing they said made any fucking sense.
“I have no idea other than his dislike. There were signs, with your mother I mean, that he hurt her, controlled her. But she never said so for sure.”
Renee put her face in her hands, hunched over, reeling. What the fuck? Her father wasn’t the most affectionate man ever, but he loved her. He’d married Susan to give Renee a mother figure. He’d tried. They’d moved all the way from...where? She pressed her fingertips into her temples. Memories slipped from her grasp as she tried to keep things straight.
Galen leaned down, putting his arms around her. “Babe, you don’t have to solve all this now. We’ll take it one step at a time. Max says Rosemary Kellogg is legit. She’s lived in a far suburb of Nashville for thirty-five years. Your sister has been married and divorced. Her last name has never been Parcell. She’s a—”
Kendra interrupted. “I can tell you all this if you just ask. Your name wasn’t Parcell either. Not until you came to Boston. Your real last name is Langley. Our father’s real name is Christopher Langley. Our mother’s name was Karen, not Cindy.”
“I won’t apologize for making every effort I can to protect my wife.” Galen looked so fierce just then she found it comforting and stupidly sexy too.
Letting the details she’d been given sink in, she bit into her bottom lip. The story got worse and worse. She needed to hear the rest, but she was afraid of what would come next.
“Okay then, Kendra, what else?” she asked, knowing Galen would correct any lies or omissions.
“I’m a third-grade teacher. I was married for three years to a man who could not deal with who I am. As far as you and I go, I’ve wanted to know you my whole life. Mom used to let me hold you. We played together some when you were five and six. I used to write you these long letters, but we never knew where you were to send them. You have an entire family who’s missed you every day for the last two decades. More than that, since you were born.”
Renee scrubbed her hands through her hair, knowing she sent curls all over the place.
“I know this is a whole lot to take in at once and please believe me when I tell you we didn’t want our introduction to you to be this way. At the same time, thank the heavens we were here to help last night. Will you let me check you over for any lasting effects? The magic he used on you is dirty, we want to be sure you’re all clear of it,” Rosemary said.
Renee didn’t know why she trusted them, she just did. Maybe she missed her mother so much she lost touch with her common sense, but she had no fear of these two women. “All right.”
Galen hovered, watching every move Rosemary made. Renee had been through enough and he’d do everything in his power to make sure no one ever hurt her again. He didn’t smell lies on either woman, but his gut told him they were telling the truth anyway. What Max had uncovered said the same thing. Still, Galen had been practicing law long enough to see people flat-out lie even when they look like they’re telling the truth on every level.
However, if they made one move to hurt her in any way, he’d kill them both and no one would ever find the bodies. He’d had enough of this threat to her.
He watched Rosemary work, saw the way her magic fit with Renee’s. There was simply no doubt in his mind that these women were who they claimed to be. He hadn’t mentioned it to her yet, but Max was looking into Renee’s father and any record of their past as a family before they moved to Boston.
That was the key. Why did Andrew Parcell stop any of his dead wife’s relatives from seeing Renee when they’d wanted to so badly? Why had Kendra been turned over but not Renee? After living through the memories she’d nearly drowned in the night before, he had no positive feelings for either Parcell. Langley? The sheer amount of lies piling on top of lies lay heavily on his heart. This would hurt Renee and he couldn’t protect her from that sort of heartbreak. She had to know the truth, but he knew quite plainly that the truth would harm her.
“You’re fine. He’s gone and there’s no trace of his presence. We went through the neighborhood and around your yard.” Kendra held up a drawstring bag of some sort. “We found some evidence that barter magic had been used. We cleared the spots and laid some warding around the perimeter. You really should have done that when you moved in.”
An ache sliced through their link. Loss. Confusion.
“I-I don’t know how.”
“Renee was raised to believe her magic was unnatural and wrong. No one ever taught her anything but shame.” Galen said it around his cat, who was far less patient than the man when it came to their woman.
“That’s not fair. He didn’t know what to do with me.” Renee’s hands went into action again, flying up in her defense. But it was half-hearted at best. She knew there was something very wrong going on.
He leaned over to kiss her. “It may not be fair, but it’s true. He didn’t do enough for you, Renee. We don’t know the whys just yet, but the facts are the facts.”
She sighed heavily.
“You never...” Rosemary’s sentence broke off as she shook her head. “All right then. That’s all right. You can learn. If you’ll allow it, Kendra and I would love to teach you, train you to use your gifts. It would be my honor if you’d allow it. Your mother had a gift with green things and healing. She used to make teas and jams and all sorts of things for every imaginable ailment or situation.” Rosemary smiled. “Are you perhaps a nurse or something like that?”
“I run a smoothie and coffee cart. I rent space from Susan, my stepmother.”
Galen wasn’t going to allow her to hide her light under a bushel. “And you make tea for people all the time too. You have all these custom teas and smoothies. You know when people are com
ing down with something.” Galen liked this. He’d always known she was a nurturing person, but hearing this made it clear to her too, hopefully.
A bunch of noise sounded from the street. “Jack and his friends have arrived I think.” Renee stood. “I need to put together a meal.”
“Can we help?” Kendra asked.
Renee nodded and the ache in Galen’s heart eased a little as he saw the way the sisters leaned their heads together as they worked and spoke in the kitchen.
“Looks like they’re getting along well,” Jack said as he finished installing the hardware to hang a large, framed photograph on the wall in the outer hall. They’d gotten everything moved in and the others had left. He and Galen had given the women some space to get to know each other better, but both of them never let her out of earshot.
Galen nodded, looking around the corner at the women and then back to where they’d been working. “We’ve been meaning to decorate this area out here and we got as far as paint and that’s about it. And yes. They came along when she needed them most.”
Jack liked how each bit of his stuff they added to the space made him feel more at home. Clothes would need to be dealt with, but Renee had taken that over as she and her relatives had efficiently handled everything.
He lowered his voice, assured Galen would hear and insuring that Renee wouldn’t. “To be honest, I think some of my friends weren’t sure if they’d like her or not. By the time the last one left I heard nothing but positive things about her. She’s recovering from last night and having her aunt and sister here are all to the good as far as I’m concerned. At least she’s here and sort of resting. If not, I have the feeling she’d want to be out and about, getting into trouble. Now, what are we going to do about the father and stepmother?”
“If we could just kill them and eat them, things would be way easier all around. Kidding. Sort of. She’ll want to hear his side of this situation. She loves him. I wasn’t surprised by the memories of Susan, but I have to admit I hadn’t really thought Andrew capable of any of this. He’s distracted and doesn’t stand up for Renee like he should, but all this other stuff puzzles me. His name isn’t Parcell. Not the one he was born with anyway. My brother can’t find any records of his existence before they moved here to Boston. He’s running checks with the new name now.”