Her Sister's Secrets

by V. J. Chambers

  “Saw him what?” Drew’s eyes were wide.

  “Oh, God, Drew.” I turned away from him, hugging myself. I looked out over the water at the horizon. “There are things I haven’t told you about Violet.”

  “Okay,” he said. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What did you see my father do? What did he do to your mother?”

  I shook my head back and forth hard. My bun wobbled, and I was afraid it was going to come out. “He forced her.” I couldn’t be more specific than that.

  But Drew seemed to understand. “Oh, my God.”

  “That’s why we left. That’s why we disappeared. And you remember Mrs. Porter? Your nanny? You know how she left too?”

  “No,” said Drew.

  I looked over my shoulder at him.

  He looked horrified.

  “Yes,” I said. “He’s a serial rapist.”

  Drew looked up at the deck above us. The people up there were too far away to hear. He looked stricken.

  “It gets worse,” I said.

  “Worse?” He looked back at me.

  “The reason I came out here in the first place is because someone mailed me Violet’s DNA test,” I said.

  “DNA? What?”

  “Her biological father is…” I swallowed.

  “Who?” said Drew.

  “Roman,” I whispered. “You and Violet are…”

  Drew’s face twisted. His legs seemed to give out, and he grasped onto the railing of the platform to stay upright. He clung to it with both hands.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  He shut his eyes, and then he gagged.

  I backed up.

  He pushed off the railing and ran out onto the sand.

  “Drew!” I yelled.

  But he just kept running.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  I almost went after him, and then I thought better of it. He stopped to take off his shoes and then kept running down the beach. Soon, he disappeared around a bend and I couldn’t see him anymore.

  No, I’d just go back to my place. I bent down to take my own shoes off. They had a little bit of a heel, and I wasn’t wearing them through the sand.

  “Are you okay?” called a voice.

  I looked up to see someone descending the steps. She was about my age, a woman in a dark brown one-piece shorts and shirt set. It sounded tacky, but she pulled it off. She was rail thin, with long legs and elegant arms, and her shining hair was blowing back from her face in the sea air. She looked like she belonged on a magazine cover. I tried to smile at her. “Oh, I’m fine, but I think I’m going to go now.”

  “Don’t,” she said. “Roman left, for whatever that’s worth. Whatever he did, I’m sure it was bad. Sometimes, he gets drunk, and the things that come out of that man’s mouth.” She shook her head. “I mean, here I am, young enough to be his daughter, and he still makes those awful comments. I tell him, ‘Roman, I was running around on this deck in pigtails playing hide-and-seek, don’t you remember?’”

  Oh, wait. Maybe I did recognize this person. “Kimber?” I said. “Kimber Baxter?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Did you not know who I was or something?”

  “Uh… it’s been a while,” I said. Kimber was the daughter of Neil Baxter, the folk singer. She’d attended school with me and Violet when we were little girls. Even though Kimber was a rich girl, she hadn’t been one of the awful ones. She’d always been nice.

  I remembered that she’d even had a birthday party and invited everyone in the whole class. She’d wanted us to come too. She would ask me every day if I was going to come to her party. The party itself had been positively crazy. There had been a magician and a clown and we’d all gotten to take home enormous bags of party favors that were full of practically the entire Toys “R” Us.

  “Well, I guess it’s easier for me,” she said. “I figured you’d be here, on account of your being Violet’s sister.” She had descended to the bottom level now. She gave me a hug, and it was nothing like the hug Tania had given me. It was a real hug, and I felt engulfed in it, even though Kimber was the size of a toothpick.

  She pulled back, holding me at arms’ length. “You poor thing. Roman is a bastard.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “You want to talk about it?”

  I shook my head. “I just want to go.”

  “Oh, don’t go,” she said. “It’s your sister’s memorial. You can’t let dirty old Roman ruin that. Stay. If he comes back, I’ll help you steer clear of him.”

  “No, really, I just…” I looked over my shoulder in the direction of my house. Then I looked down at my heels and my sand-encrusted pants. Did I really want to trek across the sand? “You sure he’s not up there?”

  “Positive,” she said, putting her arm around me. “Come on.”

  I sighed, and then I let her begin to lead me up the stairs.

  “So,” she said as we climbed, “I know this is completely the wrong time for this, but I’m getting married.”

  “Uh… congratulations?”

  “Thanks,” she said, smiling. “Anyway, I invited Violet. She had a plus one. And obviously, she can’t come, so you should come instead.”

  “You really invited Violet?”

  “I wanted her to plan the wedding for me, but she was booked solid. God, she had such a gift, Emilia. She was just so brilliant. She said she could squeeze it into her schedule to attend, but not to plan. So, of course I invited her. Besides…” She lowered her voice. “There was something going on with her and Drew, wasn’t there?”

  I sucked in a sharp breath.

  “Oh, wasn’t there?” said Kimber. “Maybe I was wrong.”

  “I don’t know,” I decided to say. “She and I hadn’t been close in a while.”

  Kimber tightened her arm around my shoulder. “Oh, you poor thing. That’s just terrible. I know exactly how you feel, because my dad’s third wife Belynda passed last year, and when she lived with Dad, we were really close, but after their divorce, we just drifted. And then, when I lost her, I realized that it was like I didn’t even know her anymore. I felt so guilty. I could have reached out all that time, but I never did.”

  I couldn’t help but smile at her. She was genuine. That maybe wasn’t really the same emotion that I felt for Violet. But Kimber was sweet, all the same.

  “Come on, you sit with me during the memorial,” she said. “I have extra tissues.”

  * * *

  I managed to sit through the entire memorial, but I could hardly pay attention. People told stories about Violet, but they all seemed to center around her work. I guess that was how they knew her. And honestly, from the way they talked about her, it seemed as if she may have worked constantly anyway. I knew that Violet loved parties. She loved excitement and pageantry and making everything seem special. I knew she must have been very good at her job.

  Maybe we got that from Mom, too, both of us. We really loved our work, and Mom had too. After all, she couldn’t have worked as hard as she did if she hadn’t loved it. And I loved my work as well. I could hole up for days working on a perfect recipe, creating it again and again with little tweaks until I got it right.

  I guessed all of us in the family ascribed to the saying that choosing a job you loved meant you never had to work a day in your life.

  But the minute that things broke up and Kimber looked away from me for a minute, I got out of there.

  Back at the house, I closed myself inside as if I could hide from everyone else. Thinking about work made me think that I should check in with my blog. I liked to respond to whatever comments I could for the recipes. People asked about substitutions and gave their input about trying things. If it wasn’t working for a lot of people, I’d revisit and revise.

  Instead, however, I had a message from James Regal’s mother, who said that she had just found out about Violet, and she was really sorry. She didn’t have any other way to contact me except through the blog, she said. (She hadn’t left a com
ment, but used my contact page.) She left a phone number. Could I call her sometime?

  That was weird. Why the hell would James Regal’s mom want to talk to me? Hell, why would she be sorry about Violet? You’d think the woman would be dancing for joy, thinking that Violet had got what she deserved.

  Suddenly, I wondered if I was going about this completely wrong. What if Violet’s enemy hadn’t been among the wealthy set of Sarasota, but instead someone tied to her past? What if it was James Regal’s mother herself, and she’d sent this message to taunt me?

  The thought made me feel ill.

  I didn’t think that Annalise would have been angry enough to kill Violet. Maybe back then, when we were all in high school, but now she wouldn’t hold a grudge. It had been far too long, and things that seemed pretty important in high school didn’t seem important now.

  I left my blog and opened another tab. I checked in on Facebook, and—for some perverse reason—I looked up Annalise. When I got to her page, it said that she was living in Thailand.

  What? Thailand?

  Her first post said, Fifth anniversary of living here in Thailand, teaching English. I love it here!

  Well, that ruled her out entirely, didn’t it? She wasn’t even in the country.

  I shut my laptop. The events of the day were wearing on me. I didn’t want to be here right now. I thought about leaving and heading back home. I could climb into my own bed and wake up in the morning with Phin making coffee.

  But I didn’t want to leave. I just wanted a break.

  So, I got in my car and drove.

  I stopped at a bar in Siesta Key. Not The Shore Club, which seemed as if it was permanently in Spring Break mode, even in September, even in the afternoon. They served alcoholic slushies and had wet t-shirt contests.

  Instead, I went somewhere more low key, a little place called Captain’s, which was mostly outdoor and had a thatched roof over the open deck.

  I ordered a vodka cranberry and surveyed the people in the bar. I didn’t really want to drink alone, but I didn’t see anyone who looked open to conversation. Everyone in the bar was in groups of two or three, and I didn’t see any lone soul to approach.

  I wandered over to a table, and that was when I saw Jonah Fletcher, sitting in the corner, all alone. He was on his phone, and he didn’t see me.

  Hurriedly, I sat down with my back to him. I sipped at my drink and strained to listen to his side of the conversation.

  “… not really a vacation. I’ve been working. I’ve been making some good business contacts,” he said.

  Except he said he was crap at that. I wondered who he was talking to.

  “No, it’s been great, actually,” he continued. “You want to know what the temperature is today?” A pause. He laughed. “Even warmer than that.” More laughter. “I am a lucky bastard. But, you know, I asked if you wanted to come along and you were worried about hurricanes.”

  Which was a valid concern. This person could have come along? A girlfriend? I found I didn’t much like the idea of that for some reason. Maybe it was a co-worker, someone who helped him with this app he’d created. I didn’t really know much about the app creation business, really.

  “Oh, yes,” he said. “I still have both houses.”

  Both houses?

  Wait, was he admitting that he was renting the house where I lived as well?

  Abruptly, my phone began to ring.

  I answered it. “Hello?”

  “Emilia? Is that you?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” It’s my phone. Who were you expecting?

  “This is Tania.”

  What the hell? Why was she calling me? “You have my number?”

  “I got it from Kimber.”

  Oh, why was I such an idiot as to give Kimber my number? She wouldn’t shut up about her stupid wedding, and I was a sucker. “Really, well, how helpful of her,” I said dryly. “What can I do for you?”

  “Oh, geez.” She sucked in a breath. “Listen, I need to talk to you.” Her voice hitched.

  “We’re talking now,” I said. She couldn’t think that crying was going to affect me. I wasn’t some guy like Drew Wainwright, who she could twist around her little finger.

  “No, I can’t talk about this over the phone,” she said. “Can you meet me?”

  Alarm bells went off in my head. She wanted to meet in person? Why? Did she want to hurt me? Maybe she hadn’t been as oblivious as she let on when I was trying to figure out her alibi. Maybe now she knew I was onto her, and she saw me as a loose end.

  “Uh, okay. I’m at Captain’s, you want to meet for a drink?”

  “No, not someplace public,” she said. “I can’t be out in public.” She was starting to really sob now.

  This didn’t seem good at all. “I don’t know about that.”

  “Please? It’s about what you said this afternoon. To Roman.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Just… meet me. I’m out on the beach by the Wainwright house. I’ve never told anyone this before, but I feel like I need to tell someone, and I think you’re the only person who’s going to understand.”

  Well, that was intriguing, I had to admit. I took a deep breath, considering. I did have the phone number of a police officer programmed into my phone if anything went wrong. Maybe it would be okay.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  By the time I got out there, it wasn’t really afternoon anymore. It was more like early evening. And though it was still warm outside, the days were growing shorter, so the sun was low over the water. As I walked over the beach, a strong wind began to blow, bringing in clouds, graying out the sky.

  I saw Tania standing out on the edge of the beach, staring into the surf. She didn’t look dangerous, but I knew better than to underestimate her. If she had killed Violet, maybe it was because Violet hadn’t thought she was dangerous either.

  I approached slowly, one hand in my pocket, gripping my phone. I had the number for Oliver Patterson queued up and all I’d need to do was unlock my screen and call him if she tried anything.

  She turned and saw me. She was still crying. “Oh, thank God you’re here, Emilia.”

  I closed the distance between us.

  She gave me a shaky smile. “Thank you for coming.”

  “You’re welcome,” I said. I wasn’t sure what else to say. “What is this all about?”

  She drew in a long breath and looked back out at the water. “I don’t even know how to begin. It’s about Roman.”

  The wind was growing stronger. “Yeah, you said that. What about him?”

  “Well, you said you saw him doing something to your mother,” she said. “I think I know what that something was.”

  I was quiet. Her saying that brought back the image of it in my mind, and it made me feel the horror of it all fresh. I struggled to get myself back into control. “What?” I said, my voice a rasp.

  “It’s not easy to say,” she said.

  The wind rushed over the water, slamming into us. We both hunched our shoulders and struggled to get our hair out of our eyes.

  “How do you know?” I said, my voice louder against the wind.

  “Because…” She bit down on her lip and tears slid out of both of her eyes, down her cheeks. She didn’t bother to wipe at them. “It happened to me too.”

  Wait. What? “Roman raped your mother too?” I said.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head, tears coming more furiously. “He did that to me.”

  My mouth made a round O shape, but no sound came out.

  Tania began to sob in earnest.

  The wind was battering us now. It whistled in the distance.

  I didn’t know what to do. I had never liked Tania, but now I felt sorry for her. I touched her shoulder softly. “Hey,” I said. “My house is just over there. Why don’t we go there and you can have a cup of tea or a glass of wine or something to help you feel better?”

  “No, I don’t want to go anywhere. I just wan
t to get this out.” She sucked in a breath. “It was right after I started dating Drew. We were at a party at his house, and it just… happened. Roman cornered me, and I was afraid, and I… I don’t know, I didn’t even fight that hard. I remember that I kept thinking, This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. I told him to stop, and he didn’t listen. I begged him…” She let out a sob.

  “I’m so sorry, Tania,” I said. I patted her shoulder again. I didn’t know if I should give her a hug or not.

  “It really screwed me up.” She rubbed at her cheeks, letting out a little laugh.

  “Of course it did,” I said. “How could it not?”

  “But Roman said that no one would believe me if I told. He said that I was drunk and I was imagining things. I started wondering if I was. Why would Drew’s father do that to me? I felt awful. I even tried to kill myself.”

  Oh, so that was why. Well, I had to admit, this tended to explain Tania’s mental fragility. The thought of what this must have done to her… I felt ill.

  “I started feeling like I was going crazy. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I wanted to pretend it never happened. I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone about it, because then they would know I was crazy. But then, today, you said that to Roman, and I thought that if he’d done it to someone else, then it must be real. I hadn’t imagined it.”

  God, this horrible man had gaslighted her. He’d accosted her and violated her and then screwed with her head. My nostrils flared. “Okay, look, Tania, we can’t let him get away with this anymore.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I mean, we have to go to the authorities and report this. We have to get him arrested.”

  “You want me to tell strangers about this? Like police officers?”

  “Yes,” I said. “We have to.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know about that. I mean, you don’t know how hard it was to tell you. And we haven’t talked about any details. They’ll want me to say all the things he did, and I just…” She was still shaking. Her whole body was shaking.