Sisters of Misery

by Megan Kelley Hall

  Reed looked around uncomfortably. “I know how it looks, but I swear, Maddie. I—I’ve made mistakes before, but not like this. It’s not what you think.”

  “What I think, Reed, is that you’re pathetic. I’m sorry that my cousin had anything to do with you, and I’m sorry,” Maddie spat, “that I made the same mistake as Cordelia. Luckily, I know how to learn from my mistakes. Unfortunately, Cordelia wasn’t as lucky.”

  Maddie didn’t wait for a response. She walked away, ending the conversation on her terms for a change.

  Maddie walked down the slope of the hill, away from the burial ground. She had to pass right by the crimson brick monster of Ravenswood on her way back home. It no longer scared her—it seemed to be smiling at her, pleased that its mysteries were finally made known and that it possessed new secrets, secrets about her own family. But Maddie didn’t care anymore. It was all behind her. It was time to move on.

  Maddie saw Finn standing in front of the faces in the wall, his hand resting on the fourth face, the one that had an uncanny resemblance to Cordelia.

  “Don’t you know that it’s bad luck to touch them?” Maddie said, smiling at him.

  He shrugged. “It’d be pretty hard not to touch them when I’m carving them out.”

  “You? You’re the one who’s been carving the faces in the wall for all of these years?” Maddie said, unbelieving.

  “How old do you think I am, Maddie? Two hundred? These faces have been here a long time, my dear. And I’m not that old.”

  “So then…? I mean…why?” she asked.

  “I took over doing this for my dad. And he took over for his dad, and so on and so on. You see, my great, great, great grandmother’s maiden name was Pickering.” He paused, waiting for the look of surprise to cross her face. “Yes, that Pickering. So, you see, I’m a descendent of the Pickering sisters, the so-called witches of Misery Island.

  “My ancestors have been taking care of the town properties since the town was settled, so we’ve had access to all parts of Hawthorne. That’s how we’ve been able to carve their faces without being caught for all of these years. We didn’t do it for a curse or any of that garbage going around town. It was just a way to honor them. To make people in this town remember how badly they were treated. And it was my decision to add Cordelia’s face because I think she was treated the same way that the Pickering sisters were treated. And well, I guess partly because I was hoping that one day, she would have become a part of my family. A part of my own history.”

  Stepping closer to Finn, Maddie gently kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Cordelia was very lucky to have someone care about her the way that you did.”

  “The way I still do.” He corrected her and then looked away, not wanting her to see his eyes fill up with tears. “You don’t stop loving someone after they’re gone.”

  Maddie thought of Tess and of Cordelia and nodded her head. “You’re right. You never stop.”

  “So, Stanton Prep, huh?” Finn said with a wink. “You really going away to school, or is this just an excuse to look for Cordelia?”

  Maddie laughed. “Maybe I can do both.”

  She turned back to the faces because she knew that it would be a long time before she’d see them again. Hopefully, the next time she’d be looking at them would be with Cordelia at her side. “So it looks like you can stop feeling guilty about not walking Cordelia home. Turns out she got home safe and sound. There’s nothing you could have done any differently. You can finally move on…without the guilt.”

  “Maybe,” he said tentatively. “But I’m still responsible. I’m the one who gave her that money.”

  “You gave her the money?” Maddie was in shock. Maybe Reed was telling the truth after all, she thought suddenly, painfully.

  “All I knew was that she needed the money, and I gave it to her. It was her decision. I told her I’d support her no matter what she wanted to do. But if I really was a father, I would have heard from her by now, don’t you think? Maybe she was just playing me to get some cash to get out of town. Who knows? With that cousin of yours, everything’s a mystery,” he said, eyes brimming with tears. “I really did—still do—love her. And I don’t think she’s gone for good. I think she’s going to come back. One of these days.”

  Maddie nodded solemnly. It seemed that with every answer, there were many more questions raised.

  Finn put his arm around her and walked them down the path away from the hospital.

  “Take care of her for me,” Maddie said then about the carving of Cordelia.

  “I will,” he said. “Take care of yourself. It’s a dangerous world out there.”

  “Not as dangerous as it is in a small town like this,” she replied.

  A wide grin spread across Finn’s face. “I guess you’re right about that. Oh, and don’t tell anyone about the carvings—or the money, for that matter. I figured I’d let you in on some of my secrets since I know so many of yours. Are we even?”

  “I’ll take ’em to my grave.”

  Finn shook his head sadly. “There’s no reason anyone needs to know about these things. It won’t do anyone any good. Not anymore.”

  “Well,” she said, “I don’t think I’m going to be coming back to Hawthorne any time soon, so I guess this is good-bye.”

  “Good-bye, Madeline.”

  “And, thank you for everything, Finn,” Maddie said. “For watching out for Cordelia and, I guess, for me, too.”

  “You don’t have to thank me, Madeline. I always liked watching out for you girls. Even if it was only for a midnight swim,” he said with a wink.

  Maddie’s eyes widened, and a smile spread across her face. He was their mysterious midnight watcher. He was always there…watching, protecting. “What about the rumors of avenging your ancestors? Is there any truth to that legend?”

  Finn smiled and seemed to roll the idea around in his mind for a moment. “In war, personal revenge maintains silence,” he said, smiling, and then added, “Nietzsche.”

  She laughed, realizing how much he knew about her and Cordelia and the games they played. “Ah, very impressive, Mr. O’Malley.” He took a mock bow. “But you know Mr. Shakespeare once said, ‘Kindness, ever nobler than revenge.’”

  “Yes, but Shakespeare never had the pleasure of meeting Kate Endicott,” Finn deadpanned.

  Maddie laughed again, then Finn nodded, signaling good-bye. Without another word, he turned and continued down the path.

  She watched Finn until he turned the corner and then said under her breath, partly to herself, partly to Tess, and partly to Cordelia, wherever she was, “And as Hamlet said in his final speech, ‘The rest is silence.’”

  Chapter 30

  BERKANA

  BIRTH

  Promise of Rebirth and New Beginnings

  Maddie entered the house on Mariner’s Way for the last time. She walked over to her mother, who was sitting at Tess’s place at the kitchen table, staring out the bay window into the backyard. Maddie covered her mother’s hand with her own and squeezed. Abigail refused to look at her—perhaps she was angry at Maddie for leaving her, abandoning her to contend with this town alone. Allowing her to live with her memories, her ghosts.

  Now that Tess was gone and Rebecca was back at Fairview, it was time for Maddie to leave Hawthorne and to finally move on. She had been accepted at Stanton Prep, a boarding school in Maine that was far away from all of the craziness of Hawthorne and the Sisters of Misery. She was planning on moving there for the summer to work and make some extra money for books and living expenses, though most of her tuition had already been set aside for her in Tess’s will.

  The house was too quiet without the endless, usually nonsensical chatter that came from Tess. Without her there as a distraction, it was just Maddie and her mother, face to face with all the unanswered questions, all the words that needed to be said, but were not. Maybe they could start over from a fresh place—they had all the time in the world to work t
hings out.

  “I found this in the basement,” Abigail said quietly. She pulled a smooth stone out of her pocket and handed it over to Maddie. Another rune stone. Where do they keep coming from?

  The stone was marked with a large B.

  Maddie took it from her mother’s hand and started turning the cool stone over and over and then slipped it into her pocket. “I wonder what it means,” Abigail said without meeting her daughter’s eyes. “I know how you and Cordelia and Rebecca used to play with those things even Tess used to see meaning in those silly rocks. Then again, Tess saw meaning in everything.”

  They both laughed.

  “Mom,” she said. “I feel guilty that we weren’t here when Tess passed away. I mean, if we were here, maybe there was a chance we could have done something. It just breaks my heart that she was all by herself. No one should have to die alone.”

  “Oh, honey,” she said softly, draping her arm around her daughter. “She wasn’t alone. We were here when she passed. The coroner said the time of death was 10:30 PM. We were just across the hall from her. She wasn’t alone.”

  Maddie felt a strange tingling sensation come over her body, and it must have registered on her face. Could she have imagined seeing Tess sitting up in bed that night, talking to her on the night that Rebecca escaped to Ravenswood? When Tess told Maddie that Rebecca had returned to her “garden”? Could Maddie have imagined it all?

  “What’s wrong, Maddie? What is it?” Abigail looked concerned.

  Maddie shook her head. “Nothing.” Maybe when more time had passed, Maddie would tell her mother about her last conversation with Tess. She held up the stone. “I think that if this is a sign from Rebecca, Cordelia, or Tess, I’ll bet it means forgiveness.”

  Abigail’s eyes met Maddie’s, and she grasped her hands.

  “I never meant to hurt her—or you, for that matter. Honestly, Maddie, you have to believe me.”

  “I know, Mom, I know.” And Maddie did believe her.

  “If I could take that night back, I would in a minute,” she said. But she was asking forgiveness of the wrong person. Forgiveness was something that only one person could give her. And right now, that seemed impossible. “And you! To learn that Cordelia was really your half-sister…” her voice trailed off.

  “It explains a lot, Mom,” Maddie said, smiling weakly. “At least I understand why it was so hard for you to have them back here with us. I just wish you could have told me.”

  “There are a lot of things I wish I had done differently, Maddie,” she said, tears now appearing. “You have no idea.” And with that, Abigail pushed herself away from the table, stopped to embrace Maddie quickly, giving her a quick kiss on top of her head, and then turned toward the staircase.

  “Mom,” Maddie said. Abigail stopped and looked back at her. They held each other’s gaze for a moment, then Maddie nodded her head. Abigail nodded hers slowly in return and continued up to her bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

  That was their good-bye.

  Pacing from room to room, unsure of what she was looking for, Maddie decided to go down to the basement, to see the last place anyone had seen Cordelia alive.

  Maddie walked down the steep, narrow staircase. The air grew colder. Dust and dirt filled her nostrils. A single-stranded light bulb suspended from the low ceiling strained wearily against the darkness of the cellar.

  Moving forward into the subterranean room, the sounds of the house and street were muffled. Maddie picked her way around old furniture and trunks. The room was cluttered with leftover inventory from Rebecca’s shop. Crates over-flowed with gardening paraphernalia and tools. She spotted an open bag of rune stones and crystals. Tess must have come down here and grabbed them, hiding them around the house like they were Easter eggs. The thought of Tess down here made her cringe. An old woman like Tess shouldn’t have been wandering around a cold, dank basement amidst the assortment of tools and sharp objects.

  Maddie made her way over to the darkest corner of the basement where the stones of the wall were mottled and darkly stained. She brushed her fingertips along the jagged crevices, trying to imagine that night. It was still hard for her to understand it all. Abigail’s years of hatred and resentment toward Cordelia and Rebecca; finding out that Cordelia was really her half-sister, the product of an affair her father had with Abigail’s own sister. All of these things had built up within her mother’s mind and mixed with her intense desire to fit into Hawthorne’s elite society—all of it had caused her to snap.

  Shoving Cordelia against the wall was unforgivable. But Maddie knew that the minute Abigail realized what she had done, saw the blood on her cousin’s face, and gotten her senses back, she regretted ever hurting Cordelia, both physically and mentally.

  If Cordelia really did run away—angry at Rebecca for lying to her all these years, angry at Maddie for Misery Island, angry at Abigail for lashing out at her, angry at Reed or Finn (or whoever the “beautiful boy” was) for the baby that may or may not have been growing inside of her—perhaps, one day, she would forgive and come back to them, give them the answers that they all so desperately needed.

  Maddie turned to go back upstairs to finish packing for her transfer to Stanton Prep. Placing her foot on the first stair of the basement steps, something caught her eye. Maddie turned, half expecting to see Cordelia sitting there cross-legged, smiling. But it was only another stone, this one marked with the letter M. Surprised that she hadn’t tripped over the oddly placed stone, Maddie picked it up and ran her finger along the etched letter before shoving it into her pocket along with the other one that Abigail had given her earlier and continuing up to the foyer.

  Then, there came a soft tapping at the door. Maddie turned to see a familiar shadow in the pane of glass that ran alongside the door.

  Reed.

  She opened the door angrily. What could he possibly have to say to her now?

  Before she could open her mouth, Reed said quickly, “I never slept with her, with Cordelia. But yes, I did give her money.”

  “Why?” Maddie was in shock. Had Cordelia been lying to both Reed and Finn as an excuse to get money to leave town? Was she ever really pregnant?

  “You could say I was cleaning up after my asshole little brother’s mistake. He—they—well, she said that the baby was his. Trevor needed help making the situation go away. And I wanted to help Cordelia get a fresh start.”

  “She told you about all this? When?” Maddie was so confused. Why would Cordelia ever sleep with Trevor? Why didn’t she tell Maddie?

  “Right before Halloween during one of our tutoring prep sessions. I made the mistake of not reporting the incident because I was trying to protect my brother.”

  “Incident? What do you mean, incident? Protect Trevor from what?”

  Reed sighed heavily, running his hand through his hair. “Rape charges. He forced himself on Cordelia. It’s happened before, and he’s gone to juvenile detention, but if it ever got out that he’d done it again, they’d press full charges. He could go to jail.”

  She turned, trying to piece all of it together, and walked into the living room, collapsing on the sofa, willing herself not to cry.

  Reed followed her and sat down next to her on the loveseat, covering her hands with his own. “I really cared about Cordelia, and I wanted to help her in any way that I could. But even though Trevor is a spoiled asshole, he’s still my brother. But I care about you in a different way, Maddie. And I can’t act on those feelings. If I was a few years younger or you were a few years older, things would be different.”

  Maddie tried to control all the emotions that swirled through her body. Everything was falling into place and finally making sense, and instead of relief, she felt completely overwhelmed, as if she were floundering in the ocean, being hit by wave after wave after wave. Trying to tread water and not get pulled down by the undertow.

  Cordelia and Finn were together. Finn thought that he was the father of the baby. She couldn’t tel
l Finn the truth because she was afraid of what he’d think of her or what he’d do to Trevor after he learned about the rape. Reed was trying to help her through the whole situation while protecting his brother.

  And he’d kept her secret—as well as the evil truth about his younger brother—even though it led to his own downfall.

  Was this the “secret information” Kate had in the envelope that night out on Misery? Maddie knew that Kate would never tell. Even though she said it was empty, perhaps only she and Cordelia knew the contents of that envelope. It was just one of those things that she had on people—her way of making everyone do what she wanted.

  “Why are you telling me this now?” Maddie asked.

  “Because I know that you’re leaving Hawthorne, and I couldn’t stand having you think those horrible things about me. I knew it was a risk—that you might go to the police and that you might never speak to me again. But I had to take it. I couldn’t let you leave without knowing the truth.”

  “Why didn’t Cordelia go to the police?”

  “That,” Reed sighed, “is a good question for Cordelia when you find her.”

  “You think she’s out there somewhere?” Maddie asked hopefully.

  “I’d bet my life on it,” he said, smiling. “And I have a feeling that she’ll find us when she’s ready to come home.”

  Reed reached over and gathered Maddie into a long hug. She held back the urge to cry into his shoulder, to let him hold her. Her emotions were all over the place. She had so many things to resolve internally. But for now, she had to get ready to leave.

  They stood and walked to the door.

  “I hope you’ll keep in touch,” Reed said softly. “You know, I hear that Stanton Prep’s English program is pretty intense.”

  Maddie smiled up at him. “Of course I will. Someone needs to help me with my writing assignments.” He ruffled her hair and then turned to leave.