Sisters of Misery (16 page)

According to Tess, Maddie’s mother was more concerned with how the divorce would affect her social position, as opposed to mourning the loss of a marriage, a family, and a home.

And while Maddie had initially grown up in a stately colonial at the end of Crane’s Way, formerly known as Crooked Way (which Tess felt was a name far better suited for anything associated with that family), after the divorce, Maddie and her mother were left to fend for themselves. The Cranes were known for having “old money,” but Malcolm had squandered away most of his family’s legacy gambling and drinking. Maddie had faint memories of her father, and none of them were good.

When Maddie returned to the house, something felt different, out of place. Tess was in the living room singing softly to herself about a young girl with “hair as crimson as a rose,” and the sound of furniture scraping across the old pine floors came from above.

Maddie walked up the flight of stairs to see that Abigail had rearranged Cordelia and Rebecca’s rooms and boxed up their belongings.

“What’s going on?” Maddie asked. She looked around the room hesitantly, feeling like she had walked in on something she shouldn’t be seeing.

“Oh,” Abigail said brightly. “Rebecca is going to need her things when she gets out of Ravenswood, and I figured that I’d just box all of their stuff up so that it would give us some extra room.”

Extra room?
Maddie thought. It was just the three of them wandering around in the big, empty shell of a house, and Tess only went from her bed to her rocking chair in the living room. Why was her mother in such a hurry to remove all traces of Rebecca and Cordelia?

“But…when they come back…” Maddie said slowly, eyeing her mother and noticing that she seemed far too lighthearted to be doing something as morose as packing up her sister and niece’s belongings, not knowing if either one would—or could—ever return to retrieve them.

“Oh, Madeline, don’t be silly,” Abigail scoffed. “Cordelia has made it pretty clear that she has no intentions of coming back to this house…or this town, for that matter. And Rebecca—well, Rebecca won’t move back in here without her daughter.” She looked Maddie straight in the eye, talking to her like she was a little girl. “You know as well as I do that when this whole thing blows over and Cordelia comes back after her little runaway stunt, they will want to get as far away from Hawthorne as they can. I’ll bet that they even go back to California. Probably better suited for it anyway.” Abigail continued talking as she turned back to the boxes. “This weather is probably what drove them crazy—not that it takes much for Rebecca to go off the deep end. No, they’re not strong enough to withstand these New England winters—long nights, freezing days…”

Maddie walked out of the room in the middle of Abigail’s sentence. She didn’t need to hear any more. Abigail was erasing Rebecca and Cordelia and their time at Hawthorne in the same way that she had erased all memories of Maddie’s father when he took off. There wasn’t a picture of him to be found in the house. Everything that he’d ever bought or given to them was destroyed the minute he left town. If anyone ever left Abigail, they were simply erased.
Gone
. Maddie wondered what would happen if and when she left her mother behind one day.

Would it be that simple to erase her own daughter?

FORTUNE AND WEALTH

MARCH

Maddie had read and reread the letters so many times she could practically recite them in her sleep. The paper had become so worn that they were soft as cotton, the ink faded. No chance of getting any fingerprints off of these, she sullenly realized after the hundredth time she’d read them. Not the smartest move in the world on her part. They gave her no clue as to the author, but it was someone clearly infatuated with her cousin. She became so involved in the letters, trying to decipher them, trying to figure out the time frame in which they were written, that the winter months passed in a blur.

The letters were all basically the same—telling Cordelia of her exquisite beauty, how the author longed for her, thought of her day and night. Sometimes, there were poems from William Blake, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Byron. The letters were almost stalkerish, but it seemed that Cordelia had been a willing participant in whatever affair was taking place, though there was never any direct mention of any physical relationship. It really seemed like a fairytale romance. And like many fairy tales, this one ended with the princess meeting a cruel fate.

Since Maddie wasn’t in school, Abigail had her running around with more chores and responsibilities than she’d ever had before. It made Maddie almost wistful for the long, boring classes and hours and hours of homework she was missing.

Meanwhile, Tess, Abigail, and Maddie moved around each other like ghosts in the old Victorian, which felt very empty and cold. Maddie yearned to connect with Tess, to tell her what she knew about that night—and find out what Tess knew—but her grandmother was mentally slipping away from them all more and more each day.

Away from Hawthorne Academy, it was easy to distance herself from the Sisters of Misery. She avoided Kate’s phone calls and invitations to parties. It was like she had fallen off the face of the earth and was only now resurfacing as spring was approaching. As winter stretched on and the police gave up the search, Maddie pressed on, doing research and handing out flyers. But now that the bitter cold winter had come to a close, Maddie resolved to find Cordelia by any means and at any cost. If that meant reliving the horrific night on Misery Island and grilling each and every person associated with that night—Kate and the Sisters of Misery, Reed, Trevor, even Finn—she would do it. And as much as she dreaded it, Maddie knew who she had to start with: Kate Endicott.

Cordelia had once referred to Kate and the Sisters of Misery as the Greek mythological creature Hydra, a serpentlike beast with many heads. It was after studying Greek myths in their European culture class that Cordelia made the connection. Maddie remembered her teacher describing how Hercules had tried to kill the beast by cutting off the heads. But every time a head was cut off, two more would grow in its place. Hercules realized that he had to sever the main head, the immortal one, and use that poison to kill each of the other heads. Maddie knew if she could get Kate to fall, the rest of the Sisters would collapse like a house of cards.

Nine Elmwood Lane. The Endicott house perched at the top of a manicured lawn that sloped down to the ocean’s edge. Maddie’s car tires crunched on the gravel driveway. It was funny how Kate always acted like this was her property, the rest of her family merely tenants.

After a few minutes of knocking at the oversized door, Maddie figured that no one was home. She had started back to her car when she heard the shout, “Damn it, you’re going to kill me!”

Maddie found Kate and a very attractive, dark-haired man, both dressed in tennis whites on this unseasonably warm spring day, playing on the Endicott’s tennis court, the plunk of tennis balls heralding the coming of warmer weather.

“When I said I wanted a workout today, I didn’t think it would be on the court,” Kate’s raspy laugh carried across the court, making the man visibly blush.

“Sorry, sugar, let’s try that serve again,” the instructor’s voice called out seductively.

“Kate,” Maddie called out across the sprawling lawn. Kate turned and shielded her eyes to the sun. A slow smile spread across her face.

“Madeline Crane. Well, what have I done to deserve this special visit?” Kate was patronizing her, but Maddie didn’t care. She wanted answers.

Maddie moved toward her friend and lifted her cheek to receive Kate’s customary air kisses, but Kate surprised her by gathering her into a tight hug, enveloping her with the smell of sun, sweat, and apple-scented hair. Up close, the tight expression on Kate’s face softened. Her pale eyes were weary.

“Hey, hon,” Kate said in an alarming tone of sincerity. And then in a sharper tone, she yelled, “Jeffrey, you can take the rest of the afternoon off. My friend and I have to talk.”

They linked arms as Kate led her along the meandering rock path that curved its way around to the house. A lingering feeling of dread suddenly overcame her. It was the sensation that a tiny mouse might feel just before being swallowed whole by a giant reptile. A Lilly Pulitzer-clad snake, but a snake nonetheless.

Kate strode across the interior of the immaculate living room that seemed straight out of the pages of
Martha Stewart Living
. The interior of the Nantucket-style house was blindingly white, from the stark beadboard on the walls to the whitewashed furniture to the bleached pine floors. Everything was antiseptically clean.

Maddie tried to make small talk, lulling Kate with flattery before hitting her with some harder questions. “Wow! Is that a promise ring from Trevor? It’s beautiful.”

Kate extended her arm so that Maddie could get a good look at the thick gold band on her right finger that was swollen with channel-set diamonds. Then she held it up to the light to inspect it herself, a large smile stretched across her face. Then she pulled a cigarette out of a sterling silver holder (most likely from Tiffany’s) and tapped it on the engraved, initialed cover for a few beats.

“Is it a promise that we will someday get married? Yes. When will we walk down the aisle? That, I’m not so sure about. I really feel like I need to experience as much of college life as I can before I get married. Or rather, college men. Unfortunately, Trevor is only applying to the same schools as I am. And having Trevor at the same school will make that…tricky.” She laughed again, twisting the ring around her long fingers. She lit the cigarette and sighed, exhaling a thin curl of smoke. “We’ll definitely get married someday. But until then, a girl’s got to have her fun, right?” She winked before nodding out to the handsome tennis instructor on the court, gathering his equipment.

At only a few months past her sixteenth birthday, Kate could put any famous, slutty socialite to shame. As far as Maddie knew, there’d been only one man to resist her, and Trevor was the main reason for it. Reed Campbell had made it clear that he wasn’t about to betray his own brother for a one-night stand with Kate. And Kate would never forgive him for that. Though there was no way to prove it, Maddie was still convinced that Kate was behind all the rumors of an affair between Reed and Cordelia, ultimately leading to his termination from Hawthorne Academy.

“So, where’s Trevor today?” Maddie asked. “Securing an internship at the state house for the summer?” Maddie remembered how the Campbells desperately wanted a Congressman in the family, almost as much as Kate wanted to marry someone powerful.

“Trevor? No, he’s off applying to do that silly boat patrol thing this summer. He said it will look good on his college applications, but I know it’s just an excuse to go out on the harbor and drink with Reed, who is officially the town drunk now that he’s unemployed and living on his boat like some kind of homeless freak.” Kate snorted and waved her French-manicured hand in disgust. “I’ve told Trevor again and again that it’s a bad idea to spend so much time with Reed—you know, after everything he’s put the family through—but what can I say? They’re brothers. Some kind of unspoken code or some shit like that. But then again, Reed probably still has a special place in your heart, doesn’t he?”

Fighting a blush, Maddie said, “I think we all have fallen under Mr. Campbell’s spell at one time or another. Right, Kate?”

Kate’s face hardened. “Well, the only one who was actually
under
Reed at all was your cousin. And from what I hear, Cordelia was
under
him a lot before she took off.”

Maddie was instantly defensive. Despite all the rumors that swirled around, Maddie still chose to take her cousin at her word.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Kate. Cordelia was never
with
Reed Campbell. He’s our teacher, for God’s sake!”

Kate smirked. At least she no longer needed to find a way to bring up Cordelia. Kate had done it for her.

“Well, he’s certainly not teaching now, that’s for sure.” It was obvious that she took great pleasure in Reed Campbell’s downfall. Then she added innocently, “But what do I know? I didn’t really keep tabs on your cousin anyway. She wasn’t worth my time. She was so attention-starved. Had to go and run off and cause all that craziness just to get some attention.”

“You still really believe that, Kate?” Maddie asked, shaking her head in disbelief. “After everything that happened that night?” Maddie was pushing for answers, but if she pushed too hard, Kate would shut her out completely.

“Hmmm…” Kate pursed her lips, fighting back a smile, and folded her legs beneath her in the oversized chair, narrowing her eyes. “What’re you getting at, Crane?”

“I need to know, Kate. None of the Sisters of Misery were ever straight with me about what happened that night,” Maddie leaned forward. “Tell me everything you remember.”

Kate looked at her incredulously. “What’s with you, Maddie? Why are you even asking me these questions like you weren’t even there? You must remember what happened. It was our Sisterhood ritual. You’ve done it out there on Misery Island with us tons of times. You were lucky, though. I made sure that you never had to stay out there on the island. I looked out for you, you know.”

“That night was different. You know it was.” Maddie’s voice rose and cracked. Try as she might, she could still only remember snippets of that night, short clips playing in her mind:
Cordelia in pain, crying…Girls voices chanting…laughter…round and round in a circle…fire!
“You hurt her! It was like you were torturing her! And what was with the ‘appeasing the elements’ crap? We’ve never done that before. And then…then…I-I don’t know what happened. Why can’t I remember the rest of what happened?”

Kate regarded her for a moment. “You really don’t remember? Hmm…you were pretty out of it, I guess.” Kate bit her bottom lip, carefully choosing her words. “You’re right. It was a little more, uh…intense than other nights on Misery. But that was because your slut cousin was hitting on Trevor. It’s your fault, really. You should have warned Cordelia to back off.”

“
My
fault?” Maddie was enraged. She wanted to lash out at that smug, spoiled, evil bitch, but she tried to cool herself down, reminding herself that she needed answers—answers that she could only get if she refrained from alienating the Sisters of Misery. Not yet, at least. “Why did you even let Cordelia come out to Misery with us in the first place? You never would have let her into the Sisterhood—we all knew that.”

“Why shouldn’t we think that
you
were the one responsible? Everyone could see how jealous you were of your
beautiful
cousin.” She dragged out the word beautiful in an exaggerated way and punctuated it with air quotes, rolling her eyes. “You know, we never wanted to say anything at the time because you seemed so upset…” She hesitated, “But I always wondered if you had…you just disappeared for the whole semester and then, oh well…never mind.” She sat back, complacent and smug.