The Secret Sister (30 page)

Maisey waited until they were out of Ms. Greenberg's house to ask Rafe how he was familiar with Heidi.

“I replaced her water heater a few months ago,” he said.

“Did you do it for free?” she asked.

He gave her a crooked smile. “Smart ass.”

* * *

Rafe knew he was finally gaining Maisey's trust when she slipped her fingers through his as they approached Heidi Hildebrandt's house. “Are you making a statement here?” he asked, raising their joined hands.

She scowled. “I'm cold,” she replied, as if that was the only reason she'd taken his hand, but a smile appeared a second later.

She held on to him the whole time they were talking to Heidi, who gave them the name of a town in Louisiana where she said Gretchen had spent the last thirty years of her life.

“That was easy,” Maisey murmured once they'd left.

“Gretchen's been dead for nine years. I'm sure Heidi couldn't see any harm in revealing where she used to live, especially when you told her we just want to confirm that Annabelle's death was an accident. That was brilliant, by the way. Enough information but not too much.”

“What I told her was essentially the truth. I'm glad she responded to it—not that I have high hopes we'll be able to find out anything after so long.”

“At least you're exploring all avenues. That shows your love for Keith right there.”

When they climbed back into his truck and she slid over next to him, he glanced at her as he started the engine. “You keep acting as if you like me this much, you're going to get my mother all excited. You understand that, don't you?”

She tilted her chin defiantly. “If you're going to call me out on everything I do, I guess I'll keep my distance.”

She started to slide over again, but he knew she was teasing. Hooking her around the shoulders with one arm, he brought her back against him. “I'll pretend not to notice.”

* * *

Laney loved going to Pizza Planet as much as Maisey had expected. Some of the other kids looked at her oddly when they realized she was different. That made a fierce protectiveness take hold of Maisey, and she watched Laney extra closely as a result. But Laney couldn't see the reaction that was making Maisey so defensive. And her natural exuberance won over two little girls almost right away. The three of them played in the sea of multicolored plastic balls while Maisey and Rafe stood nearby, holding their pizza plates and smiling at the parents of the other children, while keeping an eye on the action.

“Are you worried about when she goes to school?” Maisey asked Rafe.

“I've been trying not to think about that. I want her childhood to be as normal as possible, and yet...she's going to need special care.”

“That's something you may not be able to get here on the island.”

“True. At some point, I'll probably have to move to Charleston.”

Maisey hated the thought of that. She couldn't picture him anywhere except in his bungalow next door. Of course, depending on how everything played out, she might not be living there, either...

“When?”

“Not for a couple of years.”

Laney fell over and couldn't get up, so Rafe stepped in to help.

One of the girls Laney had been playing with watched with avid curiosity. “What's wrong with her eyes?” she asked, crinkling her nose as she looked up at him.

“She can't see,” Rafe said mildly.

“Why not?”

“She was born very early, and her eyes didn't have the chance to develop properly.”

“Oh.”

That seemed to handle it. They went right back to playing as if Laney's blindness didn't make any difference. That meant Maisey could relax, but she suddenly remembered her mother's assertion that taking on the care of a blind child would be an unnecessary burden. How could she even think that?

Her cell rang and a sense of foreboding made her hesitate.

“Who is it?” Rafe asked when she didn't answer it right away.

“It's either Pippa—or my mother.”

“Are you going to take the call?” He didn't sound as if he wanted her to. No doubt he was worried that Josephine would continue to do whatever she could to sabotage their relationship.

“I have to,” she said. “If I don't, it'll only make matters worse.”

They didn't have time to discuss it. Stepping off to one side so she wouldn't have to handle this conversation within hearing distance of Rafe or Laney, Maisey slid over the answer button on her smartphone. But she knew she was in trouble when the first words out of her mother's mouth were,
“What the hell do you think you're doing?”

29

B
y the time she ended the call, Maisey was visibly upset. Rafe hadn't been able to hear what was said, but he'd been watching her out of the corner of his eye, and he knew from the way she'd ducked her head while talking that she was arguing with her mother.

“What's going on?” he murmured when Laney, who'd asked him to fix her ponytail, was once again distracted by her new friends.

“My mother fired me from the flower shop and kicked me out of the bungalow,” Maisey said.

He felt as if someone had just slapped him. “Because you're dating
me
?”

“Because she can't control me. I won't allow her to.”

“So it
is
because you're dating me.”

“Not only that.” Maisey was so angry she seemed to be pushing each word through her teeth. “Heidi called and told her about our visit.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Who knows? To curry favor?”

“Oh, shit.” He stabbed a hand through his hair. “Your mother doesn't want you digging up the past.”

“No surprise there.” Maisey set her jaw. “So nothing to be upset about.”

There was a lot to be upset about. The fact that Josephine would go so far shocked him. He knew that Maisey's relationship with her mother was a rocky one, but he'd never expected the matriarch of Fairham to be quite
this
unreasonable. Wasn't she glad to finally have her daughter back in her life? Why would she cut her off again?

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“What can I do? I'll have to move.”

“Off the island?”

“If I can't find another job, I'll have no choice.”

“You could always stay with me...”

“No. We're not ready for that yet.”

It would serve her mother right if they moved in together. But he was sort of relieved by Maisey's response. Because of Laney, he wasn't sure making that kind of arrangement—so soon—would be a good idea. This was the first serious relationship he'd had. He needed to protect it—protect them all—by letting it develop naturally. He'd only offered because he felt partially responsible for Maisey's sudden homelessness.

“If money's an issue, I can help you for a while.”

“I'll be okay,” she said. “I have some savings. After that's gone... I'll figure something out.”

He wished there was a way he could make things better. “Maybe
I
should talk to her.”

“Don't. It would be a waste of breath.”

“You don't think she'd listen to me.”

“No. And I'm afraid it would only cause her to fire
you
.”

That would be a mess... “How long do you have?”

“She wants me out tonight, I guess. She didn't give me a specific date. But next week will have to be soon enough.”

“She'll let you stay that long?”

“What's she going to do? She'd have to get the police to enforce her demands, and I doubt she'll make that call right away. Appearances are too important to her. If I know my mother, part of the reason she hid Gretchen Phillips's claim that Keith pushed Annabelle was to save herself the shame of having a son who could do such a thing.”

“So you don't think she did it for him.”

“Not entirely. There had to be something in it for her. That's what it always comes down to.”

He put his arm around her. She was so disillusioned about her mother, and he couldn't blame her. “I'm sorry, Maisey.”

“It's okay. Since I don't have a job, I can fly to Louisiana first thing tomorrow.”

“I wish I could go with you.”

“You have responsibilities here. I'll be fine.”

He frowned as he turned to face her. “Are you sure Keith and I are worth it?”

The determination on her face when she met his gaze told him she was every bit as strong as she needed to be. “I'm obviously betting you are. But that doesn't even matter. The right to make my own decisions and live my own life—that's worth anything.”

He agreed. But he didn't want to become a casualty of her mother's cruelty, didn't want her mother to split them up, after all.

* * *

Although Rafe had wanted her to stay the night, Maisey had refused. He'd said she could slip in after Laney was asleep, but she was too consumed with what she was feeling after that conversation with her mother to be able to sleep. She was sure she'd just keep him up.

There went her dreams of finding common ground with the queen of Fairham. She'd been foolish to hope. It was impossible, since
Josephine
was impossible. Their phone call had made that completely clear.

“You think you're helping Keith?”
her mother had snapped.
“He wouldn't even know he'd pushed Annabelle if not for you! Do you have any idea how that's affecting him?”

“How is it my fault that he found out? I didn't go searching for those pictures. It was fate that they wound up in my hands.”

“It's thanks to your low-class lover, not fate.”

“Don't say that about Rafe! He's a very nice man.”

“You don't know what kind of man he is. You've barely met him. He has a body any woman would lust over—that's all.”

“Give me some credit, please.”

“You mean I should trust your opinion? The same person who chose Jack?”

“That's hitting below the belt, Mother.”

“I don't care. You always seem to feel free to do whatever you want. Once you got those pictures, you went searching for everything else you could find.”

“It was the logical thing. What should I have done?”

“You should've come to me.”

“So you could take the pictures away and destroy them? Tell me it was none of my business?”

“It is none of your business.”

“Annabelle was my sister!”

“That doesn't change anything. She's gone. I did what I had to in order to protect your brother. But you were so sure you'd caught me doing something terrible, you set out to destroy me. That's the type of love you've always had for me.”

“Destroy you? That's not true! I was rocked by what I found. You'd never even mentioned that I had a sister. That would freak anyone out. I just wanted the truth. That's all I want now.”

“You have all the truth you need, but you don't have the sense to leave well enough alone. Don't you dare go traipsing off to Louisiana. There's no point in making this worse.”

“There are questions that aren't answered yet.”

“Leave it alone, Maisey.”

“No. I'm sorry, but I can't. I have to do what I believe is right.”

“Fine. Forget it. Forget everything. Just go. Get off Fairham and don't ever come back.”

“Get off Fairham and don't ever come back,” Maisey murmured as she shuffled down the hall. She'd been in bed for two hours—to no avail. Those angry words kept running through her brain, and as much as she tried to convince herself that she didn't care if her mother loved her, it still felt as if Josephine had lodged a knife in her chest.

She sighed as she turned on the light. Then she screamed. Keith was slumped on a chair at her kitchen table, looking as though he hadn't eaten or slept in several days.

“What are you doing?” she cried when she recovered enough to speak.

“Nothing.”

As far as she could tell, he'd just been sitting there in the dark, staring out the window.

“How long have you been here?”

“Maybe half an hour. I'm not sure. I didn't check.”

Why hadn't she heard him come in? Had she been
that
preoccupied and upset?

Apparently.

“Do you have the master key?” she asked.

He jerked his head toward the bent cardboard Rafe had used to cover up the window he'd broken. “No. I don't need a key.”

If she wasn't staying here, that was one thing she wouldn't have to bother fixing. “Why didn't you call me? Tell me you were coming?”

“Because I didn't know. When I left Coldiron House, I was planning to head to Charleston. Find some way to get high and escape all this...shit going on in my life.”

“And?”

He shrugged. “I can't keep running from it, can't keep turning to the wrong things to dull the pain. What I'm doing...it's killing me. Something's gotta give. So I came here instead. I couldn't think of anywhere else to go.”

Maisey got two cups from the cupboard. “You okay?”

“Hell, no. But you can't be doing too well yourself. I heard Mom talking to you on the phone earlier.”

“That was a fun conversation, right?”

He frowned at her sarcasm. “She doesn't treat me any better. She says she loves us. And, in some ways, maybe she does. If only she could get over herself long enough to show it. Or maybe she doesn't know what love is.”

Maisey put the teakettle on. “You're getting warmer.”

“I owe you an apology,” he said. “I made a mistake asking you to come back to Fairham. I thought it would be good—for all of us. But, as usual, I couldn't have been more off target. And that became obvious to me the very first day.”

“It's not over yet.”

He folded his arms and leaned back to study her. “What could change?”

“Anything could change. There's always tomorrow, Keith. Make it count this time. Move away from here. Stay clean. Get a job that allows you to be independent from Mom. Build a life. That's what you were going to do when I came back to help you, wasn't it?”

“I'd get away if I could, but I have nothing, nowhere to go.”

“You don't need Mom. You're an adult, a full-grown man! Take yourself out of this bad situation and put yourself in a healthier one.”

“How? I'm not capable of it. I was born this way. I'm
defective
.”

“I don't believe that.”

He rubbed his forehead as if he had a terrible headache. “If what I did to Annabelle can't convince you, I don't know what will.”

She pulled out a chair so she could sit down while waiting for the water to boil. “I'm going to Louisiana tomorrow to find Gretchen Phillips's son. Why don't you come with me?”

“Why would I want to travel so far just to hear what I've already heard? Besides, I don't have any money. Who'd pay for my ticket?”

Maisey didn't have much money herself. She had to be careful, especially now that she'd be paying rent somewhere. But she felt this Louisiana trip might be important enough to warrant the expense. “
I'll
pay for it,” she said. “We'll fly to New Orleans and rent a car.”

“You don't need me tagging along. Besides, what's this trip going to change?”

“Who knows? Gretchen Phillips was acting strange. There must've been a reason.”

“There could be a lot of them...”

“She was lying about what happened on that cliff. I told you that's what Lindsay Greenberg thinks. I'd like to find out why. Did Gretchen confide in her children and her new friends about her past? Maybe she got married again, and said something about Annabelle to her new husband. We won't know unless we ask.”

He glared at her until the teakettle began to whistle.

“What do you say?” she asked, reluctant to break eye contact.

“Grab the kettle,” he said, finally glancing away. “I'll go. What the hell do I have to lose?”