Winter White (33 page)

“What did you just say?” Mira felt like she was going to hyperventilate.

Her father’s face was pained. “Pea, I—”

Lucas grabbed Mira and her dad. “We can’t do this here.” He led them out of the barn, and Mira was too confused to protest. The rest of the family, along with Violet, Nicole, and Brayden, followed, and the group stood next to the cow holding area. It felt like days since Mira had been in the same exact spot, when in truth it had probably only been fifteen minutes ago. She slumped down on an overturned wheel-barrow, not giving a moment’s thought to her dress.

Mira had to have heard her dad wrong. She was probably just losing her hearing after being in the barn all night, where the acoustics seemed to amplify the sound of DJ Backslide by a hundred. But when she looked at her parents, they were staring at her the same way they did when they picked her up from school in third grade and told her that her beloved hamster, Porky, had bit the dust.

“Is Izzie my sister?” Mira asked. Saying the word
sister
out loud felt weird on her tongue.

Hayden put his hand firmly on her shoulder. He looked just as pale as she probably did. Mira wasn’t sure who was supporting whom.

Her dad crouched down in front of her and took her hands in his. He looked up at Hayden and then at Connor, who’d walked to her side, too. “Yes. Isabelle is your sister.”

“Did you have an affair?” She choked on her tears, glancing at her mom, who was holding her gold beaded clutch for dear life.

“I’m calling a car and getting us out of here,” Lucas said, his voice shaky. He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, and Mira’s mom snatched it away. “We can’t risk anyone hearing this. It’s not good for the campaign. Bill, if this gets out…”

“Let him tell them the truth, Lucas.” Her mother’s voice was sharp. “He should have been up front in the first place. Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Hayden was aghast. “You knew?”

“We were advised not to tell you till the time was right,” she said shakily. “Everyone was so worried about announcing your dad’s bid for Senate. What would the polling numbers say? How would the press react?” She narrowed her eyes at Lucas. “We foolishly let you make us put a child’s life second!”

“As I recall, Maureen, you were a little anxious about having a girl from Harborside come live with you yourself,” Lucas snapped.

“Enough.” Mira’s dad ran a hand through his salt-and-pepper hair. “If you want to blame anyone, blame me,” he told them. “I shouldn’t have hid the fact that Isabelle is my daughter.”

“Did you have an affair?” Mira repeated, refusing to let him get offtrack.

“No.” His shoulders sank, making him look less senatorial. “It’s complicated.”

“Then uncomplicate it.” Hayden sounded more angry than Mira had ever heard him.

“All right,” Mira’s dad agreed, his eyes locked on the trough like he was in a trance. “I was a rookie ballplayer in New York. I had only made it to the plate once that season with the Mets,” he said, grimacing at the memory. “I spent all my off-hours at this restaurant in Brooklyn where Chloe—Isabelle’s mom—was a waitress. We spent the summer together, and then I got traded. Naturally, we called things off,” his voice cracked. “I had no idea when I left for the Braves that she was pregnant.”

Mira had never seen her dad cry before—he said the only times he had ever shed real tears was when she and her brother were born and when the Braves lost the World Series to the Yankees. She didn’t want to see him cry now. She felt like hitting him till he hurt as much as she did.

“When I came back to North Carolina, your mom and I started dating again.” He smiled at her. “We were engaged within weeks, married within two months, and we had Mirabelle within the year.” He leaned against the barn. “Hayden was two when I officially became his dad.”

Mira knew her parents’ love story by heart. They’d dated through high school and broke up when they went to college, and her mom had met Hayden’s dad at Vanderbilt. After Hayden’s dad was killed in the line of duty when she was pregnant, Mira’s mom moved back in with her parents. That’s when she ran into their dad again and they got back together.

“Izzie’s mom never told you about her?” Hayden asked.

Mira’s dad shook his head. “I didn’t find out about Isabelle till this past winter. Her grandmother found Chloe’s old journals and read that I was Isabelle’s dad. I guess she knew her health was failing and Isabelle needed a home because she had Isabelle’s social worker call me.” He stared at the water trough Izzie had pushed Savannah in. “By the time we did a paternity test, her grandmother had slipped into a less lucid state. She couldn’t even remember telling the social worker the story.” Mira’s dad looked at Lucas. “We agreed not to tell Isabelle who I was till the time was right.”

“You mean till the election was over.” Mira simplified it.

“It was a shock for all of us.” Her mom’s voice was raspy. “And yes, it’s true, I hesitated to have Isabelle live with us at first. I stupidly worried that her upbringing would hurt our family, but then I got to know her and she’s a great girl.” Her voice trailed off. “How could we keep this from her? She’s going to run away this time for sure. We have to call the police.”

“Maureen, let’s think this thing through,” Lucas said. “If we get the press involved, this story could be misconstrued.” He sounded like a political aide on the verge of a major scandal. Suddenly Mira didn’t think he seemed so scary anymore. He was a twentysomething kid in way over his head.

“That’s what you’re worried about, Lucas?” Mira’s mom asked incredulously.

“You’re Lucas?” Violet stood behind them with Nicole and Brayden. Mira had forgotten they were there. She nudged Nicole. “This is the creep who has been blackmailing Izzie!”

Mira and Hayden looked at each other.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucas said, ushering Violet, Nicole, and Brayden away. “This is a private family matter, so we’d appreciate it if you’d leave and not repeat what you’ve heard here.”

Violet wasn’t afraid. “You threatened her! You said if she didn’t clean up her act, you were going to have her grandmother pulled out of her nursing home!”

Mira’s mom gasped. “What?”

Mira had never seen her father move so fast. He grabbed Lucas by the jacket. “Is this true?”

Lucas pushed him off and smoothed his jacket where her dad had just crumpled it. “Of course it’s true!” he shot back. “I’m the only one who is thinking clearly around here. If she kept screwing things up for you, the press would be all over it. If you can’t handle your own family, Bill, no one is going to trust you to help run the state. I was doing what was best for your career!”

“I want you to leave. Now.” Mira’s dad’s voice rocketed off the barn, scaring her. His face was dangerously close to Lucas’s. “And don’t ever think of coming back. Because if you do, or you tell anyone about Isabelle before I do, I will make sure every campaigning politician in the country knows what a stunt you pulled.”

Lucas straightened his tie and, without another word, disappeared around the corner of the barn. Mira’s mom went over to her dad and hugged him.

“I should have done that a long time ago,” Mira’s dad said.

“What are we going to do about Izzie?” Violet said, focusing on the big picture.

“She jumped into a carriage before we could catch her,” Nicole said. “She could be anywhere by now. She’s not answering her cell phone, either.”

Connor’s voice sounded so tiny. “Are we ever going to see Izzie again?”

Mira tried to think. If she was Izzie and had gotten the shock of her life, where would she go? “Maybe she went home,” Mira guessed, and everyone looked at her. “To Harborside, I mean.”

“But where in Harborside?” Hayden asked. “It’s not like the town is a block wide.”

“The boardwalk, maybe?” Mira guessed. “There are probably dozens of stores or places she could be….” Her voice trailed off. Izzie really could be anywhere at the moment, and Mira didn’t know her well enough to know where to look.

“If she’s in Harborside, then she’s probably at her old house,” Brayden said. “I know where it is. I went there when I found out Iz had left Harborside, but her grandmother had already been moved out.”

Mira tried to piece his story together. “You knew Izzie before she moved here?”

“Yeah,” Brayden said, not giving much else away. “I know where she hung out, too.”

“You should come with us, then,” said Hayden, standing up. “Let’s go.”

“We’ll go, too,” Violet and Nicole agreed.

Mira shook her head. “No. I know you guys are her friends, but I think we have to do this on our own.” She looked at Hayden. “We don’t want to ambush her.”

“We’re coming with you,” Mira’s dad said, and pulled out his car keys.

“No,” Mira pressed. “The last person she wants to see is you, Dad. I think Mom, Connor, and you should try her grandmother’s nursing home. Maybe she went to see her.”

“All right,” he said, sounding anxious. “We’ll split up, but if Izzie is not there and we don’t hear from you within the hour, we’re coming to Harborside, too. Understood?” Mira and Hayden nodded.

Her father’s hazel eyes looked pained. Mira had the same eyes he did. So did Izzie, she realized.

“Pea,” her dad said, his voice strangled, “I’m so sorry.”

“I know,” she said, even though she didn’t want to. “I can sort of wrap my head around why you kept things from us, but how could you do this to Izzie?” His face crumbled, but there was no time to hear more apologies. Izzie needed her, wherever she was.

Twenty-Six

Izzie lay on the swing on Grams’s darkened porch and stared at the cobwebs on the ceiling. She still had on her blue cocktail dress, but it had a huge gash from where it got caught on the porch steps. She knew her face had to be just as messy. The tears kept coming, and she didn’t have the strength to brush them away. She still wasn’t sure how she got to 22 Hancock Street. She remembered jumping in one of the horse-drawn carriages and then grabbing a cab at EP’s main gate, but the ride to Harborside was still a big blur. Her uncle’s words stuck in her mouth like taffy.
“You’re not my niece, Isabelle. You’re my daughter.”

Uncle Bill was her dad.

Mira was her sister.

Hayden was… what did that make Hayden, anyway? Her stepbrother?

Izzie wasn’t sure, and she didn’t care. She was never going to see anyone in Emerald Cove again.

She wanted to get as far away from the lifestyles of the rich and famous as possible. That’s why she had gone to the only home she ever knew: Grams’s. Technically she was trespassing. The
For Sale
sign on the lawn said
Under Contract
.

The house she had called home for fifteen years was no longer hers, and Grams was a shell of her former vibrant self. She had thought about going straight to Grams’s nursing home from the event, but visiting hours ended at six. Even if she had shown up there, Grams wouldn’t have had any answers for her. The two times she’d visited, Grams had spent the entire visit looking out the room window as Izzie told her stories. The one time Grams made eye contact with her, she had called her Chloe.

The tears spilled down Izzie’s face, and for the first time she audibly sobbed. The sound was so surprising; she sat up, pulled her bare legs to her chest, and hugged her knees. What was she going to do?

Barbara wasn’t going to help her. If Izzie’s uncle was actually her dad, then Barbara would say that’s where Izzie belonged. Kylie probably didn’t even know Izzie had left the party. She was in one of the tents readying food, and even if she had reached her, she knew Kylie couldn’t do much to help. Kylie’s family barely had enough room in their apartment as it was. Pete slept under the boardwalk to avoid going home most nights, so that wouldn’t have worked, either. What was she going to do about food? Clothes? School? Turned out coming back to Harborside wasn’t a good idea, either. Even this town held nothing for her anymore. She covered her face with her hands and cried so hard she didn’t hear the car screech to a stop at the curb.

“Izzie? Izzie! It’s her! Guys, it’s her!” Mira exclaimed. She jumped out of the car before Hayden had even turned off the engine. She could see Izzie crying on the porch, and she knew she had to get to her. She ran up the path and climbed the porch steps, hearing the tear in her dress immediately as it got caught on a rusty nail. She stopped feet from where Izzie was sitting. Izzie still didn’t seem to realize Mira was there.

“Izzie?” Mira said again, her heart beating rapidly.

Izzie looked up. For a second Mira thought she was happy to see her, but then her face crumbled again. Hayden and Brayden walked up behind Mira. When Izzie saw Brayden, her lip began to quiver.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, and Mira knew the question was meant for Brayden.

“I came here for you,” he said calmly, which was pretty good because in the car ride over he had been freaking out. They’d tried two boardwalk hangouts before they went to Izzie’s old house, and Brayden had started to get worried. Now he sat down on the swing next to her. “You can yell and protest all you want, but I’m not going anywhere unless you’re coming with me.”