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Theo’s breath hitched.
“She disappeared a few hours later, but for a while, I’d watched her from my back porch,” I explained. “And I felt this hole in my heart where that woman remained until I saw her a few months later, again, at the funeral for that same little boy.”
She made a sound under her breath that sounded like she was about to start crying.
I wanted nothing more than to bring her into my arms.
“You’re her, aren’t you?” I whispered.
She didn’t bother denying it. What would be the point?
“I’m her.” She startled me into admitting. “Theo Threadgill, Tara Threadgill’s non-evil twin sister.”
“How did you end up here?” I asked bluntly. “You’re the sanest sounding crazy person I’ve ever heard.”
She laughed humorlessly at my admission.
I saw the decision in her expression the moment that she decided that she was going to tell me it all.
Her face cleared, and a look of determination filled her face.
She wanted me to know.
I could also tell that she thought what she was about to say was going to scare me away.
It wouldn’t.
Not much would at this point.
“I’m not crazy,” she admitted. “My sister is.”
I frowned. “What?”
She looked at the wall of windows that separated her from the inside of the building. She gauged that there was no one else around, then she told me the most awful story she could ever have uttered.
“My sister fucked up when she was having Matias,” she whispered. “She fucked up bad.”
I frowned. “What? How?”
“Tara got pissed. Or maybe felt like she should be pissed. And overreacted, like always. She’s not too sure if she should or shouldn’t be having those thoughts, so when she decides that she should, her reaction to said ‘slight’ is over extreme. Well, when Rome told Tara that he couldn’t make it to the hospital because he was over two thousand miles away at a game, she got pretend-pissed.”
I waited, eyes on her.
“When she found out that he wasn’t coming, she did what ‘any woman would do,’” she began.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. “Let me guess, what she did wasn’t what ‘any woman would do.’”
“Not even close,” she admitted. “She took it out on me—and Linnie. Mostly Linnie. I didn’t even realize she was in the room with me until I heard muffled screams. Linnie’s screams. I reacted without thought. Tackled Tara. When I got up to check on Linnie, to pull the pillow away from her face, she screamed that I was suffocating her. A nurse just so happened to be walking past at the exact perfect time. Right when I was taking the pillow off…and I was tackled to the floor.”
I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like where this was going.
“Nurses and doctors came into my room, and Tara puts on a really good show. Me, confused and not understanding that I should be defending myself, I get taken away forcefully only to find out that everyone now thinks that I tried to kill my baby.”
Silence.
Utter and complete silence.
“But, like always, my family swooped in and fixed everything. For her, at least,” she whispered.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t like what I was about to hear.
I hadn’t liked what I heard then, either. NOT even a little bit. But knowing that there was more? That was making my belly ache.
“Needless to say, it was an easy thing after the dust settled. Theo Threadgill became an attempted murderer and Tara Threadgill went home with her baby, happy as could be. Tyson went home with Linnie.”
“I don’t think I like where you’re going with this,” I murmured, my mind racing.
“My father was nice enough to get me into a mental health facility. Tyson fought tooth and nail for Linnie…and you probably know the rest.” She finished on a whisper.
“How come I didn’t hear about this from Rome?” I asked curiously.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “That would be something that you’d have to ask my dad or sister. Because I honestly have no idea how the hell Tara kept all of that quiet.”
I made a mental note to look into it all.
“Why do you stay?” I asked softly. “They’re convinced that you’re well enough to go.”
She looked toward me, and I saw the sad look in her beautiful blue eyes.
“If I stay, Tara, Andy, and my dad can’t really touch me,” she explained. “Here, I’m protected. Tyson has Linnie. Everything is okay. But if I leave? Tara will decide to start her experiments again, and my dad will allow her. Right now, I’m boring to her. If I leave? She’ll remember that I’m not a completely useless waste of space like she thinks I am right now.”
I wanted to throw up, but I knew that I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“Experiments?” I asked carefully.
She smiled sadly.
“Linnie was one of her experiments,” she informed me. “I was supposed to be the one who seduced Rome.”
