"Crystal died. She's dead," I told him. I felt his body go slack, and he stopped struggling.
“What the fuck are you talking about? My baby sister ain’t dead.” A different kind of fear clouded his face. I loosened my grip and lowered him to his feet.
“She died at the end of June in a car accident on some mountain road in Taney County,” I said.
His eyes widened in surprise. “Taney County? Here?” He apparently didn’t know Crystal had moved back to Missouri.
“She’d been living here for four years.”
He leaned against the house with his head bowed for a few moments. When his eyes finally met mine, I saw they were filled with tears.
"Her name is Vanessa. Vanessa Welles. You won't find your daddy, though. He died too." He wiped his nose with the back of his hand before using his cane to pull himself up and start hobbling to the front door of his house. He paused as he opened the door and turned to look at me. "He died at the end of June. Heart attack, the papers said."
Back at my hotel,I realized why the name Welles was so familiar. The cabin I was in, the same one Mom and I stayed in when we went to identify Crystal’s body and claim CJ, was part of the luxury resort, Welles Estates. On the way back from Arnold’s, I began to notice the name everywhere in town.
I spent half the night researching Deacon Welles, my father. There were hundreds of pictures of him. It was like glimpsing into my future. We had the same hair, same nose, same off-kilter smile. I found a picture of him taken when he was twenty-five, and it was like looking in a mirror. I also found images of his wife. She was beautiful, with shoulder-length blonde hair. In every photo, she wore a thousand-watt smile. My biological father was the sole heir to the Welles fortune. The Welles family had a hand in everything: imports, exports, oil, real estate, hospitality, investments. Anything that could make money. He didn't have any siblings, and by the looks of things, he didn't have any children, except me and CJ, but of course, we didn't appear in any Google searches.
Crystal’s brother wasn’t lying when he said he’d died. It was the first hit on my search. He had an undiagnosed heart condition, suffered a heart attack and was rushed into surgery but didn’t survive. He died a day after Crystal’s accident. It was too much of a coincidence. Two words kept ringing in my ear…
Rich and powerful.
Rich and powerful.
My phone buzzedon the desk. It was Lisa.
“Hey, neighbor,” I said in a half groan, half sigh.
“Hey, sexy. What’s wrong? You sound upset.”
“It’s been a long day.”
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
“No, I just wanna hear your voice.”
“I might know how to cheer you up. My roommate is going to be gone for at least two hours.”
This day was fucked up, and I had no idea what tomorrow had in store. The closer I got to the truth, the more it scared me. My instinct told me to talk to Lisa to tell her everything, but what good would that do? I wanted to forget about everything that happened since I landed. I tried to ignore the pain in Arnold's face when I told him that Crystal was dead and how quickly all my fear and anger turned to pity. I wanted to forget the man who I now knew was my biological father, whom I would never meet.
“Oh, yeah? How do you plan on cheering me up?”
"I have my ways," she said in a sultry voice, and I heard a low mechanical vibrating noise. I slammed my laptop shut.
“What are you wearing, gorgeous?” I leaned back in my chair and unbuttoned my pants.
"One of my boyfriend's Harvard t-shirts. He has a lot, so I don't think he misses this one." I could hear the mischievous smile in her voice. I gripped my shaft using short tight strokes, picturing Lisa lying on her bed with her legs spread wearing my shirt.
“Your boyfriend went to Harvard? He must be a fucking genius.”
"He is, and he's very modest about it." She giggled.
“What are you wearing under that t-shirt?”
“Nothing,” she said in a breathy sigh and I could tell she was using the vibrator.
"Dirty fucking girl," I rasped as she began to moan.
We spent the next half hour having phone sex, after which Lisa sent me a photo of her vibrator covered in the shiny evidence of her arousal.
