Page 37 of Consume Me

My head was swimming with the suggestions, but it added up. They’d laid out the pieces for me. How had I not seen? Sarah had returned in the middle of all of this. She’d been a headache. Or rather, a distraction. But could she be the one who betrayed me? Who betrayed Clara?

Clara was kind to her. We’d opened our home to her. She was my sister.

And why after ten years would she harbour enough hatred toward me to do something so terrible?

“I can’t believe and yet…”

“It makes sense,” Smith said grimly. “She’s been so busy acting like a fucking teenager that we didn’t bother to ask some pretty obvious questions.”

“I left her there,” I confessed. “I knew she was there and I didn’t visit. I listened to reports on her health. I…I…”

But, surely, my father had cared more. Except, he hadn’t. Henry had made that clear, too. Like me, Albert had rarely visited his middle child. He’d told his brother he couldn’t bear it.

And my father didn’t bother pushing his comfort zone.

But it wasn’t the ten years she’d lost. It was the ten years that had been stolen. Because if the Ghosts’s suspicions were correct, Sarah hadn’t been in a coma that whole time. What would happen to someone who was left by her family to rot and wither? How easy would it be to rend the ties that bound her to me—to her family—when no one came for her?

Now Clara was in that position, waiting and wasting away while we tried to untangle a mystery. The trouble was that every move we made only seemed to reveal a more twisted puzzle.

“What do you want to do about?” Smith asked, calling my attention back to Sarah. “Let’s put Georgia on her. She can be discreet, see where she’s going, and what she’s up to.”

“She’s going to love that.” I could imagine the complaints now. Georgia didn’t have much appreciation for my sister and her antics. If she felt it would help Clara, she would do it though.

“Actually…” Smith trailed off, but the words he left unsaid hung between us.

“What?” I demanded.

“Georgia doesn’t trust Sarah. You should speak with her.”

That’s what he’d been alluding to earlier when he’d questioned the pass I’d given my family. I’d thought he was insinuating Norris’s guilt. Instead, he’d been attempting delicacy. Georgia had seen this. Smith had seen this. They’d known something was wrong, and I’d been too focused on my problems with my marriage and arrogantly obsessing over my feud with Anders.

“Anders.” I said his name aloud, because it needed to be said.

“I thought we trusted him,” Smith said carefully.

I’d thought so too, but I couldn’t deny that my brother’s existence had been revealed rather conveniently. Maybe it had been another tool to distract me, another carefully placed bomb, timed to go off at the right time. It hardly mattered. I needed to reassess everyone. Clara had shown me that true courage meant facing my weaknesses rather than blinding myself to them. Maybe my family was my weakness. “I don’t trust anyone. Not anymore.”

Chapter 14

CLARA

We stared at each other for a long moment as the truth trickled through me like an unwanted drug. When Rachel had mentioned what the other men called her savior, I’d gotten chills. But somehow I’d convinced myself it wasn’t someone I knew.

It wasn’t someone I trusted.

It wasn’t someone I loved.

Because how could I ever believe anyone in my life would put me or my child in danger? How could someone in my family betray me?

I’d welcomed him into our lives, I’d fought for him, and that only made it even worse. I’d opened the door to a wolf and let him make himself at home. Never once had I suspected he was anyone other than who he said. Now my brain scrambled for clues I hadn’t seen, truths I hadn’t picked up on.

He’d been a bit of a loner at first, but he had good reason. Now I saw the sinister truth behind it. I’d never really met his family. I’d assumed so many things for so many reasons. Assumptions that seemed warranted then, but felt foolish now.

When he opened his mouth to speak, I held up my hand. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. It was amazing how quickly love could turn to hate.

And I hated him.

I hated him for lying.