25

Like Vin said, for most people bad thoughts couldn’t become deeds.

He let me out at the sublevel foyer door. I had my own key card for the elevator and I knew the condo’s pin code, which was progress, but any of these “earned” freedoms could be revoked on a whim, which made them meaningless. I went up alone while Vin parked because that would look better to Michael on surveillance. Otherwise he’d claim that I wanted to stretch out the time with my bodyguard.

True, but I couldn’t let him learn that.

Jenny sent me a text as I got in the elevator. I answered it quickly, knowing Michael might well be reading my messages. He’d probably cloned this phone to keep tabs on me. My response was mundane.

Not bad, how’re you? Just so busy with the gallery! Hope the job is going well. Then I closed with the numeric code we used. That additional message was sit tight. But she must have been worried, especially after the way I’d disappeared. I wished I could email her a proper update, but I couldn’t trust any of the hardware Michael had given me.

I was in a grim mood when I stepped off on the penthouse floor, but I couldn’t put off writing the letter to Jenny. There was so much I had to say that couldn’t fit neatly in a coded message. We had alternate plans to make. The letter needed to be sent quickly, before Michael ruined the opportunity. As I finished pouring my heart out and begging for her support, the phone rang.

“Yes?”

I expected it to be Michael checking up on me. Even when he was in Europe, he knew where I was every minute of every day.

“Mrs. Durst?” I didn’t recognize this voice.

“Yes.”

“This is Brian at reception. There’s a girl here asking for you. We didn’t have any instructions left about a visitor, so I’m checking to see if you’re expecting someone.”

Oh shit, it might be Jenny.

“Who is it, please?”

“Just a moment.” I could hear some conversation taking place but couldn’t make out the words being spoken. “She says to tell you that Ariella is here.”

I staggered, all the blood rushing away from my head. The shock was so great, I had to brace against the wall. Of all the youngers, I’d never pictured Ariella tracking me down. She was next to smallest, only eight or so when I’d left home. That meant she was … how old, now? Dizzily I did the math and realized she was near eighteen, give or take.

“Mrs. Durst? Do you know her? Or should I see her out?”

My heart raced so hard I saw stars and I clutched the counter for support. Breathe. Protect Ariella. Breathe. Of all complications I could have foreseen, this one never came to mind. Somehow Barrettville felt like another world, one that didn’t even contain a bridge to my current reality. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“I’ll be right down,” I managed to say.

Vin glanced up, astonished, when I raced out of the condo. “Marlena? What’s wrong?”

I just shook my head. His involvement wouldn’t make things better. I called the elevator with a shaking hand.

“Think for a minute. I have to go with you.”

Right. Cutting him out would only raise more questions. This was already a huge firestorm, a blaze that I might not be able to put out. I got on the elevator, Vin close behind me. There was no audio in there, just cameras, so I stayed a good distance from him as I explained, “My baby sister’s here.”

“Oh shit,” Vin said.

I could see I didn’t need to clarify. Just like with Bobby Ray Hudgens, I’d pay for this. Pay and pay and pay.

Since it had been so long, I wouldn’t have recognized her from the little girl I’d left behind. She stood an inch or so shorter than me with a more delicate frame. Her thin face was heart-shaped, and her dark hair had gold streaks. Thickly-lashed amber eyes, wide mouth, light brown skin, and—dear God, I could never let Michael see her. The horror of that prospect might slay me before I could get a single word out.

When Ariella spotted me, she took a step as if she’d throw herself into my arms, then caught sight of Vin looming behind me and hesitated. “It’s me, Marlie. I finally found you. I been looking for years, but you vanished off the face of the earth.”

“You’re all grown up,” I finally said.

This reunion, when I’d rarely let myself imagine it, always took place after I’d wrapped things up with Michael Durst. To have Ariella arrive now? This was the worst possible timing. I had no leverage to protect her, but I couldn’t kick her into the street either. Tightness in my chest made me feel like passing out, but I reached for my sister anyway. Memories popped in my head, like golden corn kernels seared at high heat.

I used to hold her on my hip, walking the floor with her when I was only half grown myself. Long nights when she couldn’t sleep for the hunger in her stomach, and she’d cry until the snot ran down my neck, her thin body almost more weight than I could carry. Tears started in my eyes as I pulled her into an inevitable hug. Maybe I’d left the youngers, just like Dee had, but I’d never forgotten them.

She clenched her arms around me, smelling of road dust and old sweat. I could tell she’d been traveling for days, probably not a proper bath in sight. There was nothing I could do but take her in, even as the fear of Michael’s reprisal multiplied exponentially; terror-spiders hatched and laid eggs, scurrying in my head until I could hardly think.

He’d had me beaten over Bobby Ray Hudgens, and I’d lied to his face, lied outright, about not having any more secrets. I’d even said, “I’m an open book.” God only knew what he’d do next.

But not to Ariella. I had to get her out. Somehow. My half-formed plans disintegrated in the face of this new urgency. Breathe. Keep walking. Normal people have visitors. Trying to seem calm, I picked up her bag and smiled at the concierge.

“Thanks, Brian.” Best not to make the situation look odd or unusual to onlookers. Michael would hurt me more, later, if we made a scene. I stilled my instinctive shudder, envisioning his reaction to her grimy duffel and her unkempt hair. To Michael Durst, poverty must seem like a contagious illness. Whatever. I could survive whatever he dished out, as long as I got Ariella to safety first.

Not part of the plan. This is so not part of the plan.

“Let’s go upstairs,” I said softly, guiding her toward the elevator.

Ariella beamed at me, all wide-eyed appreciation. “Can’t wait to see your place.” Aaay, like paint, in the word can’t. Compression of vowels, your to yer. I’d fought so hard to shuck that accent, sticky as pine gum.

Without a word, Vin took the bag from me as I called the penthouse elevator with my card. Ariella glanced between us.

Then she whispered, “Is this your husband? He sure looks different than in the paper, and he don’t say much.”

“This is Vin Rivera, our chief of security.” Honestly, I didn’t even know what his job title was.

A long pause while she processed that info. “Oh. Why do you need one of those?”

I waved the question away, fear gnawing at my stomach. There was no way I could explain my life to her. None at all. I couldn’t afford another casualty in this cold war. Already I was losing my mind worrying about Jenny and Vin. With Ariella here, I could’ve collapsed on the floor and cried.

“How is everyone?” I asked.

Ariella bit her lip as the doors swished open. “It feels strange to say it out, but waiting won’t make it easier. Marlie, Mama’s gone.”

I’d taken one step out of the lift and I spun to stare at her. “She, what?”

“Gone, as in passed away, not ran off. We didn’t know how to get in touch with you.”

All this time, my mother had been dead and I didn’t even know. That seemed wrong, really wrong. I could never claim to be a good person, but this … even if I’d sometimes hated her, Kitty Altizer had given me life.

A queasy sickness stole over me. Now I could never do anything for her—send her to rehab or tell her off once she got her head on straight. There would never be anything, anymore. I’d thought I had plenty of time, like the hours didn’t move the same in Lee County or something.

“What happened? Was she sick, or …?” I could hardly get the words out.

“Overdose. We were on our own for a couple of weeks before the state came to check on us. They split us up then, sent us to different foster homes.”

“Did you finish school?”

She nodded. “I graduated, but I couldn’t find work and then I saw you in the paper on the internet, couldn’t believe my eyes.”

If only you’d waited—

But I couldn’t blame her for this. The way I’d chased after Dee, Ariella had come searching for me. There was no gain in hurting her feelings just because I was dead frightened about how bad this could be. So I tried for a welcoming smile as I put in the pin code and took her bag from Vin.

“This is it,” I said.

Her eyes widened as she took in the posh entryway. Part of me wondered if she’d slip anything into her duffel; she’d always been a light-fingered little thing. Her awe struck a chord, though, as I knew exactly how she felt.

As we stepped into the condo, Vin said, “I’ll be here until ten if you need me.”

“Thank you.”

Edmund, the night guard who took over Vin’s shift, would keep an eye on us until morning, but I’d never talked to him. As my thoughts whirled on how to deal with this crisis, I led the way into the penthouse.

“Wow, what a place!” Ariella’s excited voice sounded even louder, echoing off the marble and glass.

She wandered around touching everything, leaving smears on the glass cabinets and tables. Michael would hate that. And I’d pay for it however I had to, so Ariella wouldn’t.

“Sit down,” I finally said, pointing to the white leather couch. “Make yourself comfortable.”

I couldn’t worry her or raise her suspicions. Maybe I could spend a night with her and then send her off with some money. It didn’t matter what happened once she was safe. If he didn’t kill me over this, I still had a chance, however remote, of making him pay.

Taking me at my word, Ariella pulled off her holey sneakers and flung herself on the sofa. She sighed and stretched out. “This was worth all that time on the bus. I wasn’t sure you’d even want to see me since you left without a word.”

“How do you know I didn’t try? You haven’t been at the old house for years. I actually asked Vin to look for you.”

“You did?” Her face brightened like I’d said Santa was real.

Guilt pricked me because I’d only said that to make him like me more. “I was going to send money.”

Leaning forward, she rummaged in her bag to produce a battered mini-notebook. “I can give you everybody’s addresses. Benton tried to stop me. He said you abandoned us like stray cats and we shouldn’t think about you anymore.”

Benton was the closest to me in age and the smartest of all the youngers. You should’ve listened to him, Ariella. I wasn’t nearly as nice as she seemed to think, and I had secrets that would make her run screaming.

“Are you hungry? I can warm up some food while you shower.” It was impossible not to be impressed that she’d tracked me down using the internet. If she put that determination toward a safer goal, she could accomplish remarkable things.

“That sounds real good. But you’re gonna do it? I thought you’d have a cook, a maid, and maybe even a butler.”

“Michael doesn’t like live-in help.”

Ariella cocked her head, looking thoughtful. “Guess it would be strange, having people constantly around to fetch and carry. It’s good to know all rich people don’t lose their sense. Where’s the bathroom?”

I showed her and gave her clean towels, so plush that she couldn’t resist rubbing her face against them like they were toys I’d won for her at the county fair. Once she understood how all the shower attachments and knobs and dials worked, I went to the kitchen. Mechanically I got a random meal from the freezer and stuck it in the microwave. That was the extent of my housekeeping. In the morning, the maid would clean the place, top to bottom, including the removal of those fingerprints.

I was expecting Michael in two days. That would be long enough to hide Ariella, right? The explosion of temper would be catastrophic, but if she was gone by then, that was fine. I’d survived so much already. Still, I remembered the pain of the strap and the long recovery from those wounds. Shivering, I jumped when the microwave beeped, signaling me to remove the food. I plated it nicely and set it on the counter to wait.

Ariella took over half an hour, not that I blamed her. When she came out, she was wearing ragged pajamas, her hair wet and tousled. I heated her food again for a minute and passed her the plate.

“Looks delicious,” she said, already shoveling like she hadn’t eaten in days.

From the look of her, it might have been true. I had no idea how she’d afforded the ticket from Kentucky to New York. It must’ve been a long bus ride, lots of transfers and dirty stations and creepy assholes between there and here.

Poor girl had no idea I was married to one, too.