CHAPTER 56

Jackie stopped the tape recorder, satisfied. She’d done enough editing for today. She was beginning to be so good at this, she almost felt as if she could work for the FBI.

She had to follow Behave protocol, though, and that meant talking to Maxwell first. She wondered how he would react to learn that poor sweet Yolanda was the one who had betrayed Theresa. Jackie was surprised he had actually taken a liking to her. She wasn’t supposed to last this long, but it looked as if he might have feelings for the girl.

Oh, well, you lost one girlfriend before, now you’ll have to lose another one.

Her sole reason for not turning in the tapes earlier was that it would bring Theresa back to her old position. And where would that leave me? In the cold, as usual. Can I really trust that Yolanda hasn’t told anyone? No, it’s too late for that, too late to trust anyone now.

She didn’t have much time left. She had to take Yolanda down; she didn’t look like the type who would go along with her plan. As much as Yolanda hated Theresa, she wouldn’t dare cross that line.

Well, that’s the difference between you and me, Yolanda. You’re weak, and I’m strong. You cower; I fight back. When things aren’t going my way, I make them go my way. You’re never gonna get ahead in life if you insist on going on like this, retreating and being totally submissive.

Jackie liked the fact that she was a surprise. No one ever suspected that her smile was deadly, a weapon in the guise of friendliness. Her bubbly persona made people feel comfortable around her and made them drop their guards and bam!— she was in. She couldn’t believe how many people fell for it.

Except her mother.

Her mother could always see straight through her, and Jackie never even tried the fake act with her. Dad had called and said they had patched things up and that she should come over so they could have a family talk.

Family? Ha.

Now that her parents were okay, they instantly thought that she should be resilient and be okay, too. Well, she wasn’t.

They had been so wrapped up in their own pain since Michael’s death, no one had ever asked her how she felt about losing her brother. No one had ever asked her how she felt about anything.

If they had asked her, they would have learned that she had hated Michael with as much passion as they had loved him. Learn how for years she prayed he would die so she could live. But in death, he had become more perfect, more worshipped than he had been alive. If he had lived he would’ve made mistakes and become flawed and tarnished, just as she was in their eyes. Instead, he had been put on an even higher pedestal, and nothing Jackie did could erase the spotless record he’d left behind; nothing could erase the good memories they clung to.

She had come to understand the saying, Be careful what you wish for. Wishing Michael dead still gave him all the glory. She should have wished for her own death, then maybe she could have had all the adoration from her parents that he was still getting from beyond the grave.