Page 43 of Savior
“I’ve just been tired. Maybe it’s the changing of the seasons. Maybe it’s turning twenty-nine soon. I don’t know.” She says as if it’s nothing, moving about the kitchen to throw away the remainder of the banana. It’s not nothing. She’s fucking everything to me. “Anyway, they drew some blood. I should have answers later today or tomorrow the latest, if there’s anything to know at all.”
“Let me know as soon as you do.” I ask of her. She agrees.
“I really don’t feel like going to the ATM on my way to work. Can I borrow twenty dollars? I spent the cash I had on my copay.” She suddenly asks, as if something important just occurred to her.
“Borrow? No. What’s mine is yours, doll. There’s some cash in my cut. Take what you want from the pocket.”
She smiles at me and walks towards the front door where my cut is hung up on the rack. “Ethan’s raising money for a friend of his boyfriend. Apparently, the guy…” she suddenly stops talking, and I turn on the bar stool to see what’s distracted her.
I jolt, damn near spitting my coffee out and almost burning my hand, when I see she’s got my open wallet, pulling out the purple stationary I had folded up inside it.
“Fuck me, Vanna I said my cut, not my wallet!” I place the mug on the island, shaking the coffee from my hand. It’s too fuckin’ late.
“What is this? And why is my old address written on it?” she asks, glancing at me for a moment before she looks back at the paper. I can tell she’s trying to piece together why it might be significant. It only takes her a few seconds to notice the faded imagery on the stationary. “A purple jar of hearts...” She looks up to glare at me with deepening suspicion. “This is Lucinda’s paper. Why is my old address on it? And why do you have it?”
I haven’t consumed nearly enough caffeine to handle this situation right now. “I found it in the house, among all Jack’s shit.”
“Oh, my God... She really does hate me that much… That much that she would try to have me killed…” Vanna looks back at me, an incredulous expression on her face, when suddenly her brows pull together. “Why am I only hearing of this now?”
“I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of everything, doll… It’s more than just Lucinda.”
“This paper proves she’s an accessory to everything that happened!”
I wince at her words, knowing it’s only going to be a few more moments before her mind works it all out. Her brows shift from furrowed, to raised, as she stares at me.
“You kept this from the police to protect her, didn’t you?”
“Vanna, it’s not that cut and dry.” I insist. “God knows, I hate her… Especially after all this… And I swear to you, I’ll get to the bottom of it… All of it. But… Lucinda is Maddie’s mother…” Her mouth clamps shut and I swallow with a little difficulty before I go on. “Maddie, baby… You and Maddie are the only ones I was protecting. Not Lucinda… not after-”
“Nearly getting us both killed!” Vanna shouts at me now, with an anger I’ve never seen in her before. “Nearly having me raped right in front of you!”
Those words immediately conjure twisted memories of that night to the forefront of my mind. My stomach lurches as I’m flooded with that helpless, impotent feeling I had in the cabin, unable to do a damn thing to stop what was happening to her… To us.
“Vanna baby, please…” I don’t even know what to say… She’s right… Lucinda is the fucking Devil. However, I need to make sure I have all the facts before I make a move on anyone. I can’t rush into this halfcocked without knowing exactly what I’m up against. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this, I swear to you. If Lucinda really did orchestrate what happened-”
“You’ll what?” She folds her arms, glaring at me harder still.
I’m not sure how to respond to that either. I hate her for what she’s done, or at least, what it appears she’s done. But my heart keeps reminding me of Maddie…
“You’ll protect her… As you always have, and apparently will!”
“Let me figure this all out, doll. Please, just give me a little more time.”
She lets out a scoff, shaking her head in disbelief. After a few moments pass, she asks, “You didn’t tell the police... But why didn’t you tell me?”
“We’d been through a lot… I was protecting you as much as I was protecting Maddie, baby.” I say, hoping she can hear the sincerity in my words.
“Or were you afraid I’d go to the police with it myself, and you didn’t want her brought in for questioning?” She demands. “Did you not trust me enough to tell me the truth? Did you not think that all you had to do was ask me not to say anything, and I wouldn’t?”
“Doll…”
“You choseher!”
“Vanna. That’s not true.” Shaking my head, I reiterate, “I was protecting you. I didn’t want to put this shit on you after everything you’ve been through.”
“We! Everything we have been through! Together! This is something you should have told me about.” She throws the wallet at me, hard, but I catch it before it nails me in the chest, placing it down on the marble island beside my coffee.
“You’re right.” I say, standing up and taking a few steps closer to her. She doesn’t make a move to step back from me, and a little glimmer of hope sparks within me that maybe she does believe me. I need to tell her everything, so she will see that I truly am protecting her. “There were more photos… More than what the cops took… I combed through them before the rest were taken into evidence. That’s another reason why I haven’t said anything to you.”
