Chapter 22
Fayetteville–Lincoln County Library
Vera drove faster than she should have, but the library wasn’t far, and she didn’t so much as meet another vehicle. She wheeled into the parking lot and took a slot. Nudging her door closed with her hip, she stalked toward the entrance. If Geneva Fanning had upset Luna, Vera was going to . . .
Deep breath. No need for her to make the situation worse by embarrassing Luna and herself.
Another deep breath, and she walked as calmly as possible through the entrance and to the counter. Luna passed whatever she was doing to the other woman behind the counter and jerked her head for Vera to follow her.
They met in the very back beyond the rows and rows of bookshelves near the rear exit.
“I’m parked right next to the back door. We’ll talk out there, okay?”
“Sure.”
Outside they slipped quickly into Luna’s minivan.
The minivan was new. Once she hit the end of the second trimester, she’d traded her cute little car in for a more practical vehicle for hauling children around.
If Luna had her way, there would be at least three more.
From the time she was five years old, she’d insisted she wanted four children.
Once the doors were closed and locked and the engine was running, cooling off the interior, Vera turned to her sister. “I didn’t see Geneva. Was she hiding in the ladies’ room?”
“She left like two seconds before you arrived.” Luna plopped her head back against the seat, her hands rubbing her belly. “I swear she’s making me crazy.”
Vera moistened her lips. “What did she do or say while she was here?”
“She just walked around the library like she was looking for a book, but she didn’t even pick one up.
Every minute or so she would stare at me for a bit, then she’d move on.
As she left, she stopped one last time in front of the counter and glared at me.
Penny—the lady working with me today—asked if she could help her, but Geneva just ignored her and walked right on out. ”
“Sadly there’s no law against being a bad-mannered old woman.” Vera reached across the seat and took Luna’s hand. “I wish I could fix this for you, Lu. You shouldn’t have to deal with her crap right now. You should be enjoying your pregnancy and anticipating the future.”
“She just wants to make my life miserable.” Luna closed her eyes.
“Have you spoken to Jerome today?” Vera needed to push for more answers, but damn she hated to make this awful situation any worse. Vera and Luna had exchanged text messages last night. Jerome’s father continued to be stable. He hadn’t mentioned any issues related to Geneva.
“I called him once today, and he called me once.” A smile tugged at her lips.
“His father still can’t seem to stay conscious.
He keeps drifting back to sleep. The cardiologist says that sometimes patients are so traumatized by what’s happened to them that they don’t want to wake up.
They’d rather not face what’s happened. When he’s stronger he’ll come around, the doctor assured Jerome.
His vitals are very good. There’s no reason to believe he won’t recover. ”
“That’s really good news.” Vera couldn’t imagine how devastating it would have been for Jerome to lose both his parents at nearly the same time. “Hopefully Jerome and his father will be back home for good soon. The funeral can happen, and maybe things will settle down after that.”
Vera wasn’t holding her breath, but she kept that part to herself.
“Jerome is coming home tonight, as long as nothing changes for the worse. He worries I’ll go into labor, and he’ll miss the baby’s arrival.
” Luna stared out the windshield at the trees lining that side of the parking area.
“I should be looking forward to him coming home, but I’m not.
It’s so hard to have him look at me, knowing . . .”
The niggling worry that hadn’t dissipated since she found Jackie at the bottom of Luna’s staircase poked its way into Vera’s head. “Why? Did he say something that made you feel as if he held you responsible?”
“No. He would never say anything hurtful, but I caught him watching me a couple of times.” She turned to Vera.
“He had this look on his face that made me worry that he was thinking that I had killed his mother.” Her lips trembled, and tears streamed down her face.
“No matter what happens, Vee, he will always wonder if I was somehow involved in what happened. He will never feel certain that I’ve told him everything that happened. ”
Vera wished she could assure her little sister that she needn’t worry, but she was right. Jerome would always have questions. No matter how much he loved Luna and trusted her. Wanted to believe her. Deep down he would consider if his Aunt Geneva knew something he didn’t.
“He might wonder for a while,” Vera admitted. “But you didn’t do anything wrong, so he’ll move on eventually.” She squeezed her sister’s hand. “He loves you. You’re the mother of his child. This will all be okay in time.”
Luna shifted in the seat but had to power it back from the steering wheel to face Vera fully. Vera couldn’t help herself. She giggled. “That baby is getting bigger all the time.”
“Vee.”
The fact that Luna’s expression registered absolutely no sign of humor or happiness sharpened Vera’s instincts to a razor edge. “What, sweetie?”
“Before . . . when you came to the house when Jackie had fallen . . . I didn’t tell you the whole truth.”
Holy shit. The barrage of swear words that paraded through Vera’s brain just then would have made the proverbial sailor blush. “How so?” That her voice sounded so calm despite her sister’s revelation stunned her.
“Jackie came over around eight like I told you.” Luna cleared her throat, stared at her hands for a moment, her fingers twiddling with the fabric of her enormous tentlike top.
“We put up the wallpaper. The whole time she made little snide comments about how she hated the color and design. That it was the ugliest wallpaper she had ever seen.”
“Oh, honey, that’s not true. It’s beautiful wallpaper.
The birds are perfect for a boy or a girl.
And that big old tree on the focal wall is just incredible.
It’s amazing that Jerome could create a bookshelf shaped like a tree.
” Vera wanted to cry herself. How dare that hateful woman say those things.
“She brought up again that I should name the baby—if it’s a boy—after her husband.
She said Leonard Jerome II would be perfect.
” Luna’s face puckered with emotion again.
“But I don’t want my child being called LJ, and that’s what would happen.
I like Leonard Ray. That way Jerome and both grandfathers are acknowledged, and we can call him Leo. I like Leo.”
“This is your baby,” Vera reminded her. “You can name him or her anything you want. I love Leonard Ray and Leo. Whatever you name him—or her—this is going to be the cutest, most loved kid in town.”
“She just hates me.” Luna stared out at the trees again. “Hated, I mean.”
Vera didn’t push for her to get to the scary part. Frankly she was in no hurry for that whole truth. The thought terrified her.
Luna blew out a big breath. “So we finished the wallpaper with her complaining the whole time, and I got ready to paint the trim like I told you before. Jerome really didn’t want me to be in the room when the trim was painted, even though it’s the paint without the odor and all the really bad chemicals.
His mama had promised him she would do the painting.
When I saw that I needed more paint, she went off on another tangent.
She said I was stupid for not realizing we needed more, and now we’d have to waste time going to get it, and it was all my fault. ”
Vera gritted her teeth to hold back what she wanted to say to that. It involved wishing Jackie Andrews were still alive so she could push her down the stairs herself.
“I said I’d go get more paint, and she could stay and put furniture back in place if she wanted to. She followed me out of the room, ranting and raving like a person gone over some edge. Really, Vee, I can’t even begin to tell you how bizarre it was.”
Vera nodded, reached for her hand again. “I can just imagine.” At the same time she braced herself for the rest of the story.
“When we were almost to the top of the stairs”—Luna moistened her lips—“she suddenly ran up behind me and pushed me.”
Vera felt the blood drain from her face.
The world went utterly silent. For one long moment she could only stare at her sister.
“She pushed you.” It wasn’t a question. It was a confirmation of a statement so horrifying .
. . so heinous that it took every ounce of strength she possessed to utter the words.
Luna nodded. “Somehow I twisted as I was going down. I grabbed at anything I could, and one thing was Jackie. We both tumbled downward and twisted again. The only thing”—she swallowed hard—“that stopped me from landing on my belly was that I was able to grab on to the railing after that second twist, and the bottom of my foot hit a spindle, slowing me down. I hung on for a second before I could move. When I got up, Jackie was about halfway down the staircase. She’d hit her head against the wall.
She was wailing about how her head hurt.
I was shaking so badly, I could hardly stand.
All I could think was, I’m okay. The baby’s okay. ”
“Your foot hit the spindle?” A new kind of tension crashed into Vera.
“I’m convinced that’s the only reason I wasn’t injured beyond a bruised foot.
It was like a brake—a brake that helped stop my fall.
” Luna scrubbed at her damp cheeks. “I swear it’s a miracle the baby and I weren’t hurt.
I mean really hurt. It was the scariest thing .
. . I can’t even adequately convey just how scary. ”