Chapter Seventeen Marni
Chapter Seventeen
Marni
Some secrets begged for release. That was the only explanation for what just happened. For the big show Xavier demanded in
his absence.
Even in death he kicked up a fuss. The pompous asshole thrived on attention, though he used to claim he despised it. He sure
as hell played the long game on this one. He waited us all out. Let the drama build as the years rolled by. All those whispers
about him and how he never pushed for concrete answers about his son’s missing family. I figured he held those conversations
in private. That he threw his influence and money around to find answers, but nothing worked.
Now I questioned all of it.
Could be Xavier had been invested in an impressive game of chicken with Aubrey, daring her to come out of hiding. Unless he
told her to wait to reappear, to draw out the anticipation. With the Tanner family every devious option sounded plausible.
But Hanna. Tough Hanna. Hardworking Hanna. Practical Hanna.
Lying Hanna.
The knife.
The memory came flooding back. I saw her holding the knife that day in the Tanner house. I’d been rattled and shaken and there
she was, standing at the base of the staircase with blood streaked on the floor around her feet and across the tip of her
white sneaker. A weapon in her hand. We looked at each other and her pale face told me she’d done something she shouldn’t
have.
Now I got it. She didn’t talk about me to the police or admit she’d been there all those years ago because she didn’t want
to risk exposure or the windfall coming her way. How clever of her.
Who knew she could even move that fast? The attorney had barely stopped talking and she ran. Got up, shoved her way around
Aubrey as she grinned and tried to block the exit, and took off.
There would be time for questions. So many questions. Right now—Aubrey. The conference room had emptied. People walked around
the law firm hallways as if in a trance. All except for her. For the two of us. We’d lingered and now I would pay for that
choice.
“I didn’t think you’d be the one to stick around,” Aubrey said. “Gutsy choice.”
I ignored that. Mentally focusing on anything but her, pretending I didn’t get her point, was the only way to survive the next few minutes.
Where the hell did Cam go? I scanned the outer office.
Saw the desks heaving with paperwork and the associates scurrying here and there. No sign of Cam. “I need to—”
“That’s more like it. There’s the lack of bravery I expected.” Aubrey’s mocking tone demanded attention.
Looked like the annoying child had turned into a heartless, game-playing adult just like her grandfather. I couldn’t figure
out which version of Aubrey promised more danger. As shitty as it made me sound, I preferred the dead version.
“Say whatever you want to say, Aubrey. Get it out because keeping the rancid words inside seems to be killing you.” Then I
could take my lead from Hanna and disappear.
Aubrey shrugged. “I can’t complain, actually. At least I got the house I grew up in. Not that the memories are worth keeping.”
I searched her tone for anger. For fury. Nothing echoed back to me but some sick form of amusement.
“You seem pretty calm for a person who just received a load of shocking information. And lost a lot of money.” Unless she
knew all of it before the attorney ever scheduled the meeting. The possibility of her having advance notice to this dizzying
spectacle started an avalanche of anxiety tumbling through me.
“Well, it has been a wild fifteen years.” Aubrey laughed as if her words weren’t out of line. She minimized and dismissed
as if the entire country wasn’t waiting to hear the truth about what happened. She acted like she didn’t care.
“At least it’s nice to know I still have some relatives. With Gramps passing on, I’d been told they were all dead. Well, except
Isabel, but I don’t count her or Stella. They’re more hanger-on types.” Aubrey sounded smug and satisfied, like she’d set
up this whole messy reveal and reveled in her victory.
She scared me to the point I feared being in the same room with her without some sort of weapon or way of protecting myself. “You’re joking about this?”
“Come on. It’s hysterical.”
That singsongy voice vibrated through me. “What is wrong with you?”
The lightness left Aubrey’s face. “I rose from the dead. I need a few days to acclimate.”
Enough. “Where the hell were you for all those years?”
“Well done.” She clapped. “You jumped right in and asked the question on everyone’s mind. I have to give you credit for that.”
A few people on the other side of the conference room glass stared at us but I couldn’t back down or walk out. Not yet. “Answer
me.”
“Do you really care about me or my life, Marni?”
“I loved . . . love your mother.” I had no idea what tense to use. Around Aubrey I needed to be careful. On guard. Ready to
strike.
“Right.” She rolled her eyes just like she used to do as a petulant teenager. “You sure acted like it back then.”
Chilling. Terrifying.
How much did she know? What did she see and remember?
“It’s a pretty ring.” She glanced at my bare finger.
I’d never been married. Never thought of having kids. Despite teaching them I didn’t particularly like being around them.
Not for long periods of time, anyway. The talking back. The bad decision-making. The smells.
I’d taught younger and older kids over the years and one reality never wavered—the thrill of change.
A few of them lit up when they discovered an idea that challenged their family’s ingrained worldview.
Those instances made me believe a full life do-over was possible.
That I could wake up to find the self-doubt and anxiety gone or at least lessened.
That I could re-center and move forward, leaving behind the person I never wanted to be.
But this was Aubrey. As a child she rebelled at being reprimanded. Worse, she’d stand there and listen to the scolding and
her punishment with a blank look as if she didn’t feel or hear a thing. As if her mind was too busy working on revenge to
understand she was the one in trouble.
More than once, Victoria yelled at Aubrey for pushing another girl at school or for openly questioning her teacher’s intelligence
in front of the whole class, and the next day something Victoria cared about or collected or inherited from the aunt who helped
raise her disappeared. Obvious retribution that Aubrey denied. A constant reminder that Aubrey could strike whenever and however
she wanted.
As an adult, she smirked and snuck around. I didn’t like either version. “I don’t know why Xavier gave me—”
“The ring? Yes, you do,” Aubrey said in a soft voice.
My mind fought back. Walled-off memories lurched forward. Even as the air drained from my lungs, I struggled not to let my
cycling panic show. “As a keepsake, I guess, but I understand if you want the jewelry as a reminder of your mom. It should
be yours.”
“I don’t care about that.” Aubrey shrugged. “Besides, you earned it.”
The words took a sledgehammer to my fidgeting. No more shifting my weight from foot to foot or looking for the right time
to blow past this bitch.
“Yeah, I know what you did.” Aubrey smiled. “Wait until everyone else finds out.”
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Pithy responses ran together in my head. I fought to push a few out. “You’re threatening me? You should be in jail, or at
least with the police, telling them where your parents are.”
Aubrey’s head fell to one side, making her look younger. Less dangerous, which was a lie. “Why me?”
What the hell? “What kind of question is that?”
“You know what happened back then and you didn’t tell.” That creepy smile of hers returned. “Why should I?”
Nervous energy bounced around inside me. My body rocked from the force of it. “That’s not true. If I knew anything I would
have told the police. Tried . . . or, you know, attempted to—”
“I was younger when it all happened, but I could still see and hear just fine.” Aubrey didn’t look around or lower her voice.
She verbally dove in, throwing out one-liners polished and sharpened to sting.
Every sentence in my head vanished, taking my balance with them. “You don’t know—”
“You’re funny. And by that I don’t mean humorous. I mean pathetic.” The smile disappeared as Aubrey’s voice grew stern. “Are
you still waiting around for Mr. Right to knock on your door and sweep you away into that dark night?”
Never. I learned the all too familiar and yet truly hideous lesson about how men lie and cheat. I had no intention of returning
to that disaster. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Aubrey glanced at my hand one last time. “Enjoy the ring. You wanted it to be yours. Now it
is.”