Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77170 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
“Daphne Steel was crazy.”
“Daphne Steel was the product of her childhood. She was…” He shakes his head. “I don’t need to tell you all of this. I’m sure you know.”
“Yes, I do know. I know her half brother, Larry, assaulted and raped her, along with Tom Simpson and Theo Mathias.”
“My guess is you orchestrated it.”
“I can see why you might think that, but I didn’t, actually. That was all Theo’s doing.”
I shudder.
Theo Matthias was my grandfather as well. On Mom’s side.
“He was obsessed with Daphne.”
“Here’s what I don’t understand…Grandmother,” I say.
Dad seethes.
But I’m going to get the truth out of her by any means necessary.
“You all went to high school together. You, my grandfather, Daphne’s half brother, Tom, and Theo. How did Brad Steel not know Daphne then?”
“Brad wasn’t involved in the club as much as the four of us were. He and Theo weren’t close, not in the way Theo was close to Tom and Larry. He knew Larry had a sister, but that was it. They didn’t live together. Larry lived with his mother here on the western slope, and Daphne lived in Denver with her parents.”
“So Brad knew of Daphne but never met her.”
“That’s right, Ava. And Daphne didn’t know the identity of her rapists until…”
“She knew. She just kept it compartmentalized, in the head of her other personalities.”
“Ava…” Dad says.
“I’m sorry, Dad. But I need to know the answers to these questions. I just don’t understand how all of this could’ve happened.”
“You’re talking about things that happened fifty years ago. Wendy may not even remember everything. She’s an old woman, Ava.”
Wendy’s eyes narrow. “I’m an old woman with a mind as sharp as a tack, Ryan. Do you even doubt that for a moment?”
Dad says nothing.
I know what he’s thinking. He’s thinking about Wendy and her genius IQ.
“Did you know I used to paint, Ava?” Wendy says.
“No, I didn’t.”
“Your sister’s talent clearly comes from me. Your father’s creativity also. How is he able to make wines that no one else in the world can make?”
“Dale can make them.”
“Only because he learned from your father.”
“That’s not fair, Wendy,” Dad says. “Dale is a huge talent in his own right.”
“If that’s what you need to tell yourself, Ryan.”
I brace myself. Time to get back on track. “I guess what I want to know, Grandmother, is how you could’ve been involved in such horrific things. Child trafficking. How you could… I mean… Uncle Talon… Dale and Donny…”
“First of all, Ava, I had nothing to do with Dale and Donny. Their father sold them into slavery, for a mere five thousand dollars.”
“I know the whole story, and it makes me want to be sick. But Uncle Talon? When he was just a boy?”
“Oh, Ava, I don’t expect you to understand.” Wendy’s gaze darkens. “Know only that I had no choice at the time.”
“That’s crap,” Dad says.
I look at Dad. Please, let me talk. Let me get the information. I hope he understands my mental message.
“I’m trying to understand, Grandmother. How could you allow a ten-year-old boy to be taken and abused by those three monsters?”
“It wasn’t my fault,” Wendy says. “It was Brad’s. Brad broke a promise to me.”
“What promise?”
Wendy closes her eyes for a moment. “I see, Ryan, that you haven’t told her exactly everything. That’s the story I want to tell you, Ava. About two soul mates who were torn apart.”
I lock eyes with my father. “Dad, what is she talking about?”
Dad’s jaw tightens. “For Christ’s sake, Wendy. You still did it. He broke some stupid promise to you. A promise he never meant. You and I both know it.”
“It was a promise between soul mates.”
Dad turns to me. “Apparently, my father, after I was born, promised Wendy that he would never sleep with Daphne again.”
“But Marjorie…”
“Exactly, Ava,” Wendy says. “Aunt Marjorie. Proof that Brad did not keep his promise to me. When Daphne ended up pregnant, Brad paid for his betrayal.”
“Dad didn’t pay,” my father says. “Not like Talon paid. Talon, and in our own way, Joe and I paid too. And our mother.”
“You were spared that day, Ryan.”
“Joe and I didn’t go through what Talon went through for sure. But we paid in our own way. Joe paid with guilt for not going that day with Talon. For not protecting his brother. And I paid with guilt too. I was spared. Talon saved me.”
“You thought Talon saved you. You know the truth.”
I grab Dad’s arm. “What the hell is she talking about?”
“I was with Uncle Talon that day when the men took him. Uncle Talon told me to run, so I ran. For the first thirty-two years of my life, your uncle was my hero. I thought he had saved me that day. He’s still my hero, Ava. He’s a military hero, and my hero anyway. But it turns out…”