Page 81 of Games We Play
Chapter 26
“I can’t believe it,” Leah said into her phone, tears constantly streaming down her face although she did her best to contain them. Nothing was more embarrassing than crying on the MAX. Even when Leah sat in the front row and pressed her face against the window in shame, it was still a long ride from the airport into downtown Portland. “I was so stupid, wasn’t I?”
Melissa clicked her tongue on the other end of the line. “I’m sorry, hon. You didn’t say much about your relationship with this woman, but I’m guessing it was pretty heated, huh?”
“You could say that again.” The MAX stopped on the outskirts of town. A bunch of people boarded, and unfortunately for Leah, a young man with large headphones had nowhere else to sit but next to her. He instantly regretted it. “I wish I had never met her. All she did was use me, and not in the fun way.”
“I’m so sorry. Tell you what, if you feel up to it tomorrow, we’ll go out and have a good time when I get off work. Invite Gina. I’m sure she’ll help you take your mind off this bad breakup.”
Breakup. We’ve broken up.Leah always expected it to happen, but not like… this. Not when they were finally making progress with who they were and what they wanted from each other. Not when Leah had said the magic words.I know she didn’t say them back, but a part of me hoped she felt the same way.Now Leah knew the truth. Sloan never loved her. She didn’t have the ability to love people. All she knew was using and being used.
“God, I smell like cigarettes.” Leah rediscovered that every time she rubbed her jacket sleeve against her face. She had kept the outfit Sloan gave her, because she was in such a hurry to get on a plane that she didn’t have time to change. Black pearls worth more than her culinary school tuition rattled against her throat. A Kate Spade purse thumped against her side when she turned around. Gifts. Tokens. Buy-outs.
“Take a shower when you get home. I’m sure you’ll feel much better.”
I was supposed to be on vacation.That’s what Leah thought when she hung up and tapped her head against the train window.I worked double-shifts so I could take three days off. So I could go to Chicago for a week. So I could spend every waking moment with my new girlfriend, like some fool who runs away from her problems.
She had warned her family that she was coming home early. She received a curt response from her mother telling her to get her own dinner. Good. Anything else would’ve been out of character for Janet, and Leah wasn’t in the mood to deal with that.
The rain pattered against her curls as she disembarked the MAX at Goose Hollow Station and walked the rest of the way home. She encountered her father sitting on the stoop of their house, a cigarette warming between his fingers. He looked his daughter up and down before shaking his head in warning.
“Bad stuff in there,” he muttered on his cigarette. “You should’ve stayed in Chicago until this blows over.”
Leah didn’t have the energy to express shock. “What happened?”
A scream of anger erupted from within. Karlie’s voice.
Somehow, Leah knew what had happened. It was doomed to happen eventually. The older Karlie grew, the smarter, more observant she became… nobody in that house stood a chance. The first child to go to four-year university was certainly smart enough to figure out the truth behind her own existence.
Leah sucked in a deep breath before heading inside. A part of her felt awful that this would be a good excuse to take her mind off personal matters. Another part of her was terrified to face the truth she had always run from.
She encountered her mother and sister in the dining room, where Janet sat at the head of the table, surrounded by the usual monthly bills. Karlie paced back and forth, her face beet red and her hair frazzled. Sweat dripped from every pore on her body. Her voice had screamed itself hoarse, but she always found a way to keep going.
Her birth certificate lay in the middle of the table. Leah hadn’t seen that since the day Karlie was born.
She would know what it looked like, too. She had signed it, after all.
“Oh my God.” Karlie saw her sister and let out another laugh of betrayal. “Where the hell did you come from? Did you get summoned because I wouldn’t shut up about you?”
Leah stood her ground in the doorway. “I came home early. Personal reasons.”
“Is this your personal reason?” Karlie shook the birth certificate in her sister’s face. “Did you know about th… oh my God, of course you did.” She slapped the piece of paper back down. “You know all about it. Because you’re…”
“I’m your mother. Yes.” Strange. Leah had dreaded this day since Karlie was ripped from her arms at the hospital.The day I told her she was my baby. That the woman she thought was her mother is her grandmother.It had been so easy to hide for most of Karlie’s life. She looked like her mother.
Karlie received a blow to her stomach. She stumbled toward the staircase, took one last look at the women she had trusted for most of her life, and raced upstairs before anyone could say anything else.
Leah glanced at her mother. “How did she find out?”
Janet attempted to straighten up the items on the table. She ignored the copy of the birth certificate. “She was the first one home today and grabbed the mail. Guess she figured out that one of the items was a copy of her birth certificate to send to her colleges… she had opened it by the time I was home.”
“God.” Leah sank into the nearest chair. “So you came home to that?”
Janet nodded. “She had lots of time to formulate her opinions and questions. Trust me. This wasn’t the first confrontation we had tonight. I decided to wait until you were home to answer some of her questions, but she came down here to read me yet another riot act.”
Poor Karlie.This was no way to find out the truth. “Guess I should go talk to her.”
“She definitely doesn’t want to hear from me. I’m not her mother anymore.”
