Page 64 of Romeo
“A week?” Dante asked.
“What happened?” Romeo urged.
“She took my sister and disappeared.” I sighed heavily.
“When did she do that?” Stephano asked.
“I was only five and my twin was five too.”
“Your twin?” Redemption asked.
“Yes, identical.” I nodded.
“But why did O take your sister?”
I shrugged. “My parents never knew why. All they knew was that one day the nanny and Valencia were both gone and we never saw them again. My mother cried over it off and on for years. Every mealtime prayer, she pleaded with God that she needed forgiveness.” I looked around at everyone in the room. “As a child, I never knew what she needed God to forgive her for. Not until I heard the truth from my dad when I was twenty. I had the measles back then and was at the doctors the day my sister went missing. My mother had been glad I had gotten sick or she might have lost me too. It was at her insistence to tell me that Valencia had died of said measles back then. My dad said it was easier to have me believe that. Instead of my sister disappearing without a trace.”
Romeo patted my hand as he asked, “So how did you know Deacon was involved with this?”
“Or that he had anything to do with your sister?” Jarret asked.
“My dad’s detective had photos he took of O. Deacon was with her in a few of them. But that was ten years ago. So when my colleagues and I were present as this FBI agent gave evidence in a case our firm is working on…I almost lost my cool in front of everyone when I recognized him. I managed to keep it together and called my own detective to hurry over and follow Deacon when he completed the depo. But Deacon left and my guy hadn’t arrived yet. So he disappeared.” I paused to look up at Stephano, then at Romeo. “When you asked me if I’d ever heard of this Deacon Walker you had in custody…” I slowly shook my head. “I didn’t know what to think. At first, I was really confused and I felt conflicted. Then you mentioned this woman V. But I couldn’t be sure if it was my sister. I never spoke up and told any of you because really…what are the odds? That you were after the same person as I was?”
Romeo took both my hands in his. “So V is your sister?”
“Valencia Celene Regatta.” I nodded and motioned my head to Jarret. “He says I look like her. She has to be my missing twin.”
“Holy cannoli!” Dante exclaimed. “Definitely a twist of fate alright. Wow.”
I squeezed Romeo’s hand with mine and gazed into his eyes. “I hope you can forgive me?”
“For what?” he asked while looking confused.
“For not telling you about this. I hate deception.”
He shrugged. “I cannot blame you for that. I believe it when you said it was a twist of fate. How could you have known?” He looked over at his father.
Stephano slowly nodded his head at me. “I believe you as well. I do not think you meant to deceive us, mia cara. I trust my gut about people and I know that you are genuine.” He looked over at Jarret. “So you need to drop the death glare, Mr. Walker.”
Jarret slowly shook his head. “Now that I’ve listened to her and looked at her, I can see that there are differences.”
I swung my gaze over to him and felt curious as I asked, “Can you tell me about these differences?” I barely remembered Valencia. It had been twenty-two years since I last saw her.
He stared at me for a long moment and then answered, “Sure. Her hair is bright red. While yours is auburn-red and shorter than hers. She is flamboyant, I believe that would be the right word. Like she is louder than you and waves her hands around a lot when she talks. She dresses more like a model than a lawyer. Lots of lipstick and long red nails. And your voices aren't exactly the same either. Yours is kind and soft while hers is hard and bitter. She rarely smiles and is full of rage. She said she needed me to free her brother.”
“Her mother…” I slowly shook my head. “This O. She was related to you.”
“It was surprising to all of us, when her identity finally came out,” Redemption spoke up now. “At the time, she had Deacon kidnap Glory. He would trade her to us for O’s return. It had been instructions O had given to him if she were ever caught.”
I felt confused at this statement.
“She married my brother Bronson before Deacon was ever born,” Jarret chimed in. “Then she killed him and disappeared. Rylan or better known to us as Rip had been just a kid and he was at the Walker ranch at the time. She burned her own house down while…” Jarret paused and shook his head. “…my brother had been in his bed.”
“How horrible,” I whispered.
Liv took the story up as she nodded at me. “That was just the tip of her total murdering spree. The family never knew she was pregnant with Deacon at that time. She took off but thefamily thought she had died with her husband. She had grabbed some poor woman and placed her in that bed next to her drugged up husband. So we never knew about Deacon at all.”
I stared at Liv. “That's…I mean…” I had no words. Yes, as a lawyer, I had defended some people who had committed crimes and I was very aware of killers. But this?
