Page 41 of The Identicals
“Ainsley,” Harper says.
Tabitha knows she is acting abominably. She wishes she had the capacity to forgive her sister and to celebrate her sister and daughter’s forging of this new bond. But Tabitha can’t get past twenty-two years of sour history—Harper has had itsoeasy, living with Billy—or past what happened the night that Julian died.
Tabitha’s phone rings. It’s Stephanie Beasley.
Tabitha snaps back to the present moment; she feels a cool wave of relief. Stephanie will watch Ainsley. This is the solution Tabitha was hoping for.
“Hello?” Tabitha says as she moves into the living room. Incredibly, the dog gets to his feet and trots after her. “Stephanie?”
“Tabitha,” Stephanie says. “Your daughter…”
“What?” Tabitha says. She sits on the sofa and, in spite of herself, reaches out to stroke the snowy white fur at Fish’s throat.
“Your daughter is a monster,” Stephanie says.
Tabitha continues to rub Fish’s coat even as the ugly accusations spin out of Stephanie.Bottle of Bombay Sapphire and a Baggie containing cocaine residue planted in Candace’s locker. Planted by Ainsley Cruise and Emma Marlowe. The girls were taking revenge because of what happened between Teddy and Candace.
“I’m sorry?” Tabitha says. “It sounds to me like your daughter is trying to deflect the blame. She may have gotten in over her head, Stephanie. Ainsley can’t be the automatic scapegoat here. Surely you see how unreasonable that is.”
“Unreasonable?” Stephanie says. “You’ve been away, and your daughter has been leftwithout any adult supervision. I’m sure she waltzed right over to your mother’s house and strolled out with the gin. Then she and her evil little friend planted it in Candace’s locker.”
Tabitha closes her eyes. If she goes over to Eleanor’s house and checks the bar cart, will she find the Bombay Sapphire missing?
Of course she will.
She revisits what Stephanie said a few seconds ago.The girls were taking revenge because of what happened between Teddy and Candace.Teddy and Candace are together now, so soon after Tabitha found Ainsley and Teddy together in her bedroom? Ouch.
Stephanie says, “You’ll be hearing from Dr. Bentz tomorrow.”
Tabitha doesn’t respond. She simply ends the call.
When she reenters the kitchen, she sees that Ainsley and Harper are clearing the table. Tabitha watches the two of them moving in concert. It’s like watching herself—the mother she always wanted to be, the mother she would have been if Julian had lived—with her beloved teenage daughter.
“Stay,” Tabitha says. Her voice is stern, and Fish, who has followed at Tabitha’s heels, dutifully sits and gazes up at her. To Harper, Tabitha says, “I have to go back to Boston in the morning. Eleanor needs me.”
“Why don’tIgo take care of Eleanor?” Harper asks. “You stay here with Ainsley.”
Tabitha considers this. She recalls Eleanor weeping about Harper after Billy’s memorial service; Eleanor, like Ainsley, is sick of Tabitha. But Tabitha didn’t put in years and years with Eleanor and the business only to be replaced by Harper at the end. There will be a payoff: Tabitha will inherit the empire. And even if that empire is diminished, Eleanor still owns a mighty fortune in real estate: the house here, the house on Pinckney Street. Tabitha will not relinquish her claim to that.
“Eleanor is my responsibility,” Tabitha says. “We both know that.”
“Don’t sound so put-upon,” Harper says. “I’ve spent the last ten months caring for Billy.”
Tabitha scoffs. “Sleeping with his doctor.”
“Caringfor Billy,” Harper says. “Feeding him, bathing him, driving him around, getting him to and from his doctor’s appointments, making sure he wasn’t smoking too many cigarettes or drinking Jamo on the sly. And now I have to deal with selling Billy’s house, and once I do that, you and I are splitting the proceeds, as per Billy’s will.”
This is news to Tabitha. Her wheels start to turn.Proceedssounds like unexpected income, the windfall she so desperately needs. “Wait a minute,” she says. “What’s the deal with the house, exactly? How much are we talking about?”
“I had a broker come look at it. She said we can either renovate it or sell it as a teardown. I amnotgoing to renovate. It’ll cost too much and take too much time, and the contractors on the Vineyard pride themselves on being unavailable. As a teardown, she says we can list it at six hundred and settle for half a million.”
“Teardown?” Tabitha says. “Is it really that bad?”
“It’s really that bad,” Harper says. “Which you would know if you had ever come to visit.”
Tabitha accepts that barb in silence. She clears her throat. “Is there a mortgage?”
“Mortgage of two sixty-nine,” Harper says. “Six percent of the sales price goes to the Realtor, and there will be other closing costs. If we do absolutely nothing to the house, we will each walk with ahundred grand.”
