Page 64 of Dahlias, Sapphires, and Cool Autumn Dusk
She sighed, some of the starch leaving her shoulders as she said, “They weresohandsome. I sat in some shitty boat, probably not seaworthy, and spotted four exceptionally hot guys in a sailboat. The Lents everyone talked about, but they looked like creatures from another dimension. So handsome, so crisp and clean. Older than me, but only by just a bit. They of course didn’t notice me atall.”
Kit laughed. “You were fourteen. Wouldn’t it have been creepy if we did?”
“There was that. Eventually I met them, and they were funny, too. They mostly talked to the guys I hung out with, discussing fishing before they all went off together. Over the next few years, I would ask about them whenever I got the chance. Where did they live? I heard about their department stores, so I called their office and ordered a catalogue just to see what they offered. By the time I turned eighteen, things got dangerously bad for our family. We didn’t have any money, so some nights we didn’t eat. Then…my father lost me in a bet.”
I sat forward, startled by her confession. “What?”
“Right? I wish I made it up, but that’s what happened. He made a bet, and he lost. He traded me into marriage with my grandfather’s best friend and his brothers.” She visibly swallowed, shaking her head. “It would’ve helped the family, since they had some money. A lot of our debt could’ve been paid off.” Her voice wobbled. “But I couldn’t do it. I wasonly eighteen.” Instead of rupturing into tears, she stood up straighter, her voice steadier. “I tried to get my head around doing it, but I couldn’t. Instead, I ran away from home in the middle of the night. I’d saved some money for new shoes, so I used that little bit of money to get a bus ticket for as far away as I could go, which ended up being New York. I didn’t know I planned a destination, but then I found myself in front of a department store. One of four in Manhattan, so I got lucky because their father, Ed, recognized me. He brought me home, and of course Dina fed me. She loves a lost stray.”
I winced, feeling like her latest acquisition when all of the brothers glanced my way. I waved my hand at her in circles, hoping she would move it along past that point. I hated that word. My hand stilled, when I realized she called herself it, instead of me.
“None of us were home at the time. We went away to school.” Stephen pulled her against his body, apparently no longer able to resist offering her his strength. “We wouldn’t be home until winter break. When we heard she was staying with us, we certainly didn’t feel the need to share it with anyone else in Louisiana. Mom said to keep it secret, so we were vaults. Once we met her and saw her…after we spent time with her, our plans to leave the Life and do things differently stopped. We only wanted your mother. She might’ve been young, but she wanted us, too.”
She kissed his cheek, nuzzling into his arms. “You were young, too. We got lucky.”
“We did,” Dan agreed. “But we have a tendency in our family to fall for strong, smart, beautiful survivors.” He met Barrett’s gaze and shared a brief nod. “We might have a type.”
Rosalind stepped out of his embrace, not finished with her story. “I thought I’d escaped them. All of them. I mean, I wanted to see my mom. She was cold and distant, but she was my mom. Iwanted to check on the little ones, so I cheated and got in touch. I avoided my dad and some of the older boys, but honestly, I figured they were over it. I’d married the enemy, but they shouldn’t have bet my life away. Things weren’t easy for me at first, either. If they saw my social failures, they would have loved it. We still had some friends from down there, but they lived on the right side of the lake, and they visited us. You know them, by the way. When they took Phoenix, and River and Walt got killed, they actually never crossed my mind. I thought our money in this world, not that one, was what caused you to get kidnapped.” She lifted her chin. “Dina never agreed. Not ever. I figured it was her prejudice, because she’d never liked the other side of the lake, but she didn’t come from there. She didn’t understand it and searched for any reason to hate everything about it, but I should have known better. Over time. . .it eventually sunk in she was right. Not that it meant I could do anything about it.” She stared at Phoenix, but her gaze seemed to see the child again. “They took you and hurt you because of me.”
Phoenix’s eyes were glazed, but I didn’t think it was from drugs. “Well, it at least explains some things. Thank you for telling us, finally.”
“You’re welcome.” She practically whispered it, her husbands moving to her side as a unit.
“A lot of things happened that week that made no sense,” Stephen defended and quickly looked at everyone. “Do you remember when you got sick, Barrett? You puked for forty-eight hours, and we all thought you just had a bug. Eric wasn’t even worried.”
He looked away, bunching his fists much like his son did when he tried to hold in frustration. “Kids get sick, so we’ll never have any way of knowing for sure. I didn’t have any reason to think otherwise at the time.”
She nodded, saying, “I do wonder if they went after you first, in retrospect. You survived, so they failed. You got sick instead. Julian, you kept talking about seeing men in black jeans. You mentioned how it looked really ridiculous on the beach, and how hot they had to be, but we ignored you at the time. Too busy setting up for guests, so I didn’t think about it.”
Kit nodded. “Jeremy had nightmares all week. He said there were people in the house, creeping around in the night. He would come and sleep in the bed with Mom and whoever was with her. Maybe it all meant nothing. Coincidence? Maybe. Or it could be correlation. Regardless, it ended with Phoenix getting taken. Now everything has meaning, whether we want it or not.”
I hated whoever did this to them. I hated it for all of them, and I wished I could make it right somehow.
16
Their parents prepared to leave as if they hadn’t just dropped an emotional bomb on the room. Their own relatives possibly had helped with Phoenix’s kidnapping. They went after the kids, maybe all of them.It’s so awful.
“Kit,” Barrett said, catching his arm. “I get that you don’t want to talk about Alatheia’s stuff tonight. I mean, if I’m honest, I don’t get it, and I don’t like it, but fine.”
Phoenix interrupted, pointing out, “I could go steal the folder again.”
Kit glared at him. “Don’t.”
“I didn’t say Iwould, I just said I could.” He scowled, crossing his arms rebelliously.
Barrett continued. “She needs health insurance, so could you put a rush on that bit? What if she gets sick or needs to go to the hospital or something?”
Eric stood quickly, hyper focused on me suddenly. “Are you feeling okay, Alatheia?”
“I’m good, thanks.” No way would I discuss my cramps or the weirdness of my cycle with Phoenix’s dad.Too weird, I can’t doit.Everything in our world might be weird, but that somehow crossed a line.
“I don’t think that’s their point.” Kit shook his head. “Regardless, I’ll put her on one of our policies, which is easy on paper since she is an employee for Granny. We’ll have her a card by the end of the week, if not sooner.”
I opened and closed my mouth, surprised it went so easily. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Kit headed for the door, brushing his hands against each other as if to shake off the conversation. “We’ve given you guys a lot of information to process, so that’s probably enough for tonight. Happy Birthday, Alatheia. We’ll see you all soon, maybe for dinner? Upstairs, next week if you’re available?”
No one answered. I didn’t know about them, but I still couldn’t find my voice.
