Scared To Death (Live to Tell #2)(36)

“I know. I just wanted to tell you I have some things to do today. I’ll be gone for a few hours. I need you to keep an eye on Annie, and try to get along with her, please. And if Realtors call about the apartment, take down a number and tell them I’ll call them back. Okay?”

“Mmm hmm.”

“Caroline, are you hearing me?”

She forces her eyes open again and yawns. “Yes. I’m hearing you.” Then, taking a closer look at her mother, she asks, “Where are you going?”

For the first time in ages, Mom’s blond hair is long and loose, tucked behind her ears—and she’s actually wearing earrings. And a sleeveless black top and white slacks. And, Caroline notes with surprise, eye makeup. It doesn’t cover the dark circles or worry lines, but it helps.

She’d forgotten that Mom really can look pretty when she wants to.

So…why does she suddenly want to?

“I’m going to take a drive up to Westchester to see a friend.”

“Who? Kathy?” Her mother’s former college roommate lives in Rye, and if that’s where Mom’s headed, Caroline is definitely going, too. There are some great places to shop around there.

“No, not Kathy.”

“Well, if you’re going to Rye—”

“Not Rye.” Mom leans over and kisses her on the forehead. “I’ll be back by three or four. And I’ll call to check in. Be good.”

“You too.” Caroline watches her go out the door, pulling it closed behind her.

She rolls over to go back to sleep, but suddenly, she’s wide awake.

Where the heck is Mom going? She hardly ever leaves the building lately. Now, all of a sudden, she’s rocking the wardrobe and the makeup…and driving, besides? She never takes the car out. She never did, even when Dad was around. He didn’t drive much, either, relying on cabs, Town Cars, and limos to get around.

“A friend,” Mom said.

Clearly, it’s someone she doesn’t want Caroline to know about, otherwise, she would have told her who it was…

Caroline sits up abruptly.

Can it be a man?

Did Mom forget that she happens to be married? It’s not like Dad is dead, or they’re divorced. Does she think she can go around dating while Dad is rotting away in jail?

I have to stop her.

Caroline jumps out of bed and hurries out into the hall. “Mom? Mom!”

Annie appears in the kitchen doorway, holding a rubber spatula. “She’s gone.”

“Where did she go?”

“To see her friend in Westchester. I thought she told you.”

“Which friend?”

“She didn’t say. What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Are you?”

“You don’t have to be nasty.”

Yeah, Caroline thinks, I do.

“For your information,” Annie goes on, “Mom said we have to get along today.”

“Guess that means one of us has to leave, then. I hope you have plans.”

“I do. Making brownies.”

Annie used to be such a cute kid, blond and super-skinny. Now her face is getting rounder by the second, and so is the rest of her.

Caroline asks pointedly, “Do you really think that’s a good idea? Brownies?”

“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?”

Because you’re turning into a real tub o’lard.

Maybe it’s mean, but someone really needs to tell Annie these things for her own good, and God knows Mom hasn’t stepped up.

“Maybe you should, like, go for a run instead.”

“I don’t run.”

“Why not?”

“I have asthma.”

“So? Plenty of people who have asthma are runners,” Caroline tells her, not certain that’s really the case.

“Well, I’m not.”

“Maybe you should be.”

“Why?”

Caroline opens her mouth, but Annie cuts her off. “Know what? Forget it. I don’t want to hear it.”

That’s because she knows what I was going to say.

Annie returns to the kitchen. A moment later, the electric mixer whirs to life.

Caroline shakes her head. It was so much easier to deal with her sister when Daddy was around. She always had the feeling that Annie got on his nerves, too—especially when her asthma would kick in and she’d get that constant, annoying, wheezy cough.

Then Mom would hover with the nebulizer, and Daddy would take Caroline out someplace, just the two of them. They’d go for frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity, or to a movie, or take a walk through the Central Park Zoo.

Yes, Daddy and Caroline were like a team, and Mom and Annie were a team. Now Caroline’s stuck alone here with her mother and sister—and today, she’s just stuck with Annie, which is even worse.

She heads back toward her room, hating the new emptiness along the hallway walls, formerly a gallery of family photos. On the last day of school, she came home to find that they were gone. Her dismayed cry woke her mother, who shouldn’t have been sleeping in the middle of the day anyway.

“What did you do?” Caroline screamed at her as she stood there looking groggy and bewildered. “Did you throw them away? Did you burn them or something?”