Shattered Mirror (Eve Duncan #23)(27)

Eve nodded. “I understand. No one wants to hurt your friend, Cara. But we have to have answers. That poor girl I’ve been living with for the last five days deserves to have them.”

“But Sylvie’s the one who already knows all the answers,” Cara said sadly. “What she needs to know is what we’re going to do about it.”

Eve nodded as she gave Cara a hug and rose to her feet. “I’ll give you your chance. I’ll call Joe and tell him what’s happened and ask him to take Michael out to eat after soccer practice. It will be time for Michael to go to bed by the time he gets home. That should give Darcy the night to pull herself together. Okay?”

Cara nodded. “And it will give me time to pull myself together, too. My head is whirling. I’m jumping from thought to thought, and every one of them is wild and makes no sense whatsoever.”

“Then I’ll make you a cup of tea and a sandwich and we won’t talk about anything but your school, and music, and Michael for the rest of the evening. Is that a plan?”

“That’s a plan,” she said huskily. “Only let’s limit it to Michael. Somehow, he manages to make everything seem all right.”





CHAPTER

5

2:40 A.M. LAKE COTTAGE



“You found your way out here to the porch?” Cara stood in the doorway, looking at Darcy curled up under a blanket on the porch swing. “It’s my favorite place in the entire cottage. I should have known you’d zero in on it.”

“Can’t have you monopolizing it. Consider it mine.” She was trying to be flip, but it came out a little shaky. “Since I’m liable to be tossed out of here in the morning, I need to gather rosebuds where I may. Who said that anyway? Shakespeare?”

“I have no idea.” She crossed the porch and nudged Darcy’s legs out of her way to perch on the end of the swing. “But there’s no need for gathering rosebuds. No one is kicking you out. Eve understood that you’d be upset.”

“No, she didn’t. How could she? I walk into her home and upset her, then fall apart and have to be sent to bed like a kid.”

“You had reason.” She leaned back on the swing. “She knows that. We just don’t know what the reasons are, Darcy.” She paused. “So I’ve been designated to find out because they thought it would be easier for you to talk to me. Is that true?”

“You know it is.”

“Then will you tell me about your twin? You’ve never mentioned her. And I don’t remember ever reading about her on your fan pages.”

“You read my fan page?”

“Only when I knew you were going to room with me. I wanted to know what to expect.”

“And you found me just as spectacular as you thought I’d be?”

“Absolutely.” She reached out and covered Darcy’s hand with her own. Darcy seemed so terribly vulnerable in this moment. Just as beautiful, but everything about her seemed infinitely fragile, like crystal on the verge of shattering.

“You’re lying because you want to make me feel better.”

“Well, maybe not absolutely, but close. Tell me about your twin.”

“Her name is Sylvia Marie Jordan. We were born in a hospital in Nice, France. I came first, and Sylvie was born twenty minutes later.” She smiled bitterly. “I always came first, you know. All our lives I came first. I was the star.”

“Jordan? Your name is Nichols.”

“My mother changed it when she started being a stage mother and began pushing me for auditions. Felicity thought Nichols had a better ring to it. What do you think?”

“Both are good.”

“That’s what I thought. Though I liked Jordan better. But what does a six-year-old know? What I wanted didn’t matter. Felicity had already divorced my father and was on to number three. But number three was disappointing, too. So she decided that she’d have to concentrate on someone she could control. Someone who would do whatever she wished and not argue—who couldn’t argue.”

“Sylvie?”

“Heavens no, she was a disappointment to Felicity, too.” Her gaze shifted to the lake. “Sylvie was very … slow. I told you I was first, didn’t I? Sylvie had brain damage. She also developed a blood disorder that would probably have killed her before she reached adulthood.”

“Dear God,” Cara said. “What a tragedy.”

“Sylvie didn’t see it that way.” Darcy steadied her voice. “She was always so happy. Everything was beautiful as far as she was concerned. I’ve never known anyone to enjoy life as much as Sylvie.” She added softly, “Each day seemed like a miracle to her. Everyone thought I was the star, that I was the one who lit up everything around me, but it was her. It was always Sylvie.”

“That must have been a great comfort to you.”

“I didn’t think about it. It was just the way she was. My other half, my better half.” She shrugged. “Until Felicity decided that I had to earn my way. She’d been an actress and a model before she decided she preferred being supported in the way she deserved by sundry husbands. But she knew enough to know that talented child actors could be pure gold on the TV networks. I’d just turned six, and I was the right age. Oh, and I was very talented. I could sing. I could dance. My line delivery was faultless. I was being called a modern Shirley Temple. So Felicity took me back to New York and dedicated six months to being a stage mother until I got my big break. Then she hired a nanny for me and went back to Nice to live the good life. Needless to say, I was everything she could ask of me. I was fantastic. Of course, it was instinct driven by necessity. But it worked for her.” She paused. “And it worked for us.”