The Silent Sister(105)

I winced.

“She was terrified. She knew where your father kept the key to his gun case, so she got the gun, though she really had no plan to use it. It wasn’t even loaded. She just wanted it close by in case he tried anything. Just to scare him. She left it in the den where she could get to it easily. Then she called Matty and asked him to come over, but Steven beat him there.” She ran her fingertips over the short pile of my hallway carpet. “And do you know what Steven wanted?” she asked.

“Sex?” I asked weakly.

“No,” she said. “He wanted his daughter. You. Somehow he figured out you were his child. His wife couldn’t have kids, and he told Jade he planned to hire some high-powered attorney to get custody of you. He talked about how well he could provide for you and how he’d turn you into this great musician and on and on. She was so afraid, because whatever Steven wanted, he always got.”

“So she killed him to stop him from trying to get custody of me?”

She shook her head. “No, Riley.” She leaned forward, her hands flat on the carpet, her gaze on my face. “Ever since she was little,” she said, “he’d abused her. Touched her. Fondled her. Whatever you want to call it.” The angry scarlet color had returned to Celia’s cheeks.

“Oh, no.” I pressed my hand to my mouth as the dizziness returned. “Oh, how sick.” I thought of the little girl with her tiny violin on the VHS tape. What price had she paid for her fame? That age-old question popped into my mind, Why didn’t she tell someone? But I was a counselor, I knew the answer. He had complete power over her, like Celia had said. She’d been dependent on him for her lessons. For her future. He could ruin her with one phone call, which was exactly what he’d tried to do by keeping her out of Juilliard. My heart broke for the frightened and confused girl she must have been. I hated Steven Davis. I would never claim him as my father.

“So, they were in the living room and he was telling her how he was going to get custody of you,” Celia said. “He convinced her he could do it, and she was so afraid she was going to lose you. I don’t think she was rational at that point, Riley. She went into the den and got the gun, and then she decided to load it. She says she just wanted to scare him. Shoot out a window or something to let him know she was serious, but I think the point is, she was out of her mind right then with the fear of losing you. And when she went back into the living room, he was holding you on his lap.”

I gasped. “I have no memory at all of this,” I said.

She leaned forward to touch my knee with her fingertips. “I’m glad you don’t,” she said. “When Jade saw you on his lap and remembered the things he’d done to her when she was little, she snapped. She grabbed you and tossed you—that’s the word she used when she told me what happened—she said she tossed you aside and then she shot the hell out of him.”

I lifted my hands to my face, steepled together like I was praying. “So it wasn’t an accident after all.” My voice was a whisper. I felt numb with shock and sorrow. “And she still didn’t tell anyone what he’d done to her?”

“She was afraid it would look like the motive,” she said. “Her real motive, though, was protecting you.”

For the first time, I could understand why Lisa had felt she had to run away. If the truth came out during the trial—that he’d abused her, that he’d raped her—well, she may have gained some sympathy from the jurors, but they would have known she’d had plenty of reason to kill him. She’d never be able to prove the shooting was accidental … because it wasn’t.

“You hit your head on the coffee table when she pulled you off his lap,” she said.

I touched my forehead and the small divot that had been with me all my life. When I lowered my hand, Celia rested her fingertips on my knee again. “I’m sorry to have to tell you all of this,” she said. “I really am. But you needed to know. I couldn’t let you think she’d ever willingly cast you aside.”

I nodded. “Thank you for telling me,” I whispered.

“Jade refuses to cancel New Bern,” Celia said, resting her hands in her lap. “She’ll take whatever Danny and his friend dish out. Even if it ruins her. And you know it will. She’s being really brave, but she’s going to be locked up for the rest of her life, and I’m so scared for her.”

I pressed my fingers to my eyes and they came away wet. “I’ll talk to Danny again,” I said, hoping he hadn’t already spoken to Harry. “But I don’t think he’ll bend.”

She picked up my phone from the floor. “I’m putting my number in your contacts,” she said, tapping the screen. “Call me after you talk to him, all right?”

“He’s driven, Celia,” I said. “All he cares about is hurting Lisa the way he thinks she hurt him. He’s looking for justice.”

She stood up. “I won’t stop hoping.” She leaned over, surprising me with a kiss on the top of my head. “And besides,” she said, straightening up again, “justice comes in many forms.”





56.



I didn’t even consider going to bed after Celia left, although it was four in the morning. My body was exhausted, but my mind reeled. That image of Lisa pulling me off Steven Davis’s lap and blowing him away in a fit of fury was never going to leave me.