Bury Me(67)

“You pushed Ravenna into the lake on the day of your fifth birthday. They never loved you, and they always made you feel like you didn’t belong. Even at five years old you knew she was the good one, you were the bad one, and they’d never see you any other way, so you proved them right,” she says.

I don’t say a word, letting her work through it on her own.

“You failed, though. Someone jumped in and saved her. Who was it?” she asks.

“Remember the part of the story when I met Beatrice Michaels?”

Mavra nods, and the confusion on her face disappears.

“That’s right,” she announces happily. “She told you she knew you’d come back and finish what you started. She said her husband pulled that little body from the lake and rescued her. So Nolan’s father saved Ravenna, knew everything, and he told his wife. Even with her being so sick and all those years that had passed, she still remembered. But wait, how did no one else know there were twins? You lived there for five years. Certainly someone who worked there saw both of you.”

I shake my head. “My parents knew the moment I came out of the womb. Even though Tanner saw with his own two eyes that my mother and his brother had an affair, for nine months he still held out hope that the twins she would give birth to would be his. Ravenna came out first, peaceful and cooing, looking just like our mother and they both sighed in relief. I joined them two minutes later, angry and screaming, with a crescent moon-shaped birthmark the size of a fifty-cent piece on my upper thigh, perfectly matching the one that Tobias had in the exact same spot.”

Mavra’s eyes widen in shock, but I continue, even though I know she still has questions.

“My father wanted to get rid of me immediately. Maybe he wanted to kill me, maybe he wanted to give me away, but my mother wouldn’t allow it,” I explain. “We were both tiny, innocent babies, and she told him there was no way for them to know right then how we would turn out. ‘Just give it time, Tanner, please,’ she begged. He agreed, but he refused to let anyone know there were two of us, just in case. Ravenna and I were never allowed downstairs at the same time. We could never go outside and play together…only one at a time, just in case…”

Mavra closes her eyes and bows her head, processing what I just told her.

“Even though he promised, Tanner could never look at me without thinking about his brother, and, of course, my mother’s betrayal. I never even had a chance. It only took five years for me to prove him right.”

Mavra lifts her head back up. “So he sent you away with a horrible man the day after you pushed Ravenna in the lake. That day you looked at the photo of Tanner, your mother, and a five-year-old girl that was on the mantel, you could remember the photo being taken back then, but all you remembered was screaming and begging and being pulled away, not posing for the family picture.”

My head bobs in confirmation.

“My mother forgot to cancel the family photo session that day. She’d been too upset and distraught after Ravenna was pulled from the lake and given mouth-to-mouth. My memories the day I saw that photo when I was eighteen were correct,” I inform her. “Dr. Thomas was dragging me away, kicking and screaming, when they stood for the photo. Ravenna wasn’t looking at the camera when the flash went off because she was watching me go.”

Mavra bites her bottom lip, her face scrunching up as she thinks.

“Nolan’s father told his wife about the two of you. Why didn’t he tell anyone else? He worked there for years and suddenly found out there were two daughters instead of one and he never told anyone?” she asks.

“Tanner was very good at threatening people to keep his secrets. If Mr. Michaels didn’t keep his mouth shut, he’d no longer have a roof over his head or a paycheck to feed his family,” I tell her. “There was nothing Mr. Michaels could do but follow his orders and keep his secrets. Beatrice had already started to get sick off and on by that point, and he had a seven-year-old son to think of. He couldn’t lose his job or his home.”

Mavra turns away from me to stare in silence at the fireplace across the room. I let the ticking of the old grandfather clock downstairs soothe me with its rhythmic sound.

“Did you fake your memory loss that entire time?” she asks.

I laugh and shake my head.

“I was a good actress, Mavra, but not that good. When Dr. Thomas died of a heart attack, enabling me to finally get away from him, I went straight to the prison. I’d been planning that reunion ever since the day they sent me away. I showed up on their doorstep with a forged letter from Dr. Thomas announcing I’d finally been cured,” I explain. “Ravenna was standing right there in the hallway and they had no choice but to tell her the truth that she’d forgotten after thirteen years—that she had a twin sister who’d been sent away when we were five.”