Wishing Well(84)

“No. I’m Penelope.”

“Holy shit!” she said, laughing, “It’s still impossible to tell you two apart. But what are you doing here? Meadow went into the city to look for you. She said you’ve been out of touch the past few weeks.”

“Damn it!” Tears burst from my eyes. I was not in the mood for this. “I got her emails and came here looking for her. I didn’t even know she was coming into town.”

Cocking a hip, Gia leaned a shoulder against the door. “Neither did I until yesterday. She called me in a panic as she was boarding the plane. All she brought with her was a small carry on, which -“

Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “Damn, she must have rushed out the door when she left a little bit ago. She forgot her stuff. Are you heading back to the city?”

Her gaze flicked past my shoulder to see the waiting cab. “Looks like it. Why don’t you take her bag with you? I have a feeling once you two find each other, she won’t want to come all the way back here.”

“Yeah, okay. I really need to get back.”

Not only to find Meadow, but to be at the hotel in time for sunset. Maurice would have a panic attack if I wasn’t there. There was no telling what he would think happened to me.

Handing me the cross body bag, which was no bigger than a purse, she touched my shoulder as I turned to leave. “Hey, Penelope. I’m really sorry to hear about your mom. Meadow was inconsolable. I’ve never seen her so flustered and out of it. She’s really taking it hard.”

Nodding because I didn’t know what to say, I walked off, but turned again before reaching the cab. “Gia, if Meadow left her stuff here, how did she get to the city? She wouldn’t have been able to pay for a cab.”

“My mom said she’d drop her off since she was heading over there for some business meeting. She probably hasn’t even noticed she left it here. It’s like I said, she’s really messed up right now.”

“Thanks.” She was still waving goodbye as I climbed into the cab.

“Back to where I picked you up?” The driver asked.

“Yes. And hurry.”

I should have remembered to plan for traffic when deciding whether I could make it to Gia’s and back to the city on time. I should have remembered that at five in the afternoon, the streets leading between the city and suburbs became a practical parking lot. Here I was again listing out the ‘should haves’, the mistakes that made a night like this possible.

By the time we were able to get remotely close to the Wishing Well, the sun was already settling over the horizon, my hands clenched painfully over the strap of Meadow’s bag. Unable to endure sitting in the back of a cab doing nothing, I snapped, more worried about Maurice than anything else. Although I knew Meadow was in a state of mourning, even though Gia had mentioned that Meadow hadn’t been herself, I knew she couldn’t be so bad that she wouldn’t simply wait at the hotel for me to return. If she went there, the people at the front desk would have contacted Vincent -

Crap , I thought. He didn’t know I have an identical twin. I’d mentioned my family to him, but never that Meadow was my twin.

I didn’t want to think what Vincent would say or do after sauntering into the lobby to discover Meadow standing there. I could only hope he controlled himself enough not to say or do anything to freak her out, that he showed her to my room so she could wait there, or perhaps to a table in the dining room.

Why the fuck didn’t I have a phone? It would have prevented all of this.

I couldn’t sit in the cab any longer. Running the rest of the way was faster at that point.

“How much for me to get out here?” I asked, urgency edging my voice.

Sirens cut through the night air, so ear-splitting in their volume that the driver couldn’t speak loud enough to be heard over them. Blue lights flashed as police cars fought to race past us, the traffic eventually moving enough so that they could squeeze by. As the sound eased with their distance, the driver finally told me the amount. Wincing at the cost, I tossed him the cash and let myself out of the car.

Still several blocks away, I saw the lights of emergency vehicles battling against the brilliant colors of the setting sun, and after turning several corners, I heard the distant screams, the murmurs, the shouting police, a heart-shattering roar of pure pain rising above it all. I couldn’t catch my breath, couldn’t gather my thoughts, couldn’t do anything but keep running toward the hotel. And as I approached it, I knew something terrible had occurred.

What I didn’t I know was that my entire life had just fallen apart. Not until I unlocked the employee gate into the garden. Not until I stood off to the side, a large flowering bush hiding me from easy sight as I witnessed the scene that was playing out before me.

Logic was lost to me, agony sliding in to take its place in my thoughts. And my heart didn’t just splinter, it buckled and stopped. Hand flying to my mouth to prevent the scream that never came, I first saw Vincent being handcuffed and led away, his clothes bloody, injuries dotting his body and face.

Beyond him, beyond the man who had taken me from the streets and somehow given my life new meaning, I saw my sister’s body being pulled from Maurice’s arms. John had just enough time to inject Maurice with the medicine Vincent had used on him before, and as Maurice’s body crashed down, as Meadow lay lifeless over a bed of grass, blood and gore, as the guests kept insisting to the police that Maurice and Vincent had killed her, I no longer had the ability to think rationally.