“Casey?” Mom said. “Don’t you recognize your sister Kathy? She’s finally back from Africa.”
You know the saying about the pin dropping? Well, you could have heard it. I have listened to gunshots outside my window with less fear than I had in that moment.
Mick’s face changed from pleased to confused, and then I can’t even describe his expression. “Oh my god,” he said. “Oh my god. It’s you. Of course it’s you. Oh my god, how did I not see it?”
“Not see what?” Tony said. “Doesn’t she look great? Lost that baby fat, got her hair done, she looks like America’s Top Model, doesn’t she?”
Mick’s lips were folded in and pressed together so tightly that they lost all color. What in the world could I say?
All at once he was in motion. “Dad, I need to go. I’m sorry I have to cut our visit short.” He shook my stepdad’s hand and turned to my mom. “Linda, nice to see you.” And then he looked at me. “Kathy” was all he said, but the word dripped with venom.
“Mick, wait!” I said. “Mom, I have to go too,” I called as I ran out the doorway. The front door was just banging shut behind Mick and I ran to catch up.
“Mick!”
He turned around fast. “What? What could you possibly have to say? You deceived me; I found out; goodbye.” He turned away and walked toward a red low-slung sports car that I hadn’t noticed before.
“What about you?” I shouted after him? “Huh? Mr. Bleeding-Heart Environmentalist?”
He turned back to me, but didn’t say anything.
“Yeah, Mom told me. You’re an actual billionaire, from what she says. A personal injury lawyer--ambulance chasers, I believe they’re called.”
“That’s outta line!” he shouted.
“Is it? How about liar? That sounds pretty accurate to me. You made up some pretty detailed stories, all that stuff about fracking and toxic runoff and people dumping industrial waste in the river in the middle of the night!”
“That actually happens!”
“But not to your clients! You made it all up, for god knows what reason!”
He was quiet for a minute. He looked out into the street and then back at me. “Somehow, changing what kind of lawyer I am just doesn’t compare with what you did. Telling me you weren’t my sister--”
“No! I didn’t tell you anything. You just didn’t see it. If I’d ever mattered to you--”
“A lie by omission is still a lie!” He looked so disgusted. “It changes everything, it’s just so--”
“We’re not blood relatives, Mick. It’s not like it really matters.”
“Of course it matters! If it didn’t matter, you’d have no reason to hide it, would you?”
He had me there. I’d known from the beginning that he wouldn’t consider dating me if he’d known. I took a deep breath. “I was going to tell you. I was going to tell you tonight, in fact.”
“Well, that’s just perfect. Because I was going to tell you tonight, too.”
Our eyes met, and for a few seconds, we shared the irony. For just a moment, I thought that everything was going
to be okay, that we’d find a way to work it out. But no.
He sighed, and in an utterly toneless voice, he said, “I guess we’re just breaking up a few hours early then, Casey. Kathy.” He looked out into the street, and then squeezed his eyes closed hard. He said, “I was really....”
“What?”
“Nothing. Doesn’t matter now.”
“I was really, too,” I whispered, but he had turned away.
CHAPTER NINE
Casey
I was putting the last of my books into a cardboard box when I heard a knock at the door.
Mick stood there in my hallway. He had dark circles under his eyes, and hadn’t shaved for a few days. His white shirt with the monogrammed cuffs was wrinkled all over, as if he’d slept in it.
“Why did you send the ten mil back? I got the wire transfer notice this morning.”
“I can’t take your money, Mick.”