I squeezed my eyes tighter as if it could purge him from my consciousness.
God. It wasn’t fair. Wasn’t fair that he was still there, haunting me like a flaw stamped on my soul.
I was so lost to thinking about it that I shrieked when my phone went off where it sat on the seat beside me. In my blundering, I knocked it to the floor, and I scrambled to pick it up from where it’d fallen onto the floorboards.
My heart took off at a sprint when I saw it was the private investigator calling. I hurried to accept it, pressing it to my ear. “This is Violet Marin.”
“Ms. Marin. It’s David Jacobs with Jacobs & Drow. Did I catch you at a good time?”
“Yes…yes, of course.”
“Great, I wanted to ask you a few questions about your sister. I’ve pulled some basic records, but I need a few more details to really get started.”
Grief billowed through my spirit. Part of me wanted to hang up. Tell him to forget it. That I couldn’t handle any news he might report.
I looked back at the house. At the window with the drapes parted where I knew my mama was inside. Prayin’ for a miracle. I couldn’t be the one to stand in the way of that.
“Yes, any information I have, I’m happy to share. Though I’m not sure I have much information that will help. That’s why I called you.”
I attempted the joke.
It creaked with despair.
“Why don’t you start by telling me about her? Her personality. The things she enjoyed. The things she might have been struggling with leading up to the day she disappeared.”
Emotions spun a web inside me. Anger and love. Hope and regret. The gift she’d given and the peace that she’d stolen.
Everything in the middle of it.
Every loss.
But I guessed she’d been responsible for my greatest joy.
I cleared the roughness from my voice. “We were close for most of our lives…”EightVioletEight Years Ago“I have no interest in goin’ to some bar tonight.”
Violet’s older sister, Liliana, rolled her eyes at her.
“You have no interest?” Lily drawled as if it were the most ridiculous thing she’d ever heard.
“Nope, none,” Violet spouted, returning her attention to the book she was reading where she lay sprawled on her bed.
Or at least she attempted to. Vainly, considering her obnoxious big sister ripped the book from her hands like she were twelve and not twenty-five.
“Hey. What is wrong with you? I was reading that, in case you hadn’t noticed.” Violet scrambled onto her knees in an attempt to grab it.
Her sister dangled it over her head. “What is wrong with me? What is wrong with you? You’re a twenty-two-year-old fuddy-duddy who’d rather sit in her room on a Friday night than go out dancin’. Now that is the real problem. Have I taught you nothing?”
Violet’s brows lifted so high they disappeared beneath her bangs. “Fuddy-duddy? I think it’s you who has the issue.”
Lily waved her off. “It might be the only phrase my boring little sister knows since she’s already halfway to bein’ a spinster.”
Violet scowled at her sister who stalked over to her closet.
Liliana was tall, miles of legs and curves for days. Black hair and eyes the same strange color as Violet and their mother’s. A bombshell. So gorgeous she turned heads wherever she went.
But it was the inside that truly made her shine.
Joyful and real and fun.
The one person Violet could always go to, no matter what. The one she’d looked up to her whole life. The one who’d always helped to give her courage to step out and chase down the things that would bring Violet the most joy.
Violet loved that Lily lived her life the same way.
So full of joy and anticipation.
Violet almost smiled at her from behind because when her sister got something into her head, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Violet’s closest friend.
That was until she started to dig through Violet’s closet and tugged something free. Violet sneered at the short denim skirt that landed next to her on her bed. “You are crazy if you think I’m walkin’ out of this house wearing that.”
Lily leaned up against the wall with a smug grin. “So that means you’re goin’? You know you want to,” she sang as she waltzed back across Violet’s room and stretched out her hand for Violet to take it.
Violet blew out a sigh. “Ugh. Fine. But you owe me if I have a terrible time.”Forty minutes later, they were ready. Violet’s hair was ironed into shiny, sleek sheets that swished down her back. More makeup on her face than she ever wore, shimmering and sparkling thanks to Liliana doing her the favor. Violet had tossed the skirt right back at her and told her to put it on, while she’d pulled on a modest white sundress with tiny pink flowers and paired it with her favorite pink cowgirl boots.