“Charles knew?” Delilah asked, as a final dagger was pushed into her heart.
Mother Abigail rolled her eyes. “Of course he knew. You had him under your spell. I had to break that spell for him. He thought you were perfect. I proved to him you weren’t. But he ran off and eloped with you anyway. Suddenly it became his job to protect your secret.”
“We’re finished. You can leave now.” Delores stood. “Now!”
Abigail sighed. “One more thing. Charles and his vasectomy—”
“No!” Delores shouted. “No more! I mean it!”
Delilah barely heard them. Her head was spinning. She’d spent her entire life covering the secret of Phillip Collins murder and protecting her friends. To find out, the adults all knew, and left them to live with it was a greater shock than the death of Peter Collins? To hear that her mother capitalized on their pain and arranged her marriage to Charles felt obscene. It was too much. She walked over to the fireplace digesting all the lies her mother told her over the years. Mother Abigail stood in her dignified way. She glanced around the parlor at the furniture, the pictures, and then returned her gaze back at Delilah. “You can have this house. You can have your law firm. But what you can’t have is the Montgomery name. You want to keep your little secret. Change it legally as soon as you can. And keep our names out of the press. Then I’ll consider this done between us.”
“Get the hell out of here!” Delores yelled. Mother Abigail was already headed for her coat. Delores came over to comfort Delilah, and she knocked away her touch. She went after her mother-in-law. Mother Abigail turned and faced her as if expecting assault. No shame or fear for what she’d done was on her face.
“I’m not my mother,” Delilah said. “Lady, you have no idea who I am now. I don’t care. I don’t care about scandals and society reputations and all that bullshit you’ve been feeding me for years!”
“Oh, yea, I know. I was there for your performance, remember?” Mother Abigail said as she shrugged on her mink. She pulled out her gloves from her coat pocket and put them on. “But you do care about those girls. A lot. Especially Queen. Right? Your mother told you her story. You don’t know mine. If you want to protect Queen, you better not give me a reason to drag her down with you.”
“Remember, I’m the smart one,” Delilah said. “I’m the smartest of the three of us. Smarter than you and smarter than your dead son.”
“You still insult him. After all, he’s done for you,” Mother Abigail shook her head in disgust.
“Done for me? He thought of me as a possession. Protected his investment. He wouldn’t even give me a child. I don’t care what you say about Charles. I know who he was and what he wasn’t in my life.”
“Let me tell you what your mother wouldn’t. She grew up with Gayle. They were best friends. And it was Gayle who was the smart one, the talented one, the pretty one until booze washed it all away. It was Gayle who came from a better family too. Bet you didn’t know that. Did you? Out of Chicago. They disowned her and Queen, but she was good stock. She dated Tyson first. With my approval.”
“You’re lying,” Delilah said.
Abigail sighed. “Your mother seduced Tyson away. Jealous, wanting to be part of my family. Gayle couldn’t handle it. I’ll let her finish that story, but let me tell you the truth about Charles. See when he came home and said he wanted to marry you, I intended to stop it. We got into a fight. And then I showed him the proof. He’s not my son. He’s my grandson. Your brother.”
“What?” Delilah gasped.
“That’s a lie!” Delores said. “A lie!”
Delilah looked back at her mother. “What?”
“She’s lying baby. She twists the truth. She told Charles Jr. That Tyson was his father and I was his mother. She said that she raised him to protect the scandal. But that’s not the truth. Charles believed her. I didn’t know she said that lie. He believed her and married you anyway thinking you were his sister. That’s why he had a vasectomy. That’s why he was so cold with you at times. That’s why he took you to that clinic and let them inseminate you. He was obsessed with you. He was as sick as the rest of them.” Delores wept.
“Is he my brother!” Delilah shouted at her mother. “Tell me the truth damnit!”
“No. No,” Delores wept. “He’s not. He’s Queen’s brother. That’s the truth. When I dated Tyson he broke things off with Gayle. We didn’t know she was pregnant. I felt terrible. I ended things. Tyson refused to accept it, and he refused to marry Gayle. When she tried to get help her family was livid. They wanted to keep the scandal out of Chicago so they forced Gaye to give Mother Abigail her baby and never claim him. It broke her. That’s the truth. And I hated myself and Tyson for what we did to her. We destroyed Gayle. And then years later Mother Abigail destroyed Charles.”
Delilah took a step back in disbelief and disgust.
Mother Abigail applauded. “Finally, the family truth is out!”
“You made Charles believe he was my brother. How?” Delilah asked. “How!”
“I had Tyson confirm it,” Abigail said. “He eloped with you anyway. And we just let it lay with him. I knew at the very best he would never be happy with you. That the marriage would fail. It eventually did. That was his own fault for betraying me and the family.”
Delilah put her hands to her head. Not sure what to believe. She paced the floor as her entire existence crashed in on her.
Mother Abigail continued with amusement in her voice. “I’ve made myself clear. You need to think of how you are going to fix this little issue you created in this town before I give you a bigger one to deal with. Imagine the scandal if the press found out you married your brother.”
“It’s a lie!” Delores shouted. “You know he is not my son!”
“One, lie, then another, then another,” Abigail said. “No one cares about the truth when you deal with gossip. The scandal will destroy you all. Delilah can’t let that happen. Can you dear?”
Delilah smiled. Delilah laughed. Delilah laughed so hard she began to cry.
“I say something funny?” Mother Abigail asked.
“I love it. Of course Charles was a demented as you to marry me even if he thought I was his sister. That’s what’s funny,” Delilah said and wiped her tears. “Years I felt empty in our bed and our marriage and he was the one that had no soul.”
“I beg your pardon?” Mother Abigail replied.
“You heard me. Use the damn tapes. Have them reopen the case and charge us with murder. Tell the town that my husband thought he married his sister and got his nuts clipped to keep from getting me pregnant. Do whatever the hell you want,” Delilah said. She threw her hands up with a roar of laughter. “I’m free!”
“You’re bluffing,” Mother Abigail chuckled.
“Try me,” Delilah said. “We were kids. You were a grown woman who sat back and let three children be traumatized over an accident after a pedophile attacked them and tried to kill them. That’s all Queen said on that tape. And Charles was your son. Not Gayle’s, not Mama’s, he was yours. You screwed him up so bad he could barely keep an erection. He was a terrible husband, a terrible lover, a terrible friend, a terrible human being. That’s not scandal Mother Abigail. It’s the life of a Montgomery.”