I flip on the light in the master. The room is eerily vacant. “Kasey?” Scared now, I race through the house, checking all the bathrooms. I even check the congressman’s office—the one place we’re not allowed. She’s nowhere.
Is she playing a game with me? She likes to play hide-and-seek, but I always know where she is by her laughter. “Kasey, this isn’t funny anymore. Where are you?”
I re-visit all the bedrooms, frantically searching every closet and under every bed. Downstairs, I check the garage because she sometimes sits in Mom’s convertible and pretends to drive. What do I do? Do I call the police? Is she outside?
Running to the front door, something catches my eye. The pool sliders are open. Did we forget to close them? I push them wider and step through, scanning the dim patio for my sister. “Kasey, are you out here?”
My world implodes when I see it: the baby gate around the pool is open. The baby gate I left open.
I swallow hard and force myself forward through the mesh gate. The pool is illuminated by lights under the water. My heart stops when I see something at the bottom.
It’s silent on this side of the fence, but strangely, I hear everything coming from Angelina’s house. The three of them are laughing at Dane’s impression of Iron Man. He’s really good at it. All I want to do is go back over and laugh with them. But I know I’ll never laugh again, because I finally grasp that Kasey, my little sister, the light of my life, is four feet under the water, and she’s not moving.
“Kasey!” I scream. I jump into the pool, swim down, and grab one of her arms. I pull her to the stairs and drag her onto the deck. “Help! Help!”
By the light of the pool, I see her skin is almost white. I’m shaking. I have no idea what to do. I turn her over and hit her repeatedly on the back. “Help! Dane, call 911! Help!”
My mind runs in circles, like a crazed hamster on a wheel. I think of health class. What did they teach us? I lean down and put my ear over her mouth and nose. “She’s not breathing! Help!”
I hear sprinting footsteps on the deck, then screams. I don’t know who is screaming or what anyone is saying. I pump her chest with shaking hands, but I have no idea if I’m doing it right. Someone kneels beside me and blows into Kasey’s mouth. Sirens blare in the distance.
I’m pulled away, and a man in a fireman’s coat puts me on a lounger, holding me back. It’s all a blur as half a dozen people help her.
She’s okay. She’s okay. She’s okay. I repeat it over and over and over, leaning into the strong arms around me.
More activity. More sirens and lights and people. Police officers are everywhere. I’m crying. My friends are crying. But when a paramedic stands and sobs, I know my life will never be the same. She looks at the fireman holding me and shakes her head.
I killed her. I’m a murderer. My precious baby sister is gone.
There’s a knock on the bathroom door. “Devyn, are you all right?”
“Give me a minute.” I stand up, turn on the faucet, and splash cold water on my face. I glare at myself in the mirror, looking at the monster who should never be responsible for another human life. “I can’t do this,” I whisper to my reflection. I open the door. “I have to go.”
Andie follows me. “Devyn?”
I don’t turn around. “Thanks for having me. I’ll see you later.” I cross the driveway and yard and go all the way to the barn that houses the ATVs. I get on the first one I come to and gun it all the way to the lodge.
Joe’s truck is still parked out back. I run up the steps and into the kitchen. “Joe, I need a ride.”
Chapter Twenty-seven
Aaron
“She ran off? Where’d she go?”
“Took off on an ATV,” Andie says. “Looks like she was headed to the lodge.”
I pace the living room, then it hits me that Andie is wearing a bathing suit. “Were you guys in the pool?”
“We were sunning on the deck until Maddox brought Vivian out back. One minute she seemed fine and the next, she was sobbing on the bathroom floor. But don’t say anything. I don’t think she knew I could hear her through the door.”
“Fuck.” I run my hands through my hair. “Was Vivian in the pool?”
“Of course. She loves the water. Why?”
I shake my head. “I have to find her.”
“Aaron, what’s going on with her?”
“Not my place to say,” I tell her on the way out.
At the lodge, Luca is leading the horses to the path that goes back to the stables. That means the guests are inside. Damn, I was hoping we could be alone.
I knock on Devyn’s bedroom door. She doesn’t answer, and I open it. It’s dark, and she’s not here. Could be she’s out for more alone time. How long will she be gone this time? On my way out, I notice the drawer to her nightstand is open and things are strewn about, like she was hastily rummaging through it. I know what’s in there. Her notebook. Or should I say journal. I badly want to know what she’s feeling, but I already know too much that she doesn’t want me to know. I can’t do anything to further violate her trust.
I reach out to close the drawer, and something catches my eye. I pick up the black-and-white photo, and my heart lodges somewhere in my throat. I know exactly what this is. Andie displayed her ultrasound picture on the refrigerator for months. At the top is a name: Devyn Dunlop.
I sit. Holy shit, she’s pregnant.
It explains her fainting and getting sick, pulling away from me, and her highly emotional state.
I can barely wrap my mind around it when I see something else: pamphlets. I open the one on abortion. She wouldn’t, would she? I think about what she went through today, having to watch Andie and Maddox in the pool with Vivian. I’m sure she was reminded of her sister’s death.
I have to find her. I put the pamphlets and photo back in the drawer, then notice something is missing. The money isn’t here. She probably had close to a thousand dollars.
Fuck.
I run out of her room, smack into Joe. “Have you seen Devyn?”
“Just gave her a ride.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere in Fort Worth.”
“To a doctor’s office?”
“Don’t know. She had me drop her on a street corner. Said she’d Uber back later. Wanted to do shoppin’ or somethin’.”
“And you believed her? Did she seem upset?”
“Sure, but ain’t that precisely when women go shoppin’?”
“Tell me exactly where you took her.”
I’ve never driven faster in my life. The address he gives me is thirty minutes away. I make it in twenty. I scan both sides of the street, sweat soaking my shirt. What if I’m too late?
I see a women’s clinic. I don’t even bother finding a parking spot. I pull to the curb, get out, and run inside.
I approach the woman behind the plexiglass. “Is there a Devyn here?”
“I’m sorry, I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Devyn Dunlop. I’m her—” I almost say boyfriend, but I wonder if, just like at the hospital, they won’t let me in. “Husband.”