“But he’s not?” she almost whispered, eyes glossing over as her body swayed.
“No, Siara. He’s not.” Anthony pulled out more papers for her to look over. “Casanova appears to be the complete opposite of his brother. He has a very violent, toxic past. Several stints in prison and assault charges. He never went to college, never really tried to make anything of the second chance he was given.”
Siara’s hands shook as they covered her mouth.
“This all makes sense now. Why Julia didn’t say it was Silky stalking and terrorizing her. Abusing her. Because she knew it couldn’t have been him. That’s not Silky’s character. But he looked just like him, because they are twins.”
“Yea. They probably thought she was trying to protect him. And we don’t know what differences there was back then. If he had his hair the same as Silky’s and the tattoos or not. She probably thought she was going crazy.”
“So, then… where is my husband?” Clutching her stomach, Siara muttered, “Do you think he killed him?”
Anthony shrugged as his head shook. “At first, I did, but I remembered him paying off the CO. I’d bet money that Silky is still in jail.”
Siara whimpered, covering her mouth as vomit gushed upwards. She didn’t know which she wanted to do more – cry because her husband was somewhere, held captive, experiencing God only knows what, or throw up from the thought of his twin being a constant in her life for almost seven months.
She’d made love to him.
Held his hand as they cut her stomach open to give them her and Silky’s child.
Shared her home with him.
And all this time… Silky was…
Siara cried out, clutching her heart. It felt as if it was literally expanding. Preparing to explode within her chest.
Anthony made his way to her, rubbing her back as she switched between crying and groaning and vomiting.
When she felt completely empty, Siara sat upright in her seat. She wiped her mouth with one hand and accepted the bottle of water Anthony offered with the other.
“I’ll clean this up,” she informed him weakly, throat and stomach throbbing with piercing pain.
“Don’t worry about that. Are you okay, Siara?”
Her shame and sadness were quickly being replaced with anger. Siara stood, asking, “What is the next move? How do we get Silky out of there?”
“First, we have to prove that he’s actually there. I will look into the Shelby County database and see if he’s still an inmate. But if a CO is being paid, they probably have him as released in the system to cover their trail. If he’s in the system still, we go to the police with the evidence. If he’s not in the system, it’s going to be a bit trickier to track him down. We will have to rely on the willingness of the CO to comply, and if his career and freedom are on the line, I’m sure he will lie.”
Siara released a centering exhale.
“Okay. So let’s check the database.”
Anthony smiled with one side of his mouth. He went over to his desk and called for someone from the janitor’s department, then grabbed his laptop.
“Let’s go to the café across the street,” he suggested.
Siara nodded in agreement. She pulled her phone out, noticing a missed call from Silky. From Casanova. A part of her wanted to ignore it, but she didn’t want him to get suspicious, so she called back. He answered on the first ring.
“Why didn’t you answer my call, Siara?”
Her eyes closed, and she inhaled a deep breath. “I’m walking across the street now, meeting with a client. My phone was in my purse. Is everything okay?”
“Yea. Just got a funny feeling. Wanted to make sure you were okay. I’ll probably leave the school and go see Silia. Make sure she’s fine, too.”
“No,” she yelled louder than she wanted to. “Why don’t you just call my mom or FaceTime her?” she suggested in a softer tone. “I don’t want Silia to get used to being with just us on a daily basis. If she is having a hard day, I think it’ll be best if my mother handles it.”
Casanova remained silent for a few seconds before letting out a long exhale. “You’re right. Well, I’ll call her. I’ll see you when I get home.”
“Okay.”
“I love you.”
Her head began to spin, and she felt her stomach twisting again. But at this point, Siara was sure there was nothing else that could come out.
“I love you more, Silky.” And that… that was the truth.
She disconnected the call and avoided Anthony’s sad eyes. As she looked at the picture of her, Silia, and Casanova as her wallpaper, Siara couldn’t resist throwing her phone into oncoming traffic. Her eyes lowered to the ground as her phone was ran over. This would have to be over… soon.
After Siara and Anthony left the police station, she stopped by Boost Mobile to get a new iPhone. In the moment, she wanted to see nothing that reminded her of Casanova, but he was already suspicious, and temporarily being unable to reach her was not the best move.
Sure enough, Silky had been marked as released in the system, but the correctional officer from the picture confirmed that Silky was still being held. He hadn’t wanted to work with Casanova, but Casanova had been blackmailing him. And once he took that first payment, he knew he was screwed. He shared with them that Silky was being held in a solitary cell that they used for their most troubled inmates. He would get a few hours of free time a day, but his phone and visitation privileges had been revoked to ensure he didn’t try and reach out to the outside world.
Siara’s heart broke knowing her husband had been locked away for almost a year, but she was going to do whatever it took to get him out soon.
While the police commissioner and judge who presided over his case wanted to get Silky out as soon as possible, there was still a protocol that had to take place. They had to have physical proof that Silky was innocent before they released him. Even though they were identical twins, there was a DNA test that could, potentially, melt their DNA and tell the twins apart.
That wasn’t going to be enough, though.
At best, it would be enough to have Silky released, but it wouldn’t be enough to charge Casanova with any new crimes except bribing a correctional officer, and he’d be out in no time after that.
They would have to get his testimony to prove he was responsible for everything he’d tried to pin on Silky – that was the only way they’d be free of him.
The DNA test took a few hours for the results, but the police commissioner said he’d put Silky’s DNA sample at the top of the list. Because Casanova was already in the system, it wouldn’t take hardly any time for the samples to be ran against each other. In the meantime, it was Siara’s responsibility to get as much of the truth out of Casanova as she possibly could.
At first, neither the police commissioner nor Anthony wanted her around him. They wanted her to get Silia and stay somewhere safe until he was apprehended, but Siara wanted more. She didn’t want him to face such a petty charge; she wanted him to become the convicted murderer that he was. She asked Anthony if she baited him with the truth and somehow killed him, if she could get off with self-defense, but Anthony knew her well enough to know she wouldn’t be able to kill him – no matter how angry she was.