Knowing that the twins would be emotionally and psychologically scarred after revealing the abuse they had suffered at the hands of their uncle Liam, she’d immediately taken action. Once she’d recovered from the initial shock, she contacted Jill Ambers Wednesday afternoon. Jill was a good friend as well as a forensic psychiatrist who specialized in the sexual abuse of children. Tessa never dreamed she would need to see her friend on a professional basis but knew that life didn’t always go as one expected. That very evening, Jill came to the house to examine both girls. She’d said the girls would need extensive therapy as they’d exhibited a new and intense fear of discussing what Liam had done to them.
How well she knew that some adults could never be trusted, but that was for another time. Now her focus was on her children. She would protect them no matter the cost.
On Friday afternoon, Tessa had gone to the mainland to prepare for their arrival. It was rare for her to take the girls away from home during the school year, certainly not on a Monday night, when their normal routine would consist of deciding what to have for dinner, doing homework, and discussing any upcoming plans for the week ahead, but after Wednesday’s revelation, Tessa couldn’t imagine keeping them home a minute longer than necessary. Jill had promised to check on the girls that weekend.
Thursday night, after Joel had finally returned from a business trip to England, as they lay in bed, she’d told him she needed a break, some time to herself, said she was mentally exhausted from the kids and all that caring for them had involved while he had been away the past week. He’d accepted her explanation, telling her he had to work on Saturday, and possibly a half day Sunday, but assured Tessa that Rosa, their housekeeper and occasional sitter, would be there for the girls. With Jill’s reassurance and believing that the girls were as safe as they could be since Liam was in Japan, she’d quickly arranged for Jamison’s pilot and copilot to meet her at the small local airport. She’d insisted they not file a flight plan though the pilot explained to her they would need to fly at a low altitude and stay below eight thousand feet to stay out of class A airspace. She had not cared one way or the other and had sworn them to secrecy, telling both they’d lose their jobs if they told anyone, that no matter what happened, they must remain silent. She ordered them not to tell Joel. They’d sworn their allegiance to her, knowing this had to be terribly important as Tessa was respected and well-liked by all the employees at Jamison Pharmaceuticals and would never make such a request unless it was a matter of life and death.
Jittery as though she were overcaffeinated, she recalled Poppy’s odd behavior as she prepared their breakfast on Wednesday morning. She’d been angry and hateful when Tessa woke her up that morning, which was in itself extremely unusual. Poppy never awakened in a sour mood. Piper, on the other hand, needed her quiet time, and Tessa always woke her first to allow her the few extra minutes she needed to start her day. Looking back, Piper had seemed a bit too eager to jump out of bed. How could she have missed the signs?
Both girls were kind, well behaved, and usually polite, or as polite as one could expect from ten-year-olds. The girls had extraordinary talents, which she and Joel encouraged. In hindsight, she should have known something wasn’t right when neither wanted to attend their art class Wednesday afternoon. They’d both begged to stay home from school with her, and she firmly told them no, thinking this could become a habit. Then, out of the blue, they announced that they wanted to share a bedroom again. That alone should have sent alarm bells ringing. They both liked their privacy.
And the lights. A week ago, both girls had suddenly begun to insist that their bedside lights remain on. They’d stopped wanting their night-lights when they were five. They’d both been snippy, too. Now she wished she’d taken them in her arms and simply held them. Maybe if she’d done that, they would have opened up to her sooner. The hell with art classes and school. This would remain a part of them for the rest of their lives and define the women they became.
God, how it sickened her to think of Liam, Joel’s younger half brother. She’d never liked him, not since the first time Joel had introduced him to her at a family gathering in Miami a few months before she and Joel were married. Handsome, maybe too handsome, with sandy brown hair and coffee-colored eyes, he’d seemed much too eager to please. Slick and phony, she’d thought. And the stories he told were so far-fetched that Tessa had doubted Liam’s truthfulness. She’d wanted to tell Joel she didn’t like him, but this was his brother, and she had not wanted to hurt his feelings. Joel was totally the opposite of his brother.
Joel’s mother had died in a tragic accident when he was twelve. He didn’t like to talk about his mother, and Tessa respected that. She knew that he and his mother had been extremely close, and again, she understood and respected his feelings. A year after his mother’s death, his father remarried. Liam was born almost a year to the day after his father’s marriage to his second wife, Rachelle, a woman ten years his junior whom he’d met at the Viceroy Club in Miami, where she’d tended bar. Joel didn’t dislike her, but later, as he grew older, he came to understand that she’d married his father for his money, not for love. Getting pregnant so soon had been a
