Joel’s father, Grant, would never divorce or abandon the mother of his son, according to Joel. Grant had died three years before she and Joel married, even before she had come to work at Jamison Pharmaceuticals. Thanks to Sam McQuade, who at the time was not only Grant’s personal attorney but also the chief financial officer at the company, Grant had left Rachelle a very wealthy woman. Sam had been Joel’s right-hand man, and they’d been friends since college.
Had it been only four days ago that life as they knew it turned into a living nightmare?
Tessa recalled the shock she’d felt when Poppy said that Uncle Liam touched her in places he wasn’t supposed to and she really, really hated it. Then Piper, the more timid of the two girls, had said he touched her, too, and she did not like it either. She said Uncle Liam told her that if she told her parents, he would kill her and her family. Still, there seemed to be something strange about their stories, and they had both refused to give her any details when she’d asked.
Stunned at the casual manner in which they had told their stories, floored by the revelation, Tessa was momentarily silenced by her daughters’ statements. The girls were seated at the small oak table in the kitchen while Tessa flipped pancakes. At first stunned into temporary silence, then, as though struck by a sudden bolt of lightning, her hands had begun to shake so violently that she had dropped the plate of blueberry pancakes she had just made for their breakfast.
The vivid yellow serving platter that shattered on the black-and-white tile resembled mini shards of sunlight, broken forever. Her precious little girls would be broken forever, too, their psyches damaged. Like a kettle of steaming water, rage boiled inside Tessa, spewing forth minutes after she dropped the plate.
“I swear I will kill that son of a bitch!” Tessa shouted as she gathered both girls in her arms.
Even after Joel got home from his business trip on Thursday afternoon, she had avoided telling him what had happened to their girls, what his half brother had done. She didn’t know why, but something told her she should wait until her return from the mainland. Jill had assured her they would be fine at home with their father and Rosa for the weekend. Tessa took her friend’s words to heart even though Piper and Poppy had begged her not to leave. She told them she had to, that it was very important, and when she returned, she would have a surprise for them. Two days. They would be fine.
As she drove, she tried to pinpoint a time when the girls had resorted to their five-year-old behavior. Why she hadn’t paid more attention baffled her. She was a hands-on mother, or so she thought, but she had simply decided the girls wanted to be little girls again, as they’d started to develop early, and she hated this for them, but it was beyond her to control their physical development. She would explain what was happening to their bodies once they were settled. Had this early development been the start of Liam’s molesting them? As much as she wanted to ask them what had actually happened, she chose to wait until Jill advised her to do so. They had been so averse to answering any questions about details. It was almost as if they somehow wanted to protect their uncle. No, that could not be true. Could it? Had they actually been . . . raped? Dear God! Surely there would have been a sign.
They’d said they were touched in their private areas. Touched. As bad as that was, she prayed that’s all that worthless piece of humanity had done. While that would ruin them, for a while at least, being raped, no, she would not even go there.
One thing at a time. First, she had to get Jill to take the girls. Then she would tell Joel, then they would go to the police station and report the crime.
She felt a fear unlike any she had ever known. Why? Her worst fears had been realized on Wednesday, when her daughters told her about what had happened. She was returning home to whisk them away before the media got wind of what they’d had to go through. Theirs was one of the most prominent families in Lee County, not to mention the pharmaceutical community. Their daughters’ molestation would make the local news and possibly the national news.
She drove up the driveway, saw that Joel’s car was gone, and felt a wave of relief. She knew she was stalling, putting off the inevitable, but right now all she wanted to do was wrap her girls in her arms and never let them go.
She pulled into the garage, where Joel’s own Porsche was always kept. He only drove it when he wanted to impress a client. She shook her head, thinking what a waste. Growing up poor had made her wise with her finances, and this was not a wise purchase, but Joel was a multimillionaire, courtesy of his father’s brilliance. He could spend his money however he liked.
The girls’ bikes were leaning against the wall. They loved to ride their bikes. Tessa couldn’t remember the last time the three of them had ridden together. Several months ago. Maybe that was when Liam began to abuse them. The tote box of toys she had planned to take to ACT, the Abuse Counseling and Treatment center, was still in the garage. She volunteered there occasionally, and many of the battered women had children who came to the center with no toys or games. Piper and Poppy had both cleaned out their closets and asked her to give their toys to kids who needed them.
She smiled. They had good souls. Would they ever be the same again?
