“So why did you stay? Why didn’t you just leave with Jules?” Ezra asked.
She cut him the mom eye and he sank lower in his seat. “Let me finish. Sal became paranoid. He was always sure that someone was after me and Jules. He never left us alone. If it wasn’t Sal himself, he had not one but three of his goons with us. So, leaving wasn’t an option. But that isn’t why I’m here. I’m here because I need you to do me a favor. When you find out what I’m sure you will, please let me talk to Jules first, because she won’t take it very well.”
“Cara, does it have to do with these?” Locke asked, sliding the photos over.
Watching her pick up the images, I cringed a little, knowing how bad it would hurt Cara, and that I would have to keep this information from Jules for a little while. She couldn’t take anymore right now.
With a nod of her head, she said, “Yes. I found out five years ago. Though I don’t think Sal was ever aware that I knew. If he did, he didn’t care that I knew because he never said anything about it.”
Clearing my throat, I had to ask. “How did you find out?”
“Five years ago, during a remodel at his office. We’d moved around a bunch of stuff and I was going through some boxes they found in one of the storage rooms. Inside there were photos of the girls. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Gia and Jules were raised together. Our families spent almost every holiday together. It wasn’t until I found the letters from Dawn, Gia’s mother, to Sal that the pieces snapped together.”
“What was in the letters, Cara?” I asked quietly.
She had a heartbreaking look in her eyes. She glanced up at Locke and cleared her throat. Her voice was shaky, but there was strength in it.
“In short, the letters basically said that they had been sleeping together for years. They even talked about when it started. Just weeks after we got married. We’d made plans for this huge run. The night before, I’d started feeling really bad. At the time I didn’t know that it was morning sickness. I decided to stay home and told them to go ahead without me. They had all gone on the run. Of course, they partied, and from what the letters said, Angelo, Dawn’s husband, passed out before them. They took advantage of the moment and slept together and she ended up pregnant with Gia. They knew from the start that Gia was his. I think Angelo knew in his heart that Gia wasn’t his, he just didn’t want to know. They’d been trying for a while and they wanted more after Gia, but it never happened. He was so happy about Gia. Because the girls were so close, it was never an issue that Sal was always there for them both.” She nodded at the photos. “These photos were taken because he wanted to spend time getting to know her without having to pretend she was just his goddaughter.” She wiped a stray tear and put the photo down, then looked me in the eye as we all sat there with our mouths hanging open. “I don’t think Gia knows the truth. After her father died, I don’t think her mother had the heart to tell her.”
“Cara,” Locke said. He placed his hand on top of hers, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles. “Is there anything else you can tell us?”
“I do know that Sal was still seeing her. Sal and I have been separated for the last five years.” At our gasps, she raised a brow. “I know. But we kept up appearances. The night of the accident, I had just told him I was planning on leaving.” Taking a deep breath, she looked visibly lighter.
Sitting in silence, dumbfounded by all the information that we had just been given, I was unable to even fathom where to start.
“Well damn!” Ezra said, banging his fist on the table, causing Cara to look up.
I finally found my voice. “That changes things. Now we know that it will most likely be someone that had close ties to Sal. We might want to expand this list of enemies.”
Locke pointed at Cara. “You and the girls stay here on the compound until we get this figured out. Nobody but us gets close to them.” He tipped his chin at Ezra. “Tell Tech to look into Gia, see what he can find. Something tells me she knows more than she’s letting on.”
While Locke finished barking orders, I couldn’t help but look at Cara. I saw the weight that she’d been carrying from all the secrets lifting off her.
Locke’s voice brought me out of my shocked state. “So, you do realize that you have to tell her. She deserves to know.”
I realized he was talking to Cara. Looking into her eyes, I saw someone who had been beat down for so long but was finding her strength.
With a weary smile and a quivering lip, she whispered, “I know,” and walked out of the room.
That’s when it hit me that she was going to tell Jules exactly what a lying piece of shit her father had been, and that her best friend was actually her sister.
33
Jules
The day after my dad’s funeral might have been harder than the funeral itself.
I woke up and the pain started all over again. It hit me hard that he was gone. The rawness that accompanied the emptiness was almost more than I could bear.
I forced myself to get out of bed and head downstairs. That’s where I found my mom sitting at the kitchen table, staring into space, a coffee cup clenched in her hands. The pain of the
