Cutting Edge

told her if convicted, she would need to put the baby up for adoption if there were no relatives who wanted it. And I didn’t. I didn’t even know how I was going to take care of you.” Nora took a deep breath. She almost wished Quin would say something, but she just stared blankly, watching. Quin hadn’t gone to the trial. She’d seen Lorraine once after the arrest, and once after the conviction ten months later. After the baby was born and adopted. Quin had never seen Lorraine pregnant.

“I know this is a shock, and I would never tell you about it except there’s a serious situation you do need to know about. The baby, a girl, was adopted by April Plummer, Lorraine’s closest friend. It was an open adoption with visitation rights. That girl is Maggie O’Dell.”

Quin stared at her and shrugged. “I know.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Comprehension slowly hit Nora as she rose from the chair. “You know? You know what?”

Quin stood in the middle of Duke’s office, arms crossed over her chest. Defiant. Just like she’d been as a little girl. Stubborn. When Nora put her foot down, Quin would stand just like this and challenge her.

“I know about my sister.” Her chin jutted out.

“Did Lorraine tell you?” Nora’s voice shook. The anger and frustration and failure she’d felt for the last two hours boiled over. “When you went to visit her?”

Quin squinted, though she couldn’t hide her surprise. “Yes.”

“I can’t believe you went to see Lorraine without talking to me first!”

“You never let me visit her! My own mother. I begged you, and you kept saying no.”

“You were a child. Lorraine is a pathological liar who’s in prison for terrorism and murder. You didn’t need her warped influence.”

“Nice of you to be my protector. The last time I asked, I was sixteen. You still said no, and that was it. End of story. The Great Almighty has spoken. So, yeah, I waited until I was eighteen so I could see her without your damn permission.”

Nora remembered what Duke had said about Quin not having the same experiences with Lorraine as she had. She was trying to understand, but the years of living homeless, living off others, never having a home, never going to school, no friends … she wanted none of that for Quin. Didn’t Quin remember how hard it had been? Didn’t she remember the times they’d been left alone? When she was three and Nora was twelve and Lorraine disappeared for two weeks? They lived in a tent, and Nora hid them from the cops because she feared they’d take Quin away from her, put them in a government institution where they would never see the sun, where they would live like slaves.

That’s what Lorraine had always told Nora. And some of it was true. If they had been found, the government would have split them up. They might have lived in a virtual prison. Or foster care. Would that have been better?

There were too many times when Nora had learned the hard way. And damn if Quin was going to live through the same.

“I’m trying to understand,” Nora said, biting back her frustration. “Visiting Lorraine once, maybe I can understand. But you went back. Twenty-three times you went back, most recently in June. The week you told me you were going to L.A. with your boyfriend of the month.”

“I did. We just made a stop first.”

“Why? I spent my life protecting you from her!”

“Maybe you didn’t need to.”

Nora stared at her sister in disbelief. It was like she was seeing Quin for the first time. Had she messed up that badly? Had she missed all the signs? Had Quin been brainwashed by that woman?

Quin said, “Lorraine made mistakes, I know that. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be in prison, but she never hurt us.”

“She had us making bombs.”

“Just the components-”

“How can you talk like that? You were mixing and measuring black powder from the time you were seven! It was your damn math lesson! And when Cameron held you off that freeway overpass so you could hang his stupid fucking banner, I wanted to kill him.”

“Well, in a way you did.”

Nora’s mouth opened, then closed. Quin damn well knew what had happened. She knew the truth about that night. “They were going to plant bombs at a nuclear power plant.”

“Don’t be so naive. You know as well as I do that the security at those places is so tight no one was going to get in.”

“They did get in! They got through the gate. They’d never have succeeded in their plan, but they got in on their own. Someone could have been killed. A security guard, an engineer, an innocent person so Cameron and Lorraine could make a damn political statement!”

Quin shuffled her feet, glanced down. She knew Nora was right, why couldn’t she just admit it? Where was all this animosity coming from? These last few years they’d gotten along so well. They had the relationship Nora always wanted for them. Quin never talked about what happened then, and Nora sure as hell didn’t bring it up. But this defense of Lorraine? Nora was livid.

“I’m not saying they were right,” Quin said, “but they didn’t intend to hurt anyone. You set them up. You got him killed.”

“He was trying to kill me. The bombs Lorraine and Kenny threw killed a federal agent. Lovitz was a psycho, just like his daughter!”

Quin stared at her. “What are you talking about?”

“Maggie O’Dell.” Nora paused. She breathed deeply and told Quin the rest. “That’s why I wanted to see you, so I could-”

Quin threw her hands up in the air, then ran them through her hair, her face tight. “You are a piece of work. You have lied to me my entire life and you think you can just start ranting about Maggie? You don’t even know her!”

Nora froze. “I’ve never lied to you.”

“Let me count the ways. You lied to me about Mom having a baby. You wouldn’t let me go to the trial so I wouldn’t know about the baby.”

“I was protecting you. It was awful. I wished I didn’t have to be there. I hated it.”

“Oh, poor Nora English, long-suffering. Get over yourself. So we didn’t have the perfect life. Lying to me was okay?”

“I thought she gave the baby up for adoption. You didn’t need to know.”

“Why not?”

“You were a little kid. Lorraine is a pathological liar.”

“You keep saying that, but you’re the one who lied to me about my father!”

Nora blinked rapidly. “What?”

“Yes! His name was Randall Teagan. Sure, it wasn’t a big romantic affair, but she told me all about him. How smart he was, how kind, how much he cared about the earth. She didn’t know she was pregnant, and when she found out, he had moved out of state for a job. She didn’t want to saddle him with a couple kids, so she took care of us herself. It’s not easy being a single mom. She did the best she could.”

“She lied.”

Quin pointed her finger at Nora. “No, you lied! I looked him up. I found him living in Denver. I went to see him.” Quin’s eyes were glassy. Nora had always known that Quin had a hard time about her father, not knowing who he was or why he wasn’t around, but she thought that time and maturity had helped. “I watched. He has a beautiful wife, two beautiful children, a nice house … I couldn’t tell him the truth. I didn’t want to hurt him.”

She sounded so forlorn. “Oh, Quin, honey-” Nora tried to hug her, but Quin pulled away.