“Theirs weren’t permanent, then. They showed them to me to fool me,” I said. “I’m not lying. I didn’t seduce Ricky Burns on his boat. They gave me something to drink that was supposed to help my seasickness, only it made me feel weird. They were all in the room. I was raped!” I cried.
Mr. March stopped pacing and looked at Mrs. March. “This is no good, Jordan. We’re talking about a first-class scandal here.”
“I know,” she said in a voice of defeat.
He pointed at me. “You don’t go making such an accusation, Sasha. Tom Burns is an influential businessman. His chain of pharmacies is one of the most successful in the state. He’d destroy us in such a fight. I don’t want to hear that you’ve told this story to anyone at school. Is that understood? Is it?”
“Yes, but it’s true.”
“Don’t dare speak it,” he said, punching each word. He turned to Mrs. March. “I want you to move her out of Alena’s room for now. Put her in one of the guest rooms away from Kiera. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, Sasha,” he said, turning back to me. “Maybe your life on the streets made you sly and clever in your battle to survive. Maybe you saw an opportunity in Mrs. March. She’s taken the loss of our daughter very hard. Maybe I need to send both you and Kiera to therapists. Whatever. But for now, I want no more talk about any of this. I’ll look into seeing what the best alternatives for you are. For the time being, go to the school we have had you going to. Do your work, and stay out of trouble. Come directly home after your school activities, and do not go out and about on weekends. Am I clear?”
“Yes.”
“You did impress me when you first came here. I have to believe that indicates you have good qualities. My advice is for you to nurture them and nothing else. You want to add anything, Jordan?”
“No,” she said.
“Tell Mrs. Duval to move her things immediately, then.”
She nodded and looked at me. “Go up and put together what you want to take to the guest room, Sasha. I’m sorry, but Mr. March is right. We want you away from Kiera.”
“And out of Alena’s room,” he empha
sized.
“Someday you’ll know that I wasn’t lying, and you’ll be sorry,” I said. “And I’ll feel sorrier for you than I do for myself.”
I walked out and up the stairs, but I felt like a sleepwalker. When I reached Kiera’s room, she opened the door. She must have been waiting right there, listening for my footsteps. She stepped out and smiled at me.
“I feel I should tell you something,” she began. “The second set of pills I gave you …”
“Where are they? What about them?”
“They were fertility pills. Ricky’s father owns a drugstore chain, remember? He can get anything. Maybe you’ll have twins.”
The heat that came into my face made me feel that I would go up in flames.
“Why did you do all this to me?” I asked.
She smiled. “My parents started to love you more than they loved me. That was the way it was when Alena was alive, and I wasn’t going to let it happen again. Aren’t my friends loyal? They’re so wonderful.
“Besides,” she said, losing her smile of satisfaction to the hard, cold face I had first known, “I told you. It was your mother’s fault. She shouldn’t have crossed the highway there.” She closed the door softly.
I felt like someone in a coffin who wasn’t really dead watching the lid being shut.
31
Darkness
Although the guest room wasn’t as large as Alena’s suite and didn’t have a sitting area where I could set up my schoolwork, it was luxurious, with a king-size bed and a thick-carpeted floor. It had a very nice bathroom, too, but the room was in a wing of the house that was darker and lonelier, not that I wanted to be anywhere near Kiera ever again. She claimed the same about me and wouldn’t eat dinner if I was at the table at the same time. Her father accommodated her wishes and ordered Mrs. March to have me served my dinner an hour earlier than when they ate. Every night of the following week, I ate dinner alone in the kitchen nook. By now, all of the servants working for the Marches knew that something was seriously wrong, but no one asked me any questions about why I was being isolated, nor did anyone speak much more to me than was absolutely necessary, even though I could see sympathy in both Mrs. Duval’s and Mrs. Caro’s faces. I imagined they were all worried about losing their jobs.
Grover was driving me to school again but was back to his silent, formal ways.
I didn’t know what to expect when I returned to school on Monday. At first, no one noticed anything really different until lunch hour, when I ended up sitting by myself. That was when the buzz began. The stories about me couldn’t have been passed around quicker even in a general announcement over loudspeakers.
I had no idea exactly what the girls were saying about me yet, but Lisa Dirk couldn’t wait to be a messenger. She came sauntering over and slid into the seat across from me.
“How come you’re sitting all by yourself?” she asked. It was obvious that she knew the answer. My senior girlfriends didn’t want me, and I didn’t want them.