Page 154 of The Secrets She Keeps

Powell wasn’t panicking, but she had a look of terror in her big dark eyes. She was holding herself together, but Heather didn’t know how much more the younger woman could take.

“How do you two really see this ending?” Heather asked, looking at Timothy. As long as she had the .45 pointed at his father, she didn’tthinkTrey would do anything stupid. Timothy was about the only person in the world Trey Grundenman had ever cared about.

Except, he had loved Angela. She didn't doubt that. Trey hadchangedafter Angela got sick.

They all had.

“Timothy?”

“I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to do this. Don’t want to see innocent people continue being hurt.” Timothy looked at Powell for a moment, then back at Heather. She almost thought he meant it.

Eden favored him. Him and Trey. But with enough of Angela thrown in to offset it. Eden was one of the most beautiful women Heather had ever known. Inside and out. Summer didn’t look like him one bit. She was Angela through and through. Samia was a mix between her parents, but with more ofAunt HopeandAunt Joythrown in than anything.

“I didn’t know about OPJ until a few years ago. I did not create that drug, Heather. I only developed Sopalmitraln for legal medical use as an anesthetic, and I never helped Trey with anything about it. It was years before I knew he’d turned it into OPJ.”

She believed him. Mostly. His thing had always been inaction. “But you didn’t do anything tostopit. Or end it. That is the problem with you, Timothy. You never doanythingto stop the bad. You were always just a poor little victim of fate, letting life happentoyou, instead of making choices. It used to drive Angela crazy. I heard her and Bonnie talking about that, you know? Angelaadoredyou, but she wasn’t blind to your faults.”

“I miss her with every breath.” He looked at her for a moment. “I am sorry for…the warehouse. And for what Steve Wilson did to you. So sorry for that. I would have killed him myself, had I known what he had done to you before.”

“Sure you would have.” Heather deliberately smirked at him. “I know I’m the sister-in-law you have always hated most. Hard to miss…Powell, I wasn’t even out of diapers yetwhen Timothy met me. I’m pretty certain he’s hated me ever since.”

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Hated Heather?No. He had never hated her. Not really. He had alwaysunderstoodwhat motivated her.

Her family.

He would give her that—Heather had always loved her family more than anything in the world. Adored them.

Just like Angela.

Angela’s eyes were looking at him now.

“You look like her now. Like my Angela. More…than you did before. It hurts. You sound like her too. Especially when you…laugh.”

“I know,” Heather said softly. In a voice that sounded just like Angela’s. “It shocked me when I looked in the mirror one day and saw her staring back at me. I bawled for more than an hour. I miss her every single day. I probably always will.”

“Me too.” Even the way she tilted her head was her older sister all over again. There were noticeable differences—Heather’s hair was several shades lighter than Angela’s had been. She and Angela had had different mothers. Heather’s hair had wave in it that Angela’s hadn’t had—Heather’s mother hadhad wild curly, blond hair. Like Jasmine Joy’s. But that same beautiful face…Her eyes were darker, he thought.

She had far more intensity than Angela.

Angela had been so quiet, so reserved.

Heather hadn’t been the least reserved. Maybe that had been what it was. Everyone had always justwatchedHeather.

The star. The center of the universe, was this one. Angela had adored her. All of the girls, really. Some of his best memories were of Angela and her sisters. Andtheirgirls.

What he had lost was always a sharp, sharp knife.

Heather was just watching him now. Like Leena watched him sometimes. His Leena—she liked to be the star too. Dancing, singing.

Just like Heather had at that age. Always performing. Leena acted so much likeHeatherit had always perplexed him so much. “Heather, what…what are we doing here now?”

“I think that’s a question best answered by Timmy Three. I know he has friends in this house. And I also know that…this is not what you want. Are you a killer, too, Timothy?”

He was. Yes, he was. That drug…had killed people. Because ofhim.Because once he realized what Trey and the others had done, he had not done anything tostopthem. He had just kept his mouth shut.

Watched. Useless.

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