Page 24 of Chaotic Curse
Damn.I valeted my truck earlier.If the valet had seen the coke in the back…
He would’ve called the cops, and I’d be on my way to prison.
I suppose I should be thankful for small flavors.
* * *
Once I’m home,I walk inside and shove my hands in my pockets.
Something sharp pokes one of my fingers.
I pull it out.
The star earring—the one I found when we were searching for Vega’s body.
It was Ted’s.
Which means Ted’s body is somewhere close to that spot where I found the earring.
I think back.
Back to how my father said he was a threat.That he acted to make sure that my mother and my sisters weren’t raped in their sleep.To make sure the rest of us weren’t killed.
At the time, after I healed from my gunshot wound and convinced myself that my father was not a murderer, I decided to take his word for it.But things were never the same between us.
Still though, why would a father lie to his son?At the time, even though I didn’t idolize my father the way Falcon did, I never thought he was a liar.
But now…
After my father’s suicide attempt…
And all of the memories it evoked in me…
I wonder if there’s more to the Ted Tucker story.
I hold the earring in my hand, slide my thumb over the star.
“Ted,” I say, as if the earring embodies him, “I may not be able to save my brother this time.That’s eating at me.And now, I realize what was eating at me all those years ago.I couldn’t save you, Ted.I tried to that day.It’s why I got shot.My father asked me to forgive him, and I did.At least, that’s what I told him.Was it selfish?”I sigh.“It made my life easier if my dad thought I forgave him.If he thought I forgot you.And then, last night, it was just too easy to be selfish, and now, it may cost my brother his life.I wish I could save him, but it’s no longer in my hands.”I grip the earring firmly.“But at least maybe I can figure out why my father killedyou.Because I don’t think you were a bad guy.I don’t think you were going to harm any of us.”
8
DANIELA
Later that afternoon,Raven returns.When Vinnie is done working for the day, he asks all of us, including Robin—Belinda is still with Natalie—to sit in his office.
“All right,” he says, after filling Raven in, “we’re here to sit down and make a list of every person in your past, Daniela, who might have a grudge against you or your father.”
I haven’t actually told Robin and Raven everything about what my father did to me—or rather, what he made me do—but Vinnie knows.By the identical nauseated looks on both Robin and Raven’s faces, I’m pretty sure Vinnie filled them in.Or they figured it out on their own.
I’m embarrassed that I tried to seduce him on my father’s orders.Thank God he turned me down.
Most of my father’s business associates weren’t so scrupulous.
I slowly nod.“I’ll try.Some of them were just blurred faces to me.”
“Yes, but there were ones you ‘entertained’ more frequently.The ones who were more enamored with you…” Then he shakes his head.“God, the whole thing makes me want to puke.”
“Same here,” Raven says.“Dani, you’re the strongest person I know.”
