Serendipity (34 page)

Without a word, Tess opened the door, climbed out of the car, and slammed it harder than necessary.

Letting her go had been a no-brainer. Tess was perfectly safe in town. Whether the town was safe from Tess was another story.

 

 

Faith walked through the pharmacy, picking up the items she needed on her list. She lingered in the aisles, in no rush to get to work. The phones had been silent since her father's magazine interview, but if someone were to call, her mother was now there to take a message. Lanie had shown up at the shop at 9:00 A.M., ready to work. Faith's heart squeezed tight, both proud and humbled by her mother's actions. She knew how much of an effort it had been for Lanie to work in her daughter's place of business, let alone show her face in town.

The coming days wouldn't be easy. Faith had already heard the whispers at the coffee shop and had seen people point at her, but she refused to hide. Serendipity was her home.

She headed down the aisle, only to find herself looking at the magazines, staring at the man who'd ripped her life apart once more. This time, Faith hoped to fight fire with fire. Lissa had come over last evening. She'd interviewed Faith and they'd talked late into the night.

If her interview did its job, at least people would understand who Faith Harrington really was. She didn't know how others would respond, whether it would change their opinions, but at least she'd taken back control of her life. Sort of. If she had her way, she'd be with Ethan and Tess right now, but it was too soon. First her story had to be told. Lissa was already busy writing it and would decide where to pitch it for the most impact.

For Faith, the interview had been cathartic. She'd revealed what it was like to grow up in the house on the hill, with the man responsible for the largest Ponzi scheme in history. She admitted how it had felt to discover the father she'd idolized was really a man with no soul, who'd used her as a pawn. How her ex-husband had done the same. And how her own choices had brought her back to the town she'd left behind.

Lissa had been ruthless in her questions, and Faith had answered every one. No, she hadn't known about her father's scam. She'd found out when he was arrested, along with the rest of the world. No, to the best of her knowledge, her mother hadn't known either. Yes, she was very sorry that so many people had trusted her father and lost their life savings, and
of course
she was embarrassed to be related to a man who could do such immoral things.

Did she understand why the hardworking people in town resented her? A lump rose in her throat again now, just thinking about how painful that question had been. But yes, she understood that the average person thought Faith Harrington had had it easy. And in comparison to those her father had hurt, she had. Maybe she hadn't realized it before, but she did now. Now she was one of those hardworking people, struggling to start over, to earn a living, to make friends and find a life.

If she could change the past she would, but all she could do was live by different rules and be proud of her own actions.

She wasn't part of her father's scheme and she shouldn't have to ask for absolution, but as his daughter, she understood she owed people an explanation and an apology. She offered both willingly. Serendipity was her home too and she hoped to one day be accepted.

Looking at her father's face on the magazine cover, Faith wondered if that day would ever come.

She turned away from the offending photo and immediately saw Tess at the end of the aisle. She couldn't mistake the army jacket, the boots, or the hair.
But why?
Why would Tess be dressed like that again when she'd come so far and had been so happy?

Before Faith could call her name and find out, she saw Tess pick up a small box, stuff it inside her jacket pocket, and turn to head not for the register but straight for the door.

Tess? Shoplifting?

Faith's heart lurched at the sight. She dropped her basket of items and bolted after the teen.

Faith wasn't home. Ethan left his car in the parking lot behind her apartment and walked to Main Street, figuring he'd pick up Tess and look for Faith at her shop. As he headed down the side street and approached Main, an ambulance siren grew louder and screeched to a stop in front of the row of stores that included the pharmacy. Where he'd left Tess alone.

A sick feeling settled in Ethan's gut and he ran toward the growing group of people.

Dare was already there, one of the cops on the scene. He held on to Tess, who seemed upset, while another cop spoke to a visibly shaken older man, and two ambulance workers knelt over someone in the street. Seeing Tess was okay, Ethan's heart rate slowed as he approached her.

As if she sensed him, she looked up and bolted straight into his arms. “I'm sorry,” she cried, her black makeup already smeared all over her face. “I swear I'm sorry. I'm sorry.” Her entire body trembled, her hysteria only increasing with every “I'm sorry” she continued to utter.

He wrapped his arms around Tess even tighter. “What the hell happened?” he asked Dare, knowing his sister was too incoherent to answer.

“Ethan . . .”

Dare appeared shaken and Ethan's entire body tensed once more. “What?”

Dare tipped his head toward the street and the ambulance he'd previously ignored.

Keeping Tess tucked into him, he walked toward the paramedics, heart in his throat. They slipped a neck brace onto a woman with blond hair. He couldn't see her face, but he already knew.

“I'm sorry, sir, but you'll have to step back,” the other cop said.

“He's my brother. Let him through.” At Dare's command, the officer moved away, giving Ethan access to the scene.

“Tess.” Dare pulled a clinging Tess from Ethan so he could kneel down beside Faith.

“Sir.” The paramedic took one look at Ethan's face and clearly changed whatever he'd been about to say. “We need to transport her to the hospital.”

“Is she okay?” he asked, fighting back waves of nausea.

“No broken bones, but she's unconscious from her head colliding with the ground on contact,” the man said.

“Ethan?”

Her voice was the sweetest thing he'd ever heard.

The paramedic pushed Ethan out of the way. He did a quick check of her pupils and asked her a few questions before turning to Ethan once more.

“Make it quick,” he said before rising to talk to his partner.

Ethan knelt close, bringing his head down to hers. “Hey, princess.”

“Hey.” She winced, as if even that one word cost her.

“Shh. I'll do all the talking from now on.”

“Don't you always?” she asked.

He grinned. A sense of humor had to be a good sign.

Afraid to touch her head, he stroked her arm with his hand. He didn't know what had happened and at the moment, he didn't care. As long as she was okay, that was all that mattered.

“Time to go.” The paramedic's familiar voice broke through his thoughts.

He wanted to ride with her to the hospital, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Tess's makeup- and tear-stained face.

He rose, letting the paramedics move her from the ground to the stretcher.

Still torn, he leaned close and kissed Faith lightly on the lips. “I love you, princess.”

She tried to smile. “Take care of Tess.”

Was it any wonder he loved her? “I'll meet you at the hospital.” He stepped back, letting the professionals take over, and within seconds, Faith was in the back of the ambulance and on the way to the hospital.

Ethan finally turned to Dare and Tess. “Someone want to fill me in?”

Tess started to cry again.

Dare wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You need to explain,” he said in a firm but kind voice, making Ethan proud of the man his youngest brother had become.

Tess wiped her eyes on her jacket. The sun and the heat beat down on his head and he couldn't understand how she could stand it underneath all that heavy material.

“I think you should start from the very beginning,” Dare pushed, when she remained silent.

“I heard everything you and Faith said the other day in the kitchen about Birchwood. And how she wouldn't stay with you because it would mean I'd have problems there. I couldn't let you two break up because of me! I don't need that stupid art class or that school, especially if you have to buy my way in. And I didn't want to ruin your lives like I ruined Kelly's and my mom's.” She sniffed but the tears still fell.

“Hey. Your mom ruined your life, not the other way around,” Ethan reminded her. “But go on.” Because he knew there was much more to come.

Tess shrugged, her shoulders drooping low. “I also heard you say I had to change my hair and ditch the piercing or the stupid school wouldn't take me. So I figured if I went back to the way I was, nobody would want me, and you'd be able to get back together with Faith.”

Ethan blinked, stunned at the way her fourteen-year-old brain worked. “That explains the clothing and the attitude.”

She nodded, her expression solemn.

“What happened today?” he asked her, in a rush to get to the hospital and check on Faith but knowing he'd get nowhere by pushing Tess faster than she was ready.

She looked down at the ground and mumbled something he couldn't hear.

“What?”

She repeated the same thing in the same low tone.

Ethan clenched and unclenched his fists. “Tess, I can't hear you.”

“I said I got my period!” she yelled at him, her cheeks a bright red even beneath the awful streaks of makeup.

He met Dare's gaze over Tess's head, at a loss at how to handle this one. His younger brother merely grinned, and just like that, Ethan shared his first brotherly laugh with Dare in over ten years.

Still, he forced his focus back to Tess. “That's what you needed at the pharmacy?”

She inclined her head. “But I had no money.”

“Why didn't you ask me for some?” he asked, kicking himself for not thinking to offer her cash.

She swallowed hard. “I wasn't talking to you for one thing. And I was embarrassed.” She still was, and she shuffled her feet, her heavy boots scraping along the pavement.

“So . . . ?”

“I stole those and ran!” She pointed to a box on the sidewalk.

Ethan was stunned into silence.

But Tess kept explaining. “Faith was in the store. She saw what I did and followed me out. She yelled out my name. I kept running. I didn't even look to see if there were cars coming, but Faith did. And she pushed me out of the way.” Tess's voice pitched higher and the waterworks started up again, tears flowing from her eyes, her nose running, her makeup everywhere.

“I didn't mean for her to get hurt. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt.” She looked up at Ethan with huge, wide eyes.

“I know you didn't.” Her small shoulders shook and Ethan pulled her into his arms.

“Do you mean it? You believe me? You forgive me?”

“Yeah, I do.” He braced his hands on her forearms and held her in front of him. “That doesn't mean we aren't going to have a long talk about shoplifting,” he said as sternly as he could manage. “I don't care how uncomfortable the subject matter, you come to me no matter what you need. Understand?”

She bobbed her head up and down.

“As for the rest of it, same rules apply. We discuss things—we don't just react out of hurt, anger, or fear. We don't just take action. We talk about our feelings and we decide what to do
together
. As a family. Got it?” Ethan asked her.

She nodded and hugged him tighter once more.

Dare stepped closer. “Maybe if our parents had done more talking and less fighting, everything would have been different for us too.”

Ethan stared at his sibling, stunned not just at his statement but at the obvious overture. The hint of understanding and maybe forgiveness underneath.

Even as he cautioned himself not to read too much into Dare's words, Ethan found himself opening up too. “I thought the same thing myself the first time I took Tess to her shrink. I acted out the same way. The smoking, the drinking . . . why the hell didn't they do more? Pay more attention?”

“I wish to hell I knew.” Dare shook his head. “Look, you go to the hospital. I'll take Tess back inside to apologize and return the item she stole. I'm betting Mr. Finch won't press charges this time.”

Ethan shot his brother a grateful look and Dare acknowledged it with a nod of his head. Then Dare placed a hand on his sister's back, taking over and freeing Ethan up to go check on Faith, like a brother who cared would do.

 

 

Faith's head pounded like it was going to explode. Maybe it already had. When she opened her eyes, a burning pain seared her skull and everything swam in front of her eyes. Nausea swept over her. She shut her eyes again quickly.

The next time she awoke, the pain was there but less severe.

“She's awake!”

A woman in a white coat, doctor or nurse, Faith didn't know, walked into the room. “How are you feeling?” the redhead asked in too cheery a voice.

“Like I smacked my head into a brick wall.”

“Good analogy. I'm Dr. McCoy. Do you know your name?” she asked.

Faith licked her dry lips. “Faith Harrington.”

“Next of kin?”

Faith shook her head and immediately regretted it. “Oh, no. You're not calling my mother!” she said in a sudden panic.