“Please,” Elizabeth rebuffed, “my brother couldn’t have admitted all that. He doesn’t have the guts to say it, much less go through with it.”
Well, well. If Dane didn’t do it ... “I suppose you had the guts,Princess.” The sweet, wholesome image the media played up made Annette want to puke. If they only knew ...
“Don’t call me that!” Elizabeth waved the gun. “You have no idea what I can or cannot do much less what I’ve done.”
“I wouldn’t even believe you killed your mother,” Annette countered, “if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
Elizabeth cocked her head, stared down the length of the barrel. “Maybe I will kill you just to shut you up. Then Carson and I can finally be happy.”
Annette kicked back the panic that threatened her cool. “If you really loved Carson, why murder his family? What did they do to you?”
“Shut up!” Elizabeth crowded in on her, jammed the barrel of the weapon into Annette’s chest. “You don’t know anything about me!”
Renewed terror held Annette mute for a pulse-pounding instant. Elizabeth’s eyes danced with something that looked exactly like insanity. An epiphany hit Annette. Like mother, like daughter. No matter that the business end of a weapon poked her sternum, Annette pushed a knowing smile into place. “Genetics can be a bitch sometimes.”
Fury claimed Elizabeth’s face. “I am not like my mother!” she screamed. “She was the one, not me.” A moment passed as she visibly struggled to regain her composure. “She did it, so they wouldn’t know.”
Annette had to keep her talking. She needed every last detail. “Wouldn’t know what? That you loved Carson and his family? Your mother must not have understood or she wouldn’t have killed his family.”
“Are you stupid? Of course, she knew I loved Carson. That’s why she had to do it.”
What the hell? Keep it together, Annette. Get all the facts. If you survive, you’ll need them ... for Carson.“I think maybe you’re just as nuts as your mother.”
“Iam notlike her!” Elizabeth screamed. “I never did anythingthatbad.” She shook her head adamantly. “It’s not like I killed the stupid girl. She fell down the stairs and broke her shoulder. It was an accident. She was clumsy. Just because she was a cheerleader didn’t mean she wasn’t clumsy. But then she wouldn’t come back to our house anymore and Father blew it all out of proportion.”
Annette felt cold with certainty. Though she didn’t know this story, she could easily imagine what really happened. “You pushed her.” It wasn’t until she saw the rabid look on Elizabeth’s face that Annette realized she’d said the words out loud.
Silence thickened between them for one endless second.
“It. Was. An. Accident.” Elizabeth’s lips quivered with rage. “Buthewouldn’t believe me so he forced me to be evaluated. To endure therapy sessions.”
Annette’s heart thumped hard with her next realization.Carson’s mother.The renowned child psychologist. Annette suddenly knew where this was going. “Dr. Tanner was your therapist.”
“That stupid woman wanted to send me away.” Elizabeth jeered at the idea. “She said there were indicators that I might have uncontrollable violent tendencies. Father was going to do it, too! He thought it would be best for me. He would tell everyone I was away at a prestigious school. No one would ever know. And when I came back I’d be well.”
Annette now knew the truth that Carson Tanner had searched for all those years. “Patricia killed Carson’s mother to keep the truth from coming out. Aboutyou.”
“She was only protecting me.” Elizabeth tilted her chin in challenge. “There was no other choice.”
What next? What next?“You probably tried to stop her.”Good idea. Act like you’re on her side.“You knew it would hurt Carson, so you tried to stop your mother.”
Elizabeth stared at her, those green eyes glittering wildly. Her respiration still ragged. But at least she wasn’t screaming or poking the gun deeper into Annette’s ribs. “I was with Carson that night. He’d had too much to drink because of the fight with his mother. Mother said the timing was perfect. We couldn’t wait.”
Annette remembered Carson saying he’d blacked out, didn’t remember anything. It wasn’t impossible that the alcohol alone had done that, but considering the rest of the story, Annette wasn’t convinced. “He was upset.” She lowered her hands a little, braced to tackle the other woman. “You had to be there for him. Calm him down.”
Elizabeth sighed as if she were weary of the subject. “The pills calmed him down.”
Annette restrained the outrage that burned in her chest at what these evil bitches had done to Carson. “Sure.” She nodded agreeably. “He needed the pills.”
“That’s what Mother said.” Elizabeth stared right through Annette as if recalling some faraway memory. “Put two in his drink and he’ll rest. Everything will be all right after that.”
Somehow Annette had to make sure Carson learned the truth. All of it. She had to keep Elizabeth calm. Had to figure a way out of this damned shack without a bullet in her chest. “But you didn’t hurt his family,” she reminded the woman with the gun. “You were with Carson. Dane and your mother were the ones.”
“She made Dane help her.” Elizabeth still had that distant look in her eyes. “He didn’t want to.”
“You and Dane were victims,” Annette urged with all the sympathy she could fake. “None of this was your fault.”
Elizabeth blinked for the first time since she’d stopped shouting. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” All signs of vulnerability disappeared as she firmed her grip on the weapon. “I have to decide what to do with you.”
