“Oh, my God.” Jade interrupted her. “She must have felt so…” She could think of no word to describe the anguish Riley must have endured. “No wonder she had an accident. She had to be so upset.”
“She was upset at first, but she was calmer when I left her.” Celia twisted her wedding band on her finger. “Honestly. I thought she was all right or I wouldn’t have—”
“What did she say when you told her?”
Celia bent over, her elbows on her knees, her head in her hands, and she stayed that way for so long that Jade had to ask her again.
“Celia!” she said. “What did she say?”
“What you’d expect.” Celia raised her face to Jade’s. “She was horrified to learn everything you went through with Steven. And horrified to realize that he was her father.”
“And horrified to know that killing him was no accident,” Jade added angrily.
“She knows you did it because you were afraid for her,” Celia said gently. “And before I left, she said she’d talk to your brother again. That’s why she was going back to New Bern. Jeannie said—”
“So Jeannie knows, too?”
Celia nodded.
She’d never felt this sort of anger at Celia before. “If Riley’s not all right, Celia, I’ll never forgive you,” she said.
“I didn’t expect her to try to drive back in the middle of the night.” Celia’s voice broke. “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I had to do it. I had to.”
* * *
They packed in silence, and only when they got into the black Lincoln waiting for them in the parking lot did she speak to Celia again. “I want to talk to Jeannie,” she said.
Celia nodded silently as she pulled her phone from her backpack. Jade copied Jeannie’s number onto her own phone. It took her a couple of tries to get it right, the tips of her fingers suddenly big and clumsy.
Jeannie answered on the first ring. “Hello?”
Even after so many years, Jade recognized her voice and her heart swelled with love and gratitude. “Jeannie?” It felt strange to use her first name. She never had.
“Lisa? Oh, honey. Where are you?”
“Is Riley all right?” she asked.
“She’s in and out of consciousness,” Jeannie said. “We’re just waiting to see, right now. She has a concussion and a couple of broken fingers, but they say she was extremely lucky. They had to cut her out of her car.”
“Oh, God,” she said, picturing the scene. “That’s all that’s wrong with her, though?”
Jeannie hesitated. “Physically, yes,” she said.
“Oh, Jeannie.” She squeezed the phone in her hand. “She called you after she spoke to Celia last night?”
“Yes. She called from the car and she was … well, I think she was in shock, really. So am I. Lisa, I can’t believe it. Part of me wants to yell and scream at you for not telling the truth, and the other part completely understands. I only wish you’d told us what Steven was doing to you. We would have stopped it long before he was ever able to—”
“But then Riley never would have been born,” Jade said. “I can’t even bear to think about that.”
“Oh, honey.” Jeannie’s voice was thick. “You know, she was afraid when she went to see you that you’d turn her away.”
“Never!”
“I know that, but she felt like you’d abandoned her. When I saw that pendant around your neck in every picture of your band, though, I knew you hadn’t. Not really.”
“I didn’t want her to know the truth, Jeannie,” she said. “Ever. I didn’t want anyone to know.”
Celia rested her hand on Jade’s knee. On the other end of the line, Jeannie was so quiet, Jade worried she’d lost the call. But then she spoke again.
“There’s one more person who knows now,” Jeannie said.
“Who?”
“Your brother.”
“He knows the truth?” Next to her, she sensed the tension in Celia’s body.
“He’s here at the hospital. We drove from New Bern together. And yes, I told him. Lisa, he had to know.”
“Has he talked to the police yet?” she asked.
Jeannie hesitated. “No, but I think he still … I don’t know what he’s planning to do. He’s a hard person to read.”
“Celia and I are on our way there,” she said, looking out the car window as they passed a sixteen-wheeler. “I’m worried he’ll have them arrest me at the hospital.” She heard the tremor in her voice. “I want to have some time with Riley, Jeannie. Will he at least give that to me?”
“I’ll talk to him,” she said. “I’ll do my best.”
They hung up, and when Celia slipped her hand quietly into Jade’s, Jade leaned her head against Celia’s shoulder. She needed the support right now. All the pieces of her life that she’d spent years cobbling together were finally about to break apart.