Chapter 11: What Kaitlyn Brought

Tiernan pulled on trousers and went downstairs first.

I followed in his shirt, and found Kaitlyn standing in the middle of his kitchen, looking at the marble island with an odd expression.

I knew exactly what the island had been used for.

I decided to hold my face very still.

"You drove to my house at six in the morning," Tiernan said, "uninvited."

"I know," Kaitlyn said.

Her voice was small and raw.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know where else."

She did not look at me.

She had traded the lemon yellow for a trench coat, and she looked like a girl who had slept in her car.

"Say what you came to say," I said.

"Don't talk to me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm the one who did something."

"You put pearls in my purse," I said.

"You called the police on me.

You stood in front of two hundred people and read out my name like a verdict."

Kaitlyn flinched.

"I was angry," she said.

"At what?"

"At you," she whispered.

"You were always everything I wasn't.

Mom was always yelling at you, and I thought, well, at least she yells. At least she looks."

I stared at her.

"She looked at you," Kaitlyn said.

"She never looked at me at all. I got the dresses and the horse and the parties. I never once got her looking."

"That's a terrible thing to be jealous of," Tiernan said.

"I know," Kaitlyn said, and wiped her nose.

She set the folder on the island and slid it across the marble with one finger.

"I found this last night, in Mom's safe, behind the jewelry boxes.

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