Magnolia Nights

by Ashley Farley

  Ellie seemed surprised, and not pleasantly so, to see her sister standing in her doorway. “What’s going on?” she asked, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

  “Lia and the girls are in trouble.” He brushed past her, and all four of them piled into her small hotel room.

  “What kind of trouble?” Ellie pulled the door shut behind them.

  Abbott explained the situation, and when he finished, she turned to face Lia. “Have you called the police?”

  “No police!” Lia said, her voice raised in alarm.

  “Why not? Calling the police might save your husband’s life.”

  Lia bore her cold eyes into Ellie. “My husband brought this on himself.”

  Ellie noticed the two little girls looking up at their mother with terrified brown eyes. She knelt down in front of them. “This is boring grown-up talk. Would the two of you like to color?” They nodded their heads in unison. She walked them to the table in the corner of the room and set them up with her sketch pad and colored pencils.

  Once the girls were settled, she corralled her father and Lia to the entryway outside the bathroom near the door. “It’s not safe for you to stay in Atlanta,” she said in a loud whisper.

  “I can’t just leave town,” Lia snapped. “My husband will have no way of getting in touch with me.”

  “You have a cell phone, don’t you?” Ellie asked.

  Lia rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t own a cell phone? But if something happens to Ricky, I’ll have no way of knowing.”

  “A minute ago, you said your husband deserves whatever he gets for dragging you into his mess,” Ellie said. “Which is it? Are you concerned about him or not?”

  Lia’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “He’s my husband. Of course I’m concerned about him.”

  “Have you called the area hospitals?” Ellie asked. “Considering the circumstances, something may already have happened to him.”

  Abbott placed a hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “I don’t think these goons would be looking for him if that were the case.”

  Ellie shrugged. “I guess that’s true.”

  He turned to Lia. “I agree with Ellie that you need to talk to the police. I’ll go with you to the local station to file a report. If nothing else, that will put the police on alert to the situation. I’ll explain that I’m taking you someplace safe. We’ll give them both our numbers in the event they need to get in touch with you.”

  “I told you I don’t want to get the police involved,” Lia said through clenched teeth.

  Ellie glared at Lia. “Why not, unless you’re hiding something?”

  The air in the entryway crackled with tension. Abbott needed to make a fast move before a fight broke out between these two long-lost sisters. “Lia, if you want our help, I insist you file a report with the police. If you have other friends you can stay with, I’ll be happy to take you to them.”

  Her face flushed red with anger. “Fine.”

  “Good, then it’s settled.” He opened the door. “Ellie, you stay here with the girls while we’re gone,” he said, and ushered Lia out of the room before she could change her mind.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Ellie

  Ellie took the little girls down to the lobby and bought them each a soft vanilla ice cream cone from the cafe. She asked them about themselves while they licked greedily at the ice cream. She learned more than she wanted to know. The girls could count to twenty and sing the alphabet song. They loved Clifford the Big Red Dog and Winnie the Pooh. They shared a bedroom and slept with a night-light on. They were not identical twins, but hardly anyone could tell them apart. Bella pointed at a small birthmark on her upper lip, and Mya explained that her face was rounder than her sister’s. Sometimes, but not very often, their mother took them to the playground at the end of the street. They had a babysitter named Rosa who came in once a week. Rosa smelled funny and got mad at them when they made too much noise. The girls told Ellie that their mommy was always on the computer and that she cried a lot. They didn’t see their daddy much. Whenever he came home for dinner, he cooked on the grill and they ate outside on the deck. They often heard him yelling at their mommy late at night. One time their mommy had a black eye and another she had to go to the hospital in an ambulance.

  “That must have been scary for you,” Ellie said. “Did you visit your mommy while she was in the hospital?”

  “We weren’t allowed,” Bella said. “Grandma Weezie came to stay with us for a really long time.”

  “She cooked yummy food and played lots of games with us,” Mya said. “But she got mad at Daddy, and he made her leave.”

  So Louisa did know Lia had tried to kill herself, assuming her hospital stay was a result of her suicide attempt. What was wrong with this woman that she couldn’t tell the truth?

  After they finished their ice cream, Ellie took the girls back upstairs and washed off their sticky faces and hands. She found Sesame Street on TV, and all three of them stretched across the bed on their bellies to watch.

  The things the girls had said about their mother made Ellie soften toward her sister. So much so that she held her tongue when Lia returned from the police station complaining about how long they’d had to wait and the incompetence of the officer they spoke with. Her father seemed frazzled. Ellie could understand why if Lia had acted at the police station the way she was acting now. Like a spoiled brat.

  “Lia thinks the girls will travel best if we leave now and stop along the way for dinner,” Abbott said to Ellie. “How long will it take you to pack?”

  “Ten minutes tops.” She turned and headed to the bathroom to gather her toiletries.

  Ellie didn’t think to ask about the driving logistics until twenty minutes later when she and her father were cramming their bags in the back with the others. “Do you think maybe we should rent another car?”

  “Nah. We’ll be fine,” Abbott said, slamming the hatch shut. “A five-hour drive to Charleston with five people in a MINI Cooper. I can’t think of a better way to get to know one another.”

  “Never mind that two of those people require car seats, which take up so much more room. I’ll let you sit in the back,” she said as she headed toward the driver’s side.

  “Fine by me.”

  Her father was smitten with his granddaughters, and they seemed enamored with him as well. Even Lia laughed at the sight of him sandwiched between the car seats with his knees up to his chin.

  Navigating the Atlanta five o’clock traffic took concentration, but once they were on the open highway, Ellie sat back in her seat and turned on the cruise control. For the next fifteen miles, an awkward silence filled the front of the car while her father spoke softly to the girls in the back. From what Ellie could hear of the conversation, she concluded that he was showing them his wild animal photographs on his iPad.

  “You named them Bella and Mya after our dolls,” Ellie said to her sister when she could no longer stand the tension. “How much do you remember?”

  “Enough that I don’t care to remember anymore,” Lia said, her gaze fixed on the stream of cars in front of them.

  Ellie smiled. “I know what you mean. I suppressed most of my memories from that time. You didn’t seem surprised this morning when I told you I was your twin sister. Do you remember me?”

  Lia shrugged. “I remember a little girl with orange pigtails. I thought maybe you were my sister. Because of the difference in our coloring, I never suspected we were twins until Bella and Mya were born and I found out fraternal twins run in families.”

  Ellie risked a glance at her sister. “How’d you get the scar?”

  Lia tugged her shirt sleeves down over her hands.

  “I’m talking about this one,” Ellie said, raising her fingers to the side of her face. “We spoke with Louisa earlier. She told us you already had that scar when you came to live with her.”

  “You can’t believe anything Louisa says.” Lia pulled her turtleneck down so Ellie could see. The oval
-shaped scar wasn’t nearly as large as she’d originally thought. “I pulled a pot of boiling water off the stove when I was eight.”

  Ellie winced. “That must’ve been painful. Why would Louisa lie about it?”

  “Because that’s what pathological liars do. They get off on lying. She probably didn’t want you to know the scar happened on her watch.”

  Ellie returned her attention to the road. “I’m not surprised to hear you say that about her. She gave me two different answers when I asked her when she last saw you. When was the last time you saw Louisa?”

  “A year ago, when I was in the hospital. She came to help out with the girls.” Once again, Lia tugged on her sleeves. “She and my husband got in a fight, and he made her go home.”

  Ellie wondered what the fight was about, but she decided it best not to pursue the subject of her sister’s attempted suicide until they’d gotten to know each other better. “What do you know about how you came to live with Louisa?”

  “Only what Louisa told me—that our mother died and she wanted Louisa to raise me. If that’s even true.”

  “It’s true that our mother died. But not until three years after she sent you to live with Louisa. She was afraid for you. She wanted to get you to safety. Our grandmother was abusive. She was holding us captive in her house. Did you know any of this?”

  “Not for sure, no. I have a recurring nightmare of a screaming woman tumbling down a flight of stairs. The dreams seem so real, I’ve often wondered if it actually happened.”

  Ellie nodded. “You and I witnessed our grandmother push our mother down the stairs. I think, although I’m not certain of the time, that you went to live with Louisa shortly after that."

  “Why me and not you?”

  “Mom was worried our grandmother would try to harm you because you look so much like Dad. She had a thing against Jewish people.”

  Lia pulled her visor down and studied herself in the mirror. “Lucky you. You got the ginger genes. How long did you stay with Mom?”

  “Until she died.”

  “And you got to live with Daddy Dearest?” she said in a bitter tone.

  “I lived through three more years of hell after you left, but I’ll admit I was probably better off in the long run.” Ellie didn’t blame her sister for being bitter. She would’ve felt the same way if the situation were reversed. “No one seems to know exactly how Mom got you out of the house. Do you remember anything about that time?”

  Lia’s face grew dark. “I remember being really sick and an old black woman taking care of me. I may have even been staying in her home.”

  The pieces of the puzzle fit together at once. “That’s it!” Ellie said, palming the steering wheel. “Maddie, who was our housekeeper, said there was a bad flu epidemic that year. Does the name Sally Bell sound familiar?”

  “Maybe. I can’t say for sure.”

  “She was our cook. She must have taken you out of the house when you got sick, either with or without our grandmother’s permission. I guess we’ll never know.”

  An accident on the highway up ahead slowed traffic to a crawl. Lia scowled and began drumming her fingers against the door panel.

  “I found our mother’s journals when I was going through our grandmother’s things,” Ellie said. “You might want to read them. Our mother loved both of us equally, Lia. The journals will help you see that.”

  Lia stopped drumming her fingers. “Wait a minute. Why were you going through our grandmother’s things? Did she leave you some kind of inheritance or something?”

  Alarm bells sounded so loud in Ellie’s head she was tempted to cover her ears. Thus far, her sister hadn’t asked Ellie what she did for a living or whether she had a husband and children or if she’d lived in Charleston her whole life. Which, considering their past, would’ve been Ellie’s first questions to Lia if their roles were reversed. “She left me everything she owned. I recently moved back to Charleston from San Francisco, where I’ve lived since I was six. I had mixed emotions about the inheritance at first, but after reading Mom’s diaries, I’m convinced the money is our birthright. Both of ours, Lia.”

  Her dark eyes glinted with anger. “How generous of you. Mom will make certain you receive a place in heaven for giving me what’s rightfully mine. Just give me my share, and I’ll be on my way.”

  Ellie’s feelings for her sister were rapidly transitioning from mistrust to dislike. “It’s not that simple. I can’t just write you a check for your share of the money. The attorney is still finalizing the estate. It might take some time. If you’re considering paying off your husband’s gambling debts, I would advise against it.”

  She realized the back seat had grown quiet, and she snuck a peek in the rearview mirror. Her father, with his brow furrowed in concern, was eavesdropping on their conversation. She had no way of knowing how much he’d heard.

  “I realize you’re my twin sister, Eleanor. But we’ve only just met. You know nothing about my life. My problems are mine to solve however I see fit.”

  She cocked an eyebrow at her sister. Eleanor? She reminded herself that she was giving Lia half of her inheritance for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. She didn’t have to love her or even like her. At this point, she didn’t care if she ever saw her again. She would be able to sleep at night knowing she’d done right by her. “You may do with your money however you see fit. We’ll make the transaction as soon as possible. In the meantime, I prefer to be called Ellie.”

  “How much of our conversation did you hear?” Ellie asked her father an hour later when they were finishing dinner at McDonald’s. Lia had gone to the restroom, and the girls were happily playing in the indoor PlayPlace.

  “Enough,” he said, popping his last fry into his mouth.

  “I’m sorry, Dad, for your sake. But she’s not a nice person. She’s a chip off the old block. Our evil grandmother’s block. I have no interest in getting to know her better.”

  “Now, honey, let’s try to give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s under a lot of pressure. Her husband has disappeared, and he owes some bad men a lot of money. If she wants to bail him out, it’s her business. She’s the mother of my grandchildren. Wouldn’t you like to get to know them better?”

  Ellie watched her nieces tossing a ball back and forth to each other. “Of course I would. Bella and Mya are angels. But you heard Lia. Once she gets her money, she’ll take them and leave, and we’ll never see them again.”

  He wadded up his sandwich wrapper. “That’s why you need to take your time arranging her, um . . . gift.”

  Ellie slumped back in her chair. “I don’t know how these things work. It’ll probably take some time anyway, regardless of whether I want it to or not.”

  Lia returned from the restroom, but her phone rang the minute she sat down. “Keep an eye on the girls, will ya?” she said and left the table.

  Ellie watched her sister exit the side door of the building. “Louisa forgot to teach her to say please.”

  “Think positive thoughts.” He gathered their trash on a tray and emptied it in a nearby trash can.

  Lia returned five minutes later. “That was the detective we spoke with earlier. Someone broke into my house and ransacked the place. Nothing obvious is missing, but they have no way of knowing if anything was stolen without me there to take inventory.”

  Ellie’s stomach lurched, and she thought she might be sick. What had she gotten herself into? Her sister’s house was ransacked by goons who were looking for her husband because he owed them a lot of money. And Ellie was taking this man’s wife and his children to her home in Charleston where they would all be sitting ducks.

  Take a deep breath, Ellie, she said to herself. No one will know to trace Lia to you. Even you didn’t know about your connection to her until a few days ago.

  “It’s a good thing you and the girls weren’t there at the time.” He patted the empty seat beside him, signaling Lia to sit down. “You mentioned earlier that your hus
band had pressured you into asking Louisa for a loan. Is there any chance he would have contacted Louisa himself about borrowing the money, or perhaps driven to Virginia to see her?”

  “Wait a minute,” Ellie said, straightening. “I didn’t know any of that. Have you told Louisa this? If whoever broke into your house found anything with Louisa’s address on it, a birthday card or old letter, her life could be in danger.”

  Lia leaned across the table toward Ellie. “First of all, Ricky would never contact Louisa on his own. The two of them hated each other.”

  “Still, I think you should warn her just in case,” Ellie said.

  “And that’s the second thing. Louisa can take care of herself. She’s a big girl. A very big girl.” Lia laughed at her own joke while the rest of the table remained silent.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Ellie

  Her father drove the remainder of the trip. Lia sat in the back between the girls. Full from dinner and exhausted from the excitement of the day, the twins fell fast asleep within five minutes. Lia spent the two hours texting with someone on her iPhone.

  As they crossed the Ashley River on the way into town, Ellie said, “I’ll stay at Julian’s tonight so Lia and the girls can have my room.”

  “Are you sure?” Abbott asked. “I hate to run you out of your own home.”

  Lia snorted, and Ellie knew she was thinking that half of that home belonged to her.

  “It’s fine, Dad. I can hardly wait to see my dog. Julian says she’s been moping around, missing me.”

  When they arrived home, Abbott carried one sleeping child and Ellie the other. Lia trailed them, dragging their suitcases up the stairs, showing no apparent interest in the house that had once served as her prison.

  Ellie waited for everyone to get situated before leaving for Julian’s. She texted him on her way over: Are you still awake?