Diamonds in the Rough

by Michelle Madow

  And the world quaked around her.

  Because inside the book was a photo of herself as a baby, in the hospital, in her mom’s arms after being born. She’d seen this picture in her baby book. But apparently the picture she’d seen had been cropped, because in the photo she was looking at now, Adrian stood next to her mom—holding another baby. One that was identical to her.

  Courtney’s stomach swirled, nausea creeping up her throat. This couldn’t mean what she was thinking…. They wouldn’t hide something that huge from her. They couldn’t. There had to be another explanation.

  She held her breath and turned the page, hoping to find answers.

  The next photo was of two babies—both of them looking exactly like her—in side-by-side hospital cribs. One of them was a photo she’d seen before, because the label near her feet said her name, Courtney Diamond, followed by her measurements. But the other crib must have been cropped out of the picture she’d seen. The one of the baby that looked just like her, matching pink outfit and all, except the name at her toes said Britney Diamond.

  A baby identical to her. In a hospital crib next to hers. With the same last name.

  It could mean only one thing.

  Her chest caved in, collapsing around her lungs, her heart racing so fast that the world spun around her. How was this possible? If she’d had a twin sister, she would have known. Her mom would have mentioned her, Grandma would have mentioned her…. She couldn’t have gone through her entire life without knowing something so important. She gripped the book so tightly that her knuckles turned white, her eyes glued to the photo. Even if Britney hadn’t survived past infancy—which was possible, since Courtney had been a preemie—someone would have told her.

  But as she thumbed through the pages, it became clear that Britney hadn’t passed away soon after birth. She’d been by Courtney’s side for months. There were photos of them going home to a beautiful house in the suburbs, with Mom and Adrian smiling as they carried them inside. Pictures of them on both sides of Peyton, who wasn’t even one year old yet herself. Pictures of them taking their first bath, of them in their cribs in what Courtney guessed was their room, of them sucking on matching pacifiers, and loads more. Some were photos Courtney had seen before—although Britney had been cropped out—and some were ones she hadn’t, likely because the babies were too close together.

  Then, when they were around seven months old, the photos stopped.

  The rest of the pages were empty.

  Courtney didn’t know when she’d started crying, but the tears that had been streaming down her cheeks came out full force as she looked through the photos again, her heart pounding as she grieved for a sister she’d never known. And not just any sister. A twin sister. Why had no one told her? Were they going to let her go her entire life not knowing? Why would someone do that to someone they loved?

  She cried so hard that her stomach couldn’t take it any longer, and she ran into Grandma’s bathroom, collapsed in front of the toilet and lost her entire Thanksgiving meal. She wasn’t sure how long she stayed there, but once sure her stomach was empty, she forced herself to the sink and rinsed her mouth with Grandma’s mouthwash.

  Her red-eyed reflection was a haunting reminder of the twin sister she’d lost—the sister who, if she were alive today, would have looked just like her. What had happened to Britney? Was she still alive, growing up with another family somewhere, unaware of her biological parents and sisters? Or—and Courtney suspected this was more likely—had something happened to take her away from this life before her first birthday?

  Courtney’s head spun with the possibilities, and she glared at her reflection. An hour ago she’d been enjoying the Thanksgiving meal with her family. Now her world was shattered. She swallowed, grimacing at the remaining taste of bile in her throat, and took another swig of mouthwash. Had these past moments really happened? But the baby book splayed on the ground confirmed that, yes, it had. She wasn’t sure what to think, what to do.

  There was one thing she did know—she needed answers, and she needed them now.

  She picked the baby book off the ground and marched into the living room where Mom, Grandma, Peyton and Savannah were in their same spots watching the movie. So relaxed…so normal.

  “We thought you were never coming out of there,” Savannah said. “Didn’t you get my texts? Or were you too busy talking to whoever had called to look at them?” She smiled, so carefree, her eyes shining with the unspoken words that she hoped to hear all about this mystery caller later.

  It felt like hours since Courtney had talked to Brett. And she must have left her phone on the floor, which was why she hadn’t seen Savannah’s texts.

  But none of that mattered right now.

  She held the baby book in front of her, the cover facing outward. “Does anyone want to tell me what this is about?”

  Her mom took one look at the book and paused the movie. “Is that what I think it is?” she asked Grandma, her voice filled with anger. But apparently the question was rhetorical, because she continued before Grandma could respond. “I told you to get rid of that. You swore to me that you got rid of it—that it was gone forever. So how the hell is she holding it?”

  “I know what I told you, Donna,” Grandma said to their mom. “But I lied.”

  “How could you?” Mom reared her arm back and threw the remote at the coffee table with so much force that it bounced off the wood and onto the rug. The back of the remote popped off, the batteries rolling out. They all stared at it until the last battery was still, except for Mom, whose eyes burned as she looked at Grandma, waiting for an answer.

  “You know I disagreed with your decision,” Grandma said, surprisingly calm in contrast to Mom. “I couldn’t throw away all evidence that she’d existed. I didn’t want you to regret it and have nothing to remember her by.”

  “What are you all talking about?” Peyton looked back and forth from Courtney to Grandma and Mom. “What’s so important about that book?”

  “Did you open it?” Grandma ignored Peyton, the question directed at Courtney.

  “Of course I opened it,” she said. “I saw everything. How could you keep this from me?”

  “Why don’t I, you and your mom go back into my room to talk about it?” Grandma got out of her chair and picked up the remote, placing the batteries back inside. “Peyton and Savannah can continue watching the movie.”

  “No.” Courtney stood her ground. “She was Peyton and Savannah’s sister, too. Whatever you’re about to tell me, they deserve to hear it.” She sat on the couch between Savannah and Peyton and placed the book on her lap. Her face burned, and she glared at Mom, who was staring blankly at the wall. Why wouldn’t she look at her?

  “I can’t do this right now.” Their mom stood up, her gaze darting around the room like a wild bird trapped in a cage. “You never should have found that, Courtney.” She shook her head, stumbling backward. “I need to get out of here.”

  “You’re staying right here.” Grandma’s voice was stern, and their mom froze. “You’ve lied about this for long enough, Donna. I’ve always said you couldn’t keep it up forever. Now it’s time for you to tell the truth.”

  “But I’m not ready yet.” She sounded like a ten-year-old, and tears glimmered in her eyes. “It’s not the right time.”

  “There’s never going to be a right time for this conversation,” Grandma said. “But it has to happen, and since Courtney has seen the book, it has to happen now. You’ve run away from the past for too long—first with moving back to Fairfield after the tragedy, then with the drinking. Now you say you’re starting fresh, but you’ll never be able to do that if you keep this secret buried. Don’t you think your girls deserve to know the truth?”

  “I don’t have much of a choice, do I?” She glared at Courtney—as if Courtney had done something wrong—and fe
ll back into the armchair.

  While this was all going on, Peyton and Savannah had browsed through the contents of the book. Peyton was cursing up a storm, her eyes livid. Savannah was speechless, and she grabbed on to Courtney’s hand, gripping so tightly that Courtney’s fingers went numb.

  “How did you find this?” Grandma asked in her gentle way that made anyone want to confide in her.

  Courtney told them everything: how she suspected everything she’d been told about the kidnapping didn’t add up, and that whenever she asked about it, she felt as if no one was being honest with her.

  “With no one telling me the truth, I had to find it out myself,” she said. “I was in Grandma’s room and remembered how she forbade us from opening her trunk. I figured it couldn’t hurt to see what was in there, and that’s where I found the book.” Her chest tightened, the tears pouring down her face. She purposefully left out the part about her key necklace unlocking it—she didn’t want to give Mom another reason to get angry at Grandma. “Was there ever a kidnapping?” she asked. “Or was that a story you all created to hide whatever happened to Britney?” It was the first time Courtney had said her name out loud, which made this devastatingly real. How could her family—people who claimed to love her—hide something this huge from her and her sisters?

  She would never see them the same way again.

  Grandma pursed her lips and looked at Mom. “Do you want to tell her, or should I?”

  Mom stared at the ground, her expression blank, and Courtney knew she would take the coward’s way out and make Grandma do it. But then she straightened her shoulders and met Courtney’s eyes. “I’m the one who wanted to protect you from the truth,” she said. “So I should tell you what happened.”

  She was really going to twist this around by claiming that instead of “lying” she was “protecting her from the truth”? Courtney clenched her jaw and gripped the book more tightly. But she nodded, needing to hear this. At least her sisters were on either side of her, silently letting her know that whatever their mom told them, they were in it together.

  “As you saw in the baby book, you were born a twin.” Their mom’s voice was small, each word a struggle. She picked at her cuticles, and her lips trembled, but she managed to continue, “Courtney and Britney. It was an early delivery, and while you had to stay in the hospital for longer than normal, you were both beautiful and perfectly healthy. Your father and I brought the two of you home, and we were so happy. I got pregnant again two months later, and our life seemed perfect. It was easy to forget about the dangers that come with Adrian’s business and try to be a ‘normal’ family. But we got too comfortable, because as Adrian told you, when you were six and a half months old, you were kidnapped while your nanny was taking you out for a walk.”

  “It wasn’t just me she was taking out for a walk, was it?” Courtney asked, gripping Savannah’s hand harder. “Britney was there, too.”

  “Yes.” Mom wiped away a tear. “She was.” Her chin quivered, and she looked unable to continue without bursting into tears, so Grandma got them all glasses of water from the kitchen. After a few sips, she regained control. “It happened within a few hours. I was out with my friends, and I had no idea anything was wrong. Adrian only called to tell me to come home after you were safe.”

  “But what happened in those few hours?” Courtney prodded. “How did Britney…” She swallowed, unable to say the word she was thinking out loud. “What happened to her?”

  “The man leading the kidnapping was already on the run for previous crimes, so he had nothing to lose.” Mom’s eyes were far away, as if she was seeing it happen in front of her. “All he wanted was enough money to flee the country and be financially secure for the rest of his life. He ‘took care of’ your nanny, then called Adrian to let him know that he had the twins and how much cash he wanted as ransom. But to make sure the authorities didn’t get involved, he…” She shook her head and buried her face in her hands, breaking into gut-wrenching sobs.

  Grandma joined her on the armchair, put her arms around her and rubbed her back. “Do you want me to tell them the rest?”

  Their mom squeezed out a small “Yes.”

  Grandma took a deep breath, met Courtney’s eyes and continued, “The kidnapper didn’t want Adrian to get the authorities involved, so he took Britney’s life while he was on the phone with him.” Her arm was still wrapped around their mom, who cried harder when the words were spoken out loud. “He said if Adrian didn’t do as he wished, the other twin—meaning you, Courtney—would meet the same fate. So Adrian followed his instructions perfectly, delivering the cash where asked.

  “Once the cash was received, the kidnapper told Adrian where to go to find you. Adrian hoped the kidnapper had lied about what he’d done. But while both of you were in the car, you were healthy and safe, and Britney was already gone. So while Adrian was grieving over his daughter, that awful man used the money to flee the country, and he hasn’t been heard from since.”

  “I never forgave Adrian for what happened,” their mom finally whispered, lifting her head to reveal her tear-stained face. “And he never forgave himself. He should have made sure you were guarded enough to prevent what happened. It was his fault, and he knows it. If he’d been more careful, Britney would still be here today.”

  Courtney’s stomach turned inside out. If she hadn’t been sick earlier, she would have thrown up in the middle of the living room. “Oh, my god.” Her voice caught, and she looked at Grandma and Mom as if they were strangers. “I had a twin sister. No matter how guilty you and Adrian felt about what happened to her…how could you keep that from me?”

  “From all of us,” Peyton said. “This might affect Courtney the most, but Britney was our sister, too. You had no right to keep her memory from us.”

  “I knew it was wrong,” their mom said. “But if I told you about her, I would have had to tell you about Adrian, too. And he was the reason the kidnapping happened in the first place, so I couldn’t let him be in your lives. He didn’t argue with me when I cut him out. And luckily this all happened before the internet blew up, so he arranged for all traces of our connection to be removed from the web. We could leave his awful world and live in peace.”

  “But you still haven’t answered my question.” Courtney clenched her fists, anger flooding her veins at the sight of her mom, at the thought of her lies. “How could you live with yourself knowing what you were keeping from us? How could you get through each day without being consumed by guilt?”

  “I couldn’t.” She shrugged and studied her hands. “That’s why I drank. Alcohol numbed it all, so I didn’t have to think about it.” She paused to sip her water. “But try to understand—when was a ‘good time’ to tell you? When it happened, you and Peyton were too young to remember, and Savannah hadn’t been born yet. I couldn’t think about Britney without being overcome by grief, so I buried her away. Years passed, and I wanted to tell you the truth, but there’s never a good time to turn your daughters’ worlds upside down.”

  “So you were going to keep her from us forever?” Savannah asked.

  “That was never my intention.”

  “But you wanted Grandma to get rid of the baby book, and you threw out everything else of Britney’s.” Courtney wasn’t sure if the last part was true, but she’d never seen anything that could have belonged to her twin. The guilt in her mom’s eyes when she said it let her know she was right. “You threw her memory away and pretended she never existed. If your intention wasn’t to keep her from us forever, you never would have done that.”

  “Stop attacking me!” She slammed her palms against the arms of the chair and glared at them, her face red. “You have no idea what this was like for me. I don’t blame you for hating me for this, but I did what I thought was the best for the three of you.”

  “What you did was wrong.” Courtney’s voice was hard
. She was not letting Mom pull a “poor me” routine. Nothing could validate what she did. Nothing.

  “I guess this explains why my baby book was never as filled up as Peyton’s and Savannah’s, and why sometimes when you looked at me, you got sad for no reason, as if I’d done something wrong.” She was glad when Mom shrank away from her—glad to see how every word made her face twist in guilt. “It’s because seeing me reminded you of her, didn’t it? Of what Britney would have looked like if she’d had the chance to grow up.”

  Her mom refused to meet her eyes, which was all the proof Courtney needed. How could this be happening? Her mom had looked at her every day and hadn’t told her about this huge part of herself—an identical twin sister—whom she’d never known.

  Courtney would never forgive her for this.

  “I can’t look at you for a second longer,” she said, not caring that her words caused her mom to start sobbing again. She grabbed the baby book and stood to face Peyton and Savannah, who watched her closely, waiting for her next move.

  “Let’s call the airport and tell them to get the plane ready. We’re leaving tonight.”

  Chapter 23: Peyton

  They got back to the Diamond late Thursday night and found Rebecca pacing in their condo. Her hair was a frizzy mess, as if she’d been pulling at it, and her forehead was creased with worry.

  “Your grandma called and told me everything,” she said. “She thought I would be the best person to break the news to Adrian. He’s arranged to fly back early from Macau and should be here by Saturday morning.”

  “And I thought by coming back here I could get away from people who’ve been lying to me,” Courtney said, each word filled with so much anger that she sounded nothing like herself. “I’m not sure if what Adrian did was better or worse than Mom. She lied to us every day, but he cut himself out of our lives completely. I hate them both.”