Don't Go Home

by Janelle Taylor

  But wake up to what? He couldn’t give her what she wanted.

  “Goodbye,” he said softly.

  He thought he saw tears well up in her eyes, but she turned away before he could be sure.

  And then she walked away.

  Straight out of his life.

  “This just in from News Channel Six—earlier this evening police arrested a woman who’s been dubbed the Nightclub Killer by media at the scene. Ginny Loomis is charged with allegedly killing at least four men in and around Center City ...”

  Mia stared numbly at the television, at the blond newscaster relating the few details about the arrest. She sat on the sofa in Margot’s huge, empty apartment, her knees drawn up to her chest.

  “The brother of one of her victims,” the newscaster continued, “together with a female partner whose connection to the case is as yet unknown, set up a sting operation in which the alleged killer was caught. Center City police are grateful to the Good Samaritans for their help in this investigation. . .”

  It was truly over. And as good as that made Mia feel, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling down her cheeks.

  Goodbye ...

  He’d let her go, just like that.

  And she knew she would never see him again.

  “Mia! Mia, wake up!”

  Someone was gently shaking her shoulder. Mia’s eyes popped open; she bolted upright. “What the—

  “Margot!”

  Mia jumped up and flew into her sister’s arms. She stepped back and looked at her sister, into her eyes, then grabbed her into a fierce hug. “Oh, Margot! I was worried sick about you!”

  “I’m so sorry, Mia,” Margot said. “I hope you know how sorry I am.”

  “I’m going to make us a pot of tea. You sit down and don’t budge.” Mia saw tears well in her sister’s eyes.

  “Okay.”

  Margot did as she was told, and Mia took a long look at her. Her sister was pale and looked way too thin, dark circles under her eyes. She wore tight, faded jeans and a black tank top and sneakers. Her hair was in a low ponytail, and she didn’t have on a stitch of makeup. For once, Margot Daniels looked a lot like Mia Anderson.

  Mia headed into the kitchen and put a kettle on to boil. Her sister was home. Safe. Mia lifted her gaze to the ceiling and sent a silent prayer of thanks.

  “Let me help,” Margot called from the living room. “I think you’ve done quite enough for me. I saw the news reports.”

  Mia had hoped that Margot would be watching the news regularly for any reports about Robert Gray’s murder. As she’d drifted off to sleep on Margot’s couch, she’d prayed that her sister had been watching television tonight and had heard that the killer had been caught. That it was safe for her to come home.

  Mia walked back into the living room with a tray containing the teapot she’d given Margot as a housewarming gift, plus the two lumps of sugar each of the twins liked in their tea.

  As Mia set down the tray on the coffee table, Margot put her hand over Mia’s. “I never meant for you to get involved.” Again tears welled. “I don’t even know what you did or how you did it, but thank you.”

  “I had help,” Mia said. “A lot of help.”

  “That man—the brother of ...”

  “Robert Gray,” Mia said flatly.

  Margot’s gaze was on the floor. She nodded. “So I guess you know everything, then.”

  “Not everything, Margot.” Mia poured two cups of the chamomile tea. “I don’t know why. Why would you want to be a decoy? And why in the world would you choose being a decoy over a man like Justin Graves?”

  Surprise passed over Margot’s face and then sadness. She stood and walked over to the wall of windows. “I’ve been a decoy for a long, long time, Mia. For about five years.”

  Mia was shocked “Five years?”

  “I had trouble making ends meet as an interior decorator when I first moved to Center City,” Margot explained. “My first client was a very sweet woman with very little funds—which was why she hired me. Her husband was demanding a divorce, and when he moved out of their home, he took all their furniture with him. Even though she put him through dental school, he was refusing to pay alimony.”

  “That hardly sounds fair,” Mia commented, adding the sugar cubes to their tea.

  “Oh, Mia, you should have seen this woman. Tears streaming down her face, she told me about his affairs, and how she’d finally gotten up the courage to confront him. But she didn’t have proof for the divorce proceedings that he was cheating.”

  “So she hired a decoy,” Mia said.

  Margot nodded. “She’d contacted a private investigator, who put her in touch with an independent undercover decoy.”

  “And that’s when you decided to become a decoy, too?”

  “I was drawn to the idea of providing women with the proof they needed of their husbands’ infidelity.”

  Put that way, the job almost sounded like a worthy cause. “But what you had to do to get that proof ...”

  Margot dropped her gaze to the floor, then looked up at Mia. “I know. But at first, I felt empowered. I felt like Superwoman, Mia. I was twenty-four and didn’t have a care in the world, or so I thought.”

  Mia put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “You didn’t want to have a care in the world, you mean.”

  Margot nodded. “I’d been living on my own in Center City since I was eighteen, since Mama and Daddy were killed. I was broke, lonely, had boyfriend after boyfriend who didn’t really care about me, and the nature of decoy work requires that you desensitize to a lot of things, a lot of issues.”

  “And that’s exactly what you needed then, to desensitize yourself?”

  Margot nodded. “To life.”

  “Oh, Margot. I wish you’d turned to me.”

  “You had your own problems, Mia.”

  That was true.

  “Your way was to marry a man who was completely wrong for you, and I was helpless to stop you. I used to comfort myself by assuring myself that one day, you’d see the light, and that you’d be okay. I always knew you’d be okay. But I wasn’t so sure about myself.”

  Mia thought about the combination lock to Margot’s metal box, the anniversary date of Mia’s divorce from David Anderson.

  “I hated that man so much,” Margot said. “What a shit he was.”

  “I know—now,” Mia said, a gentle smile on her lips. “I had a lot of growing up to do.”

  “Me, too.”

  Mia sipped her tea and leaned back against the sofa. “So when did your work as a decoy lose its appeal as empowering?”

  “After about two years,” Margot replied, leaning back with her tea herself. “I’m surprised it took that long.”

  “What happened?” Mia asked.

  “Well, it started with little things,” Margot said. “For example, I gave a client the proof of the pictures, and she tore them up in front of me. Said it wasn’t her husband, that she’d made a mistake in hiring me. She wanted the negatives, and she threatened me. Said if I didn’t give her the negatives and forget I’d ever laid eyes on her or her husband, she’d kill me.”

  Mia’s teacup trembled in her hand, and she set it down on the coffee table. “Weren’t you scared out of your mind?”

  Margot nodded. “I suppose the job was always dangerous, but I started to become aware of how dangerous at that point. Suddenly I realized that married men were groping me in public places, coming on to me. That I’d hired myself out as an object. My job was to be an object.”

  “Your job was to provide women with proof of their husbands’ infidelity,” Mia said, surprised that she was defending her sister’s line of work. “Your intentions were very honorable.”

  Margot glanced at Mia and bit her lip. “But I stopped feeling that part of the equation. The job was so sleazy, and after a couple of years, I began to feel sleazy. I began to feel that all I was was sexy, a sexual object, a fantasy. Nothing more.”

  “But, Margot
, what about Justin? He seems like a terrific guy, and he loved you.”

  Tears welled in Margot’s eyes, and she put down her teacup. “When you think you’re nothing, it’s hard to believe that anyone can love you.”

  Now tears welled up in Mia’s eyes. “Oh, Margot. Is that really how you think of yourself? As nothing?”

  Margot was silent for a moment, then nodded and burst into tears. She covered her face with her hands, her body wracked with her sobs.

  Mia pulled her sister into her arms and rocked her. “Honey, you’re more than something. You’re everything.”

  “To who?” Margot managed through her sobs.

  “To me, for starters.

  “But more importantly, you need to be everything to you. You’ve got so much going for you, Margot. You’re so intelligent and kind and funny. You’re such an individual. And you’re one of the most talented interior decorators I’ve ever seen.”

  “You’ve never even seen my work,” Margot said through her sniffles, and Mia knew her sister was feeling a little bit stronger.

  “I have, too, seen your work,” Mia said. “At Justin’s.”

  Surprise flashed in Margot’s eyes. “How did you come across Justin anyway?”

  Mia took a deep breath. “I’m sorry about this, but in order to help you and get to the bottom of Robert Gray’s murder, Matthew and I had to root through your stuff. We found the letter from Justin.”

  Margot burst into tears.

  Mia grabbed her sister’s hand and rubbed it. “Margot, he loves you. He still loves you.”

  “I’m not worthy of him,” Margot said in such a low voice that Mia wasn’t sure she heard correctly.

  “Margot, you are worthy. You’re worthy of anything and anyone you want. He sure thinks you’re worthy.”

  Margot sniffled and picked up her teacup. She took a sip and then wrapped the cup with her hands. “You think he’d talk to me if I went to see him?”

  Mia smiled. “I’m sure he would.”

  “I’m ready to change my life, Mia. I just don’t know where to begin.”

  “I’ll help you,” Mia assured her. “And I do know where to begin.”

  “Where?” Margot asked, her pale brown doe eyes shimmering with tears.

  Mia smiled softly. “With us, honey. We’re both going to change our lives, and we’re going to do it together. And we’re going to start with being sisters. Real sisters. We’ll help each other through.”

  “But you don’t need help,” Margot said. “You’re so together, you love your work, you have that cute house.”

  “I hate my life,” Mia confessed. “I’m not together. Look at me—I don’t even look like myself. I changed my appearance to suit a man, for heaven’s sake. And I’m not comfortable in that house! I like teaching—in fact, I love teaching. But I hate Baywater. I really do.”

  “I do like Center City,” Margot said. “I always have. I love the glitter of the city, all the cultural activities, and there’s so much interior decorating work to be had, if I get my act together to drum up business.”

  “Then Center City is where you should stay. And I think your first client should be yourself and this austere apartment.”

  Margot glanced around. “Yeah, I always hated this apartment. So cold. I guess I kept it this way so that it would never feel like home. So that my life wouldn’t feel like I was home. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Oh, Margot. I know exactly what you mean.”

  Over scrambled eggs, bacon, and a lot of strong coffee, Mia filled in Margot on the investigation and her relationship with Matthew.

  “And he just said goodbye and walked away?” Margot asked.

  Now tears pooled in Mia’s eyes. “Just walked away.”

  “So go after him!” Margot exclaimed. “Go after the man you love like I’m going to go after the man I love.”

  “But the man you love loves you back, Margot,” Mia pointed out.

  “It sure sounds to me like Matthew loves you,” Margot said, sipping her coffee.

  “Even if he does love me, it doesn’t matter,” Mia said. “He won’t love me.” Mia pushed her scrambled eggs around on her plate, her appetite gone.

  “There’s somewhere I want to take you today,” Margot said, a twinkle in her eye. “Two places actually.”

  “Where?” Mia asked.

  “You just leave that to me.”

  Matthew sat on the porch swing at Laurie’s house, Robbie sleeping peacefully against his chest. He’d told Laurie that Robert’s killer had been caught, some crazy woman who attacked men in parking lots of nightclubs. Robert had probably been playing darts, gone out to his car to drive home, and been attacked at random. Because the news reports were so vague with details, Matthew hadn’t had to worry about Laurie finding out about the decoy business or exactly how he and Mia had set up the sting operation. Laurie had cried for the senselessness of it all, and Matthew had held her, letting her sob on his shoulder for as long as she needed. Finally, she’d said she was relieved that his murderer had been caught, that Robbie wouldn’t have to grow up knowing that his father’s killer hadn’t been brought to justice.

  Laurie had asked Matthew if he’d watch Robbie for a little while so that she could go lie down and rest. For the past hour, he’d cuddled his precious nephew against his heart. He would be happy to sleep out here all night with Robbie asleep in his arms.

  You could give Robbie a cousin, that’s what you could do....

  Laurie’s words came back to him as Mia’s face flashed into his mind. He wondered where she was right now, what she was doing.

  Robbie stirred in Matthew’s arms. “We got her,” he whispered to Robbie. “She’s behind bars where she’ll stay for a long, long time. She’ll never hurt anyone again. Your daddy’s death has been avenged by justice.”

  Robbie’s beautiful blue eyes opened, and he grabbed at Matthew’s nose. Matthew let his nephew squeeze and grab at his face and ears, inhaling that delicious scent of baby powder.

  Of life.

  Robbie pulled Matthew’s ear and laughed.

  I’ll tell you what you could do—you could give Robbie a cousin....

  Matthew closed his eyes and stared up at the bright blue sky and thought about baby cousins and a woman named Mia.

  “Okay, open your eyes!” Margot said, swiveling Mia’s chair around. Mia opened her eyes and stared at herself in the mirror of Margot’s hairstylist’s station at Hot Cuts. Her mouth dropped open. “It looks exactly like the wig!”

  “I told you Maria was a wizard,” Margot said.

  She certainly was. Margot had brought Mia’s red wig to her hairstylist in Center City and instructed her to cut and color Mia’s hair exactly like it. And exactly like it was what Mia had. Cut chin-length and released of its weight, Mia’s usually straight hair now gently waved, just like the wig. And the color—the color was that of their mama’s. The color that Mia had always wanted.

  She now looked in the mirror and saw herself. The woman she’d always wanted to be. The woman she was.

  “You look so much like her, Mia,” Margot said, tears welling.

  Mia smiled at Margot’s reflection in the mirror, then hopped out of the chair and pulled her sister into a tight hug. “We don’t look much like twins anymore,” Mia pointed out.

  “But we are,” Margot said. “Inside.”

  Mia smiled.

  “C’mon,” Margot said, “I have one more surprise for you.”

  “What is it?” Mia asked.

  Margot grabbed her hand and led her to her car. “It’s about a forty-minute drive. So buckle up and enjoy the ride, sister dear.”

  They settled in Margot’s sports car, and Margot turned on the radio and began singing along. Mia smiled. Her sibling seemed happy, and Mia knew Margot was going to be okay. They were both going to be okay.

  But the moment Mia turned to glance out the window, all she saw was Matthew. Her heart lurching, Mia blinked back the tears stinging the backs
of her eyes. She wondered what he was doing, what he was thinking.

  If he was thinking of her.

  Probably not.

  Mia closed her eyes and tried to block his face from her mind, but those dark blue eyes, that shock of thick chestnut hair, that face, those shoulders, that chest....

  She loved him. She loved him so much her heart hurt. And instead of trying to rid his image from her mind, she gave into it and felt him. Felt his touch against her skin, felt his soft, strong lips against hers, felt his arms around her, his hands on her... . Suddenly, she felt better, lighter... .

  “Okay, sleepyhead, you can open your eyes,” Margot said.

  Mia started. Had she actually fallen asleep? She glanced at her watch—almost an hour had passed since they’d left the hair salon. She glanced out the window. Margot had parked her car in front of a town green.

  A large sign with white letters on a background of peaches read, Welcome to Peach Haven.

  Mia smiled. “You wanted to see the old house?”

  “Yes. But more importantly, I think you’re going to want to see the old house.”

  Mia glanced at her sister in confusion, but Margot only smiled cryptically and drove on to Bell Lane. She pulled up in front of the pale blue house, its white shutters and white porch gleaming in the early afternoon sunlight. “Oh, Margot, look. There’s a Sold sign in the grass. The house was for sale, and someone bought it.”

  “Yeah, you,” Margot said.

  “What?” Mia asked, staring at Margot.

  “I bought it in your name,” Margot explained. “And yes, you can pay me back!”

  “But how did you know, how did you—”

  “I saw that it was for sale about a month ago, and I set the wheels in motion then,” Margot said. “I wanted to surprise you.”

  “Surprise me, you did,” Mia said. “Oh, Margot. It’s my dream to live here, and to live in this house!”

  “I know it is,” Margot replied. “Let’s go check out your new home.”

  “I love you so much, Margot,” Mia said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it.