The Lost Sister

by Megan Kelley Hall

  Cordelia pulled out of Maddie’s grasp and raced down the beach away from them. Maddie knew that Cordelia had been working up the courage to go visit her mother all week. But now that Kate had rubbed it in her face, Cordelia was hell-bent on proving Reed’s and Finn’s innocence down at the station and then continue on to Fairview to see Rebecca. It was time to right her wrongs. It was the only way to move forward.

  “I wouldn’t get my hopes up!” Kate called after her, and then turned to Maddie to finish. “They’re only letting people in that Rebecca wants to see. My guess is that Cordelia isn’t on that list. Not anymore.”

  Maddie wished that Cordelia was at her side at that moment when she did what she should have done a long time ago—slapped Kate straight across her face. Kate screamed in agony as she fell to the sand below. Maddie had even surprised herself at the force of the blow; the base of her wrist seemed to have connected with Kate’s nose, which now had blood streaming from it.

  “You fucking bitch. You broke my nose! It’s bleeding, for Christ’s sake! You are so going to pay for this, you bitch!” Kate screeched.

  Maddie smiled down at Kate’s blood-smeared face and said, “You were right, Kate: karma is a witch.”

  Before going to see Rebecca, Cordelia went straight to the police station and made a statement to officially clear Finn and Reed from having anything to do with her disappearance. Now she and Maddie wouldn’t have to rely on their powers to get them out. At least the Endicotts’ influence was good for something. They didn’t want to be associated with a prisoner in any way. And luckily for Finn, he got to ride along on Reed’s coattails out the prison door.

  Maddie waited for Cordelia in the police station waiting room as she gave her statement. She worried that Cordelia would be fined or sentenced to some sort of community work—or even worse, imprisoned, because of the chaos that her disappearing act had caused. But luckily, the police department was too concerned with Darcy’s death and Bronwyn’s disappearance to punish Cordelia. They weren’t really ever that concerned with Cordelia’s disappearance or reappearance. They were just happy to be able to clear Finn and Reed—especially because of the pressure being put on them by the Campbell and Endicott families—so that they could look for the real killer. Maddie was shocked at how quickly the whole thing blew over.

  Maddie waited patiently with Cordelia while they released Finn and Reed. She wondered what would happen when Cordelia came face-to-face with the two most important men to her in Hawthorne. What would her reaction be? What would theirs be?

  Maddie felt an uncomfortable wave of tension as the two girls sat under the flickering fluorescent lights in the waiting room at Hawthorne County Jail.

  Reed was the first one to enter the room. He gave the girls a tired smile. He seemed stressed and tired and worried. Maddie realized that he must be so concerned about Bronwyn’s disappearance. He walked over to Maddie and gave her a hug and then turned to Cordelia.

  “So the wandering traveler returns,” he said as he softly brushed her cheek. Maddie felt a twinge of jealousy as they held each other’s gaze.

  “I’m sorry,” Cordelia said, her eyes welling with tears. “I really didn’t mean to cause all of this—”

  “Hey, hey, hey,” he said, still smiling. “It’s okay. You went through more than anyone should have ever gone through. I would have taken off by now, too, if I was in your position. Everything is going to be okay.”

  Just as Maddie was starting to feel like a third wheel, the look on Cordelia’s face changed suddenly. The air seemed to vibrate with electricity and Maddie was convinced that Cordelia had stopped breathing. She followed Cordelia’s line of vision and saw Finn standing there. They were staring at each other intently. Finn didn’t even look down at the paperwork he was signing and in an instant, Cordelia was at his side.

  They kissed so passionately and so intensely that it seemed like the rest of the world had dropped away. It was only Cordelia and Finn. Finn and Cordelia. Nothing else seemed to matter. He grabbed on to her tightly, squeezing her into his chest as if he couldn’t pull her any closer without devouring her.

  Reed let out a long low whistle. “Wow,” he said. “That’s pretty intense.”

  Maddie looked at the two and wiped tears from her eyes. “That’s love.”

  Reed grabbed Maddie’s hand, squeezing it and looking at her intensely.

  “I’ll see you later, Maddie,” he said, his voice filled with emotion. “I—I need to go.” He turned away from her quickly, almost like he was afraid of his emotions for her surging forward to the surface. Right now, as the boyfriend of the missing girl, it wouldn’t look good if he was too affectionate with anyone. “Take care of Cordelia.”

  Maddie laughed. “I don’t think I need to.”

  Reed turned back and looked at the two, who were kissing through tears, whispering softly to each other, and laughing as they touched each other’s face, and Maddie detected a hint of sadness or jealousy or longing. She wasn’t quite sure. And then he turned and walked out the door into the unseasonably warm afternoon.

  Chapter 22

  TEMPERANCE

  (Reversed)

  Naïveté, helping others to their own detriment, imbalance. Volatility. Poor judgment. Fickle decisions. Conflicting interests. Physical stress. Disagreements. Restlessness and instability. Trying to combine too many or the wrong elements in too short an expanse of time.

  A fter they finished up the paperwork to free Finn, Cordelia knew that there was one last person she needed to see: Rebecca.

  “I’ll be right by your side,” Finn assured her, holding her hand like he never wanted to let it go. He seemed so completely awestruck being back in Cordelia’s presence that his brief stay in jail didn’t seem to faze him.

  “I’m coming, too,” Maddie offered, though she still felt like the third wheel. Finn and Cordelia were so consumed with each other that Maddie didn’t think they even heard her.

  “What if she doesn’t want to see me? What if Kate’s right?”

  “When has Kate Endicott ever been right?” Finn said glumly.

  Just then, Maddie’s phone started beeping. She got a text message.

  “What’s going on back there?” Cordelia said, looking into the backseat. “You have a pager now? What are you, a drug dealer now? Jeez, I leave town for a little while and the whole world goes crazy.”

  “No, it’s a text message from Luke.”

  “Oh, Luuukkkeee,” Cordelia said, drawing out his name for effect. Maddie had told her a little about her best friend at school that she was not-so-secretly in love with and how she’d given up the chance to spend a winter break on his beautiful cruise ship to come back to Hawthorne. What she hadn’t told Cordelia was that she had asked Luke to look into bringing Cordelia back and finding out the whereabouts of Malcolm Crane.

  “Who’s this Luke guy? I thought you and Reed had a thing going?” Finn asked. Maddie was about to yell at him for saying something so inappropriate, especially after Reed’s girlfriend was missing, but then she remembered when Finn interrupted their kiss at the Misery Island Gala.

  “Never mind,” Maddie said, flipping open her phone to read the text message.

  Maddie, ur dad is on his way to Hwthrne. Do u want me 2 come? xoxo always, Luke

  “Good sweet Lord,” Maddie said under her breath.

  “What’s
going on?” Cordelia said, bending over the seat to try to peek at Maddie’s phone.

  “Not much,” Maddie said, a state of shock settling over her. “Just the family reunion from hell.”

  When they got to Fairview, Cordelia knew that she should go in to see Rebecca alone. Maddie and Finn agreed to wait in the waiting area. Maddie frantically tried texting and phoning Luke, but he wasn’t returning her messages.

  How had he tracked down her father? When? With everything that had been going on, she had forgotten to inform him about Cordelia’s return. Was Malcolm Crane coming to see Abigail? Rebecca? Did he even know what had gone on in the past decade? And if so, why was he choosing now, when all hell was breaking loose, to come back to town? Just to fan the flames?

  Finn sat patiently next to Maddie and watched as Cordelia hesitated briefly and then entered her mother’s hospital room. He wanted desperately to get into that room and be part of the reconciliation, but he knew this was something that they needed to be private.

  Cordelia pushed the door open and gasped as she saw her mother lying in the hospital bed. This was a woman who never got sick, never caught a cold, who was filled with energy at every moment of the day and night. Rebecca LeClaire was light and energy and happiness personified. How could this shell of a woman be her? Despite seeing her mother on the television news, Cordelia was unprepared for this face-to-face reunion.

  Rebecca’s eyes lit up as soon as she saw Cordelia. Her mouth opened as if the words were there, but couldn’t come out.

  “Mama,” Cordelia cried, her voice breaking. “I’m so sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am.” She wanted to run over to her mother and hug her, but Rebecca appeared so frail that she might break.

  Rebecca shook her head and widened her eyes as if Cordelia were simply a mirage in front of her. It was clear that this was the day she’d been waiting for—that she’d been living for—ever since Cordelia left Hawthorne. Suddenly Cordelia became overwhelmed by guilt and felt foolish for running away and causing so much grief, so much pain.

  “You are my beautiful angel, Cordelia,” Rebecca said, her voice filled with emotion. “The past doesn’t matter. What’s happened has happened. You’re here now and that’s all that I care about. You are my entire world, and now you’re back where you belong. Come here, my baby girl.”

  Cordelia raced into her mother’s open arms, curling her body next to Rebecca’s on the narrow hospital bed. Rebecca showed remarkable strength for someone who appeared to be in such a fragile state. She embraced Cordelia so tightly that it almost took her breath away. The two rocked together, sobbing and laughing, oblivious of the world around them. It was as if no time had passed. All feelings of betrayal and abandonment and fear were put to rest. Cordelia was home. That was all that mattered.

  Maddie and Finn were surprised when the door suddenly opened and a nurse motioned them into Rebecca’s room. It was filled with beautiful flowers—almost like being back in Rebecca’s Closet. There were huge arrangements, baskets of baked goods, balloons, and a huge assortment of candies strewn around the room. Obviously, Rebecca’s “healing powers” did not go unnoticed. Maddie wondered how many people had been helped by her aunt, and if it was frustrating for Rebecca to heal so many other people’s pain, but not her own. She got her answer when she looked at the hospital bed.

  Cordelia was curled around her mother, sobbing. Rebecca was whispering into her hair, shushing and rocking her as if she were a small child. Rebecca looked up at Maddie and Finn and mouthed the words Thank you .

  Finn and Maddie knew that they should let them have their private time to start mending their relationship. Maddie was overjoyed when she saw the sparkle back in Rebecca’s eyes. The dead, glazed-over eyes that she’d been accustomed to had been replaced by a dazzling flicker of life. Rebecca had her baby girl back and she was holding on to her tight, like she never wanted to let her go.

  When visiting hours at the hospital were over, Maddie and Cordelia returned to Mariner’s Way. Maddie had a feeling now that Cordelia had officially returned and was here to stay, Rebecca wouldn’t be staying in the hospital for much longer. It was obvious that the only medicine she needed was the return of her daughter.

  The girls were talking over each other, their voices trilling like birds, filled with happiness, when the shock of seeing the man sitting calmly with Abigail in the living room literally took their breath away.

  It was Malcolm Crane.

  He looked a lot older than Maddie remembered, but he hadn’t changed much in the ten-plus years since she’d seen him. He seemed a lot smaller, less powerful. But then again, she was just a toddler when he took off. She remembered his drunken rages around the house. He seemed so powerful, larger than life back then. She was shocked to see that he was just a man. A regular, everyday man.

  Cordelia, on the other hand, bristled. She looked at him with pure disgust. Maddie was afraid that the overwhelming emotions that were inside Cordelia after her reconciliation with Rebecca would turn to pure rage at the sight of their father.

  “Hello, girls,” Malcolm Crane said, standing up formally and putting his arms out for a hug. “It’s been a long time.” Abigail looked as though she’d been crying. He cocked his head to the side when he looked at Cordelia, appearing to be slightly shocked that the girl who had waited on him for so many months at the college coffee shop was his own daughter.

  “Not long enough,” Cordelia said under her breath.

  “Hi, Dad,” Maddie said curtly, not making an attempt to move toward his open arms. He held his arms out for a few beats and then awkwardly let them fall to his sides.

  “I know that there are a lot of things that I need to make amends for and apologize to all of you, Maddie, Abigail, Rebecca, Cordelia.”

  Cordelia dropped her gaze down to the floor. It was almost as if she couldn’t bear to look at him. The happiness that was brimming inside her was replaced by something much darker.

  “You mean me and my sister? Your wife and your lover?” Maddie spat the words at him. How dare he come here and try to make everything all right? All she needed him for was to track down Cordelia—that was all. Why did he even bother coming back to Hawthorne? Why now? “Isn’t it nice of you to finally meet your daughter face-to-face? And me, I’m surprised you even remember my name, considering how long ago you left us behind!”

  Abigail had a stony look on her face. Maddie could tell that her mother was steeling her emotions against this dysfunctional family gathering. “I’m just happy that Tess wasn’t here to witness this,” she said quietly.

  “Maddie, I don’t expect you to welcome me with open arms. I realize it will take time—” He stopped short as Maddie cut him off.

  “Time is the one thing I don’t have for you, for any of this. I’m here for my mother and Rebecca and Cordelia. The people I care about. I have no time for someone like you!”

  Defeated, Malcolm turned to Cordelia, and a look of recognition came over his face. “You, you’re the girl from the coffee shop,” Malcolm offered, almost like an olive branch to Cordelia. “I should have known—now I see the resemblance to your mother.”

  “You can’t see anything,” Cordelia spat. “You’re oblivious to the world around you. You’re a narcissist, a callous womanizer, a waste of a human being, and I am disgusted to be related to someone like you.”

  Cordelia began sobbing and ran up the stairs to her bedroom. Maddie never stopped staring at her father, curious to see how he handled Cordelia’s outburst. He looked deflated and saddened. He was wringing his hands uncomfortably and shifting his weight back and fort
h.

  “I guess I deserve that.”

  “Yeah, you do,” Maddie deadpanned. “Listen, I don’t know why you chose now to come back to Hawthorne, or what you want from us, but Rebecca will probably be released from the hospital soon, and I don’t think she’s in the right frame of mind to handle this. I don’t think any of us are, quite frankly. Especially Cordelia,” she said, motioning toward the staircase. Maddie wondered if Cordelia was listening at the top of the stairs.

  “Yes,” he said, nodding and sitting back down, looking up at Abigail with a look of guilt washing over his handsome face. “I’m aware that she didn’t take the news well when she learned that I was her father.”

  “Didn’t take it well?” Maddie laughed, practically shouted. “Didn’t take it well? Hmm, let’s see, she took off for a year in a vendetta to try to track you down to kill you. She cut off all ties with us all, making us think that she was dead. Made her mother—your ex-lover—so crazy that she tried to kill herself and has been locked up in a mental facility for a year. So yeah, I guess you could say she didn’t take it well.”

  Being the narcissist that he was, Malcolm seemed to hear only the part that concerned him. “She wanted to kill me?”

  “Yes,” Maddie snapped. “Too bad for her that she failed.”

  He winced and then said, “I came here to make things right.”

  “How are you going to do that, Dad? Do you have a time machine? Don’t you realize that when you burn bridges, there’s no traveling back over them?”

  Maddie was shocked at her mother’s silence. After all of the years of hearing her mother’s rants about Malcolm Crane, she was simply sitting there like an obedient housewife, unable to look at anyone or express anything. This filled Maddie with even more rage. She could almost feel Tess standing behind her, giving her the strength to carry on.