My So Called Life (Love Not Included Series Book 3) Read Free Page B

gone.

    I’ve been sitting on the couch silently for the past hour. Brent has been staring at me impatiently, waiting for me to speak. When it comes to my past, he only knows the lies that I spun earlier on in our relationship. I’ve kept my past pretty secret. I was ashamed at the way I grew up. How do you explain to people who have grown up having everything about struggle? They just wouldn’t understand. My explanation to Brent, sadly, came right after I fought with Amy the last time. I told him they didn’t support my success and were just jealous. In a moment of anger I told him that even though my mother had just died, she had been dead to me for years. He didn’t console me in any way. He just shrugged and dropped the subject. I never mentioned another word about my sister so I assume he categorized her into my speech about cutting ties. It wouldn’t matter anyway. My life now was in California, end of story.
    To even think back over the past few years and know I never once brought up a story or memory about my sister to anyone makes me feel sick with regret.
    “Babe. Sorry, but I thought you were on the outs with your family?”
    “I was.” I stare blankly. I haven’t taken my eyes off the marble floor. I never mentioned my sister because I turned into a spoiled brat and didn’t want to explain my past. That I left the only blood relative I loved to fend for herself. I let everyone around me believe I was the victim of an envious family that included my sister. Never once did I stand up and admit the truth, claiming my sister to be the sole reason I survived my adolescence.
    “Well, then this news cannot be that upsetting. What did the officer say?”
    “He said I’m her only known living relative. He wants me to identify the body.” That prospect sends chills down my spine. I haven’t seen her in years. I don’t even know what Amy looks like now. I haven’t seen my sister’s face since I left Oregon six years ago and now I’m being asked to identify a person I let become a stranger.
    “Babe, that sucks. When do they want you to go?”
    “As soon as possible. I guess they have been trying to get hold of me all evening.” This happened while I was getting ready to celebrate my success and I didn’t even know. I feel the first tear fall down my face as the realization hits me. While I was dancing around in my mighty heels, drinking my fancy champagne and playing ‘I’m the best,’ my sister was already dead. The last blood family I had left and she just died. She went out on a drive to do God knows what with her husband and they never made it home.
    I didn’t even know she was married.
    That isn’t even the most disturbing part of the phone call.
    “The officer asked if I could leave as soon as possible.” I pause, trying to swallow, struggling to get moisture down my dry throat. The words that leave my mouth next still haven’t fully registered in my brain.
    “I have a niece. I guess she was at a friend’s house.” I shake my head, trying to allow this information to sink in. “Apparently Amy listed me as the contact for her if anything happened to them.”
    “Babe, it’s okay. Surely they don’t expect you to just drop everything, do they? You just opened the most prestigious gallery showing in San Francisco. Clearly you’re not leaving. What did you tell them to do?”
    Brent’s typical insensitivity rolls right off me. I’m still stuck in the conversation I had with Officer Belmont.
    They have a daughter. Who now doesn’t have parents.
    “I told them I would leave first thing in the morning. They need me to sign a release of my sister’s body and then make arrangements for their daughter.”
    I lift my cloudy eyes to meet Brent’s.
    “My sister had a daughter, Brent. I didn’t even know.”

“O KAY, SO WAIT. THEY have a daughter and what do they want you to do with her?”
    My phone to my ear, I’m trying to run around my bedroom while explaining my situation to