Page 70 of The Locked Ward
Honey’s laughter is far more disturbing than if she were screaming in rage. It sounds unhinged, like she has tipped into mania.
I fumble to regroup.
“You already knew about their affair? Well, soon everyone else will, too. This is all about to come crashing down. Think of how ugly it’ll be—Georgia hired a private investigator to spy on Annabelle sleeping with Senator Dawson.”
Reece DuPont steps closer to me, but at an angle, so he’s between me and the door. I’m trapped. I put my phone in my purse so my hands are free, and I leave my purse unclasped. It’d take me only seconds to grab my gun and aim it at them, I reassure myself.
“Clearly there’s a price for your silence,” he says. “What is it you want?”
“Two things. The first is for Georgia to be set free. She didn’t kill Annabelle.”
“Oh, for God’s sakes. Of course she did!
Georgia was a monster from the start.” Honey walks over to the bar set up in a corner of the room and reaches for a crystal-cut glass.
She pours herself a glass of something amber-colored from a matching decanter and takes a deep drink.
“How dare you come in with your threats of blackmail? You probably created that video. You can do anything these days with AI.”
I shift, putting my back closer to the wall, my eyes darting between her and Reece. He feels like the bigger threat. But Honey is a wild card.
“And the second thing you want?” Reece prompts.
Why is he running the show? I wonder. Could he and Honey be having an affair? It feels more and more possible, given his proprietary attitude. My head begins to swim.
“What is the second thing you want?” Reece asks again.
It wasn’t supposed to go this way. I’m supposed to be in control; it was going to be Honey asking me questions, desperate for information.
“I’m Amanda Ravenel. I’m Georgia’s other sister.”
A crashing sound explodes through the air. My head whips toward Honey. She dropped her glass, and the crystal is shattered across the dark wood floor.
She’s staring at me like I’m a ghost.
Reece is watching Honey watch me. A startled expression crosses his face before he smooths it away.
“Why are you here?” Honey whispers. “You were never supposed to come back.”
Honey did know my parents; I’m certain of it now.
Maybe she didn’t recognize them in the photo I showed her because her vision is weakening, or because their appearances had changed, similar to why she didn’t recognize me at first. She assumed they were strangers because of how I portrayed them.
We make snap judgments about people all the time, and miss seeing them as they truly are.
“It will be simple for me to prove beyond a doubt that I’m Georgia’s twin, and I can assure you it won’t just be the tabloids running that story. It’ll be everywhere.”
“What do you want from me?” Honey rasps. Her face is pale, and her skin seems to have collapsed; it’s like she has aged a decade.
“Answers. My father worked for Pecan Tree Corp. What did my father do?”
I can almost see her wondering if she should lie.
“If you don’t tell me the truth, I’m walking out of here right now.”
“Ray was our butler,” she says quickly. “He ran the household. Pecan Tree Corp. is one of the companies we own and we pay all our employees through it for tax reasons.”
The fancy suit he wore at my graduation. His knowledge of fine wines and elegance. Now it makes sense.
“Did my mother work here, too?” I ask.
Honey shakes her head. “She had a job in town. Waitressing, I think.”
“Why’d you pay my dad so much that last year, right around the time Georgia and I were born?”
Honey’s eyes seem to sear through me. Hatred blazes in them.
“He took you away,” Honey says. “That’s what we paid him to do.”