As I stood to leave, she grabbed my arm to hold me back. “Don’t leave. I need to tell you something. Whatever happens after that, at least I can know that I tried and didn’t let Daddy down.”
I glared down at her, not believing a word coming from her spiteful mouth. “Whatever you need to say, don’t bother. I don’t want to hear about it.”
Reaching into her purse, she pulled out a sheet of paper with tattered edges that looked like someone had ripped it from a notebook. It was folded in half, and she placed in on the bread plate in front of her and looked up at me. “Just hear me out.”
As if everything was happening in slow motion, I sat down again and stared at the piece of paper. It looked just like the kind of paper in my father’s notebook. “What’s this about?”
“Do you remember when you first told me about Tristan? I told you I’d heard horrible things about him—that he’d been responsible for someone’s death?”
I raised my eyes from the sheet of paper to look at her. “Yes, and I remember telling you I thought you were crazy. I still do. Tristan couldn’t kill anyone. You don’t know him.”
“No, I don’t. I’m afraid you don’t either.”
Shaking my head, I took a deep breath. “You’re wrong. Whatever you think that says, you’re wrong. It was Tristan’s brother who was responsible for that girl’s death. Taylor did that, not Tristan.”
She opened the folded sheet of paper and scanned what was written there. “This says Tristan. There’s no mention of his brother being implicated in that girl’s death. Daddy found all this out when he was investigating Stone Worldwide.”
“You’re mistaken. I’ve seen Daddy’s notebook, and he knew it was Taylor who got that girl pregnant. He wrote it down himself. I can’t believe you’d accuse the man I love of being a murderer again. What is wrong with you, Kim? What did I ever do to you to make you do this to me?”
“I’ve seen that notebook too, but before Daddy died. He ripped this page out because it wasn’t part of his investigation of Tristan’s father’s company and filed it away. I found it when I cleaned out his house after the funeral. You know, when you were busy spending hour after hour in bed while I had to deal with everything that comes when your father dies and no one else is there to help you.”
Her attack stung, and I sat there speechless as my mind attempted to process through the hurt and anger to the meaning of what she’d said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you needed me, Kim. I can’t help how I reacted to when he died. Daddy and I were very close. His death devastated me.”
“I was heartbroken too, Nina. That didn’t mean I got to stay in bed, though. I had to be responsible for taking care of all the business that comes with death.”
My chest tightened as I watched her expression harden. She couldn’t forgive me for not being there because I was falling apart. How could we ever hope to have any kind of healthy relationship while she still harbored these feelings? “Kim, why are you telling me all of this? What does this have to do with why you wanted to see me?”
“When Daddy died, I had to go through every inch of that house, reliving all the memories of Mommy’s death. I wanted to break down too, but every day I had to return to those rooms so full of the past. I had to sift through every piece of paper he kept. Do you remember how he’d always write on scraps of envelopes and cocktail napkins when he had an idea or found some fact he needed to remember? That house of his was full of them. Some I threw away, but most I kept, mainly because I couldn’t let go and those were all I had left of him. So I stuck the ones I saved in a box, even though I wasn’t sure what I’d ever do with them. Copies of that notebook of his you’ve seen were some of what was in that box, along with this sheet of paper.”
“I’m so sorry, Kim. I’m sorry I wasn’t there and didn’t realize what you had to go through,” I said quietly, hoping to at least show her we didn’t have to continue like we’d been.
Her hand shook as she lifted the paper in front of me. “When you told me about Tristan, I knew something about him sounded familiar. I couldn’t place it at first, but then it all came back to me. I’d seen his name on one of Daddy’s scraps of paper. When I searched through that box, I found everything Daddy had discovered about Tristan and his family. How they’d done horrible things and never gotten caught or been punished, and now one of them had tricked the only family I had left into falling in love with him.”
Reaching out, I stilled her trembling hand. “Kim, I know all about what Victor and Taylor Stone did. I know they weren’t good people, but Tristan isn’t like them. He’s like his mother. Did you know Daddy and Mommy knew Tressa Stone? She and Mommy were friends in college. It was Tressa Stone who introduced Mommy to Daddy.”
My sister stared at me with a look of coldness I’d never seen before in her eyes. “He’s not good, Nina. He’s a Stone just like his father and brother. His father had Daddy killed and he found you to make himself feel better.”
I shook my head violently. “No, that’s not true, Kim. I know he felt bad at first and that’s why he came to find me, but then we fell in love. He’s a good man. I know he is.”
Without breaking her icy stare, she slid the paper across the table to me and pulled her hand back. “Then how do you explain your good man doing that?”
My heart pounded so hard that my chest began to ache. I didn’t want to look down at what was written on that sheet of paper. I believed deep in my soul that Tristan was a good man and loved me as much as I loved him, and I didn’t want to know that I could be wrong. I didn’t want to see an indictment of who he was written in my own father’s handwriting.
Holding back the tears that threatened to pour down my cheeks, I shook my head. “I won’t do this with you. Whatever you think you know, you’re wrong. Tristan is the man I love, and I’m going to marry him. I won’t let you ruin this for me.”
“Look at the paper, Nina. Look at what Daddy found out about your fiancé.”
My heart ached at the thought of what I’d find, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had to read it, if only to prove that Kim had it all wrong. I unfolded the sheet and there at the top of the page was his name.
Tristan Stone—August 2006—Hoboken