Dark Legacy by Jen Talty (reading books for 4 year olds .txt) 📗

“The problem is, she doesn’t even look. I swear she dates a guy for a couple of weeks and only when we have family stuff going on. Then, all of a sudden, he’s gone. We’re all wondering who she’ll bring to Bonnie’s wedding. Did she ask you?”

“Who’s Bonnie?”

Tara laughed. “Wow. You know almost nothing about Shannon.”

“Sadly, that’s true,” he admitted, tipping his glass. “I wouldn’t mind changing that.”

“Good luck. And to answer your question, Bonnie is my other sister.”

“Older or younger?”

“She’s Shannon’s age. Actually, they are only a few months apart.” Tara smiled.

“How is that possible?”

“They are both my half-sisters. Bonnie and I have the same father. Shannon and I have the same mother. Bonnie is Shannon’s stepsister. None of us have a whole sister.”

Jackson burst out laughing. Tara was certainly a firecracker. “I have five whole sisters. Trust me, it’s overrated.”

“Wow. You poor man, surrounded by all that estrogen. My father always says it’s going to put him six feet under long before he’s ready. When we were younger, we all loved sending him to the store for tampons, and we all wanted different brands and styles.”

“I never needed to know that.” Jackson pointed to the car making its way down the long, windy driveway. “Here comes your sister.” Thank God. As much as Jackson enjoyed Tara, he was ready for conversations with a different flavor.

“Hey,” Shannon said, dropping her purse onto the chair next to Jackson. “Sorry our mother dragged you into her games.”

“No worries.” Jackson stood, handing her a glass. “Why don’t I leave you two alone for a bit? But I do need to talk to you about a couple of things before the night ends.”

“I’ll knock on the door when we’re done.”

Jackson slipped into his kitchen, glancing over his shoulder. He’d gotten nothing specific out of Tara about Shannon, but what he had learned made him pause. Every family had its fair share of dysfunction—including his. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to get involved with a woman whose mother would go to such lengths to interfere with her adult children’s lives.

“I’m so sorry, sis.”

“You should be.” Shannon adjusted her chair a little closer to the fire. The evening air had chilled her bones, and the day she’d had warranted the five gulps of wine she swallowed without even tasting it. “Curious. When did Mother decide to come here for a visit, and what was the reason she gave you?” She tossed a piece of paper she’d found wadded up in her pocket into the fire. “And why the hell did you believe her?”

“I know you’re upset, but you don’t have to take that tone with me. I didn’t do anything wrong,” Tara said. “You know how Mother gets.”

Shannon dropped her head to the back of the chair. “I know. I’m just tired. I had a bad day at work, and Mom has been a pain in the ass. And your other sister is more like our mother than we are. I’ve gotten ten texts from her today. If she’s so afraid I’ll ruin her fucking bridal party, why the hell did she ask me to be in the wedding in the first place?”

“To appease my dad. He always feels like you get the short end of the stick, and I’d have to agree.”

“Your father is a saint.”

“Amen to that, sister.” Tara raised her glass. “Mom said she was worried about you when she saw you yesterday. That should have been my first clue. But, honestly, sometimes you do get weird on the day your dad died. I know you don’t like to talk about him, but it’s not like I don’t know some of what happened.”

“You were only four years old when he died, and you only met the man a few times.”

“Yeah, but I lived with you, and I remember the bruises. I recall once listening to him tell Mom that you got drunk and fell down the stairs and that she should ground you.”

“I was drunk, but he pushed me,” Shannon admitted, letting out a long sigh. “I wish you didn’t remember those things. That had to be scary for you.” She had opened up to her little sister about some of the abuse because she felt she had to, but she’d kept the worst of it to herself.

Her father was dead. The skeletons were safely tucked away in the closet. There was no point.

“It was at times. But, honestly, I only have a couple of memories like that. Why doesn’t Mom want to admit what happened?” Tara asked. Her voice trembled as she wiped a tear from her cheek. “There are some things about our mother I will never understand.”

“Did Mom do something else?”

Tara shook her head. “Other than being a crazed psycho about Bonnie’s wedding and being a little weirder than usual about the anniversary of your dad’s death, no.”

“Weird how?”

“Yesterday, she started bringing up you and all your problems and what it did to her and my dad, as if that’s what caused your dad’s death.”

If Tara only knew the half of it. “We can’t forget that I didn’t make it easy on Mom or your dad. I was popping pills, doing coke, getting in all sorts of trouble. Mom was terrified of me, and your dad wanted to protect you.” Shannon lifted her feather pendant. When she’d gotten pregnant, her mother had sent her off to a halfway house and told her stepsister that she’d gone to rehab. That wasn’t true. And when she’d come home, she’d gone right back into the insanity of the drug scene.

Of course, her father had helped perpetuate that lie.

But poor Tara had thought Shannon had gone to boarding school, and Shannon would never forget the day she left, listing to Tara scream and cry for her not to go.

“I wish I could have done something.” Tara sipped her wine.

“You were a child, and it was a long time ago. Let’s get