A Bad Day for Sunshine--A Novel Page 24

  And Auri had ruined that. Her mere presence had changed the course of her mother’s destiny, and there was simply no getting around that. No sugarcoating it.

  “I’m taking her home,” her mother said.

  Mr. Jacobs nodded, then turned to Cruz. “Cruz, your father is here. I’ve called in an interpreter.”

  Auri’s gaze flew to him.

  “That serious, huh?” Cruz said.

  The principal offered him a grim smile. “We can wait for the interpreter and discuss it then.”

  Sun led Auri out, and once again, Auri couldn’t help but feel she’d just ruined someone’s life. That was apparently her thing.

  * * *

  Sun and Auri drove home in silence with Quincy in the back seat. Sun held her daughter’s hand, refusing to let go even when Auri gently tugged.

  When they pulled into the drive, Auri asked in the softest voice Sun had ever heard from her, “Did Mr. Jacobs tell you what happened?” She looked so small, so hurt, Sun had to swallow down a lump in her throat.

  She was in shock for the second time that day. First the shed where she’d been held for five days, then the video. “Let’s go inside, okay?”

  Auri’s lower lip quivered like a child being chastised, and Sun pulled her across the console and into her arms. She broke down, sobbing uncontrollably. Sobbing so much Sun had started, too.

  Break her heart. Break her arm or her leg. Break her will. But leave her daughter alone. Those kids crossed a line, and Sun would make sure they knew it. She’d tried to arrest them right then and there, but Quincy stopped her, saying they needed to investigate first. And she needed to cool down.

  The fact that he was right didn’t help.

  Quincy leaned forward and put a large hand on each of their heads.

  Auri glanced nervously at him. “Did you see it, too?”

  He nodded, and Sun was surprised by the wetness in his eyes as well.

  “We need to talk. About everything. And Quincy needs to know, too.”

  “I’m okay if you aren’t comfortable with my being here, bean sprout. I will not be offended in the least.”

  Auri’s breath hitched in her chest, and the sobs began again. She jumped between the seats and into Quincy’s arms, and Sun’s head spun from the grief coursing through her veins.

  She’d never told her. Clearly, she should have. For her to learn the truth about … everything like this … it was too much.

  They went inside her parents’ house where Elaine and Cyrus were waiting with coffee and hot chocolate at the ready. They scooped up Auri and held her tightly as the girl broke down again.

  Before beginning, Sun checked in at the station. No new updates. Sun needed to get back to work as soon as humanly possible, but this was not something that could wait. Her deputies were competent on every level, and they also had Fields’s help.

  She told Anita if they found anything, no matter how small, to give her a call. Then she put her phone on vibrate and turned to face her family. Auri was still crying, and something hit Sun. Something she hadn’t considered before. Something she hadn’t dared.

  But the more she thought about it, the more she realized Auri’s reaction wasn’t quite on par with what it should have been had that information in the video been new.

  Sun sank down onto the sofa and said softly, “Oh, my god. You already knew.”

  Auri whirled to face her, the guilt so evident, Sun stopped breathing.

  “Auri, how? When? How long have you—?”

  Auri sat on the coffee table in front of her as her parents sat beside her on the sofa. Quincy took a recliner, barely sitting on the edge and clasping his hands in front of him.

  “Auri, you knew?” her mother asked.

  The sobs that had been wreaking havoc on her daughter’s body were taking their toll. She could barely breathe.

  “Where’s her inhaler?” she asked her father.

  Cyrus jumped up and found a spare in a kitchen drawer. He came back and handed it to his granddaughter, the love in his eyes heart-wrenching.

  “Sweetheart,” Sun said after Auri breathed in the Albuterol. She looked like a child. Like she had when she was in elementary school, her chest hitching every few seconds. Her eyes and mouth swollen.

  She dropped her gaze, and with her chin trembling, whispered, “Since I was seven.”

  Elaine gasped softly, but Sun just sat there, stunned speechless.

  Auri wiped at the deluge on her cheeks again while Sun gathered herself.

  She finally asked, “How is that even possible?”

  Auri took hold of the cross she wore around her neck. She did that when she was nervous.

  “Auri, you’re not in trouble. You understand that, right? You could never be in trouble for this. For any of this. It all happened long before you were born.”

  “I know. I just don’t want to get anyone else in trouble.”

  Sun slid to her knees in front of her and took Auri’s hands into her own. “Who could you possibly get in trouble?” When Auri still didn’t answer, she brushed Auri’s hair back and forced her to look her in the eye. “Auri, you can tell me anything. You know that, right?”

  “I know. It’s just … I overheard Grandma and Grandpa talking when I was staying here one summer. I’ve known ever since.”

  Sun couldn’t help it. She turned and gaped at them.

  Cyrus’s head dropped into a hand, and Elaine’s mouth hung open, as round as her eyes.

  But then the truth hit Sun like a nuclear blast. “Seven,” she whispered, gaping at her daughter. “You’ve known since you were seven. That was the summer—”

  Elaine’s hands shot up to cover her mouth as Cyrus sat seemingly paralyzed.

  “That was the summer you … you contemplated taking your own life.” Sun ended the sentence with a sob of her own, her chest seizing as she tried to talk.

  Auri covered her face with her hands as though humiliated. “I’m so stupid.”

  “No,” Sun said, grabbing her and wrapping her arms around her. “Don’t you dare say that. Not ever.” She was crying freely now, as was Auri and her parents.

  Even Quincy had to clear his throat and wipe his eyes.

  She put her at arm’s length. “Auri, is this why? Because…” She struggled for the right words. “Because we don’t know who your father is? Is that why you considered…?” She couldn’t even say the words again.

  With all the therapy and all the intervention, none of this had come out. How had this poor child kept it locked inside her? Why would she even do such a thing? Was she so horrified? So disgusted?

  “What?” Auri said as though offended. “Why would you say that?”

  Sun shook her head, just trying to understand. “Then why, baby? Why would a seven-year-old even consider such a thing?”

  Auri’s chin trembled, and she said so softly, Sun almost didn’t hear her, “Because I ruined your life.”

  Sun struggled to see past the tears. “You what?”

  “I ruined your life,” Auri said, louder that time. “Not only did that horrible thing happen to you, but then I came along and”—she gasped for air—“you had to deal with me, a constant reminder of what happened to you.” Her sobs shook her shoulders as she continued, “I try to be good. I try not to be a burden to you so you won’t regret keeping me.”

  Quincy stood and walked into the kitchen, scraping a hand down his face, while Sun sat in stunned silence, her chest so tight around her heart she could hardly believe it was still beating.

  She swallowed the lump in her throat and took Auri into her arms again. Her parents joined them.

  “You are everything,” she said into her ear. “You are my world.”

  “Mom,” Auri said, trying to pull back. “You don’t have to say that.”

  Sun jerked away from her. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t. It’s okay. I know I’m not like a kid you would’ve had with a husband. With someone you loved. It’s okay.”


  Sun covered her mouth with her hands. A sharp pain bored into her chest. “Auri, how can you say that? How can you think that?”

  “Mom, you were raped. You can’t love me like normal parents do. And that’s okay. I understand.”

  After a long moment, Sun lifted herself back onto the sofa and looked into her daughter’s eyes.

  “Quincy, will you please explain something to my daughter?”

  He walked back in, barely able to contain his composure. “Anything.”

  “Will you tell her what happened when I read the note?”

  Auri blinked. “What note?”

  She lifted her chin. “The note you wrote but left in your nightstand.”

  “You found that?” she asked, horrified. “I didn’t think you found it.”

  “Oh, my god, Auri, that was the worst two hours of my life.”

  “Your mom went crazy,” Quincy said. “She had every law enforcement officer in the state looking for you. I’ve never seen her like that. I think if you had done it, if you had gone through with it, your mom would have been next.”

  “No,” Auri said, surprised.

  “And then you strolled in two hours later,” Sun said. “Like you hadn’t a care in the world. I had no idea at the time what a good actress you were. I’ve since corrected that mistake.”

  “I’m so sorry, Mom. I just … I want you to have the life you dreamed of before I came along.”

  “The life I dreamed of?” Sun stared, unable to wrap her head around the inner workings of her daughter’s brain. “Auri, you are my life. I can’t live without you.”

  “But I’m annoying and expensive and frustrating.”

  Sun settled a stern expression on her daughter. “Aurora Dawn Vicram, you are also amazing and talented and brilliant. I can’t keep up with you. You’re always two steps ahead of me, no matter how hard I try.”

  “So, I’m not frustrating?”

  “No! Well, yes, but all kids are. You’re supposed to be. It’s, like, your job. How else are we adults going to pay for our raising?”

  “All kids are frustrating? You promise?”

  “What?” Quincy asked, a smirk tilting one corner of his mouth. “Did you think you had a corner on the market? Because if you want stories about your mom, we can talk later.”

  She laughed and then asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you found the note?”

  Sun took her daughter’s hands into hers. “I wanted you to tell me. To come to me. When you didn’t, your grandparents and I agreed to put you in therapy, just so you’d have someone to talk to. I spoke to the therapist. Told her what happened. She said you were a little depressed but that you weren’t exhibiting any suicidal tendencies.” Sun leaned closer. “You are really good if you fooled even her.”

  Auri shrugged. “No, she just wasn’t that great of a therapist.”

  Sun tackle-hugged her. The duo soon became a dog pile when Elaine and Cyrus joined them, Elaine tickling her granddaughter while Cyrus held her down. Then Quincy decided to play, and the whole melee went downhill from there.

  * * *

  “All right,” Sun said a half hour later as she tried to decide if she needed to be taken to the hospital for internal injuries. She’d gotten the brunt of the brute’s weight. “No more secrets. What do you want to know?”

  She was asking Auri, but Quincy spoke up. “Everything. And I mean it this time, or I’m walking.” When everyone stopped to look at him, he stood his ground.

  Or he was about to, until Sun asked, “Walking where?”

  They burst out laughing, and Sun asked Auri, “Is that what you want? The whole story? I can tell you everything I remember, which honestly isn’t much. But no more secrets. You can ask me anything.”

  Auri sat on the floor and leaned against Quincy’s legs. How a guy could make a huge fluffy recliner look small with him in it was beyond her.

  Auri looked up at Sun, the deep caramel and green in her eyes breathtaking. “Yes. I want the whole story.”

  Sun looked at Elaine and Cyrus, then began, “Okay, when I was seventeen, I was abducted and held for ransom for five days before someone dumped me at a hospital in Santa Fe. I had a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for over a month.”

  Auri’s lashes formed a perfect circle as she listened.

  “The authorities believed someone drugged me at a restaurant in Santa Fe. I guess I’d met a friend for dinner? I must’ve pulled over when I was driving home.”

  “We found the truck on I-25,” Cyrus said, appearing to get lost in the story. Haunted by it. “She’d probably passed out while driving. She’d scraped the guardrail.”

  “It’s a wonder it wasn’t any worse,” Elaine said. Then she got up to make sandwiches. They had yet to eat lunch, but Sun could tell the story was taking a toll.

  “When I woke up, I’d lost several weeks of time. I couldn’t remember anything about the abduction or about a month or two leading up to it.”

  “Retrograde amnesia,” Elaine supplied from the kitchen.

  “It made the investigation even more difficult, because I couldn’t tell the authorities if anyone had been following me or threatening me. If I’d noticed anything out of the ordinary.”

  “She could barely remember her own name when she first woke up,” Cyrus said. “She’s come a long way.”

  Sun leaned into him and gave him a playful shove before saying to Auri, “And that’s basically it, sweetheart. That’s pretty much my whole story. Besides waking up in the hospital and finding out a month later I was pregnant.”

  “Did you ever get your memory back?”

  “Not much about the days I was held, but I did get some of the weeks I’d lost before the abduction. A few glimpses, anyway.”

  Auri picked at stray fibers on the carpet. “Mom, why did you keep me?”

  “Oh, honey, I was in a coma for a month, and then I didn’t find out you were percolating inside me for another month. By the time we found out, you were a part of me. I couldn’t let you go at that point.” She turned to her mom and dad, gratitude swelling inside her. “And your grandparents supported my decision. Without question. They were so amazing.”

  “And you really, really, really don’t regret it?”

  She leaned over and put a hand on Auri’s face. “I never have, and I never will. Unless you turn out to be a serial killer. But even then…”

  “But, Mom, if you were held for ransom, what did he ask for?”

  “Two million.”

  “Dollars?” Auri squeaked.

  Sun laughed. “Yes. Somehow, the man found out about the nest egg your grandpa had built up. He’s a shrewd investor. And some guy decided he wanted it.”

  “Is that why you didn’t call the cops, Grandpa?”

  “It is. He said if we did, he’d kill her. And to this very day, I think he would have. I’m not saying we made the right decision, but if I had to do it over again, I don’t think I would change anything.”

  “So, you paid it and he took her to the hospital?”

  “No. We waited for instructions on the day we were supposed to drop it off, but none ever came.”

  “We were worried sick, sweetheart,” Elaine added. “We thought something went wrong.”

  “We thought he’d killed her,” Cyrus said, his voice flat. He looked away, and Auri’s expression softened on him.

  “That’s when we decided to risk it,” he said. “We called in the sheriff at the time, Royce Womack, and told him everything. He got the state police involved instantly, but before anything came of it, we got a call from Santa Fe PD.”

  “Someone had dropped your mom off at the hospital,” Quincy said.

  “Who?”

  Sun shrugged. “We don’t know. He didn’t stick around. We have footage, but it’s grainy and impossible to make out a face. It was like he knew where to look and where not to.”

  “What could you tell about him? Was he short? Tall? Big or skinny?”

  Sun
smiled. “He seems young in the video. Very young. He wore a hoodie and a baseball cap and, if I’m not mistaken, he was injured. There was a huge dark stain on the hoodie, and one of the nurses said it looked like blood.”

  “It wasn’t yours?” Quincy asked.

  “It could have been, but he was really favoring his left side, like he’d been hurt. And there was a ton of blood.”

  “He carried her in,” Cyrus said, “put her on a gurney, called out to a nurse, then ran before she could get close.”

  “Why would he take you to the hospital before he got the money?”

  Elaine started assembling the sandwiches. “We think your mom was injured and he was worried she wouldn’t make it.”

  “But if all he cared about was the money, and he’d threatened to kill her anyway…”

  “Welcome to my world,” Sun said, her daughter every bit as inquisitive as she ever was. “I’ve watched that footage over and over. I just have no clue who it is. I can’t see a face when I get my glimpses of that time, either, but somehow I feel like the kid in the video doesn’t fit the face in my head.”

  “What glimpses?” Cyrus asked, alarmed.

  “Right. No more secrets.” She looked at him. “You nailed it, Dad. I have been remembering bits and pieces. It feels a lot like Sybil’s dreams. I see images but can’t make sense of anything.”

  His mouth thinned into a straight line. “I was worried about that. You’ve seemed—”

  “Worried? Because I did win an election I never entered.”

  “Is the stress of all this causing more memories to surface?”

  She took his hand. “Dad, no. I’ve been getting glimpses of the abduction for years now. Just images, really. I’ve even remembered a couple of things that have happened before the abduction that I’d forgotten. Just silly little things, but it’s something.”

  “And?” Quincy asked.

  “And what?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” He sat back in the recliner. “I thought the whole no-more-secrets thing applied to the present tense as well.”