Chapter 4 - The Sister Who Lied to Everyone
By Monday morning, I had stopped trying to understand my family.
I simply started verifying them.
That was a terrible feeling.
Trust had always been the invisible furniture of my life.
I never noticed it because it was always there.
Now every chair was missing.
I sat in my truck outside Alicia’s house at seven fifteen in the morning.
Vanessa had begged me not to go.
“I’ll tell you everything.”
“No,” I told her. “You’ll tell me what you want me to know.”
So I drove across town.
Alicia opened the door wearing blue scrubs.
Her face changed when she saw me.
“Malcolm.”
“We need to talk.”
“I’m going to work.”
“Call in late.”
She looked behind me.
“Is Vanessa here?”
“No.”
That seemed to scare her more.
She stepped onto the porch and closed the door.
“What did she tell you?”
I almost laughed.
“That is apparently the family slogan.”
Alicia folded her arms.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I know about Devin.”
She went pale.
“I know about Nia.”
Her shoulders dropped.
“And I know about Terrence.”
For a few seconds, she said nothing.
Then she whispered, “Please don’t tell Nia.”
I stared at her.
“That’s your first concern?”
“Yes.”
“Not that you lied to me for over a decade?”
“This isn’t about you.”
The words landed harder than I expected.
I stepped closer.
“You used my brother.”
Her eyes flashed.
“You don’t know anything.”
“Then explain.”
She glanced toward the window.
“Nia is inside.”
“Then we can talk somewhere else.”
Alicia grabbed her purse and followed me to my truck.
We sat with the engine off.
She stared through the windshield.
“Terrence and I got married in college.”
I said nothing.
“We kept it quiet because both our families hated the idea.”
“Why?”
“Because we were twenty-one and stupid.”
She smiled bitterly.
“Turns out the families were right.”
“What happened?”
“He loved Vanessa first.”
I looked at her.
Alicia nodded.
“Before me.”
My stomach tightened.
“Vanessa told me Terrence was her fiancé.”
“He was.”
“So you married your sister’s ex?”
“Yes.”
“Does Vanessa know?”
“She found out later.”
I rubbed my face.
This family drama apparently had layers beneath layers.
Alicia continued.
“My marriage to Terrence was already broken when I met Devin.”
“Was Devin aware you were married?”
“No.”
That mattered.
“He thought I was single?”
“Yes.”
“So you lied to him too.”
Her eyes filled.
“Yes.”
I looked away.
“What happened when you got pregnant?”
“I panicked.”
“Did Terrence know Nia wasn’t his?”
“Not at first.”
“And Devin?”
“I disappeared.”
My hands tightened around the steering wheel.
“You robbed my brother of eleven years.”
“I know.”
“No, Alicia. You don’t get to say that like you forgot to return a sweater.”
She turned toward me.
“Terrence was willing to stay.”
“Why?”
“Because he loved Nia before she was even born.”
That answer stopped me.
Alicia wiped her eyes.
“When I finally confessed, he was furious. He left for two months.”
“But came back.”
“Yes.”
“He adopted her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why tell Devin four years ago?”
Alicia looked down.
“I got scared.”
“Of what?”
“Terrence had a heart scare. Before the cancer.”
She took a shaky breath.
“I realized if something happened to him, Nia would have no biological father in her life.”
“So you contacted Devin.”
“Yes.”
“And made him promise secrecy.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Terrence was still her father.”
I stared at her.
“And now that Terrence is dying?”
She closed her eyes.
“I don’t know what to do.”
For the first time since Sunday dinner, I felt something other than rage.
I saw a woman drowning in choices she had made years ago.
But then I remembered Kayla.
Vanessa’s lies.
My brother’s silence.
I remembered that everyone had apparently decided what truth I could handle.
“Why was Vanessa at Terrence’s Thursday night?”
Alicia looked uncomfortable.
“To talk to Nia.”
“All night?”
“No.”
My head turned sharply.
“What?”
“Vanessa called me around midnight.”
My pulse increased.
“She wasn’t at the house anymore.”
“Where was she?”
“I don’t know.”
I stared at her.
“She told me Terrence collapsed and she stayed.”
Alicia shook her head.
“Terrence didn’t collapse Thursday.”
The air inside the truck changed.
I heard Vanessa’s voice from the night before.
He got sick. I stayed because I was afraid to leave him alone.
Another lie.
I grabbed my phone.
Alicia caught my arm.
“Malcolm.”
“What?”
“There’s something else.”
I slowly turned back.
She looked terrified.
“Vanessa didn’t reconnect with Terrence three months ago.”
My stomach dropped.
“How long?”
“Almost two years.”
I stopped breathing.
Alicia continued before I could speak.
“She was helping him arrange things for Nia.”
“Behind my back.”
“Yes.”
“For two years.”
“Yes.”
I stared through the windshield.
Then I asked the question I no longer wanted answered.
“Did Vanessa ever sleep with him?”
Alicia looked away.
“Alicia.”
“I don’t know.”
That was worse than no.
My phone buzzed.
A text from a number I didn’t recognize.
I opened it.
My hands went cold.
There was a photograph.
Vanessa entering a downtown hotel Thursday at 1:14 a.m.
She wasn’t alone.
A man walked beside her.
But it wasn’t Terrence.
I zoomed in.
May you like
And recognized him instantly.
My best friend, Aaron.
