Homewrecker

44 - 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓻

I found everyone in the living room, the dirt encrusted gardening gloves still on my hands as I wandered through the house and followed the muffled sound of a stilted voice that I already knew through the walls belonged to a reporter on the television before I came into the living room.

David was standing in front of the television, his arms crossed around his chest with his sleeves pulled to his elbows and the remote clutched in his one hand, staring pensively at the screen, while Amy was distractedly patting Miles' head from one of the ottomans. Jason and Kimberly were in the room on the couch in front of the coffee table, petite jarred candles scattered across the surface with stickers of their names together and their wedding date, twine roped tied underneath the lid into a bow on half.

Andi was on the floor in front of the coffee table, her fingers holding the twine into place, but she hadn't knotted it yet. The scent of vanilla was almost overwhelming as I looked at the screen where old footage of David walking into a brick building in the winter played, the collar of his coat fluttering around his stoic expression.

I blinked, confused since Danny told me that I was on the news but that was David and him being on the news shouldn't have been that much of a deal, then I read the headline as Natalie came up behind me, asking, "Why is Bronwyn on the news?"

Source Says Murder Investigation is Underway for Senator's Former Lover.

A moment later on the screen, it showed some of the footage from the interview with Kelly Bright a couple of weeks ago, with me saddled between Amy and David, and I realized that Ethan had been right when he said that I looked miserable, and even more dazed than I imagined.

"Senator Soliday told the public earlier this month that he had fathered a daughter with the victim, Donna Larson, during a separation between him and his wife several years ago. Donna Larson was said to have been killed during the E4 tornado that devastated the Shiloh area nearly a month ago, but now sources are saying that police are treating her death as a homicide."

David turned to me, the carved knot between his eyebrows I saw on his daughters' expression now appearing on his. "Do you have any idea how the press found out about this?"

I stared, dumbfounded, at the screen. "I told . . . a few people about what happened to my mom."

"Who did you tell, sweetie?" Amy asked.

I was still too stunned to even acknowledge that she was referring to me as sweetie again. "I told Indie," I admitted, remembering how I had been hesitant about her knowing but I never really thought she would leak the investigation or anything like that, but maybe she let it slip to someone who did. Then I glanced at Andi, twisting the twine around her middle finger. "I told Kingston, you know, that guy at my trailer."

David frowned. "What guy at your trailer?"

"I know him. He's been my neighbor for months, like a year and a half. We—we hang out sometimes. He was the funeral and after, he found me really upset and I . . . told him. But he wouldn't leak it. He knew the police wanted to keep it quiet."

He looked at me for a long moment, and when I glanced away from the unwavering gaze, I noticed that it seemed everyone else in the room was as well, especially Jason and Kimberly, who looked to be understanding why Indie couldn't find me at the party the other week and called them.

Then, when the anchor on the television elaborated that representatives for Senator Soliday hadn't been available for comment on the secrecy behind the investigation, David pressed the mute button. "Was there anyone else you told?"

I caught myself from glancing over to one of the windows that looked out over to the Denvers' first floor behind the pane, and felt the muscles in my jaw twitch as I started to tell him, "I—"

I was interrupted when I heard the distant sound of one of the French doors opening and was about to continue with my sentence, thinking it must have been Danny coming in from outside when I caught a glimpse of Taylor-Elise in the dining room, maneuvering around one of the chairs.

I hesitated as she came into the living room, the swiftness of her steps as her sandals slacked against the hardwood floors intriguing me for a moment, then instead of finding Andi on the floor with the candle and twine still mindlessly held in her hands, she stilled closer to me when she noticed the headline on the television screen.

Her hair was done in her usual Dutch braids, and it looked as if she were wearing Kass' heart-shaped sunglasses on the top of her head, and something came over her expression as she read the headline under the footage that panned out, showing the entire Soliday family on the couch from a couple weeks ago.

"Okay, so you know," she said quietly, somewhat breathlessly, and it occurred to me as I turned to her that she didn't exactly look surprised. At least, not in the way I would've expected, anyway.

Amy tilted her head, her gaze squinted. "Did you know, Taylor-Elise?"

It took her a moment to respond, shaking her head even though her gaze lingered on the screen for another few seconds as the footage shifted back to David on the steps in the winter. "No, Bronwyn didn't tell me," she said, then she turned to me. "It's why I'm here. I'm—I want to talk about why you didn't come to me."

I caught myself from snorting, but she maintained her measured gaze. "Wait, really?"

"The police told us not to say anything," David filled in. "They wanted to keep the investigation quiet to catch whoever murdered her off-guard."

She nodded, shifting her head to look at me without the others noticing her widening eyes. "Yeah, I know, but talking about things is really important and we should talk about them, Bronwyn."

I frowned in confusion, glancing over her shoulders to Andi on the floor who had set the jarred candle she was holding on the table with the twine bunched underneath the glass, one of her eyebrows lifted somewhat.

Then she hoisted herself up from the floor. "Yeah, talking's important. We should go do that."

David looked over at Amy, then sighed, smoothing a hand over his face. "Okay. I have to call Deshaun, anyway. I'm sure he's left ten messages about the leak already."

He was wandering out of the living room as Jason reached for the remote he had left on the coffee table beside their wedding favors, lifting it in the air to resume the volume when Andi's fingers curled around my upper arm and followed Taylor-Elise out to the French doors she had left somewhat ajar.

I looked over my shoulder just before she walked me out onto the patio, still not totally sure what was happening or why Andi seemed to be blindly following Taylor-Elise's lead, and noticed Natalie standing in the dining room, scratching her thumbnail against her stained popsicle stick. There was something pointed and sad about her gaze as she watched me leave with Andi and Taylor-Elise, apparently to talk, which was something I told Natalie we didn't do minutes earlier.

"What's going on?" I asked, pulling my arm out of Andi's grasp once we were outside, about to cross through the pine trees separating the Soliday and Denvers properties.

Andi shrugged. "I don't know."

Taylor-Elise looked over to me with a hesitant expression. "So, I kind of know who leaked the investigation. . ."

I blinked. "Wait, Ethan really leaked it?"

"You told Ethan?" Andi asked, appearing to be more confused about this than anything else.

"Not exactly," Taylor-Elise answered, her nose crinkling and her pupils drifting to the corners of her eyes as she cringed. "But he kind of told someone who did . . . he wanted me to tell you he didn't know she would do it."

"Who?" I asked, slowly.

She sighed. "Our mom."