She shook her head, pushed herself into the far corner of the sofa. “I can’t talk to you.”
“Congresswoman DeBlass, I’m Lieutenant Dallas. You called me a little while ago.”
“No, no I didn’t.” Panicked, Catherine wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. “I didn’t call. I didn’t say anything.”
As Richard leaned over to touch her, Eve shot him a warning glance. Deliberately, she put herself between them, sat and took Catherine’s frigid hand. “You wanted me to help. And I will help you.”
“You can’t. No one can. I was wrong to call. We have to keep it in the family. I have a husband, I have a little boy.” Tears began to swim in her eyes. “I have to protect them. I have to go away, far away, so I can protect them.”
“We’ll protect them,” Eve said quietly. “We’ll protect you. It was too late to protect Sharon. You can’t blame yourself.”
“I didn’t try to stop it,” Catherine said in a whisper. “Maybe I was even glad, because it wasn’t me anymore. It wasn’t me.”
“Ms. DeBlass, I can help you. I can protect you and your family. Tell me who raped you.”
Richard let out a hiss of shock. “My God, what are you saying? What—”
Eve turned on him, eyes fierce. “Be quiet. There’s no more secrets here.”
“Secrets,” Catherine said between trembling lips. “It has to be a secret.”
“No, it doesn’t. This kind of secret hurts. It crawls inside you and eats at you. It makes you scared, and it makes you guilty. The ones who want it to be secret use that—the guilt, the fear, the shame. The only way you can fight back is to tell. Tell me who raped you.”
Catherine’s breath shuddered out. She looked at her brother, terror bright in her eyes. Eve turned her face back, held it.
“Look at me. Just me. And tell me who raped you. Who raped Sharon?”
“My father.” The words burst from her in a howl of pain. “My father. My father. My father.” She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
“Oh God.” Across the room, Elizabeth stumbled back into the server droid. China shattered. Coffee seeped dark into the lovely rug. “Oh my God. My baby.”
Richard shot off the couch, reaching her as she swayed. He caught her hard against him. “I’ll kill him for this. I’ll kill him.” Then he pressed his face into her hair. “Beth. Oh, Beth.”
“Do what you can for them,” Eve murmured to Roarke as she gathered Catherine to her.
“You thought it was Richard,” Roarke said in an undertone.
“Yes.” Her eyes were dull and flat when she lifted them to his. “I thought it was Sharon’s father. Maybe I didn’t want to think that something so foul could flourish in two generations.”
Roarke leaned forward. His face was hard as rock. “One way or the other, DeBlass is a dead man.”
“Help your friends,” Eve said evenly. “I have work to do here.”
chapter eighteen
She let Catherine cry it out, though she knew, too well, that the tears wouldn’t wash the wound clean. She knew, too, that she wouldn’t have been able to handle the situation alone. It was Roarke who calmed Elizabeth and Richard, who ordered in the domestic droid to gather up the broken crockery, who held their hands, and when he gauged the time was right, it was he who gently suggested bringing Catherine some tea.
Elizabeth fetched it herself, carefully closing the parlor doors behind her before she carried the cup to her sister-in-law. “Here, darling, drink a little.”
“I’m sorry.” Catherine put both shaky hands around the cup to warm them. “I’m sorry. I thought it had stopped. I made myself believe it had stopped. I couldn’t live otherwise.”
“It’s all right.” Her face blank, Elizabeth went back to her husband.
“Ms. DeBlass, I need you to tell me everything. Congresswoman DeBlass?” Eve waited until Catherine focused on her again. “Do you understand this is being recorded?”
“He’ll stop you.”
“No, he won’t. That’s why you called me, because you know I’ll stop him.”