"You're right," he said. "There's more.
"What more?" I asked, taken back by his abrupt surrender. "Something else happened very soon after you left.
"What?" I repeated with more demand.
He looked away, and the expression on his face made my heart skip a beat. What else could have happened that was more difficult to accept or understand than all that had happened to me and to Linden and my mother?
"My sister realized how serious I was getting with you," he began.
"So? Why did that matter? You never let her opinions sway you before, did you?" I practically screamed at him.
He glanced toward the house as if afraid we would be heard and took a few steps farther down the beach so our voices would definitely not carry back there. I walked a litt
le behind him, now almost as neryous as I was angry.
"No. You're right. Her opinions wouldn't matter. I don't adjust my life or change my plans to satisfy Whitney's view of the world. That's for sure." he said. "We're as different as a brother and a sister can be. but..."
He turned to me quickly. "But what?"
"But that's the point, or at least the point she was making in her revelations,"
"What revelations? What are you talking about, Thatcher? You're not making any sense to me and--"
"I was hoping not to have to tell you any of this yet, not until I investigated it for myself and either confirmed or disproved it." he said. "My sister is not above using a trick like this to get me to do something she wants or not do something she doesn't want."
"Like what?" I practically shouted at him.
He took a deep breath, bit down on his lip, and then brushed back his hair.
"You know, of course. who Kirby Scott was." he began.
"Yes. My mother's stepfather, the one who seduced and raped her. Linden's father. I know about all that," I said, waving away the words like so many sand flies.
Of course. I knew. The story was practically engraved on my heart. After my grandmother's husband, a naval officer, was killed in a helicopter accident, she and my mother, who was about twelve at the time, moved to West Palm Beach, where my grandmother. Jackie Lee Houston, worked in upscale restaurants until she met Winston Montgomery, a very wealthy widower twenty-five years her senior. He fell in love with my grandmother and married her, bringing her to Joya del Mar. After Winston died, my grandmother fell in love with a debonair Palm Beach playboy named Kirby Scott. They were married, and Kirby eventually took advantage of Jackie Lee. In practically no time, he gambled and spent my grandmother's fortune and left her nearly bankrupt. Before that, he had seduced my mother and she had become pregnant with Linden. It was a well-hidden pregnancy. My grandmother tried to convince the world that Linden was her child. For a long time, she even had Linden convinced of it.
"We've been through that sordid tale, Thatcher. I don't see how that matters at the moment."
After a moment more of hesitation. Thatcher said. "Your mother wasn't the only one he seduced, apparently, or at least according to my sister."
"What is that supposed to mean? Who else did he seduce, and what does it have to do with us. Thatcher? You're not making any sense and frankly-- "
"My mother," Thatcher blurted.
I stared at him. Was this a dream? He was telling me his mother was seduced? And by the same man who had started this whole mess?
"What?" I asked. Surely the devil wind had been playing with our words, twisting and turning them to suit its impish pleasure.
"Let's continue to walk a bit." he suggested, as if he had to put more distance between us and his parents with every small revelation.
"Thatcher--"
He put up his hand.
"Let me explain. Immediately after you had those nasty words with my mother, she called Whitney, She's closer to Whitney than she is to me. They have more similar goals in life, share values, are more sympathetic to each other's little
disappointments."
"So?"