“Okay, good.” Their sister was an assistant prosecutor with the DA in Virginia. If there was info to be had, she’d unearth it. “I’ve got access to her bank account and credit cards. I’ll check those out. Did the college find a note or anything?” The second the words were out of his mouth, his heart stopped. He hadn’t even thought...although maybe he had. Was it niggling intuition that had him pushing his mother to accept that Alethea might need professional help? He’d missed the warning signs with his father. Had he done the same with his sister? “How’s Mom?”
“Worried,” Antony said. “Ophelia’s with her and Marcy is going to bring the kids over for dinner. It’ll be a good distraction for both Mom and Dad.”
“Okay.” There wasn’t a day that passed that Xander wasn’t grateful for his sister-in-law and her calm, stabilizing presence in his brother’s life. “What about Alethea’s cell? I assume you’ve all tried calling?”
“Multiple times. She isn’t picking up. Must be a family trait.”
Ignoring the gibe, Xander ran up the hill to the inn and ducked around the side path to his cabin. “Give me an hour or so to check some things out. Keep calling her. If it turns out no one’s seen her in more than a few days, we’ll have to file a missing persons report.”
“Where? Virginia or Chicago?” Antony asked. “We don’t know where—”
“I might be able to help with that.” Little Charlie Bradley had said her dad was a sheriff’s deputy, right? And Simon’s dad was sheriff. Maybe he’d earned enough clout to ask their advice. “Give me a little time. We’ll find her, Antony. Don’t worry.”
“You need to come home, Xan.”
So they could fight in person? So they could both feel helpless in person? Xander already knew what the police were going to say. Legally, Alethea was an adult. If she wanted to drop out of school and take off, there was nothing stopping her. “I can do everything I need to from here.” And with far fewer distractions. “Two hours, okay? I’ll call you back then.”
He hung up before Antony argued any further. Xander dug out his key as he reached the gate and hurried inside. A few minutes later he’d logged into his sister’s bank account, checked her credit cards. He sank back in his chair as his chest tightened. Other than a cash withdrawal of three hundred dollars a little over a week ago, there hadn’t been any activity.
His mind raced, unable to settle on one thought before another, even worse one, took over. How many times had he listened to his mother insist everyone grieved in their own way, in their own time? Alethea just needed space. She needed to find her way through the double trauma of their father’s illness and her best friend’s death. It had been easier, Xander supposed, to believe his mother. But deep down he suspected Alethea wasn’t moving forward, that she was stuck and sinking fast. And yet he’d waited for her to come to him.
Despite what she’d been going through, Alethea was a smart young woman, he told himself. Growing up with four older siblings, she’d been both protected and prepared for what the world had to offer. Still, the idea of his twenty-one-year-old kid sister out there alone, grieving, possibly lost...
Xander rubbed a hand hard over his chest and tried to quell the mounting panic. “Alethea,” he whispered into the empty room. “Where are you?”
* * *
WHILE CALLIOPE OFTEN preferred a quiet night at home with her sister, books and a hot cup of dandelion tea, joining in the celebration of new life was something guaranteed to lift her heart and set her spirit to soar. When the party was a dual celebration—and included Paige’s graduation from nursing school—how could she feel anything other than gleeful?
Holly and Luke’s celebratory announcement that they were indeed expecting twins—sexes to be determined—was also confirmation that the separation between family and friends could be quite thin at times, if not eradicated completely. Seeing so many happy, laughing faces, so many of those she’d come to consider friends, should have made pushing worry aside far easier.