The Sinner (Notorious 1)

Why does everyone go?

“Savannah,” Vanessa said. “You have to listen to me. There is a fortune in gems hidden in this house. We could find them. You and I. We could—”

“Where have you been?” I interrupted. “All these years?”

Vanessa’s eyes grew colder, harder, the charade of the loving absentee mother falling apart. “Here and there,” Vanessa said, rushing on to add, “But I was always thinking of you. I tried to come back, I tried—”

Lies. All I’d get from my own mother were lies.

“Why are you here now?” Matt asked.

“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Vanessa answered.

“My father is Joel Woods,” he said and Vanessa’s eyes flared, her face growing older, uglier every minute.

“Did you steal those gems from Joel and hide them here?” I asked.

Vanessa jaw clenched. “No—”

“You’re lying.”

“I swear—”

“Get out!” I yelled. “Get out of here. That man is in jail and he’s twice the person you are. He stayed with his son. Taught him how to play cards and music. Made him macaroni and cheese when he was hungry. What did you do, Mom? Twenty years I waited for you!”

“I swear to you, Savannah. I didn’t steal those gems.”

“I can’t believe a word you say.”

“Fine. Maybe we should wake Margot up and ask her if she knows about the gems,” Vanessa said.

“I’m already awake,” Margot said, in the doorway, cinching the belt on her robe. “And I’ve called the police.”

Vanessa jerked at that, but Matt held on tight.

“I told you, you weren’t welcome in my home,” Margot said. “Twenty years ago I said if you left these children here, you weren’t to come back.”

“They’re my kids!” Vanessa cried.

“Stop pretending you’re here for me!” I yelled. “Stop pretending you care. If you cared, you’d have never left.”

“I had things I had to do, honey,” Vanessa said, looking like every con man that ever was.

As suddenly as it arrived, the rage left me, taking all of my strength, leaving me weak and sad and small. There was no point to this. None at all.

“Matt,” I sighed. “Can you throw her out of my house?”

“Ask her about the gems, Savvy,” Vanessa cried. “Ask Margot about Richard—”

“Richard?” I asked and Matt cleared his throat.

“My father’s partner was Richard Bonavie,” he said quietly.

“My dad?” I cried. “My dad was involved in this and you’re just telling me now?”

Matt’s eyes flickered to Margot and I spun to face my grandmother. “You knew?”

“I didn’t think it was relevant,” Margot said.

My head nearly exploded.

“You see, Savannah?” Vanessa whispered. “You see how she manipulates? How she lies and turns everything around? Ask her about the gems.” Vanessa laughed. “Better yet, ask your dear grandmother why I never came back. Really. Ask her about the money.”

“Money?” I whispered.

“Ten thousand dollars a year to stay away from my own kids.”

I turned to my grandmother.

“She would have been back every year,” Margot said, her face hard. “She’d be back and play house with you children. She’d toy with you and then vanish again. It’s what she’s done her whole life. She wasn’t about to change.”

“You didn’t give me a chance,” Vanessa said.

“I did what I thought was best,” Margot said. “And I’d do it again.”

I felt the walls pressing in on me. A thousand pounds on my head, stopping my heart. It was impossible to think.

Everyone had betrayed me. Everyone.

“Now,” Vanessa said, “let’s ask her about where she’s hidden the gems.”

“Do you know anything about the gems?” I asked, so weary, so tired I could barely stand.

“Are you honestly going to believe her?” Margot asked.

“And you’re so trustworthy?” I asked. Margot swallowed, shrinking a little and looking more and more her age.

“I’m so sorry, Savannah,” Margot whispered. “I have always done what I thought was best.”

“So, no gems?” I asked and Margot shook her head.

“She’s lying!” Vanessa cried. “Again! Savannah, listen to me, baby—”

“Matt,” I whispered, “please get my…mother out of here.”

“Out of your house?” he asked. “She broke in looking for those gems. She knows something about the night my father—”

He stopped, blinked. And he grew, right in front of me. Changed. His shoulders suddenly seemed wider, his back straighter and his love for me practically blazed out of his eyes.

I realized what he was doing—curbing his want, his desire for information. He was putting himself on hold, this single-minded man who put his vision aside for no one.

He was putting it aside for me.

Don’t. I can’t repay that. I can’t match that sacrifice. I have nothing to give you.

“You want her gone, she’s gone,” he said.

“Thank you,” I whispered, unable to turn down what he offered so easily when I knew I should.

“Those gems are here, Savannah!” Vanessa yelled as Matt led her out to the front lawn where the cops would soon arrive. “Margot knows something!”

Margot spread her fingers across her belly as if she had a pain. “That woman would have ruined your life.”