Chapter 2 - THE DAUGHTER BRENDA LOST
Audrey refused to leave before hearing the truth.
Rocco tried once.
She looked at him.
“Dad.”
He stopped.
Twenty-five years of being her father had taught him when protection was becoming control.
Audrey returned to the ballroom slowly.
One hand remained beneath her belly.
She sat beside Rocco.
Preston moved toward her.
She lifted one hand.
“Stay there.”
He stopped.
Brenda sat across the room with two bodyguards nearby.
Her anger had faded.
Something more exhausted had replaced it.
Audrey looked directly at her.
“Why my baby?”
Brenda stared at the floor.
No answer.
Audrey asked again.
“Why did you say she must not be born?”
Rocco noticed the word.
“She?”
Audrey nodded.
“A girl.”
Preston already knew.
So did Brenda.
Rocco looked between them.
Brenda finally spoke.
“Because girls become weapons in this family.”
Audrey stared.
“No.”
Brenda laughed once.
“You don’t know the Reeds.”
“I married one.”
“That doesn’t mean they told you anything.”
Preston’s face tightened.
“Brenda, enough.”
She looked at him.
“You’ve said that my whole life.”
Then she turned toward Audrey.
“I had a daughter.”
Audrey went still.
Gary closed his eyes.
Rocco looked at Brenda carefully.
No one had ever mentioned a child.
“How old were you?”
“Seventeen when I got pregnant.”
“Eighteen when she was born.”
Brenda’s voice became flatter with every sentence.
The father was a young man named Daniel Vale.
His family ran a small restaurant near the old Reed estate.
Brenda loved him.
Her mother, Marian Reed, did not consider love relevant.
She considered the pregnancy humiliation.
Preston had been twenty-two.
Gary sixteen.
Their father was frequently away.
Marian controlled the house.
“She told me a Reed daughter did not get to destroy the family because she couldn’t control herself.”
Audrey’s expression changed.
Almost the same language Brenda had used against her unborn daughter.
Brenda saw that.
Her eyes lowered.
Audrey asked:
“What happened to the baby?”
Brenda swallowed.
“She died.”
Gary opened his eyes.
Preston looked toward him immediately.
Gary said nothing.
Rocco noticed.
“What?”
Gary shook his head.
Rocco stood.
“What are you not saying?”
Preston moved forward.
“Rocco, this has nothing to do with Audrey.”
Gary finally exploded.
“It has everything to do with Audrey!”
The room went silent.
Gary looked at his sister.
For seventeen years he had apparently been carrying a sentence he could no longer hold.
Brenda stared at him.
“What?”
Gary’s face broke.
“I’m sorry.”
She stood.
“For what?”
Gary looked toward Preston.
Then back at Brenda.
“Your daughter didn’t die.”
Brenda stopped breathing.
Audrey’s hand went to her mouth.
Preston closed his eyes.
Brenda whispered:
“What did you say?”
Gary’s voice cracked.
“She lived.”
Brenda stared.
“No.”
“She lived.”
“No.”
Gary took one step closer.
“Brenda—”
She backed away.
“No.”
Her eyes moved toward Preston.
He would not look at her.
That was the answer.
Brenda’s entire face changed.
“You knew.”
Preston remained silent.
“You knew?”
Brenda crossed the room before the guards understood she was moving.
She did not attack him.
She stopped inches away.
“You watched me bury an empty blanket.”
Preston looked at her.
May you like
His voice came quietly.
“Yes.”
