The Sister-in-Law: An absolutely gripping summer thriller for 2021, Pamela Crane [reading eggs books .txt] 📗

‘I thought you already ate dinner.’

‘I did, but I felt too sick to finish. Now I’m hungry again.’

Was it the pregnancy, or another lie because she hadn’t actually gone out to eat? I would never know. Everything that came out of her mouth was lies. I couldn’t trust the woman I married. I didn’t even know the woman I married.

‘Food can wait. This is important. We need to talk. Now. I’m not asking anymore, Candace. You owe me a conversation.’

Her silence was so loud.

‘Excuse me?’ Her jaw clenched, and her words came out taut and angry.

‘I know you lied. You lied to me about everything – about the baby being mine, about where you’re from, even about your name, Candace Moriarty! How about you tell me your real identity, for starters.’

‘Lane,’ she said, owning my name. ‘Who told you all this stuff?’

‘Does it matter? Who are you really?’ The hope-filled boy in me wanted to cry, but the wiser man in me held it back.

Candace dropped her bag on a chair and sat beside me, her knees angled toward mine. She scooted closer, generating heat between our legs, our arms. I was still in love with her, and I didn’t even know her. I choked on her silence. Finally, she had the courage to look me in the eyes.

‘I guess Harper told you everything?’

‘She’s my sister, and clearly the only one who cares about me. I want the truth, Candace. From your lips, not Harper’s.’

‘I had hoped to leave all the pain in my past. I just wanted to move forward with you into the future. Why is the past so important?’ She was pleading with me, her voice intense and wobbly.

‘You can’t just walk away from it, Candace. That’s not how it works; because it’s not the past if it’s still the present.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I know about Noah. About the baby not being mine. So it’s not the past, is it? He’s still looking for you, isn’t he?’

She sighed, her gaze dropping. ‘I’m sorry for not being honest. I’ll tell you everything. But I need one thing from you first.’

I wouldn’t give her a damn thing, but if it got the truth out of her, I could lie. ‘What’s that?’

‘I just need you to listen and not react until I’m done.’

I could give her that. I nodded.

‘First, I want you to know I love you. More than anything. That’s why I lied, because I was afraid the truth would make you leave me. And I hope you’ll still want to be my husband after you hear it all.’

I raised my hand to stop her. I was too angry to suffer through her emotional preamble. ‘Enough precursor. Get on with it.’

‘Sorry. Okay. Well, my name isn’t Candace Moriarty. It’s Candace Wilkes. Well, sort of.’ She lifted a finger to stop me from asking what that meant. ‘That’s my birth name. Born in Cleveland, Ohio. Eventually we fled Ohio after my dad’s arrest warrants piled up, and we ended up in Pennsylvania where my grandma lived. After my parents died when I was ten, I moved around a lot. That’s when I got close to a guy named Noah Gosling. His family took me in when I was living on the streets, and eventually we became high school sweethearts. We got married very young and I became Candace Gosling. Young and dumb, I thought we’d live happily ever after. Well, he ended up becoming an abusive jerk, but I stuck by him because I was afraid to leave … until one day I decided I couldn’t risk losing another baby. That’s when I left. Then I met you. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t know how. Or if you’d be willing to accept another man’s baby.’

Realization boiled slowly, but when it came, my anger was hot and spitting.

‘So he really is the father of your baby?’

She didn’t answer at first. The stretchy minute gave enough time for the humiliation to claw into my flesh. I had been a fool for love.

‘Yes, unfortunately it’s his. But I had gotten pregnant several times with him and none of my other babies survived the stress or the abuse … until this one. I took the beatings for years, until I just couldn’t anymore. I had been so stupid and weak and foolish and hopeful that he would change. I preferred the devil I knew to the devil I didn’t know – homelessness and being alone, living on the streets and potentially ending up dead. All I wanted was a family, a man who would take care of me, not hurt me. Noah clearly wasn’t the answer. But you were.’

I wanted to buy what she was selling: Hope. A future together. But I couldn’t, because it was all fake goods.

‘So you got pregnant with his baby and then ran off. Does he know?’

‘I don’t know. Does it matter? He never wanted to be a father. You did. That’s when I realized everything could work out okay.’

‘Only because it’s all based on lies.’ When she frowned, I instantly regretted the dig. ‘So who is Candace Moriarty?’

Tears wet her eyes, and I almost felt sorry for her. I couldn’t imagine what she had gone through, but right now I was too fuming to care.

‘I created a new identity after I left. I knew a guy who could make me a fake ID. I was afraid Noah would find me, so I picked a name from the obituaries. At that point I never thought about the lie catching up to me. After I met you, it was too late to come clean. I didn’t want to lose you. Would you have stayed if you had known the truth?’

I couldn’t answer that because she had never given me the chance to find out. I sat in stunned silence. I didn’t know what to say or what to feel. All I felt was betrayal and heartache.

‘We’ll never know, will we? You knew how much