Sadie was holding her breath as she quickly put the computer back and gently closed the drawer. She could hear footsteps coming down the hallway toward the bedroom. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stepped into the closet and tried to fold herself up on the floor beneath the empty bottom shelf.
She lay there trying to control her breathing, listening to the sounds of someone rifling through things in the bedroom. She let her eyes roam the dark closet in hopes that there would be something she could use as a weapon if need be. She didn’t see anything other than the boots and clothes and way in the back was an old suitcase. Whoever was in the bedroom was moving around a lot. Sadie thought about peeking out to see who it was and what they were doing but suddenly the footsteps came toward the closet. All she could see were feet from her vantage point as someone stepped inside. Sadie’s heart gave a small jolt when she recognized the shoes. It was Laura. A surge of anger and adrenaline assaulted her system all at once. Sadie rolled out from under the shelf and slammed her shoulder into Laura’s legs, knocking her sideways and making her yelp. When Laura looked down and realized it was Sadie, she tried to scramble away. Sadie held on tightly to Laura’s legs with both hands and pulled her down to the floor.
“Stop it, Sadie! What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” Laura yelled as they wrestled around on the floor.
“Me? I’ve lost my mind? Look who’s talking!” Sadie finally got Laura on her back and climbed on top of her. She was winded and everything hurt again, but she had so much adrenaline pumping through her veins that she barely noticed the pain. Using her body to hold Laura down she said, “Why? Why, Laura? You were like my sister!”
Laura narrowed her eyes and said, “Right, the sister who never got any attention. The ugly duckling that people only accepted when she was with beautiful, petite Sadie and even then nine times out of ten, she was ignored.”
“That wasn’t my fault, Laura. I loved you. I never treated you poorly or acted like I thought I was better than you. I thought you loved me! I don’t understand any of this.”
“I loved Marcus and you took him. I had my eye on Brendan in that bar that night before you ever saw him and you took him too. Then Peter Dailey comes to town and the first thing he does is ask you out. No amount of money I spend on my hair or clothes or makeup is going to make any man want me instead of you.”
“This is about men? All of this is about men?” Sadie was appalled. She wanted to slap her, but she resisted.
“It’s not about men. It’s about you,” Laura said, venom in her voice.
“Me? I’ve never been anything but loyal to you!”
“You shouldn’t have agreed to go to prom with Marcus.”
“All of this is about prom?”
“No, it’s about you and how you always get what you want. You knew how I felt about him. You just didn’t care.” Sadie relaxed her hold on Laura’s shoulders. She felt bad. Laura was right. She did know how Laura felt, but she wanted Marcus for herself so she didn’t consider her friend’s feelings the way that she should have. Not that it excused any of this. As she was having those thoughts, Laura wrenched her shoulders free and knocked Sadie off to the floor. The two women rolled around kicking at each other and grabbing hair once again. Laura finally subdued Sadie by slamming her head where she had her stitches into the wooden floor. Sadie cried out and Laura screamed at her.
“See what you made me do! Do you see? I don’t want to hurt you, Sadie!”
Fighting through the pain and the tears in her eyes Sadie said, “You don’t want to hurt me? You had an affair with the man who wanted to hurt me—who did hurt me. You let him hurt me, he could have killed me…”
“No!” Laura shook her head furiously. “I didn’t know he was going to hurt you, Sadie, I swear. I would have never agreed to that.”
“You brought him here! You let him use your dead brother’s ID, for God’s sake. You gave him a place to live. You bought him clothes and food!”
“That wasn’t about you. It was all because we were going to go away together. We fell in love while he was in jail, Sadie. He was sorry for hurting you and that guy in the bar once he sobered up. Alcohol affects him badly.”
“You were going to run away with a criminal? After all you’ve done to make your life better, you thought that was a good idea, Laura? An alcoholic criminal?”
“He is so different sober, Sadie. He’s sweet. And it’s all about me. When we took off from here, his only crime was supposed to be jumping probation and leaving the state. We were going to start over. We were going to go to California. I flew out there last week and I rented us a place. We were just waiting for the bank to release my retirement money. I cashed in my retirement fund so that we’d have money to get started. We were going to get married. I was finally going to have a life, Sadie! He never said anything about seeing you or hurting you. That day when I left the bar I came up here. I hadn’t been in San Antonio. I went to California for a few days and the rest of the time I was up here with him. It was beautiful and romantic. He said that he loved me…”
“And then he went down the hill and tried to kill your best friend.”
“No! He wasn’t trying to kill you.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“Listen, that’s not the way it happened. He got bored waiting for me. He went and bought some beer at the little liquor store by the river and he drank too much. Then he drove to Blossom Hill and sat out by the dam in his car and drank some more. When I got back and he wasn’t here, I called him. When he answered, he was already drunk. He wouldn’t tell me where he was, just that he’d be back soon. The sun went down and he didn’t come back, so I called again. He was really drunk then and rambling about you. I could barely understand what he was saying but he was agitated and talking about hurting Marcus. I begged him not to hurt anyone, Sadie, I did.”
“Obviously he didn’t listen.” Sadie’s head was throbbing and she could see spots in front of her eyes. She was afraid that she was going to pass out. She was fighting it hard. If Laura was back, how far behind her was Brendan?
“He said he drove by the bar and you were outside with Marcus. He told me he had this rage inside of him when he saw you with him. I begged him to come home. The line went dead and I kept trying to call him back. I called about ten times before he finally picked up. When he did he said, ‘I did it, Laura. I’m sorry.’ I thought he was talking about hurting Marcus. I asked him what he did, but he was talking crazy. He said, ‘I’m bringing her back with me.’ I didn’t know he had you, Sadie. I didn’t know he had hurt you. But I told him if he brought you back here that I’d call the whole thing off. I wouldn’t go to California with him or give him any more money. I didn’t want you to know I was leaving with him. I was going to write you a letter and explain it all when we got out there. Sadie, I swear I didn’t know what he had done until I saw you the next day. When he got back to the cabin that night he was so wasted that I have no idea how he drove. He tried to tell me what happened, but I still didn’t get the full story until after I talked to you. I really think that he thought he hit Marcus. He thought he was saving you from him…”
“Oh Jesus, Laura! Do you hear yourself? You’re making excuses for this pathetic drunk.”
“I love him, Sadie. I hated my life before I met him. I’ve always hated my life. You always got everything you wanted…just because you were pretty. How unfair is that?”
“You think I got everything I wanted? You think I wanted to grow up without a mother and be terrorized at my senior prom and be in love with a man that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to have? Do you think I’m proud of the time I spent with Brendan or how that ended? Or how about the fact that I work in a bar for a living in my father’s bar? You think that’s a charmed life, Laura? It’s not, trust me. But I’ve made the best of it. I couldn’t change the fact that I didn’t have a mother and I got past the embarrassment of prom and I stayed to work at the bar even though I could have gone somewhere else because even though he might not say it, Mickey needs me. None of it was perfect and none of it was because I was pretty. The life I have is not perfect, not even close. I’ve just chosen to see the good in it and make the best of it. You were a part of all of that too, Laura. I thought I had the best best friend in the world. But I was wrong. This whole time you’ve hated me.”
A tear began to roll slowly down Laura’s cheek. “I never hated you, Sadie. I just hated that everything was always about you. And now, once again, my plans are ruined because the man I love is obsessed with you. The only way it will ever end is if I leave here. I got my money today and I’m going to California.” Sadie’s eyes were growing heavy. She could barely focus on Laura’s face. She knew she was losing her battle with consciousness fast.
“Laura…go to California now without Brendan. Go and find a man who really loves you, only you.” She didn’t hear Laura’s reply because once again, her world went dark.