Read Online Dark Legacy by Anna DeStefano - Free Book Online Page B

Richard’s leadership. And he wouldn’t be waiting for his replacement to be named. He pulled the cotton blanket higher, covering Sarah’s body from the chin down. He’d reduced the potency of the pharmaceutical cocktail that kept her mind in its recovery state. He only hoped that would bring her around enough to follow him out of the center, while still keeping her under his psychic control. If not, he would most likely become the Dream Weaver program’s second casualty.
    “Get ready, Alpha,” he said. “All hell’s about to break loose.”

C HAPTER T WELVE
    “How long have you been lying to me!” Maddie shouldered Phyllis aside and continued into her mother’s foyer. “It’s all been a lie from the start, hasn’t it?”
    Jarred followed and kept Phyllis from stumbling into the oak-paneled wall. Damn him for insisting on coming with Maddie. Damn herself, for needing him right where he was—by her side. And for thinking damn so much.
    “Please—” Maddie said to her psychiatrist-turned-suicide watchdog. “You have to go.”
    She was coming unglued. And having Jarred there to see it—she couldn’t bear that.
    “You’re in no shape—” he argued.
    “To drive, I know.” Any minute, she was going to start begging him to stay. “Thank you for getting me here safely. But this is between me and my…”
    She couldn’t say it. She fought to meet the gaze of the mother who’d written Sarah off and made it so easy for Maddie to do the same. The woman who’d taught both her girls to believe the lies that had destroyed them all. Phyllis eyed Jarred, then took a hesitant step toward Maddie.
    “Honey, I don’t know what’s going on—”
    “Where are Sarah’s records?” Maddie moved out of reach. She backed into the hall table. A vase, a cluster of happy family photos, crashed to the floor.
    “Wh-What?” Phyllis stepped around the mess, her guilt turning Maddie’s stomach. “Why? For God’s sake, what does all this have to do with your sister?”
    Maddie risked a glance at Jarred, wishing she could feel something of him in her mind still. But all that was there now was her mother’s regret and self-loathing. Then Sarah’s snort of disbelief.
    Are you actually buying this act! the voice demanded.
    She’s sick, Maddie argued . She’s been too sick to face any of this for years.
    Maddie heard herself defending Phyllis—to nobody—and headed into the den. She’d find proof of Sarah’s commitment to that research center. She’d use the paperwork to force her mother to finally tell her the truth.
    “I know you have them somewhere.” She didn’t look back, but she could feel Phyllis follow. “You never throw anything away.” She yanked open the credenza’s bottom drawer and rifled through the hanging file folders. “I can’t believe I never looked…” Her thumb slid across the edge of a folder. The heavy card stock sliced into her skin. “Shit!”
    She sucked the cut into her mouth. Ignored the insane laughter chuckling through her mind.
    What a baby, Sarah’s voice heckled.
    “Let me see.” Phyllis tried to examine Maddie’s hand.
    “Don’t touch me, bitch!” Maddie flinched at the memory of her twin saying the exact same words. They were the last things Maddie had heard Sarah yell at their mother.
    Pain and shock flooded color into Phyllis’s pale cheeks. “I don’t know what’s going on or who this man is, but you’re bleeding all over yourself. I have some Band-Aids in the bathroom, and—”
    “I’ll get them,” Jarred offered.
    “I don’t want a Band-Aid!” Maddie’s explosion stopped him in his tracks.
    There was a sea of soothing calm waiting for her in his mind. It was calling to her now, the same way it had that morning, tempting her. Maddie wanted to crawl inside Jarred and hide until everything and everyone else went away. Trust me, Maddie…I can feel it, too… But she didn’t dare. She closed her eyes, trying to trap the impulse. Hold it back.
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