Read Online Pearl of Great Price by Myra Johnson - Free Book Online Page A

memories were so vivid.
    Rennie swung around to face her father, octopus tentacles constricting her throat. “Please, Daddy, please don’t make me come with you and Mama. Let me stay here and live with Aunt Geneva. Send me away to boarding school—anything!”
    “Rennie Pearl, you gotta stop such talk. Of course you’re coming with us.” Daddy drew her close against his chest, and she could hear his thumping heart. His moist, sighing breath whispered across her cheek. “It’ll be all right, honey-girl. You’ll start at your new high school next week, make new friends. We’ll all begin a new life. We’ll get through this together, I promise.”
    “But she hates me, you know she does.”
    She waited for him to deny it, but he didn’t. He couldn’t, after all. Mama had spoken it outright the day of the memorial service, said it plainly for all the world to hear:
    “I left you in charge, Renata Louise Pearl. And you killed your baby sister. I will never, ever forgive you, not even if I live to be a hundred. I will hate and despise you until the day I die!”
     

C HAPTER 7
    Present Day
    From behind me came the sounds of Mama Dog’s soft whimpers as her puppies rustled around in the box. I edged out of the van and closed the door before the lady got close enough to see inside.
    “You—you’re the girl from the flea market.” Ms. Moneybags cocked her head and slammed the door of her Mercedes. She took mincing steps toward me. “What in heaven’s name are you doing here ?”
    “Howdy-do, ma’am.” Grandpa joined me at the rear of the van and extended a gentlemanly hand, but his voice was tight. “Otto Stiles.”
    She took Grandpa’s hand with limp fingers. “Renata Channing. I was in your shop yesterday.”
    “Picked out one of Hazel’s lace tablecloths.” He nodded. His Adam’s apple bobbed. “Hope it suits you.”
    “Yes, it’s lovely.” She glanced toward the house, and I thought I detected a shiver. “Really, why are you here? This encounter seems . . . entirely too coincidental.”
    Indeed it did, and I was beginning to wonder what fate had in mind, placing this snooty rich lady in my path two days in a row. Not to mention I had a few questions of my own—like was she connected with the Pearl family who used to own this resort, and why had she left the Swap & Shop yesterday in such an all-fired hurry?
    I rubbed my arms, feeling as if I’d caught a chill. She glared at me like she was waiting for an answer, so I thought I’d best give her one. “My best friend just got hired by the new owner. We thought we’d see if there was anything worth salvaging before they start demolition.”
    The lady bristled. “Ah, yes, the new owner. Micah Hobart.”
    “So you know him?”
    “I’m the one who sold him this worthless pile of trash. We signed the papers yesterday.”
    “Then you are one of the Pearls.” She must be one of the children in the snapshot that was now burning a hole in my back pocket. I ached to ask her about the child who’d drowned, why her family abandoned the place, why she’d held onto the old resort for so long while letting things fall into such disrepair.
    “It was a long time ago.” The woman’s eyes took on a distant look. “A very, very long time ago.”
    “Then why . . . ?” I lifted one hand in a vague motion toward the house.
    “I felt the need to see the place one more time before—” She blinked several times and crossed her arms. “Honestly, why is this any of your business?”
    “Sorry, it’s just—”
    Grandpa cut me off, his grip biting into my wrist like an ice-cold vise grip. “We best be on our way, Julie.”
    I couldn’t leave, not yet. Not when the woman who might hold the answers I needed stood right in front of me. But I didn’t get the chance to say so, because Mama Dog chose that moment to let loose a pitiful whine.
    “Is that a child in there—and in this heat?” Mrs. Channing barged past me, her face a mask of righteous