Trials and Tiaras (Untouchable #7) - Heather Long Page 0,93

now or a week from now. “But I will call you again. Maybe…we can spend some time talking and get to know each other.”

She glanced back to the table where Eugene stared at all of us, but he looked so weary and defeated. They really were afraid of Maddy. And Edward was in bed with a psychopath. Great.

I’d never been more grateful that we’d gotten Frankie away from her.

“All of us,” Frankie said. “But maybe one step at a time?”

“I’d like that,” Patience told her. “Very much.”

It took another ten minutes, but we were finally back outside at the car and alone. We’d retrieved our coats, but Frankie didn’t jump inside. Instead, she stared up at the house. And I couldn’t imagine what she saw. The walls, the architecture, or the strained family relations.

“She threatened to kill me,” was all she said. “I’m not sure what’s worse—that she told her parents that, or that I don’t doubt the fact she actually said it.”

Nor did I.

Leaning back against the car, I watched her. Frankie needed to work this out, and I needed to be patient. Even if Maddy was thousands of miles away, the urge to make sure she couldn’t get anywhere near Frankie again was a driving force in my gut. There were ways to take care of things, I wasn’t blind.

We had the resources.

I’d already taken advantage of it once, and I just had to bide my time until it was done.

“If she’s crazy,” Frankie said slowly and then turned to face me, “what does that make me?”

“Not her,” I told her firmly.

“Are you sure? They seemed to think…”

“They’re old.” My tone was flat, inflexible, just the same way my viewpoint on this subject was. “They see what they want to see. There’s a physical resemblance, but that’s just DNA. The same way I look like Edward. Doesn’t make me a carbon copy.” No matter what Muriel said about me having too much of him in me. “Nor are you. You have a heart a thousand times the size of that house. You care about everyone and not just yourself. You’re standing here trying to decide if you should feel sympathy for her because on some rough level, you already do. You feel for the girl you think she could have been.”

“Don’t make me sound so predictable,” she grumbled, even if she flashed me a small smile. The tears in her eyes pissed me off. We’d just gotten her free of her fucking mother, I wanted to cut those cords entirely. But Frankie, despite it all, loved her. Fuck, what had Jake said? Her big ass heart. It was that big ass heart that let her forgive us.

But we couldn’t afford for her to forgive Maddy.

She couldn’t afford it.

Especially if the woman really had threatened to kill her.

“I know you,” I reminded her and pushed away from the car. Cupping her face in my hands, I ignored the house and the surroundings and the history. All I focused on was her. “I know you, Frankie Curtis. What you said in there about your past was right—this is all the past. This isn’t about you. You want to know so nothing more ambushes you, and I agree with that. But what we’re finding out? That’s not on you. That’s on them. Hell, it’s on Grandpa, Edward, Maddy, the Graysons. It’s not on us.”

She let out a shuddery sigh. “I just…I feel bad for her, and at the same time, I’m so damn angry. Erin would tell me that conflicting emotions are normal and I’m allowed to be angry.”

“Damn straight.”

Frankie had asked us to do a group session with her psychologist, that the woman had wanted to meet all of us. I’d been reticent. Not anymore.

“Be angry, babe. Be sad, if you are. Be frustrated… You are entitled to your feelings. I’m right here. We all are. We’re here and we’re going to do this with you. Then when it’s done, it’s done.”

She glanced back at the house, twisting out of my hands, but then she leaned back, and I wrapped my arms around her at the unspoken request. Setting my chin on her shoulder, I cradled her tight.

“Do you know what I see when I look at that house?”

“Too much money? Too much focus on image? Prestige?” Frankie sighed. “No wonder she always said I made her look bad. She couldn’t just sweep me under the rug like every other problem.”

I begged to fucking differ, since that was exactly what