Stealing Taffy (Bigler, North Carolina #3) - Susan Donovan Page 0,84
thoughts. “I apologize for trying to expose you to the whole town, what with your real estate failure and all down in Tampa. That was just plain wrong.”
She nodded, eyes closed again. “I accept your apology.”
Tanyalee perked up. Maybe this would go relatively smoothly, after all. “Now I want to move on to Mama and Daddy.”
“Oh.” Cheri’s voice sounded small. “That’s important, I suppose.”
“Oh, yes it is! I want to tell you how much I regret what I said to you a couple months back, when you came to Wim’s real estate office to confront me about J.J. and I changed the subject to Mama and Daddy. I was a coward.”
Cheri didn’t speak.
“I blamed you for their deaths, which was untrue and unfair. I lashed out at you so I wouldn’t have to discuss the truth about what I did to you and J.J. I figured blaming you for our parents dying was the most cutting thing I could ever say to you.”
Cheri nodded slowly. “You were right.”
“And even if they’d died by accident like we always thought, you were not at fault for how they wanted to get away for a weekend. You were just an innocent seven-year-old girl, and yes, you and I fought all the time and it drove our parents crazy, but we are not responsible for their deaths.”
There was no sound except for the crickets.
“And now … now that we finally know what really happened to them—that Wim’s father killed them to stop Daddy from printing a story linking him to blackmail and murder—it makes my blaming you that much more awful.” Tanyalee looked down at her hands resting lifelessly in her lap. “I am terribly sorry for being so cruel to you, Cheri. I apologize from the bottom of my heart.”
Cheri let her chin drop to her chest and remained still for a long moment. As the seconds ticked by, Tanyalee felt her stomach twist into knots. Maybe Cheri was unable to forgive her. Maybe she was simply unwilling. She would have every right. But as Dr. Leslie often said, Tanyalee’s only job was to make amends to those she had harmed. She couldn’t control whether they would accept her apology.
Finally, Cheri responded in a barely audible whisper. “You poured salt into a wound that had never healed.” When she raised her eyes to Tanyalee, they were filled with intense sadness. “The evening of their funeral, I overheard Aunt Viv say that Mama and Daddy were dead because of me. She said they rented that beach house on Nags Head because they were so stressed out by our constant arguing. She said as the oldest kid I should have done more to make peace in the house.” Cheri paused, shaking her head. “I carried around a lot of guilt, and think you knew that.”
Tanyalee flinched. She reminded herself that there was only one way out of this huge mess, and it was through the truth, no matter how raw and ugly it was. “You’re right. I knew. I heard Viv say the same thing through the years and I never corrected her because I liked the idea that you were at fault. That way I could be Aunt Viv’s favorite, the innocent one, the victim. And then I went and did my best to turn Aunt Viv and Granddaddy Garland against you in the years you were in college and living in Florida. I threw you under the bus, Cheri. And, and I am deeply sorry for doing that.”
Cheri’s breath was coming fast. Tanyalee had no idea what she would do because, honestly, if Tanyalee were in Cheri’s place she would probably jump up, slap the snot out of her poor excuse for a sister, and order her to never set foot on this property again.
Cheri leveled her gaze at Tanyalee. “You always had a mean streak in you, even before Mama and Daddy died.”
“That is correct.” What else could she say in response to Cheri’s matter-of-fact statement? Tanyalee really had been as mean as a striped snake. “Now, I’m not making excuses, because there are none, but these days I have a better understanding of why I was like that. It was fear. I was always afraid there wasn’t enough love for the both of us, that you would get more attention, more time with Mama and Daddy. It only got worse after they died and we moved in with Aunt Viv. I was terrified.”
Cheri nodded. “We were two lost little girls, Tanyalee.