True to Me - Kay Bratt Page 0,77
the most, and I slipped into a terrible depression that took far too long to overcome.”
A tear ran down her face, and Quinn felt moved to comfort her but refrained. She didn’t look like the type to want anyone’s pity.
“I never really got over it, even when my parents gave me another horse. I loved him, but we didn’t have the bond that Wiley and I did. When I got older, I heard the rumors that the fire was no accident. My brother told me he thought it was probably set by one of the Rochas, the family who’d lost their barn and part of their house in a fire years before and blamed our family.”
Helen looked pained before adjusting her expression again.
“I was shocked at the story my brother told me. I hadn’t even known about this vendetta until then. I understood then that Wiley’s death was some sort of eye-for-an-eye act of retribution. But what the Rochas didn’t understand is that we didn’t set their fire, and their act of revenge took away my best friend and made them an enemy for life. I’m ashamed to admit it, but a seed of hatred for the Rochas sprouted in me and grew fast and hard. It was an uncontrollable kind of hate, and I longed to find a way to make them pay for what they did to Wiley. One day when I was out walking by the sea, the universe delivered an answer to my prayers.”
“What was it?” Quinn asked.
“I was looking out across the water, searching for marine life and hoping to see a whale or at least a dolphin, but some movement in the high grass on the dunes caught my eye. I went over, thinking maybe it was a stray dog, but it was a child. A pale, shivering little girl. She’d dug herself a hole and lay with her legs pulled up to her chest.”
“You found Nama?” Quinn asked, putting the two stories together.
Carmen nodded. “Yes, I did.”
“How did you know it was her?” Maggie asked.
“It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out,” Carmen said. “I’d seen the news and read the papers. The headlines were everywhere: ‘Young Heiress to Rocha Estate Lost at Sea.’ And I’ll admit, every time I saw the words or listened to a new report, I felt a stir of triumph. I didn’t want a child to die, but I’m ashamed to say that I was enjoying the fact that the family was suffering.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s just sick,” Quinn said, unable to stop herself.
She looked at Helen, who sat rocking with her eyes closed.
“I know it is,” Carmen said, choking over the words. “I’m not that person now. But back then I was young and stupid, barely twenty years old, and you have to understand, not only had the Rochas taken the life of my horse, but I had also learned that the land I so loved was only a tiny portion of what was really ours. The great-grandfather of that missing girl had stolen my legacy. My land. And I was livid.”
“Tell the rest,” Helen said, opening her eyes weakly.
“I bent down and tried to talk to her. At first she didn’t respond. She wouldn’t even open her eyes. My mind was spinning; I couldn’t believe the luck that I, of all people, was the one to find the Rocha child, and now she was going to die anyway. I felt sad for the impending loss of such a beautiful being.” Carmen paused, looking pointedly at Quinn. “But then she opened her eyes and looked up at me.”
Quinn had a feeling she wasn’t going to like what was coming next.
“I argued with myself on that beach as I comforted her,” Carmen said. “I knew the right thing to do, but that deeply cultivated hatred burned in me, and I wanted to make the family suffer just a while longer.”
Quinn looked from Carmen to Helen, amazed that they could even be in the same room together. How could Helen just sit there and listen to Carmen talk about finding her granddaughter and deciding to make them suffer longer? What kind of people were these? Something really strange was going on between the two of them, and Quinn couldn’t figure it out.
“Wrap it up, Carmen,” Helen said. “It’s my turn, and we need to finish this.”
Carmen nodded. “I only kept her a day until my conscience got the better of me. For all she’d been through, she