Living Lies Read Online Free PDF Page B

drank it on a dry day,” Paige suggested, exhaling through the screen into the cold night.
    Garrett didn’t reply as he put a frying pan on the stove.
    “I can’t believe she’s still mad. It’s been four years,” Paige said.
    Garret slopped a spoonful of margarine into the pan. “You kissed her fiancé.”
    “He kissed me.”
    “You kissed him back.”
    “Well, I didn’t want to be rude.” Paige shrugged. “I actually did her a favor. He didn’t love her. She shouldn’t marry a man who doesn’t love her.”
    Garret rolled his eyes. “This talent you have for rationalizing everything you do never ceases to amaze me. Even when you know you were wrong, you can still find a way to twist it around.” He slapped the egg-soaked bread into the pan.
    “You’re no better than me. You live two blocks away, but how often do you help look after Mom? Once a week? Once a month? Ever? Yet you smugly lecture me about rationalizations when you go home every night and hide behind your family.”
    “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    Paige shivered next to the open window while Garret turned back to the French toast frying in the pan. He always took Haley’s side.
    After running the tip of her cigarette under water and tossing the butt in the garbage, she closed the window and sat down at the table.
    “Where’s Mom?” Garret asked, setting the French toast on a plate. Paige looked up and realized he wasn’t speaking to her. Haley again stood quietly in the doorway. How long had she been there? How much had she heard? Heat stole into Paige’s cheeks.
    “She’s in the shrine,” Haley said. “I need you to move your car.”
    Garret walked past her toward the stairs. “In a minute.”
    Haley flopped down in the chair at the opposite end of the table, still wearing her coat, her bag at her feet, and stared in stony silence at the window.
    “How’s the store?” Paige asked. Sitting without speaking like two angry children was ridiculous.
    Haley turned and glared. “Fine.”
    “Good. This was always a busy time of year.”
    “Give it a rest, Paige. You’ve never been interested before, so don’t pretend to be now.”
    Why couldn’t the floor just open up and swallow her? Anything to escape this place.
    “We have to talk,” Garret said when he returned.
    “Move your car,” Haley repeated. “I’m tired, and I want to go home.”
    He plopped more egg-soaked bread into the pan. “You can’t leave yet. There are things we need to discuss.”
    “Such as?” Haley ground out.
    “Mom wants a funeral.” He didn’t look at either of them when he spoke. Instead, he kept his gaze fixed on the bread sizzling in the pan.
    “So, we give her a funeral. What’s the big deal?” Paige shrugged. Her fingers itched for another cigarette.
    “What would we bury?” Garret asked as though she were the stupidest person alive.
    “When will they be releasing the body?”
    “After a trial. And, funny, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.” Garret set a tub of margarine and plastic syrup bottle in the center of the table.
    “Did they tell you how she died?” Haley asked.
    “Marks on the bones suggest her throat had been cut, but with only skeletal remains the investigators can’t be sure.”
    “This is morbid.” Paige realized she was holding her neck and forced her hand down to the tabletop as Garret set a plate of French toast in front of her. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
    He set a second one in front of Haley. She pushed it away.
    Garret finally sat down with his own plate, and seemed not to notice that neither of his sisters touched the food in front of them.
    “Maybe we could have a memorial or something,” Haley suggested.
    Garret nodded. “That’s what Mom’s going to want.”
    “Or,” Paige said, “we could just tell Mom no. Make her deal with reality, whether she likes it or not.”
    Haley snorted. “That’s a great idea. And since you’re not here to deal with the