My Sister's Voice Read Online Free PDF

only things Kelly Thayler had been up to since she escaped Hillcrest; she’d also been busy adopting children. She had six, all plucked from orphanages. The other five were playing in the backyard, just behind the living room. From her vantage point on the couch, Kelly could watch them while she conversed with Lacey.
    “You’re so lucky you’re deaf,” she said. “They’re loud.” The little girl nodded in agreement and covered her ears with her hands. Lacey glanced at the living room floor, littered with toys. Kelly seemed completely comfortable with chaos.
    “Can your husband watch the kids?” Lacey asked. A smile appeared on Kelly’s face, along with the look of someone who had a juicy secret.
    “My wife is out of town,” she said, still smiling. “She’s in New York until the weekend.” Lacey nodded, determined not to show the shock Kelly had clearly been anticipating, even relishing.
    “Thanks anyway,” Lacey said. Kelly looked crestfallen; she obviously wanted Lacey to grill her about her wife.
    “They’ll be fine,” Kelly said. “They love books.”
    “No,” Lacey said. “This isn’t a kid’s book.”
    “Benjamin Books has a great play area. They’ll love it.” Six children bouncing off walls while Lacey tried to confront Monica Bowman? No way.
    “Sorry. It’s not going to work.”
    “Why not?”
    “I have to go.” Lacey was about to stand when Kelly thrust her index finger forward and shook it at Lacey.
    “You’re hiding something,” she said.
    “I am not,” Lacey said.
    “You are too. You did the thing.”
    “What thing?”
    “You touched your nose.” The little girl on the couch saw Kelly touching her nose, giggled, and touched her own nose. She looked at Lacey. Lacey didn’t comply.
    “So what?” Lacey said.
    “You did that as a kid too. Every time you pulled one of your stunts and Margaret was grilling you, you’d touch your nose.”
    “I did not.”
    “How do you think she always knew when you were lying?” A dozen punishments flashed through Lacey’s mind. There was a time Lacey believed Margaret when she said she had eyes in the back of her head. She’d lie awake nights imagining those eyeballs burrowed underneath Margaret’s mass of tangled salt-and-pepper hair. Truly terrifying.
    “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
    “I had to have some power, didn’t I? The way you used me.”
    “Used you?”
    “The things you used to make me do!”
    “You could’ve said no.”
    “You always said you wouldn’t be my friend if I didn’t.”
    “Are you crying? That was a million years ago.”
    “Nothing’s changed,” Kelly said. “You’re still trying to rope me into doing things without telling me what you’re doing.”
    “I asked you to interpret. Not rob a bank.”
    “I became an interpreter because of you.”
    “Then you should be thanking me. It’s a nice-paying job.”
    “It’s not about the money.” Kelly crossed her good leg over the bad and took a deep breath. “I wrote you so many letters,” she said. Little pink and blue envelopes with postmarks from California floated through Lacey’s memory. The little girl on the couch, whose name Lacey was ashamed she couldn’t remember, snuck a tiny hand over to her mother and patted her knee. She didn’t know what her mother and Lacey were saying, but she knew her mother was on the verge of tears. Lacey felt like the biggest loser on the planet.
    “I know,” Lacey said. “I’m sorry.”
    “Why didn’t you write me back?”
    “I didn’t even open them,” Lacey said.
    “What?” Kelly asked. Lacey sprang off the couch and maneuvered around the toys until she reached the window. She sat on the sill.
    “You got to leave,” Lacey said. “You moved to a sunny place with a beach. You had a family. A cool aunt who traveled, and danced, and didn’t hide liquor bottles under the couch cushions and put salt in the cookies.” Kelly stood up. Lacey wanted to tell her she was happy she had a