Guilty By Association

Chapter 7 - The Missing Sister

Kelsey was only useful to him as long as she helped him get to Kara.

And right now, she was going to get out of the confines of her house and she was going to visit her father. She needed someone to knock some sense into her and Thomas Winters was the perfect person to do that.

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Kelsey pulled to a stop on front of her father’s home—the same home she grew up in. After the divorce, Gwen had moved to Florida and moved in with her sister with Kara and Kelsey had stayed with her father.

Unlike her mother, who Kelsey always remembered as being wild and free, her father had always been on the stricter side and Kelsey had always respected him for it. It made the decision easier, too, when Kara chose to go with their mother and Kelsey chose to stay with their father. The hardest part for Kelsey had been saying goodbye to Kara.

It was sometimes surprising how much things had changed.

Kelsey switched off the engine and got out of the car. Even though the father-daughter duo lived in the same city, it had been a while since they’d seen one another. Almost a month, Kelsey thought, as she walked up the pathway to the front door.

She had gotten awfully busy once her classes had started and had barely made time for her father.

She rang the doorbell, even though she had a spare key and waited for her father to open the door. An unknown anxiety flooded through her and she couldn’t fathom why she felt this way if she was here to meet her father. She’d been down this road tons of times. She’d visited her father more times than she could count. She had no reason to feel nervous. Once, perhaps he’d been intimidating, but not anymore.

She heard the door unclick from the other side and Kelsey put a smile on her face, ready to greet her father, but as soon as the door flew open, Kelsey felt as if she’d been the one slapped in the face. Words refused to come out of her mouth and it was almost as if she’d forgotten how to blink—or breathe.

The woman on the other side of the door was not her father. No, instead it was the mirror image of Kelsey. The woman had the same eyes, the same nose, and the same face. The woman was the same height as Kelsey and though they slightly varied in body type, anyone would have a hard time telling them apart. Kelsey knew that from experience.

“Kara.” The name flew out of Kelsey’s mouth, naturally, and she hadn’t even realized she’d said it until she heard it come out of her mouth. Kelsey was shocked.

“Kelsey!” Kara didn’t seem quite as shocked. She reached out and drew Kelsey into an embrace. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen you!” Kara continued, oblivious to Kelsey’s frozen state. “Dad didn’t tell me you were coming today.”

“It was a surprise.” Kelsey said, feeling like her surprise had failed substantially and somehow turned against her. She’d ended up being the one surprised. Emotions flooded through her as well as questions. What was Kara doing at their dad’s house? How long had she been here? After what she’d learned from Alex, Kelsey had thought that she knew something that Kara didn’t know she knew. She’d known something important. Something that could help Kara. She’d thought she was a step ahead. “What are you doing here?” She asked, moving past her surprise.

Before Kara could respond, another figure appeared behind her. “Who is it—Kara?” Surprise was evident on Thomas Winters’s features and relief shot through Kelsey, knowing that her dad was okay.

A smile appeared on Kelsey’s face, glad that at least she’d surprised him. “Hi dad.”

“I didn’t realize you were coming by today.” He said, looking puzzled.