Chapter 7 – The Missing Sister
It had been two days since Kelsey had seen Alex. She knew that it hadn’t gone well between them at her house on Friday morning. She’d somewhat chosen Kara over Alex and even though she’d made that promise, he knew it.
But Alex didn’t know Kara the way Kelsey did. She was her sister. There was no way Kara would get involved with illegal activities, knowing what she was getting into. That was not the way their parents had raised them.
Maybe she’d gotten mad at Gwen and gone to Caleb Rocha, but she would have left as soon as she found out what he was into. There was no way she’d stay involved with a criminal for six months. Their dad would be traumatized for life if he found out.
Besides, Kelsey was still angry with Alex. How dare he try to tell her that Kara knew what was going on and she was choosing to stay with Caleb Rocha? He was a criminal. Kara would never stay with a criminal. That was not how their parents raised them.
Kelsey was aware of the fact that she hadn’t communicated with Kara in a very long time. But that just changed the situation between them, it didn’t change Kara or the fact that they were sisters. They grew up together. Kelsey had full faith in Kara that she wasn’t involved.
In fact, Kelsey was certain that one of these days, Kara would show up. They would go to Alex and clear up the misunderstanding. Then Kelsey would have no reason to get involved with Alex in any way.
Kelsey sighed, closing her book. She set it down on her bedside table and sighed. Normally, she would be done with the book by now. But for the past few days, she’d been distracted. No matter what she did, her mind kept going back to Alex and Kara and her thoughts seemed to freeze there. It was all her mind wanted to think about, even though she didn’t want to.
She’d rung Kara’s cell phone a few more times, but it kept ringing and that didn’t make any sense. Why was it ringing? That meant that it was charged, wasn’t it? So who was using it, but ignoring all of her calls. Kelsey refused to believe that Kara was purposely ignoring her calls. That just gave a few points to Alex’s theory and Kelsey refused to believe that he was right.
Kelsey needed to get out more. Sitting on her bed thinking about Kara was starting to drive her crazy and she refused to go insane just yet, despite what everyone else believed.
Kelsey took her book and put it in her closet, which she’d converted into a makeshift bookshelf, behind all of her clothes. Being a professor, Kelsey had quite a bit of bookshelves in her house but this one in her closet, she reserved it specifically for her romance novels that tended to get pretty saucy. She didn’t want anyone to find it by accident and she knew her dad would never rummage through her closet on the off-chance that he might find something personal. That was one of the key benefits of living with her father.
Unlike Gwen, he would never snoop around in Kelsey’s things. He trusted her and she did her best never to betray his trust. Reading was okay. Imagining these events was tolerable, but imagining them with a certain FBI agent was not acceptable.
Kelsey intended to do things the right way and she would make sure Alex met her father before she started anything with him. Kelsey shook her head. What was she thinking? She shouldn’t be thinking about starting anything with Alex. She was mad at him and he wanted to arrest her sister. She couldn’t afford to imagine what having a relationship with Alex would be like.
Besides, she was sure that Alex certainly didn’t feel the same way about her. If he did, he wouldn’t have ignored her for the past two days.
Not that she was counting.
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.
“I was going to surprise you.” Kelsey said, eying Kara. “But you managed to surprise me, instead. Why didn’t you tell me Kara was here, Dad?”
“I wanted to surprise you.” Kara answered for him and Kelsey felt a little angry at her for answering, considering she’d asked their dad.
“She’s only been here for about a week.” Thomas said, glancing at his daughter. “I was surprised, too, when she appeared on my doorstep, too. I thought it was you, at first.” He then admitted with a small smile on his face.
Kelsey forced a smile onto her face. There was so much she needed to ask Kara, and she knew she couldn’t ask her with her dad there. “I called Mom the other day.” Kelsey said, carefully choosing her words. “She didn’t tell me Kara was here.”
Kara seemed to pick up the message Kelsey hid in her statement. At the mere mention of Gwen, Kara’s eyes widened and she seemed to know she’d been caught. Hopefully, she didn’t know the extent of Kelsey’s knowledge.
“I’m sure it was for the sake of the surprise.” Thomas said, oblivious to the clear tension in the room between his daughters. He had no reason to suspect anything, of course. Kara and Kelsey had always gotten along. They were always the light in his life. They were his daughters. He’d always raised his daughters to make the right choices. He’d always urged them to get along, and they always had. At least, Kelsey had. She wasn’t so sure about Kara anymore.
When she was with Alex, she’d always tried to assure him that her sister wouldn’t ever do anything wrong. When she was alone, she would try to assure herself that Kara was right. And she was almost certain of the fact that Kara wouldn’t be wrong. But now, seeing Kara in front of her, seeing how many lies she’d told to their father, because they were lies. Kara was certain of it, and seeing how Kara had lied to their father, Alex’s words seemed to subconsciously slip into her mind.
Kara wasn’t the same person Kelsey had grown up with, anymore.
“I’m sure.” Kelsey said, but even she could hear the flatness in her voice.
“Well, don’t just stand there.” Her father admonished her. “Get inside. I don’t want my neighbors to think that I’m making my daughter stand out there in the sun.”
“Neighbors are a funny thing.” Kelsey agreed as she stepped into her dad’s house.
The house hadn’t changed at all, which didn’t surprise Kelsey since she knew that her dad was a man who demanded order in his life. After a glance around the house, Kelsey noticed the set of keys in her father’s hands and the way he was dressed. “Are you going somewhere?” She asked, curiously.
“I’ve got to go to work for a bit.” He said. Kelsey nodded. She knew her father worked in the accounting department of a large firm and occasionally got called in to work on the weekends. She also knew that accounting wasn’t the most…fun job, but for the kind of guy Thomas Winters was, it was perfect. “But I’ll be back soon. Why don’t you girls talk? Catch up on things? I’m sure you guys have a lot to talk about.”
He had no idea.
“That’s a great idea.” Kara was the one to speak and Kelsey wondered why Kara was so eager to talk to Kelsey. That didn’t matter, though, because there was a lot Kelsey had to say to Kara, too.
“I agree. I haven’t talked to Kara in so long. We have so much to catch up on.” Kelsey agreed.
Thomas’s eyes lit up with excitement. “That’s wonderful, girls.” He said. “I haven’t seen you two so excited to talk to one another since you were little girl. I promise I’ll be back, soon.”
He left with a smile on his face, seeing his two girls together after so long. Kelsey was happy to see him happy, but she was upset with Kara. She didn’t know what was going through her sister’s mind, but she knew for a fact that something was wrong.
As soon as the front door slammed shut, Kelsey faced Kara. While Kelsey was as skinny as a stick, Kara was filled with curves that men desired, curves Kelsey had always been jealous of. Was it really possible that those curves had caught the attention of a criminal?
“Kelsey—” Kara began to say, but Kelsey interrupted her.
“What is going on, Kara?” She asked. “I’ve been calling you all week and you never answer your phone and Mom says you’ve been missing for half a year. How did you end up at Dad’s house? Do you know how worried I was?”
“You’re angry because you don’t know what Mom did.” Kara tried defending herself but Kelsey wasn’t about it take it.
“No, Kara. I know exactly what Mom did. That’s not what’s important. You were missing. Nobody knew where you were for so long! Do you realize how worried Mom was? How worried I was? You could have at least answered your phone. Just tell me where you’ve been.” Kelsey was fuming and she could tell that Kara was getting angry.
“You don’t need to worry about me, Kelsey.” Kara retorted. “I’ll have you know that I was perfectly fine. You don’t need to worry.” Kara tried assuring her but her words seemed to worry Kelsey even more. “I was just upset. When I saw Mom with that man, I lost it. It was hard on me. I know you’re not that close to her, anymore, but she hurt me. How would you feel if you saw Dad with another woman?”
Kelsey was alarmed by the question because it was something that had never occurred to her. She’d never understood how someone like Thomas had fallen for someone like Gwen. They were so different. It didn’t come as a shock to a lot of people when they’d finally gotten a divorce. Kelsey and Kara had been shattered.
After the divorce, Kelsey had seen her dad alone. She knew how he must have felt. In fact, he needed a companion, too, and Kelsey wondered why the thought hadn’t occurred to her sooner. Was she so preoccupied in her own spinsterhood that she failed to acknowledge her dad’s loneliness?
“You’re right.” Kelsey agreed, after a few minutes on thinking. “He’s so lonely. He needs a woman in his life, someone different from Mom. He needs someone who can keep him happy.”
“You can't be serious.” Kara’s jaw dropped. “Kelsey, they can still get together. We can be a big family, again.”
“No.” Kelsey said. “We can’t.”
“Mom and Dad are perfect for each other. They need each other.” Kara pressed and Kelsey slowly realized how much the two girls differed in the way their thought processes worked. Kelsey’s lips remained sealed and she felt like she was a child again. Kara was born first and she’d always held a bit more power when it came to Kelsey.
How did Kelsey think that she could get Kara to do anything for her? Kara was the one who controlled her.
In fact, her demanding behavior from a little while ago was almost foreign to Kelsey, now that she thought about it. But Kara did express her own demanding nature and reminded Kelsey that she seldom had a choice when it differed from Kara’s.
“I’m not here to discuss Mom and Dad.” Kelsey finally said. Her heart was racing but she knew that she had to discuss this with Kara. Kara was the only person who could clear things up for her. She was her sister, Kelsey reminded herself. She’d defended Kara in front of Alex because she’d believed in her sister.
Apparently, when she’d put so much faith in her sister, she’d forgotten how obnoxious her sister could get. She’d forgotten that her sister did have the potential to get involved with a criminal, provided that he was handsome.
“Then what do you want to discuss with me?” Kara asked, a hint of anxiety in her voice. Her eyes remained glued on Kelsey. Even Kelsey’s blood was pulsing with trepidation, but she hoped that it wasn’t evident on her features.
“I was arrested a couple of days ago.” She blurted out. “They thought I was someone else.”
It only took a second for Kara to comprehend what Kelsey was trying to say and her eyes widened. “It was a mistake!” She blurted out. The calm and serene expression she previously maintained had gone wild. “I didn’t even know who he was.”
Kelsey watched her sister with surprise at her sudden confession. “Who are you talking about?”
“Cael.” Kara said, taking a few steps back in her confession. “My online boyfriend.”
“Online?”
“I know I usually don’t do that kind of thing.” She said, slowly. “But he’s different. Oh, he was amazing. He said the nicest things. When I saw Mom…” Her voice trailed off. “I told him what happened and he said to come here.”
“When did all of this happen?” Kelsey asked, falling into her sister’s story.
“I started chatting with him about eight months ago.” Kara admitted, staring at her hands. Her head was also faced down and her forehead was filled with worried wrinkles.
“You ran off with someone you barely knew for two months?” Kelsey was appalled, and you could tell from the way she said it.
“He was all I had.” Kara said.
“All you had…?” Kelsey didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t believe her sister was capable of such rash decisions. “All you had? You could have come here. Dad was here. I was here. If you felt like you had nowhere to go, I would have been there for you.”
Kelsey saw something flicker in Kara’s eyes. Hope? Shock? Anger? But as quickly as she saw it, it was gone and Kelsey wasn’t sure if it had actually been there. “I was conflicted, Kelsey. I didn’t know what to do. Cael provided me with an escape, and I took it.”
“But why did they arrest me, thinking I was you?” Kelsey asked. She’d decided that perhaps playing innocent might get her more answers from Kara. Besides, she needed to know what Kara had to say to defend herself and she didn’t want her sister to think that she didn’t trust her.
“It turned out that Cael was a criminal.” Kara dropped the bomb with a slight nod of her head.
“A criminal?” Kelsey did her best to portray that she was shocked.
Kara nodded, wide-eyed. “He was a criminal. He was a smuggler. He was a killer. Kelsey, he was a drug lord. He’d done things I couldn’t even imagine and I’d lived with him for almost half a year.” Kara didn’t elaborate but Kelsey knew what kind of lifestyle Kara probably had. “His name was Caleb Rocha.”
And that was when Kelsey had no idea who to believe anymore.
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
Here is an upload for you guys.
For those of you that wanted to meet Kara, here she is! The evil or maybe not twin!!
Why else would Kara come clean like this to Kelsey? Hm....something to think about.
Do you like her or hate her? At this point, what would you do if you were in Kelsey's place?
Keep thinking. Keep reading.
Keep Voting. Keep Commenting.