Read Lies That Bind for Free Online

She crossed her heart. “I know I haven’t been so great about that in the past, but I promise for real this time.”
    Maeve was wary of saying the words out loud to her friend, to get her reaction; it was going to be overblown and dramatic. History told her that. “Dolores Donovan said that I have a sister.”
    But there was no meltdown, just Jo’s wide-eyed silence. Maeve went back to the pots. “I don’t know what that means and I’m not sure I want to know or even if it’s true.” She looked at her hands in the sink; they were red and raw, wrinkled from the water. Her mother’s hands? She would never know.
    “The one in the tight blue pantsuit?” Jo asked. “She really needs to go up a size. Just looking at the tight crotch kept reminding me that I’m going to have to push an eight-pound baby out of mine soon.”
    “That’s the one,” Maeve said.
    Jo busied herself, pulling apart cupcake holders and then putting them back together, thinking. “That is a lot to process.”
    “That’s an understatement.”
    “Do you believe her?”
    Maeve shouldn’t, she knew that. But part of her felt as if it were true, that Dolores knew something that had been kept from Maeve. She shrugged in response to Jo’s question.
    “You need to find out if it’s true.”
    “Again, Jo, I don’t know if I want to know.”
    Jo got up and put her arms out, knowing Maeve wouldn’t accept the hug but giving it a try. “I don’t know how to say this without sounding insensitive, but you’re all alone now. It would be nice to have someone to replace Jack. A new Conlon.”
    “I’m not all alone,” Maeve said, her voice sounding angry. She said it again, but this time, she didn’t sound so sure. “I’m not all alone. I have the girls. Well, I’ve got one of the girls,” she said, smiling; the jury was still out on Heather. “I have you,” she said, awkwardly taking hold of one of Jo’s outstretched arms. “I sort of have Cal, even if he’s married to someone else. He’s got my back.”
    “Yeah, well, I don’t give that union much longer. You may have him back sooner than you think,” Jo said. “The shelf life on that marriage is rapidly coming to past due, I suspect. That Brazilian is a tough one to handle. Gorgeous, but tough.”
    Maeve wondered how Jo knew that. If it were true, well, served you right, Mr. Charles “Cal” Callahan. Never go for the shiny object; the luster wears off far faster than you would think. The duller models, like Maeve, are always more reliable. “I don’t want him back,” Maeve said. As for how he felt? She wasn’t so sure. There was a time when he admitted to defeat, to not wanting to continue living with the stunning woman in the spectacular house that Maeve lusted after, but Maeve had never mentioned that time and he had never brought it up again. His life. His problems.
    Jo took a step back and regarded Maeve, ignoring that. “A sister, huh? Seems like you should be all over that?”
    “I’m going to go through my father’s things and see what I find. Dolores is a drunk, Jo. I think that’s obvious.”
    “I got that sense.”
    “And she’s cruel. I’ve known that since we were children.”
    “So you don’t believe her?” Jo asked.
    She didn’t know what to believe, but she would never confess that.
    This time, Jo didn’t telegraph the hug that was coming. She grabbed Maeve in an embrace, her belly keeping enough distance between them so that Maeve didn’t feel trapped. “He was a good guy, your dad.”
    “I know.”
    “He never would have kept something like that from you.”
    “I hope not.”
    “Unless he had a good reason.”
    “There is no good reason.”
    Maeve broke away and finished the pots in the sink, if only to let Jo know that the conversation was over. As she washed and scrubbed, the front of her shirt becoming wet, she thought about it. Jack Conlon never would have kept something like that from me, she said to herself, agreeing with