"I came to see Beth and Richard. I'm sorry you're not well."
"Well?" She gave what might have been a laugh as she curled into herself. "None of us will ever be well again. How can we? We're all tainted. We're all to blame."
"For what?"
She shook her head, pushed herself into the far corner of the sofa. "I can't talk to you."
"Congresswoman DeBlass, I'm Lieutenant Dallas. You called me a little while ago."
"No, no I didn't." Panicked, Catherine wrapped her arms tightly around her chest. "I didn't call. I didn't say anything."
As Richard leaned over to touch her, Eve shot him a warning glance. Deliberately, she put herself between them, sat and took Catherine's frigid hand. "You wanted me to help. And I will help you."
"You can't. No one can. I was wrong to call. We have to keep it in the family. I have a husband, I have a little boy." Tears began to swim in her eyes, "I have to protect them. I have to go away, far away, so I can protect them."
"We'll protect them," Eve said quietly. "We'll protect you. It was too late to protect Sharon. You can't blame yourself."
"I didn't try to stop it," Catherine said in a whisper. "Maybe I was even glad, because it wasn't me anymore. It wasn't me."
"Ms. DeBlass, I can help you. I can protect you and your family. Tell me who raped you."
Richard let out a hiss of shock. "My God, what are you saying? What – "
Eve turned on him, eyes fierce. "Be quiet. There's no more secrets here."
"Secrets," Catherine said between trembling lips. "It has to be a secret."
"No, it doesn't. This kind of secret hurts. It crawls inside you and eats at you. It makes you scared, and it makes you guilty. The ones who want it to be secret use that – the guilt, the fear, the shame. The only way you can fight back is to tell. Tell me who raped you."
Catherine's breath shuddered out. She looked at her brother, terror bright in her eyes. Eve turned her face back, held it.
"Look at me. Just me. And tell me who raped you. Who raped Sharon?"
"My father." The words burst from her in a howl of pain. "My father. My father. My father." She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
"Oh God." Across the room, Elizabeth stumbled back into the server droid. China shattered. Coffee seeped dark into the lovely rug. "Oh my God. My baby."
Richard shot off the couch, reaching her as she swayed. He caught her hard against him. "I'll kill him for this. I'll kill him." Then he pressed his face into her hair. "Beth. Oh, Beth."
"Do what you can for them," Eve murmured to Roarke as she gathered Catherine to her.
"You thought it was Richard," Roarke said in an undertone.
"Yes." Her eyes were dull and flat when she lifted them to his. "I thought it was Sharon's father. Maybe I didn't want to think that something so foul could flourish in two generations."
Roarke leaned forward. His face was hard as rock. "One way or the other, DeBlass is a dead man."
"Help your friends," Eve said evenly. "I have work to do here."
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
She let Catherine cry it out, though she knew, too well, that the tears wouldn't wash the wound clean. She knew, too, that she wouldn't have been able to handle the situation alone. It was Roarke who calmed Elizabeth and Richard, who ordered in the domestic droid to gather up the broken crockery, who held their hands, and when he gauged the time was right, it was he who gently suggested bringing Catherine some tea.
Elizabeth fetched it herself, carefully closing the parlor doors behind her before she carried the cup to her sister-in-law. "Here, darling, drink a little."
"I'm sorry." Catherine put both shaky hands around the cup to warm them. "I'm sorry. I thought it had stopped. I made myself believe it had stopped. I couldn't live otherwise."
"It's all right." Her face blank, Elizabeth went back to her husband.
"Ms. DeBlass, I need you to tell me everything. Congresswoman DeBlass?" Eve waited until Catherine focused on her again. "Do you understand this is being recorded?"
"He'll stop you."
"No, he won't. That's why you called me, because you know I'll stop him."
"He's afraid of you," Catherine whispered. "He's afraid of you. I could tell. He's afraid of women. That's why he hurts them. I think he may have given something to my mother. Broke her mind. She knew."
"Your mother knew your father was abusing you?"
"She knew. She pretended she didn't, but I could see it in her eyes. She didn't want to know – she just wanted everything quiet and perfect, so she could give her parties and be the senator's wife." She lifted a hand, shielding her eyes. "When he would come into my room at night, I could see it on her face the next morning. But when I tried to talk to her, to tell her to make him stop, she pretended she didn't know what I meant. She told me to stop imagining things. To be good, to respect the family."
She lowered her hand again, cupped her tea with both hands, but didn't drink. "When I was little, seven or eight, he would come in at night and touch me. He said it was all right, because he was Daddy, and I was going to pretend to be Mommy. It was a game, he said, a secret game. He told me I had to do things – to touch him. To – "
"It's all right," Eve soothed as Catherine began to tremble violently. "You don't have to say. Tell me what you can."
"You had to obey him. You had to. He was a force in our house. Richard?"
"Yes." Richard caught his wife's hand in his and squeezed, squeezed. "I know."
"I couldn't tell you because I was ashamed, and I was afraid, and Mom just looked away, so I thought I had to do it." She swallowed hard. "On my twelfth birthday, we had a party. Lots of friends, and a big cake, and the ponies. You remember the ponies, Richard?"
"I remember." Tears tracked silently down his cheeks. "I remember."
"And that night, the night of my birthday, he came. He said I was old enough now. He said he had a present for me, a special present because I was growing up. And he raped me." She buried her face in her hands and rocked. "He said it was a present. Oh God. And I begged him to stop, because it hurt. And because I was old enough to know it was wrong, it was evil. I was evil. But he didn't stop. And he kept coming back. All those years until I could get away. I went to college, far away, where he couldn't touch me. And I told myself it never happened. It never, never happened.
"I tried to be strong, to make a life. I got married because I thought I would be safe. Justin was so kind, so gentle. He never hurt me. And I never told him. I thought if he knew, he'd despise me. So I kept telling myself it never happened."
She lowered her hands and looked at Eve. "I believed it, sometimes. Most of the time. I could lose myself in my work, in my family. But then I could see, I knew he was doing the same thing to Sharon. I wanted to help, but I didn't know how. So I pushed it away, just like my mother did. He killed her. Now he'll kill me."
"Why do you think he killed Sharon?"
"She wasn't weak like me. She turned it on him, used it against him. I heard them arguing. Christmas Day. When we all went to his house to pretend we were a family. I saw them go into his office, and I followed them. I opened the door, and I watched and I listened through the crack. He was so furious with her because she was making a public mockery of everything he stood for. And she said, 'You made me what I am, you bastard.' It warmed me to hear that. It made me want to cheer. She stood up to him. She threatened to expose him unless he paid her. She had it all documented, she said, every dirty detail. So he'd have to play the game her way. They fought, hurling words at each other. And then… "