Sin and Sacrifice

Sin

and

Sacrifice

by

Danielle Bourdon

Published by: Wildbloom
Press

Copyright © 2011 All rights
reserved

Cover art Copyright ©
Danielle Bourdon

Smashwords
Edition

This book is a work of
fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any
place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The
characters and story lines are created from the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously.

For my parents Tim, Kathy,
Jerry and Felecia, who always show never ending support in
my

writing
endeavors.

I love you.

Chapter One

"He called you
disobedient?
Please."
Evelyn scoffed and popped a grape in her mouth. "Did you
whack him upside the head when he spit that blasphemy
out?"

Genevieve, sitting close to
the balcony rail with the glittering Mediterranean spread out
behind her, laughed and set her glass of lemonade down.

"No, but I asked him if he
was confused about his role in my life. Told him I wouldn't
obey
any man that wasn't
my father, and, since this was only the
fourth
date
,
it probably wasn't going to work
out,” she replied.

"What did he say to that?"
Evelyn asked with a vast amount of amusement. Classically African,
Genevieve had broad cheekbones, a high forehead, bow shaped mouth
and a laid back, bohemian flair that attracted members of the
opposite sex like bees to honey. The close crop of her dark hair
accentuated her striking features and unusual, gray
eyes.

Genevieve sat straighter
in her chair and affected a studious frown. "
You will make a difficult wife for any man. This is best
ended."

“
So you're not only
disobedient, you're difficult and have an opinion. How dare you.”
They both laughed. She and Genevieve shared a passion for
independence. Snagging a tube of sunscreen out of the bag at her
feet, she started slathering it on. The light, golden hue of her
skin was prone to burn if she didn't protect it.

Across the round, wrought
iron table, slouched into an unfeminine splay of knees and elbows,
Alexandra snorted. Her fingers flew over the keys of the netbook
perched in her lap. "Didn't take much to convince him. C'est la
vie. Don't let the door hit'cha on the way out, bub.”

Genevieve laughed and
flicked condensation drops from her glass at Alexandra. “You
wouldn't say that to a guy you were about to dump.”

“
Yes I would,” Alex
argued. The tomboy shared a fiendish smile with them that spelled
trouble and rebellion.

“
You're incorrigible,
Alex.” Evelyn, rubbing a small dab of sunscreen on her own nose,
winked at the grinning Genevieve and pretended to give Alexandra a
chiding look.

"Run, don't walk, from any
man talking about marriage on the fourth date,” Minna, the oldest
of the four with a hint of the orient in her eyes and bone
structure, added her two cents. Skin clear of wrinkles or laugh
lines, she actually appeared younger than the dark haired
Alexandra.

"Hear, hear." Evelyn lifted
her glass of raspberry lemonade.

Genevieve and Minna brought
their drinks across the table to clink, toasting that particular
bit of wisdom. They all tipped back a swallow at the same time.
Alexandra was too busy with her netbook to bother.

“
Alexandra,
will you get your nose out of that computer for
five minutes?" Evelyn said.

"I'm checking
something."

"Checking what?" Evelyn
asked. She arched a brow.

"This and that."

“
That's a fabulous answer.
You're always checking something." Evelyn glanced at Minna, who sat
in the chair closest to Alexandra, and appealed for intervention
with nothing more than a look.

Minna reached over and
clapped the lid of the netbook closed.

"Hey! This is mutiny! I've
already seen the water, Ev. And pretty much all of Athens, too."
Alexandra slumped back in the chair, grinning despite her protests.
She flicked the end of her dark ponytail over a shoulder and laced
her fingers on her stomach. "Besides, we've been gossiping since
breakfast."

"We're not
gossiping
," Evelyn
scoffed. "We're catching up.”

“
Well how much could have
changed in the two days since we all left California and flew
here?” Alex asked.

“
Obviously, Genevieve
isn't dating what's-his-name anymore. That's news worthy,” Evelyn
retorted.

Minna and Genevieve watched
the volley like a ping pong match.

“
We coulda found that out
at home though. Besides, we all knew Gen wasn't going to stay with
that guy.” Alexandra lifted her chin.

“
You didn't know that,”
Evelyn argued.

“
Did so. When I met him
that night of their second date, he looked like he had a stick up
his a--”

“
Alexandra.”
Evelyn eyed her sister, struggling not to laugh.
None of the girls had liked Genevieve's last 'date'. He'd been too
stiff, too serious. Too controlling. Genevieve's languid nature had
clashed like oil and water with his stern, stilted view on
life.

No one could say Gen hadn't
tried.

Before Alexandra could
veer the entire conversation out of control, Evelyn said, “Anyway.
I was thinking that maybe we could all move back here.” She
swept a hand out toward the sparkling
Mediterranean.

They had a stunning view
from their balcony. Cast in shade from the overhang, the four women
who sat around the wrought iron table exchanged glances.

“
Live in Greece?” Alex
asked.

“
Well, maybe not
in
Greece. Somewhere in
Europe though. What do you think?” Evelyn had wanted to return to
the womb of the world for longer than she cared to admit. Living in
southern California had its purpose and its pleasures, but the
twenty-eight years they'd spent on the west coast crawled by at a
snail's pace. Centuries whipped by in the blink of an eye when she
wasn't pining and homesick.

She glanced at each of her
sisters in turn, gauging reaction. Alexandra wouldn't have a
problem; Genevieve would think about it for a few minutes and
agree, and Minna would predictably hesitate. Of all the siblings,
Minna was the most cautious, the one who thought about every angle
for days at a time before committing.

“
I think it's a great
idea,” Minna said.

Shocked, Evelyn stared at
her.

“
Pacific Palisades is nice
enough, but I'm ready to move.” Minna took a drink of her
lemonade.

“
It's because she broke up
with what's-his-name, Ev. We can't stay there too much longer
anyway or people might start askin' questions. I'm in. I'll go
where ever,” Alexandra retorted, fiddling with the smooth cover of
the netbook. Loving little pets over the glossy surface.

Genevieve just smiled,
teeth strikingly white against her mocha colored skin. “Let's make
plans. We're all single right now, so it's a perfect time to pull
roots and relocate.”

“
Exactly,” Evelyn said.
Excitement spiraled through her. That had gone much easier than
she'd thought. “So the question becomes...
where?”

England, France and Spain
had already been their locale of choice when they'd moved here in
previous years. Evelyn would live in any of those countries again
in an instant. Each one held special memories during different
points in history. She waited to see what places her sisters came
up with before laying out suggestions of her own.

“
Well, let's
look it up,”
Alexandra
said with no small amount of glee. Only because it gave her an
excuse to pop open the netbook and start typing in
destinations.

“
You're so transparent,
Alex.” Evelyn traded knowing looks with Genevieve and
Minna.

Alexandra just smiled while
her fingers flew over the keys.

“
Maybe one of the islands
this time,” Genevieve said. “Get a place right on the
beach.”

“
Oh, nice, Gen,” Minna
said. “Do you remember that time we stopped in Crete?”

“
Of course we remember,”
Alex said. “That was when Genevieve got drunk and--”

“
If you love your little
computer, you will not finish that sentence.” The languor that
Genevieve delivered her threat with nevertheless had an instant
impact.

Alexandra snickered,
cleared her throat, and kept talking like there had been no
interruption. Except any mention of drunken escapades were notably
missing. “Crete was
awesome.
We had to all but drag Minna out of
there.”

“
Okay, put Crete on the
list,” Evelyn said. She loved the island as well—loved all of
Greece—which was why they were here on vacation. Antigua was the
last island they had lived on. Five years of bliss in the late
fifteen hundreds.

“
What do you think
Galiana's gonna say?” Alexandra asked without looking up from the
netbook screen.

“
As long as there's
shopping, she won't care,” Genevieve said, drawing a laugh from the
three other girls.

“
That's the truth.
Speaking of Galiana, where
is
she?” Evelyn glanced at the sliding glass doors
leading inside their hotel suite. She couldn't quite see the clock
from here and refused to wear a watch on vacation.

“
Late, as usual.” Minna
twisted around to follow Evelyn's gaze.

No Galiana in
sight.

“
If she wouldn't have
missed the flight out of California to begin with--” Alex
said.

“
But I just need two more
pairs of shorts!” Evelyn mimicked Galiana's voice in perfect
imitation.

Genevieve laughed into her
drink. Minna joined her.

“
I'll check the flight
schedule,” Alexanda said with a muffled snicker at the teasing.
“Maybe her plane's delayed.”

“
Let me go try and call
her. If she's shopping at the airport I'll hurry her along.” Evelyn
set down her glass and stood up. The situation was not unusual;
Galiana, famous for keeping them waiting, rarely arrived anywhere
on time. After retying the red sarong around her hips, she skirted
the table, pushed back the clear glass door and stepped
inside.

She's just delayed or
distracted,
Evelyn reassured herself,
refusing to let paranoia take hold and steer her thoughts in
directions she didn't want them to go.

The sight of the three
women languishing in the shade on the balcony paused Evelyn at the
door when she closed it. Genevieve, dark all over except for her
gray eyes; Minna, slender and deceptively delicate; Alexandra, the
rough-and-tumble little heathen with black hair halfway to her
butt.

As different as night and
day, the lot of them.

No one would ever guess
they were all sisters. Born from the same womb.

Evelyn could see her own
reflection in the glass; tawny hair streaked with auburn
highlights, golden skin, hazel eyes. She'd always thought her
patrician nose and oval shaped face rather plain. There wasn't a
lick of resemblance between herself and the women she watched,
which, she thought, worked in their favor.

She turned and skimmed a
look through the living room for her cell phone. The Aphrodite
Hotel's mini-suite was a study in pale décor and Spartan
furnishings; white walls, white floors and couches of light, baby
blue. Sparkling clean, with modern chairs and a glass coffee table,
Evelyn thought the design almost clinical except for the plush
quality of the pieces and the exotic, colorful paintings in gilt
frames depicting famous scenes from Greek mythology.