wrath of the Sea Queen (210 page)

"Yes
.  S
he
w
as born here.  Why do you ask?"

"I saw a photo of her in your yearbook."

"My yearbook?  Salma, I lost those books years ago
, when Vin and I built the house
.  Where did you see them?"

"Max
showed
one to Ben
.  I
flipped through
it in the lounge
," Salma began.

"How did he get it?"  C
a
eli wondered.

"Max said the yearbook belonged to his
A
unt Lorrie."

"Lorrie?  I don't remember a Lorrie in our class, but I really didn't know all that many people.
  I wasn't much on socializing in high school.
"

"Actually, you know her quite well.  She changed her name while she was in school.  Lorrie went by the name Lara.
  I
noted
the name beside her photo.  Apela's sister
, Lorrie,
is
none other than
your friend Lara.
"

C
a
eli
found
the
news
relatively
easy to believe
.  Lara always
went
to great lengths to keep her past a secret.  The fact that she changed her name did not surprise C
a
eli.  In fact, i
t answered a few of her
long-standing
questions
about her friend
.  It
was
also
a
key
factor
to understanding why Salma thought that C
a
eli's troubles were her fault.  Lorrie was trying to hurt Salma.  Lara
was aware
that Salma was C
a
eli's aunt.  Lara gave C
a
eli the poisoned bars.  It all made sense now
. 

"Vin know
s, doesn't he
?"  C
a
eli asked
without needing to hear the answer
.
  That's what he had been keeping from her.

"Yes," Salma answered honestly.  She
was aware that
Ben
had
told him
earlier
.

C
a
eli suspected as much.  Just as she delayed revealing certain facts to Vin in order to protect his feelings, he did the same for her.  Vin knew that Lara
was partially
to blame
for Salma's
troubles
and her own brush with death.  Vin
also
knew C
a
eli well enough to understand how betrayed she felt at the moment.
He had tried to spare her this unpleasantness
while she struggl
ed
with other matters.
 
Vin
would have eventually told her.  They were always honest with each other, but there were times when it was necessary to
choose the right
timing.

C
a
eli
was
angry that she had not seen Lara's role in this for herself.  Had Lara only been pretending to befriend her all these years?  Why would she do that?  Sure, she had a passing crush on Vin in high school, but that
had been
more than ten
years ago.  She could not still be mad that it did not work out for her, could she?  Lara
had
always competed against C
a
eli on the swim team, though she never won.  Did she harbor ill will
toward
C
a
eli because of that?  Maybe
it wasn't that at all.  Perhaps
Lara regretted that C
a
eli was related to Salma and that it was necessary to hurt her in order to cause Salma pain.  Scratch that.  That notion did not feel right to C
a
eli.  Everything Lara
ever
did was deliberate.
  She was not one to take action without a purpose.

Unintentionally, her reaction caused C
a
eli to tug on her co
nnection to Vin.

"
How could Lara do this?  I thought she was my friend
,
"
C
a
eli wondered to herself.

"
You always
did
see
the
good
in her, even when everyone else did not
.
"

"
Vin
,
I didn't mean for you to hear that.
"

"
I
'
m glad
I did, and I'm glad
t
hat you're upset.  Well,
not that you're upset
, but it
i
s good to
feel
this fire in you
at last
.  I have been
worried that
you
might
succumb to all
that
has been
happening
without
putting up
a fight.
"

"
You don't think I
'
ve been fighting? 
Though you could not see it,
Vin,
I have been fighting Rika
ever
since the crash.  It has taken all the will I could muster through my illness to hold her at bay all this time.  She has
clouded my mind, prevented me from seeking your help,
hurt you,
and caused me
a lot of
pain; she has
not made it easy.
  But, I promise you that I have been doing my best to resist her.
"

"
From what
little
I
've
overheard,
I should have known
as much
. 
I'm sorry I doubted you
.
 
Please c
ome inside
.  I would like to hear about it
. 
W
e can finish our talk
and
look for
an answer
.
"
  Hearing C
a
eli
's
spirit return
was
a big relief
.  T
his was the turning point Vin had been
anxiously
waiting
for her to reach
. 

C
a
eli
sensed
the relief
that she heard
echoed in
his reply
as the
wind embrace
d
her again.
 
The ladies turned toward their bodyguards and started
to
retrac
e
their route
t
o the hotel
. 
When they stepped into the next
beam of moonlight, they
watched
Max avidly filming a sand crab.  He heard them move and turned the video camera on the
women
.  They smiled politely and waved
at
Max
as they continued up the beach
.
 
Maku finally took the camera away
from Max
and, s
eeing the opportunity to get a fantastic
shot
of the two
ladies
together,
subtly snapped
a few candid
still
shots of the pair before returning the
video
camera to its hol
st
er
.  The entire group walked slowly to
ward
the lounge.

CHAPTER
46

Ben sat across from Apela.  Vin returned from watching the women
commence their
walk and sat in a
third
chair
placed partially
between
the
other two.  His mind was on C
a
eli.  Vin
gave
her the best protection he
could
offer, hoping she would not stay out very long. 
He
understood
why
C
a
eli needed the change of scenery,
however brief
ly
,
and he did
n
o
t begrudge her the request.  Vin
simply
wanted to be with her in case that strange man showed up again.  He did
n
o
t want
C
a
eli,
or Salma
for that matter,
out in the open in
the unlikely event that
more
protestor
s
showed up
.  And,
it went without saying, that Vin
did
n
o
t want
C
a
eli
near the water in case Rika tried to control her again.  There seemed to be a growing list of threats
against which
Vin would be hard pressed to protect
C
a
eli
.