The Pledge (19 page)

Momma laughed. “You sure are spreading it on thick. I guess it will be okay. What's Miles's number?”

“Momma,” I said, “stop treating me like a baby.”

“Courtland, we don't know this man all that well. We've only met him a couple of times. I want to be able to get in touch with him.”

I gave her the number, then quickly called Miles back. He told me he would come get me in half an hour, so I rushed to shower and get dressed. I was just tying the laces on my Air Force Ones when he rang the doorbell.

“Hey, Miles,” I said, letting him in. “Just let me grab my purse and I'll be ready.”

“Wait,” he said, grabbing my arm. “I want to get your opinion on this ring.”

He reached into his pocket, and I frowned. “I thought we were going to pick one out,” I said.

He laughed. “We are. I found a picture of one that I really like, and I wanted to see what you thought. If you don't like it, you can go with me to the mall.”

Miles pulled a folded page from a magazine out of his pocket and handed it to me.

The diamond was nice, and most women would have loved it, but Aunt Dani wasn't most women. Although the ring looked like it was about a carat, I knew Aunt Dani would want at least three times that size. “This is the one you're thinking about getting?” I asked, pointing to it to make sure.

“Yeah,” he said defensively, “what's wrong with it?”

“Uh, Miles, I'm no expert, but it looks a little small.”

“You don't think your aunt will like it?” he asked. “I picked it because it's what I can afford.”

“That's all you can afford?” I asked, trying to hide my surprise. Aunt Dani had been doing all this talk about how he could afford to buy her just about anything, but he was cheap.

“Yeah,” he said. “I don't make a lot of money as a coach.”

“Are you sure Aunt Dani knows that?” I said.

“Of course I'm sure. We've had this conversation a lot. She says she loves me because of the way I make her feel, not because of my bank account.”

“That's sweet,” I said, wondering if we were talking about the same person.

“You really think she'd like something bigger?”

I nodded. “Well, why don't you show me some rings you think she'd like, and I'll see what I can do?”

“Okay. Let me grab my stuff.”

I ran upstairs, and when I came back down, Miles was walking around the living room looking at our family pictures. “You and Loretta look so much alike,” he said. “You could almost pass for twins.”

It took me a minute to realize he meant Aunt Dani, since no one called her Loretta.

“A couple of other people have said that, too,” I said. “I don't really see the resemblance.”

“Really?” he said.

I shrugged. “You ready?”

He stared at the picture for a few more minutes. “You both even have the same necklace,” he said, pointing to one of the pictures.

I tried to recall which necklace we had alike, but I couldn't, so I walked over to the picture. “Which necklace?” I said.

He tapped a photo of me taken last Easter Sunday where I was wearing a new dress and my Worth the Wait necklace.

“Aunt Dani doesn't have one of those,” I said. “That's my purity necklace. Only the members of my virgin club have them.”

“Yes, she does,” he said. “I took a picture of her wearing it a couple of weeks ago.” He pulled out his cell phone and the screensaver was a photo of Aunt Dani wearing a necklace that looked just like mine. I stared at the picture, trying to figure out where she could have gotten the necklace, since we had special ordered them and each one had been personalized with our initials and the date we had received it.

“Now that I think about it,” Miles said like he was reading my thoughts, “the clasp must have been loose on it or something because it fell off one day when she was at my house. When I picked it up, I asked about the inscription on it, and she said she had borrowed it from you.”

I frowned. “When was this?” I asked.

“In January,” he said. “I remember because it was the day after my birthday.”

I felt like I was going to pass out. “When is your birthday?” I asked.

“January sixth.”

My heart sped up. The robbery had happened Christmas Day. I stood there in shock, trying to tell myself that my aunt had not broken in to my house and stolen my necklace along with a bunch of other stuff.

I shook my head, trying to make sense of everything. That's when I happened to glance at the picture of Aunt Dani on Miles's cell phone and noticed her earrings. They looked just like the ones she had accused me of stealing at the mall—the gold hoops she had promised me she was going to return.

“Miles, I'm not feeling too well,” I said. I felt nauseated, and I struggled to make my way to the couch.

Miles grabbed my arm and helped me to sit down. I pointed him in the general direction of the kitchen and he rushed off to get me a glass of water.

“What's going on?” I muttered. I still had Miles's cell phone, and I just kept staring at the picture, hoping there was some mistake. I thought back to the night of the burglary. The guy who was killed was someone who knew Daddy. The police had suspected there were two people in the house. Could it have been Aunt Dani?

Miles handed me the glass of water, and I took a sip, but it hurt to swallow. “Miles,” I said, “what did the inscription on the necklace say?”

“It was the letters
CM
and a date. I don't remember what the date was, though. The only reason I remember the initials is because your aunt mentioned they were yours.”

I leaned back on the sofa, trying to make sense of everything. When Miles's phone rang, I passed it to him without even looking at it.

He talked for a few minutes, then he hung up. “That was my boss. He's in town and he needs to talk to me, so we're going to have to postpone going shopping.”

I nodded, relieved. It would give me time to figure out what was going on with my aunt.

“Are you sure you're okay?” he said.

I nodded, and he gathered his things. “I'll give you a call tomorrow. Maybe we can go then and pick out something.”

I sat for hours thinking about my conversation with Miles, but none of it made sense. I was heading into the kitchen to get something to eat when the phone rang.

“Hey, Corky,” Aunt Dani said.

“Hey,” I said dryly.

“Why you sounding all sad?”

“I've just got a lot on my mind,” I said.

“What's up?”

I thought about telling her about the picture I had seen on Miles's phone and what he had told me, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without accusing her of stealing. “Nothing. I'm fine, really,” I said.

“Miles and I are about to go to Griffith Park, so while I was waiting on him, I thought I'd check on you.”

“Really?” I said. “You talked to Miles today?”

“Yeah. I just got off the phone with him. Why?”

I didn't know what to say as I sat staring at Miles's cell phone, which he had left on our dining room table. “You called him on his cell?”

“Yeah. Why?”

I was getting more and more confused. Miles's phone hadn't rung since he had gotten the call from his boss hours earlier.

“Uh, Aunt Dani, I've got to go.”

I hung up and was still staring at his phone when the doorbell rang. I opened it without even bothering to see who it was.

“Did I leave my phone?” Miles asked.

I pointed toward the table and he walked over to pick it up. He was on his way out when he finally looked at me. “You feeling better?” he asked. “You look kind of funny.”

“Yeah. So what time are you meeting Aunt Dani at Griffith Park?”

He looked at me in confusion. “I'm not meeting your aunt.”

“So you haven't talked to her today?” I asked.

He held up the phone. “How could I when I didn't have this?”

“You guys still here?” Momma asked as she and Cory walked through the door.

“I had to meet with my boss,” Miles said. “We can go now if you'd like.”

“That's okay,” I said. “I have something to do.”

Miles looked at me strangely. “Have you talked to Loretta?” he asked.

I opened my mouth, wanting with everything in me to lie, but instead I found myself saying, “Yes.”

“What did she want?” he asked.

“She had to go before she could say.” I rushed the words out, then looked at the ground. I felt Miles staring at me and glanced at him, then quickly looked at the ground again.

“Okay, well, if you talk to her again, tell her to call me,” he said.

I just nodded. “See you later, Donna,” he said to Momma.

“What was that all about?” Momma asked before he could get the door closed.

“I don't know,” I said.

She shook her head. “I need to get ready for Bible study tomorrow night. I'll be in my room if you need me.”

“Momma, can I go out for a while?” I asked.

She looked like she was about to say no. “I'll only be gone for a little while,” I said. “I just need to go check on something real quick.”

“Something like what?”

My mind raced as I tried to come up with a plausible excuse. “The Worth the Wait members and I want to do something for Andrea, and I promised them I would check into it. I just need to run to the mall.”

“If you wait, I'll take you,” she said.

“Momma, I can drive myself. What's the point of having my own car if you never let me drive?” I said. “Please.”

She sighed. “Fine,” she said. “Take your sister with you.”

“Momma,” I whined. Normally I didn't mind having Cory with me, but since I was going to track down my aunt, I didn't know what I would find.

“Either you take your sister or you don't go,” she said.

I had stomped up two stairs before Momma called up to me. “Keep it up, and you won't be going anywhere.”

I got to Cory's room, and she was lying across her bed, sleeping. I didn't even try and wake her. Instead, I ran back downstairs.

“She's asleep,” I said.

Momma sighed. “Girl, get out of here before I change my mind.”

“Thanks, Momma,” I said, giving her a kiss.

“Be back here before it's dark,” she said.

I glanced at my watch, realizing I had about two hours. “Yes, ma'am,” I said.

“Do you have your cell phone?”

I checked my purse and realized it wasn't there, so I ran back up to my room and grabbed it. On the way back downstairs, I peeked in Cory's room and saw she wasn't on her bed anymore. I groaned, knowing Momma was going to make me take her.

I ran downstairs and was relieved when I didn't see her. Figuring she was in the bathroom, I kissed Momma again and jumped in the car, and as much as I wanted to rev the engine and tear out the driveway, I didn't since I knew Momma was watching. I put on my seat belt, adjusted the mirrors, then waved at Momma, who waved back from the front window. I had barely made it around the corner before I was flying to Griffith Park where Aunt Dani had said she was going.

She was already there when I arrived, sitting on a swing. I parked at the far end of the lot and snuck back to her. My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Miles walking up.

Aunt Dani must have sensed his presence, because she looked up. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said, looking angry.

“How'd you know I was here?”

“Your niece slipped up and told me,” he said, and my eyes got big. I wondered if he knew I was there.

Aunt Dani looked around, and when she glanced in my direction, I ducked behind a bush so she wouldn't see me.

“Corky's here?”

Miles shrugged and looked around. “I don't think so.” He looked in my direction, but I wasn't sure he saw me. I had never seen him look so hurt.

“What's going on, Loretta?”

“Baby, what are you talking about?” she said. She reached out to touch his arm and he turned to look at her.

“There's a bunch of stuff that isn't adding up with you,” he said.

Aunt Dani looked at him curiously. “What are you talking about?”

“Are you seeing someone else?” he asked.

Aunt Dani laughed. “Why would you ask me something like that?” she said.

“Like I said, something's not adding up. In all the time I've known you, I've never been to your place. As far as I know, you don't work, yet you have all this expensive stuff, and I know it's not because I'm buying it for you.”