Modern Fairy Tales Ch. 10

Both he and Alan had assumed that it had been lost during Emily's last swim. And yet here it was.

Dmitri pulled out the piece of paper and sat abruptly on the bed. It should have been Anne's all along. But how had she gotten it? Emily had been wearing it. Anne hadn't gone down to the beach after her father. She hadn't had an opportunity to get it. Or had she?

With a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he realized that the only way that Anne could have gotten the bracelet was to have received it from Emily. Or taken it. Could she have found out what had happened on the beach? Dmitri suddenly felt like throwing up his breakfast. Had she killed Emily? Oh God was she capable?! Even as his heart refused to believe it; things like Emily being a scholarship swimmer popped into his head.

"Dmitri did you find them?" asked Anne as she entered the room. She was dressed in her lacy underwear, stockings and heals, covered by a white silk robe. Her soft brown hair was swept up into an elegant bun with wispy curls around her face. All that remained was the beautiful gown that she had chosen and her mother's pearls and she would be ready.

Dmitri looked up at her.

Anne glanced down at his hands.

Dmitri watched her blanch and knew at that moment that she had done it. His beautiful fiancé had murdered her sister.

"What did you do?" he whispered, shaking his head. "How did you get it? She was wearing it."

A white faced Anne stared at him, her eyes haunted and scared. She shook her head and reflexively backed up a step as Dmitri rose to his feet.

"Anne," he said in a low voice, "you need to tell me how you got this. How did you get this bracelet?"

Anne jumped like he had shouted at her. "Dmitri," she whimpered, "please."

"Please what," he whispered, "please don't ask the truth, please understand? Please what?"

The silence hung between them and they could hear faintly the sounds of talking and laughter from guests and family as they readied the house for the wedding.

"Did you kill her? Dmitri finally asked, his black eyes burning with unshed tears.

Anne opened her mouth and closed it again. She was afraid to speak; she didn't know what to say.

"TELL ME!" he shouted.

"It wasn't like that," she sobbed, "I didn't mean too. I was so angry with her. She was my sister. How could she try to seduce you! How could she do that to me," her eyes were pleading with Dmitri to understand. "I was standing on the beach and then she was in the water. I don't know how, I truly don't Dmi," she was struggling to speak now between sobs. "I didn't mean to, I didn't, please Dmitri, please."

"And the bracelet," he asked, stone faced, the bottom dropping out of his world.

"It broke in my hands, Dmi," she sobbed, "the clasp broke and it was in my hand."

Anything that Dmitri would've or could've said froze in his throat like ice. He caught sight of Alan, standing in the doorway. Dressed in a tuxedo he was ready to walk his daughter down the aisle.

"Please believe me Dmitri I never meant too," Anne was clutching his lapels now. "Please don't hate me. I can't lose you. I'll die without you, please!"

"You killed her," Alan said as he crossed the room and grabbed his daughter by the shoulders and shook her. "How could you do that?! How could you?! She was your sister!"

"I hate her!" Anne screamed, pounding her fists against her father, backing him up step by step into the hallway. "She took everything from me! She took you away! She took the one thing of Silvia's that was mine! I didn't care about the money! You always loved her best! You never saw me, just her. Perfect Emily, precious Emily she had EVERYTHING and she still had to try to take Dmitri from me!"

Anne was shouting at the top of her lungs now. "Did you ever wonder why she was naked? Did you? It was because she tried to seduce Dmitri. She tried to get him to betray me. She offered herself like the whore she was and tried to get him to fuck her!"

"SHUT UP," screamed Alan, shoving Anne away from him, against the wall on the landing. "She didn't deserve to die no matter what she did."

"YES SHE DID!" Anne screamed back.

Alan slapped her.

Dmitri had followed them into the hallway, numb with shock, stumbling, wanting to scream at Anne, at himself, at Alan, at the world for what had happened on what was supposed to be the best day of his life.

Alan slapped Anne hard enough that she stumbled into the railing on the landing. It cracked, and then shattered.

For a single moment Anne's eyes met Dmitri's, wide with shocked surprise. Almost in slow motion she fell backwards, her arms outstretched for something to hold on too, finding nothing but air.

Even as Dmitri raced past Alan, he heard Anne's frightened shriek and then a sickening series of thumps as she hit the stairs below. He flew down the square spiral stairs, almost falling himself in his rush.

Anne lay at the bottom of the stairs, curled on her side, her robe askew and her hair spread out like a halo. Dmitri knew that he shouldn't move her, that he should wait for the medics. He gently rolled her over into his arms, needing to hold her.

Her brown eyes were open, wide and staring; an expression of surprise still on her face, her lipstick smudged a bit. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, the red contrasting sharply with her smooth skin.

He ignored the noises of his family, the babble of voices, the people standing and kneeling around him. Looking up he could see Alan sitting halfway down the stairs, his face ashen, tear streaked, stunned.

Dmitri held Anne close, burying his face in her soft curls, smelling her shampoo, her perfume. He was still holding the damning bracelet clenched tightly in his right hand. He just held her, refusing to acknowledge that it would be the last time.