Free The Perfect Liar by Brenda Novak

sure?"
    Because Luke wasn't violent, the way she'd claimed. He was one of the most honorable men she'd ever met, and by far the best pilot. "I know how to protect myself."
    Tati didn't state the obvious--that she hadn't done a very good job of it so far if she'd been beaten and raped. "How'd it happen?"
    Kalyna was tired of telling the story, tired of worrying about how she was coming across. Her sister already doubted her, so she preferred not to discuss it anymore. "I don't want to talk about it." Kalyna shrugged. "It happened, and I'm dealing with it. That's al ."
    65

    Tati made no comment.
    "So what have you been doing around here?" Kalyna asked.
    Her sister jerked her head toward the back, where they did the embalming. "Guess."
    "God, I'm so glad to be out of here. You should've come with me.
    California's amazing!"
    Tatiana shifted her gaze to the flowered rug covering the hardwood floor. "You know the military won't take me."
    "You could've gotten a job, lived with me."
    "A job doing what?" her sister countered.
    "Anything! Maybe you wouldn't have been surrounded by men who are all in great physical shape the way I am, but it'd be better than working like a slave for Mom and Dad. They're using you. That's all they've ever done. You're wasting your life."
    "I'm not wasting my life! Dad needs my help." She stood as if the mention of Dewayne made it impossible to continue disobeying his orders by sitting on the antique chair. "He can't run this business by himself. And I'l be compensated. When he retires, I'l take over. He told me that."
    "That could be twenty years, Tati. Do you plan to scrub stiffs for the next two decades? And what if he dies before Mom? How wil you put up with the old bitch?"
    "She's not a...a bitch. Anyway, I'l cross that bridge when I come to it."
    Thinking she heard a car pull up, Kalyna checked the driveway, but they were stil alone. "Don't you want to get out of this place, meet a man, have sex ?" she asked.
    Her sister's cheeks flamed bright red. "I'd like to fall in love and start a family, but--"
    "Ugh! You're such a loser. You can't sit back and wait for Prince Charming to sweep you off your feet. Since when has anything we've ever wanted come to us? You have to go out and get it."
    "And be raped, like you?"
    Tati was finally showing some spirit, but Kalyna couldn't allow her sister to think the decision to leave had been a bad one, couldn't have her gloating that she'd been wiser to stay. "If you could see the guy who raped me, you'd stand in line to be with him," she said with a taunting smile. "He's 66

    the most gorgeous man I've ever seen. And it wasn't as if I didn't have fun."
    "Fun!" Tati's jaw sagged. "You said he beat you!"
    Kalyna assumed a long-suffering manner. "You don't understand what it was like."
    "Explain it to me."
    "You wouldn't understand even if I tried. You don't know squat about life or love. So just drop it, okay?" She got up. If her sister was so damn nervous about sitting in the "parlor," they might as wel go. "You've changed," Kalyna said with a frown.
    "No, I haven't."
    "Yes, you have. You take the joy out of everything."
    Tati stiffened. "You'd rather be somewhere else, getting raped?"
    "Don't knock it til you've tried it," she muttered. But she didn't want to think about the intimacy she'd shared with Luke. Recalling those special moments made her want to be close to him again, to see him and touch him and smell him. That yearning caused her to wonder how he would've treated her if she hadn't reacted so hastily. Would he have called?
    No, she couldn't have risked it. She had to go after what she wanted, just as she'd told Tatiana. "What's there to eat?" she asked. "I'm starving."
    Her sister gave her an incredulous look. "Sometimes I don't understand you at all."
    Kalyna would've laughed it off, but the noise of a car brought her up short. Her parents were home.
    Hearing the engine, Tati fell silent, waiting anxiously. "What are you going to tell them?" she