Sister Of Mine: A Novel Downloads Torrent
Towanda Tuning
But one night the balance is toppled. A match is struck. A fire is started. A cruel husband is killed. The potential for a new life flickers in the fire's embers, but resentment, guilt, and jealousy suffocate like smoke.
Steeped in intrigue and suspense, Sister of Mine is a powerhouse debut; a sharp, disquieting thriller written in stunning, elegant prose with a devastating twist. Fans of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies and Shari Lapena's The Couple Next Door will be utterly absorbed by this compulsively readable novel.
'Laurie's prose is stunning but it was the complicated relationship between the two sisters, and the secret that threatens to destroy them that had me furiously turning the pages' - Hollie Overton, bestselling author of Baby Doll and The Walls
When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either shefalls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes thecosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance,under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunningwiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There arelarge forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible inthe most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effectiveas the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing ofthe unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces whollysuperhuman. A blare of sound, a roar of life, a vast array of human hives,appeal to the astonished senses in equivocal terms. Without a counsellor athand to whisper cautious interpretations, what falsehoods may not these thingsbreathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognised for what they are, their beauty,like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler humanperceptions.
The train was just pulling out of Waukesha. For some time she had beenconscious of a man behind. She felt him observing her mass of hair. He had beenfidgetting, and with natural intuition she felt a certain interest growing inthat quarter. Her maidenly reserve, and a certain sense of what wasconventional under the circumstances, called her to forestall and deny thisfamiliarity, but the daring and magnetism of the individual, born of pastexperiences and triumphs, prevailed. She answered.
All the time she was conscious of certain features out of the side of her eye.Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, a grey fedora hat. She now turnedand looked upon him in full, the instincts of self-protection and coquetrymingling confusedly in her brain.
There was a little ache in her fancy of all he described. Her insignificance inthe presence of so much magnificence faintly affected her. She realised thathers was not to be a round of pleasure, and yet there was something promisingin all the material prospect he set forth. There was something satisfactory inthe attention of this individual with his good clothes. She could not helpsmiling as he told her of some popular actress of whom she reminded him. Shewas not silly, and yet attention of this sort had its weight.
He reached down in his hip pocket and took out a fat purse. It was filled withslips of paper, some mileage books, a roll of greenbacks. It impressed herdeeply. Such a purse had never been carried by any one attentive to her.Indeed, an experienced traveller, a brisk man of the world, had never comewithin such close range before. The purse, the shiny tan shoes, the smart newsuit, and the air with which he did things, built up for her a dim world offortune, of which he was the centre. It disposed her pleasantly toward all hemight do.
They were nearing Chicago. Signs were everywhere numerous. Trains flashed bythem. Across wide stretches of flat, open prairie they could see lines oftelegraph poles stalking across the fields toward the great city. Far away wereindications of suburban towns, some big smokestacks towering high in the air.
Carrie realised the change of affectional atmosphere at once. Amid all themaze, uproar, and novelty she felt cold reality taking her by the hand. Noworld of light and merriment. No round of amusement. Her sister carried withher most of the grimness of shift and toil.
Carrie answered, but was looking away. Down the aisle, toward the gate leadinginto the waiting-room and the street, stood Drouet. He was looking back. Whenhe saw that she saw him and was safe with her sister he turned to go, sendingback the shadow of a smile. Only Carrie saw it. She felt something lost to herwhen he moved away. When he disappeared she felt his absence thoroughly. Withher sister she was much alone, a lone figure in a tossing, thoughtless sea.
It had been tacitly understood beforehand that she was to get work and pay herboard. He was of a clean, saving disposition, and had already paid a number ofmonthly instalments on two lots far out on the West Side. His ambition was someday to build a house on them.
She felt the drag of a lean and narrow life. The walls of the rooms werediscordantly papered. The floors were covered with matting and the hall laidwith a thin rag carpet. One could see that the furniture was of that poor,hurriedly patched together quality sold by the instalment houses.
She sat with Minnie, in the kitchen, holding the baby until it began to cry.Then she walked and sang to it, until Hanson, disturbed in his reading, cameand took it. A pleasant side to his nature came out here. He was patient. Onecould see that he was very much wrapped up in his offspring.
Carrie nodded and asked her sister about the neighbourhood. The latter talkedin a subdued tone, telling the little she knew about it, while Hanson concernedhimself with the baby. Finally he jumped up and handed the child to his wife.
She began to see that her relations with Drouet would have to be abandoned. Hecould not come here. She read from the manner of Hanson, in the subdued air ofMinnie, and, indeed, the whole atmosphere of the flat, a settled opposition toanything save a conservative round of toil. If Hanson sat every evening in thefront room and read his paper, if he went to bed at nine, and Minnie a littlelater, what would they expect of her? She saw that she would first need to getwork and establish herself on a paying basis before she could think of havingcompany of any sort. Her little flirtation with Drouet seemed now anextraordinary thing.
So severe a defeat told sadly upon her nerves. Her feet carried hermechanically forward, every foot of her progress being a satisfactory portionof a flight which she gladly made. Block after block passed by. Uponstreetlamps at the various corners she read names such as Madison, Monroe, LaSalle, Clark, Dearborn, State, and still she went, her feet beginning to tireupon the broad stone flagging. She was pleased in part that the streets werebright and clean. The morning sun, shining down with steadily increasingwarmth, made the shady side of the streets pleasantly cool. She looked at theblue sky overhead with more realisation of its charm than had ever come to herbefore.
Her cowardice began to trouble her in a way. She turned back, resolving to huntup Storm and King and enter. On the way, she encountered a great wholesale shoecompany, through the broad plate windows of which she saw an enclosed executivedepartment, hidden by frosted glass. Without this enclosure, but just withinthe street entrance, sat a grey-haired gentleman at a small table, with a largeopen ledger before him. She walked by this institution several timeshesitating, but, finding herself unobserved, faltered past the screen door andstood humbly waiting.
Now she walked quite aimlessly for a time, turning here and there, seeing onegreat company after another, but finding no courage to prosecute her singleinquiry. High noon came, and with it hunger. She hunted out an unassumingrestaurant and entered, but was disturbed to find that the prices wereexorbitant for the size of her purse. A bowl of soup was all that she couldafford, and, with this quickly eaten, she went out again. It restored herstrength somewhat and made her moderately bold to pursue the search.
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