Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“ A re you sure you ain’t from the South?” Murielle asked as she walked back over to the grill on the stove in our kitchen for her third serving of short ribs. “Because I just don’t know how a Michigan woman who spent her whole life in books could manage this.”
“I have a Southern soul,” I replied, laughing.
“No truer words, sugar.”
Then I went on, “My friend, Miss Virgie, she’s from the South. She moved up to Michigan when she was younger to be closer to family. I don’t know if she’s ever eaten lemon ice box pie, but she needs to try yours. Every bite is like floating off to lemon heaven.”
“Then no more pie for you,” Blake said and I glared at him. “What? I’m selfish. I want you here, not in lemon heaven.”
I rolled my eyes at him, trying to suppress the defiant smile trying to weasel its way onto my lips. “Once again, you’re an idiot.”
“Uh—who’s more of an idiot? You agreed to marry me.”
“Still you,” Murielle said and I threw my head back hooting with laughter, raising my hand for a high-five. She slapped it, hooting right along with me.
“Touché,” Blake replied. “I’ll wear it with pride.”
“ Always .” I stood up to stretch, and kissed my husband. He rubbed my belly in the midst of this almost -romance novel kiss.
“Why are people so afraid to show affection?” Murielle asked. “You two—you’re not afraid. If more people showed their feelings, I think we’d have fewer divorces in this country.”
“I love my wife,” he stated openly. “If people don’t like it, then sucks to be them.”
“It does. But now, sugar, I found what you needed and it’s unpleasant.”
“How unpleasant?” I asked, bracing.
Murielle’s face fell. “I hate this part—I surely do. If I thought Raymond Hill was bad, well, this is just unconscionable.”
“What… is unconscionable ?” my husband asked cautiously.
She let loose a low, slow breath that sounded like “ Fuck, here we go ” to my brain. “Raymond Hill’s people didn’t hire that Lorelei bitch who set you up.”
“We wondered,” I said while trying to wrap my mind around it all.
“It wasn’t Raymond Hill. He is responsible for creating the fake memo and taking the blame. He was paid handsomely for it. She reached into the massive purse that sat on the floor leaning against the leg of her chair to pull out another manila envelope. She handed it to me as I was closer. I opened it, pulling out a thin stack of papers, reading the first page.
“What is this?” I asked.
Murielle reached over to point at a box on the paper. “I had to check out where some of the money from the campaign was being used. And that’s when I found this file. I know I wasn’t supposed to see it. It was buried deep at the bottom of one of the files I’d been searching, so I had to look inside, didn’t I ?”
“ Absolutely ,” Blake replied. “I’d have looked.”
“I know,” she said, smiling big. “Anyway, that’s the payout.”
I looked down at the amount of money. A half a million dollars. That was a lot of cake. “Then who?”
“Look on page three,” she directed, and I flipped through to the third page. Murielle tapped the bottom of the page and my mouth dropped open.
“What?” Blake asked. “Let me see.” He jumped up from his chair, moving around the table to stand behind me, leaning over my shoulder to read. “Candice Reed,” he read. Candice Freaking Reed. “Fucking Candice,” my husband spat.
“Could she afford a 500K payout? How much did a press secretary make?”
“Not that much, sweetheart. That’s what you live on, not give away.”
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” I started crumpling the papers in my grasp.
Murielle started laughing. “That Shakespeare was a smart man,” she said.
Now we had to figure out what was in it for Candice Reed. Who’d hired her as Brock’s press secretary? Brock? Emily? Robert . God, I’d bet money on Robert Parker.
Red filled my vision. Steam shot out my ears like in those cartoons. A cloud of anger exploded from the top of my head. I felt ready to kill. Well, until Blake placed his hand onto my shoulder and kissed my cheek.
“The baby,” he whispered in my ear, wrapping me in his warm, snuggly blanket of love. That was all he had to say. Getting so worked up wasn’t good for the baby. “We’ll figure this out, sweetheart.”
“I’m just so angry,” I admitted. “None of this should’ve ever happened. I wasn’t embarrassing the family. We were staying out of the media lens. This was personal, Blake. But why? All we did was…”
“Was what, sugar?” Murielle asked and I looked up to find her leaning forward, as if totally invested.
“ Get married ,” Blake finished, and I didn’t have to see his face to know he’d turned red. I heard it in his voice. I heard red, the hurt mixed with anger.
“You got married?” she asked, confused.
“Yes.” I shook my head to rid it of the murderous thoughts. I’d have—get ready because the situation deserved this word— fucking lost money. “We got married and there are people who don’t like that a Parker married a Kowalski.”
I couldn’t do this. Not now. They needed to pay—no, she needed to pay. I knew, knew that it wasn’t Brock or Robert, or even Emily. Adair. Adair hired Candice. Adair wanted nothing more than to get me out of the family. No matter how she tried to sever my bond with the Parkers, it wouldn’t work. We were connected for life.
“I will kill my mother,” Blake said, but I shook my head, then kissed his cheek. “How could she stoop so low?”
“Who?” Murielle asked, and honestly, given all the work she’d done, she deserved an answer. I waited for him to compose himself enough to speak. Then he did. “My mother .”
Murielle gasped— loudly . “Oh, sugar… Now I know why I hate rich people.” Her eyes moved between Blake and me. “Present company excluded. Pardon my shock here, but my dear mama would cut off her own lady balls rather than betray one of her offspring. How do y’all deal with a betrayin’ mama? You can’t cut her,” she said and the laugh burst from deep in my belly because in that moment, I wanted to cut her—Adair, not Murielle—and Murielle saying we couldn’t slapped me right upside the head.
“Are you sure?” Blake asked and yeah . I felt that too.
“No, Blake, if it can put you in prison, it’s wrong.” It felt appropriate to remind him. “Think of the baby.”
“Why do you have to ruin my fun?” he asked and that question lifted the angry cloud hanging over us in the back yard. The sun peeked through again, even though it’d set a while ago.
“So we’re all on the same page here,” Murielle started, “matricide is wrong.”
“It is,” Blake agreed, and I wondered what we were going to do about Adair Parker when his lips curled up at the ends in what could only be described as a deviously evil smile. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t figure something else out.”
“All the fun with none of the prison time,” I said, liking this idea.
“Well…” Murielle stood from her chair. “I have to get going. I have to head out early because some of us have work. It’s a four-hour drive and I start at nine.”
“What? You’ll have to be on the road by like five in the morning,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Let me fly you down,” Blake offered. “It’ll be a thirty-five-minute flight, at most.”
“That’s sweet, but I have my car at the hotel.”
“Drive your car here. We take you to the airport. You can fly out. Private jet. Then I’ll have my driver take your car home, he can hop the jet before it heads back up here. My driver’s sister lives in the city. I’ll have her meet you at the airport. She can drop you and the car at Bernhardt Management Services. You can drive home from work.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. “That seems like a lot of trouble.”
“Trouble?” I asked, shocked. “All the help you’ve given us and you think it’s not worth us going through a little trouble?”
She made a sound in the back of her throat, as if coming to a decision. “Well…” She paused. “If you don’t mind. That’d be nice.”
“Not at all. Is 7:30 okay?”
“Sure, sugar.”
“It’s settled, then.” Blake pulled his phone from his front pocket and pressed a number. After a few beats, he said, “I need the jet tomorrow. 7:30 a.m. sharp. New York City.” He paused more. “A passenger on the return flight, too.”
My husband was a genius. I loved him hardcore. The hardest core.
“But I still need to get going,” Murielle mumbled. “I got me a food baby.” She patted her belly. “If I don’t leave now, I’ll be asleep on your sofa in ten minutes—and I need my jammies.”
We understood. As Blake and I walked her to the door, he said, “Be here by 7:00.” She nodded. The three of us paused at the front door and I leaned in to hug her.
“Don’t be a stranger, you hear?” I said, and I almost sounded Southern.
“Are you kidding me?” she asked, her voice rising with each word, like she thought I was touched in the head. “You make ribs like your mama birthed you in the bayou. Ain’t no way yer gettin’ rid of me now.”
I let out a slightly laughing breath. “ Good .” I really meant it. “So, you need my number.” She fished into her purse pulling put her phone. I rattled off my number. Murielle saved my contact, and then pressed the call button to call my phone. I walked over to the coffee table, where I’d set it while we’d been eating dinner, to answer. Then I ended the call and saved her contact, too.
“See you in the mornin’,” she said, waving once before walking outside. I should’ve followed her, but cold. I hated cold. Blake followed her out, waiting for her to drive away before coming back inside the house.
Blake and I cleaned up from dinner and then headed up to bed. He liked making love to me with me on my back. He stayed on his knees holding my belly while he moved. I felt so loved. Every time with my husband made me feel more loved than the time before.
Once we’d settled, I rolled onto my side to face him. “What are you planning?” I asked.
“Now I’m done for good with Parker Holdings. I’d only signed a short-term contract.”
“That’s amazing… but that’s not what’s on your mind.”
“You read me too well, woman. No.” He let out a breath. “I think I want to start my own firm. I know how to make money. I know how to make people rich, and do it legally. But most importantly, I can set my work hours, whether I work from home, and I can vet the clients.”
“I’ll try to find a volunteer position—at least until the baby comes.”
“Volunteer position?” Blake asked and… what?
“I can’t just stay home with nothing to do.”
“Well, what will Miss Virgie think? Won’t she miss you?”
I pressed the back of my hand to his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”
“Considering I just came inside my wife, I’m great.”
“ Then …” I waited him out. And the jerk made me wait. He snickered. Snickered . Grr … I punched him in the gut—not hard, but it made me feel better.
He smiled through his sigh. “What do we have here? I love Maisie and Dee, but, other than Jupiter, I’m done with my family. You have your mom and Carl, and Pen and Ant, and Sierra. It makes more sense for us to live in Michigan, I mean, if you want to move back.”
“I’ll miss them, too… But…” I bit my bottom lip. He understood. He knew that I agreed with him. “Okay, but you want to live in my house?”
He shook his head. “We’ll build. I’d still like some property. I don’t know that I’d be happy long-term with neighbors so close. Plus, Georgie needs room to run.”
We were moving to Michigan.
We were building a house.
My husband loved me.
The next morning after seeing Murielle off and getting a driver to take her car back to New York, Blake and I showered, dressed in the clothing we wanted to wear, not what the Parkers expected us to wear, and drove to Robert and Adair’s home. We made sure to arrive early enough to catch Robert before he left for the office.
“Son, this is highly unacceptable. Why would you show up at—” He cut himself off when he noticed my wife and her pregnant belly. His face hardened. “You’re having a child?”
Bless my wonderful husband, he smiled so big, I thought his face might crack. “Mother didn’t tell you? Never mind. That’s not why we’re here. Call Brock. He should be here.”
“It would help if you’d explain her sudden appearance.”
“Not until Brock gets here.”
Completely ruffled and grumbling, Robert called Brock. Because no one else offered, Maggie, the Parkers’ housekeeper, invited us to sit in the living room. She smiled, giving her congratulations. I couldn’t believe that Adair kept our baby news from her husband. The woman had something up her sleeve. People didn’t not tell their spouses something as important as impending grandparenthood.
“I thought we agreed—” Adair started, but my husband raised his hand to silence her. If I was mistaken, she was trying to play it off like she didn’t know about the baby.
“Not until Brock arrives.”
“How far along is she?” Adair asked next, folding her arms over her chest as if put out. And yup—the horrible woman was trying to play it off, all right. “We’ll have to do damage control.”
“Why? You already knew about the baby, given you showed up at our house,” Blake started as Robert shot death glares at his wife—I did not want to be her after we left. But I wouldn’t have minded being a fly on the wall to see her get her ass chewed out—“and there’s no need for damage control because there’s been no damage. My wife and I are expecting our first child. Period.”
After another twenty minutes, a visibly annoyed Brock showed up and he got one look at my belly and shouted, “What the fuck? What did you do, Blake?”
My husband simply laughed. Again. “If you really want the details…” he teased and I thought Brock’s head was about to explode. “But it’s not what I did that we’re here to discuss.”
Our unhappy family turned angry eyes on us.
“How ’bout we all have a seat,” Blake offered, smiling, and he grabbed a hold of my hand to scoot me closer to him on the sofa, giving the others places to sit.
“Let’s get on with this.” Robert looked at his watch. “Some of us have things to do.”
Blake nodded. “About that—My contract is up. I’m done with the company for good.”
“Not this again,” Brock complained. “I thought we already discussed this.”
“Mmm… New information has come to light.” He gave my knee a squeeze.
“Don’t tease, Blake,” I mock-admonished. “It’s not nice.”
“My wife is too kind. She thinks of you even when you’ve been horrible to her. Here’s the long of it.” His face sobered, like he was about to drop the news that Brock and Robert were heading to prison kind of sobered. “I made you a hell of a lot of money. I make me a hell of a lot of money, too—but I can do that anywhere. The way I see it, you need me so much more than I need you, yet you’ve treated my wife like trash—and then there’s Candice.”
“What about Candice?” Brock asked.
I smiled sweetly at Adair as Blake looked directly at her . “Mother, would you like to fill them in about Candice, or should I?”
“Me? What would I know about Candice? She’s your brother’s press secretary.”
“Yes, about that… Brock, here .” Blake handed off the copies of the documents that Murielle brought us. We’d stopped off at a local Staples to make the copies before arriving—or ambushing, in this case—Robert. Anything could happen to those documents and we wanted them safe.
Brock studied the papers. “What am I looking at?” he asked, clearly annoyed with the both of us. His exasperated sigh told as much as his tone of voice.
“That’s money that Raymond Hill was paid to create a false paper trail when Gloria was set up. If you look at the dates it’s after he lost the candidacy to you.”
He narrowed his eyes. “It’s half a million dollars. Who would pay him that much to frame your wife?”
“Page three,” I said, unable to hold my excitement any longer. Blake chuckled, squeezing my knee again. Brock scowled at me, but he flipped to page three. “Halfway down,” I pointed out and his eyes went huge when he read the name. “It appears that Mr. Hill kept very accurate records. I suppose in case this came back to bite him in the ass. Too bad others aren’t that meticulous, right, Adair?”
Her face turned almost purple. “You do not get to?—”
“Why do they keep turning this onto you, Adair?” Robert asked, cutting her off. “What’s on that paper?”
Brock handed him the page with “Candice Reed” typed in the payer’s box.
“ What ?” Robert raged. “I’ll end her!”
“Think about it, Dad… Why would Candice bother?”
“And where would she get that kind of money?” I helpfully put in.
Robert narrowed his eyes but didn’t answer.
Blake bent his arms in front of him, hands folded, tapping his two pointer fingers together. “Candice hired people to hurt my wife’s reputation, then you all angled to get her out of the state, and what happens? Candice makes a move on me. Why?”
“Adair, what did you do?” Robert clenched his teeth hard enough to need dental work after this meeting.
“She tried to ruin my marriage,” Blake replied.
“Look at her.” Adair threw her arm out toward me. “Red hair. And a Kowalski. Do you really want a red-haired Kowalski grandchild? She’s poor. She’s beneath our family.”
“I lost the election because of you, Mother,” Brock spat. “Turning the media attention to Blake and his whore of a wife. I should’ve been president .”
Well, at least the woman stuck to her guns. Stupidly, but she did it, squaring off against her son she said, “I did what I had to do. She’s not a Parker. She doesn’t belong here. I’m sure she used sex to weasel herself a ring. Her kind always does.”
I blanched. My kind ?
“We’re out,” Blake said, pushing up from his seat, holding his hand out to me. “Brock, I’m glad you lost. We sure as hell didn’t vote for you. Father, consider this my resignation from the family. From this point on, you have two children. My wife and I will build our own family.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Blake,” his mother practically shouted, letting her perfect demeanor slip. “You know she got pregnant on purpose. It was a last-ditch effort to keep you. Are you sure it’s even yours?”
No. Say what you want about me, it sucks, but whatever—but don’t you dare talk shit about my baby. I stood. “Blake, I’m ready to go.” Then I turned to her. “You may not think much of me or my kind , but you’d have to know that I’m smart enough to remember paternity tests exist.”
“Sweetheart, the baby. Don’t get so worked up.”
I smiled at him. “Honey, I’m fine.” Then I turned back to Adair. “Blake and I love each other and we made a baby—but I’m not even talking about that. What purpose would it serve to tell my husband I was pregnant with his baby when it belonged to someone else? Do you know the size of the trust his grandfather left him? Why would I risk that to get knocked up by another man? Even if you thought I’d ever cheat on my husband—which, you must not think much of Blake to think that anyone would cheat on him . He’s amazing—but you have to admit that I’m too smart to risk it. Since you clearly think I’m only after Parker money.”
Despite how badly I wanted to use Adair’s face as a punching bag, I kept myself calm, breathing slowly and evenly. Serenely.
“This doesn’t mean you have to leave the company,” his brother said, and wow —Blake really must’ve made them a lot of money.
Blake dropped his arm around my shoulder. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he whispered in my ear. Then he looked over to the rest of them. “Have a nice life,” he said to his well, now ex-family, I supposed, and I felt the giant boulder that had been weighing me down since the night I’d first met Robert Parker lift and crumble into sand, swept away by the invisible wind. We were done.
“Let’s go home,” I said.
“Let’s go home.”