Chapter 19 #4
“Wait—please Laura,” Andy pleads, his voice nearly unrecognizable. “I’ll tell her everything, but please, please let go of my daughter.” Laura glances down at Kody as if she’d forgotten she was digging her nails into a child. She shakes her head.
“No. This is a family affair.”
“She’s just a six-year-old kid.” Jo begs, her arms aching to gather her daughter up and then run far, far away from whatever is happening here. She doesn’t want to know anything more. She knows enough. She just wants her daughter safe.
Laura seems to soften for a moment. She then drags Kody to the closet behind them, nudges her inside, and shuts the door. She walks calmly back into the living room but remains standing in the entrance, waving her concealed hand at Andy. “Speak up.”
Andy’s forehead is covered in sweat. “Laura and I had an affair.” The revelation doesn’t have much of an effect on Jo. She knew where this was headed.
“Keep going, Andy. Why don’t you tell your wife how long?”
“Four years. We had an affair for four years, but I ended it, and Laura won’t accept that.” Jo feels like she’s been slapped. The breath rushes from her body so quickly she thinks she might faint. Four years. How could she not have known?
Laura squeezes the bridge of her nose and closes her eyes. She then draws in a sharp breath as her eyes snap open, and she screams, “Stop lying!”
“I’m not lying. It’s the truth Laura. It’s over.” Andy’s voice rises until he, too, is shouting. His grip on the couch armrest is white-knuckled.
“I left my husband. I left my family. I left my life. All for you. I gave everything up. And the moment I do that, you tell me it’s over” Laura begins pacing in the doorway.
“It will never be over, not for us.” Her lips move silently.
She turns back to face them suddenly and then reaches into her pocket.
“Please, no—please…my daughter.” Jo braces, preparing to jump, but all Laura brings out of her pocket is a piece of paper. She flashes Jo a quick smile, all teeth and rage.
“You see this?” She points to the paper, and Jo can just make out what looks like a credit card statement. Several purchases have been circled. Andy’s missing statement.
“He says our affair was over—but this is his credit card bill. You see these charges, Jo? I was with him here.” She steps into the living room and shoves the paper closer so Jo can see the list of charges clearer.
A hotel charge from early last month when he drove a mare to a client in Provo.
Laura points to the next charge. “This was the meal we had after we slept together.”
If words could cut, Jo would be bleeding out on the sofa right now.
She wants to close her eyes and never open them again.
Up until this moment, Andy had barely acknowledged Jo.
He finally shifts his eyes towards her and mouths, “I’m so sorry.
” He reaches across the couch cushion as if to grab her hand, but Jo pulls away before he can touch her.
Then, before she can stop herself, she punches him in the eye.
Andy’s head knocks back, and he cries out.
“You don’t get to touch me ever again,” Jo bites out the words. They taste like poison in her mouth. Her knuckles throb where they connected with his cheekbone.
Laura laughs, enjoying the spectacle. “Your life is built on lies, Josephine. He doesn’t love you. He never will. He’s meant to be with me. He told me everything. He told me how you don’t value him. You take him for granted. He was your second choice, but he will always, always be my first.”
Jo claps her hands over her ears. She can’t hear any of this anymore. None of it matters. Only Kody matters now.
The flash of blue and red lights out of the corner of her eye draws her attention to the window.
A row of police cars, lights flashing, are making their way up the road.
Jo looks back at Laura, who has also noted the arriving procession.
Her expression is dumbfounded, as if this wasn’t something she ever considered could happen.
A silver thread of hope wraps itself around Jo’s broken and bleeding heart. This nightmare might be over soon.
“You will tell them Andy. You will tell them what you promised me. This house is meant to be our house. She doesn’t want to be here with you, but I do, Andy. I love you. Only you.”
Several things happen at once. Laura begins to pull her other hand out of her coat pocket, but before Jo can see what she’s holding, Andy throws himself against Jo so she falls off the couch and hits the floor with his body covering her.
The front door flies open, and a uniformed officer storms in, gun raised and pointed at Laura, screaming at her to raise her hands slowly above her head.
Laura, eyes impossibly wide and terror-filled, brings both of her empty hands above her head.
“She has something in her pocket!” Jo calls out loudly from her position on the floor.
Several more officers arrive, one of whom begins patting down Laura after asking her a litany of questions about weapons and sharp objects.
She stands there, arms raised, her expression frozen in place.
She looks like a mannequin she’s so devoid of human emotion.
The officer patting Laura down reaches into her pocket and pulls out a phone, dropping it on the floor.
Even from that angle, Jo can see that the background image on Laura’s lock screen is a photo of her and Andy.
Jo wants to vomit. She feels like the world is collapsing in on her.
“Get off of me,” Jo rasps.
“Jo, you have to let me explain,” Andy says, shifting so his weight is no longer pinning her to the floor. Jo scrambles away from him.
“I owe you nothing. Officer, my daughter is in the closet. Can I please go to her?”
A female officer opens the hall closet and helps Kody to her feet. Jo rushes to her and holds her tightly.
“Mommy! I called Paige from my iPad in the closet,” Kody whispers into Jo’s neck. “Did I do a good thing? We need to remember to charge my iPad. Is that lady gone? I never want to see her again.”
Jo nuzzles her daughter, “That lady will never come here again. You did a very brave thing. I am so, so proud of you.” This incredible little creature of hers.
Two EMTs enter next and bend to examine Andy, while the remaining two officers handcuff Laura. The female officer escorts Jo to the porch, sitting her down in one of the rocking chairs.
“Do you mind if I take your daughter to my car, ma’am? The detective will have some questions for you” she says, indicating a salt-and-pepper haired man who is exiting a blue sedan. Jo nods, not wanting to let go of Kody’s hand, but knowing it was the only choice.
The detective climbs the porch steps and introduces himself to Jo.
She feels like the essence that makes her her has climbed out of her body and is now floating above her head, observing but not participating.
Jo physically answers his questions while her mind ping-pongs separately.
Andy and Lila. Andy and Laura. Andy and Jo.
Finally, the detective turns away to confer with one of the uniformed officers, leaving Jo alone with the voices in her head.
Moments later, the detective returns and tells Jo that he would appreciate her coming by the police station tomorrow to make a formal statement.
She agrees—she’d agree to anything so long as they leave.
She watches the final cop car drive away down the hill.
Part of her wishes she, too, was driving away.