CHAPTER SEVENTEEN #2
Jude shook his head. “They’re a trustworthy family. I feel confident that they would keep the secret until your dad decides to go public with it.”
He hoped that she might follow that rabbit hole while they waited so that she wouldn’t get too nervous. Unfortunately, she didn’t. Instead, she just nodded and let the subject drop.
When the door to the room opened, all three of them turned toward it. Julian stepped in first, then held the door for his mother.
Jill stepped through the doorway, her gaze sweeping the room before landing on Angela. Her arms went wide as she headed toward her. Whether Angela wanted a hug or not, she was getting one.
“Oh, look at you,” Jill said as she cupped Angela’s face after giving her a tight hug. “You’re just absolutely adorable.”
Jude frowned. Adorable? He would have thought she’d say that Angela was beautiful, or even pretty. Isn’t that what mothers usually said about their children? That they were beautiful or handsome?
“Mom,” Julian said after he’d closed the door. “This is Kiara.”
Jill let go of Angela’s face and turned toward Kiara. “You’re the adopted sister.”
“She’s my sister,” Angela said, moving to Kiara’s side.
“Annie is your sister.”
Jude placed his hands on his hips, waiting for Angela to say the words that would free them from this awkward situation.
“Mom, I explained the situation,” Julian said.
“Of course you did, darling.” Jill waved dismissively. “But she’ll adjust to the situation more quickly if she accepts some pretty obvious things.”
Well, it was clear that Jill was still Jill.
Jude itched to step in and redirect the conversation, but that wasn’t his role yet. He was there as a silent witness. A silent protector. Until Angela gave him a sign that she wanted his help.
However, if Jill took one more backhanded swipe at Kiara or Angela, Jude wasn’t sure he could hold his tongue. And he didn’t think Duncan would get upset with him if he didn’t.
Unfortunately, he was drawn into things against his will.
“Well, Jude,” Jill said when she spotted him. “You have certainly aged like fine wine.”
“Mom!” Julian protested.
“Your services are not required at the moment,” Jill said as she walked toward Jude, waving her hand at him dismissively.
“My boss would say otherwise.”
“You’re saying that Duncan told you to spy on my meeting with my daughter?”
“Mom, just ignore Jude.” Julian tried to guide Jill away from him.
Up close, she was as stunning as she’d ever been as a younger woman. It appeared that Duncan’s money was being put to good use.
“You tell Duncan that I don’t appreciate him trying to manipulate everything. And if he’s not careful, people might learn things he doesn’t want them to know.”
Jude wanted to defend Duncan, but he knew that the man would be upset if he did.
Duncan didn’t require defending, and there was a zero chance that Jill would ever reveal anything about the family.
He knew that Duncan had made sure that Jill signed a document that said that if she ever revealed anything about Duncan, the family, or his business, she would lose all financial support.
“Let’s go sit down and have a chat with Angela.”
This time, Julian was more successful in moving his mom over to the seating area. Kiara followed with Angela, and the two of them sat down on a loveseat. Jill settled into the armchair closest to Angela, crossing her legs elegantly.
Julian sat on the couch, then got back up and went to the buffet. If he had been hoping for something alcoholic, he was going to be disappointed.
Sure enough, Julian’s shoulders dropped, but then he reached out to grab a mug and filled it with coffee. After adding cream and sugar, he returned to his seat.
During this time, Jill had been telling Angela all about her family. Angela wasn’t asking any questions, or really interacting at all.
That wasn’t a deterrent for Jill, however. The woman had plenty of experience in making small talk.
Jude wanted to tell Jill that if she wanted any chance with her daughters, she needed to show that she was interested in them. That she cared about them.
How things went with Angela might play a role in Annie one day meeting her mom. But judging by how things had progressed so far, Annie wouldn’t be changing her mind with help from Angela.
“What are you doing with your time?” Jill asked.
“We are taking some self-defense training, and we’re learning how to drive.”
“You don’t need to know how to drive,” she said. “I’m sure Duncan could hire someone to drive you around.”
“We want to know how to drive,” Angela said.
“It’s a good skill to have,” Julian said, braving his mother’s wrath by siding with the ladies.
“It’s a waste of time,” Jill told him. “But I suppose it’s her time to waste.”
Angela shifted on the loveseat, and Kiara reached over and took her hand. Jude could see the tension in Angela's shoulders, the way she was holding herself rigid, like she was bracing for more criticism.
"Learning to drive has been wonderful for us," Kiara said, her voice steady but with an edge that Jude recognized. "And Angela is doing really well at it."
"Oh, I'm sure she is," Jill said, though her tone suggested otherwise. “But I still don’t understand why you need to learn to drive.”
"Because I want to," Angela said, her voice gaining strength. "I want to be able to go places on my own."
“Oh, darling, you’re never going anywhere on your own ever again,” Jill said with a laugh, then gestured to where Jude stood. “Even a visit like this, and you have a shadow. I hope you don’t plan to get a job because you’ll have a shadow there too.”
"I'm still figuring out if I’m going to get a job," Angela said quietly.
"Well, you don't need to work. Duncan has plenty of money. Though I suppose you could do something charitable. Maybe volunteer at a well-known charity or something suitable for someone of your position."
Angela's brow furrowed. "My position?"
"As Duncan Burke's daughter, darling. You have a certain status to maintain now." Jill's smile was bright but somehow cold. "You'll need to learn how to dress appropriately, how to speak to the right people, how to carry yourself. It's all quite important."
Jude saw Angela's face pale slightly, and he had to fight the urge to interrupt. This wasn't going well at all.
“No one knows who I am to have those sorts of expectations of me.”
“Surely now that you’re back, Duncan would be more willing to let everyone know who you and Annie are.”
“He hasn’t decided yet,” Angela said. “We’re just taking things one step at a time.”
“Probably a good idea so that you can be prepared to face the world. It’s very different from what you’re used to.”
"I think Angela dresses and acts beautifully," Kiara said firmly.
Jill's gaze shifted to Kiara, and her expression cooled. "That's sweet of you to say, my dear. But you wouldn't really know, would you? Coming from where you both did."
The room fell silent. Julian set down his coffee mug with a thud on the end table next to him, and Jude felt his jaw tighten. He'd heard enough.
"Angela," he said quietly.
She looked up at him, staring for a moment before giving a subtle shake of her head. Jude wanted to insist, but it was Angela’s choice.
And her determination to push through challenging stuff was one of the things he loved about her. So he just gave her a nod and stayed where he was.
“Oh wow, Jude,” Jill said, angling a smirk at him. “I guess you don’t have all that much power, do you?”
Jude kept his mouth shut. His instruction had been for it to be Angela’s call to end the meeting unless absolutely necessary for him to step in.
It was hard though, and he wished he understood why Jill seemed determined to torpedo a potential relationship with Angela. It was the wildest thing.
Jill had always been a bit pretentious, but this was a lot, even from her. It appeared that even though the years had left her physically untouched, her personality had taken a nosedive.
“I realize you can’t do anything about where you grew up, Angela,” Jill said. “But you need to accept that things are done differently in this world.”
As he stood there, Jude sent up a prayer, asking God for His peace and wisdom for everyone involved in the situation. He didn’t think Angela would benefit from having Jill in her life, but it wasn’t his decision.
“Why didn’t you want Annie?” Angela asked.
Jill’s posture straightened even further, her shoulders pulling back as she lifted her chin. “Of course I wanted Annie.”
“Then why didn’t you want visitation with her like you had with Julian?”
“Oh, they’ve been filling your ears with gossip, haven’t they?”
“How can it be gossip when there’s proof? And the people talking about it are the ones most deeply affected by your decision?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” Jill said, a haughty tone in her voice. “It was hard to look at Annie after I lost you. She was a constant reminder of what had been taken from us.”
“But Annie needed her mother,” Angela said. “And besides, you weren’t the only one I was taken from. Duncan still looked Annie in the face every day and loved her. He did what he could to make her feel safe and protected.”
“It’s different as a mother,” Jill said, her voice tight. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“It’s sad to think that I had a better relationship with the woman who kidnapped me—who I considered a mom—than Annie had with her mother.”
Jude’s eyebrows rose as he listened to Angela speak to Jill.
He had no idea where she had found the courage to say what Jill needed to hear, but he was glad she was doing it.
It was too bad he hadn’t recorded the meeting because Duncan would have loved to hear Angela stand up for herself and for Annie.
He glanced at Julian to see how he was taking everything. It looked like he wasn’t paying attention to anything. He seemed to have checked out, slumped in his chair, staring at the fire in the fireplace.
“I’m not sure why you’re talking to me like this,” Jill said. “I did the best I could considering the circumstances.”
Angela didn’t look like she was buying that explanation any more than Jude did.
“I understand it was a difficult time,” Angela said. “None of it was easy for any of us. But it makes me sad that because I was kidnapped, Annie was robbed of having a loving mother in her life. She didn’t deserve to be punished because she was the one the kidnappers returned.”
“I see how this is,” Jill said as she got to her feet. “You’ve let Annie poison your mind against me. Julian. Let’s go.”
Julian looked up at his mother, gave a sigh, then pushed up to his feet.
Turning to Angela, he said, “I’ll see you back at Dad’s later.”
Jude tracked the man’s progress as he followed his mother out of the room.
That had… not gone as he’d thought it would. He’d been sure that Jill would walk all over Angela, and she had, to some extent. But then Angela had stood up for herself and Annie, and Jude was so proud of her.
“I didn’t plan to talk to her about that,” Angela said when Jude took the seat Jill had vacated.
“I think it was necessary,” he said. “Julian has probably never talked honestly to her about it, and Annie has refused to have any communication with her. Perhaps it was time for someone to hold her accountable for what she did.”
Angela bent her head and pressed her fingers to her forehead. Jude wanted to go to her and physically comfort her, not just use his words.
In the end, it was Kiara who slipped her arm around Angela. “You did a good thing, Angie. Don’t second-guess what you said. I know you’re going to, but don’t.”
Angela looked up and met Jude’s gaze. “Is Duncan going to be upset with me?”
Jude couldn’t keep his chuckle inside. “Oh, he definitely won’t be. In fact, I think he’ll congratulate you on it.”
“And Julian?”
“He didn’t speak up to defend his mom, so he knows that you only spoke the truth.” Jude hesitated, then said, “I’m actually really proud of you for standing up for yourself and for Annie. You did great.”
Angela’s eyes widened as she stared at him. “You’re proud of me?”
Jude knew he probably should pull back, but the reality was that he’d told her the truth. He was proud of her.
He hoped that she could continue to take a stand for herself and others, like she had for Annie.
“Ready to go home?” he asked.
“Yes, definitely.”