Chapter Thirty-Five
James Mitchell’s home on Birch was more understated than she expected it to be, considering his connection to one of the most prestigious law firms in town.
It was simplistic in design and looked as forlorn and lonely as its owner.
The paint could have used an update, and the lawn was overdue for a mow.
The place looked ignored, to be honest, and Isla bet the only people who paid any attention to it were probably his parents if they had to visit.
To keep up appearances, probably. Who wanted a recluse of a son?
It had been years since he’d last seen Edie, and he was just out of high school by that time.
Would Eden’s leaving have made that much of an impact on a guy whose friends were as Sara described them?
Isla got her answer a moment later when he opened the door, a tired-looking man with listless eyes that barely acknowledged her beneath a mop of unruly hair. Isla was taken aback by how disheveled James looked, and she found it hard to believe he was one of Bennett’s close friends.
“James?” Isla asked, just to make sure she had the right guy, and this wasn’t his hapless brother.
“Who else?” His voice sounded bland, but his eyes suddenly held a hint of life.
“And I already know who you are,” he continued before she could begin her intro.
“Word gets around fast here, especially when it has to do with the Corrigans and is coming straight from Bennett. Didn’t think you’d be stopping by here.
Not much I can tell you about the big man that you can’t get from everyone else. ”
Isla could only imagine what Bennett had to say about her. “Maybe so. But can you tell me about his daughter Edie?”
His expression darkened at the mention. She prepared for the door to slam in her face and was mildly surprised when, after a slight hesitation, he stepped aside to let her in.
The inside looked much better than out, homier if relatively sparsely decorated. The furnishings that were there definitely had a mother’s touch. James didn’t look like he could be bothered with anything relatively decorative.
“Why do you want to know about Edie?” James asked when they’d settled in his kitchen.
Unlike Sara, James didn’t offer any refreshments, though Isla didn’t expect him to be that kind of thoughtful host, not because he felt animosity toward Isla—at least not yet—but just because he probably thought he wouldn’t have anything in his fridge that an unexpected female visitor would want.
Isla started the spiel she’d put together to get herself in the door, but James stopped her midway through. She was kind of put out. She’d worked hard rehearsing with Nat and Rey, making sure her bit sounded realistic and enthusiastic enough to believe.
“Let’s skip to the good part, okay?” James said. He looked tired, like he hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep.
As they walked through the halls to the kitchen, Isla checked out the array of photos that chronicled his life thus far: his graduation from their private school and then Virginia Tech, and then Georgetown for his law degree.
All of them with James standing in between a pair of proud parents.
His proud mother with her energetic smile reminded Isla of Sheryl Lee Ralph, which made her age indeterminable, and James’s father was the lighter mirror image of his son, sharing the same clear blue eyes, prominent nose, and lanky build.
He repeated himself when Isla looked confused. “What does Edie have to do with a spread on her father? She’s been gone”—he swallowed—“years. From what I hear, she doesn’t keep in touch.”
Well, all right, Isla thought, sitting back in her chair. No need to butter him up. He liked things straight. She could respect that.
Isla had taken out a notebook for her talk with James, and she looked at the page with various notes she’d jotted down thus far to show she was keeping track, as if trying to decide where to begin.
She asked, “Do you know why that is? You’re one of Bennett’s friends.
I hear from Sara that you, Bennett, Danny Crawford, and Roger Monroe have been very close friends since school.
You all were tight. You should know why she left and why she hasn’t returned, shouldn’t you? ”
She watched his reaction to the last question, and she got a ding, because the man most definitely flinched as if he’d been zapped.
And then his shoulders slumped, and sadness came over him.
Isla didn’t know whether to be suspicious or comforting, because the guy sitting across from her was definitely conflicted.
Isla didn’t know what James knew, but he knew something.
She said softly, “She deserves the truth, don’t you think? Sara said the two of you really cared for each other, and from what I’m seeing now, I think you really did. You probably know more than anyone what happened to her. Maybe she confided in you?”
She was going in hard, she knew. But since there was something between them, maybe Eden had reached out to him when she and Isla had come to town back then.
James stared at the table—any harder and he would have burned a hole in it. His hands were clasped tightly in front of him. “Edie and I were . . . she trusted me. And I . . . I didn’t stand up like I should have.”
Isla leaned forward, feeling the answer was right on the cusp of her knowledge. “What do you mean you didn’t stand up? What happened?”
He shook his head like she wouldn’t understand.
“So much happened. Too much. But you gotta understand we were all young. Me and Bennett, Rog and Danny, we were on break from college, and Edie was in high school, always trying to be accepted by Bennett. She really wanted him to like her. And I did too,” he admitted in a small voice.
“I mean, I’m not a jock like Danny, or funny like Rog, or someone who has everything come easy to me like Bennett. ”
“Your dad owns one of the most prestigious law firms in this region, which you work for and will become partner in and take over. The firm does business with the Corrigan Group too. That seems like a privileged life to me,” Isla retorted.
She couldn’t help it, but when those who had whined about what they didn’t have when there were so many people with so much less, it got on her nerves. If James struggled, it was because of his own doing, Isla wagered. Not because his family couldn’t provide.
James let out a shaky breath, not seeming to notice Isla’s snark.
“What was the deal between Bennett and Edie?”
“He just couldn’t stand her. He called her a Goody Two-shoes. He and the other guys could be cruel and play around too much. And me and Edie, we weren’t like that, and we started talking, yeah. But I was older, and she was a Corrigan, and Bennett’s little sister.”
“But he couldn’t stand her.”
“That didn’t mean he’d want me or any of his friends to get with her.
Allowing that would mean she might be happy, and for some reason only Bennett can understand, he didn’t like any of his siblings being happy.
Not Myles. Not Edie. He made their lives miserable.
At least Holland was young enough that she wasn’t in his orbit.
And after Edie left and Myles was gone to the air force, Mr. and Mrs. Corrigan kept a closer eye on Holland.
Plus, Holland wasn’t competition. So he left her alone. ”
That all tracked. Bennett pretty much acted like Holland didn’t exist, and his contempt for Myles radiated from him.
“I thought I could protect her. I could talk everyone down. But I wasn’t strong enough.”
Isla’s heart pounded. “Protect her from what, James?” she asked. “Do you know why she disappeared?”
James shook his head. “Probably because I couldn’t protect her.
If only we hadn’t gone riding that night.
If only we hadn’t been drinking at the old Abbott farm .
. .” He swallowed hard, like it hurt him to do so.
“She probably believes I betrayed her, and I probably did. Twice I didn’t stand up for the person I cared about the most. She wouldn’t let that happen a third time. ”
Isla could taste it. The truth was right there. A huge piece of the puzzle—maybe the biggest piece. If only he would just say it.
“This sounds like a huge weight on you for years,” she gently prodded. “You’d probably feel a lot better if you explained it all. I’m sure Eden would forgive you.”
He sat up. “Why do you call her that?” he asked sharply.
Isla was confused. “Call who what?”
“Eden,” James said suspiciously. “No one would call her that around here.” He eyed her sharply, his voice gaining strength. “When you got here, you called her Edie. It’s how we’ve been referring to her. But just now, you called her Eden.”
Isla was at a loss for words. She could have kicked herself for her slipup. “But that’s her name.” The first excuse she could think of.
He said warily, “Why are you really asking about her? What is it you want?”
She lifted her hands as if innocent. “I just want to learn about Victor Corrigan.”
“And yet you haven’t asked me one question about him.”
He was right. She was too eager to find out about Eden.
She was forgetting her own story. Isla attempted to pacify him, trying to look innocent and save their moment.
James was the most important person in this story.
He was the one she could get closest to out of all of them because he had something none of the others had.
He had guilt, and it’d been weighing on him to the point he’d almost spilled.
But in her eagerness—her hunger—she might have ruined her chance.
She was coming in too hot. Rey and Nat would have told her so if they could hear what was going on.
She decided to pivot. “Asking questions about an estranged child is about Victor, James,” Isla said lightly.
“It lets me know what kind of kids he’s raising.
It helps me mold the types of questions I’ll ask Mr. Corrigan when I sit down with him soon,” she explained as patiently as she could.
She hoped she looked earnest enough and not desperate.
She couldn’t afford to scare him off. But the skepticism with which he looked at her made her feel her chances were lessening by the moment and she needed to back off.
“Also, it seems like you had a lot of things on your mind. Like you had no one to talk to, and here I am. An objective ear to help you figure out what to do next to relieve some of these feelings you’re going through.
I think Eden . . . and I say that because I don’t know your Edie and the way she was presented to me was as Eden.
So I’ll likely switch back and forth between names as I’m figuring out how she fits into Mr. Corrigan’s story.
” That was the most truthful thing Isla had said about herself since she’d been here.
James stared at her dully, the fight going out of him, leaving only residue. “She doesn’t fit into his story. It’s why she left. Her family was too much for her. They broke her. That’s what they do. Even to their own.”