Chapter 34
ADELINE
Lu sat on the front porch steps in her tiny pink shorts and one of Jennifer’s old camp T-shirts, her arms wrapped stubbornly around her knees as she stared down the driveway. Even Bear was morose, sprawled out beside her like he needed an emotional support kid for himself.
He looked as miserable as the child.
Wisconsin was beautiful in the summer, gorgeous green hills rolling into the distance beyond the long driveway while trees swayed in the warm breeze.
I could hear Amber and Jennifer shrieking in the backyard, both of them in the pool and laughing over one of the inflatables, but with Zach gone, the mood in the house was off.
Even with their shrieks of laughter, it was too quiet. Amber was doing her best to cheer Jennifer up, but Lu wasn’t even interested in the pool. Amber had eventually given up trying to coax her into swimming and had wandered off with Jennifer.
Lu, however, remained firmly planted on the porch. Between her and Bear, it was like they were staging a sit-in.
Bear hadn’t left the front lawn since Zach had driven away a few hours ago. Every few minutes, when a car passed somewhere down the road, he lifted his head hopefully, only to drop it back onto his paws with a dramatic sigh when it didn’t turn out to be Zach.
There wasn’t much I could do for him, but I sat down beside Lu and stroked my fingers through her hair, genuinely wondering what was going through her head. “Hey, bug.”
“I’m not talking,” she muttered. “I don’t want to.”
“Well, then it’s a good thing I haven’t asked you to.”
She glared straight ahead, her little mouth trembling despite her obvious commitment to being furious forever. Jennifer had been upset when Zach had left, but Lu seemed to be taking it really hard. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” she lied. “I’m happy he’s gone.”
“Oh, so that’s why you haven’t budged from the porch,” I said gently. “Because you’re absolutely not waiting for him.”
“I’m not,” she snapped tearfully, stifling a sob before finally sparing me a glance. “He didn’t even take me running this morning.”
My chest cracked straight down the middle. Suddenly, I wasn’t sitting on the porch in Wisconsin anymore. I was back in the Hamptons, trying to explain to two little girls why their father was never around.
So many times, I’d scrambled for an explanation as to why Daddy had missed another recital, another breakfast, or another bedtime. Why Daddy couldn’t come to the beach or why he was always busy.
The truth had been that Daddy had stopped trying long before he’d actually left. Lu had always understood that better than Jennifer, and that broke my heart.
I reached over and smoothed her messy curls back from her damp forehead. “Honey, Zach just had to go to work for a little bit.”
“That’s what you always said about Daddy.”
It would’ve hurt less if she’d smacked me in the face. I swallowed hard, forcing myself not to cry in front of her. “I know, baby. This isn’t the same thing, though.”
She finally looked at me again, but her blue eyes were glassy and suspicious. “He left. It’s the same thing.”
“He just had to go back to Chicago for an unexpected meeting,” I said softly. “He’ll be back soon, bug. Probably tomorrow.”
“How do you know?”
He’d texted me over half a dozen times just on the drive there.
That was how I knew. I also knew because I’d heard the tension in his voice when he promised he’d come back as soon as he could.
I knew because the only reason he’d gone was for us, to protect us from another legal attack by a man who’d only ever wanted money—and a boy—but I couldn’t explain any of that to a five-year-old.
I also couldn’t explain that I was starting to realize Zach and I still loved each other as fiercely as always. If almost a decade apart hadn’t severed that bond, a few hours would do nothing of the sort. So he would be back. He would always be back.
In the absence of being able to explain how terribly complicated this all was to her, I nudged her shoulder gently with my own. “We have to take care of Bear for him. That’s cool, right? We’re babysitting Bear.”
Lu looked down at the German Shepherd and snorted when he rolled over for a tummy scratch. She wiped angrily at her eyes. “He likes Zach best.”
“I think he’ll like you better if you keep sneaking him bites of your steak.”
Lu considered it for a moment, intense in that way only children could be.
Right now, everything between Zach and I was far from settled, especially with Louis looming over it all like a thunderstorm, but this, seeing Lu wait for Zach to come home, clearly triggered by his departure, made me realize that I would have to sit her down sometime and talk to her properly.
She needed to know that both Zach and I would sometimes have to go to work but that we’d always come back. That was the part she struggled to accept. I knew that. I understood it. Hell, I’d lived that uncertainty myself.
“No,” she finally spat, suddenly jumping up from the step. “He left Bear. Just like he left us. I hate him.”
She bolted before I could say anything, scrambling down the stairs and taking off. Running across the lawn, she ignored me when I called her name. Then she disappeared around the side of the house.
Bear lunged to his feet but hesitated, looking between me and Lu like he wasn’t sure which upset female required his assistance more. I nodded toward her. “Go with Lu.”
The dog spun around and sprinted in the direction she’d gone, taking the corner so fast that bits of grass and dirt sprayed up before he disappeared too. I pressed both hands over my face once they were out of sight, inhaling deeply in an attempt to keep the panic at bay.
Zach had left because of Louis. Perhaps if I’d just told the girls that, they would have understood a little better, but despite everything, I didn’t want to turn their father into a super-villain in their eyes.
Plus, after everything he’d put us through this past year, I wouldn’t have been surprised if learning that he was involved just ended up freaking them out more.
When I finally went back inside, I felt strangely heavy, but I put on a brave face and made Amber and Jennifer a late lunch. I called for Lu to come eat, but she scowled at me from the tree line instead.
I only caught glimpses of her throughout the rest of the afternoon, but it was like she was pretending to be a woodland creature and was avoiding civilization on purpose. She’d appear briefly, either outside or in the house, but disappeared without fail the second she noticed me looking at her.
Jennifer ate but went right back to the pool after. Instead of playing, however, she was just kind of floating around, staring at passing clouds and sighing dramatically every once in a while. Amber lounged beside the pool, watching her but also keeping an eye on Lu from a distance.
“She’s just processing,” she told me at one point. “In her own way, of course, but that’s our Lu.”
“I know. I just wish I could give it to her straight without making it worse.”
Amber let out a soft sigh. “That would’ve been easier, but she likes him, Adeline. I doubt it would’ve mattered much if she knew why he left. Her issue is the fact that he went at all.”
“Fucking Louis.”
Amber raised her hand for a high-five, but I left her hanging and she smacked her own palm before lowering her hand back to her side.
“Just give her time. Whether it’s today or tomorrow, he will be back and he’ll come back every time after that too.
Eventually, she’ll learn that even though people leave, those who love you will never stay away forever. ”
“You’re very wise sometimes.”
She laughed. “I know. People just don’t listen to me often enough. Now relax. Zach is going to kick Louis’s ass in Chicago, Lu is going to come back, and you’re all going to live happily ever after.”
While I was absolutely convinced it wouldn’t be quite that simple, I knew there was a good chance she was right on the Zach and Lu front. By dinner time, however, any vestige of peace I’d found had disappeared and panic was flaring hot and thick through my veins.
“Have you seen Lu?” I asked Jennifer.
She shook her head distractedly, coloring at the island while I cooked. “Nope.”
“Crap. Okay. Stay here. I’ll be back.”
I hadn’t seen her for a while either, so I checked the downstairs rooms again first, but she wasn’t there, so I headed upstairs, then to the backyard, and then to the garage. All empty.
“Lu?” I called again, trying not to let the fear creep into my voice. “Bug?”
She didn’t answer, but Bear suddenly started barking at the front door. Amber glanced up from where she’d been searching down the hall. “Maybe billionaire Batman has returned.”
Hope leapt stupidly into my chest and I raced to the front door, but Amber beat me there, swinging the door open and stepping out. Bear exploded past her like a missile, tearing down the long driveway and disappearing from sight.
“Oh, fantastic,” Amber muttered. “That definitely wasn’t scary.”
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe properly. Oxygen didn’t reach my lungs no matter how hard I tried to force it, black dots swimming at the edges of my vision as the panic grew so thick, it felt like my blood was turning into sludge.
Amber’s eyes widened as soon as she saw my face. “Okay. Hey. No. Don’t worry yet. We’ll find her.”
“We’ve tried,” I whispered, absolute terror washing over me as it sank in that this might just be real. “I can’t find her, Amber. She’s not here.”
“We haven’t found her yet, but we will.”
“She’s upset and she ran off. We don’t even know when she left the property.” Tears pressed at the backs of my eyes, my hands starting to shake the more I thought about it. “God, we shouldn’t have just left her. We—”
Amber grabbed my shoulders to get my attention. “I’m going out on foot and taking Jennifer with me.”
Jennifer scrambled upright, obviously alarmed by the tone of our voices. “Is it Lu?”
“I’ll check the house again,” I said over my shoulder, twisting out of her grip and already on the move.
The ranch house suddenly felt enormous. The mere prospect of actually finding her seemed impossible. Every hallway stretched into forever and every room had far too many nooks and even more crannies. All the while, I called Lu’s name, praying that her little head was going to pop up from somewhere.
“Lu!” I shouted, checking closets, bathrooms, and under beds. “Lauren Weatherby! Where are you?”
The panic intensified with every passing second, and finally, I raced back downstairs, grabbing my phone off the counter with shaking hands. No. No, no, no. This can’t be real.
Just as I dialed 911, headlights swept across the front windows. A vehicle pulled into the driveway below. My knees almost gave out, but I rushed for front door on wobbly legs, bursting out as the engine cut off outside.