Chapter Twenty-Six
L ogan was in the dining room painting the new trim while I worked at my desk after the lunch break.
I disconnected a long call with a client and started an email when it rang again. “Argh,” I griped before hitting the speaker. “This is Madison.”
Silence.
All of a sudden, I felt my skin crawling.
“Hello…?”
After a few more seconds, the line disconnected.
I stared at the phone, a strong sense of apprehension flooding me. I grabbed my cell to call my mother.
“Hey, honey,” she answered. “What’s up?”
“I just wanted to check in. Has everything been going okay today? Anything I should know about?”
My anxiety grew when she didn’t answer right away .
“I was planning to let you know when you called this evening, Sadie told me this morning that Alexis messaged her and asked if she wanted to do something over the weekend.”
“No!” I exclaimed, then bit my tongue. “Tell Sadie not right now and please keep an eye on her tablet to make sure nothing stupid gets said.”
“Don’t worry, I’m all over it.”
I heard laughter in the background. “Are you all at the park?”
“Yep. It’s miserably hot, but Sadie twisted my arm since camp was a half day.”
“Can I talk to her for a minute?”
“Let me grab her.”
A few moments later, I heard Sadie’s breathing as if she’d run from the other side of the playground. “Hi, Momma!”
“Hey, Bug. How was camp today?”
My tension eased as Sadie chattered for a few minutes. Then she asked if she could go play with her friend Kara some more.
“Sure, be a good girl and—”
“Hello, Sadie.”
I stopped breathing when I heard the deep voice over the line.
“Hi,” Sadie responded then her words became garbled as if the phone were pressed against something.
“Sadie?”
I continued to hear only bits and pieces of words.
“Sadie!” I said louder, fear gripping me. “Answer me please! ”
My hands started shaking as I flew out of my chair toward the door. I stopped and ran to the counter to grab my purse; calling her name into the phone again.
“Madison? What’s wrong?” my mother asked.
“Where is Sadie?!”
“She is right here, honey. She just handed the phone back to me.”
“Who was she talking to?”
“Mr. Wilson, the PE teacher at her school.”
My heart was racing as I realized I was standing at the door, my hand still gripping the knob. I don’t know what I believed I would accomplish, two states away when I’d thought… I shook my head and started pacing between the door and the kitchen counter.
“Maybe I should come home.”
There was a pause before my mother responded. “You do what you need to do but I promise, Madison, Sadie is completely safe with me.”
I caught movement from the corner of my eye and came to a dead stop, instantly remembering I wasn’t alone.
I swallowed, then turned toward the kitchen and lowered my voice. “I will think about it and let you know. Bye, Mom.”
I put on a smile before I turned.
Logan was staring at me. “Is everything okay?”
My thoughts raced, trying to come up with an explanation for the behavior he’d just witnessed .
“Umm, Sadie has been having issues with a boy at camp. She and Wesley aren’t getting along it seems. I worry about her possibly being bullied.”
I edged away from the door, sat my purse down, and laughed too harshly.
“Overprotective mom, thinking she can bolt 800 miles and take care of a playground disagreement in a few seconds. Where is Superman when you need him?” I teased, hoping I could play off the episode.
Logan was watching me closely. His concerned eyes and tone didn’t change when he spoke again. “That’s too bad.” He looked at his watch and then stuck his hands in his pockets. “The trim in here is all done. I’m going to head to the hospital. I’ll be back around five to finish installing those lights.”
I hurried to him. Logan hesitated before he leaned down and kissed me softly before walking to the door. He opened it and paused again, looking back at me with unease. “Call me if you need me, alright?”
“Of course.” I smiled at him with reassurance.
I let out a long puff of air after the door closed behind him. I felt horrible for lying to Logan. I just wasn’t ready to soil our relationship with details of the past. I ran my fingers over the bracelet around my wrist. Especially not today. Today felt like a new beginning.
I returned to my desk, sat down, and stared at my computer screen for several minutes as I thought through my options .
I still had work to do at the condo and a few more deliveries were coming. It felt selfish, but I was also enjoying my time with Logan. We’d just made our relationship official. How would it look if I ran home over what I told him was bullying? He might even interpret my leaving as deciding I didn’t want to be with him, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
I considered having my mother bring Sadie down now, but pulling her out of camp early would be unfair to her. No, I wouldn’t do that.
I checked the log on my work phone for the last call that came to me. ‘ No Caller ID’.
Just because it had happened twice didn’t mean the calls were anything to worry about. Having a bad feeling didn’t automatically mean Drew was on the other end of the line listening to me. Our IT people were currently upgrading our phone system, which usually meant a few days of glitches.
I didn’t want to jump the gun and run home without cause, but I was struggling with my guilt at the idea of ignoring the pull I felt to be there with Sadie in favor of the pull I felt to stay here with Logan. To be fair, nothing had happened to warrant me going home. Concrete proof that my daughter needed me would make it an easy choice.
I remembered something significant and quickly opened my email. I scrolled through my messages, found the one Detective Ramirez sent me in March, and opened it to read again. She’d ended it by saying to call her if I had any questions or concerns .
The number was under her signature so I grabbed my cell phone. The call went to voicemail.
“You have reached the desk of Detective Ramirez. I am currently on vacation, returning on June 27th. If you would like to leave a…”
I waited for her message to end then the beep to leave my own.
“Detective Ramirez, this is Madison Cage. I was hoping I could speak with you regarding a few details related to my ex-husband’s parole. Could you please give me a call and…”
I’d calmed down when Logan returned and we had one of our usual evenings. I did catch him watching me intently from the corner of my eye a few times and hoped the more I seemed fine, the more he would forget about that afternoon.
My anxiety eased more each day that remained red-flag-free.
I kept in close contact with my mother, sure to check in with her while not with Logan so I could speak openly, and I chatted with Sadie in the evenings. It was a relief every time she told me about her day and nothing she said set off any alarm bells in my head.
Grace was always busy so I was still hearing from her mostly by text and she wasn’t sharing anything of concern. On one call, she asked me, ‘Why are you so up my butt lately?’ and I backed off so she wouldn’t start to wonder why I’d become so aggressive with checking in.
As the week went on, nothing significant happened and I didn’t get any more odd phone calls at work. I decided I’d overreacted.
We stayed busy and by that weekend, all the major work in the condo was done. Logan had easily knocked out the carpentry, plumbing, and electrical items on my list much faster than I would’ve been able to do myself. I’d expected it to take most of the summer to complete everything on my own.
The last piece of furniture had been delivered, and there wasn’t much left to do besides unboxing, cleaning, and putting away the new home goods.
Friday evening, I was snuggled up against Logan in bed reading when my phone vibrated on the nightstand. I grabbed it and opened a message from Claire.
“Oh, damn,” I muttered as I started to text her back.
Logan glanced up from his book. “Everything okay?”
“I somehow completely forgot Claire and Devin will be here Sunday. We are going to dinner.” I stopped typing and looked at him hopefully. “Would you like to join us?”
“Absolutely.”
I smiled as I finished my message. “Good, because I don’t love margaritas. We need to distract Claire so she doesn’t try to order me a second one.”
I’d been dying to call and tell her about Logan but was forcing myself to wait. Her reaction would be so much better in person.
I put down my phone and it vibrated again from an incoming call. I eagerly picked it back up when I saw it was Grace. “Hi, baby.”
“Hey, Mom.” Her voice was tired.
“Rough day?”
“Brutal.” She yawned. “I’m about to crash but I wanted to call first and let you know I blocked Aunt Alexis again.”
I tensed but Logan’s arm was around me so I quickly relaxed my body. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Did she say something to upset you?”
“Yeah, she—” Grace was silent for a few beats. “Mom, I don’t want to talk about it. I know it won’t make you happy, but I interrupted, told her to go fuck herself, hung up, and blocked her. I just wanted to give you a heads-up in case she calls you, clutching her pearls, telling you how disrespectful I am, or some other BS. She broke her promise so I felt justified.”
Grace sounded fine, more annoyed than anything. I wasn’t thrilled she’d said that to her aunt, but I was relieved it didn’t sound like Alexis had spilled the beans or gotten under my daughter’s skin enough to upset her like when she was younger. Maybe Grace would react less severely than I feared if Drew did contact her. I wondered again if it was a mistake not to have told her myself. That maybe I still should.
“I understand. She needs to respect your boundaries.”
“Exactly.” Grace yawned again. “I love you, but I need sleep. I’ll call you again this weekend.”
“Okay, I love you too.”
I hung up and casually peeked at Logan. He was still reading. I snuggled back against him and yawned myself.
“Grace having relationship issues?”
“A little,” I said obscurely. “Speaking of relationships, I have been thinking about when I should tell the girls and my mother about ours.”
Logan put down his book. The look on his face was one I’d never seen him wear before and I lifted an amused brow.
“Tell me you aren’t afraid of a couple of little girls.”
He gave me a pout. “I’ve never been the boyfriend of a mom before, give me a break, lady.”
I laughed. “You know Sadie is already obsessed with you. It will be fine.”
“What about Grace and Patricia?”
Oh, my mother was going to be ecstatic.
The only person I had any doubts about was my eldest. Relationships with men seemed to be a little hard for Grace. Since I hadn’t dated at all, I had no clue how she would feel about me having a boyfriend.
Despite his shortcomings as a husband, Grace had a solid relationship with Drew when she was little and abruptly losing him at eleven had impacted her a lot. She’d been more reserved and awkward with men ever since. She also had some behavioral and emotional issues the first few years her dad was gone.
I carried a lot of guilt over things I should have done better, but also for things that had been completely outside my control. When I was financially stronger, about a year after the divorce, I’d found a therapist to help Grace work through her feelings and she’d gone for almost four years. I believed it had made a difference for her, at least I hoped so.
I thought about the glaring differences between my daughters.
Grace was so serious sometimes. It was often hard to get a laugh out of her. She slipped into moods and was guarded with her feelings and words more often than not. It wasn’t just teenage angst. She had been that way as a little girl also; sometimes running to her room and refusing to come out for hours.
On the other hand, Sadie was my little free spirit. Loud, funny, full of sunshine, and precocious since her first word at 9 months.
They were both smart, sweet, and had soft hearts. When I would reflect on how they were different, a simple fact was glaring. Grace had grown up with Drew in the picture, sometimes seeing and hearing things she shouldn’t have, and Sadie was growing up without him. I couldn’t help but wonder how much it may have shaped each of my children.
I did worry a little about how Grace would react to my news .
She always seemed to like Logan once she warmed up to him, often chatting with him easily when she came on regular trips to Florida before this year. I hoped she would like him even more when she learned that he and I cared for one another.
I smiled to relieve Logan’s doubts, even if I had my own. “My mother is probably going to throw a party and Grace will be fine, I promise.”