Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rosie
Rosie heard her daughter’s harsh words from a long distance away but it took her several seconds to register them through
her shock.
An hour later he was dead and it was my fault . . . I killed him.
“It was an accident,” Rosie said, her voice as firm as she could manage around the horror that was only now beginning to feel
real. “Completely an accident. It was only bad luck that you hit that patch of wet road and spun out right where the railing
was weak.”
This couldn’t be happening. Rosie felt as if the very foundations of her world had crumbled.
This had to be a mistake. Gary wouldn’t have cheated on her with anyone, especially not Pam.
Would he?
Rosie felt like she was going to throw up. She was going to be sick all over Barbara’s lovely tile flooring they had spent
two weeks installing.
“Come on, Mom. Let’s go home. We can talk about this there.”
That made the most sense. They were in the middle of a party. A party with thirty-odd people who did not need to be part of
this airing of dirty laundry.
Pam.
Could Gary have been sleeping with Pam? The woman who had been a rock for Rosie since his death, who had stepped up to help run things with Victor Blackwood when Rosie had been too numb with grief and shock to think about Lucas Construction?
She felt betrayed on every single level.
How was she going to go back in there to the rest of the book club and pretend that nothing was wrong, when she felt as if
she had shattered into a million pieces?
For ten years she had grieved Gary. Had she been grieving a mirage?
He had been the love of her life, the yang to her yin, the other missing piece of her. From the time she was seventeen years
old, she had loved him. When she found out she was pregnant with Emma, it had been an easy decision to marry him. They had
adored each other.
Yet apparently he had betrayed her on that final, monumental day.
She didn’t know how to absorb the blow but she could see from the pale, stiff set of Emma’s features that it must be true.
What was she going to do? She wanted to flee but she was supposed to give Andrew a ride home. She wasn’t sure she could even
talk to the man right now, when her emotions were in such turmoil.
As if sensing her thoughts, Emma stepped forward. “Let me gather Grandma, and I’ll meet you at the house. I can get Olive
to bed if she’s not already asleep and I will tell you the truth about what happened that day, at least what I know.”
She nodded numbly, drew in a sharp bracing breath and returned to the book club meeting.
Somehow Rosie made it through the next few moments, feeling as if all the broken pieces of herself were being held together
by sheer grit.
She was trying to arrange a ride home for Andrew when he overheard her asking a couple of her friends if they could drop him off at Stormhaven.
“I don’t need to stay,” he said. “I can leave now.”
She frowned through facial muscles that felt strained and achy. “Are you sure? I don’t want to take you away if you’re having
a good time.”
He gave her a careful look and she saw concern in his dark eyes. Apparently she wasn’t as good at hiding her shock and dismay
as she hoped.
“No, it’s fine. I’m ready to go. More than ready.”
“All right. I just need to get my things.”
She found her purse in the closet where she had left it, grabbed the empty plate that had once contained lemon bars and somehow
managed to extricate herself from the party, giving monosyllabic answers to everyone who wished her good evening.
She was still fighting back tears as she made her way to her car and unlocked it with hands that trembled.
She had to hope Andrew didn’t notice. “I’m really sorry to drag you away from the party,” she said, starting the car when
he slid inside.
“Why? It was wrapping up anyway. I’m happy to leave.”
She made some kind of sound, she wasn’t sure what, as she pulled out into the street and headed back toward their neighborhood.
She could feel Andrew’s scrutiny through the darkness. “What is this about, Rosie? What happened? Everything seemed to be
fine but now you look like you were smacked in the head by a two-by-four.”
“I’m fine.”
She couldn’t tell him. Not when she was still trying to come to terms with the shocking information herself.
“The book club went well, don’t you think?” she said in an artificially bright voice. “Everyone there was so happy to meet you and to talk about your books.”
“I enjoyed myself more than I expected to,” he admitted. “Wood Briar seems like a very welcoming place.”
“It is. I saw you talking with Samantha Taylor. She’s a dear friend with kids around the same age as Zara and Finn. You two
would be a good couple.”
It was the only distraction she could come up with right now, with her emotions so tangled and raw.
“Are you really trying to set me up with one of your friends?”
She tightened her hands on the steering wheel. “Not exactly. I was only spilling the tea that she’s available. If you’re interested.”
“I’m not.”
“Well, you could do far worse, if you were,” she answered, grateful to focus on something else. “Sam is a smart, funny, warm
woman. And a terrific mom to her kids.”
“Now you sound like my mother.”
Ouch. She was older than him by at least a few years. And, yes, she was a grandmother. But she was a young grandmother, wasn’t
she?
Somehow she managed to compartmentalize what she had overheard so she could speak politely to Andrew about other things. The
children’s play coming up, the construction project, the rain that was forecast for at least a few more days.
She knew she was babbling. The words seemed to spill out of her, but she didn’t care. Better to focus on anything else right
now.
It was only a few moments but it felt like forever before she finally pulled up to the carriage house at Stormhaven. “Here we are. I hope you have a good night.”
To her dismay, he made no immediate move to get out of the vehicle. Instead, he turned to face her, studying her features
in the dim light from her dashboard.
“You’ve done a pretty good job of hiding it, but I can tell you’re still upset. Is there anything I can do?”
Her throat closed up at the concern in his voice and she barely fought down a sob.
“It’s been a rough night,” she admitted. “But I’ll be fine once I get home.”
At the last word, her voice finally broke, and the tears she had been shoving down began to spill over, much to her horror.
Oh, she hoped he couldn’t see them in the darkness.
“Are you sure?”
No. She wasn’t at all sure. She didn’t think she would be okay ever again.
“I found out tonight that my husband was cheating on me before he died.”
Her hand gripped the steering wheel, and she could not look at him, appalled that the words had somehow burst out of her,
despite her best efforts to hold them in.
She saw compassion and concern in his expression. “Oh, Rosie. I’m sorry. You really didn’t know before tonight?”
She shook her head, reliving the horror of hearing Pam and Emma fighting.
Even if you were having an affair with him that had been going on for years under my mother’s nose, my dad loved us. He never
in a million years would have left my mother for someone like you.
“If it’s true, apparently I’m the most naive woman in the world.”
“Is there a chance it might not be?”
“An hour ago, I would have told you there was no chance in hell Gary was cheating on me. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“What happened? What makes you even suspect it?”
“Emma believes it. I don’t know anything but that. I overheard her fighting with the other woman about seeing them together
the day he died.”
“Oh wow. That’s rough. She was, what, fifteen when he died?”
“Yes.”
Her poor Emma. She completely changed after the accident, going from a bright, happy young woman to a surly, angry stranger.
Rosie had always assumed it was because of her own injuries and her grief over her father’s death. That was enough, wasn’t
it? Now she had to wonder if there was more to it, if she also had been carrying the overwhelming weight of this secret.
“Apparently she’s known all this time and she never told me.”
“The other woman was obviously someone in your book club.”
That crushing sense of betrayal pressed in again and despite her best efforts, Rosie finally couldn’t contain a sob. He made
a low sound and reached for her and she leaned against him across the console, seeking the comfort and strength of his arms.
After indulging for a few moments while rain clicked against the roof of her car, Rosie forced herself to ease away.
“I’m so sorry. You didn’t need this tonight.”
“Neither did you.”
“You asked me if the other woman is in the book club. Not only is she in the book club but she works for me. Until tonight, I thought she was one of my dearest friends. All this time, she’s been lying to me. Am I the dumbest woman in the world?”
“You’re far from dumb,” he assured her. “Or naive. There’s nothing wrong in trusting people. You had no reason to do otherwise.”
She was suddenly immensely grateful for this man who had stepped in to comfort her even though he didn’t know the situation
or any of the players except her and Emma.
He was a good man. A kind one. When he reached to squeeze her hand, she twisted her fingers through his, finding enormous
comfort in that simple touch.
“Which one is she? Did I talk to her?”
“Yes. She chatted with you a few times. Pam. Streaky blond hair. Fake eyelashes. She was wearing the gray top with the green
jacket.”
“Oh right. I remember her now. And you said she works for you?”
She nodded and released a heavy breath. “She has been my right hand since Gary died. She handles all the financial details
of the business and so much more. She’s the office manager, she does the payroll, she keeps my calendar. I’ve talked to her
nearly every single day of the last ten years. How could she come in day after day, month after month, year after year without
revealing one hint that she wanted my husband?”
Rosie curled her fingers in his. Pam had grieved after Gary died, she remembered. She had seemed lost for months. At the time,
she had been recently divorced from her second husband and Rosie had assumed it was a combination of losing her marriage and
losing her boss, a man she respected.
“For a few years after Gary died, I was too battered by grief to pay much attention to the construction company. I didn’t
care about any of it. Pam basically ran things, along with Gary’s second-in-command at the time of his death.”
Had Vic Blackwood known Pam and Gary were having an affair? How deep had the betrayal run?
She felt another sob threaten and was almost successful in swallowing them down. He heard, though, and pulled her back into
his arms.
“I’m sorry,” she said again after a few more minutes. “I bet you’re wishing you had driven yourself to the book club.”
“Not at all. I’m glad I could be here when you needed someone. Better me than someone else.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know any of the parties involved, so I don’t have any preconceived ideas about what is or is not true.”
“I think it must be true,” she whispered. “I could tell Emma was keeping something from me, even back then. She was hurting
so badly after Gary died, and I didn’t know how to comfort her.”
“I’m sure you did your best.”
She shook her head as a fresh wave of pain washed over her. “I didn’t. I was so lost in my own grief, I wasn’t the mother
she needed. I thought she blamed me for that, but now I wonder if there was more to her anger.”
“You won’t know until you talk to her.”
She didn’t want to. She wanted to get back in her car, drive up the coast, and keep on going. Washington State was lovely
this time of year. So was Canada. She would drive and drive until the road ran out.
It was a wildly tempting idea, impossible as it might be. She wanted to escape all of this.
Another horrible thought occurred to her. “How am I supposed to face Pam in the office tomorrow?”
The idea of it made her feel nauseated.
“You can always fire her. Send her an email and tell her to pack up her things and get out.”
Much to her shock, since she wasn’t sure she would find anything funny ever again, she gave a rough laugh at his firm response. “I’m not sure I can do that. She’s the human resources manager, too.”
“Fine. Give her two weeks’ notice, along with two weeks’ paid leave so you don’t have to see her disgusting face.”
This time her laugh sounded more genuine. She squeezed his fingers again, grateful beyond words for this man she had dragged
into the emotional tornado of her life right now.
“Thank you for talking me down off the ledge.”
“What are you going to do?”
She looked out the windshield at the raindrops making rivulets against the glass. Beyond them, she could see the crescent
moon like Emma’s tattoo, shining through the clouds.
Love you to the moon and back.
She drew in a breath and eased back to the driver’s seat.
“I suppose I need to talk to Emma first to find out what she knows. Then I need to figure out if I can ever stand to see Pam
again.”