Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
It was a Friday morning, the second week of December.
With a pep to his step, James was out and about, gathering supplies for his evening Christmas party.
He’d invited everyone from his grief support group and his crisis management group, as well as friends and neighbors.
It was his first Christmas party since he’d lost everything, his first since his son died.
But something was magical about this year, something that demanded he keep going.
James paused outside the grocery store and checked his list: decorations, various types of cheese, fresh bread, supplies to make homemade mozzarella sticks, supplies for pizza, plenty of veggies and meat, plus ingredients for cookies.
A few of his friends had told him they’d bring their favorite cookies as well, that he didn’t have to do all the baking himself.
But there was something special to him about throwing a party.
He wanted to make sure every step was perfect.
Of course, he was thrilled that Elena was coming.
Since their lunch date the other day, they hadn’t seen much of each other, but he’d thought of her often, wondering what she was up to, what kinds of news stories she was breaking.
Her tales of Syria and that awful ex-boyfriend had led James on a wild goose chase through the internet, where he’d read about Elena’s “failure” as a reporter, as well as Timothy’s articles, which James felt lacked the spark of Elena’s.
He’d also googled a photograph of Timothy and been floored at how handsome he was, but James tried not to think of it too much. The man was a monster.
Something out of the corner of James’s eye forced him to turn his head.
Later, he wouldn’t be able to remember what it was.
But before him, not ten feet away, was his ex-wife, Bethany.
Her blond bob glowed around her ears, and her long, dark coat was sophisticated, belted around her slender midriff.
James saw her before she saw him, and it gave his thoughts enough time to run wild.
Had she come back here to see him? Had she tried to call?
Or had she thought she could come back to Millbrook and avoid him?
James’s palms were sweating. The anniversary of their son’s death wasn’t long from now. Maybe Bethany had wanted to come to Millbrook, grieve privately, and go. But why would she want to grieve privately when James was literally right here? He’d lost him, too.
Before James could get his mind around it, she spotted him and stopped short.
“Oh. James.” She pulled her hands out of her coat pockets and made them fly like birds around her face. She was nervous, proof that she hadn’t wanted to run into him.
James realized he hadn’t seen her in two and a half years. She’d moved away, he’d thought. Connersville, he was pretty sure. Far enough away that they didn’t have to see each other like this.
“Hi,” he said. “Welcome back.”
Bethany took a step toward him. “You’re looking good.”
“You as well,” James said. The air between them was difficult to breathe, but James saw no exit. More than that, he recognized how much he’d craved conversation with Bethany through the years. He’d married this woman! He’d had a baby with her! Didn’t that matter?
“You know, the town looks great for Christmas,” Bethany said, gesturing toward the tree at the courthouse. “It always does.”
“What about in Connersville?” James asked.
“Oh, I’ve moved away from Connersville,” she said, blushing.
Before James had the chance to ask where she’d gone and why, and before he could muster the nerve to ask her for a cup of coffee and a better place to chat, the door to the candy shop directly beside them opened and out walked a familiar face.
James couldn’t entirely place him at first. His heart pounded as the man walked straight up to Bethany and put his arm around her waist. He was James’s replacement.
He was in love with James’s ex-wife. He smiled at James.
“Hi, there. Merry Christmas.” And then he said, “That’s quite a haul you have there. ”
James looked at the bags he carried in both hands. He’d brought a big hiking bag for more grocery supplies as well. “I don’t like to drive,” he said.
“I can understand that,” the man said.
James knew what had happened to his son. To Bethany’s son. Although it wasn’t like it was a secret, James fumed.
“We’ve met before,” James said sternly. He thought they had, anyway.
“Have we?” the man cocked his head. “I can’t recall if so.”
Bethany rolled her eyes into a smile. “James, this is Sam Ellison. Sam, you know James, my ex-husband.”
“Of course.” Sam stepped forward and shook James’s hand.
James wanted to shrink to the size of an ant and scuttle away.
“James, what is all this stuff for?” Bethany finally asked.
James felt her exasperation. But it wasn’t his fault that they’d run into one another. “I’m throwing a Christmas party,” he said. “For the people in my grief therapy group.”
“How sweet,” Sam said. “I’m sure the Gazette is covering your little soiree. We always liked little puff pieces like that.”
James remembered now: Sam Ellison had been the editor at the newspaper for many years, before he’d quit out of the blue.
“How is your retirement?” James asked. His cheeks burned with rage as he recognized that Sam’s retirement probably had a lot to do with his love for Bethany and their decision to build a life together. But why can’t they make a life somewhere else? James wondered.
“Not bad.” Sam laughed. “They can’t stop calling me up there to ask me questions, but I hope they get it worked out soon.” He explained to Bethany that Carmen’s daughter was trying her hand at managing the paper. “But she’s out of practice,” he said.
“She’s really good at it,” James countered. He felt a flume of anger.
“Sure. She will be,” Sam declared.
After a moment’s pause, Bethany stuttered, “We’d better let you get on your way.”
“Of course,” James said, recognizing this as a backhanded way of forcing him away from them. “Have a good one.” With that, he hurried around the corner before collapsing against a brick wall. There were stars in his eyes. He could hardly breathe.
Throughout the afternoon and early evening, James entered a fugue state of sorts.
Although his hands were busy setting up for the Christmas party, sifting flour, stirring batter, and so on, his mind was elsewhere, thinking about his wife Bethany and her new boyfriend, Sam.
In all the years since Bethany had left, not once had James imagined what it would be like to run into her.
He hadn’t imagined what they’d say to one another.
He hadn’t imagined what it would feel like to see her with someone else.
Of course, James still loved his ex-wife. How could he not? Falling out of love with her hadn’t been the reason for their split. They’d been robbed of their happy life.
Although James’s crush on Elena was becoming full-blown, something that took up so much of his heart, he couldn’t escape the crippling feeling that his wife had moved on with someone else.
The first guests to arrive at the house for his party were five minutes early.
When he opened the door, he found Steven, Gina, and the younger woman who’d spilled the coffee on the floor the other week, Stacy.
He greeted them as warmly as he could and beckoned for them to come in.
Their smiles were stiff as they handed over platters of Christmas cookies and looked around.
It took him a second to realize why everything felt off.
“Of course!” he cried. “The music.”
James hurried to the speaker system to set up the Christmas playlist he’d made on another, happier day.
Steven demanded that he try one of his chocolate-peanut butter cookies, and James did so happily and sat next to Gina on his sofa.
After a stressful afternoon alone with his own thoughts, he was grateful to listen to others talking.
“You worked hard,” Gina was saying to him, pointing at the table on the far end of the room, which was laden with Christmas foods.
“There’s more where that came from,” James said. “There’s stuff in the oven as well. Pizza. Mozzarella sticks. Nachos.”
Steven let out a wolf whistle. “That’s what I’m talking about!”
A half hour later, James's living room was full of revelers. He found himself bopping from conversation to conversation, from the kitchen to the living room and back again. His smile felt permanently glued to his face, regardless of how uncomfortable it was. Elena hadn’t arrived yet, and he was momentarily worried that she wouldn’t show.
Maybe she’d gotten held up at work. Maybe Carmen had taken a turn for the worse.
But then, the doorbell rang, and James opened it to find the beautiful mother-daughter duo, dressed in their sleek winter coats, their dark hair covered in snow.
“Welcome!” he cried, guiding them into the foyer. “I’m so glad you could make it.”
Elena gave him a strange smile, and James wondered if it was obvious that he was acting strangely. Could everyone see that he’d just run into his ex-wife?
“Congratulations on your party, James,” Carmen said seriously, folding her hands over her stomach.
“I can’t remember the last time you had one.
Then again, there’s a lot I can’t remember these days.
” She wagged her eyebrows and laughed, as though she wanted to be in on the joke of her own health issues. James didn’t know what to say.
“She’s teasing you,” Elena said. “She’s trying to make everyone uncomfortable, as usual.” She swatted her mother playfully.
“Well, what other fun can I have?” Carmen asked. “I can’t drink. I can hardly eat anything fun. I have to tease people every now and again!”
“That’s fair,” James affirmed.
James led them into the living room, where he introduced them to those they didn’t know and helped Carmen fill her plate with health-approved foods.
Elena snuck a lemon bar and ate it behind her mother’s back, smiling at him.
James’s heart leaped. He wanted to pull her into the hallway and tell her about Bethany.
No, he wanted to pull her into the hallway and kiss her for the first time. Maybe that was better.
But he didn’t want to get ahead of himself.
Soon, Gina and Steven adopted Carmen into their group on the sofa.
Carmen was giving them loud and vaguely sage advice about their careers.
“You have to go after what you want in life, my darlings,” she said, again sounding serious.
“Who else is going to want things for you? You have to make your own meaning from everything you do!”
Elena touched James’s shoulder, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m sorry to scare you.”
“You didn’t.” He laughed and filled his lungs.
“It’s a good party. It is,” she said, frowning. “But why do I get the sense that you’re having a bad time?”
James puffed his cheeks. “It’s a long story, honestly. And probably a boring one.”
“I’ve told you plenty of boring stories at this point,” Elena said.
“I don’t think you’ve ever said anything boring.”
Elena’s eyes glinted. Slowly, she slipped her fingers through his and guided him back to the kitchen, where a member of his crisis support group inhaled a mozzarella stick and smiled greasily. “Great party, James!” she cried before disappearing back into the party.
It was just Elena and James in the kitchen now. James felt weirdly exposed.
“Come on,” Elena urged, reaching for a glass that she filled with wine. “You want some?”
James accepted his first glass of the day and felt his shoulders slump forward. He was oddly relieved she was there. “It’s been a weird day, is all,” he said, because he couldn’t find a way to talk about Bethany. Not so soon after meeting Elena.
“I’ve also had a heck of a day,” Elena said. “A heck of a week, in fact.”
“Go on,” James said.
Elena grimaced. “It looks like my mother was chasing the same story that I’ve been chasing, which is the same story my grandmother was chasing. I can’t figure out how deep this goes. But the worst of it is, I don’t think my mother remembers.”
James was mystified. “How did you figure that out?”
“I went into her email,” Elena admitted, scrunching her nose. “I know it’s wrong. But Natalie showed me a few emails written by my mother to Natalie a few months back. It looks like she was probing into it, but she didn’t fully trust herself.”
“She knew she was sick,” James said.
Elena nodded. “I think so. It breaks my heart. I wish she had reached out to me and asked for help. In any case, it looks like she asked her editor for help, and he literally gaslighted her about it. He insisted she was losing her mind.”
James squeezed his bicep so hard that he nearly yelped. “I’m sorry. Who?”
“The editor of the paper. The one who quit recently?” Elena said.
“Sam Ellison?” James asked, his voice like a string.
It was clear that Elena sensed something off. “You know him well?”
“Not really,” he admitted. But he’s dating my ex-wife, and I don’t like it.
He went on. “I hate that he gaslighted poor Carmen. She was going through enough as it was.”
“I know.” Elena closed her eyes. “I feel like Sam’s connected to all this. To Judge Drury. To the corruption in Connersville. I don’t know how to prove any of it.”
James remembered that his ex-wife had been living in Connersville. Was she a part of this, too?
If Bethany were responsible for any of this conspiracy and fraud, what would James do? Would he let her go to prison?
No. But Bethany wasn’t the rule-breaking type. If anything, she had no idea what Sam Ellison was up to.
James knew he had to get to the bottom of this, not only for Elena’s sake, but for Bethany’s. The safety of his child’s mother was at stake.
“Let me help you,” he said quietly. “Tell me what I can do.”