Chapter 35 #2
Her class ended in May, and Juliana was delighted to receive an A. She danced around the small apartment when she received her grade in the mail, and it took all her willpower not to pick up the phone to share the news with Michael. She knew he would be so proud of her.
In June, he made news of his own when he resigned from his job.
The Baltimore Sun ran a front-page article that recapped his role in the Benedetti trial and contained glowing quotes from Tom Houlihan, Judge Stein, and others in the criminal justice system who worked with him during his five-year tenure.
Juliana read and re-read the article, looking for any clue to his plans, but he said only that he was moving into the private sector.
She cut out the article and the large photo that ran next to it.
As she hung the photo on the wall next to her bed, she was startled to realize it was the only picture of him she had.
She took Mrs. Romanello out to dinner at least once a month, and that’s how she found out in July that Jeremy had sold the dream house, moved back to Florida, and married a girl named Sherrie.
Mrs. R clucked with disapproval as she delivered the news. “I don’t know what that boy is thinking, but rushing into marriage with another woman isn’t the answer to his problems.”
“Maybe it’ll work out for them,” Juliana said with sincerity. She had nothing to gain by wishing against the success of his marriage—apparently to the girl who called his cell phone all those months ago and set off a chain of events that changed their lives forever.
After she dropped off Mrs. R, Juliana drove down Chester Street for the first time since she last saw Michael.
She slowed to a stop outside No. 8 and watched a young couple carry a baby stroller up the stairs.
Even though she was sad that he had sold the place where they lived together, she was delighted to know he was in Newport seeing to pipe dreams.
In late August, she was strolling through the mall at the Inner Harbor on her lunch break one day when a teddy bear dressed as a bee wearing a tiara caught her eye in a window.
She walked into the store to buy the bear, flooded with thoughts of her own Queen Bee.
That night she called Monique Griffith to ask if she would mind if Juliana visited Rachelle.
Monique hesitated before she replied. “I’m sorry, Juliana, but we’ve decided it’s best that she not have any reminders of the trial or of that time in her life.”
“I understand,” Juliana said, even though she was disappointed.
“She’s doing so well, and it’s not that seeing you would be a setback—”
“I’d be a reminder.”
“Yes,” Monique said, sounding relieved that Juliana understood.
“I’m thrilled to hear she’s doing well. I have something I’d like to send her. Would that be all right?”
“Of course. I’m sure she’ll love anything that comes from you.” She gave Juliana the address. “Michael called a couple of months ago. I was sorry to hear you two aren’t together anymore. I always thought you made such a lovely couple.”
“That’s funny,” Juliana said with a small, sad smile. “Rachelle said the same thing. I miss her. I only knew her for such a short time, but I think about her all the time.”
“She’s a special kid to go through what she did and come out of it so unaffected. Ever since those monsters were killed in the courtroom, she’s like a new person.”
“Will you keep me posted on how she’s doing?”
“Of course. I have a school picture I could send you if you’d like.”
“I’d love that. Thank you.”
“Thank you, Juliana. Your friendship made an enormous difference to her at a very difficult time in her life.”
“Every minute I spent with her was such a joy.”
They hung up with promises to keep in touch. Juliana lay awake that night thinking about Rachelle and Michael and the night she cut their hair in the hotel room. How far they all had traveled since then.
Paullina died in her sleep in September.
The medical examiner said she’d had a massive heart attack and didn’t suffer, but Juliana was devastated to lose her mother just when they had finally begun to form a real bond.
It was left to her to call her brothers and sisters with the news.
Donatella and Vincent came right away to their mother’s house where they waited for Domenic and Serena to arrive from the West Coast. Juliana couldn’t remember when she last saw her older siblings, but the minute they came in the door it was like no time had passed.
They got through the wake and funeral where it seemed that Allison, the home health aide, was more distraught than any of Paullina’s five children.
“Thank you so much for everything you did to make her last months so comfortable.” Juliana hugged the sobbing Allison. “I wasn’t kidding when I called you a miracle worker.”
“She was a lovely person, and I’ll miss her.”
After the funeral, the siblings spent two days cleaning out the house, each setting aside things they wanted to keep.
On the last night before Domenic and Serena were due to fly home, they sat on the floor of the empty living room and finished the food that had poured in from neighbors and extended family.
“We’ve been talking, Juliana,” Donatella said as Domenic opened a second bottle of wine.
“About what?” Juliana asked.
“We all agree that you should sell the house and keep whatever you can get for it,” Vincent said.
“No way. It belongs to all of us.”
“You’re the one who did the heavy lifting with Ma for all these years,” Serena said. “It’s only fair you should get back some of the money you put into the mortgage and her other expenses.”
“You guys, really,” Juliana said, enormously touched by the gesture. “I wouldn’t feel right about it.”
“It’s a done deal,” Domenic said. “We’ve already decided.”
“Are you sure?”
“We are,” Vincent said. “She would’ve died a long time ago if you hadn’t taken care of her and forced us to help.”
Donatella nodded in agreement.
“I hope we can see each other once in a while,” Juliana said. “I know we all have our own lives and you guys have families in California, but maybe we can try to get together once or twice a year.”
They agreed to try. Over the third bottle of wine, Juliana told her brothers and sisters about everything that had happened to her in the last year.
She found it hard to believe that it had already been a year since she met Michael in the airport.
Her siblings were stunned to hear how much danger she’d been in during the trial and astounded by the way her relationship with Jeremy ended.
“So,” Vincent said with a wry grin, “Mr. Wonderful didn’t turn out to be so wonderful after all, huh?”
Juliana smiled. “You don’t need to look so pleased, Vin.”
He made an attempt to hide his grin. “Sorry.”
Juliana laughed and threw a wadded up napkin at him. “No, you’re not.”
“What I want to know is why you haven’t gone after Michael like you promised him you would,” Donatella said. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
“I was just about to ask the same thing,” Serena said.
“I’m thinking about it,” Juliana confessed. “When my self-imposed year is up, we’ll see.”
“Don’t think too long,” Domenic advised. “He sounds like a good guy.”
“He is,” Juliana said softly, missing him more in that moment than any other in the last nine months.
Her mother’s house sold in November, and Juliana was staggered to clear just over forty-six thousand dollars after she paid the taxes.
She wrote a check to Jeremy for seventeen thousand dollars and sent it to him via his mother with a note that said only, “Thank you for paying off my mother’s mortgage.
Please accept the enclosed check as reimbursement. ”
Part of her windfall went toward the early December purchase of her first-ever new car—a silver Honda Accord.
She said a sad good-bye to her old Tercel, which had served her well for many years and was one of the last remaining links to her old life.
The rest of the money went in the bank, giving Juliana more of a nest egg than she’d ever had in her life.
By then it had been almost six months since she hung Michael’s picture on the wall, and she had fallen into the habit of telling him about her day as she lay in bed each night.
“Do you still want me?” she asked the picture one cold night about a week before Christmas.
“Am I really supposed to take this huge gamble that you’ll still love me?
” Have I ever said anything I didn’t mean?
The memory was so powerful he might have been in the room with her rather than hundreds of miles away.
She studied the faded picture for a long time that night.
“I think I’m ready to find out if you meant it, Michael.
I miss you so much that sometimes I worry I’ll go crazy if I don’t see you soon.
For what it’s worth, I like myself a whole lot better than I did a year ago, so I hope you’ll forgive me for waiting this long to keep my promise. ”
The next day, she gave the salon two week’s notice. It was time to find out if he’d meant what he said.