Chapter 59
The front door opened, and she heard the sound of footsteps in the hallway. Traci stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the woman standing there.
“Shannon?”
Her oldest friend was looking up at the high, wood-beamed ceiling, down at the black-and-white-checkerboard tile floor, running her hands across the rough-troweled plaster walls.
Finally, she turned to Traci. Her pale blue eyes were red-rimmed.
“Hey,” she said.
“I can’t believe this,” Traci said, trying not to stare.
“It’s true.”
“Olivia? Fred was her father?”
“Afraid so.”
“I don’t know what to say. All these years. And you never, ever hinted.”
Shannon bit her lower lip. “Now you know why. He made me sign that NDA.”
Traci hesitated, then reached out and touched Shannon’s hand. This time she didn’t pull away. “Come in. Please?”
“Yeah. I guess it’s time, huh?”
When they arrived in the dining room they found Andy Plankenhorn had packed up his briefcase. “I think I’ll leave you two ladies now. I promised Georgia I’d meet her and the grandkids at the pool. I’m sure you’ll have more questions for me, but this is a start.” He nodded at Shannon. “Call me when you’re ready to leave, and I’ll pick you up.”
“No need,” Traci said quickly. “I can give her a ride.”
Shannon was staring at the Eddings family portrait, her expression one of pure poison.
“How can you stand to look at them, knowing who and what they are?”
“I didn’t know then. The painting was hanging in the house when we moved in, and I didn’t want to hurt Helen’s feelings by taking it down.”
Shannon gestured at the heavy furniture and ornate window treatments. “All this funeral-parlor-looking stuff? None of it looks like you. So, how come you kept all of it? Not like you couldn’t afford to buy something else.”
“Family heirlooms,” Traci said, knowing how lame it sounded. “Helen picked out all this stuff.”
“She’s dead,” Shannon said bluntly. “They’re all dead now, except for that bastard Ric.”
Traci tried to look at the painting, to see what Shannon was seeing, and her stomach turned. She took the portrait down and set it on the floor, facing the wall.
“Let’s go into the kitchen. I’ve got some iced tea. Unless you want something stronger?”
“I don’t drink. Remember?”
Traci didn’t trust herself to drink now. She was afraid if she started, she might not stop. They sat at the table with their glasses of iced tea, each waiting for the other to speak first.
When she couldn’t take another second of the silence, Traci blurted out the question that had been on her mind since Andy Plankenhorn’s bombshell had landed. “Does Livvy know?”
“Not yet. I needed to see you first.”
“It’s a lot,” Traci said. “Do you want to tell me about it?”
Shannon plucked the lemon slice from the rim of her glass and squeezed it into the tea.
“I wanted to tell you, you know. Not at first. I was still pissed at you. But later, after Livvy was born, I needed you to see how beautiful she was. And my mom, well, you know how she was. She loved Livvy instantly, but she was ashamed that her daughter was ‘an unwed mother.’ Can you believe people still talked like that?”
“Don’t be too hard on your mom. She was a sweet lady. Just… old-fashioned.”
“And set in her ways,” Shannon agreed. “I warn you, I haven’t talked about this to anyone since I met with Mr. Plankenhorn, twenty-one years ago. I might, kinda, choke up.”
“I’ve got time. And plenty of tissues,” Traci said.
“It was maybe a week before Hudson drowned. Mr. Eddings, that’s what I thought of him as back then, left a note in my locker and asked me to meet with him, at his house. He hinted it was about a promotion. More money.”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know now that it was a stupid thing to do, but at the time, it didn’t occur to me to ask why at his house, and not at the office. I went straight there from work, on a Friday night. I was still wearing my lifeguard swimsuit, with just a pair of gym shorts over it. I was shocked when the old man answered the door. I guess I expected, like, a butler or something. He was in this sort of bathrobe thing. Said he’d just gotten out of the pool. He showed me into his office. I was kinda starstruck by the house, you know?”
“Yeah. That mansion was amazing. I had the same reaction the first time Hoke took me home to meet his parents,” Traci said.
“So, we’re in his office and he asks me if I want a drink. I was nineteen! I thought it was cool that I was day drinking with the boss. He actually fixed me a martini. I’d never had anything stronger than beer or the watered-down margaritas we got at Pour Willy’s, and yeah, it went right to my head. I didn’t realize, at first, how much he’d drunk before I got there.”
“Oh God. I think I know where this is headed,” Traci said.
“If only I had,” Shannon said bitterly. “He tells me he’s been watching me at the pool, thinks my personality would be great in convention sales. It’d mean a lot more money, travel. I was so broke. My car needed a new transmission. And travel? Hell yeah. The farthest I’d ever been from home was Disney World for our senior class trip. It sounded like a dream job.
“He’s slamming back the martinis, and now I’m starting to get a little nervous,” Shannon continued. “Especially after he insists I call him by his first name instead of ‘Mr. Eddings.’”
She stopped and sipped her iced tea. “And he tells me that for this new job, I have to look the part. I’ll need to wear really chic, classy clothes.”
Her hands were shaking so badly the ice cubes rattled in the glass. “Oh God, oh God. This is the part…”
Shannon started to cry. Traci handed her a box of tissues. “You don’t have to do this,” she said, but Shannon shook her head violently, crying and hiccupping at the same time.
When she could catch her breath she resumed her narrative. “He had a dress he wanted me to try on. It was silk, and it still had the price tag on it, like, four hundred bucks. I’d never owned anything that nice. I went into the bathroom that was attached to his office, and as I was undressing, the door opens. It was him. I just froze.”
Traci reached across and grabbed her friend’s hands and squeezed.
“He was naked.” Shannon put her head down on the kitchen table and sobbed.
“It’s okay, Shan,” Traci murmured, stroking her friend’s shoulder. It wasn’t until the tears were streaming down her own face that she realized she was crying too.
Shannon raised her head, grabbed some tissues, and blew her nose. “The worst part was, I wasn’t really drunk. Tipsy maybe. And I wasn’t drugged. I should have known better. As soon as I saw him in that bathrobe, I should have left. I wasn’t some innocent virgin, Trace. I should have known what he wanted. I should have made him stop.”
“No, Shan! None of this is your fault. He was an adult. A predator. He must have had it all planned out—the job offer, the dress…”
Shannon’s face was red and blotchy from crying. “I told him to stop. I told him I’d scream and his wife would hear me. He laughed and said his wife was out of town.”
She gulped and hiccupped. “He didn’t use a condom, because he said he’d had a vasectomy, the lying bastard. When it was over, he gave me a hundred dollars. I threw it in his face. He said if I ever told anyone what we’d done—what we’d done!—he’d make sure I never got another job in Bonaventure County. I would have died of shame before I ever told anyone.”
“Even me? Your best friend?”
“Especially you. Things were serious between you and Hoke. I was furious—and jealous.”
“So what happened next?” Traci prompted.
“Hudson drowned, like, ten days later? It was the perfect excuse to get rid of me.”
“I wish you could have told me,” Traci said softly.
“Me too.” Shannon sniffed. “I was so mixed up. I needed a friend.”
“When did you find out…?”
“Not until I was almost four months pregnant. My periods were never regular, if you remember. Plus, I was in denial. By then, it was too late. Not that I would have considered anything else. Telling Mama was the worst.”
“I can’t even imagine that. My mom used to say your mom was up at the church every time they opened the doors.”
“Mama sure did love Jesus.”
“Poor Jeannie. I bet she was devastated.”
“At first she was. But then she said it was the Lord’s will. After that, we were okay. I mean, she was still ashamed that I’d gotten knocked up…”
Traci’s eyes widened. “You didn’t tell her what Fred had done to you? It was rape, Shan. You were sexually assaulted, against your own will. What he did to you was a crime.”
“I wouldn’t allow myself to call it that. I just… blocked that day out of my mind. I would not be a victim. I told Mom that it was an older, married man from work. Anyway, she forgave me everything the first time she held Olivia.”
“Can I ask? How did the whole settlement thing happen?”
“The minute I found out I was pregnant, I knew I had to grow the hell up. I couldn’t be a kid having a kid. So I made a plan. I showed up at his house and rang the doorbell. There were two cars in the driveway, and one was a champagne-colored Cadillac, which I figured had to be his wife’s.”
“How’d you get past the security gates?”
“Remember that smoking-hot security guard, Omar?”
Traci laughed and fanned her face. “How could I forget Omar?”
“He was a sweetheart. The day I went back to the Saint, he was working the gate. I told him I needed to go clean out my locker and he waved me through.”
“Damn, you’re good,” Traci said admiringly.
“The old man answered the door,” Shannon went on. “He tried to close the door in my face, but I stuck my foot inside, and I leaned in and I whispered, ‘I’m pregnant, you son of a bitch. And if you don’t let me in and deal with this, I will find a way to tell your wife.’”
“Damn, Shan! I knew you were ballsy, but wow.”
“I still don’t know how I had the courage to confront him.” Shannon stopped herself. “Actually, I do know. It was my baby. I’d felt her kick and I took that as a sign that I had to do something to take back control of my life. I owed it to her to make sure she’d be provided for.”
Traci raised her iced tea glass and tapped it against Shannon’s.
“He tried to deny everything,” Shannon said. “But, like the kids say, I had the receipts. That night it happened, I went home, took off my bathing suit, stuffed it in my gym bag, and hid it in the back of my closet. Like, I never wanted to think about it again.”
“Oh—kay.”
“Remember what happened a few years earlier? Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski and the blue Gap dress? Same. I took my bathing suit with me, and I waved it in his face. Told him I had proof. He called me every name in the book. When he finally quit yelling at me, I told him what I wanted.”
“Badass,” Traci murmured, shaking her head in admiration. “Total badass.”
“Maybe. I was so dumb. All I asked for was money so that I could finish college, after the baby. And money to take care of her. And that was it. I told him I’d be in touch after the baby was born, and I walked out.” She shook her head. “Too stupid to live.”
“And then?” Traci prodded.
“And then Livvy was born. Mama knew a lawyer from church. He wasn’t much of a lawyer, but we didn’t know that. We trusted him. He contacted the old man. Sent him a photo of Olivia. And again, the piece of shit tried to deny being the father. He said he needed proof. So we did a paternity test. And there was no way he could wriggle out of it.”
“Is that when Fred brought in Andy Plankenhorn?”
“Uh-huh. My lawyer said the old man should be on the hook for more than just my college and some money for the baby. Since the plan was for me to live with Mama, he said we should ask for her house to be paid off, and for a settlement to pay for Olivia’s upkeep and education. Fifty thousand? I thought it was all the money in the world. I had no idea what day care or pediatricians or orthodontists cost. Or designer sneakers or cell phone plans…”
Shannon leaned back in the kitchen chair, staring up at the ceiling. “How’s this for irony? Indirectly, I probably ended up pregnant because I was desperate not to live under the same roof with my strict mother. But if it hadn’t been for her, Livvy and I would have been homeless. And now, Olivia goes to work for you here at the Saint, the absolute last place on earth I wanted her to be, because she was sick of living with me.”
“I can do you one better,” Traci said with a wry smile. “According to Andy Plankenhorn, when Ric got his dad to draw up a new will specifically designed to screw me over, he managed to screw himself over instead. Now, it looks like he gets to share his inheritance with Livvy.”
Shannon drank the last of the iced tea. “That’s what he told me when he called me this morning. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Andy knows what he’s talking about, Shan. Livvy is going to own a sizable chunk of Saint Holdings. And there’s nothing Ric Eddings can do to stop it.”
“How’s that make you feel? I mean, from what Mr. Plankenhorn said, she’ll own a bigger share of the business than you. How is that even possible?”
“At first, I’ll admit, I had mixed emotions. But maybe it’s not such a bad thing.”
“Huh?”
Traci smiled. “I know I’ve already told you this, but, Shan, Livvy is extraordinary in every way. You’ve done an awesome job of raising her by yourself.” She sighed. “You’re so lucky. I’d give anything to have a daughter like her.”
Shannon tilted her head. “How come you and Hoke never had kids? You always used to talk about having five or six kids when we were growing up.”
“We tried,” Traci said wistfully. “We saw a fertility specialist down in Jacksonville. Turned out, Hoke had mumps when he was three, and it affected his sperm count. We were looking into adoption when he died.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without Livvy.”
“It’s probably why Parrish and I were so close. She was the daughter I never had. It used to enrage Ric.”
“And then you lost her too,” Shannon said. “First your husband, then your niece. I’m sorry I’ve been such a bitch to you, Traci.”
Traci waved her apology away. “Let’s put it in the past. We were awesome together, back in the day, and we can be awesome together now, if you’re okay with it.”
“What’s our next step?” Shannon asked.
“As soon as you tell Livvy about Fred and the will, we need to set up a meeting with Livvy and Andy and me.”
“I’ll talk to her as soon as I leave here,” Shannon said, studying Traci’s face. “This has gotta be weird for you, huh? Finding out that a twenty-year-old might be your future business partner?”
“Weird? Yes. But she’s my best friend’s kid. She’s a natural, Shan. And let’s be real—I need her on my side, because otherwise, Ric will squash me like a bug.”
Shannon stood up from the table and stretched. “Hate to say it, but I better get home. I’ve got an early shift in the morning.”
Traci dumped the remainder of her tea in the sink. “Then, let’s roll.”
They were passing through the Saint’s security gate when Shannon turned to her. “Before I forget, was the hot dude I spied leaving here earlier Whelan? The guy who came to the hospital to ask me questions about Hudson?”
Traci blushed violently. “Yeah.”
Shannon waggled her eyebrows. “A friend with benefits?”
Traci laughed despite herself. This was the old Shannon, the one she’d missed so deeply.
“We’ll see.”
“Come on! The dude is hot, single, and age-appropriate. I would definitely climb that.”
“You can’t tell me there isn’t a man in your life, young lady,” Traci countered.
“Well… there is a guy. He’s a doctor at the hospital. Five years younger than me, which feels weird, but okay.”
“A younger man? Me likey!”
Shannon gave her a friendly arm punch. “We were keeping things on the down-low while Livvy was still living at home with me, but now, well, things have gotten interesting.”
“Oooh. So the two of you are playing doctor? And you’re the naughty nurse?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to.”
They’d crossed the causeway and were on the edge of Bonaventure, listening to the radio, humming along, like the old days. Traci drove by instinct.
“Holy shit,” she said, when she pulled the car up to her best friend’s house. “I didn’t even think to ask, and you didn’t say any different. You still live here, right?”
“Yeah,” Shannon said. “At least it’s paid for.”
“Do you still have that snack drawer in the kitchen that your mama kept stocked with Little Debbie cakes?”
Shannon laughed. “Now it’s protein bars and kale chips.”
“And that bathroom window we used to climb out of to go riding around after curfew?”
“As soon as Livvy hit fifteen, I replaced that window with glass block. And installed motion-activated lights. It didn’t stop her from sneaking out, but at least it slowed her down.”
Shannon opened the passenger-side door. “Gotta go. Been some kind of Sunday, huh?”
“Yeah. But mostly in a good way. Bye, Shan-a Banana.”