Chapter Four
Without even thinking, Marsha drove out of the neighborhood as fast as she could and down to Highway One. Her mind was racing, and she had trouble focusing on where she was going. Who was the woman living in Craig’s house? And why did the boy look just like him? Her mind had trouble accepting that he had another woman in his life—another family. That wasn’t like Craig. He was always an attentive, loving husband. But the proof was in the photo of the small family on the sideboard.
Craig had been cheating on her for years.
Over an hour later, she realized she didn’t want to go home. She spun the car around and headed north again toward Redondo Beach. Up ahead, she saw Craig’s face looming above the highway, smiling down at her. The billboard that once brought her joy when passing it now seemed to mock her. She rushed past it and before she knew it, she was parked in front of Jeffrey and Kristi’s house.
She sat in the car a moment, wondering if what she’d seen was real. Had she imagined the photo of Craig with the woman and boy? Had she imagined the resemblance between the boy and Craig? No, it was not her imagination. The house Craig had never told her about, the woman and the little boy who lived there, and the same necklace as Marsha’s around the woman’s neck were not her imagination. Craig had a relationship with another woman and had a child with her.
Tears filled Marsha’s eyes. Why hadn’t Craig told her about the woman and his son? Why would he stay with her all these years while maintaining a house for them? It was bad enough that Craig had another woman in his life, but to also have a child with that woman was unforgivable. A child. The only thing that Marsha was never able to give him.
Swiping the tears from her eyes, Marsha grabbed the folder with the house’s information in it and walked up to the door. Kristi opened it before she knocked.
“Marsha. I saw you sitting in your car. Is everything okay?”
“No,” Marsha said, walking past Kristi into the house. “Everything is not okay. Is Jeffrey here?”
“He’s out back with the kids. I’ll get him,” Kristi said, staring at her friend strangely.
“Thank you.” Marsha opened the folder and stared at the paperwork. There, at the bottom, was what she’d suspected would be there. Jeffrey’s signature as the selling agent for the house. Jeffrey had found and sold the Malibu house to his brother.
“Hey, Marsha. What’s going on?” Jeffrey said, his tone friendly. But when he saw the folder in her hands, his expression changed.
“You knew all along, didn’t you?” Marsha said, shaking the folder at him. “You sold Craig the house.”
Jeffrey stood there, silent.
“Knew what?” Kristi asked, staring at her husband, then Marsha. “What’s going on?”
Marsha glanced out the window to make sure the kids were still outside. “Jeffrey knew that Craig had bought a house for his girlfriend. And his son.”
Kristi’s eyes widened. “What?”
Jeffrey took a deep breath. “I knew, yes,” he said softly. “I’m sorry, Marsha. I didn’t approve of what he’d done, but he was my brother. So, I helped him.”
Hot tears slid down Marsha’s face. “How could you? I thought you were my friend. I thought I could trust my husband and you. But you both betrayed me.” She sat heavily in a chair and dropped her face in her hands. “Nothing about my life was true. It was all a lie. A lie I believed.”
Jeffrey dropped to his knees in front of her. “No, Marsha. That’s not true. Craig loved you more than anything in the world. But he made a mistake, and being the person that he was, he couldn’t just walk away from that mistake. But he loved you. Believe me.”
Marsha lifted her tear-stained face and stared hard at him. “I don’t believe you. I can’t believe anything you say to me anymore.” She stood, grabbed the folder, and headed for the door.
“Marsha! Please!” Kristi called, running after her. “You have to know I didn’t know any of this. I would never have kept this a secret from you.”
Marsha turned and looked at her friend. Yes, she knew Kristi had been in the dark, too. Kristi would have told her if she’d known. “I believe you. But it doesn’t change anything. My life with Craig was a lie. A terrible, horrible lie.” She walked out the door and to her car, then drove away.
Driving again on Highway One toward home, Marsha’s rage burned inside of her. Not only had her husband cheated on her, but he’d kept his girlfriend in a nice house and had a child with her. That was what hurt the most. Craig and she had tried for so long to have children, but it never happened. Had he had an affair just so he could have a child? Her heart was torn into pieces, and she was so enraged she could barely see straight.
The sun was setting into the ocean as she turned a curve and saw that stupid billboard again, smiling down at her. Fueled by her anger, Marsha pulled onto a gravel turnout, stopped her car, and stepped outside.
“How dare you smile down at me, you lousy bastard!” she screamed up at Craig’s sign. “You cheated on me! You turned our marriage into a sham!”
Cars drove by as Marsha stood there on the side of the road, raging at the sign. She remembered her once treasured heart necklace and pulled it from her neck, breaking the chain. “You gave her this exact same necklace! How could you?” She screamed. “You said you’d given me your heart for eternity. Did you tell her that too?” Marsha was so angry she threw down the necklace and then bent to pick up stones from the gravel. She threw them at the billboard. “I hate you!” she screamed, dropping down to pick up more stones and throwing them. “You’re a liar and a cheater! I hate you!”
Marsha was so furious that she hadn’t heard a car pull up behind her. As she threw more stones at her husband’s picture, two strong hands gently touched her arms.
“Ma’am? Are you okay? Can I help you?” a male voice asked from behind her.
She stopped immediately and went limp. The man grasped her arms tighter so she wouldn’t fall onto the ground.
“Ma’am? Are you okay? Ma’am?”
Marsha took a deep breath and stood up straight again, turning to see who was speaking to her. A tall man in a Los Angeles Police Department uniform looked down at her with concern etched on his face. Behind him, a young man in uniform stood also, looking confused.
“I’m so sorry,” Marsha said, fresh tears streaming down her face. “I don’t know what came over me.”
The officer studied her a moment, and then he looked up at the billboard and back at Marsha. “Oh. I’m sorry,” he said, sounding sincere. “Craig Winslow passed away recently. Was he your husband?”
Marsha felt shattered. The tears fell faster as she nodded her answer.
“I’m so sorry, Ma’am.” The officer glanced around and then seemed to come to a decision. “Do you live near here?”
“Yes,” she said in barely a whisper. “A few miles up the road.”
The officer turned and opened the passenger door of Marsha’s car. “Please sit down, Ma’am.”
She sat in the car, still crying.
“I’m going to drive Mrs. Winslow home, Curt,” the officer called out to the other police officer. “Follow me there.”
Curt nodded and got back into the squad car.
Marsha watched as the officer carefully closed her door, then bent to pick something up. He ran around to the driver’s side and sat behind the wheel.
“I found this on the ground,” he told her, opening his hand to reveal Marsha’s heart necklace.
“Thank you,” she said, letting him drop it into her open hand. Her anger from moments ago had abated, and now she only felt numb.
The officer pulled down the visor, found the registration, and copied the home address into his phone. “I’ll have you home in a few minutes,” he said kindly. “I’m Officer Mike Becker, by the way. Just so it doesn’t feel weird having a stranger drive you home.”
Marsha nodded. She knew if she uttered a word, she’d start crying again. Her nerves were that raw.
Officer Becker had her home in minutes and pulled her car into her driveway. He stepped out of the car and ran around to her side, opening the door for her. By now, it was completely dark out except for the motion lights that had come on over her garage and at the door. Without a word, he escorted her to the front door.
“Thank you, Officer,” Marsha said. “I was a mess back there. It was kind of you to help me.”
He smiled. “We all have bad days. I’m sorry again about your husband.”
“Thank you,” she said.
With a nod, Officer Becker walked to the squad car where his partner was waiting for him.
Marsha went inside the dark house and made her way to the bedroom without turning on the lights. She dropped the broken necklace on her nightstand and fell onto her bed.
The tears flowed easily.
***
The next morning, Marsha awoke feeling like she’d been on a bender. Her head ached, and her eyes were sore and puffy. She felt sick to her stomach as well, but she attributed that to not having eaten since the day before. Sometime during the night, she’d awoken enough to change into pajamas and crawl under the covers. Now, she was desperate for some Tylenol and food.
She stumbled into the kitchen to check the contents of her refrigerator and was surprised to see the wall clock read it was past eleven a.m. Marsha never slept that late, but this morning was an exception. After all, how many times in a woman’s life does she learn that her deceased husband had another family? And then be picked up by the police for attacking a billboard. It would be funny if it didn’t feel so tragic.
There was a knock on her front door, and for a second, Marsha thought about not answering. Maybe it was the officer stopping by to check on her or Jeffrey coming to apologize. The way she felt, she didn’t want to see either one of them. Despite that, Marsha walked to the door and instead saw Kristi standing there with a bakery box in hand and two coffees.
“I hope I’m not bothering you,” Kristi said once Marsha opened the door. “But I couldn’t just let things stand as they were yesterday. You’re my best friend!”
“It’s okay,” Marsha said calmly. “Just ignore how I look. I had a rough night.”
Kristi walked in and set the box and coffee cups on the kitchen counter. Marsha watched her as her mind went back to the day when she and Craig had hand-picked the large granite stone that would become their countertops. There were so many memories in every corner of the house.
“What happened last night?” Kristi asked, handing Marsha one of the coffee cups and opening the box. “You didn’t get in an accident, did you?”
Marsha shook her head. She was starving, so she lifted one of the blueberry muffins from the box and walked over to the dining room table to sit down.
Kristi took one also and followed her, sitting in the chair across from her friend. “I’m so sorry about everything. I knew nothing about the Malibu house or that Craig was involved with another woman. You must believe me.”
Marsha took a bite of the muffin. It was still warm and delicious. Sighing, she smiled wanly at her friend. “I do believe you. I’m sure it wasn’t something that Jeffrey would have wanted to share with you.”
“Well, I’m definitely angry with him,” Kristi said. Her blue eyes shone brightly. “I made him tell me everything he knew. Jeffrey said that he had helped Craig find a house, but had thought it was for investment purposes. He said the house was a fixer-upper, and Craig got it for a good price, then had it remodeled. It wasn’t until after he’d purchased it that he told Jeff to not mention the house to you, and that’s when Jeffrey drew the truth out of him.”
Marsha continued to eat her muffin in between sips of coffee. She was trying to take in everything Kristi said, but her mind wasn’t working that quickly. But she knew that Jeffrey was a good person and wouldn’t have condoned what Craig had done to her.
“They were brothers,” Marsha finally said. “Jeffrey had no choice but to keep it a secret.”
Kristi shook her head. “That’s what Jeffrey said, but I still think he should have told you. You had a right to know.”
Did she? Marsha thought. If she’d known eight years ago that Craig had a woman on the side and a son as well and had bought them a house, in which he obviously spent time with them all these years, how different would her life be?
Kristi placed a hand on Marsha’s arm. “I asked Jeffrey to tell me the whole story. Do you want to hear it?” she asked softly.
Marsha nodded. She knew it would tear her apart, but she needed to know how it happened.
Kristi took a breath. “He met the woman when she started working for him as a receptionist in the Malibu office. She was there about a year before they, well, had a one-night stand, and then three months later, she told him she was pregnant.”
Marsha closed her eyes. Pregnant. How many times in the first ten years of their marriage had she tried to get pregnant? And Craig had always told her that it was fine. He had her, and if they didn’t have children, he was more than happy as long as he had her.
“Jeff said Craig swore he’d never cheated on you before and hadn’t ever wanted to. But something happened, and he was drawn to this woman. Anyway, once he heard she was pregnant, he found her a nicer apartment than she was living in and promised to be there for the child. After the child was born, and he knew for sure it was his, he bought the house and moved them in.”
“And he fell in love with her,” Marsha said, standing up and walking to the window.
Kristi stood, too, and walked over to her. “I guess he spent a lot of time with her and his son, but there’s no proof he loved her. He loved you. He couldn’t wait to celebrate your anniversary. Jeff said that Craig found himself in a sticky situation and his kind heart wouldn’t let him walk away from her and his son. And there was no way he wanted to leave you.”
“Yeah, so he had the best of both worlds,” Marsha said bitterly. “Poor guy.”
“I’m sorry, Marsha. I really am. I can’t even imagine how you feel right now. But I still believe Craig loved you more than anyone else,” Kristi said.
Marsha turned and looked at her friend. “That’s a nice sentiment, but we’ll never know if it’s true. That woman was wearing the same necklace Craig gave me for our fifteenth wedding anniversary. The exact same necklace! So, I guess he gave his heart to her and to me.”
“Oh, I had no idea,” Kristi said, looking shocked. “I thought we all knew Craig better than that, but I guess we didn’t know him at all.”
“No, we didn’t. Think about how it makes you feel and multiply it by a thousand, and then you’ll understand how I feel.” Marsha shook her head. “He lied to me about so many things. And now I have to clean up his mess.”
“I’m sorry,” Kristi said. She stepped up to Marsha and hugged her. “I wish there was something I could do to help you.”
“Thanks, honey,” Marsha said, hugging her back. She pulled away. “And thank you for telling me all this. The good news is Craig left everything to me. The bad news is he left me deep in debt. Somehow, I’ll have to dig my way out of it.”
Kristi stared at her. “Would you sell the house in Malibu?”
“I can’t keep it. It has a mortgage, and the taxes are high. And I’m certainly not going to rent it to Craig’s mistress,” Marsha spat. “I have to start getting things in order. And it’s more than I want to do at this moment.”
“I’ll help you in any way I can,” Kristi said. “Just name it.”
“Thanks. We’ll have enough to worry about with the art gallery. Apparently, it’s hemorrhaging money,” Marsha said. When she saw Kristi’s shocked reaction, she raised her hands to silence any questions she might have. “We’ll worry about that soon enough, though. Right now, I just need to figure out my finances and try to keep my head above water.”
“You should take some time for yourself,” Kristi suggested. “I can take care of the gallery. No one expects you to rush into anything so soon after Craig’s death.”
Marsha laughed. “I can’t afford time off, thanks to my beloved husband. No, I’ll come into work tomorrow as usual and try to find ways to keep the gallery open. There’s so much for us to do.”
Kristi left after that, leaving Marsha alone once again in her house full of memories. Tomorrow, she’d take on the world. But today, she was going to give in to her anger and sadness and try to let it all go. If only it was that easy.