Chapter 17 #2
“Do you know who that man is with her in the pictures? We’ve never seen him before.”
“There’s a good reason for that,” Mark declared, tapping at the photograph. “A very good reason.”
“Dad didn’t like him?”
“That’s a mild way to describe it. Your father hated Dominic Jameson with the power of a thousand suns.
Nic is everything your father wanted to be and never would.
Nic was handsome, charming, and came from a wealthier and more successful family than the Winslows.
He had a great future ahead of him in the family law firm.
He was also well-liked by pretty much everyone, unlike Joel.
He oozed charisma without lifting a finger.
People naturally gravitated toward him because of that. He was a great guy and a good friend.”
Mark was talking about this man in the past tense.
“Nic had a great future ahead of him?”
Rubbing at his chin, Mark gave Tate a weak smile.
“Hit by a drunk driver a few days after Christmas when he and his family were vacationing in Florida. Nic and his mom were killed instantly. His dad spent months in the hospital, and more months later, rehabbing from all the broken bones. He died about five years later, some say from a broken heart. Nic’s younger brother had gone skiing with a friend for the holidays, so he wasn’t with them. ”
Tate took a moment to digest the information. It wasn’t what he’d expected, but to be honest, he wanted to know more about the short life and tragic end of Nic Jameson.
“How did Dad know Nic? He’s never once mentioned him that I know of.”
“And he never will,” Mark replied. “Your father met Nic at college, where he met your mother, as you already know. Nic and Joel were rivals. They were always competing, whether it be in sports, grades, clubs, or girls. And your dad never won. He certainly didn’t win with Lily.
She and Nic had dated for years. They went to the same boarding school, so we’d known them since we were kids. ”
“Then Nic died.”
“Yes, and Joel rushed in to fill the void. He even acted like a human being to convince your mother to marry him. Of course, we both know that didn’t last. Once he had your mother down the aisle and then pregnant, he reverted to the money-hungry monster we all know and love.”
“I didn’t know any of this,” Tate said, all the new information about his mom crashing through his brain.
It was hard to make sense of it all. Joel acting normal.
Lily in love with someone else. And poor Nic, who never had a chance.
Had his mother pined her entire life for a man gone too soon?
She’d kept the photos, after all. “She never said anything. No one did. Why didn’t you tell us after she was gone? ”
Mark gave Tate a puzzled look.
“Why would I tell you about Nic? That was a lifetime ago, and it didn’t have anything to do with her disappearance.”
Tate couldn’t explain why he wanted and needed to know.
He just did. It was only after his mother had disappeared that he’d realized she’d kept so much of her life a mystery.
He wanted to know every detail about her.
Deep in his gut, he thought that there was a nugget of knowledge that would lead them to the truth about what happened. He only had to find it.
“It explains so much,” Tate replied instead. “About Mom…and Dad. She was grieving her true love, and he resented her for it.”
“Wait,” Mark said, holding his hands up.
“I’m not telling this story well. Yes, Lily loved Nic, but they were basically kids.
They constantly argued and broke up, and then got back together again, only to repeat the cycle.
They were broken up when Nic was in the accident.
Whether they would have ended up together is an open question, and I, for one, hope that the answer would be no.
I liked Nic, hell, I loved him. He was a great guy, but the problem was that everyone loved him, and that included girls.
Lily got plenty of male attention, as well.
Was Nic the love of her life? I don’t know.
I do know that she was devastated after the accident.
She had a lot of guilt about them breaking up just the week before. ”
“She kept the photos,” Tate said. “She must have felt something for him.”
“I’m sure she did. We all had some good times together. I probably have some pictures socked away in a box somewhere, too.”
“Did she ever bring up Nic in conversation? Talk about the good old days? That sort of thing?”
“Every now and then,” Mark replied with a shrug.
“Not in front of your dad, of course, but we did talk about the past. I never got the feeling that she was longing for Nic, if that’s what you’re asking.
She mostly talked about how happy and carefree those days were.
How we didn’t have any grown-up worries. ”
“She used to talk about her school years, but she never said Nic’s name. She mentioned you, Kim, Shayla, and a few other friends. But she never mentioned him.”
“Tate, Nic is not the reason Lily disappeared.”
The words were so simple. A clear statement, but it tore at Tate’s heart. He’d had such hope when they’d found the photos. He’d desperately wanted them to be the key to…something.
“I know that you’re looking into Lily’s disappearance, and I support you in that. I truly do. But all this ancient history with Nic doesn’t have anything to do with why she’s gone.”
“I just have to find out what happened,” Tate said, his throat tight with emotion. “Dad said that he hired someone to look into it, but we know he’s a liar. The police screwed all of this up. I don’t think it’s too late to find out the truth.”
Mark scraped his hand down his face, his expression almost tortured with deep lines etched around his eyes and mouth.
“Son, I love you. I love all of you. But you need to be realistic about all of this. Yes, I support your efforts to find out what happened that day, but you need to do the math and realize the chances of finding any answers are…shit…pretty fucking low. I don’t want to see you heartbroken when this doesn’t turn out the way that you hoped it would. ”
Mark placed his hand on Tate’s shoulder.
“There’s one thing I know for sure. I know that Lily loved you. She loved her children with everything inside of her. Never doubt that.”
“But she wasn’t happy. She died sad.”
To Tate, that was the worst part. His mother should have had a wonderful life, but instead, she’d been married to an asshole.
“I think that your mother was happy. Her marriage might not have been great, but she always told me that she had a great life pretty much every time we talked. Good friends, fun times, amazing children. Damn, she was proud of all of you. So fucking proud. Believe me, she gave as good as she got when it came to Joel. She didn’t take any shit from him. ”
Tate had wanted this meeting with Mark to be a catalyst for the investigation in some way. He’d had…hopes.
But he wasn’t a quitter.
“Your last conversation with Mom…what did you talk about?”
“I know you want me to say something that’s going to help you, but it wasn’t like that. We talked about the weather, we talked about you kids. She was excited about Piper’s upcoming graduation and Zack’s promotion at work.”
“She didn’t talk about herself?”
“She said that she might go on a girls’ vacation to Hawaii with Shayla and a few other friends, but the details and dates were still up in the air. That’s it.”
“Nothing about Dad?”
“I made a habit of not asking about Joel, and your mother made a habit of not bringing him up in conversations. It made us both happy. Honestly, I ignored your dad most of the time.”
“He said something to you when Mom disappeared. I saw you arguing.”
“Yes, you did. He was talking about Lily in the past tense. Hell, it had only been a few days, but he already assumed that she was dead. I told him off, and he defended himself, saying that I didn’t know what he was going through, losing a wife.
Then we walked away from each other, and we haven’t spoken since. ”
“Do you still talk to Kim?”
Tate knew that Mark and Kim hadn’t been all that close growing up. That had been clear, watching the relationship between them whenever he was in town.
“Let’s just say that I talk to Kim even less than I talk to you,” Mark replied.
“If you’re going where I think you’re going, you need to stop.
While Kim and I can barely be in the same room together, I don’t think she had anything to do with Lily’s disappearance.
She doesn’t have the guts or the ability.
Kim doesn’t have many original thoughts.
She only jumps on other people’s bandwagons.
She was blessed with many lovely qualities, but leadership wasn’t one of them. ”
“What if my dad came up with the idea and got her on board?”
“Why would your father kill your mother? Listen, I don’t like Joel, and I think he’s a terrible human being, but I’m not sure he’s a murderer.
In his own weird and twisted way, he loved your mother.
Fuck, he loved her so much that he married her sister.
A wedding I was happy to skip, by the way, not that I was invited. ”
“Maybe they argued. Maybe?—”
“Stop all of this,” Mark commanded. “You’re going to make yourself crazy at this rate. Let me ask you this. Do you have any evidence whatsoever that your father killed your mother? Any at all?”
“No,” Tate admitted, his shoulders slumped. “I don’t want my dad to be a killer, Mark. I just…it’s always the spouse, right?”
“Except when it isn’t. I wish I could be of more help, but I’ve had my own theory for years. I’ve made my peace with it. I don’t like it, but I’ve learned to deal with it. Therapy helps.”
“What theory is that?”
And how do I get some of that peace for myself?
“She was kidnapped and killed,” Mark said, visibly shuddering as he spoke the words.
“By a stranger. Lily was trusting. I think she trusted the wrong person and was taken from that parking lot and killed. Maybe with some ruse that they needed help. She liked helping people. I think they took her, killed her, and hid the body well. Someday it will be found, but I may not be alive to see it. And because it was a stranger murder, I don’t think we’ll ever find out who did it unless they confess. ”
As Finn had told Tate on more than one occasion, it was often the most straightforward and most obvious explanation that turned out to be correct. There was usually no vast conspiracy, no strange twisted story.
Evil walks among us wearing masks.
Lily Winslow might have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“We’re still going to look at the other items in the storage unit,” Tate finally replied. “Mom kept them there for a reason.”
“I would agree with you there. If Lily kept those financial records, it wasn’t some random reason. It was deliberate. But Tate…that doesn’t mean it was the reason she disappeared. It might be, but it might not. You need to be ready for that.”
Mark might be able to be at peace, but Tate wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel. Not yet. There were still avenues to pursue and questions to ask. If, in the end, he didn’t know what had happened to his mother?
He’d find a way to deal with it then. But not one day before.