I Know What You Did

by N L Hinkens

  Mia twitched one amused brow upward. “Whatever would make you say such a thing?”

  “Perhaps the fact that they look exactly the same in their baby pictures. It’s your turn to fess up, Mia. They could be twins. Claire doesn’t look anything like the Tomaselli family.”

  Mia shrugged. “So, she takes after me.”

  “She doesn’t have a single Italian gene in her blood! You and Robbie were sleeping together at the same time Noah and Sarah were. Why? To get revenge? Is this all some twisted game to you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you jealous just because I have a daughter now too?” Mia staggered back to the table and plopped herself down on a chair.

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Look at yourself! You’re hammered out of your mind and you’ve got a young baby sleeping upstairs. How are you supposed to look after Olivia like this?”

  Mira glared at her. “Is that a threat? Are you going to call CPS on me? Is that what this is about? You’re not happy with only one of my daughters, you want to take the other one too?”

  “You’re not thinking rationally, Mia. I’m not trying to take Olivia away from you. I’m trying to find out why you lied to me about who Claire’s father is. Why didn’t you just tell me the truth? It can’t be easy living with the lies. Maybe that’s what the drinking’s all about.” Jo removed the glass from Mia’s shaking hands and set it out of reach on the other side of the table. “Is that why you’re taking anti-anxiety medication too?”

  A malevolent shadow crossed Mia’s face. “Been nosing around in my house, have you? That’s called trespassing. I should call the cops on you. They might be interested to hear how relieved you were that Noah Tomaselli killed himself, so you could keep his baby.” She thumped a fist on the table jiggling the glass on the other end, then pushed her chair out from the table and stood unsteadily. “Get out of my house, now!”

  “At least let me make you some coffee first,” Jo entreated her.

  “I said get out!” Mia screamed in her face. “Get out, or I’m calling the cops!”

  “Okay, I’ll leave. Do you want me to take Olivia with me until Robbie gets home from work?”

  Mia shoved Jo in the chest, startling her and causing her to step backward to keep from stumbling. “Don’t you dare touch my baby. You’ll never get your hands on her. And don't dig around in my affairs anymore or you'll regret it.”

  Without another word, Jo picked up her purse and walked down the hallway to the front door, feeling Mia’s eyes drilling into her with every step. She glanced back over her shoulder to see Mia's lips curve into a cool smile of satisfaction. Jo shivered as she let herself out and hurried to her car. She was more certain than ever there was something seriously wrong with Mia. As soon as she closed the door, she called Robbie’s cell phone. Come on, come on, please pick up.

  After several rings, the call went to voicemail. Jo dialed again, closing her eyes as the phone rang.

  “Jo, what’s up?” Robbie said.

  “Sorry to interrupt you. Mia’s really drunk, Robbie. I don’t think she can make it up the stairs if Olivia wakes up. I’m afraid to leave. I think you should come home now.”

  There was silence for a moment and then Robbie said. “Can you wait there for a few minutes?”

  “Sure, I’m right outside in my car.”

  “Thanks, Jo. I feel bad you got dragged into this. I need to get Mia some help. Her drinking’s gotten completely out of control. I’ll be there in a few.”

  True to his word, Robbie peeled into his driveway less than ten minutes later, and screeched to a halt. Heart pounding, Jo climbed out of her car and walked to the front door to meet him. She’d tried to think of a good excuse to give him as to why she’d been visiting Mia in the first place, but everything sounded like the lame lie it was. She dreaded to think how she would respond if Mia told Robbie the truth. “I didn’t want to get in the middle of things,” she said, “but I was afraid for Olivia’s sake.”

  “You did the right thing,” he replied, sticking his key in the door. “I might need you to stay and help with Olivia for a few minutes.”

  Reluctantly, Jo followed him back inside. From upstairs she could already hear Olivia’s faint cries. “I’ll go get her. You take care of Mia.”

  Robbie strode toward the kitchen while Jo hurried up the stairs. She went into the nursery and walked over to the crib. The stench reached her first. “Poor baby,” she soothed. She carried Olivia over to the changing table and set about changing her diaper. To her horror, Olivia had a nasty diaper rash. The diaper she was wearing was bloated and obviously hadn’t been changed all day. Jo rummaged around for some cream and applied it liberally before carefully placing a fresh diaper on Olivia. She picked the baby up, wiped a few damp, blonde strands of hair from her forehead and carried her downstairs.

  Mia’s raised voice drifted toward her from the kitchen. “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do. I’m not your student any longer. I’m your wife, or did you forget that part?”

  Jo hesitated at the bottom of the stairs, not wanting to make her presence known in the midst of a heated argument.

  “Of course, I haven’t forgotten you’re my wife. Don’t you realize how ridiculous you sound when you say things like that?”

  “So now you think I’m ridiculous?”

  “You need to calm down, Mia.”

  Olivia started to squawk in Jo’s arms. Despite her reluctance to intrude, Jo made her way into the kitchen. “I’ll make up her bottle,” she said, walking over to the counter where the formula was sitting, avoiding looking either Robbie or Mia in the eye.

  “I suppose you’re the one who called Robbie and told him to come home early. Counselor Jo to the rescue yet again!” The knife-edge tone of Mia’s voice caused the hairs on the back of Jo’s neck to rise.

  She turned around, cradling Olivia in her left arm. “I just wanted to make sure Olivia was safe.”

  Mia let out a scornful laugh. “I’m sure you did. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to Claire’s little sister now, would we?”

  Jo shot Robbie a sharp glance. He gave her an apologetic shrug in return. “Let’s leave Jo out of this,” he admonished Mia. “She’s looking out for our best interests.”

  “That’s a joke,” Mia snapped back. She folded her arms in front of her and glared at Jo. “She’s only ever looked out for her own interests, haven’t you, Jo?”

  “That’s enough!” Robbie said, reaching for Mia by the arm. “You’re drunk! You need to go upstairs and sleep this off.”

  Mia shook herself free, her messy bun falling loose, blonde hair tumbling over her shoulders. Her eyes flashed with menace. She looked like a wild woman, an unharnessed beauty who had become something ugly and deranged. “Tell him, Jo. Tell him why you came to see me. I think he should hear it from you.”

  Jo’s arms began to shake. She clutched Olivia tighter, half-afraid she might drop her. “Robbie’s right, you should go and lie down. I’ll feed Olivia and change her again before I leave.”

  “No!” Mia marched over and plucked Olivia from Jo’s arms. “You already took one of my babies. You’re not getting this one.”

  Jo’s gaze locked with Robbie’s. Surely he must have picked up on it this time, or had he dismissed it as drunken drivel? She was sure the fear bubbling up inside her was visible on her face. Her own deception was coming back to haunt her. She couldn’t hide the truth from him if Mia was determined to tell him. Jo snatched a breath, reminding herself that she and Liam had tried to do something good, to make something beautiful out of a difficult situation.

  “She doesn’t have the guts, so I’ll tell you. Claire’s my daughter,” Mia announced with a triumphant edge to her voice. “Can you believe my high school counselor talked me into giving her my baby? That’s an abuse of power, don’t you think?”

  “That’s enough,” Robbie said in a tone of disgust. “You’re drunk.”

  “Not that drunk,” Mia drawled. �
�I can clearly remember Jo holding Claire moments after she was born. Isn’t that right, Jo?”

  The confusion on Robbie’s face was slowly being replaced by a look of horror. He stared at Mia open-mouthed and then turned to Jo. “What’s she talking about?”

  A sickly sweat prickled over Jo’s forehead. She gripped the edge of the counter tighter. This wasn’t supposed to come out like this—or at all. Mia had agreed to a closed adoption, had insisted on it. Would she stop at telling Robbie that she was Claire’s birth mother? Or was she building up to telling him that Claire was his biological child? Surely he would wonder.

  “It’s true,” Jo replied, fighting to hold her voice steady. “It was a closed adoption. Mia didn’t want anyone to know she was pregnant.”

  Robbie paled. He sat down at the table and stared at the floor for a long moment before he spoke again. “Why didn’t you tell me, Mia?”

  “Do you think I’m stupid?” she retorted. “You wouldn’t have wanted me if you’d known I was pregnant with Noah’s baby.”

  Robbie shook his head slowly as if trying to process it all. “I thought you moved to San Francisco for a job after Noah died.”

  Jo released the shallow breath she’d been holding. Mia hadn’t dropped the biggest bombshell of all on Robbie, at least for now. But she was unstable. There was no knowing when she would unload it on him. It was all a game to her. But Jo wasn’t willing to play along anymore, despite her threats. It was time to tell Robbie the whole truth, and face the consequences. She would fight for Claire in the courts if she had to. “You’ve started now, Mia. You might as well finish and tell him everything.”

  Mia narrowed her eyes, searing Jo with a caustic glare. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Jo joined Robbie at the table. She folded her hands in front of her and took a deep steadying breath. “Claire is your biological daughter.”

  Robbie’s eyes widened. He blinked rapidly and then rubbed a hand slowly over his jaw. For a moment, Jo thought he looked almost contrite, as if he might be about to confess that he’d been having an affair with Mia long before Sarah and Noah had died, but then in a sudden burst of anger he shoved his chair out from the table. “You betrayed me, Mia. You kept the pregnancy from me, told me you went to San Francisco to work. Now, you’re lying to me about who the father of the baby is. You’re no better than Sarah. You’re a bigger liar than she ever was.”

  “Calm down, Robbie, please,” Jo urged.

  He turned and glared at her. “You stabbed me in the back too. You and Liam adopted my child without telling me.”

  “No, that’s not true,” Jo protested. “We thought all along it was Noah’s baby. I only confronted Mia about it this afternoon.”

  Robbie eyed her skeptically. “How did you find out?”

  “I … figured it out. I compared Olivia’s newborn pictures to Claire’s. They look like twins.” Jo hesitated, her hands shaking. “I always wondered why Claire didn’t look anything like the Tomaselli family.”

  Robbie dropped his head into his hands. “You should have told me Mia was pregnant before.”

  Jo got to her feet, barely able to constrain her fury. “And you should have told me you were sleeping with her! That was you parked outside Mia’s house the night she argued with Noah and stormed out of school, wasn’t it? You took Sarah’s car so it wouldn’t look suspicious. I ached for what you were going through after Sarah died, never suspecting for one moment that you were cheating on her too.”

  Robbie tightened his lips. He glanced across at Mia, his eyes dark and rippling like the surface of a troubled lake. “It was one time. Believe me, I’m not proud of myself. I blame myself for not confessing what I’d done to Sarah. If I had, she might never have killed herself out of guilt over her relationship with Noah.”

  22

  Jo and Liam sat at a corner table in The Coffee Pot, a small family-owned café within walking distance of their house. Claire was wedged into a wooden highchair, methodically picking apart a blueberry muffin. At least half of it was falling to the floor in a shower of crumbs in her bumbling attempts to direct it to her mouth, but for once, Jo wasn’t focused on cleaning up after her. She was still reeling from yesterday’s revelation that Robbie was Claire’s biological father, even though she’d half suspected it. More importantly, she was shocked, and baffled that all this time Robbie had let her believe he was the innocent party in Sarah’s affair. How could Jo have been so wrong about her two best friends? The more she thought about it, the more she began questioning everything. If Noah and Sarah had concealed their relationship from their partners, what were the odds of Robbie and Mia getting together at the same time? Astronomical. Some might say impossibly long. Was there something more to it all? Something she was overlooking?

  “I don’t know what to think about Robbie and Mia anymore,” Jo said, picking up her latte and taking a sip.

  “It’s a twisted situation,” Liam agreed. “Seems they were both spinning lies to suit their own purposes. You were right. Mia’s turned out to be a master manipulator. As for Robbie, he’ll always be my friend, but I’ve lost all respect for him.”

  “There’s got to be more to the story,” Jo said. “I’m starting to question everything about Sarah’s and Noah’s relationship.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “We don’t even know if they were really in a relationship at all.”

  Liam looked baffled. “Of course they were. Their phone records proved it. Why else would they have committed suicide?”

  Jo looked at Liam intently. “Those were burner phones. Anyone could have sent those messages.”

  Liam handed Claire a blueberry that had rolled across the table. “What are you getting at?”

  “I’m not sure. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s just that Mia is so devious. I wonder sometimes if she had a hand in it somehow.”

  "Now that’s crazy thinking,” Liam retorted.

  “Maybe so,” Jo mused. “But I’ve never been convinced Sarah killed herself. It’s just not who she is … was.”

  Liam frowned. “The police investigated every angle. It was an open and shut case. Nothing was tampered with. There were no other fingerprints on the hosepipe, other than Noah’s. The phones confirmed their relationship, and don’t forget there was a suicide note.”

  “I never really bought the suicide note either. It was too vague, not like Sarah at all, and it was odd that the rest of the writing on the page was illegible, almost as if someone deliberately destroyed it so you couldn’t read it in context. Maybe because it wasn’t a suicide note at all.”

  Liam scratched his neck. “I think it’s a stretch to suggest Sarah and Noah weren’t involved with one another. It’s not unusual when relationships aren’t going well for partners to look elsewhere.”

  “But it is unusual for the wronged partners to end up in each other’s beds. Not to mention the illegality of Mia and Noah being minors, and the huge risk Robbie and Sarah were taking—assuming Sarah actually did have a relationship with Noah.” Jo tapped her nails on the side of her cup peering at Liam over the rim as she held it to her lips. “There is one way we might be able to find out if Mia had a hand in it.”

  “What’s that?” Liam asked warily.

  Jo flicked a glance over the nearby tables and then lowered her voice. “You could search her computer. Make a copy of her hard drive or whatever it is you do to retrieve information. There might be something incriminating on there.”

  “That’s illegal, Jo,” Liam said.

  “And what if we find out that she did something illegal?” She leaned closer and whispered, “I looked at Mia’s prescriptions in her bathroom. One of them is Lorazepam. I knew it sounded familiar for some reason. It’s the same anti-anxiety drug that Noah and Sarah took before they committed suicide. Don’t you think that’s a bit of a coincidence? Maybe she found out that Noah was sleeping with Sarah and threatened to tell everyone—maybe she drove Noah to kill Sarah and then ta
ke his own life.”

  Liam widened his eyes and dragged a hand through his hair. “Do you realize what you’re implying? I don’t want to get involved in this.”

  “We are involved, whether you like it or not.” Jo set down her mug and wiped some crumbs from Claire’s mouth. “Robbie might be too, if he’s figured out what she did. He could be protecting her. There might be evidence on his computer too—emails, or something. You could access his computer at school. I need to be sure, Liam. You know how I am when I get something in my head. I can’t keep going on like this, wondering if Mia had something to do with it. It’s all too convenient.”

  Liam said nothing as he fished Claire’s sippy cup out of the diaper bag and handed it to her.

  “Please, Liam. You’ve got to admit there’s something’s off about this whole situation.”

  He let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, I’ll take a look at Robbie’s school computer. But that’s as far as it goes. If there’s nothing incriminating on it, you have to drop this.” He looked at Claire, his face softening. “If Robbie decides to pursue custody, we’ll fight him in court. But I can’t imagine he will.”

  “We don’t know that,” Jo said.

  Liam grimaced. “I can’t access his computer right away. I’ll have to make it look like I’m at the school for routine network maintenance.”

  “Maybe you can think of some emergency,” Jo said, draining the last of her coffee. “We shouldn’t wait any longer. Mia’s putting Olivia’s life at risk with her drinking. I suspect the strain of whatever she’s hiding is getting to be too much for her.”

  The following Monday, Jo’s phone pinged as a text came through. She glanced across at it, still tapping away on her keyboard. Her fingers froze in position. It was Mia.

  Call me. We need to talk.

  Jo’s stomach churned as she considered what to do. She had no desire to engage again with a drunken Mia, at least not until she’d ruled out any possibility that she was involved in Noah’s and Sarah’s deaths. But Mia might want to talk to her about Claire. Jo and Liam were on the same page about any challenge to their parental rights—they would fight all the way to the Supreme Court to keep their daughter if it came down to it.