Lovely Dreams

by Danielle Stewart

  “When did I stop being part of your plan?” Lauren sat back in her chair and tried to balance her sympathy against her anger.

  “Around the time I found out Jeremy Bowman wasn’t done with me. He wouldn’t be for a quite some time. The reason he picked Charleston was because he was well connected there. He knew people on the police force. A couple in the government. A nurse at the hospital who called him the day I was released. He was waiting out front with a car. He was very sorry.”

  “Oh no, please tell me you didn’t get in that car.”

  Her chin quivered with emotion. “He was very sorry and wanted to make things right. The justification and the explanations were endless, and he professed his love for me. Jeremy asked me to go with him. To get in the car and we’d drive until he could make it right. I told him no. I wanted to go home. I didn’t want anything to do with him. For the next five days he stalked me. Harassed me. Begged me. I could see it in his eyes. They’d changed so much so suddenly. If I went back home and he found out about you—”

  “You could have told someone. Reported it to a police department where people didn’t know him.” Lauren shook her head. “You just ran away?”

  “No.” She looked up at the ceiling. “I gave in. After a while I knew he wouldn’t stop. I snuck off, called your father, and told him I wouldn’t be coming back for a long while. I told him it was over. Then I got in the car with Jeremy and surrendered the next eight months of my life to his torment. You’ve never met a man as slick as him. And I hope you never do. He could talk his way out of anything. People, people in power especially, loved him. I was scared and didn’t think I had any options, any allies. Your father wouldn’t be any match for Jeremy. He’d never fight for me. Fight to save me.”

  On that point, Lauren had to agree, but it stopped there. “You said eight months with him. It’s been so many years since you’ve bothered to reach out to me.”

  “You asked how I met Gloria. I was at an event. Jeremy was rubbing elbows with a sportscaster. Some man he’d charmed at a baseball game months earlier. We were all dressed up. A long-sleeved dress even on a hot day for me. The bruises were too obvious on my arms. This gambling, thieving, awful man was wearing a rented tux and drawing all these people to him. They were practically lined up to hear his stories. His conquests in the exporting world. He made everything sound exciting. Magnetic. I don’t know how she knew. I was very careful not to do anything that might draw attention and make Jeremy mad. But when I slipped away to use the bathroom, Gloria did the same. I’d never met her. We exchanged no words out in the ballroom. Yet the moment the bathroom door closed, she checked every stall and then locked us in.”

  Francine smiled at the memory of her tenacious friend. “She had information no one else in that room had.”

  “She asked me if that was Jay Bowman outside, and I told her it was, though he went by Jeremy. Then she put both her hands on my shoulders and begged me to leave with her. I acted like she was nuts. Like I didn’t know what she meant. But she pressed on, slid one of my sleeves up and then told me again. We were leaving. She insisted. Once I realized she was serious, and maybe she’d make a scene, I panicked. I told her there would be nowhere on earth I could go where he couldn’t find me. His business made his reach far and wide. His connections with unsavory people ran deep. I thought I was trapped, and this strange woman I’d never met couldn’t possibly save me.”

  Lauren imagined Gloria in that bathroom. Assertive. So sure of herself and what was right. “You went with her?”

  We came out of the bathroom, and I was still unsure, but it didn’t matter. Jeremy had slipped away. He left me there. I felt temporarily relieved, but Gloria was furious. She made a phone call, told someone Jay had slipped away. I was confused and in shock. Still reluctant to leave with Gloria. But I had nothing. No one. She was the lifeline I’d been waiting for, if I just had the courage to reach out and take it.”

  Francine leaned in and lowered her voice. “If you’ve never been in a situation like this it’s impossible to understand the fear, the irrational fear. After a while you believe everything they tell you about yourself. About your options. It takes more than just a generous offer from a stranger to make you think you’ll be all right. It’s scary in a way I can’t explain. ”

  “Mom?” Tray said, twisting his face up. “What are you saying?”

  “The reason Gloria knew about Jay Bowman was because of me. She wasn’t at that party by accident. She was”—Francine blew out a tiny laugh—“She was hunting him. Had been for some time. He was traveling under aliases. Slipping away. But she’d heard he’d be there that night, so she dropped everything and went.”

  “How did you know Jeremy?” Tray asked, an urgency in his voice as his hand instinctively balled into a fist.

  “I met him at your father’s funeral.” Her hand covered her shame-filled face. “He was an acquaintance of your father from the military. You know how shook up I was at that point in my life. We had all these plans and suddenly I had this young boy and was alone.”

  “You started dating him?”

  She cut a hand through the air. “I certainly didn’t start dating him right away. He was just around. I’d need something sorted out that your father would usually handle and he’d step in.”

  “I don’t remember him at all,” Tray said, clearly racking his brain for any recollection.

  “You only met him twice,” she edged out. “Once he was at the house helping me go through your father’s baseball card collection. I wanted to get rid of any that weren’t of much value and hand just the really exclusive and special ones down to you. The collection took up so much room in the house, and we were going to redecorate your father’s study.”

  “That I remember,” Tray scoffed. “I was furious you were paring down the collection. I do remember someone being there, but I thought it was probably someone you hired. I hardly even looked at him, I was so mad at you.”

  “You were, and Jay took notice. When you left, he comforted me. Told me you were just processing your father’s death and it would take time. After that I let him into my life. Not yours because I didn’t want to confuse you. You were so young, hurting so much.” She reached a hand out and touched his forearm. “I really did want what was best for you.”

  “I know I put you through hell for a while. I was getting into so much trouble. Acting like an ass all the time.” He bit at his cheek, struggling to face what he’d done.

  “You weren’t acting out at first,” she reminded him. “You really don’t remember?”

  “Remember what?”

  “The second time you met Jay.”

  “I don’t.”

  “You were supposed to be sleeping over at a friend’s house. That was when Jay and I would get together. When we knew you wouldn’t be home. The sleepover didn’t work out for some reason or another, and you came back. He was furious.”

  Talia rubbed at her arm as though she could still feel an old bruise. Even though this was his mother’s story to tell, Talia could jump in seamlessly. Their pain like mirror images of each other. “He hated when things didn’t go the way he’d planned. He’d have his mind set on something, and if it fell apart he’d go ballistic.”

  “I don’t remember any of this,” Tray said, looking to Lauren as though she’d have some kind of answer. All she could do was touch his shoulder gently.

  Francine ran her finger around the rim of her teacup. “I hadn’t really seen him angry before. Not even a rude comment. He was so good at turning it on and off. That night, he turned it on. He told me to put you in your room and that he and I needed to talk. I thought it would be better if he left since you were home. We’d made an agreement about it.” A stormy look crossed her face. “We argued. He was shockingly aggressive. Your father wasn’t a quiet man, he did his share of yelling, but it was nothing like this.”

  “Did he put his hands on you?”

  She tipped her head to the side and searched his face.
“I’m so glad you don’t remember. It’s a blessing.”

  “What happened exactly?” Tray’s jaw clenched, his teeth ground together, loud enough for Lauren to hear. She was still processing her own mother’s pain. To think Tray was about to go through the same thing made her feel powerless to help.

  “It didn’t go that far. I had what Jay wanted. I was a rich widow. He had to work hard to hide his dark side from me. But that night he snapped. He threw me to the ground, and I screamed. You came around the corner with your father’s nine iron in your hand and chased him off. You were half asleep. I turned you around and put you back in bed.”

  He put his head in his hands. “I always thought that was some intruder or something. Someone breaking in. I kind of remember it. But I didn’t know you were dating him. Was that it? He was gone after that?”

  “Oh, I wish that was where the story ended. It’s the last time I let you see him. I was more careful. You couldn’t just turn up on the doorstep when you were supposed to be gone. Jay convinced me I had caused him to lose it that night. He’d been my shoulder to cry on, my complete support system, and it had pushed him over the edge. Saying it now, I can’t believe I fell for it.”

  Talia whispered to her friend, “You were in a fragile place. He is a monster.”

  “How is it possible you both dealt with the same man?”

  “It’s a bigger club than you’d imagine,” Talia reported, her chin a little higher in the air than it had been. “When Gloria got wind of how he was treating your mother, she ran him out of town with threats he couldn’t help but take seriously. Every now and then he’d call your mom and harass her. Say something about you. She was afraid. Gloria wanted to help, so she kept tabs on him. Tried to make sure he didn’t hurt anyone else. That’s when he came to Boston and met me. After he left me at that party, probably after seeing Gloria, he vanished for a while. Gloria took me in. She literally put me and my life back together. For a while I was all right. I called a few times; I don’t know if you remember.”

  “I do,” Lauren said, feeling far less combative now. There were still questions to be answered, but she had only this image of her mother and Gloria together. “You sounded well.”

  “I was then. For a while. But Gloria had a business to run. She couldn’t sit around and try to hold me up. She introduced me to Talia, and we tried to heal together. But like a whack-a-mole, he’d pop up in one way or another, never knowing we were in contact with each other.”

  Lauren shifted in her seat. “Wait, what did Gloria intend to do to him?”

  “She never told us,” Francine said flatly. “She would always say, you let me worry about him.”

  Tray shook his head and shot up from his chair. “Where is he? Where is he right now? I’ll kill him myself.”

  His mother tugged his sleeve, pleading with him to sit down. “He’s dead. He’s been dead for years. A heart attack.”

  When Tray settled back down into his chair, Lauren knew she had to shake hands with the giant gorilla in the room. “I can understand your original absence from my life. An effort to protect me. It’s why you sent the photographs to Gloria. You didn’t want Jeremy to know I existed. But at some point, surely after he was dead, you could have come to see me. You knew where I was. I was working for your friend. Opening up to her about how hard it was without you. How I wished things were different. There came a point in time where you should have come back and you didn’t.”

  Francine chimed in first. “We can be dangerous to people we love in all different ways.”

  Talia closed her eyes and leaned back in the chair. “I would have crushed you. Suffocated you with how much I needed. I was never the same after my time with Jeremy. I self-medicated. I hid. I still hide. Francine and I retreated into the smallest versions of our lives we could manage. Gloria would try her best to pull us out, but the world is just too overwhelming for me. You were on a trajectory of surpassing your father and I. Being better than we ever were, even at our best. I didn’t want to interrupt that. I’d been selfish enough already.”

  “I’d have come to you. I’d have gotten into that small world of yours and met you where you were.” Lauren shot back. “You could have just called me on the phone.”

  “Now is the right time. I’m finally worthy of coming back into your life. I’ll spend as much time as you need showing you that. If you’ll let me.”

  She couldn’t answer. The rug beneath her feet, the promise that things could change, felt like it could be yanked back any minute. “What’s happening on the island? Why would Gloria leave me part of it?”

  Talia pulled out a cigarette with her shaking hands and tucked it between her lips. “It’s the place we never had. Secure. Self-contained. Full of opportunities to get better. To forgive yourself.”

  Francine finally lit with a smile. “It’s a sanctuary. There are still men in the world like Jeremy. The ones with power and connections who are so deranged they can’t be stopped by normal channels. When that happens, the people in their paths have to be protected. It can only happen in a place this remote. A place the people in need have no known connection to. We found the property five years ago. It took some enhancements and improvements but it came together quickly.”

  “There are women living in there? Hiding?” Tray’s face fell somber.

  “And some children too.” Talia looked straight at Lauren. “No one should have to leave their children behind to get away. We’ve created a city on that small island. Teachers. Counselors. Doctors. Everything is there, and no one who isn’t invited can come. These rings are a symbol of our commitment to them. A way for people on the island to know that we’re to be trusted. That’s why Gloria left the ring to you. It’s far more than a piece of jewelry.”

  “The guards.” Tray nodded finally putting the pieces together. “They thought we were here to do some harm.”

  Talia looked over at a few of the other customers and smiled. “The entire village is in on this. They use a code word if something seems suspicious. They sound the alarm if there is some truly impending risk. The people who arrive here can be in all sorts of conditions. Isola San Verde Lago takes their role in protection and healing very seriously. None of it would work without them.”

  “It’s all very admirable.” Lauren tucked a few of her curls behind her ears. It was impossible to deny how similar her mother’s locks were to her own.

  Talia drew in a deep breath. “But it gives you none of the answers you need. I’m still the woman who left and never came back.”

  “You don’t need to explain yourself to me. It’s clear you’ve been through a lot in your life. I’m sorry that happened to you.”

  “But it wouldn’t happen to you?” Talia blinked slow at her. “You think you’re the type of woman who wouldn’t be with a man like that?”

  Lauren pursed her lips. Waiting to find the right words. “All kinds of women come across men like that. Strong women. Kind women. These assholes don’t discriminate.”

  “But I’m asking you. Would it happen to you?”

  “No.” Lauren leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “It would not happen to me.”

  “Why?” Talia’s challenging glare was irritating the hell out of Lauren. She wasn’t here to play games and get cornered into some hypothetical situation.

  “What does that matter?”

  “It matters,” Francine said firmly.

  “Oh, so this is part of the interview that decides if I’m worthy of something I never asked for. I know Gloria intended for this to be some kind of healing moment. I was supposed to hear all this and understand why my mother never bothered to even pick up the phone all these years. Why she never explained any of this to me until now. Until I’m cornered.”

  Beneath the table Tray placed his hand on her knee. Squeezing gently. Not to quiet her, but so she knew he was there.

  Talia gulped back her brewing emotion. “You aren’t cornered. You can leave at any time and we can forget al
l about this. But we hope that is not the case.”

  Francine pressed on coolly. “Can you answer the question? Do you think you’d ever find yourself with a man like Jay? “

  “It’s possible I could meet a man like Jay and be swept up in whatever charisma he had cobbled together on top of his shitty personality. But long before he ever thought to raise a hand to me, he’d be gone. Maybe missing some body parts, too.” She folded her arms across her chest and tipped her chin up.

  “Why?”

  “Why what?” Lauren knew her voice was sharp and unforgiving. There were too many layers to this onion to try to figure out what the worst part of all this was.

  “Why would you toss him to the curb so quickly?”

  Lauren thought about it for a long moment. “Because I spent enough years with Gloria to know what a dirtbag looks like, and if by some chance I missed the signs, she also gave me plenty of ways to deal with them. Plenty.”

  Talia smiled like a toddler who’d just stacked her blocks up higher than ever. “That’s what I thought.”

  Francine sipped her now cold tea. “This operation can’t survive without someone like Gloria. Talia and I have our roles in all this. We find the best doctors. Seek out resources needed. Financial support. Lots of behind-the-scenes work. But Gloria, she had a network of shelters and havens all over the world that would reach out to her with especially dangerous cases. Situations where the woman was unlikely to live if she couldn’t get away and stay hidden for a period of time. In Gloria’s travels she continued to build these relationships and seek out potential tenants for the property.”

  Tray, who’d managed to bite his tongue finally spoke up again. “This is all completely under the radar? No one knows any of this? Only you two and now us?”

  Talia nodded. “Even the people Gloria works with in her network don’t know the exact location or details. When she fell ill, Francine and I panicked.”

  Francine let out a breathy laugh. “Which is practically our normal setting anyway. But this time we had a good reason. We knew it would take someone incredible to fill Gloria’s shoes. Layla was going to take over her role at Kinross Inc. but this was different. It required not only the skill to manage all the contacts but the judgment and integrity to maintain the philosophy behind it all.”