by Laina Turner
Photographing Kate
A Moonshire Bay Romance
Laina Turner
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Thanks For Reading
About the Author
Also By Laina Turner (and L.C. Turner)
1
Kate sat in the courtroom fidgeting with the ends of her shoulder-length brown hair. Anxiety coursed through her body, making her regret the extra cup of coffee she’d had that morning. She’d needed it after a night of tossing and turning. Not having gotten a wink of sleep, she’d woken up fuzzy-headed and exhausted. While the extra caffeine had roused her, its side effects were now making her feel worse. Even though this moment had been coming for a long time, she still feared what the actual outcome of the day would be.
Knowing what was likely and knowing what was certain were two very different things.
Todd’s trial concluded over a month before, and Kate bided her time until this sentencing hearing. Waiting to find out what was going to happen was the worst part. She could only imagine how he felt—even though she tried not to care. He certainly hadn’t cared.
Todd had been in jail for thirteen months before the trial. His bail had been denied. Even after more than a year of dealing with him incarcerated, the entire experience still seemed surreal. Kate wondered if she’d ever come to terms with what had happened, and more importantly, if he ever would. She wasn’t sure about the former and seriously doubted the latter.
The side doors opened, and she saw her husband of twenty-eight years escorted by a guard who led him to his seat. Todd looked like he’d aged a decade in the month since the trial. She hadn’t spoken to him since he was found guilty, and he’d refused to see her when she’d attempted to visit. Before the verdict, he hadn’t even considered that he might lose and spend years in prison. Todd had told her during their weekly visits that he had this beat. He’d insisted that he had the best lawyers money could buy, and that they would get him off.
Knowing that he was facing up to thirty years in prison must have finally hit him. He was scared, she could tell by the way he fidgeted with his hands, even though she couldn’t remember having seen him scared in years. Not since their youngest was rushed to the hospital with appendicitis. Gone was the supremely confident man she knew, a quality that had originally drawn her to him all those years ago—in his place was a broken man.
As she watched her husband standing before the judge, a wave of pity washed over her—which was ridiculous after all he’d done to her and to their family. Kate knew that she didn’t owe him an ounce of pity, but it wasn’t so easy to turn off her feelings after twenty-eight years and three children together. He’d been her best friend, her partner in life, the person she thought she’d grow old and die with.
The judge walked in with his black robes swirling, appearing official and imposing. Kate’s hands began to shake and her knees bobbed up and down as her anxiety and fear mounted. What Todd had done was wrong, and he deserved to pay for his crimes, but she hated what this was going to do to their kids. It had already been hard enough for them. Kate couldn’t fathom how their dad being in prison for years would make them feel.
“All rise for the Honorable Judge Franklin Stedman,” a bailiff said—but Kate couldn’t see him because she was looking down at her feet, wishing the floor would swallow her up. She stood as instructed.
Kate only half-listened to the charges being read: embezzlement, money laundering, and fraud. She cringed as each one was said and gave a sideways glance at Todd. Her husband stared down at the table in front of him. When she heard the judge ask the defendant to rise, she forced herself to pay attention.
“Due to the severity of this crime, and the utter lack of remorse and the absence of sympathy for the victims, you are hereby sentenced to the maximum of ten years for felony embezzlement, fourteen years for money laundering, and six years for fraud. These sentences will be served consecutively, and you are to be remanded immediately to the Collins Correctional Facility.” The judge banged his gavel, and that was it.
Kate watched as the judge left, the lawyers packed up their briefcases, and her husband was led out in a manner that belied the fact that his life, as he knew it, was over. For her, the judge’s speech, which had taken no longer than a minute of his own life, had forever altered the lives of the five people in her family. After a moment, she realized that Todd’s actions had ruined many more lives than that, and she felt guilty for thinking that her family’s feelings mattered more than the families he’d hurt with his actions.
She sat there, rooted to the spot, unable to make her legs move.
“Mrs. Hamilton?”
Someone calling her name snapped her out of her trance. She looked up to see one of Todd’s attorneys standing in front of her. He seemed like a nice man. Throughout the ordeal, she’d always perceived him as compassionate toward her. In her opinion, he had done his best for Todd. She couldn’t help but wonder how he could defend criminals for a living or how he could sleep at night.
“I’m sorry,” he continued, and Kate could tell by his expression that his statement was genuine. “We knew that once he was found guilty, he was probably facing thirty years or so. Though with good behavior, he might be able to cut that down significantly.”
Somehow, this didn’t make Kate feel less shaken. Todd would be a senior citizen by the time he was released. Even if he only served ten or fifteen years, he would miss out on so many of his childrens’ life events. Kate wondered if Todd believed that it had all been worth it now that he was facing the consequences of his actions. She’d flat out asked him a few times after he was arrested, but he always refused to answer. He hadn’t said much at all to her since his arrest. Any conversation between them was mostly superficial or about the kids.
“Don’t be sorry. You did your job,” Kate said, her voice shaking as she stood. Absentmindedly smoothing the wrinkles that had come from sitting in her beige linen dress, she wished she’d worn something that didn’t look as rumpled as she felt.
He nodded, and she could see the look of concern on his face. She figured he was probably afraid she’d have a nervous breakdown. “Your attorney sent over the paperwork we’ve been holding off on. I wanted to wait until after the sentencing to have Todd sign, but as long as you still want to move forward, I will take care of things on his end. In the next couple of days, your divorce will be finalized.”
Kate nodded. “Yes, I still want to move forward,” she replied, as if she had a choice. Even if she had wanted to stay married to him, Todd filed for divorce six months prior. The only explanation he’d given was that it would be for the best for her to separate herself from his legal problems. At the time, she’d wanted to scream at him and beg for answers, but now, she felt numb to it all. Since then, she’d come to terms with the fact that their life as she
knew it was over. Even if he hadn’t been sent to prison, they wouldn’t stay married. There was no longer any trust or love. She cared about him still—but not in the way a wife should. She’d lived the past year as a single woman. Their marriage at this point was in name only.
“Once the papers are signed, I’ll send them back to your attorney and you’ll be all set.” He reached out and shook her hand briefly, then turned on his heel and strode out of the courtroom.
He was probably heading to meet with his next client, Kate figured. Her life was being ripped apart while he was conducting business as usual.
She looked at her watch, which read 10:28 a.m. The entire hearing had only taken about twenty minutes, yet she felt as if she had been there for hours. She retrieved her phone and saw that her best friend Claire had already texted to ask how things had gone. Kate typed a quick response with the details and a promise to call her later.
Not in the mood to talk to anyone at the moment, she wanted to be left alone.
Kate slung her purse over her shoulder and headed out the courtroom doors. The last person to leave, she stepped out onto the busy sidewalk and closed her eyes briefly against the warmth of the spring day. When she opened them, she wondered what to do now. She wasn’t ready to go back home to Gerritsen Beach, where, only two weeks before Todd was arrested, they had moved into the investment property they’d purchased twenty years earlier with the intention of making it their permanent residence now that all of the kids had moved out.
Gerritsen Beach, a peninsula east of Brooklyn’s Sheepshead Bay, was fairly quiet with only one road going in and out. It was the perfect place to leave behind the hustle of the city for a more relaxed life. Kate loved the property there, but given the timing of their move, she hadn’t found time to enjoy it due to all the stress the trial had caused. That was something else she wanted to be mad at Todd for, but she knew that it no longer mattered. She could be mad all she wanted, but it wouldn’t make a bit of difference. She needed to let her anger go for her own well-being, difficult as that might be.
Later that evening at home, Kate got up to refill her wine glass and had to open a new bottle to do so. She’d drank more than she realized.
“But hey, your husband only gets sent to prison once,” she said to herself with a laugh. “Definitely a reason to drink if ever there was one.” She opened the second bottle and poured another glass, then took both back to the living room.
As she was sitting there feeling sorry for herself, her phone buzzed. It was her daughter Chelsea calling. Kate had already spoken with her other two kids, TJ and Kellie, earlier in the day. She hadn’t been able to reach Chelsea, but had left her a message to call when she got the chance. Kate figured Chelsea had undoubtedly already heard what happened in court from her siblings.
“Hey, sweetheart. How was your day?” Kate inquired with forced cheerfulness. She’d done her best to hide the hurt and pain that Todd had caused. No matter what she was going through, the kids had it worse. They had lost their father, and even though they were adults and technically no longer children, Kate knew that hadn’t made it any easier.
“Probably better than yours,” Chelsea answered dryly.
Kate chuckled. She could always count on Chelsea to cheer her up. As the oldest, Chelsea was easygoing and the most pragmatic. She also had a sarcastic, dry wit, much like her father’s. Todd had always had a good sense of humor.
Their other daughter, Kellie, was a bit more high-strung. TJ, their son and the youngest of the three, was what Kate considered a typical twenty-one-year-old college senior. Since all this had started, Chelsea had been the one to check up on her the most. She had also been the most realistic about what was going to happen to their dad.
“I’m okay.”
“Oh Mom, of course you’re not okay. You don’t have to pretend with me. Your husband was just sentenced to over twenty years in prison for stealing other people’s money. You can be not okay. It’s allowed.”
“So, you know?”
“I talked to Kellie.”
“How do you think she’s doing? She tries to tell me she’s fine when I know she’s not. I know she wants to protect my feelings, but she doesn’t need to hide hers.”
Todd had always been Kellie’s favorite parent. She was a typical daddy’s girl. This ordeal had been hardest on her, and she was having a tough time putting any blame on Todd. While Kate could understand and had been sympathetic, Kellie’s siblings were less so, feeling that she needed to face reality. It had put a strain on their relationships.
Kate was hopeful they could work through their differences of opinion because they needed each other now more than ever.
“She’s convinced that he’ll win on appeal because he’s been wrongfully convicted. I’ve tried reasoning with her, TJ’s tried, but she just won’t listen.”
Kate sighed. “You know that’s not going to happen. He’s not going to appeal. Even if he wanted to, there’s no money.”
“I know, and I told her. She’s going to have to work through it on her own, but she’ll be okay. I’m more worried about you.”
“Honey, don’t be worried about me,” Kate insisted, attempting to sound as upbeat as she could. She was unable to bear the thought of being the source of more worry and pain for her children.
They chatted for a few more minutes about what was going on in Chelsea’s life and her job as a junior ad executive. Kate kept trying to redirect Chelsea’s focus from her worries about her mother to more positive topics.
When the call ended, Kate set the phone on the table. She picked up her glass of wine, leaned back on the couch, and closed her eyes. What she had thought would be her future was no more. For the first time in her life, she had no idea what her next step would be.
2
The next morning, Kate sat at the kitchen table, drinking her coffee and hoping it would ease her pounding headache. She was mildly regretting the drinking without eating from the previous night when she heard a knock on her front door.
She opened it to find the sheriff standing there.
“Mrs. Hamilton?”
“Yes.” She nodded slowly, pretty certain that she knew what his visit was about.
“Here you go, ma’am,” he said solemnly while handing her a manila envelope. She shut the door, opened the envelope, and perused the document in her hands. It contained a foreclosure notice, as she’d expected. Walking back into the kitchen, she forcefully tossed the stack onto the table, while wishing she could toss away her problems just as easily.
Even though she’d been anticipating the foreclosure receiving it hurt just the same. Her house—what was supposed to be the last home in which she would live—where she’d intended to enjoy what should have been the golden years of her life, would soon be gone before she’d even had the chance to live there.
Feeling frustrated with her situation, Kate reheated her now cold coffee in the microwave. Just as she sat back down, her phone vibrated. Sighing, she wished she had shut it off the previous night and left it off, but she wanted to be available in case her kids needed her. It was Claire calling, and even though Kate really wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone, she knew that her tenacious friend wouldn’t give up until she answered. That’s what best friends did when they knew you were in crisis. They hounded you until you caved.
Might as well answer and get it over with, Kate thought while hoping that her life, and how she felt, would all go back to normal soon. “Whatever normal is,” she muttered to herself. “What a stupid word.”
She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hey, Claire.”
“It’s about time you answered. I was getting worried,” Claire gently chastised. Even though Kate had been hesitant to pick up, the sound of Claire’s voice made her feel a little less alone.
Kate pulled the long cardigan she’d thrown over her pajamas a little tighter around her, as if to ward off a chill, before she answered. “I’m fine. I just wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. I’m s
till not.”
“Of course you don’t want to talk to anyone about what you’ve been through, but you don’t need to hide from me. I’m not just anyone. And don’t pretend you’re fine, at least not with me. Your world has turned upside down. You’re allowed to not be fine.”
That’s what Chelsea had said, Kate thought, and she smiled in spite of herself. She felt lucky to have both a great daughter and a great friend in her corner. “I know, I know. I guess I’m trying the fake-it-until-you-make-it angle, though I want to be miserable today and wallow in my self-pity. I got the foreclosure notice.”
“Oh, honey. I’m sorry.”
“Me too,” Kate said. She tried to remind herself that it was ridiculous to be mad over circumstances that were out of her control, but she was angry, so very angry. She was angry at Todd, and frankly, at herself for not seeing what her husband was doing right under her nose.
“You know, I was thinking now that the trial is over, you should come visit. Get out of New York. Get away from everything. Come relax. Jim and I would love to have you.”
Claire had badgered Kate for the last two years about coming to see her. She and her husband Jim had raised their children in nearby Queens, but had moved once their kids were all out of the house. Now their home was in a small town in Michigan. Moonshire Bay was about ninety minutes northeast of Detroit, on a small inlet that was fed by the waters of the St. Clair River and Lake Erie. Like Kate’s house in Gerritsen Beach, Claire and Jim’s new cottage had been purchased with a plan to retire in Michigan, where Claire was born and raised. Claire raved about the community nestled on Moonshire Bay, constantly telling Kate how beautiful it was and how amazing the people were.
