“In the kitchen, honey,” his mother called out.
Michael carried the groceries into the kitchen and set them down on the Formica countertop. He leaned in to kiss his mother’s cheek and gave his father a quick nod. “I got all the things on your shopping list. Picked up a pot roast too. Got a great price.”
The price of the roast was only partially true, but Michael needed something to counterbalance the bad news he was about to drop on his parents’ heads. He waited until the three of them gathered around the dining table where his father murmured a quick blessing for the meal. In the center of the table, the rich aroma of roasted garlic rose from the oil-slathered dinner rolls. Ordinarily, his mother’s pasta sauce would have stirred his appetite.
Now, he could scarcely breathe through the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. “I was in town earlier and heard some news.”
“Oh?” His father reached for his fork and began eating.
Michael stared at lines etched deeply into his father’s face. He glanced over at his mother’s gray-streaked hair and tired eyes, wrinkled and shadowed from several months of poor sleep. He braced himself. “I heard Lily Herald is coming back to town.”
His father’s fork stopped midway on the way to his mouth.
His mother’s knife clattered to her plate.
“It’s just a rumor—” Michael hastened to say.
“It isn’t, is it?” Jason Falconer said. His deep baritone was even, and only a family member, attuned to the subtle nuances of Jason’s voice, would have heard the layer of profound grief.
Michael grimaced.
“Do you know when? And why?”
“I haven’t heard a date, and I don’t know why she’s coming. No one does.” Michael fought to suppress the little twitch in his cheek. What if Ariel was right? What if Lily was coming back to see him? It made no sense. Why would she?
“I suppose she’s got a right to be here,” Connie Falconer said, her lips pressed into a thin line. “Though you would think she’d have enough manners to stay away.”
Michael frowned. “Manners?”
Connie’s hands fluttered in front of her chest. “She must know she’ll awaken all those old memories, those vicious rumors.”
“What rumors?”
His mother’s eyes went curiously blank. “It was so long ago, Michael, and they were all lies, anyway. The girl was just jealous that Raphael had found another girlfriend who was prettier than she was.”
Michael’s eyebrows drew together. “What rumors were they, exactly?”
His mother waved his concern away. “It doesn’t matter. It’s all in the past now, and it wouldn’t be fair to gossip anyway, when your brother’s not here to defend himself.” Her voice quavered.
Michael shook his head. She was right. There was no point in digging it up; not when the present offered enough complications and challenges to keep them all occupied.
Connie continued. “It’s going to be horrible if she’s coming back to town just to trash his reputation.”
“Lily wouldn’t do that.” His instinctive defense of Lily surprised him, but the words slipped out before he could check himself.
“Oh, wouldn’t she?” His mother’s eyes brimmed with tears. “She used her wealth to pave her way to popularity. Well, she’s going to learn that she can’t do that here in Portsmouth, not anymore. Not after what she did to Raphael.”
“Raphael shot her.”
Connie frowned. “Raphael would not have shot anyone unless he was truly driven to it.”
“Mom, he shot her in front of their daughter.”
Connie’s lips twisted into a pained half-smile. “You were always infatuated with her. It’s no surprise you’d take her side instead of your brother’s.”
Michael scowled. “I’m not taking sides.”
“Of course you are. I’d always known she was trouble. You should listen to yourself. The pretty girl wins out over family ties and—”
“Mom!”
“Then what is it?” Connie leaned forward and set her elbows on the table. “You saw how it was once they got married. She never came with Raphael when he came to visit us. She didn’t let Raphael bring Miki either. She would have eventually persuaded him not to visit us at all.” Connie’s voice shook. “Promise me you won’t be swayed by her. Not again. I couldn’t possibly lose both my boys to that…woman.”
Michael’s eyes narrowed. Had his mother almost called Lily a whore? His mother never used those kinds of words; they screamed against her genteel Southern upbringing, but Lily had a way of pushing people to their limits.
Perhaps even past their limits.
Michael released his breath in a sigh. “Mom, I swear, you have nothing to worry about. Lily doesn’t want to have anything to do with me, and I want nothing to do with her.”
Chapter 3
The sky was a brilliant blue and the day pleasantly warm when Lily Herald pulled her black Mercedes into the driveway of her parents’ Portsmouth home. The redbrick, colonial-style house presided over three acres of prime waterfront real estate, including a six-stall stable, a guest bungalow, and a wooden dock for a 70-foot boat. It represented a fraction of the luxury and wealth in her parents’ worldwide assets, but it was the location of some of her most precious memories.
Lily pressed on the button to lower the window and drew in a deep breath. Dread still cobwebbed her mind, but the future smelled sweet. Her taut shoulders relaxed subtly as she exhaled. I’m home.
I have my entire future ahead of me. And I have Miki.
She brushed a stray lock of blond hair away from her face and turned to look at Nancy Jessen, who sat in the passenger seat. Nancy, a pleasant-faced woman with graying hair coiffed in a neat haircut, was in her early sixties. Twenty-five years earlier, she had been hired by Elizabeth and Carrington Herald to care for their newborn daughter, Lily. When Lily was old enough to have a child of her own, Nancy became Miki Falconer’s nanny too.
Miki, strapped in her car seat, huffed an exasperated sigh and kicked her legs against her mother’s seat. “We there yet?” she asked in the lilting tones of a bored two-year-old.
“We’re here.” Lily cut the engine and turned to Nancy. “Why don’t you take her in? I’ll get the luggage.”
Nancy shook her head. “I’ll get the bags. I can manage just fine. You should take her in and show her the house where you spent so much time each summer.” The older woman smiled. “It’ll help you remember the good times.”
Lily swallowed through the ache in her chest. Of course, Nancy was right; keep the past in the past. Lily shoved away the memory of Raphael as she stepped out of the car and released Miki from her car seat.
Her dark-haired daughter looked up at her. “We stay here?”
“Yes, that’s right. This is Grandma and Grandpa’s home, and for now, it’s our home too.” She unlocked the front door and stepped into the foyer. The marble floors sparkled and smelled of lemon-scented cleaner.
“Is someone there?” an alarmed voice called from the west wing of the house, where the kitchen and informal dining room were located.
“It’s Lily Herald.”
“Oh.” A woman, approximately ten years younger than Nancy, walked out of the kitchen. She wiped her hands on her skirt. Wearing a tight smile, she extended her hand. “I’m Patricia Jones. Mr. Carlson hired me as your housekeeper.”
“Wonderful. I’m glad to meet you.” Lily leaned down and gathered a squirming Miki into her arms. The still-healing muscles in her chest pulled sharply, but she managed to smile through the flare of pain. “And this is Miki. Miki, say hi to Miss Patricia.”
Miki’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, sending a pang through Lily’s heart. Distrust had been Miki’s standard reaction ever since the shooting.
At that moment, Nancy walked into the house with two small bags. Lily glanced over her shoulder, grateful for the diversion. “This is Nancy Jessen. She’s Miki’s nanny. Nancy, Patricia Jones, the housekeeper.�
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The two women exchanged courteous handshakes and wary glances. “Let me give you a hand with the luggage.” Patricia followed Nancy from the house out to the car, leaving Lily and Miki alone in the home.
“Want to play,” Miki said.
“In just a minute.” Still carrying Miki, Lily walked through her home. The dining room and kitchen were spotless, and the refrigerator, pantry, and wine closet fully stocked. The living room, dominated by a magnificent stone fireplace, had French doors that opened onto a covered patio overlooking the inlet. Ducks splashed in the water, and a long-legged blue heron waded in the shallows.
She had spent many hours out on the patio, enjoying the cool morning and her hot tea from the cushioned rocking chair. Lily relaxed into a smile as the familiarity of her surroundings steadied her racing heartbeat. Some things did not change; the house was still her home.
Her gaze drifted to the double hammock swaying slightly in the breeze coming off the water. She had spent hours on that hammock too, curled against Michael’s lean, strong body, allowing the rhythm of his steady heartbeat to lull her to sleep.
She shoved that memory away. This isn’t about Michael or me. I’m here for Miki’s sake, and Miki alone.
“Play!” her daughter’s demands cut through the cacophony in Lily’s head and heart.
Miki’s playroom, an octagonal-shaped room on the second floor, had already been set up with toys and books shipped from her parents’ Cambridge home. Sunlight poured in through the windows to pool on the colorful rugs scattered over the hardwood floors. As Lily walked into the room, her smartphone buzzed. She lowered Miki onto a boat-shaped rug and reached for her phone.
The name on the caller ID was Gabriel Cruz.
Lily couldn’t help the ironic snort. She was surrounded by people named after God’s archangels, and the only one who had been any good to her was her lawyer. “Hello, Gabriel.”
“Lily.” His smooth baritone was made for radio and for the courtroom. “I have news about the request we filed.”
Tightness clenched around Lily’s heart. “Good news, I hope?” Based on her track record in the past year, she was long overdue for a lucky break.
“Yes, it is. The judge thought it was highly unusual, but based on the judgments against Raphael and of course, the DNA testing, the judge has allowed for a reissue of Miki’s birth certificate. I went ahead and submitted the paperwork. They came in this morning—”
Lily’s grip tightened on the phone. “Does that mean Miki is now Miki Herald and no longer Miki Falconer?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“That’s fantastic news, thank you.”
“The documents will go out, overnight, to you. I’m just calling to confirm where to send them.”
“I’m at the Portsmouth house.”
“All right. Look out for them tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Gabriel.”
“You’re most welcome. Enjoy your holiday.”
He hung up before she had a chance to tell him she wasn’t on vacation. No matter, really. She clutched the phone to her chest, over the bullet wound scar left by Raphael, and joyfully spun in a half-circle.
She froze in mid-step.
Patricia glowered at her from the door of Miki’s playroom.
How long had she been standing there? What had she heard?
The crevasse Raphael had fractured into Lily’s self-esteem almost caused her to retreat. A naturally stubborn streak allowed her to hold her ground. Her eyes narrowed. “Is there something you wanted?”
“No, ma’am.” Patricia’s formality injected an emotional distance between them.
Lily didn’t doubt that Patricia had done so deliberately. Her chin tilted up. Fine. It was a timely reminder that she had few friends in Portsmouth, as long as she didn’t allow it to drive her away.
She was staying for Miki.
Later that afternoon, Lily put a light jacket on a squirming Miki and strapped her daughter into the stroller.
Miki twisted in the seat to look up at her mother. “Where we going?”
“Where are we going,” Lily corrected gently. “We’re going to walk along the waterfront. There are lots of shops and cafés there.”
“Is it pretty?”
“It’s very pretty, darling. I think you’re going to like living here.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Miki’s eyebrows drew together as she frowned. “But no Daddy.” Her childlike voice was firm. Lily had never heard her father, the CEO of an international financial corporation, speak with as much decisive finality as Miki had marshaled into the definitive statement.
Or had it been an order?
“No Daddy, I promise.” Lily leaned down and pressed a kiss to Miki’s forehead.
The walk down to the old port took Lily and Miki along quiet, tree-lined streets, which opened up into a wooden boardwalk, lined with shops on one side. On the other side, boats docked along the pier.
Miki clapped her hands. “Go over there. Go play.”
“We can’t play in the water, darling. It’s a lot colder than it looks.”
“Get boat for water?”
“Yes, I suppose we could do that,” Lily said. Miki had enjoyed her most recent outing on her grandparents’ yacht. The boat and its crew could sail from Cambridge and dock at Portsmouth to be available for Miki’s day trips, but perhaps Miki needed to learn that things didn’t just happen because she demanded it or expected it.
Lily had learned that particular life lesson the hard way and lost the love that she had once hoped would last a lifetime. She gritted her teeth against the dull heartache. Leave the past in the goddamned past.
Fortunately, her rambunctious daughter did a great job of keeping her anchored in the present. “Go in there.” Miki pointed at a café with an attractive display of cakes in the window. “Hungry.”
“Didn’t Nancy give you a snack before we left?”
Miki’s rosebud mouth formed a pout. “Super hungry!” She pressed her fingers to her stomach and managed a passably good impression of a child starving to death, her rosy and chubby cheeks notwithstanding.
Lily’s lips barely twitched. She looked at the sign over the restaurant. Wave Café. She inhaled deeply. “All right, let’s get some food.”
She recognized the customers at the two occupied tables in the café. Peter Greenwich was a crusty old man whose wife had passed away twenty years earlier. Surprise flashed over his face, but he tipped his cap to Lily in a stately gesture. At the other table—unfortunately—was Mrs. Marshall, one of the key channels for the Portsmouth rumor mill.
Molly Marshall’s brown eyes lit as she pushed her not-inconsiderable bulk to her feet. “Is that you, Lily Falconer?”
Lily had expected that particular slight. She returned a polite smile edged with warning that her tolerance for bullshit was scarcely hovering above zero. “Actually, it’s Lily Herald; I never took Raphael’s last name. In fact, you might have heard that I divorced Raphael before he shot me.” She delivered her statement as blandly as if she were discussing her plans for a lazy afternoon listening to live music on the green quadrangle in front of city hall.
Peter Greenwich made a snorting sound. Lily glanced at him. His eyes were fixed on his coffee, but an amused smile twitched on his lips.
Molly’s smile quavered, but she bent down to look at Miki, who stared back at her with a frown. “And is this Raphael’s daughter?”
“This is my daughter, Miki Herald.”
Molly looked up. “Oh, you gave her your last name? That’s so…progressive.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Lily looked at the bakery display and the young woman staring at her from behind the counter. “Hello, Anna.”
Anna stiffened. “Hi, Lily.”
“Do you have any strawberry shortcake cupcakes? I recall they were really delicious. Miki would probably enjoy one.”
“Uh, one or two?”
“Two, please.
One for here, and I’ll take the other to go.” Lily chose a corner table and settled Miki in the highchair.
Anna hurried over with a cupcake on a plate and the other in a brown paper bag. “You look…the same.”
Lily chuckled. “You sound almost disappointed.”
“I mean, I just thought…after he shot you.”
“Scars heal, fortunately.” The physical scars were also more easily concealed beneath the high collar of the turtleneck she wore.
Anna did not move away from the table. Her jaw jutted out. “Nothing’s been quite the same since.”
“Would this be since I married Raphael, or since he tried to kill me?” Lily asked calmly.
Anna scowled. “Both. You wouldn’t have known or cared, of course, but you broke my sister’s heart when you married Raphael.”
“I did know that. You told me that, several times, very loudly, on my wedding day.”
“Oh.” Anna appeared momentarily flustered. “You broke Michael’s heart too.”
Yes, that I did know, and I’ll regret forever. With effort, Lily fixed an indifferent expression on her face.
“He spent years trying to get over you. He even stopped swimming for a while. In fact, he’s only just begun dating again. We’re dating.”
Pain, sharp and unexpected, stabbed through Lily. “How wonderful for you.”
Anna’s jaw tensed. “You don’t care, do you? You just don’t see what you’ve done to the town. All those summers we welcomed you and your family here. And now?” Her shoulders slumped on a sigh. “Pastor Falconer’s resigned from the ministry. He couldn’t bear the shame of what his son had done. They sold their house, too, the beautiful one on Oak Terrace, to pay for Raphael’s lawyers. What you did ruined them.”
“What I did?”
Anna shook her head. “You shouldn’t have come back. If you hadn’t, they might have begun to heal. As it is, the pastor and missus scarcely leave their house. Michael brings groceries over to them because they can’t hold their head up in public even though the entire town supports them.”
Lily’s jaw tensed. The people clearly sympathized with the Falconer family, but did the entire town support Raphael too? Did they all blame her?
Ensnared: A Love Letters Novel Page 2
