Foolish Temptations

by Danielle Stewart

  Maribel folded her arms across her chest. “This is insane.”

  “I agree. Let’s go.”

  “Are you implying I’m the one being crazy? The truth is the truth is the truth. These people can twist it and deny it all they want, but they can’t change it.”

  “I know that’s how it looks to you, Maribel. But the rest of the world isn’t this black and white rigid place full of absolutes. There is so much gray whether you’re willing to admit it or not.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means sometimes something can be right and wrong all at once. You can feel something and know it’s true, just as clearly as you know it’s wrong. These people aren’t idiots. They’re not monsters. They are trying to hold together what they have built. They are trying to keep their heads above water. That’s all.”

  “And I’m pulling them down?”

  “You’re trying to hold a spotlight on something they don’t want to see. Something that will kill them to realize. I know that’s not lost on you.”

  “It’s not,” she said through a pained smile. “But I refuse to believe burying something helps anyone. That’s the real poison. The rumors and the misplaced hate. We’re talking about a little girl who was so determined to make everyone proud, she drove herself mad. She broke. They should know that.”

  “You never give up do you, Maribel?” His words weren’t a compliment.

  “I don’t. Not on something I know is right. At this moment you might not agree with me. You don’t even need to stand beside me. Get on the plane and go back. But I’m not going anywhere. Not yet.”

  “This isn’t about Junie anymore, is it?” Aden kicked at the dirt.

  “It’s about Elsie and Ian,” Maribel admitted. “I talked to someone today who knew them. Their love was real. Their love was enduring, and it deserves a chance. If I can’t give them that, I will at least give them peace in the truth.”

  “He left her.” Aden’s eyes came up slowly from the ground and met her gaze. “Two days before she did it, he left on a ship bound for the US. Their love wasn’t enduring, Maribel. He abandoned her, and she killed herself because of it. So maybe he didn’t give her the pills, but he certainly gave her a reason to take them.”

  Maribel smiled, her brows lifting high. “So he didn’t do it. That’s all we know. We don’t know why he left. We don’t know how she felt about it. But we know he didn’t kill her.”

  “You understand all the roads here lead to tragedy. We already know the ending. You can fill in all the blanks you want, but that won’t change. The grave you saw that night is still hers. It will be, no matter what. Ian is still in his grave, taking with him something he clearly wanted to remain a secret. There will not be a happy ending or a silver lining.”

  “I think this sums it up pretty well between us actually.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You’re under the impression all I want is this rose-colored view of the world. All I want is the fairy-tale ending. I don’t want an ending in my life, I want a beginning. A messy middle with tons of drama. You think I want perfection and platitudes. I want the mess because with it comes something you can’t get when everything is perfect. So drop the illusions of who you think I am and what you are so sure I want.”

  He opened his mouth to reply but quickly snapped it shut.

  “Go to the airport, Aden. Go home and pretend none of this ever happened.”

  “Where are you going?” His voice was shaky and quiet.

  “I’m going to talk to a woman who knows exactly what this is all about. A woman who had the key the whole time, sitting in her shop. Goodbye, Aden.” Maribel looked up at the now cloudless night sky that was full of stars. She knew there would be more rain someday. It was inevitable. But right now she was glad for the twinkling reminder of far-off, unexplored places. The world was bigger than this tiny moment and filled with possibilities. She just had to decide to grab them.

  Chapter 27

  “You looking for another pounding?” Kenan asked as he rounded the corner of the outside of the pub to see Aden standing there.

  “I was waiting for you.”

  “Be still my heart, Romeo, but you’re not my type. I’d make yourself scarce before any of these guys decide to have round two with you.”

  “I had them all on the ground by the time you came in,” Aden recounted. “You basically fended off a few stragglers.”

  “So you weren’t waiting out here to thank me?”

  “No. I want to know where Maribel would go. She ran off, and now I’m not sure where to find her.”

  “You’re supposed to convince her to leave here. You get that it’s the right thing, I know you do. Whatever mission she thinks she’s on, you need to get her to back off.”

  “I tried.”

  “Not hard enough. That girl is head over heels in love with you. I can’t for the life of me figure out why, but she is. If you care about her at all, you’ll get her on the next flight out of here.”

  “Is that a threat?”

  “Not from me,” Kenan barked back. “I’ve done nothing but be kind to her and wipe away the tears you’ve caused. I’m looking out for her when I tell you to leave.”

  “I know you are,” Aden admitted reluctantly. “That’s why I know you’ll help me find her. She said she was going to talk to a lady who knew more than she said. A woman who had the answers in her shop this whole time? Who?”

  “Oh man.” Kenan ran his hands through his hair. “My auntie. She must be talking about the journals. She must think she pointed her to those because she wants the truth to come out. But trust me, she doesn’t. She’ll be angrier than any of those guys in the pub if Maribel starts asking those questions.”

  “I need to get her.”

  Kenan sighed. “I’m coming too. Just do me a favor.”

  Aden looked at him with a sideways glance. “What?”

  “When this is over and you fly back to whatever place you’re going, don’t keep hurting Maribel. I’m a guy stuck in this town who only gets to meet women like her for a week at a time. You have the chance to be with her every day. If you’re too stupid to appreciate that, leave her alone and give one of us other guys a chance to make her happy. You can’t have it both ways.”

  Aden nodded and headed off in the direction of the town.

  “I’ve got my car. I’ll give you a ride.” Kenan fished his keys out of his pocket and shook his head. “I can’t believe I used to complain about how boring this place was.”

  As they drove toward town, Aden considered Kenan’s position. “You’re a good guy, as much as I hate to say that. You’re the kind of guy she should be with.”

  “I agree.” Kenan gripped the wheel tightly. “But we would never last.”

  “Not long distance, you wouldn’t.” Aden huffed. “I mean you could make her happy and treat her right.”

  “I hesitated.” Kenan rolled his window down and hung an arm out. “That’s why we wouldn’t last. You were in the pub and presumably getting your ass kicked, and she had to beg me to go in. There was a look in her eye that killed me. And she said if the roles were reversed you’d have had my back right away. It didn’t matter about anything else. You would. Is that true?”

  “Yeah,” Aden admitted, though he didn’t see his point.

  “Maribel wants a guy who runs in and doesn’t think about the situation or the consequences. I think. I ponder. I brood even. It’s safe. I stay in a place like Gallamare because it’s safe. You don’t think. You’re rash, and I bet that leads to a lot of shitstorms in your life.”

  “More than you can imagine,” Aden smirked. “More than she deserves to deal with.”

  “Maribel doesn’t want a guy who hesitates, even at the cost of some mistakes.”

  “A lot of mistakes,” Aden corrected.

  “But a lot of adventures, right? A hell of a lot of stories, I’m sure. You can hide behind the fact that some of your risks haven’t p
aid off, and maybe you’ll fuck up again someday.”

  “I think that’s a given.”

  “So if you’re going to do that anyway, why not do it with a woman who looks at you like she does. You see risks as reckless. You think courage is careless. And worst of all you think failure is the same as worthless. She doesn’t think any of that. And if you had to put your money on one of you being right, which one of you is a hell of a lot smarter than the other one?”

  Aden pinched the bridge of his nose as he quickly saw the point that had been baffling him all this time.

  “Now we need to make sure my auntie doesn’t knock her block off with a book before we can get there.”

  Kenan skidded the car to a stop, and they both hopped out in front of the bookstore. The lights were on and two shadows moved along the back wall.

  “Maribel,” Aden shouted as he burst through the door.

  “Hell on earth, child,” the old woman said as she clutched her chest. “Why are you bursting in here like the sky is falling?”

  “Auntie, there is something going on, and I need to talk to Maribel in private.” Kenan pleaded with his eyes for Maribel to come outside.

  “It’s about Elsie?” Aileen had clearly connected the dots by seeing Aden and Maribel together. He’d been the one fishing around earlier.

  “It is,” Maribel admitted softly. “I wasn’t sure you’d be here this late.”

  “I had some inventory to count.”

  “Did you give me those journals for a reason?” Maribel asked in a gentle voice. “Did you want me to dig deeper into something here?”

  Aileen looked over at Kenan. “I’ve lived here all my days. I’ve seen sadness and joy. I’ve seen it all. But that doesn’t mean I can talk about every bit of it. Some pain is just too deep.”

  “You loved Elsie? Everyone here seemed to. From reading the journals and talking to some people I can see why. She was very special. I’m not trying to tarnish her memory in any way.”

  A crease formed in Aileen’s forehead. “She wanted to leave here so badly. Did you know that Kenan? She sounded just like you sound when you talk about being stuck here.”

  “Auntie, I’m ungrateful sometimes. I sound like a petulant child when I complain. But I am sorry if it sounds like I’m unhappy here.”

  “You are. You should be. This place is too small and too full of small-minded people for a man like you. Your life is bigger than this place. That’s how Elsie was. But just like her, you feel beholden to the place that raised you. But you aren’t. Life begins when you leave. Hers would have.”

  Aden cleared his throat. “He left her here.”

  “Not exactly,” Aileen whispered as she made her way to a chair. “I can’t hardly talk about this, you know. It’ll wreck me. My hand in this, my responsibility in the matter, it haunts me.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kenan asked with a sharp edge to his voice. “You didn’t have anything to do with what happened to her.”

  “We’ve done this dance a long time, Kenan. This whole town has. Should we keep up the charade, or is it finally time?”

  Aden looked over at Maribel whose face was filled with worry. The wall was about to crumble, but would they all be buried beneath it?

  “Auntie, you don’t have to do this. They will be gone in a day, and we can forget any of this ever came up. You aren’t responsible for what happened.”

  “I loved Elsie so much. I knew she and Ian couldn’t stay here.” Aileen pulled a tissue from her sleeve and dabbed her eyes. “This place would crush them. He’d never get a job. He’d always be the boy who ruined the girl we all loved. That’s not a legacy you can come back from. Not around here. He knew it too. If Elsie was going to have a good life, it couldn’t be with Ian in Gallamare. ”

  “So he left?” Aden pressed.

  “But what about her?” Maribel asked, her eyes fixed on Aden. “He just abandoned her? He decided she was better off without him and he left?” The shake in her voice was cutting. She knew the pain in this story. She could tell it was on their horizon.

  “That wasn’t the plan. He left her a note.” Aileen braced herself on the arms of the chair as though she were on the uphill side of a rollercoaster about to go over.

  “What plan?” Kenan’s eyes went to slits, and his shoulders rose sharply. “You told me he left. You went along with the story that he hurt her and left. That’s what you’ve always said. Just like everyone else. What are you saying?”

  “I gave him money to go.” She dropped her head as though she’d suffered a blow. “She was supposed to meet him. He’d get settled and find a job, then in less than a month he’d send for her. But he and I didn’t tell anyone. If people knew they’d never let it happen. The idea of her going off with him, they would have stopped at nothing to make sure it didn’t happen. I was trying to protect them both. He planned to tell Elsie last minute so she couldn’t try to talk him out of it. A ship came in, and I got word there was a spot for him. He wrote her a letter.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kenan paced the room.

  When Aileen couldn’t manage to explain, Aden stepped in. “Ian left two days before Elsie died. He would have been far out to sea when it happened. He didn’t hurt her.”

  “So she did it to herself?” Kenan braced himself on the counter. “I can’t believe you knew this all along, and you lied to me.”

  “The letter Ian left her was found first by her mother. She tore it up and told Elsie he left her. That he ran off with someone else and wouldn’t be coming back. It destroyed her. She locked herself away and took a whole bottle of her pills.”

  “He didn’t do it?” Kenan whispered to himself. “This doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t he come back then? Why wouldn’t he be here?”

  “I told him not to,” Aileen sobbed. “I’m so sorry, son. It was a hectic time, and I was trying to do the right thing.”

  “What are we missing here?” Aden could sense a much deeper meaning behind the turn this conversation was taking. “Ian lost his girlfriend and child, and the town thought he was responsible, of course he wouldn’t come back. How could he?”

  “Only half of that is true,” Kenan admitted through a shroud of pain. “His child didn’t die. Stevie found Elsie and rushed her to the doctor in town. She had slipped into a coma. A medevac came and transported her to Dublin. There was a NICU there. They kept her alive as long as they could, and then I came into the world. My mother and I were on this planet for exactly twelve minutes together.”

  “Her parents?” Aden was doing the math a little faster than Maribel, but only because he could put the pieces of pain together faster.

  “Why didn’t they keep me? Good question. You have a new answer for that one, Auntie? It used to be they were too heartbroken to go on.”

  “They were,” Aileen insisted vehemently. “They tried to care for you, but the guilt, what my sister had done to that letter, and in turn to her daughter, wasn’t something she could cope with. You were a reminder of that.”

  “So this entire time I’ve thought I’m half saint and half Satan, it was all a lie. My mother wasn’t perfect, and my father wasn’t a murderer.” Kenan ran his hands through his hair and laughed humorlessly. “Why didn’t he come back for me? You told him not to, and he listened? I don’t believe that. If he loved my mother so much, if he was such a good man, he’d have come back.”

  Aileen rocked back and forth uneasily. “When he called me and said he was there and settled, I told him there had been an accident and you were both killed. I knew if I told him anything different he’d come back, and the people in this town would either have him thrown in jail, or they’d kill him themselves. You know that’s true.”

  “But I could have gone to him when I was older. You could have told me the truth. Where is he now?”

  Maribel sniffled as she wiped at her cheeks. “He’s dead. His heart gave out.”

  “You knew him?” Kenan gasped. “That’s why you’re
here? Some twisted hunt for something that doesn’t matter anymore. He’s dead and look what you’ve done.” He gestured over to Aileen.

  “I’m so sorry. But it does matter. We are here for a reason.”

  “Maribel,” Aden said firmly, knowing she was about to share the real reason they were here.

  “No Aden, they deserve the truth. We never met Ian O’Malley, but we know his daughter, Junie.”

  “Daughter,” Aileen said, holding her chest. “He had more children.”

  “Five,” Aden said flatly. “We came here because Junie’s fiancé asked us to see if Gallamare would be a place they could get married. Junie knew so little about her father’s family, and he thought it would be special to surprise her with some kind of connection, maybe even some extended family at her wedding.”

  “This was not what we were expecting,” Maribel said apologetically. “It was supposed to be simple. Straightforward. But once we realized there was something tragic we knew we had to find the truth. From all the things Junie has said about her father, it seemed impossible he would hurt someone he loved. I promise you though, we didn’t set out to hurt anyone.”

  “Excuse me if that doesn’t bring me an abundance of comfort.” The edge in Kenan’s voice was what Aden had tuned in to.

  “Junie obviously won’t be getting married here. I want you to know she is incredibly important to us, and I was sent here to make sure she wouldn’t be hurt by what we found. That’s still my number one priority.” A glance of understanding passed between the two men.

  “I don’t see why she would have to know at all. Obviously she can’t come here, considering what everyone in town believes, or at least pretends to believe, about her father. If you’re looking for me to say this is done, then consider it said. You guys go back where you came from, and we can forget this ever happened.”

  Aden felt a rush of relief, but clearly Maribel disagreed. “We’re talking about a sister here. A person who has the same father as you. A person who can tell you what kind of man your father was. How can you possibly want to act like this never happened?”