After the Storm: Midseason Episode 1 (Rising Storm)

by Lexi Blake

  Ginny stood in the doorway wearing a simple dress and sensible shoes, her hair pulled back in a bun. She looked shockingly young and innocent for the most scandalous girl in town.

  But then Lacey had held that title not too long ago.

  Ginny’s dark eyes seemed so very sympathetic. “I came by to pick up my things and I was hoping to see how your parents are doing. And you.”

  Lacey shook her head. “That’s nice, but it’s not a good time.”

  “Oh, I think it’s a perfect time.” Her mother stood behind her. “Come in, Ginny. I have a few things to say to you.”

  Lacey opened the door fully to let Ginny inside and prayed this didn’t end in another scandal.

  * * * *

  Celeste watched as Ginny Moreno stepped into her home. It was something she’d done a hundred times before. A thousand, likely. She used to show up on her doorstep looking for Jacob and asking Celeste if she’d made those chocolate cookies she loved. Ginny had been a little girl in pigtails, sitting at her breakfast table giggling with her children.

  Now that image was forever replaced with one of Ginny Moreno spreading her legs for Sebastian Rush.

  “I assume you’ve come for your things,” Celeste said, not recognizing the sound of her own voice. It was husky, as though she’d smoked for years. That wasn’t true, of course. A lady didn’t do that. But a lady did cry enough over her dead boy and lost grandchild that her voice was hoarse and crass the next morning.

  The girl had the good sense to not look her in the eyes. “Yes. I didn’t want you to have to pack them when I can do it. There’s not much here so it won’t take too long. I really don’t want to cause you any more trouble.”

  “I’ll help her.” Lacey stepped up, her precious daughter getting between her and the interloper. “She’ll be out of here in a few minutes. No more.”

  “I wasn’t going to pack anything,” Celeste heard herself saying. “I was going to throw it all on a fire and watch it burn. Light a match to it the same way you did my family’s reputation.”

  Now the girl looked up. “Your reputation is intact. None of this was your fault. Not yours or Lacey’s or your husband’s. All you ever were was kind and thoughtful toward me. Everyone knows that. You’re the victims in all of this.”

  How very naïve. She might have been brazen enough to pull the con she had, but she was still a child when it came to some things. That was obvious if she truly thought this scandal would play out and leave the Salt family intact. “But that’s not what they’ll say now, is it? They all know that Travis and I knew Jacob couldn’t father a baby. That medical report Dakota stole proved it.”

  Ginny paled. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Lacey said with a shake of her head.

  But it did. All of it mattered. She’d spent decades building a reputation, building a family, and this one girl had brought all of it down. A little voice in the back of her head said she wasn’t rational and this wasn’t fair, but in that moment she hated Ginny Moreno. “They’ll say crazy Celeste knew all along and she was so desperate for a grandchild that she would take any whore’s kid.”

  “Mother!” Lacey’s eyes had widened.

  Ginny shook her head. “It’s all right. I understand that she needs to say these things. I also know that she doesn’t really mean them. And people will understand that you had no reason to doubt me. Why would you? Why would you think I lied? So you thought it had to be a miracle. I know you don’t want to hear this, but it still might be. We don’t know anything yet and I…I have hope.”

  “You have hope?”

  Ginny’s hands came together as if in prayer. “It doesn’t excuse anything I did, but I still hope and pray that this baby is Jacob’s. I won’t love it less, but I hope for your sake that it is.”

  Celeste laughed, a nasty sound even to her own ears. Little Ginny should pray for an altogether different outcome. “You better hope for your sake that kid comes out of your womb looking exactly like my brother-in-law. Because if it doesn’t, I will take that child. I will sue you and get my grandchild and you won’t ever see him again. I’ll make sure of it. I won’t have him growing up with a lying, cheating slut for a mother.”

  “Momma, how can you talk like that? You taught me never to say that word.” It was easy to see she’d shaken Lacey up.

  “Let me amend my rules for ladylike behavior, Lacey. It’s only important when there are actual ladies present.” Her gut rolled with bile. “Tell me something, Ginny. Did you distract my son that day? Was this your plan all along?”

  “What are you talking about?” Ginny asked.

  She’d thought up every scenario possible the previous night. After crying until her eyes had nearly swollen shut, she’d lain awake all night while Travis slept and she’d thought this through. A plan like Ginny’s didn’t just come together in the heat of the moment. It required careful thought. Ginny had no problem using her family for her own gain. Now she wanted to know exactly how far the little liar would have gone.

  “I’m talking about what happened the day of the accident and before the accident. Tell me something. Did you actually sleep with my son? Or was that all a lie, too? If it hadn’t been Jacob, would it have been some other poor boy?”

  Ginny shook her head, looking to Lacey as though she had some answer. When Lacey didn’t respond, Ginny turned back to Celeste. “Some other boy? I don’t understand. There was only Jacob and yes, I did sleep with the senator and I’m so sorry I did it. It was a mistake, but it was my mistake and I should have owned it. I should have been up-front.”

  “You weren’t though.” She could see what Ginny was doing. She was attempting damage control. There would be no controlling this damage. “You didn’t own your sin. You simply committed another.”

  “Momma, maybe we should take a step back and look at this from a different perspective.” When had Lacey become the voice of reason?

  Celeste didn’t have the patience for reason this morning. “You didn’t tell anyone about Sebastian. Or did you? Did you go to your sister and she helped you hatch this plan?”

  Ginny’s eyes widened, her jaw firming, and Celeste finally knew where to hit her. “Marisol had nothing to do with it. Nothing. She wasn’t involved in any way. She’s innocent.”

  Yes, family was the way to take down Ginny Moreno, but Celeste still couldn’t do it. “Fine. I’ll believe you on that front, but I know you had to have planned this out. You likely discovered you were pregnant and panicked. You knew there was no way Sebastian would ever take care of you so you went looking for someone else. Someone not as jaded as my brother-in-law. You looked around and found my son. You slept with him to trap him, but what I really want to know is how far you went. Were you still weaving your web around him that day? Is that what caused the accident? Were you trying to make sure he would come home and present you as his girlfriend so when you turned up pregnant a few weeks down the line no one would question it?”

  She’d dreamed about it the night before. In the tiny pockets of time when she’d slipped away from consciousness, she’d dreamed about Jacob on the road in the rain and Ginny trying to wrap her arms around him, trying to drag him deeper. Every female knew instinctively how to trap a male.

  “I didn’t know I was pregnant until I woke up from the accident.” Ginny’s voice was an impassioned whisper. “I found out two things that changed my life in that moment. I found out that my best friend was gone and that I was pregnant. And I prayed so hard that I hadn’t lost all of Jacob forever.”

  Forever. That’s what she was looking at. She was looking at an entire lifetime of being a mother without a son. She loved her daughters dearly, but she would mourn Jacob forever. And this selfish girl was equating her pain as though they were the same. As though one night of spreading her legs gave her the right to mourn him.

  “I think you woke up and realized you had two options. Take care of that baby alone or worm your way into J
acob’s family and his money.”

  “I never cared about the money.”

  Celeste wasn’t going to listen to that tripe. “Of course you did. Not enough to keep your legs closed. You say you loved Jacob but how long did you wait before you hopped into bed with that Murphy boy? Did you even break it off with my brother-in-law? How many men do you need on your string?”

  “I’ve never slept with Logan, but I will admit that I’m in love with him. I love him in a way I never loved Jacob. Jacob was my best friend, but I know now that he wasn’t my soul mate. I pray with everything I am that this is his child, that we receive a miracle because I don’t want him to be lost forever, but I won’t hide what I feel for Logan and I won’t pretend it’s nasty. Not even to placate you, Celeste. I want to make things right between us and that means apologizing to you. Celeste, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I never meant to. I should have been braver. I should have been stronger, but I woke up and the world had crashed around me and I wanted the love you could give me. That all of you could give me. I’m sorry that it brought you so much pain.”

  Something about the way she was standing there enraged Celeste. How could she stand there looking so innocent? How could she say exactly the right things to garner empathy? Celeste didn’t want to empathize. She wanted to fight and tear up things and destroy the world around her because it seemed so damn intent on destroying her. She wanted to burn it all down.

  She didn’t feel her hand snap back, didn’t quite understand what she was doing. The world seemed tinged in red at the corners as though rage now filtered her vision. And it slowed everything down. In horror she realized she was going to strike Ginny Moreno. Her hand was going to bring justice her words never could.

  And then it slapped against flesh. A strong hand circled her wrist and Travis stared down at her like he had no idea who she was.

  “Stop it, Celeste.” Travis’s voice sounded ragged. “This is not the way to handle this situation. Ginny, Lacey will pack your things and you’ll get them by nightfall. Leave this house and do not come back.”

  The door slammed as Ginny turned and ran and Celeste was left with two people she loved. Two people who looked horrified at what she’d almost done.

  The tears began as Celeste freed herself from Travis and started for her bedroom. She might never leave it again.

  Chapter Three

  Dakota straightened her skirt and wondered at just how scared she was of walking out that door.

  “You’re sure you want to go to work?” Her mother stood in the kitchen, wringing her hands.

  No. She definitely did not want to go to work, but what was she going to do? She was in the right here. Everyone kept forgetting that. She was the victim of a lecherous old man who liked to play around with young girls because they didn’t know any better. “Of course. I’ve got to eat after all.”

  “Maybe you should consider moving back here for a while.”

  Dakota shook her head. She couldn’t think of a single thing that would be worse than having to stay in this pitiful house without her daddy. Last night had been bad enough. She’d allowed her mother to talk her into coming back to the house for the evening. She’d been a little shell-shocked at the time and she’d found herself walking like a zombie through the festival grounds and getting into her mom’s car, allowing her to run up to Dakota’s apartment and pack a small bag. Dakota had sat there, seeing the eyes of all those people on her.

  Judgmental eyes. They’d looked up at her like she was a slut, a whore who’d ruined everything. And then there had been the snake cold eyes of Senator Rush. Those eyes that had once promised affection had been lit with something else entirely.

  She thought she’d had people hate her before. Certainly she’d felt the icy stare of disapproval. But she’d never felt anything like the hate that had been festering in Sebastian’s eyes. It had chilled her to the bone.

  But this was morning and she wasn’t entirely sure her brain hadn’t made all of that up. It couldn’t be as bad as it had felt.

  “Mom, it’s fine. You’re being a drama queen. I’m sure Ginny Moreno is having a rough morning. After all, this was really about her. She’s the one who lied and took the poor Salt family on a ride. I was merely the messenger. I wouldn’t be surprised if they thank me in a few days.”

  Her mother stared at her, surprise obvious on her face. “Thank you? I doubt Celeste will be sending you a thank you card anytime soon. And what about the Rushes? Do you think they’ll thank you?”

  She hated the blush that crept over her. It was weakness and she despised it, but knowing her mom now knew about the affair between her and Sebastian made her nauseous. At least her daddy wasn’t around. But then of course if her father hadn’t dumped her she likely never would have ended up in the senator’s hands. It was really all their fault when she thought about it. “Payton should. Now she can divorce the bastard and move on with her life. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she’s far happier without that scumbag. So yes, in the end they should all thank me.”

  “It’s not going to work like that, Dakota.” Her mother shook her head and stepped back. “When you need to come home, the door is always open.”

  She watched her mother walk back into the kitchen and a knot of anxiety settled in her stomach.

  What if her mom was right? What if she’d been fooling herself and all those people really had been looking up at her with disgust?

  “Hey,” a familiar voice said.

  Damn it. She should have been faster if she wanted to avoid a fight with her sister. Mallory was always disgusted with her so this wouldn’t be anything new. “Sorry, I have to leave for work. See you later.”

  Mallory moved in. “You don’t have to be there for another forty-five minutes, and we both know there’s no traffic to get through. Talk to me for a minute.”

  “About what?”

  Mallory’s eyes widened. Yes, Dakota knew that look. It was her sister’s “dumbass said what” look.

  Fine. She kind of deserved that look. “I’m fine. The world is still turning and the sun came up. I told the truth and I didn’t immediately explode into a fiery ball of flames.”

  Her sister’s lips curled up the slightest bit. “The town totally exploded, Dakota.”

  Dakota shrugged. “It had to be said.”

  “I agree.”

  “What?” Of all the things her sister could have said, that was not what Dakota would have guessed. She’d expected nothing less than rage from her sister. After all, Dakota had outed Mallory’s crush’s sister as the town slut.

  But was she? That was likely a word that was going to get thrown around, but what had Ginny Moreno done that Dakota wouldn’t do? And what the hell was wrong with her this morning that she was even thinking those thoughts?

  Patrick freaking Murphy. Sometimes she heard him in her thoughts. He’d kind of started voicing the thoughts in her head she didn’t like. The ones that made her worry she wasn’t in the right.

  Mallory moved to the old couch where they’d sat together and watched cartoons all those years ago. She sat down and patted the place beside her. “I said I agree that the truth had to come out.”

  All right, if her sister was going to be reasonable, she could, too. She sank down to the couch, remembering all the times she’d sat with her dad. Why did she have to miss him so much? Why did she have to feel so lost without him telling her every day how perfect she was?

  Because without his voice, she’d started to realize it was all one big lie.

  “I’m glad you see that. It wasn’t a fun thing to do.”

  “I do agree that the truth had to come out, but, Dakota, that wasn’t the way to do it.”

  Ah, there was the judgment. “What was I supposed to do? Write a tell-all novel?”

  “How about sitting down with Ginny and talking to her?”

  “Why would I do that?” The trouble was she knew why she should have done that.

  “Dakota, you and Ginny survived somet
hing. I know a lot of people are going to say you’re an adult and you made a choice. And you did, but he’s got so much experience. Tell me he didn’t manipulate you.”

  She could remember how he’d smiled at her that first night at the bar, how he’d treated her like she mattered when now she knew she hadn’t. Not for a second. “He knew how to play me.”

  “He knew how to play Ginny, too.”

  She hated the tears that threatened. “I wanted him, Mal.”

  “Of course you did. He was something new and different, and you want out of this town so badly you can taste it. Everyone knows that. Likely he knew that. You say you wanted him, but I think you mostly wanted to be important to someone. You know, someone who’s not your family.”

  Sometimes she wasn’t certain she was important to anyone including her family. Not since her father had left. It was kind of nice to sit and talk with her sister civilly. “How’s Luis doing?”

  Luis Moreno was important to Mallory. She hadn’t really thought about how her announcement would affect Luis. Or Marisol.

  Mallory sighed and sat back. “I don’t know. I’ve talked to him briefly but I haven’t seen him. It’s kind of hard when you have two guards dedicated to keeping you apart.”

  “Marcus is still being rough on you, huh?”

  A groan told Dakota everything she needed to know. “He’s devoted himself to ensuring my purity.”

  Sometimes Dakota wished Marcus had been so devoted to her. Of course, she was likely one of the reasons Marcus was so focused on making sure Mallory stayed away from Luis. He’d seen how poorly it could go when he didn’t become involved. Still, she felt for her sister. “He’ll let up after a while. He’ll see that you make good choices.”

  Her sister blushed, the pink creeping up her skin. “Do I? I’m not so sure about that. God, it was so embarrassing.”

  Her sister’s attempt to seduce Luis had apparently not gone as well as she would have liked. “Hey, at least your almost affair was age appropriate. Marcus has to understand that. Especially now that he’s involved with…oh god. He’s all into Brittany Rush now. I didn’t even think about that.” Her stomach hurt. “He’s going to hate me.”