by Robin Janney
“Excuse me?” Shocked and offended, Craig leaned forward in his seat. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m in prison, Craig, not dead. You think you’re the only one I talk to? I hear how Miss Katie miraculously pops up everywhere you go. I hear how no one understands why you left your wife in Montana, how you’ve never once brought her to the city. What do you think you’re doing?”
“It’s not my fault I keep running into Katie! But so what? She’s a friend.” The situation which had kept Craig awake, now exasperated him. “I’m not about to start barricading myself in the penthouse to hide from her. Especially…”
“Especially since you like running into her?” Tim’s upper lip curled. “Don’t forget who you’re talking to, little brother. I was there when the two of you were dating, even when you were younger, and you were playing at dating. You’ve always liked Katie.”
“And you were there when I dumped her too,” Craig reminded him, anger filling his voice.
Tim nodded and pointed a finger at him. “Don’t forget why you did that Craig. And don’t try to fool yourself into thinking it was because you weren’t ready for a physical relationship. We talked about you and Katie before we ever came back from Grandma’s that summer, and I know how irritated you were when she wasn’t accepting the changes in you. Katie is just as much a predator as our stepmother.”
The temper threatening in the two brothers cooled as they looked at each other.
“Did Veronica apologize to you?” asked Craig, truly wanting to know the truth and not just wanting to change the subject away from Katie.
His brother made a disgusted sound. “Yeah. Waltzed in here one day for a visit, apologized with crocodile tears and hasn’t been back since. Of course, I told her what she could go do with herself, so I’m not surprised.”
Craig didn’t bother to hide his surprise, or his disappointment. He had wanted the apology to be real; if it had been real, then he could convince himself he was imagining things. “She told me you were the one to write to her about the pain she’d caused, and she wrote back apologizing.”
Tim laughed, a sound Craig had not heard since they were teens. Too bad it was a sardonic laugh. “Not even close, and you’d better remember that she lied about it. Don’t let that bitch fool you like she has Dad. She’s still the same woman who came to your bedroom, Craig.”
The younger brother nodded. “I can’t see it, Tim. Even knowing she lied. I keep looking because I don’t believe her, but all I see is a woman trying to make amends for the past.”
“God, I can’t believe I’m going to say this. Don’t trust your eyes. Trust how you feel when she looks at you when Dad’s not looking, how you feel when she touches you. She does touch you, doesn’t she? Little touches here and there.”
“Yeah,” said Craig uncomfortably. “She doesn’t do it often, and I pull away each time. It makes my skin crawl.”
“The day I saw her on the other side of this glass waiting to see me, made me sick. I almost emptied my stomach and walked away.” His brother’s face looked like he wanted to be sick just at the thought of their abuser.
“But you still sat down and spoke with her?”
“I sat,” confirmed Tim, with a brief nod of his head. “Heard her out, told her off and left.”
Craig nodded; it sounded like something his brother would do. He had no doubts like he’d had listening to Veronica’s tale.
A buzzer sounded, alerting them to the end of visitation.
“Come again, Craig. And stay away from Katie.”
“I’ll try. Take care of yourself.” Craig hung his receiver up, watched Tim do the same. His brother stood there a moment, even as a guard came to flank him. Craig couldn’t hear anything from the other side, but could read ‘I love you, little brother’ on Tim’s lips, with a smile reminiscent from their youth. Before Craig could respond, the guard was pushing his brother away.
Craig rose to his feet, fully aware that once again he’d squandered a significant moment.
V eronica smiled at the women sitting around her table at the Rosé. She had resisted Les’ attempts to get her to ‘go off with the girls’ just enough to be believable and today had invited only her closest acquaintances to a late lunch. What a relief it was to get out of the penthouse while her husband struggled pitifully through his physical therapy!
Even here though, she maintained the devoted and loving wife act. Her friends expected it, admired it, and their fawning was gratifying. They were simple women, but they adored her.
They were all laughing over Elle’s latest drama with her youngest granddaughter’s attempt at sneaking out of the house when Veronica was startled by a tap on her shoulder.
“Mrs. Moore! What a pleasant surprise!”
Not dropping her smile, she let her eyebrows rise in delighted surprise as she turned and saw the impertinent face belonging to the chipper voice.
“Why hello, Katie!” she purred. “How are you? I haven’t seen you in ages!”
“I’m fine, Mrs. Moore; I just wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about your husband.” Katie batted her eyelashes prettily, her smile taking in the three other women at the table. “How is he doing?”
“Oh, he’s managing, the poor thing.” Too schooled to scowl at the younger woman, Veronica continued to smile. “He insisted I get out today! Said I’ve been cooped up with him long enough and it was time we started to live our lives again. After all, he’s not dead. Just, injured.”
“I’m so glad to hear that,” Katie cooed.
Cooed. Was the younger woman truly a simpleton?
“While I have you,” said Katie, reaching into her small designer bag and pulling out a small white envelope. She held it out to Veronica. “Would you be so kind as to pass this along to Craig for me?”
“Of course, dear,” Veronica replied. She took the envelope gracefully, wishing she could snatch it and swat the other woman with it. She slid it into her own designer bag without hesitation. Hesitating just a heartbeat, she fixed the younger woman firmly with a look just short a glare, and asked, “Won’t you join us?”
“Thanks, but I have more shopping to do before I go home.” Katie showed no sign of seeing the glare, or of being afraid of it. She continued to smile and bat her blonde eyelashes.
“Oh, well do enjoy yourself dear.” Veronica waited for the younger woman to turn and begin to sashay away before turning back to her friends. “Now, Elle, please continue your story!”
Elle, a slightly older woman than Veronica, giggled as she picked up her tale from the interruption point. Her sharp eyes followed Katie for a moment, so did the looks of the other women.
Maybe it wouldn’t be a complete disaster, mused Veronica as she laughed at the next point in the silly story. All three women would talk about the interruption, amongst themselves and then with their other friends. No one would care they were interrupted, but they would find it quite interesting that Craig Moore’s old girlfriend was passing him correspondence through his stepmother. Especially given the rate the two of them were seen together in public.
Still, ten minutes later when she excused herself to the ladies’ room, she wasted no time. Katie was there waiting for her as she’d suspected, and the young woman had barely gotten, “I checked the stalls already. What took you so long?” out of her mouth before Veronica’s hand clasped tightly around the young woman’s throat and pressed her viciously up against the wall of the empty restroom.
“Don’t you ever presume to approach me in public!” Here, now, in this moment Veronica dropped her veneer and hissed. Her clench on the other woman’s windpipe didn’t cut off all her oxygen, but it was enough to cause the other woman to struggle and strain, her young fingers trying vainly to peel Veronica’s fingers from her neck. “You work for me. I contact you, not the other way around. Is that understood?”
Katie, unable to speak, nodded her head frantically.
Veronica didn’t release her, just looked at her. She
watched with an animalistic delight as the younger woman struggle for air, her shimmering pink lips moving in a silent plea for mercy. Once satisfied, Veronica let go and stepped away as the other gasped for air and slumped to the floor. “Oh, get up silly girl. Quit being so dramatic.”
She tried, but it took Katie more than one try to regain a steady footing. “I’m sorry,” she stammered, still struggling to catch her breath. “It’s just I haven’t heard from you all day, and Craig’s not even replying to my texts.”
“The plan won’t fall apart if you don’t see him every day,” scolded Veronica as she washed her hands in the ornate sink. She hated touching lower life forms. “He’s off visiting his jailbird brother. No doubt he other things on his mind.”
“Oh,” said a disappointed Katie. “Please give him the invitation when he gets home?”
“You’re not forgetting our goal, are you Katie? You’re not falling for him all over again?” Veronica looked down her smooth nose at the blushing woman. She pulled two paper towels from the wall unit and dried her hands.
“I haven’t forgotten a thing,” snapped Katie.
“Good. Don’t forget,” advised Veronica. She tossed the damp toweling into the tall golden trash can. “Remember how he dumped you and walked away, refusing you time and time again. Only to end up marrying a younger woman while you ended up with a philandering bisexual husband.”
Katie was the one glaring now, but she said nothing as she seethed.
“Now, I’m going back for dessert and coffee with my friends. I don’t expect to see you again unless I arrange it.”
Katie nodded. “Understood.”
She could feel the other woman’s angry eyes on her back as she walked out of the restroom, but Veronica only smiled.
I t was late when Craig arrived back at his father’s penthouse. The worse part about visiting his brother was the long road trip it took to get to the prison and back again. He hadn’t eaten anything for breakfast or lunch and had stopped at a restaurant on the way back for supper.
As the elevator carried him up the many levels, Craig considered whether to cancel his webcam chat with his wife. He was tired and irritated. Angela didn’t deserve to have her husband vent on her right now. She hadn’t texted him since before he’d gone in to see Tim, so she had probably become busy with Nan or Jared. Katie had texted him, several times. And because of how Tim had jumped his case about it, Craig was ignoring her for the time being.
Most of the lights were out when he entered his father’s penthouse. But he could hear the television, so he headed into the living room. His father was asleep in his recliner chair, no doubt tired from the day’s physical therapy. But then, he was watching an older Perry Mason movie, this one in black and white, and those usually put his father out.
Smiling, Craig walked away and headed down the hallway to the bedrooms. The aide on night-duty stuck his head out the door to the master bedroom. Maybe it had been right to keep Dad in the master bedroom as it allowed enough room for an overnight aide.
“He’s asleep in his recliner again, isn’t he?”
“He is, Denny.”
The muscular man sighed. “I’d better go see if he wants to move into his bed.”
“Do you need any help?” asked Craig.
“No.” Denny waved him away. “Odds are he’ll tell me no and finish watching his movie. I’ll just stay out with him.”
Craig nodded and continued down the hallway to his room. He was surprised when Veronica met him at his bedroom door. His heart hammered double time in his chest as he saw her evening attire; a silky nightgown seen through a loosely tied robe, both clung to her curves. From what he could see of her figure, she was aging well. It took him a moment to banish the events which had followed the last time he’d seen her dressed this way and standing in the hallway outside his door.
“Katie passed this to me today,” she said with a smile, oblivious to her stepson’s discomfort. Her one hand held a white envelope and the other hand rubbed her neck where loose tendrils of rich sable hair had fallen free from her elegant twist.
Taking the white envelope from her hand, Craig managed a small smile despite his discomfort. She wasn’t tormenting him, just passing a message from a friend. “Thanks.”
“How’s Tim?”
The question took him by surprise. “Good enough.”
Veronica nodded and glanced at the envelope he now held. “Are you in for the night?”
“Yes.” Impulsively, he opened the envelope and sighed. A ticket to a Broadway show for tomorrow afternoon. The note in a fluid, cursive handwriting explained Katie had the other one, and according to her, her husband had canceled on her, as well as another invite to go out clubbing. That was too bad because Craig wasn’t in the mood for a show or clubbing. “Yes,” he repeated. “Goodnight, Veronica.”
He slipped into his bedroom, barely hearing her reply in kind as he shut the door behind him. Tossing the ticket and note in the trash, he pulled his phone out. Dropping on his bed in the darkness, he called his wife.
“Hi!” was her quiet greeting.
“Hi honey.”
“Are you just getting back from seeing your brother?” Angela asked him.
“I am. And I don’t really feel up to talking much tonight. I’m sorry.”
There was silence on the other end of the phone and Craig was content to leave it at that. Normally he hated her silences, but in this moment, it was wanted.
When his wife spoke again, her tone was understanding and kind. “Was it hard seeing Tim?”
“A little bit,” he told her. She nodded. He could hear it because he’d seen her do it so often when talking on the phone. The notion made him smile.
“I’m sorry.”
It sounded like she was on the verge of tears, and he thought it was her empathy bringing them to the surface. Craig tried so hard to shield his wife from his negative emotions because all too often she reacted this way. But still, he found himself responding to her and said, “I was expecting it to be hard, but…”
“Reality is always different from the expectation. I know.”
He heard something thump in the background. Before he could ask what it was, she was speaking again.
“Thank you for the daisies.” There were still tears in her voice, but he didn’t think Angela was crying. Maybe he was reading too much into her voice. “They were here when I got back from seeing Dr. Ryan. They brightened my day.”
He smiled and made a mental note to ask Nan about why his wife had seen her doctor today. “You’re welcome, Angela. I know it’s not what we usually do today, but I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
“Alright. It’s been a long day for both of us, I guess, but we’re still on for tomorrow night, right?”
“Absolutely,” agreed Craig. They said little else beyond goodnight and hung up without doing their three count. When was the last time they’d done that? He wasn’t sure, and it made him sadder than he already was.
In the darkness, Craig sighed. Almost immediately his phone chimed a text, and he found himself reading a text from Katie. He sent back a quick reply, telling her the same thing he’d told his wife. He was tired and maybe he’d go out with her next time.
Turning his phone off for the night, he plugged it in next to his computer and quickly shed his clothes down to his boxers. Sliding in under the cool covers of his bed, he willed himself to sleep.
29
I t was noon when Cassie wandered out of her bedroom into the downstairs level of the farmhouse. Yawning, she turned the corner into the kitchen and was surprised to find the room empty. A search of the downstairs level told her the farmhouse was just as empty.
Which she thought was odd for lunchtime.
A quick look out into the driveway told her that her father was home, evident by the raised hood of his truck and him leaning under it, but the car was missing. Idly the young woman wondered where her mother was at. Probably a church thing.
Returning to the kitchen, Cassie foraged for food. The pickings weren’t quite as diverse as they’d been when she’d been out visiting her sister, but her sister had a rich husband and money wasn’t an issue. Even though that same husband had helped her father with this farm, money was far from overflowing. Although now she thought about it, Cassie realized the farm had been doing better since Craig had become involved and while the pickings weren’t varied, they were abundant.
She was just finishing her second bowl of garden salad when her mother walked in. Cassie opened her mouth to say hello, but the words died on her lips.
Tears streamed down her mother’s face. Silent tears. And Cassie didn’t know how to handle that.
“Maude, damn it, stop and talk to me!” Her father trailed behind her mother, concern etched into his tired face.
Her mother stopped by sitting at the table with her. She wasn’t looking at either her husband or her daughter.
“I…should go,” mumbled Cassie. She picked up her bowl to leave, but it broke Maude’s silence.
“No, you can stay,” her mother said. “You have a right to know what’s going on too.”
Cassie looked from parent to parent, still unsure what to do. She had never seen either parent in this kind of mood. Her father wasn’t even looking at her, didn’t even seem to realize she was there.
“Please Maude. It doesn’t matter what choice you’ve made, I just want to know.”
The young woman returned to her seat as her mother finally turned her eyes to her father. Her heart clenched as her father reached out and wiped at the tears still flowing down her mother’s face.
“I know you went to the clinic today,” Philip said softly. “I wanted to go with you.”
Clinic? Was her mother sick after all?
“I needed to go on my own. It was just a consult. I needed to talk to another woman.” Maude sighed. “When they told me I had to have an ultrasound first, because it was their policy…I almost left. Because I knew what my decision would be if I saw the little life inside of me.” Maude drew a sharp deep breath. “It’s really not fair to do that to a woman my age.”
