Drawing The Line (Mistaken Identity Series)

by Sylvia Hubbard

  Slowly moving up to the bed, Shane saw the gloomy pale skin and the crinkled dry hair. Touching his hands, she also noticed how the nails of the child were dry and white.

  Derrick had died a slow death. This passing away of life looked like it had taken years to come into effect. Shane remembered the bottle on the counter weeks ago.

  The nurse came over to the bed and covered up Derrick's body with the sheet.

  Shane waited until the hospital staff had taken the child down to the morgue before she spoke to Bethany. Trudy and Evan had gone down with the body. The hospital had given them a small private room to mourn in, which was where Bethany and Shane choose to stay until Trudy and Evan came back.

  "What medicine were you giving Derrick?" Shane demanded to know from Bethany when they were alone.

  Bethany spat, as if it were none of Shane's business, "You have no right to question me for all the concern you've shown for your own family in the past weeks."

  "Why should I show concern for a woman who has treated me like a stepchild my whole life," Shane fumed.

  Bethany reached over to back hand Shane in the face, but Shane caught the older woman's wrist in a firm grip and shoved Bethany to the ground.

  Leaning down, Shane vowed, "If I find out you had anything to do with Derrick's death, I'll make sure you pay, Aunt Bethany."

  "Don't you threaten me," Bethany seethed.

  "I'll do whatever I please," Shane taunted.

  "You think you can just kick us out of your life with your big time lawyer now that you think you got yourself a real job?" Bethany taunted holding her wrist in pain. There was a look of apprehension in Bethany's eyes. The older woman showed a diminutive amount of fear, but tried to pass it off as sarcasm.

  "I'll give you the money you want, Aunt Bethany. As agreed before, fifty thousand dollars and you'll get out of my house and leave me the hell alone," Shane said.

  Mockingly, her aunt said, "As agreed?"

  "Yes, or I'll make sure they look a little further into Derrick's death."

  Bethany showed defeat. "We'll get out, but you'll have to give us six months."

  "That wasn't part of the deal," Shane protested.

  "I don't see the money," Bethany pointed out.

  Shane promised, "You'll have your money delivered to the house in the morning." She knew arguing over this would be a moot point. Bethany wanted her way, but Shane was just glad they would be out of her life very soon. "When the delivery of the money is made, you'll have to sign a paper that will state you'll move out within the next six months."

  "Or you'll what?" Bethany asked bitterly, testing Shane's new resolve.

  Shane came up as close to the woman as she could reasonable tolerate. "Or you'll be sorry you ever tried me like a sample." Walking out of the room, Shane was so glad to be getting away from her, because every nerve ending cried out to throttle the older woman.

  Evan and Trudy were just returning. Her cousin didn't say a word, but walked into the waiting room, while Evan stayed outside with her.

  "How long had Derrick been sick, Evan?" Shane questioned as they walked down the hall away from the waiting room. She didn't want Bethany to hear what they were speaking about and she felt Evan would be more comfortable away from her aunt's controlling presence.

  "It's been about a year, I would assume," Evan said rather evasively. He followed Shane to the elevators and waited there with her. "I called you as soon as we got to the hospital. I thought you should know."

  "I did want to know," she told him sincerely. "I want to know everything, Evan."

  He avoided making eye contact and looked relieved when the elevator doors open. "Speaking of everything," he said as he stepped into the elevator with her despite the other people boarding. "What's been happening with you?"

  "I've been working hard and trying to keep away from the Meadows so I won't lose what I've got. You know she's messed up every internship I've ever gotten. I finally figured out if I didn't have them around I could actually keep a job."

  "So you plan to stay away until they leave? How are they going to do that when you didn't pay them any money?" he asked.

  "I have the money. I'm going to the bank tomorrow morning to get a cashier's check, then I'll have it delivered to her home by the afternoon," she let him know.

  Evan looked surprised. "How'd you get the money?"

  The elevator let them off in the lobby and she walked towards the front of the hospital where the valet was. She had left Paul's car with them because she had been in a rush to go see Derrick.

  Changing the subject, she asked him, "Did Trudy make funeral arrangements yet?"

  "Soon as the insurance kicks in she'll be able to finish them. No doubt as soon as possible," he promised. "I can call you and let you know."

  "Please do. I would like to go."

  He huffed impatiently. "Are you going to answer my question, Shane?"

  "Don't worry about where I got the money, Evan," she assured him. "Just know I'm taking charge of my life and I won't let anyone ruin me any more."

  Evan ran a frustrated hand through his head. "When will I see you again, Shane?" he asked desperately.

  "The funeral, after that..." She shrugged very uncertain. "I don't know Evan."

  "What about my birthday?" he asked.

  "That's not until next year in June. Of course I should see you by then, if things don't get in the way." She passed the valet guy her ticket.

  "I'm not going to school next semester," Evan announced rather abruptly.

  She frowned. "Why? It's your last semester. You'll be set for life. What about the promise of the job you were offered after you got your degree?"

  "I know. I know, but it's all the way in fucking Philadelphia. I can't leave the house. I have too much going on."

  Shane could tell this was a bunch of shit. "Whatever hold that's got you here, Evan isn't healthy." She didn't want to imply what she knew, but Evan was throwing away his future on something that would only be the demise of his very own soul. "When was the last time you spoke to your parents?" she asked concerned.

  "About two months ago. I've been avoiding their calls lately. I didn't want them to know what I've decided yet." He looked at her desperately as if she would have the answer to his strange behavior.

  The valet returned with her vehicle and Evan's eyes went wide as saucers in shocked. "Who the fuck gave you that?" he demanded to know. The tone of his voice was rather loud drawing a little attention to them.

  She stepped a little closer and said, "It belongs to the company I work for," she stated.

  "Is your boss treating you too good Shane or are you treating him?" Evan sneered sarcastically.

  Narrowing her eyes in anger, she fought the urge to slap him for his vicious sarcasm. "Let's not bat at words, Evan. If you think I'm fucking my boss in order to get up in the world, than say so or don't you think I'm smart enough to work my ass off in order to get the respect and trust of an employer."

  Evan became discomfited by his offensiveness. "I'm sorry, Shane. I guess it’s just jealousy. I see you making good at what you want to do and look at me. I got nothing."

  "You would have something if you finished school, Evan," she pointed out. "Say you'll think about."

  "Only if you promise to stay in contact with me," he said.

  She kissed his cheek to let him know there were no hard feelings for how he had just behaved. "I will. Call me if you need me for anything Evan."

  He only nodded, but Shane felt he wouldn't change his mind about school. Evan was a promising young man, but his heart often got involved in major life decisions.

  Somehow Trudy had weaseled herself into his heart and he wanted to stay here and be with her, but Shane knew Bethany would never let Evan be with Trudy. Trudy was Bethany's ace in the hole and Bethany could find more "richer" prospects for Trudy than Evan.

  Yet, Evan's reaction to everything that had just happened had been so powerful. What could Bethany have over him tha
t could make him not want to leave?

  Stopping at the end of the driveway, she decided she needed to find this out and the only way was to be as sneaky as they were. Parking around the corner near the emergency entrance, Shane knew they would assume she had left the premises and would be up in that waiting room talking openly.

  Quickly, she made it back on the floor where the waiting room was on. Pressing her ear to the door, she heard Trudy's voice raised in anger.

  "No, Mother! I love him and I won't let you destroy us."

  Bethany protested. "I wont let you take everything we've done and destroy it."

  "I don't care about the money anymore. You can have the money, you greedy bitch!"

  The sound of a hand connecting to flesh was evident to Shane that Bethany had used a palm to discipline Trudy across the face.

  "That's enough!" Evan protested.

  "You shut your mouth, you pathetic loser," Bethany sneered. "She'll do whatever I say, just like you will."

  "If Trudy doesn't want to be here anymore, I’ll help her leave."

  Bethany scoffed. "Like I said, you'll do whatever I say unless you want your Daddy taking away everything because his son can't keep his dick in his pants. The state would take away everything and demand you pay. I'm make sure they milk you for the rest of your life."

  "I don't have to stay here and take this!" Evan hurled out viciously.

  Shane gasped and moved away from the door hearing footsteps approaching ducking to a corner hoping he didn't come that way. Evan came out of the door and went the other way looking frazzled and worried. When he was gone around the corner, Shane went back over to the door and listened.

  "Please," Trudy begged. "I just want to leave. I just want to go away."

  "Shut up with your pathetic crying," Bethany derided. "Give me back my papers so I can call the insurance."

  "What papers?" Trudy asked.

  "The papers you took out of my dresser. Don't think I didn't know you had them!"

  "I don't have any papers."

  Shane heard several more slaps and move quickly away from the door. She knew what Bethany was looking for. The papers Derrick had given her the last time she had seen him. Those glassy eyes still haunted her.

  The envelope Bethany was looking for was in the company car she had been given, which was now with Andrew.

  Getting out of there, she went back to Paul's home her mind heavy with everything she had just heard, but unsure if she should share anything with Paul or Andrew.

  Chapter 25

  On his drive up to Lansing, Andrew had too much time to think. No matter what he played on the radio, he couldn't get Shane off his mind. It was the first time in several years he had someone else to think about other than Paul's sickness. He didn't know why or even how the minx had gotten in his head, yet after last night things seemed to change. Why had she said that to him? Did she know who he was? He could buy the world if he worked hard enough. She could have asked him for anything in the world!

  “You.” Shane’s voice whispered in his head.

  This bothered him a lot. Between he and Paul, they had interviewed thousands of women in order to find the right woman.

  When Paul had first told Andrew about Shane, Paul had been so secretive about her; Andrew hadn't known her name until they had first met. He had never expected the same person he had heard so much about from the Professor to be the same person Paul was intending on seducing. Yet, Andrew had figured Paul's intention had been to find a woman for him.

  Why Paul was assuming Shane would be perfect for Andrew was a mystery... yet last night...

  Andrew shifted uncomfortably because ever since he met Shane; she had found a way to affect the cold exterior he liked to keep without even trying.

  Arriving at Senator Payne's home, he was immediately escorted to the private breakfast nook where the senator was alone having mid afternoon tea. He had come back from the state house to speak with Andrew, knowing any matter he had to discuss could not be discussed at his offices.

  Senator Sean Payne was a patient man in his mid fifties. At six feet one, he was not a small man. He was thick in size although his age had started to move everything downward. Still he could lift three hundred pounds without breaking a sweat, jogged ten miles a day, swam fifty laps, and could do an extra hundred leg crunches almost better than Andrew. The man was in the prime of his life and still looked good for an African American man of his age.

  Standing as Andrew approached him, the senator was very glad to see him. "How have you been since last we spoke, Andrew?"

  "Fine, sir." Andrew sat across from the senator. "And you?"

  "Stressed as usual." He handed Andrew a manila envelope. "They sent these an hour ago."

  Andrew opened the envelope and frowned. Pictures of Shane leaving Paul's home disturbed him. He could tell the photos were taken this morning. "They know."

  "Yes, and the cute little note is ordering me to stop hearings or everyone else will know."

  The frown on Andrew's face worsened. "You can't, Senator."

  "I know that, but if I don't make a statement about laying off Tyrex, they'll release the information to the press."

  "And if I told you she's found what we've been looking for."

  The senator's eyes went wide in shock. "How?"

  Andrew started from the beginning and revealed everything Shane had told him. He knew Shane would be angry he had revealed everything even though he had promised her he wouldn’t. "She has the proof. She found a friend in forensics. My guy ran identification on the boy's plate and he's a major in science at the university with Shane. According to Lethal, he's clean enough to get accepted to the police academy in Detroit, which are his intentions."

  "Can he be trusted?" Senator Payne asked warily.

  "He's the one who advised Shane to go to you. I've seen all the paperwork, all the proof, everything you need in order to make these bastards eat their words."

  The senator looked too delighted. "Where is it? Where's the paperwork?"

  Andrew resigned sitting back looking sour. "She has it and will not release it to me."

  "Why?" The senator scowled.

  "She wants to personally give it to you. Shane wants to meet you."

  Senator Payne stood up and moved to the window to look out in the spacious backyard. "Are you sure she does, Andrew or is this a ploy to get me to the city?" There was sarcasm in his voice and Andrew knew he didn't need to answer that question. The senator knew he had to make a decision.

  To put the senator's mind at ease, he said, "I told her by Wednesday. We can always postpone it."

  "No, but I will still let the committee know until we have further information we will back away from the table."

  "Why?!" Andrew demanded upset. "You have enough proof to get the indictments you've waited so long to get!"

  "Red tape will always stand in the way," the senator said facing the younger man. "That's why you could never be a politician, Andrew. You could never have the patience to play the games people up here like to play. Next year is an election year and I have to deeply consider the future I have in politics and my family’s well being also."

  Andrew only grumbled his agreement in that matter.

  "I still need time to make my mind up about Shane, Andrew. We'll still schedule a hearing; we just won't let them know what we have. I'll make sure I get their asses in a lie, but you know what this will mean for me." He started to head out the kitchen.

  "Where are you going?" Andrew inquired.

  "If I'm going to meet her, I want to look my best," the senator said proudly.

  ***

  Paul wasn't home, but Rochelle opened the door to his home as soon as Shane drove up. Clearly both women weren't expecting to see each other. When Shane came up to the door, Rochelle purposely blocked her way into the home.

  "What are you doing here?" Rochelle demanded to know.

  "I should be asking the same of you," Shane said.

  "I
take care of Mr. Watson. I have since his father's death," Rochelle explained. "He told me to expect someone back with his car and allow them to wait if they wanted to stay."

  "Then let me by," Shane fumed.

  Rochelle moved out of the way and Shane stepped into the foyer.

  "You still haven't answered my question," Rochelle said.

  Shane faced the older woman tiredly and huffed. "Paul and I are friends."

  With narrowed eyes of distrust, Rochelle said, "How close?"

  "I don't think that's any of your business, Rochelle," Shane said offended.

  "Anything that has to with Mr. Watson or Mr. Watkins has to do with me," the uppity nurse stated firmly.

  "Then obviously you don't know everything about the brothers or they would have told you they both know me."

  Rochelle snubbed, "Why would they want to know someone like you?"

  "Like I said, that's none of your business, lady." Shane was really coming close to losing her temper.

  With a suspicious glare, Rochelle sneered, "Don't you know you should stick with your own kind."

  "What's that suppose to mean? Weren't you just staying the other day you'd drop your drawers for Andrew?" Shane asked incredulously.

  "That's just for talk and note how good looking he is, any other time, you need to stay with a black man. That's what's wrong with you women, you go sniffing on the other side of the fence before you know what you really have."

  "I don't know what's your problem with me, Rochelle, but you need to just stay out of business that's not your own," Shane argued.

  "I don't trust you. And just because Paul's obsessed with you that's no reason for you to leech off of him and use him."

  "I'm not using him." Truth be told, it was the other way around in Shane's mind although she wasn't disgusted at all by the use. Paul was right, it was amazing what you can get use to with the right incentive. Still, she felt her involvement with the brothers was none of Rochelle's business and if they hadn't told the nurse why Shane was there, Shane was not going to release that information, she knew she would come across more people who would have an issue with her being with a white man. Dealing with Rochelle now was just practice of what was to come. "What do you mean by obsessed?"