by Marie Force
“They’re arranging for me to go to a facility here in the hospital to help me regain my mobility. I’ll probably have to be there for quite a while, maybe even six months. And it’s still possible I may never walk again.” She looked down at her hands. “I’ll have to relearn everything, from the simplest of tasks to the more complicated,” she continued. “They said the physical therapy you made sure I got is the only reason I have a chance to fully recover.”
“They told me that at the very beginning, so I always insisted you be cared for as if your condition were temporary. I’m glad now that I did.”
“You had hope, Jack. Even in what must’ve seemed like a hopeless situation.”
“Not always.” He dropped into the chair by her bed. “I did for the first year. After that I had to stop hoping. The girls were a mess. I was a mess. I had to get back to taking care of them. I couldn’t rely on Frannie to fill in for me anymore.”
“I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”
“It was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, Clare. There’re no words to describe how helpless I felt.” He’d felt almost as helpless the night before watching Andi leave with Eric and his babies.
Clare tried to move her hand to take his. “I’m sorry.”
He reached out to save her the trouble. “Don’t be sorry. Nothing about this is your fault.”
“Did you bring the video?”
“I did, but are you sure you want to see it? It haunted me for months after I first saw it. I’m not sure that showing it to you is the right thing to do. Maybe we should ask the psychiatrist.”
“I want to see it. Please.”
He got up to put the disk into the DVD player that was part of the hospital TV. After he turned it on, he went back to Clare’s bedside and took her hand. The whole thing happened quickly, but there was no denying she’d had time to get out of the way.
“Play it again.”
“Clare—”
“Please, I need to see it again.”
Jack released her hand and got up to replay it.
Her eyes were riveted to the screen until the moment of impact when she was forced to look away. “Did I have other injuries?” she asked in a small voice.
“You broke your left arm and leg, your liver was lacerated, and your spleen had to be removed.”
“I don’t understand. Why didn’t I move?”
“I don’t know, honey. I’ve asked myself that question over and over again for three years.”
“What in the world was I thinking? The girls must’ve been so traumatized.”
“I got them into counseling as soon as I saw the video. I felt so bad because I didn’t believe them when they first told me how it happened.”
“I don’t remember anything about it. I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of a reason why I’d do something so foolish.”
“I’m sure you’ll remember in time.” He took a deep breath, knowing he couldn’t put this off any longer. “Listen, there’s…um…more I need to tell you—things I don’t want you to hear from anyone else.”
“What things?”
He struggled to find the words to tell her about his life without her, the choices he’d made, and the other woman he loved. “After I’d had you at home for a year, Frannie talked to me. She helped me see that having you in the house in that condition was hurting the girls, and me, too. The hospital bed, the equipment, the nurses in and out. Our home was like a hospital. We couldn’t go on any longer the way we were. So we moved you to your own place. That was the lowest point for me. I felt like I’d failed you so completely.” Battling the overwhelming emotions that came with revisiting the darkest time in his life, he glanced down at the floor.
“Jack,” she said softly. “You didn’t fail me.”
“Frannie and Jamie helped me so much, and I’m so grateful to them. I guess by helping me, they found each other after all those years of being friends. In a way, you can take some of the credit for them being married.”
“That’s something I still can’t get over.”
“Sometimes I still can’t believe it myself, and I was there.” He smiled and forced himself to continue. “I finally went back to work. I’d been gone fourteen months by then. Can you imagine that?”
“You never even wanted to take two weeks at a time for a vacation.”
“I proved I’m totally dispensable.”
“Did you feel better when you went back to work?”
“It was good to get back to some sense of normalcy. We’d been hired to design and build an Infinity hotel on Ocean Drive. I took over that project, and it gave me something positive to focus on. Of course, I had the girls, too, and they gave me a reason to get up and keep moving every day.” He hesitated and must have looked pained, because she tuned right into his dismay.
“What is it?”
His heart beat frantically, and his hands were suddenly damp. “The hotel project moved forward, and through our work with Infinity, I met someone, Clare.”
“What do you mean?”
“I met a woman in their Chicago office, and we…I fell in love with her.”
Clare closed her eyes and sucked in a sharp deep breath.
Jack had to force himself to press on. “I hadn’t been dating or anything like that, so this wasn’t something I was out there hoping to find. It found me, and I struggled with it, believe me. Everyone was pushing me to get on with my life. They told me I had to live, that you’d want me to be happy.”
“This woman,” Clare said haltingly.
“Her name is Andi.”
“Do you still love her?”
“Yes.”
Clare turned away. “Where is she now?”
“She and her son have lived with us for more than a year.”
Her gaze whipped back around to him. “In my house? You brought her into my house? The house you built for me?”
He had to remind himself that to her it was like five minutes had passed, not three years. “I thought about moving when they came to live with us, but we didn’t think it would be good for the girls to leave their home after they’d already lost you. So we stayed there.”
“Are we divorced?”
“No.” He held up the hand where he still wore her ring. “It never crossed my mind, Clare. I never would’ve done that. Ever.”
“So my return from the near-dead must not have been an entirely pleasant surprise for you,” she said with a bitter edge to her voice.
“That’s not true! I’m thrilled to have you back, and the girls are, too. It’s what we’ve wanted for three long years. But we had to stop spending every day hoping it would happen so we could find a way to live without you.”
“Does she plan to continue living in my house when I get home from the hospital?”
“She left last night.”
“No wonder why you look so devastated and exhausted,” she said in an accusatory tone.
He couldn’t deny that, so he said nothing.
“Is there anything else the rest of the world already knows?”
The look on his face must have told her there was more—much more.
She gasped. “Do you have children with her?”
“Her son is important to me. And we’re expecting twins in September.” He looked her in the eye as he said it. He refused to be ashamed of his relationship with Andi or of the children they were having together.
“Please go.”
“Clare…”
“Please. Just leave me alone.” She turned to look out the window.
“We need to talk about this.
“Not today.”
Jack stood there for a long moment before he turned and left the room.
Chapter 28
Frannie stepped off the elevator on the seventh floor and found her brother in the waiting room, hunched over, elbows on knees.
“Jack? What’s wrong?”
“Hey, Fran.”
“Why aren’t you i
n with Clare?”
“She asked me to leave.”
She sat next to him. “Oh. You told her.”
“I keep telling myself that to her everything’s the same as it was three years ago. It’s like time stopped for her. But it didn’t stop for us.”
“Let me talk to her. Why don’t you get out of here for a while? Mother and Dad are with the twins, but they want to come in later to see Clare, so someone will be here.”
“The girls will be in after school, too.”
“You can spend some time with Andi. How’s she coping?”
“She left,” he said, still unable to believe all that had happened.
“Where’d she go?”
“To the hotel, for now anyway.” He sighed. “She won’t see me, won’t take my calls.”
“Damn.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“What’ll you do now?”
“Go to work, I guess. I don’t want to be at home without Andi, and I’m not welcome here right now. I’ll come back later. Hopefully, Clare will cool off.”
“I’ll talk to her, and then I’ll take a ride over to see Andi, just to make sure she’s okay.”
He brightened. “Oh good. Thanks, Fran.”
“Go on ahead. It’ll all work out. Don’t worry.”
“You have a lot more faith than I do. It’s a goddamned mess, and I have no one to blame but myself.”
She rested a hand on his arm. “Don’t do this. You did the best you could every step of the way during this whole thing. You never made promises you couldn’t keep to anyone, especially not to Andi.”
“I promised I’d never leave her alone with the babies.”
“And you won’t. Don’t drive yourself crazy second-guessing every decision you’ve made over the last three years. I know it seems awful right now, but you’ll figure something out.”
“I wish I could be as optimistic.”
“I’ll call you later.” She kissed his cheek and pushed him toward the elevator.
As she walked into Clare’s room and saw that her sister-in-law had been crying, Frannie wasn’t sure if she’d be welcome, either. “Hi.”
“Hey.”
“I hear you’re having a rough day.”
Clare shrugged and played with her fingers but didn’t look at Frannie.
Frannie sat next to Clare’s bed. “Could I tell you something? And will you listen to me as someone who loves you?”
“I guess.”
“I’ve never seen anyone suffer the way my brother did after your accident. There were times when I feared he’d die of a broken heart. He was a wreck, for a long, long time. Even after all the doctors told him there was nothing they could do for you, he continued to hope. It was only after he finally gave up hoping that he allowed himself to grieve for you, and that’s when I worried we’d lose him, too.”
“I get he’s a man with needs, and three years is a long time, but did he have to bring her to live in my house? With my children? What kind of woman moves into another woman’s home and family like that?”
“The loveliest kind of woman,” Frannie said with a sigh. “She was nice to your girls, cared for them as best she could, and never once tried to take your place with them. She left everything in your home just as you had it, except for the room she shared with Jack.”
“That’s my room! I can see you love her, and I suppose I’ll have to hear my own children tell me they love her, too. You say she didn’t try to replace me with them, but she’s probably managed to do a good job of it anyway.”
“You’re way off, and you’re being terribly unfair to Jack.”
“Unfair to Jack? While I was lying in a hospital bed, he was off starting a new life with someone else, and I’m the one being unfair?”
“Yes, Clare, you are,” Anna said from the doorway.
“Even my own mother doesn’t see how wrong this is? My husband has another family! Another family with another woman!”
“I love you, Clare, and I’m so glad you’ve come back to us,” Frannie said. “But he’s my brother, and I love him, too. I can’t stay here and listen to you talk about him like this after witnessing the way he suffered over you. I hope you’ll think long and hard before you judge him too harshly on choices he made in an unbearable situation. You know he’d never have hurt you on purpose. Not in a million years.”
Frannie squeezed Anna’s arm on her way out the door.
Anna moved to her daughter’s bedside. “She’s right, you know. You can’t imagine what this was like for him. Where is he anyway?”
Clare turned away from her mother. “I asked him to leave.”
“You’re making a terrible mistake, Clare. He wants to be here with you. He hardly left your side for two weeks when you had that terrible fever.”
“Have you met her?” Clare asked, turning back to look at her mother.
“A couple of times.”
“And you just sat idly by while he moved another woman into my house—the house he built for me—and said nothing about it?”
“It wasn’t up to me to tell him how to live his life, Clare. He’d done everything he could to find help for you and to make sure you were well cared for. By the time he told me about her, I was almost relieved to see him getting on with his life. He’d suffered so terribly. It was painful to watch, for all of us.” She reached for Clare’s hand. “He never forgot he had a wife. He was there all the time to see you, and if you don’t believe me, ask Sally. She’s been your nurse for years. She’ll tell you.”
Clare continued to stare out the window.
“I know this is a terrible shock, but it’s just not possible for you to know what it was like for him, for me, for everyone.”
“He has another family, Mom.” Clare’s voice caught on a sob. “My Jack has someone else.”
“I’m so sorry, sweetheart.” Anna hugged her daughter. “I wish there was something I could say.”
Shaken by the scene in Clare’s room, Frannie left the hospital. She tried to put herself in Clare’s place to understand what a shock it would be to wake up after three years to find out the whole world had gone on without you. But that didn’t give her the right to speak so harshly about Jack.
On the way to the hotel, Frannie decided she’d check in with Jack after she’d seen Andi. She parked at the hotel, hoping this visit would go better than the last one.
Frannie spotted Jen Brooks across the lobby and went over to her.
“Hi, Jen, I’m not sure if you remember me. I’m Jack Harrington’s sister, Frannie Booth. We met at the gala.”
Jen shook Frannie’s extended hand. “Nice to see you again. Do you know what’s going on with Andi? She and Eric are staying here, and she asked me to drive him to school today for her. She sent him out to meet me, but I haven’t seen her.”
“She left Jack last night.”
“Why?” Jen asked, her face slack with shock.
“His wife has recovered.”
Jen gasped. “That’s amazing. But God, Andi…”
“Could I see her?”
“She’s in the manager’s apartment. I tried to get her to talk to me about an hour ago, but she didn’t answer. Maybe you’ll have more luck.” Jen pointed the way.
“Thanks, Jen.”
Frannie made her way across the lobby and up the stairs to the manager’s apartment at the far end of the east wing. She knocked on the door. “Andi, it’s Frannie. Open the door, honey.” She knocked some more, and when the door finally opened, Frannie was shocked by Andi’s shattered expression.
“What are you doing here?” Andi tied her silk robe tighter across her rounded middle.
“I wanted to check on you. May I come in?”
Andi stepped aside to let her in.
“Are you all right?”
“I will be.”
“Jack’s worried about you.”
“He needs to focus on his family right now.”
“You’re his family, too,
Andi. You and Eric and the babies.”
“His wife needs him.” Her voice, like her eyes, was dull and lifeless. “That’s where he should be.”
“What’ll you do?”
“I’ll stay here and work and take care of Eric while I wait for the babies.”
“Can I do anything for you? Anything at all?”
“You’ve been such a good friend to me, Frannie. There’s one thing I need.”
“Anything.”
“I can’t see you. I can’t see any of you. I have to make a clean break if I’m going to get through this. Please tell the girls, too. I love them, but I can’t see them. Try to make them understand. They need to be thinking of their mother, and they don’t need to be worried about me.”
“What about the babies? And Eric?”
“I’d never keep the babies from their father, and Eric is counting on seeing Jack. But I won’t. Please tell him that. I won’t see him, and I won’t take his calls. Not now. I’ll contact him after the babies are born.”
“You can’t just cut him off this way.”
“I have no right to him. I probably never did. His wife won’t understand that he has another family waiting in the wings, so I’ll make it easy for him—and for her.”
Frannie couldn’t believe how Andi had summed up Clare’s exact sentiments.
“Please ask him, ask everyone, to respect my feelings.”
“If you’re sure that’s what you want.”
“I am.”
Nothing in Andi’s firm tone betrayed the terrible pain she must’ve felt as she said the words, but Frannie saw it in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I know this must be awful for you.”
“I’m not sorry those beautiful girls have their mother back or that Clare has her life back. And I’ll never be sorry for the time I spent loving your brother and living with him. It was the highlight of my life.” Her voice finally broke.
Frannie took a step toward her, wanting to offer comfort, but Andi held up a hand to stop her.
“Don’t. Please. I appreciate you coming, Frannie, but you have to go now.”
Frannie opened the door. “We love you and Eric very much. I’m just a phone call away if you ever need me.”
With tears in her eyes, Andi nodded but said nothing more as Frannie let the door close softly behind her.
