I Know Who Holds Tomorrow

by Francis Ray

  “I have some time in the morning.”

  Helen turned her venom on Madison. “I don’t need your help! I’m as good as you. Better! They think you’re such a saint. I know better. Your husband hasn’t been dead six weeks and you’re screwing around with that carpenter. Wait until the public finds out. They’ll crucify you. I’ll see to that. I’ve got the pictures to prove—” Her diatribe stopped abruptly.

  “You’ve been spying on me?” Madison asked in stunned disbelief.

  Helen gulped and remained silent.

  “Answer me!” Madison shouted, advancing on the other woman.

  “I—I was just mouthing off,” Helen finally said. “If Gordon wants us to work together, I’m willing. I’ll be in my office.”

  “Stay where you are, Helen.” Gordon came around the desk. “If you hope to salvage your career at this or any other station, I advise you to start talking and it had better be the truth.”

  Helen correctly read the anger in Gordon’s face and decided it was everyone for themselves. “It wasn’t my idea, it was Edward’s.”

  Hours later, Madison was still trembling. “She ruined her career and Edward’s with her jealousy. In Gordon’s office, they were both pointing the finger at the other. The station is not going to renew her contract. Edward freelances, but the Morning News doesn’t want any more of his work. He’s ruined his credibility.”

  “Don’t think about it,” Zachary said, stroking her arm as she lay beside him in bed. “She’s out of your life. If either of them ever discusses you, what’s left of their career is over.”

  “I know Helen and I were never close, but to find out a person you’ve worked with is capable of that kind of deceit is frightening.”

  Zachary’s arms tightened. Was his duplicity any different? He’d said to himself he would tell her today. He tried to convince himself that he hadn’t because she had enough to deal with now. That was a lie. He was afraid of losing her. But if she somehow found out before he told her, he stood a good chance of losing her anyway. Not wanting to think of that unbearable consequence, he kissed her, shutting everything out for the both of them except each other.

  Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster.

  Helen’s hasty departure from the station was considered good news; Gordon’s engagement was bad news for every single woman and some not-so-single women who had tried to get his attention. It was difficult to tell which of the two was happiest as Gordon proudly introduced Camille to the people in the office. Those who weren’t quite sure how to react to the engagement of an executive to the social worker who was investigating Madison quickly found out when Madison took the engaged couple to lunch at the Mansion on Turtle Creek.

  Madison arrived home Tuesday afternoon just as a UPS truck delivered the boxes from Miss Taylor’s house. She had them put in the hall. She’d decide later where to store them. As the deliveryman was walking down the walk, Louis drove up.

  “Have you decided if you’re going to take the Chicago offer?” Louis asked when they were seated in the den. “The president of the station called again today.”

  “I’ve decided to stay here.” With Zachary, she thought.

  Incredulous, Louis’s eyes bugged. He jerked the unlit cigar out of his mouth. “You can’t do that! They’re willing to pay a fortune for you!”

  “It’s not the money.” Madison tucked her bare foot under her. “I don’t want to leave the area. Besides, I don’t want to uproot Manda.”

  Louis barely kept from cursing. “This is the opportunity of a lifetime! Think what you could do with the extra money. I could even get Manda endorsements or modeling contracts.”

  Madison uncurled her foot and leaned forward. Her eyes were cold and as hard as her clipped voice. “Listen, Louis, and listen good. Under no circumstances do I want you to seek or entertain conversation regarding Manda doing anything. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Sure, Madison. Whatever you say.” He stuck his cigar in his mouth. “But Wes would have wanted you to take the job.”

  She came to her feet. A queen staring down her nose at her subject. “I’m doing what I want.”

  Louis wanted to slap that superior look from her face. “I never heard anything about Manda’s father. You know who he is?”

  Madison couldn’t stop the startled expression that came over her face. “No.”

  “Since you have her somebody will want to make a buck or two with the information. Sooner or later it will come out.” He stood, enjoying the panic in her face. “Things like that never stay hidden for long.” He left wearing a nasty little smile. That fixed the haughty bitch.

  Opening the door to his silver Jaguar, he slid inside. Half a block away he punched in a phone number. If he couldn’t get money out of Madison one way, he’d get it another.

  “National Enquirer,” answered the chirpy voice.

  “Let me talk to the editor. I’ve got something for him.”

  Madison’s nagging headache had started with Louis’s visit and became worse when Gretchen showed Wes’s parents and the well-dressed man with them into the den just before the housekeeper left for the day. Madison recognized the man immediately. He was Thomas Quail, the Reeds’ lawyer. He’d tried unsuccessfully to get Madison to sign a prenup when she married Wes. There was only one reason she could think of for him to be here with them.

  “I don’t want nor do I intend to claim any of Wes’s assets that were not in both of our names,” Madison said after they were seated.

  Quail’s smile was patronizing. “That might be hard to do since his father’s name is on those assets.”

  “Then what do you want?” There was no sense pretending this was a social visit.

  Once again it was Quail who spoke. “We’ve come to ask you attend the ceremony for the establishment of the scholarship fund in Wes’s name this Saturday at his high school in Sugarland.”

  “If Zachary attends, I’ll be there.”

  Vanessa’s head snapped back. “I don’t want him there!”

  “It was through Zachary’s instigation that the scholarship fund was begun,” Madison told them.

  Distaste curled Vanessa’s mouth. “One good deed doesn’t erase his behavior in the past. I can’t stand to be in the same room with him.”

  “What about you, A.J.? How do you feel about your son?”

  Both parents gasped. “That’s a lie!” A.J. said, flushing and shooting worried looks at his wife.

  “That’s a libelous accusation, Madison,” the lawyer told her.

  She wasn’t about to back down. “The truth is not libel. Despite our differences, I didn’t say that to embarrass either of you, but I think Zachary has been ostracized from your family long enough.”

  “You think!” Vanessa came to her feet. “Who do you think you are? You’re just a little nobody my son picked up. He made you what you are. Don’t you forget it.”

  For once Madison didn’t feel anger, just pity for a woman so filled with hate. “You’re Manda’s grandparents. You can see her when you want, but I won’t cut Zachary out of my life to please you.”

  “You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you?”

  Madison stood. “Perhaps you should leave.”

  “You soiled my son’s memory with that bastard,” Vanessa raged.

  “Blame A.J. for his parentage, not Zachary.”

  Furious, Vanessa turned to the lawyer. “Tell her so we can leave.”

  “Tell me what?” The nape of Madison’s neck prickled with unease.

  “After careful deliberation, my clients have decided to adopt Manda Taylor.”

  Madison’s world reeled. “No!”

  “That’s not for you to decide,” he continued. “Miss Taylor only granted you temporary, not permanent, custody.”

  “She will. I just visited her this weekend,” she told them, fear streaking through her.

  “She’s an old woman, frail, her faculties in question.” Quail smiled his greasy smile. “A judge would
see that and overrule her.”

  Madison understood immediately. “You’d pay a judge off or get one of your friends to sit on the case.”

  The smile slid away. “I’d watch what I say or you’ll find yourself being sued.”

  Madison ached to hold Manda, but she was too upset. “I won’t let you take my baby.”

  “You killed my son’s baby,” Vanessa raged, her face filled with hatred. “If you had stayed at home like a decent woman our grandchild would be alive.”

  “Get out of my house!” Madison said, trembling.

  “You won’t be allowed to raise that child. I promise you that.” Grabbing her purse, Vanessa left.

  Madison looked at A.J. “Why? Why are you doing this?”

  He didn’t answer, just walked from the room.

  “I’m flying to Amarillo tomorrow,” the lawyer told her. “Don’t bother packing her things. The Reeds want nothing from you.”

  Tears streaming down her check, Madison went to the crib and picked Manda up. Her baby. They were going to take her baby.

  It took Zachary over thirty minutes to get Madison calmed down enough to tell him what had happened. Enraged, he’d called Cordon and asked him to find Camille and come sit with Madison.

  “Don’t worry. They are not taking Manda.”

  Madison couldn’t seem to stop the tears. She couldn’t stand the thought of Manda not being in her life. “She ceased being Wes’s child by his mistress, she’s mine now. I can’t lose her. I love her too much.”

  “You’re not,” Zachary said emphatically.

  Hope stirred in her eyes. “Their lawyer is going to Amarillo tomorrow.”

  “You have to trust me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Kissing her, he opened the door. “I’ll take care of everything.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To settle a long overdue debt.”

  Two hours later Zachary stood on the walkway and stared up at the Reeds’ imposing white mansion. The antebellum house sat on three acres of prime land. Three hundred feet from the back door a snappy speedboat was docked. To the left and around the house was a five-car garage. Every bay was filled. A.J. sold Mercedes and Cadillacs in his dealerships and he had the top of the line of each, but he also had a Bentley. Vanessa preferred to be chauffeured around in the Rolls.

  And, as the old saying went, neither would spit on Zachary if he were on fire.

  His large hands clenched and unclenched. He’d lived with that knowledge since he was sixteen. It had eaten at his soul, his pride. Until this moment he’d thought he had dealt with the hurt their rejection and hatred had caused. Now, standing in the twilight, looking at the house where he would never be welcomed, he realized he hadn’t.

  He’d hidden behind indifference. Lord, help him, he’d even hidden behind his caring for Wes. He’d used Wes to get back at A.J. and Vanessa, to rub it in their faces that they couldn’t shut him out of their lives. He’d been a fool. He just thanked God that he’d come to genuinely care for his brother. The bond between them had proved stronger than the hate.

  He’d stood in this very spot years ago, his heart aching because his biological father hadn’t wanted him. Now he didn’t care. He was finally free. And he’d be damned if they’d ruin Madison and Manda’s life as they’d ruined Wes’s, tried to ruin his.

  Going up the steps, he rapped the brass lion’s head on the door. An attractive black woman in a gray maid’s uniform answered the door. “Yes, sir?”

  “The Reeds at home?” He’d track them down if he had to.

  “Yes, sir, but they aren’t receiving guests. If you’ll—”

  Zachary brushed past her. “They’ll see me. A.J. where are you?” he called out as he passed through the two-story entryway.

  “Sir, you can’t come in here!” the maid cried, her rubber-soled shoes slapping against the hardwood floor as she ran behind Zachary as he shoved open one door after the other.

  “What the hell—” A.J. came out of the sitting room and abruptly stopped to stare at Zachary.

  “Unless you want the maid to hear what I have to say, you’ll tell her to find something else to do,” Zachary said.

  A.J.’s mouth tightened angrily, but he said, “I’ll take care of this.”

  The maid looked uneasily at Zachary, then said, “Yes, sir.”

  “Wise decision.” Zachary entered the room A.J. had come out of. “Evening, Vanessa.”

  Loathing flashed in her eyes. She surged from the silk sofa. “How dare you enter my house! Get out!”

  “Believe me, I don’t want to be here any more than either of you want me here, but you’ve gone too far this time,” Zachary said flatly. “To think I was stupid enough to envy Wes.”

  “Don’t you say his name!” Vanessa ordered, tossing the needlework in her hand aside.

  “I’ll say whatever I want to.” Zachary’s gaze went cold and hard. “You spoiled him, gave him things instead of your time. He grew up thinking he could have anything he wanted, that everyone should treat him the same way. He never learned how to compromise, to give instead of take.”

  “My son was the best. He deserved the best,” A.J. insisted.

  Zachary shook his head in disgust. “Did you hear what you said? What you both said? Wes was always my son to you he was never our son. You both tugged at him to love one more than the other. You won’t get the chance to ruin Manda’s life.”

  “I’m calling the police.” Vanessa picked up the old-fashioned white phone on the ornate desk.

  “Call them, and then I’ll have to tell them who my father is. How Wes and I were born an hour apart. Is that what you want your friends at the country club whispering about? I can tell you it isn’t a good feeling when you walk into a room and people stop talking. I know.”

  Her hand trembling, Vanessa replaced the phone. “Get out!”

  “I plan to.” He pulled an envelope from his pocket and removed a sheet of paper from inside. “My lawyer drew this up. Your signature on here will mean that you give up now and in the future any rights to seek custody of Manda. You accept Madison as her legal guardian.”

  “I won’t sign it!” A.J. shouted. “She’s all of Wes we have left.”

  Zachary’s narrowed gaze swung back to A.J. “How long have you known?”

  A.J. went to the bar, poured himself two fingers of scotch, then tossed it down. “Wes came down after she was born. He wanted us to know we had a grandchild.” He tossed down another drink. “She was just some teacher. He couldn’t ruin his career and his social standing by acknowledging the baby.”

  Zachary had heard it all before. People didn’t matter in A.J. and Vanessa’s opinion, money and social standing did. “What changed your mind about accepting her now?”

  “The house gets lonely and she’s all of Wes that’s left,” A.J. answered, his shoulders slumped, his face lined. He’d aged since Wes’s death. Vanessa’s face also showed lines of strain and grief. However, instead of clinging to each other, they chose to inflict pain on Madison.

  Zachary didn’t doubt the house was lonely. It couldn’t be otherwise with two cold people living there. But he also wouldn’t put it past Vanessa to want to get back at Madison because she was living and Wes was dead. She wasn’t going to use Manda to do it.

  “I promised Wes I’d take care of Manda and I intend to keep my promise,” Zachary said, his voice edged with steel. “Manda won’t be sacrificed to ward off your loneliness or to hurt Madison. Now sign the paper or the Sugarland Gazette will have a shocking front headline in the morning.”

  He’d done it.

  Madison had sent Gordon and Camille home after Zachary called. Luckily, there were flights to Dallas from Houston every hour and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Too keyed-up to sleep, she decided to put the boxes from the Taylors’ house away. Picking one up, she glanced at Warrior , the picture of a majestic and fierce Zulu, and thought of Zachary. He certainly had been a warrior for Manda and her. Suddenly she was glad she
had kept Wes’s art collection. She was keeping Warrior and saving the rest for Manda.

  Smiling, she continued down the hall to Wes’s bedroom where she was storing the boxes. She was carrying the last one when it slipped, spilling the contents.

  Squatting, she reached to pick up a book that had fallen open. The name on the page jumped out at her. Wes. Her body began to tremble. Slowly she picked up the bound leather volume and looked at the front page. Bridget Taylor. My Journal. The words were written in neat, precise script. Madison’s breath caught, then trembled out. The decent thing to do would be to put it back in the box, but the lure was too strong.

  Madison sat on the floor and started to read.

  THIRTY-TWO

  THROUGH THE PAGES, MADISON discovered a shy, sensitive woman who dreamed of finding the right man, a woman who hurt when she didn’t have a date for the prom, a woman who lost her virginity her freshman year in college to a callous boy who later bragged of his conquest. Bridget had been hurt, but she hadn’t given up on love.

  One day I’ll find a man to love me, a man who won’t leave me like my mother and my father did. I’ll find my own special love. I know he’s out there. He has to be.

  Bridget had met Wes at the San Antonio conference of the National Association of Black Journalists. One of her high-school honors English students had won first prize for best newspaper story and she had gone as his chaperone. Wes had presented the award. Her words were glowing and awestruck in describing him.

  Wes Reed is even more handsome and charismatic in person than on television. My heart was heating so fast and loud when he was talking to me after the awards ceremony I was afraid he could hear it. He’s charming and intelligent. I thought I’d faint, I was so excited. He’s married. I know it’s wrong, but I just can’t stop thinking about him.

  Madison turned the page.