“I need to talk to you about something. Do you have five minutes?”
Jonathon gave her a look that very much seemed to ask — what the hell else do I have to do? He then stepped back to allow Camilla to enter. With his eyes focused elsewhere, she allowed herself a glance at his current state. His bandage looked clean, thankfully, but his t-shirt was filthy; a coffee-stained splashed across the belly of it. His sweatpants had a massive hole in both knees and the upper thigh on the backside. Camilla had been the person to do his laundry every single week since their marriage; she reasoned he wasn’t probably so good at it.
“I called Andrea yesterday,” he said as he swept a hand over his mussed hair. “It went straight to voicemail, so I texted her. Our girl’s twenty-two. It’s hard to believe.”
His eyes seemed so lifeless and hollow. It tugged at her heartstrings. Camilla sat at the edge of the couch, which Jonathon had rented from the apartment building. It seemed musty.
“Did she have a good birthday?” Jonathon asked.
“I think so, all things considering. She finally had a day off of work yesterday. Isaac took her out to dinner. He knows how to treat her.”
“That’s all a father can ask for.”
They held one another’s gaze for a long moment. Camilla had the strangest instinct to bring up a long-ago memory when her father had taken Jonathon aside and demanded his “intentions with his daughter.” Camilla had been mortified. They’d only been teenagers, on the verge of so much more.
Jonathon shifted his weight. Camilla glanced toward the far wall, where a large crack had descended from the ceiling, toward the floor. She felt so strangely protective over this man; she wanted to blurt out, come home! Let me save you from this hell! But she couldn’t. They’d been through too much.
“I just got off the phone with a lawyer,” Camilla said suddenly.
Jonathon’s shoulders slumped forward. His good hand tapped against the bandage on his other one.
“So we’re finally going to do it, huh?”
Camilla furrowed her brow.
“I’ll sign the divorce papers if you really want me to sign them. I will,” Jonathon told her. He lifted his chin sorrowfully.
Camilla’s stomach tensed. There were so many things to unpack from what he’d just said that she wasn’t sure where to begin.
“Actually, I wasn’t on the phone about that,” she finally said. “I wanted to speak to a lawyer about what you told me about this fake investment company— Montlake Investments.”
Jonathon’s ears perked up. “You mean you believe me?”
Camilla didn’t want to get into all the chaos with Brett Oliphant and his friend, Casper. In fact, she wasn’t fully sure she believed Jonathon. Still, she wanted to believe him. She had to see if there was any truth to this. She supposed that was something, at least.
“I just want to meet with this lawyer and see what she has to say.” Camilla’s words were firm, flat.
Jonathon nodded. Slowly, he bent down to sit at the edge of the coffee table. “I appreciate it. I haven’t really known which way to turn with all of this. And now, with my hand, I have to admit that I haven’t felt my best. I haven’t felt very capable.”
Again, Camilla’s heart surged with understanding. She longed to wrap her arms around him and hold him. She longed to tell him they could fix it together, just as they’d done so many other times before.
But too much had happened.
“Anyway. Susan Sheridan opened up that new criminal law firm in downtown Oak Bluffs. She’s agreed to meet with us tomorrow afternoon. Do you have time? One-thirty?”
Jonathon scoffed slightly. “I’ll check my schedule, but I think I can make it.” His words were laced with sarcasm.
“Good. I’ll pick you up,” Camilla said.
“If it’s not too much trouble. I can always drive myself,” Jonathon told her.
“I know. But we might as well head over there together.”
Silence stretched between them again. Camilla drew a curl around her ear as her heart hammered. “Great. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” She stood and walked toward the door. She suddenly felt like a frightened rabbit ducking out of the road. When she reached the door, she turned and found Jonathon’s eyes again.
And after another terrible pause, she said, “Listen. I just want you to know that I want to do this. To get our money back for Andrea’s sake, if there’s even a chance. But I know what happened between you and your secretary. And I don’t think we can ever really go back to the way things were. There’s just too much water under the bridge to even try.”
Jonathon’s lips parted in shock. Camilla was reminded of all the men across the world that had been caught cheating; reminded of how they thought they would never get caught due to them thinking they were smarter than their wives or having all the money and power. Always, women knew what was going on. And no matter what sort of pleasure happened at the moment between men and their mistresses, what they destroyed meant so much more than all that.
Men could be such children.
Yet, as she stood there in the shadows of his small apartment, she felt the immensity of her love for him. She could hardly remember now the strange, banal year they’d spent when they had fallen out of love; when their kisses had been infrequent and their lovemaking had been even less frequent. It had been an off-year. Marriages had them all the time, didn’t they? Why then had he decided to destroy everything?
“Anyway, I have to go,” Camilla said as she spun back toward the door and pulled it open.
“Camilla, wait. Please. Let’s talk—”
But before he could finish, Camilla ducked out onto the sidewalk and sauntered there beneath the severity of the June sun. She lifted her chin, proud and confident, grateful that she’d finally given breath to the fact that Jonathon had cheated and she would never find a way to forgive him.
Maybe all this was the first step toward healing.
Maybe, if they found a way through this Montlake Investment crap and got Andrea’s money back, maybe she could find a way past all this trauma, actually get around to filing the divorce papers, and start dating again. It was true that life just kept going. She owed it to herself to keep living. She deserved nothing less.
Chapter Fifteen
The drive from Jonathon’s apartment toward the Sheridan Law Offices in downtown Oak Bluffs was sinister and quiet. Jonathon’s skin looked strangely grey, as though he hadn’t eaten properly the night before, and his bandage looked a bit dirty and scuffed, as though he’d forgotten to change it. Camilla adjusted her hands on the steering wheel and paused for too long at the stop sign, which made the van behind her blare its horn.
“All right. All right!” she hissed to the driver as her nostrils flared.
Clearly, she was on edge and she wasn’t entirely sure how to kick herself back from it. She had been up for much of the night, stirring with anxiety and panic. She and Jonathon hung their hopes on a single idea, which was that Susan Sheridan would have some kind of answers for them. It seemed unlikely.
“I don’t remember you having road rage,” Jonathon said as Camilla slipped into the parking lot alongside the downtown brick building. He gave her a tentative smile, proof that he meant nothing by it.
Still, Camilla was too panicked to remember to laugh. She opened the car door and waited as several cars swished past. Her hair fluttered around her ears. She couldn’t remember the last time she and Jonathon had gone anywhere together as a couple. Probably, it had been some errand the previous December, before he’d finally left. Maybe they had gone to the grocery store and argued about which flavor of chips to buy. Maybe, they’d taken in the recycling. It was difficult to say. The memory was gone, now.
The law offices were small with just a foyer and two rooms, one for Susan Sheridan and the other for her daughter, Amanda Sheridan. Amanda Sheridan met with them in the foyer upon their arrival and greeted them warmly with coffee and croissants. She was perhaps twenty-t
wo years old, maybe twenty-three, and she was easy to speak with, clearly intellectual, but with bright eyes that told you she genuinely cared what you said next.
“I’m in law school at Rutgers,” she told them. “But I took online classes last semester, so I could start the law office with my mom.”
A memory pinged in the back of Camilla’s mind. She thought maybe that she’d heard something about Amanda being left at the altar, maybe back in January or February? Although the girl standing before her was absolutely stunning so how could any man in his right mind leave her at the altar?
This question left Camilla back with the same conclusion as before. Men just weren’t sure what they had until it was too late.
“My mom is nearly finished with her current appointment. She’ll be ready to see you right afterward,” Amanda continued.
“That’s so helpful. Thank you,” Camilla told her. “How have you liked the Vineyard this summer? I guess it’s your first summer as a resident.”
Amanda’s eyelashes fluttered. “It’s been truly magical. Did you grow up here?”
“We both did,” Camilla said as she tilted her head toward her husband. Or should she say, soon-to-be ex-husband?
“I can’t imagine,” Amanda breathed. “My mom didn’t talk about the Vineyard very much when I was growing up. Now that we’re both here together, everywhere we go, she has one story or another about some adventure she and her friends and her fiancé, Scott, got up to all those years ago. Like, the other day, we went to Felix Neck, and—”
At that moment, however, Susan’s door creaked open to reveal the beautiful, regal, all-powerful Susan Sheridan, who beamed at them and then beckoned for them to enter.
“Good afternoon,” she beamed. “Thank you for coming here to meet with me.”
Camilla and Jonathon sat in two chairs across from Susan’s desk. As she reached for a pen toward the far end of the desk, her engagement ring flashed. If Camilla wasn’t mistaken, Susan’s wedding was fast approaching. Now that Amanda had mentioned him, Camilla remembered that Susan had run off the island, married someone else, then returned and rekindled her romance with her high school sweetheart.
But of course, the beautiful woman before her was allowed to have it all. Why would Camilla even dream that was possible for herself?
“Now, let’s see here.” Susan clucked her tongue as she scanned her notes. “Yes. You mentioned yesterday that you think you were involved in a major investment scam.”
“That’s right,” Camilla agreed. She sat nervously with her hands folded in her lap as she watched Susan look over her notes.
“I’m ashamed to say it, but I met with a gentleman who said he worked for Montlake Investments,” Jonathon said suddenly. He splayed his good hand over his dirty bandage as though he’d suddenly grown embarrassed of his appearance.
“Did you say Montlake?” Susan’s eyes shone.
“That’s right.”
She furrowed her brow, yanked open the first drawer, then the second in her desk. Hurriedly, she found another pad of paper, on which she had scribbled several notes.
Camilla glanced toward Jonathon with confusion. Jonathon shrugged.
“I have to make a few calls,” Susan said. “But I’ve already met with two other people in the past two weeks who said Montlake took a great deal of funds from them and ultimately left them penniless. Another two people called me over the weekend to describe similar actions from a company, but I haven’t yet met with them to see if this company also called themselves Montlake.”
Camilla’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”
Silence stretched between them as Camilla’s heart pattered wildly.
“Listen. If Montlake is behind all of you, I’ll be able to put together a lawsuit against Montlake,” Susan said. “I’ll have to get all the details, any documents you may have, contracts, that sort of thing, of course. I would just need as many people as possible to testify. Would you be willing to do that?” Her eyes bore into Jonathon.
Immediately, he nodded, his eyes large. “Of course. Anything that will help.”
“Okay. Then right now, I need you to tell me everything. Every single detail from the moment you heard about Montlake Investments to right now.” Susan tapped her pen against a fresh piece of paper and nodded toward him. “Whenever you’re ready.”
ABOUT AN HOUR LATER, Camilla and Jonathon again found themselves in the car. Camilla’s hand shook so much as she placed the key in the ignition that the keys jangled around like a musical instrument. When the engine purred beneath them, she gripped the steering wheel, exhaled and said, “Thank you for doing that. Really.”
“We’re doing it for Andrea, but I owe you both. And you know that I would do anything for you and Andrea.”
Camilla’s heart thudded. “I really believe you, now. I don’t think you got into this investment situation on purpose. I—I feel like I owe you an apology. I just demonized you for so long.”
Jonathon scoffed. “I deserved it, Camilla. I did almost everything wrong. I was honestly trying to do a good thing for our family, but instead, it blew up in my face.”
Camilla nodded, acknowledging his words. They again held the silence until Camilla turned her eyes back toward Jonathon’s bandage. Her nurse instinct, her wife instinct, and lover’s instinct all ached with the same conclusion: she had to help Jonathon change his bandage. She had to somehow help fix this.
Without speaking, Camilla turned her car back out onto the streets of Oak Bluffs. She flicked on the radio to an oldies station, then buzzed them past Jonathon’s apartment building, all the way back to Katama Rd. Once in the driveway, Jonathon lifted his chin to the house. He looked at it as though it was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in his life.
“Come on,” Camilla said. “Let’s go in. Just for a little while.”
It was strange to see Jonathon Franklin back in the house they had once shared. Camilla poured them both glasses of water as Jonathon shifted uncomfortably next to the counter. She opened the fridge and gestured toward the leftover cake. “Do you want a slice?” But Jonathon just shook his head. Camilla understood. She wasn’t hungry, either. She felt she’d lost total connection to her body.
Camilla retreated to the bathroom for a moment to grab various items to redress Jonathon’s wound. A cursory glance into the shower forced yet another memory of a sultry afternoon between her and her husband, back when Andrea had headed off for a sleepover at Chelsea and Olivia’s and left them the weekend alone.
Oh, such sweet, sweet times.
Camilla and Jonathon sat a full foot apart on the couch. This was the couch that Jonathon had picked out eons ago, the one he had wanted. It was the one that they had sat on a million times before this. And now, he looked foreign on it.
“Layout your hand on the cushion,” she instructed.
He did as he was told. The silence was deafening as she removed the bandage, cleaned the wound, and re-dressed it. It was something she could have done in her sleep. After he turned his wrist to analyze her work, he said, “You’re really such a good nurse, you know. I hadn’t been hurt in a long, long time. It makes me fully appreciate nurses like you. Like I took your career for granted all those years.”
The compliment took Camilla off-guard. With a jolt, she got up from the couch and put the bandages and ointments and creams away in the bathroom. When she came out again, she found that Jonathon remained on the couch, staring down at his hand.
What the heck was this? Why the heck had he said that?
Camilla stepped toward him. Her heart performed a backflip, right there in her ribcage.
“Thank you for saying that,” she said softly. She seated herself on the coffee table and met his gaze. The moment seemed electric and it hummed with more power than any single second she had spent with Doctor Brett Oliphant. Here with her husband, the likes of Brett Oliphant mattered very little.
“I feel like I could apologize for an entire year, and I still wouldn’t
be able to apologize for everything.”
Camilla felt these words like a knife through her belly. Her shoulders slumped forward. Why hadn’t they had these kinds of conversations last year when they’d lost their ability to even meet one another’s eyes? What had happened between them?
Maybe she could ask him exactly that. Maybe that’s what this space in time was for.
But before she could muster the strength, the front door creaked open. Andrea’s voice rang out.
“Mom? I got off early.”
Camilla froze as Andrea’s shadow descended over them. All the color drained from Jonathon’s face. He turned to find his daughter, the daughter he had wronged above everyone else. He tried a smile, but it immediately faltered.
“Andrea. Hi. Happy birthday.”
Andrea’s nostrils flared. Resentment made her look stiff and sharp. “What are you doing here?”
“Me and your dad had an appointment today,” Camilla told her. She tried to make her voice sound bright and shiny, but it just came out sounding false.
“For the divorce?”
Camilla’s heart sank. Andrea had said it so matter-of-factly, as though that was exactly what she wanted for her parents.
“It’s a little more complicated than that,” Camilla told her.
Andrea shrugged flippantly. “Whatever. I’m going to my room. See you later.”
In a flash, Andrea disappeared and Jonathon crumpled forward and placed his face in his good hand. After a pause, he moaned, “She will never forgive me— for any of this. I know it.”
Camilla placed her hand over his knee. The motion was so tender, so sweet, but she didn’t regret it. Everything within her had craved his touch.
“This will all take time,” Camilla breathed. “Time for you to mend things with Andrea. And time for us to — to become friends again. But I think we can all do it. Together.”
Jonathon’s wrinkles grew deeper across his forehead. “Right. Friends,” he echoed her words. His eyes reflected the immensity of his doubt.
And when he left, Camilla found herself dripping with tears as her mind rolled round and round with confusion.
113 Katama Rd Page 10
