by Riley Murphy
How was this possible? Her father loved Anjay. He always had even more so after—
“Then fate stepped in.”
“The accident.”
“Yes. Suddenly I was the man of the house and I loved it. With your dad clinging to life and your mother spending every waking hour by his side those first crucial months I put school off for half a year, which meant there was only you and I at home most days. Watching you walk around in your skimpy outfits or running into you in the hall when you were all wrapped in terry towels fresh from the shower, it was hell. I had to make a move, but when I did and you turned me down that’s when I went through real hell. You were my lifeline toward a solid future. A way back in with your family should your dad survive and most definitely if he didn’t.”
“You were like a brother to me. I trusted you.”
“You shouldn’t have said no to me. Do you know what I went through seeing you with that guy? Guy? No, more like a kid. What was his name? Your little boyfriend. Brad, Brian?
“Brent.” Jo remained calm even as her heart pounded inside her chest. Was she finally going to get an answer as to why he’d done what he did to her?
“I fumed watching you flirt with him…with that lowlife. He was nothing. Poor grades and a pothead. The more I watched you hang on to that piece of dirt when you could have had me, the more I came to hate you. You didn’t deserve me. You didn’t deserve all of what you had. Everything was so easy for you and you didn’t even appreciate it.”
So easy for her? Was he insane? “I was sixteen to your nearly twenty.” But he wasn’t listening. He was staring right through her.
“I came to hate you and the idea of making you pay for rejecting me became an obsession. I fantasized about how I could get back at you even as I had the additional worry of your father recovering. When he did he’d find out I didn’t leave at the end of the summer like I promised him I would. I knew he’d kick me out. But then fate stepped in again. Your little friend went away on Thanksgiving, leaving you alone. Right at the very time your mother had agreed to take your dad off the ventilator.”
Her mother took him off? Hadn’t—?
“You didn’t know about that, but I did. The night of the fall dance she planned it. She didn’t want you to know until after it was done, because there was always the chance he could die immediately, and given that risk she worried you’d put up a fight. She asked me to take you to the civic center. To keep an eye on you until she was sure your dad was going to be able to breathe on his own. I was going to refuse but then I began to see it as an opportunity. A chance to make you suffer for turning on me.”
“I never turned on you.”
“To my way of thinking it didn’t matter whether your dad lived or died. Eventually I’d be forced out of your lives, it was only a matter of time. And since you’d been kind enough to confide the dirty little secret you discovered about your mother to me, I had the means to keep you quiet about how I’d planned to make you pay. Only you opened your mouth about it too soon, before I had a chance to keep you silent.”
The accusation in his tone was ludicrous. He was acting as if he was the victim and not the other way around. “What did you think I would do after what was done to me?”
“I didn’t expect you to run and lock yourself in the bathroom so you could call your mother in hysterics before I explained things. I expected more from you.”
“More? What did you want? For me to thank you?”
“Always the thorn, eh, Boo Boo?”
“Don’t call me that.”
“I’ve missed you.”
He stepped closer and Jo stiffened. “That makes one of us. Back off. And are you sure it’s me you missed? All you ever cared about was my family’s money.”
“True and to think I could have had it if I’d only been patient. Talk about fucking irony. Imagine my surprise when your dad recovers and his last memory he has of me is his most loving. I got a thrill every time I received one of his letters telling me how much he wanted you and me to get married. I think somewhere during that pile-up his brains got scrambled around. Instead of keeping me away from you he started pushing me into you.”
“Not anymore. It’s time for the truth.”
He smiled and Jo didn’t like it. “So you’re finally ready to tell your poor dad that his wife was having an affair while he was drooling through his dinner learning to function again?”
“Yes. Yes I am.” It felt great to say it. The words were empowering and cleansing somehow. She went to step around him and leave, but he grabbed her arm.
“Not so fast. I think you may want to stay for a minute and hear some real truth.”
Jo tried her best not to swear, but her best wasn’t good enough. “Fuck you! Let me go, asshole.”
He didn’t. His grip only tightened. “This is about your mother.” She went completely still. “I think there’s something else you should know about her. And when I tell you I think there’s a deal you’ll want to make with me, in fact, I’m sure of it.”
“Deal? Don’t you mean blackmail? You’re awfully good at that, but I think it’s time my mother faced her truth. A truth my dad will have to live with because I’m tired of living with it. And you know?” She jerked her arm out of his grasp and readjusted her her purse. “It did occur to me that the only person I was truly protecting by keeping her secret was you. Once I tell my dad about her affair there’s nothing stopping me from telling the world about what you did to me, is there?”
“Wait,” he blocked the door, “I agree with you. It’s time for the full truth to come out. At least the one I’m going to tell you.”
She recognized that look. It was triumph. “What do you mean?”
“After you told me about the moans in the bedroom that day when you got home early from school, I did a little spying. I know who your mother had an affair with.”
Jo suspected she knew as well. She’d concluded it had been one of their old neighbors. In her mind this explained why they’d moved right after her dad had come home from the hospital. Her mother had probably been riddled with guilt and wanted to put as much distance between her and her crime as she could. “So what? Do you think knowing will matter? You’re grasping at straws here. Move.” She went to push past him, but he wouldn’t budge.
“Who does your father respond to? Who is the doctor who’s worked miracles with him?”
“Uncle Vic?” At his leer she swayed and stepped back. “No.” She didn’t want to believe it, but even as she denied it she recalled a few instances that her red flag had been waving when she’d been around them all those years ago. Please God, not Uncle Vic.
“It’s true. Your mother had an affair with your father’s beloved brother and his biggest healthcare advocate. You go to your dad with this news and you may as well sign his death warrant.”
She didn’t care. This was ending now. “Fuck you and fuck this. I’m not going to live with it anymore. They’ll have to find some way to deal with it.” Finally she moved past him. Her hand was on the door handle ready to pull when he spoke.
“If you tell, your mother will hate you. Possibly your father and Vic will too. Who can say in these things? If you want to risk it, go ahead.”
She hated to take the bait, but she couldn’t help it. She couldn’t. “Don’t be ridiculous. The truth may be hard to face, but I can’t help that.”
“Haven’t you ever wondered why she stopped questioning you about what we did that—”
“What you did that night,” she corrected. “I had no choice in the matter.”
“Haven’t you wondered though?”
She wanted to scream yes. Yes! This desertion was almost as bad as the rape, but she’d never let him know it. “What do you mean? After I told her what you did she continued to believe it even after you made me lie to her about it. She did believe it…at first until my dad’s recovery became her focus. My dad needed all her attention. She let a lot of things slide back then.”
&n
bsp; Even as she said the words she didn’t know why she was trying to defend the woman. Her mother should have continued to dig, fight and attempt to get to the bottom of the situation she had doubts about. That was her job as a parent. A parent doesn’t have the right to quit. Ever.
“Good, so you have wondered why, after two weeks of her vehemently questioning your phone call to her that night and trying to figure out what happened, she all of a sudden accepted it?”
She hated that he knew this. Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly, despising herself for her answer, “Yes.”
“I told her the same thing I just told you. With your dad holding his own and on the road to recovery it would have been a shame for me to tell him that the man responsible for saving his life, his own brother, was fucking his wife.”
His words were so calm. So matter-of-factly delivered she had to take a moment and let them penetrate. When they did, her ears started to ring and she felt lightheaded. No way. She wasn’t going to faint. She wasn’t going to let him pull the rug out from underneath her again without a fight. “I don’t believe you.”
“It’s true. Oh I did continue to assure her that what happened between us that night was consensual and the only reason you called her was because we got into a fight, but I told her if she didn’t back off with prodding you over it, I’d go to your dad about her and Vic. Funny that your mother didn’t care then what happened to your ass. She was too busy covering her own. So as to her hating you if you tell him now? I can see that happening. After all, she’s spent years screwing you over to keep her secret safe.”
Don’t let him get in your head. He’s an abuser. He knows how to manipulate emotions. Put those aside and concentrate.
“What do you want, Anjay? Haven’t you taken enough from me?”
“No.”
The hate that poured off him gave her the chills. When he continued to stare at her without speaking she said, “What? What do you want?”
“I need money and you’re going to give it to me for my continued silence.”
Money? Relief flooded her. For a moment she been scared he’d demand that they go through with her father’s dream of a marriage between them. Not that she’d ever agree to it, but—
“You know how much your father loves me. If you can’t see your way of giving me what I want I’ll have to start agreeing with him on his marriage idea for us.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“Yes,” he sighed, “and apparently you surround yourself with them.”
Before she could ask what he was talking about, he tugged at his surgeon’s cap. “Compliments of Ted Basel.”
Jo frowned. “What about him?”
“He paid me a visit this week and ever since I’ve had to volunteer for every emergency that comes through the ER doors.”
She shook her head. What one thing had to do with another was beyond her.
“Somehow that bastard got hold of two of my more sizable loans. The ones I had subsidized through the alumni program at Duke. He bought them and he’s called them in. Now I’m being hounded by two of the most aggressive collections agencies around. The only time they can’t bother me is when I’m at the hospital.”
Despite the knot in her stomach, Jo squelched the urge to smile. He so deserved this. “Gee, I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No you’re not. Did you know he was going to do this to me?”
She shook her head.
“He didn’t tell you? He didn’t gloat over it?”
“No.” She almost wished he had. She would have had more time to enjoy Anjay’s squirming.
“He wants me to leave you alone. In fact, he warned me to stay away from you.”
“And yet here you are.”
His eyes narrowed, but his voice was calm. Soft almost. “I wouldn’t be too happy about him interfering if I were you. You see, now that he has, I need capital to make my next escrow deposit for the medical practice I’m buying into. If I default I lose what I’ve already put into it. Basel has tapped me out and tied my hands. So you’re going to give me the money I need.”
“Like hell.” Even as she made the denial she knew she had no choice. If she didn’t give him what he wanted he’d go to her father either to prey on his dreams of a union between them or to dredge up the past. She couldn’t let either of those things happen, but she also couldn’t let him know he had her backed into the corner. She had to make him believe she had options. “I wouldn’t give you a cent unless…”
He tugged his cap on and sighed. “What? You’re in no position to bargain here. I can make your life hell without telling him what your slut of a mother did.”
“Try it and I’ll tell everyone about what you did to me.”
He snorted. “Not that it would do you any good now. You have no proof, remember? You’re an unreliable source. You’ve already lied to your mother about it. Who’s going to believe you?”
She wanted to snap him in two. “How much?”
“Seventy-five thousand.”
She gasped. “I don’t have—”
“Save the poverty cry for someone else. Your dad has told me about your little trust fund releases that you get from him annually. Gather them up. One check. I don’t need to make my deposit for another few weeks so you’ll have the time to request your withdrawal.”
“I want it in writing that you’ll leave my family alone if I give the funds to you.”
“I’ll give you my word instead. That’s the best I can do.”
The money meant nothing to her in the face of getting the closure her family needed to circumvent the inevitable heartache. She’d eventually have to face some of that with her mother, but hopefully her father would never have to learn the truth.
“And they’ll be no more pushing for a wedding?”
“It was never me doing the pushing in that respect. It was always your dad. It still is. He’s going to be very disappointed when he learns the wedding is off.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“I imagine.”
Jo studied him. This was such a quick reversal of things that she listened to that little voice inside that was screaming, “This can’t be right. This seems too easy”. She’d been fighting or stressing over him in her life for so long, whether he was in the United States or not, that her gut was screaming foul. Something’s wrong.
He must have picked up on her suspicion because he plucked at his top. “Let’s just say I can’t hide at the hospital for the next few years. And I don’t want to lose the hundred grand I’ve already sunk into escrow. You do have convincing friends in high places.”
That made sense. She understood the concept of someone leveraging power over a person. Ted had done it brilliantly. He’d hit Anjay were he’d hurt him most, in the wallet. She’d have to think about that, but right now she had to think of the future. A future without the stress of Anjay in it. Even though the idea of him getting money after what he’d done to her burned like acid in her gut, she’d ignore it and focus on what she’d be getting out of the deal. Some peace and hopefully he’d do as he promised and stay away. She had to believe that he would because the last thing she wanted was for her father to find out the brother he loved and the wife he adored had stabbed him in the back when he was too weak to fend off the knife. Or to discover that his daughter had been attacked by a young man he trusted, when he was too sick to do anything about it.
“Here.” Jo took out her checkbook, balancing it on her purse with one hand she filled it out with the other.
“Seventy-five thousand,” he repeated.
“I know. I heard you. You can’t cash it until I make sure all the funds are cleared and in this account.” She held it out to him. “This ends it.”
“For both of us. Make sure I don’t get any more visits from Basel.”
She nodded and turned to leave.
“One more thing. I don’t want you sharing our secret with anyone else.”
Secret? She should have be
en choking over the gall he had to even suggest this, but she wasn’t. If she had to describe how she was feeling she’d say numb. Or better yet, empty. Where was her anger or fury? She hadn’t forgiven him, not that he’d asked for that, but in her heart where it only mattered to her for the purposes of healing she hadn’t gotten over what he’d done, so why wasn’t she hissing and spitting at him now?
She left off examining this compelling need to be calm and said, “You keep to that bargain and I’ll see to it that Mr. Basel doesn’t pay you any more visits.”
His eyes narrowed and nostrils flared before he looked down at the check. “Agreed. Once this is cashed,” he slapped it into the palm of his hand. “Our bargain starts.”
When it was clear he wasn’t going to say anything more, she decided to take his cue. Without a word, she opened the door and left that part of her past behind.
Anjay let her leave. Better that than to let her know that this was far from over. In fact, his plan had just begun. He folded the check and stuffed it into his breast pocket. Soon enough she’d learn her place in his life. She’d never tell her dad. That was his ace in the hole. Already ideas were half forming. All of them centering around her and Basel. That guy was going pay too. They both would. He’d never got the chance to ruin things for her with Brent, so the prospect of ruining things between her and Basel was an exciting one.
She’d learn soon enough that she never should have turned him down.
* * * * *
“I missed you.”
Jo didn’t even get a chance to respond before Ted pulled her through the door and hauled her in for a hug.
“I missed you too,” she mumbled against his chest. He smelled so good and when he wrapped his arms around her the whole world was forgotten.
“I have a surprise for you.”
She leaned back and smiled. “I can feel it.”
His eyes twinkled. “Not that. Don’t be a smart ass. Come on.”
“Okay,” she stumbled along behind him. “Can I at least put my purse down?”
He waited for her to toss it onto the hall table before he started pulling her toward the stairs. “Faster.”
