But morning always comes and with it the harsh reality of where I am and that I’ll be here for a long time.
I’m in the small library, working through some math problems for the algebra class I’m taking. One of the perks of this place is the program to help people like me have half a chance once we get out. Right now I’m taking basic college classes but I’m working my way toward a business degree. But I’m not going to stop with just an undergraduate degree. I won’t stop until I have my MBA—just like I told Maggie’s dad I would.
Just thinking her name makes my skin feel too tight for my body. She tried to call me when I first got here but I refused each call. Then the letters started coming in but I sent them back unopened. There’s no way for us to work. Once I know one thing about her, I’ll want to know everything, and that will make my time harder here. She should be off at school now, hopefully enjoying her classes and the freedom that she would get being away from her parents. I need her to forget about me and move on with her life.
I speak to Gus every Sunday night on the phone and we exchange letters regularly but I never ask about her and he doesn’t offer any information. One day I’ll ask Gus to tell me everything he knows, but not yet. I can’t handle it yet.
I was afraid of what would happen to Gus once I was gone, and felt even worse that I couldn’t keep my word to Abby about looking out for him, but him trying to figure out how to get me out of here early seems to give him purpose. I’m pretty sure he’s written a letter to everyone in the states of Louisiana and Florida and probably the federal government as well.
A guard, one of the cooler ones here, sticks his head inside the small library and says, “Noah, you have a call.” He pauses a second, then adds, “It’s Gus, not the girl.”
I walk to the bank of phones and pick up the one the guard indicates is for me.
“Hey, Gus, what’s going on?” I ask. It’s not our normal time to talk so I’m worried about why he’s calling.
“Noah, I’ve been debating whether or not to call you but I finally decided this was something you needed to know. It’s about Maggie.”
“What is it? Is she okay?” My heart feels like it’s going to thump right out of my chest.
“She got married last night. Small ceremony at her parents’ house.”
“Married!” I shout into the phone. She’s supposed to be off at school, not walking down the aisle.
“She came to see me just before the ceremony. She’s pregnant.”
Gripping the phone tighter, I lean against the wall and slide down until I’m crouched on the floor. “Is it mine?” We always used protection but I know sometimes accidents still happen.
“Yeah.”
“Oh my God. She kept trying to call me. To write me. To tell me.”
My mind is spinning. Maggie is pregnant. With my baby. But she’s married now.
“Who? Who did she marry?”
He takes a deep breath and says, “Robert.”
I explode off the floor. “Robert! She married Robert?” I start to pace but get yanked back by the cord of the phone. The guard is eyeing me from across the room, trying to determine if I’m going to be a problem.
“After you left, she kept coming here. To check on me I guess. This is what I’ve pieced together after talking to her and to Robert. Robert said he would find her curled up on the couch in the Preacher Woods house, crying.”
This is killing me. Hearing this is killing me.
“She was coming out here every day, spending hours sitting in that house. I guess she and Robert became friends. She found out she was pregnant and was terrified of telling her parents. Terrified of what they would do. Robert offered to tell them it was his and to marry her. I know it’s 1999 but around here it might as well be 1955.”
I feel sick. “She tried to tell me. She called me and wrote me letters and I ignored her. I thought I was doing the right thing.”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s what I would have done, too,” Gus says.
He’s quiet on the other line for a moment. “In January, they’re going to move to Baton Rouge so Robert can finish school. Not sure if she’ll take any classes or not since the baby is due in the spring. After he finishes, they’ll come back here and Robert plans to work for her dad.”
I slam my fist into the wall and pain radiates down my arm. I cut myself off from her so she could go to school. Have a normal life.
And then I remember what Robert said to me when we were cleaning up the family cemetery—with Gus behind me and Maggie at my side, I could be the king of that little pissant town. But it seems like he’ll be the king now.
“It’s still your child, Noah. No matter who she’s married to,” Gus says.
“I’m in jail for being a drug dealer. What kind of father is that?”
“We both know you shouldn’t be there. Don’t give up hope. I’m still working on things. I’ve talked to the officer who got the tip and pulled you over—Officer Hill. He’s helping me out. Says this case hasn’t felt right from the beginning.”
I hear what he’s saying but nothing breaks through the thought that Maggie’s having my baby.
“Did she seem happy?” I ask.
“She seemed relieved to have a solution. A way to keep the baby, your baby, and raise it in a way where she could give it everything it needed.”
“Make me a promise, Gus. Watch out for them…Maggie and the baby.”
“We’re going to get you out of there. And then you can come back here and watch out for them yourself.”
I rub a hand across my face. “I wouldn’t do that to them. They’ll both be better off without someone like me in their life. They both deserve better than anything I could offer them.”
23
Noah approaches the table and he looks from me to Mom and back again several times.
Our waitress walks past us and pats Noah on the shoulder. “You need a table, hon, or will you be sitting with them?” she asks.
His mouth opens but no words come out.
Mom looks like she’s on the verge of losing it. She whispers, “He’ll sit here.” Then she looks at Noah and says, “Please sit here.”
“Mom,” I whisper. I just told her this is the guy who’s been impersonating Gus and she invites him to sit down.
He grabs a nearby chair and puts it at the end of the booth and sits. He takes a deep breath and starts to say something but I stop him.
“I don’t understand what’s going on,” I say, looking at Mom. “You know him?”
She nods and a tear slides down her cheek. “Tell him about the letter you got at school.”
I look between her and the guy she called Noah and back at her. “I don’t understand.”
She reaches across the table and her hand covers mine. “I know, and I’ll explain everything, but tell Noah about the letter you got from…your dad.”
I recite the letter once more and Noah’s head drops back and he looks at the ceiling.
“Someone needs to tell me what’s going on,” I grit out.
Mom takes a deep breath and says, “I was eighteen when I got pregnant with you and I married your dad—Robert—shortly after I found out. But Robert isn’t your biological father.” She pauses a moment and adds, “Noah is.”
I’m shaking my head in disbelief but she nods, letting me know it’s the truth. I look at Noah and then back at her. “This can’t be true. How can this be true? Why are you saying this?”
Mom turns to Noah and asks, “Did you know? Did Gus tell you?” she asks.
He nods. “He told me. Just after your wedding.”
Mom’s hands cover her face and she falls apart in the seat across from me.
Why would she ask him that? Why did she think there was a chance he didn’t know?
I have so many questions firing in my head that I can’t focus on what’s happening. Everything is blurry and I feel sick. I turn and look at Noah again. “I know why we’re here. My dad sent me a letter a
nd led me to believe he would be here, too. But why are you here?”
“I got a letter. A couple of days ago…when Pippa showed up with lunch. I’ve been…looking into Louisiana Frac and what happened there.” He looks at Mom, then me, and back to Mom. “I was told if I showed up here, I’d find what I was looking for.”
I scan the room like I’m still expecting him to walk through the door.
Mom uncovers her face and crosses her arms in front of her, like she’s trying to physically hold herself together. “It seems like Robert set this up. For whatever reason, he wanted the two of you to meet.”
I look at Noah. “If you knew I was your son, why did you lie to me? You told me your name was Gus Trudeau.”
He closes his eyes and his shoulders slump. Then he looks at me and says, “Owen, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what to say to you when you showed up. No one knew I was back. Well, no one but Detective Hill.” He rubs a hand over his face and takes another deep breath. “No one was expecting anyone but Gus to be out there. And then you showed up and my heart almost stopped,” he says. “I’ve only known you through pictures and from a distance but to see you just steps away was more than I was prepared for. And once I met you, I didn’t want to let you go. So I offered you the job. Anything to keep you coming back. I knew once you found out who I really was you would hate me, but I was starved for contact with you.”
My stomach drops. Every emotion possible is coursing through me: rage, sadness, confusion, and I can’t process it. I have questions about everything. Questions about where he’s been, why he was a secret, questions about Gus and my dad.
Mom’s head drops and she sobs. Big, heartbreaking sobs. His hand reaches out for her and she hesitates a second or so before putting her hand in his.
I don’t understand any of this. I can’t process any of this.
“I was…working on something…something that I needed to handle before I came looking for you and your mom,” he says.
I slide out of the booth and almost fall on the floor. “I need to go. I can’t be here right now.”
Mom’s head comes up and she cries out, “Owen,” but I’m looking around the restaurant and the most painful moment in my life is happening in front of a roomful of strangers and it’s more than I can handle.
“I need some time,” I say.
Mom starts to get up. “Do you want me to come with you?”
I shake my head and she sits back down. “Can you give her a ride home?” I ask Noah.
“Of course,” he answers.
I’m almost to the door when our waitress approaches me.
“Sweetie, I got something for you. Didn’t realize it was you until your mama said your name just now. I was expecting you to be alone.”
She hands me a brown envelope.
“What’s this?” I ask.
She shrugs. “No idea, honey, but it was worth a hundred bucks for me to hold on to it for you. He said you’d be here tonight. I thought he was a damn fool but here you are.”
I look back at Mom and Noah and their heads are bent and they’re talking to each other.
Pushing through the door, I wait until I’m in the truck before I open the envelope. I’m not surprised when I see a letter from Dad.
O—
I haven’t done many things in my life I’m proud of but I like to think I had a part in raising you into the strong, independent man you are and I’m proud of that.
Whether you ever believe it or not, I love you and I love your mom. I never meant to leave you the way I did. I never meant for things to get so out of control. My only hope is that you’ll forgive me one day. I wish I could have been a better man for you both.
—Dad
Noah—Spring of 2000
“Noah, you have some visitors.”
The guard lets me into one of the meeting rooms and Gus and the officer who pulled me over are sitting at the table in the middle of the room.
Gus gets up when he sees me and comes around the side of the table, embracing me in a hug.
“How you holding up?” he asks.
“Okay,” I answer. I don’t think Gus has been back to town in Lake Cane once since he showed up at the police station to see me, but he’s been here three times in the six months I’ve been in jail.
I look at Officer Hill across the table and try to settle the anger that’s running through me. I know he’s been helping Gus try to prove my innocence, but I can’t get over he was the one who started all of this when he pulled me over.
“So it must be something big if Officer Hill decided to come with you.”
Gus says, “It’s Detective Hill now. He was promoted last month.”
I nod at him. “Congratulations.” I hope it at least sounded like I meant it.
Detective Hill nods and says, “We’ve been talking to the judge who accepted your guilty plea. We’re trying to get him to throw out your plea and reopen the case. There are a couple of things in your favor. I think we all agree the anonymous tip we received was a little too perfect. While I was on duty, I got a call from the station telling me to be on the lookout for your car and that you were a suspected drug dealer. That’s all they gave me. So when I spotted you, I pulled you over and found the drugs, and the rest you know.”
“So what changed?”
Detective Hill glances at Gus then back to me. “After Gus called me for the tenth time to tell me how bad I screwed up by arresting you…”
“Screwed up wasn’t the word I used,” Gus says.
Detective Hill bobs his head and rolls his eyes. “Yes, I remember your exact words. Anyway, I pulled everything we had on your case. I didn’t realize the tip stated who you were, what car you were driving, where you left from, where you were going, who was in the car, and what type of drugs you had in the car.”
I’m trying to wrap my head around what he’s saying. “So I’m guessing that’s not common?”
Detective Hill shakes his head. “No. I’ve never seen a tip that specific.”
A tiny seed of hope sprouts inside of me. “So the judge is considering reopening my case?”
Detective Hill frowns. “You still have two very big things against you. You signed a piece of paper saying you did what you were accused of.”
I nod. “What the second thing?”
“The most damning piece of evidence was that plastic bag the drugs were in. Your prints were all over it. I’m the one who handled that bag and I’m the one who checked it into evidence. They took the prints off of it in front of me and ran it through the system. That’s how your priors showed up. I can’t explain that. Can you?”
I lean back in the chair. “No. I have no idea why my prints were there. I mean, I never touched that bag.”
Gus finally joins the conversation. “It was one of those regular ziplock bags that everyone has in their kitchen. Do you remember handling one?”
And then a memory comes flooding back. That night at Gus’s when Robert asked me to stay for a drink. The first time I had been around him since that night he overheard what I said to Maggie’s friend about being ready for him to leave. He knocked over that jar of shells. Asked me to get a ziplock bag to put them in. I left the bag on the counter.
I tell them what I remember and Gus lets out a string of curses.
“But why would Robert set you up?” Detective Hill asks.
I shrug. “Toward the end of the summer, Robert and I weren’t seeing eye to eye on a few things. I all but told him he needed to leave and not come back. I guess he was trying to get rid of me just like I was trying to get rid of him.”
“I thought it was Robert. Knew in my gut it was Robert. I should have never let him and Abby’s parents in the front door,” Gus says.
“No, Gus. I should have waited to talk to you before taking the deal. But I was so scared for Maggie. Scared her life would be ruined just because she was with me. This is on me. I took the deal. I signed the paper saying I did it.”
We sit at the table,
each of us lost in our thoughts.
“So there’s no way to prove that bag was the one I handled in your kitchen that night.”
It’s not a question. The one thing I wasn’t wrong about was whoever set me up did a really good job.
“And so the guy who sent me here is now married to my girl and will raise my kid.” I squeeze my eyes closed. “He stole my life.”
24
The only place I could think to go was Pippa’s house. She takes one look at me and pulls me to the backyard since her entire family is inside.
There’s a giant hammock hanging between two big oak trees and we stop right next to it.
“Hop in,” she says.
When we were young, we would spend hours in this hammock. My arm goes around her while her head rests on my chest. We fit together perfectly.
“What happened?” she asks.
Everything rushes out of me. She listens quietly, absorbing every word.
“Owen, I don’t even know what to say,” she says once I finish.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to think.”
“Do you know why they kept it a secret? Or where he’s been? Or what the papers you found on his desk mean? And I can’t believe your dad basically led you to him.”
All of her questions are the same questions that have been bouncing around in my head. Plus a couple dozen more.
“You should go talk to your mom.”
“I can’t. Not right now.”
“Just think about what she’s going through. That picture of her with that tree’s coordinates and the necklace, those were all about her and Noah, not her and your dad. And all that stuff Noah told you when you thought he was Gus about how hard your dad fell for your mom…he was talking about himself. I mean, my God, Owen, this is so crazy.”
“Tell me about it.”
Pippa laces her fingers through mine. “You need to go talk to him. And your mom. At least hear what they have to say.”
I squeeze her hand. “Will you come with me?”
“No. This is something that you need to do. But I’ll be here when you’re done.” She moves to get out of the hammock and when I try to stop her, she says, “I’ll be right back. I’ve got something for you.”
The Lying Woods Page 26
