“You’re the gal whose place I took,” Katie said. “You had some emergency and had to leave. I was a poor substitute for you but I did my best.”
Oh, dear Father, Julia prayed. Does she really have no idea about what I’m about to say?
“What can I do for you?” Andy said.
“We were hoping to see you alone,” Matt said. “Perhaps if you would excuse us, Mrs. Hamlin . . . ?”
Katie stared at Matt, then turned to her husband. “What is this about?”
A tremor passed between Julia’s shoulder blades, as if her very center could not hold. “Please, if I could just speak to Andy for a couple of minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”
“I’m sorry,” Andy said. “We never do that. I’m sure you understand why.”
“You might consider making an exception,” Matt said.
“If that isn’t acceptable to you,” Katie said, “we’ll wish you well and send you on your way.”
“You don’t understand,” Julia said, catching Andy’s eye. He hadn’t told her. All these years and Katie never knew.
“Sweetheart . . .” Andy put his hand on his wife’s shoulder, tried to turn her toward the door.
She shook him off. “No. If some . . . accusation . . . is going to be made, I need to be here.”
“Could we sit down?” Matt said. “It might be better that way.”
Julia could see the guilt in Andy’s eyes now, coming to the surface as if wrenched free from a deep mooring. Perhaps he had persuaded himself that it had never happened. Time could do that. Or perhaps—Destiny might say—the man was a serial scumbag and thought he’d never be caught.
“You’re from Dallas,” Katie said, forcing a smile. “One of our favorite places to visit.”
“Andy, tell her,” Julia said.
“Pardon me?” Katie turned in her seat, looked at her husband. “Tell me what?”
Andy stood and simply said, “Why now?”
Julia couldn’t take her gaze off Katie. These were the last few seconds before they blew that poor woman’s world apart. God, forgive me—have mercy on her.
“Because our son is dying,” Matt said. “That is why now.”
“I’m sorry,” Andy said. “That’s terrible. I’m not sure I follow what that has to do with us?”
Matt tightened his arm around her shoulder. “Julia. This is your story.”
She could still get up and walk away, knowing Matt would not tell the Hamlins because it was her hidden shame, her past to hold on to or to let go of. Shame off you, Julia and she knew that was true, just as she knew that the consequences remained.
“Please,” Julia said. “Please, don’t make me say it.”
Katie turned her gaze on Julia. “What is going on here?”
“That summer,” Andy said. “Before you came home from Uganda, I was missing you, and that missing became loneliness . . .”
His wife jerked back, her chair scraping the floor. “What are you saying?”
“I’m sorry, Katie. I have been faithful since . . .”
“Since you slept with her? Is that what you’re saying?”
“We were young. And you were gone and I . . . I forgot who I was. Who you and I were. When I realized how selfish I was, the sin I was wallowing in—”
“Now wait just one minute,” Matt said, rising to his feet. “You didn’t wallow in my wife. You seduced her.”
Katie leaned forward as if she needed the table to catch her. A flush rose up her throat. “Is that true, Mrs. Whittaker?”
Julia resisted the urge to jump to her feet and run from the room. What a terrible revelation for Andy’s wife. “He told me you were finishing up a divorce—”
“He said that? Andrew, how could you?”
Andy hung his head, tears falling into his lap. “I am so sorry.”
“Why now?” Katie clutched her throat. “Why come in here and vomit this up now? Do you want money? That’s it, isn’t it? You want money.”
“Mrs. Hamlin, that’s not what we want,” Matt said. “Nor do we want to hurt you. We know this is hard for you.”
“Hard? HARD!” Katie pressed her hands to her ears. “Do you think hard describes what it’s like to have your heart ripped out of you?”
“Why do this now?” Andy said through clenched teeth.
“There are circumstances. Things that need to be addressed.” Matt squeezed Julia’s hand, whispered, “Tell them.”
“Andy, I am so sorry,” Julia said. “We have a daughter.”
Katie gasped.
Andy sat down, hard. “And you never told me, Julia?”
“I thought it was for the best just to deal with it by myself. That I should remove myself—and the child—from the situation so you could move forward with your wife.”
He glanced at Matt. “You raised my child?”
“No,” Matt said. “Julia gave her up for adoption.”
“Hold on here. Just stop for a minute. Please, everyone, just shut up for one moment.” Katie dug her fingers into her hair as if to keep her head together. “Let me understand this. Andrew had an affair with you, Julia. You got pregnant and never told him.”
“Yes.”
“Sleeping with a married man is bad enough. But you surrendered Andrew’s child,” Katie said, “without him having any say in it. That’s unfathomable. How could you be so cold?”
Andy covered his face, his shoulders lifting as if trying to bring in air. Julia’s chest constricted. Dear Father, if I am having a heart attack, take me instead of Dillon.
“Breathe,” Matt whispered, and as if she heard him, Katie took a deep breath. Andy was white-faced, his big hands trembling. Julia remembered Tom’s embrace and how everything was forgiven in an instant. If she embraced Andy in this moment, he would kill her.
“Tell me,” he said.
Matt gave him the facts of Hope’s birth and now Chloe’s life, stopping short of Dillon because the Hamlins seemed on the brink of collapse. Katie shrank into herself, arms tight around her chest.
“I’m so sorry,” Julia said.
Andy glanced up at her. “You had no right.”
“I did what I thought was best for the baby. And for you and Katie.”
“And yourself,” Katie said. “You did what was best for yourself.”
“I did what I could bear,” Julia said.
“This is unbearable,” Andy said. “After all these years.”
“Chloe was raised in a Christian home,” Julia said. “You would be proud.”
Katie began to sob, heavy gasps punctuated with a keening cry. Andy reached for her and she shoved him away.
“We’ll step outside for a couple of minutes,” Matt said. “Give you a little space to process this.”
“No! No one is going anywhere.” Katie pointed at Julia. “Let her witness my grief.”
Matt glanced at Julia. She closed her eyes and nodded.
Andy tried again to hold his wife. She held up her hand to keep him away. “You too, Andrew. This is on you too.”
Julia and Matt watched while Kathleen Hamlin grieved so deeply that her soul seemed to turn inside out.
Andy Hamlin paced the room, turning frequently toward the window. As he stared out into the black night, he stroked his jaw hard as if trying to smooth away what had been revealed.
Katie finally allowed Andy to put his trembling hand on her shoulder. He started to say something but she shushed him. “No, Andrew. I’m not ready to hear anything from you right now.”
She turned to Matt and Julia and said, “Now. What’s this about a dying son?”
Thursday, 5:55 p.m.
The walk across the sitting room to Destiny’s bedroom was the longest of Chloe’s life. Destiny stood at the window, staring out at the mountains.
Chloe shoved the phone at her. “Help me.”
“No.” Her sister waved her away. “I’m not talking to Jack. Not again.”
“Please. Read the text.”
Des
tiny squinted as if trying to rearrange the letters on the screen. Impossible. Chloe had been trying to do the same thing since the text came in. She squeezed her eyes shut and still she saw the words as if they had been burned into her eyelids.
Chloe—call this # by 9 P or my next call will be 2 Jack. XXOOXX Rob J
“He knows who you are? That’s bad.”
“I don’t know how. I don’t know . . . I feel faint . . .”
“Shush.” Destiny shoved her into a chair, pushed her head to her knees. “Breathe.”
“I can’t call him. How can I call him?”
“You can, and you’d better.”
“Julia will be back before then. She’ll know what to do.”
Destiny kneeled down next to her. “Look at me.”
Chloe stared at her. Same eyes, same flesh and blood, but Destiny would never have been this stupid.
“He doesn’t know we’re in Colorado,” Destiny said. “Right?”
“Unless I let it slip . . . I don’t know what I did. Oh, God, forgive me.”
“Yeah, okay. The point is that he’s on Eastern time. Which means you’ve got to call him in the next hour or so.”
“I can’t. How can I?”
“Fine.” Destiny stood up, made a show of brushing her away. “Let Jack handle it. That’s your modus operandi, isn’t it? Let Jack tell you where to go, what to wear. Whom to love.”
Jack is my infrastructure. And Chloe was the corruption, about to make both of them collapse.
“You do it for me.”
“No.” Destiny handed her the phone. “I’ll be right here. Go on, you can do it.”
Chloe took the phone, punched in the numbers, and held her breath. Rob Jones answered, his voice silky. “Hey! What’s up, Chloe?”
“My name is Hope.”
Destiny rolled her eyes.
“I know who you are, Chloe Middlebrooks Deschene,” he said.
“What did you do to me?”
“Only what you wanted me to do. We had such a fun evening together. So much fun, I had to run some film.”
“That’s . . .” Chloe rubbed her chest to stop her heart from pounding. “That’s illegal.”
“You agreed to it. It’s right on the film.”
Her knees wobbled. She sunk into the chair.
“I wouldn’t have agreed to anything like that,” she said. “You did something to me.”
“Can you prove that?”
Chloe couldn’t prove anything except that she drank so much, anything that happened after that—including some version of a date-rape drug—was a sink hole, about to drag her all the way down.
“Ask him what he wants,” Destiny whispered.
“What do you want?”
“Some media outlet might pay good money for this movie we made. But I thought you should have first shot at it. Being you’re the star and all. Open-market price should be about a hundred K. For a girl with feet in the Middlebrooks and Deschene money, I figure five hundred K would be a good figure.”
“I don’t have that kind of money.”
“Sweet cheeks, I’ve known who you are from the second time we met online. And I sure as blazes know your net worth.”
“How did you know who I was?”
“I make it my business to know. Usually my ‘dates’ are worth a couple thousand. But you . . . hmm, baby. Nice of you to fall into my lap like you did.”
“The ship. The fishing thing . . . ?”
He laughed. “Talk about an easy hook to bait. I worked you like a psychic works her marks. Ask a broad question, hone in on any positive responses. Easier even because I could google as we chatted, learn enough terms to nail you. Most of the time I was just reframing your responses and spitting them back at you. Keeping you online long enough to get everything I needed to know about you.”
Destiny wrapped her hand over the phone. “What does he want?”
“Money,” Chloe said, tears running down her cheeks. “Half a million.”
“Tell him he can go—you know. Tell him that.”
“Chloe? The longer you wait, the hotter the film,” Rob said.
“Hold on. Give me a minute.” She handed the phone to Destiny, ran into the bathroom and gagged, wanting the filth gone, wanting herself gone. Destiny wrapped her arms around her, dabbing her face with a washcloth. “Come on. Finish up the call and we’ll figure it out together. Come on, girl.”
Chloe took the phone. “Rob.”
“Sexy name, eh, baby? Fun to play fantasyland.”
“I . . .” Deep breath. “I need to see what I’m buying. And then we’ll talk terms.”
“Exactly what I’d planned. Hang up, take a look. And let’s reconvene in ten minutes.”
“No. No one keeps that much money in liquid assets. I need . . . a day or so to see what I’ve got.”
“Can’t promise I’ll hold it that long. The tabloids and smut shows are always looking for blockbuster news. And that rich husband of yours probably carries that much in pocket change. Maybe I’ll focus-group a minute or so on YouTube while I’m waiting for you to tell me when and where to pick up my money.”
“This has got to be illegal. Extortion or blackmail or something.”
“No, baby. It’s a brand-new world, and this is just a sale to the highest bidder.”
“Send it and I’ll get back to you.”
“No, you won’t. I’ll get back to you. Sweet dreams, baby.”
He clicked off. Chloe leaned over the sink, washed her mouth with water. The taste of his kisses lingered like a decaying animal. She smeared Destiny’s toothpaste over her teeth, gargled, and spit.
“What now?” Destiny asked.
The phone pinged.
“Do you want me to leave while you view it?”
“No. You know . . . you’ve seen the worst of me. Too late now to pretend anything else.” Chloe linked her arm through her sister’s, held tight, and tapped the link.
The first few seconds was a scan of the motel room, catching one item of clothing at a time. Boots, coat, slacks, and sweater. Black bra. Chloe gasped and Destiny held her tighter. Underpants. She had worn the black lacy ones that Jack thought were frivolous.
“He knows how to set a scene,” Destiny said. The camera scanned the bed. Hand, arm, hair flung over a pillow.
“Chloe.” Rob’s voice was off-screen.
“Hmm,” the video-Chloe said, slowly opening her eyes.
“You want to dance, right?”
“I dunno. No one lets me.”
Music came on—something almost like a salsa—and the camera caught Chloe’s naked back as she sat up.
“Show me,” Rob Jones said.
Chloe staggered to her feet and then turned full-frontal to the camera.
“God forgive me,” Chloe whispered.
“Amen,” Destiny said.
The video showed ten minutes of her drunken, drugged dancing. Whatever Rob suggested she do, Chloe had done. Finally, there was a banging off-screen.
“That’s me,” Destiny said. “Knocking.”
The video went black.
“Well?” Chloe said. “What do you think of me now?”
“I think you’ve got some really good moves,” Destiny said.
Chloe laughed and then sobbed because no one—especially Jack—could forgive this. She’d have to find some way to bury that video forever.
But first. First, she had to remember how to breathe.
Thursday, 6:17 p.m.
“You wanted to punish me,” Andy said. “That’s why you didn’t tell me.”
“What would it have gained me?” Julia said. “Except maybe a custody battle—and I couldn’t bear that.”
Andy tried to take Katie’s hand. She slapped his away. “I can’t even bear to look at you, Andrew. The only reason I’m still in this room is because of your daughter. And the Whittakers’ son.”
“That summer,” he said, “was the only time in our twentyfive years. I swear, Katie. I sa
w a situation and took advantage. I thought . . .” He rubbed his face hard enough to leave streaks in his fair skin. “I thought no one would know, that she and I would never see each other again.”
“Not me,” Julia said. “I thought we were going to get married.”
“Did I ever say that?”
“A guy doesn’t have to say it,” Matt said, “for a woman to believe that. To count on that.”
“He didn’t ask you, Mr. Whittaker,” Katie said.
“Don’t talk to my husband like that,” Julia said.
“After what you did to my husband? I don’t think you have any right to tell me what I can or cannot do.”
Andy made a fist, pounded it into his hand. “I didn’t know how vulnerable you were. You didn’t tell me about your first pregnancy. I thought you were just a college student, looking to do good and willing to . . . do what we did.”
“Have sex. Are you afraid to say it?” Julia said. “I thought we were making love, but for you, it was just a little summer fun.”
“And you were just a spectator?” Katie said.
Matt slapped the table. “I’ll ask you not to talk to my wife that way.”
Andy covered Matt’s hand with his own. “Maybe we should take a moment to ask for God’s guidance here.”
Slowly—so slowly—Katie extended her hand across the table to Julia. Julia took it. How cold. The poor woman.
Matt cradled Julia’s broken hand in his lap.
“God, have mercy,” Andy said. He prayed in a soft tone, invoking the Lord’s promises of peace and wisdom and asking that whatever was going on in this room be to God’s glory.
Only You can make that so, Julia prayed.
“Thank you,” Matt said after the final amen.
“What do you need?” Andy asked.
“What does Hope need?” Katie said, covering his hand with hers.
“She wants to meet her birth father,” Julia said. “And she’s scared. She’s used to a well-ordered life. This is as messy for her as it is for us.”
“This doesn’t sound like something we should rush into,” Katie said.
“They need Chloe to decide on the donation,” Andy said. “So it’s got to be quick.”
“You’re asking a lot from people you don’t know,” Katie said.
To Know You (9781401688684) Page 25
