A Lie Unraveled (3 page)

“Okay, where do we go from here, that’s the problem? If I can convince Destiny, the mom, I’d like to try and get Sophia back to school and at the same time help her to make some changes that would help her be a happier, more attentive student.”

“If you think you can achieve that, it would be great.” Candace said. “I think underneath she’s probably a nice kid really, she just needs to learn how to relax and
be
a kid; do as she’s told and let the adults worry about the adult stuff.”

Justin was stumped. This Destiny was a long way from the Destiny he had fallen in love with so long ago. Sure she could get a little bratty when she didn’t get her own way. Only children who had been spoiled by their parents tend to be that way sometimes. “I agree with you; we just have to find a way to make that happen. Tell me, do you think it would be helpful to get the dad involved?”

“There isn’t a dad as far as I know.”

Justin looked up from where he’d been making notes. “Pardon me?”

“No dad. Sophia doesn’t have a dad who’s in the picture. At least in the year that I had her in my class, I never met him and she didn’t mention him ever. Even when they had talked about parent careers in class.”

“There is
no
dad? Are you really, really sure about that?” Justin felt sick and he could feel the color drain from his face.

“I’ve probably said enough,” Candace said, realizing there was a slight change in the conversation. “I don’t want to gossip.”

Justin took a breath and tried to calm himself. He had scared this young woman. He wanted her to feel comfortable to talk to him. “If you tell me what you have heard in
this
situation, it isn’t gossip, please.” Justin needed to hear this and he needed to hear it right now.

Candace nodded. “There is talk. You know that Destiny grew up in this town?”

“Yes,” he said. Apparently Candice didn’t know that he and Destiny used to date; if it was common knowledge, she wasn’t letting on. He was past caring at this point what anyone found out about him. He had a terrible gut feeling about this and he needed to know sooner rather than later exactly what might have happened with Destiny.

“No-one, has ever met the dad, not even once. I mean, no matter what work you did, you would have to get a vacation, a few days off or
something
in a year wouldn’t you?”

“Yes, I guess you would. So you really don’t think there’s a father?”

“Obviously there’s a father, just not one who’s in the picture. The general consensus is that Destiny got pregnant in the summer after high school,” she said. “Destiny hadn’t been back here for years and then when her parents died and she inherited the house and quite a bit of money I’m told, then she moved back, with Sophia.”

Justin’s ears started to ring and he felt like he was having trouble breathing.

“Are you okay?” Candice asked, her face etched with worry.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Dry throat, I just need a mint.” He clicked open the tin and offered her one before popping one in his own mouth. Justin needed the distraction, he wasn’t fine, he was about to have a heart attack. No, he wasn’t about to have a heart attack— maybe a stroke? He could
not
feel anything but the pounding in his head. Was there really a chance that Sophia was his child? Why would Destiny lie to him like that? It didn’t make sense.

“Thank you, Candace, you’ve been a great help,” Justin managed to get out. “I think I can take it from here.” He had no idea
where
he was going to take this. There was a possibility that he’d had another daughter for the last nine years. Nine years? What had Destiny been thinking to keep this from him? If, in fact, she had kept this from him. Things weren’t always what they seemed. Maybe she was hiding out from the father or too embarrassed to say that she had been left on her own to raise a child. If nothing else though, they had once been in a relationship. She should trust him enough with the truth. The only reason he could think of that she wouldn’t trust him was if Sophia
was
in fact his child. It was the only scenario that made sense in a nonsensical way. Whichever way he looked at this Destiny was hiding something big. He needed to get to the bottom of this and the only way to do that was to get back over to her house and demand some answers. If Destiny
had
kept his child from him, her worry won’t be trouble from the state about the homeschooling; homeschooling would be totally out. There
would
be trouble coming to a certain young mom and it would come from him in the way of a spanking to end all spankings.

* * *

“Hi, Mom,” Justin said when his mother answered the phone.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, worry cracking in her voice.

“Why do ask if there’s something wrong?” Justin asked. His mother was like a witch, a good witch or a psychic. She had a sixth sense when it came to any problems he was having.

“I didn’t ask if something was wrong. I asked you
what
was wrong. It’s obvious, I can hear the anxiousness in your voice.”

“Mom, I do have a problem but I don’t know what to say, I don’t really know all of it.” What was he supposed to do? Did he tell his mom what he suspected? He didn’t want to worry her or get her hopes up or anything but she might know something, subconsciously at least. She would have told him if she really thought something like this had happened. All these years and his mom had said nothing while living in the same town.

“Spit it out, son, I don’t understand what that means but you’re scaring me.”

“Remember when Destiny and I broke up?”

“Of course I do, it broke my heart. I really thought you two would get married after college and live happily ever after.”

“So did I,” he said. “Mom, Destiny is one of the mothers at the school, or at least she was. She has a young daughter.”

“How lovely,” his mother said. “Is the father still around?”

“Subtle, Mom,” he said with a chuckle. She always had that calming effect on him; by making him laugh. “I don’t think there is a dad.”

“Oh?” there was silence for a minute. “How old is she?”

“Sophia is nine years old.”

“Oh my God,” she said. “Is she… I’m almost too scared to say the words?”

“You have to tell me what you know about that time, Mom. Did you hear anything at all? Did you see her around? Did she look like she’d put on a little weight or anything?”

“No, I don’t remember anything like that. She wasn’t at home, I knew that. I bumped into her mother a few times but she didn’t say anything. I just assumed that Destiny was away at college.”

“So she did leave town?”

“I think so, Justin, I can’t be sure. If you think there’s a chance that this little girl is yours, Justin, you need to find out and quickly. That child will need her daddy, and her grandma.”

“I’m already on that, Mom. Will you do me a favor? Will you pick Lily-Grace up from school?” he asked.

“Of course I will and don’t worry I won’t say anything. Just you remember to keep an open mind. People say and do stupid things on occasion. Sometimes they have a reason and sometimes they just make a mistake. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Mom?”

“Yes, Justin?”

“I’m not happy that she may have lied to me, but I’m kind of excited, I can’t help it.”

“Of course you are, son, you two were meant to be together.”

“I meant about Sophia.”

“Of course you did.”

His mom hung up quickly but he was sure he heard her chuckle.

Destiny bit her lip and tried to make herself stay put on the sofa. The loud banging on the front door was making her nervous, not that she would ever admit that, especially to the person she suspected was making all the noise. It was angry banging and, if she was right, she just didn’t feel like dealing with
pompous
Justin. Those whispered words from his earlier visit had her thinking. How would he control his house if he
was
in charge? Did he really think she would just lay over his lap and allow him to spank her? He hadn’t always been that way had he? Maybe he had and she’d somehow missed it. There was that one time—but it had only been a couple of whacks and
she’d
taken it as a joke, maybe he hadn’t been joking after all…

“Desi, you’re being ridiculous,” Justin said.

“It’s not ridiculous. You’re only home for another two weeks and you’d rather spend time with your friends than with me,” she said. They were outside her house and he was about to drive away to have a fun day golfing with his friends, while she stayed all by herself.

Justin sighed. “It’s one day, Destiny, just one day. I think you’re being really selfish.”

“I’m not being selfish. It’s just that I love you and want to spend time with you. Obviously you don’t feel the same way.” She folded her arms and pouted. “You couldn’t care less what I did or didn’t do today.”

“You know I feel the same way,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that I can’t go and spend some time with the guys.”

“Why can’t I go with you then?” What difference would it make if she just tagged along and watched whatever they were doing? “I could just die of boredom here.”

“None of the other girls are going, Desi, now stop this and no-one ever died of boredom. You're acting like a little kid.”

“I’m acting like a little kid, how? Just because I don’t want to get dumped for the day while you go off having fun without me?” She decided to give being one more chance. “I wouldn’t get in the way I promise.”

“Come here,” Justin said, holding out his arms.

Reluctantly, she went towards him and allowed herself to be smothered in a huge hug. “You are such a pain in the backside.” He kissed the top of her head. “Go, find something fun to do and I’ll see you tonight,” he said.

“I hate you,” she grumbled into his t-shirt.

Justin set her back from him and frowned. “Really? Because you can’t have your own way? I think maybe you need to think about acting eighteen instead of eight.”

She narrowed her eyes and stomped on his toes. “Go then, see if I care,” she said, all hope of making Justin change his mind gone.

“I will,” Justin said, hopping on one leg.

Before she could turn herself, he turned her and smacked her twice on the bottom. “Think yourself lucky I’m already late.”

“Good,” she spat back.

He had shocked her with those smacks and although he had threatened, he had never touched her like that again. A feeling deep in her belly though, was telling her that the reprieve wouldn’t last forever. Maybe if she ignored the banging, he would think they were out and go away, except that her car was still on the driveway. Destiny turned her afternoon television show down and then off, she didn’t want to give her presence away. Why was he so angry though? Could it be that he checked with the school board as promised and found out she hadn’t registered Sophia to be homeschooled? Surely that wasn’t what it was. Why did he even care whether Sophia went to school? It would be one less child to worry about wouldn’t it?

“I have bone to pick with you,” Justin said.

There was no need to keep wondering why, now she was more interested in how; the man was standing in her house and she didn’t have any idea how. The explanation for his sudden appearance walked in right behind him. “It’s the bossy principal again,” she said.

“Sophia, I’ve told you before about opening the door to strangers,” she said, pointedly staring at the man who had smoke coming from his ears.

“Sophia, wait upstairs in your room please,” Justin said. “I need to talk to your mother.”

His voice was deep and measured. After opening her mouth to argue, Sophia walked backwards towards the stairs, glaring at him. When she was at a safe distance, she stuck her hands on her hips. “You can’t tell me what to do,” she said cautiously. “I’m only going to my room because I want to.” Then she ran.

“You don’t have the right to tell my daughter what to do,” she hissed.

“Would you rather she sat in on our conversation?” he hissed back.

There was silence until Sophia’s door banged shut. “Did you lie to me?” he asked.

Destiny gulped. Which exact lie was he talking about? Let’s go with the homeschooling lie, that would be the easiest to explain. “You caught me off guard okay, I shouldn’t have let you think that I had already enrolled Sophia. That’s no reason for you to nearly batter my door down. I’ll register her tomorrow.”

“That’s the next thing to deal with but for the moment we have more pressing,
personal
issues.” He stood there, hands on his hips and stared at her; through her.

Destiny blinked. Did he mean what she thought he meant? She had never uttered a word to anyone in this town. It was debatable that her parents would have said anything, that was the reason they sent her away in the first place; so there would be no pointed fingers or judgment. They sent her money and they came to visit, but she had never been back to this house until her dad’s death. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” she said finally.

“Don’t make this worse by continuing it,
I know
,” he said.

“I don’t know what you think you’ve found out but you’re wrong. You know
nothing
, you’re just jumping to conclusions.” She couldn’t look at him, not directly. “I have to make Sophia’s dinner so I’d like it if you left. All these kinds of conversations are very unsettling for my little girl.”

Justin took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. “I can understand if you don’t want to have this discussion around Sophia, so we’ll wait until she’s asleep. Mark my words though, Destiny, I am not just going to go away. You don’t have to feed me, I don’t even think I could swallow anything but I’ll just sit here quietly and wait until Sophia is asleep.”

“Sit if you want to but it could take a while, I have to cook and then I don’t know what time Sophia will be asleep, she’s a bit of a night owl.” Destiny went to the kitchen and started to bang and bash some pots. She got chicken out of the fridge and slapped the container on the counter.

“What time is Sophia’s bedtime?”

Sophia had crept down the stairs again and she went in the kitchen to watch her mom cook. She glared at Justin and gave him a look that dared him to say something. “I don’t need a bedtime,” she said with sass. “Bedtimes are for babies. Mommy and me are a team. We go to bed when we’re tired.”

“As we have a lot to talk about later, would it be all right if join you two for dinner after all?” Justin asked. His eyes followed Sophia as she walked across the room and hopped on a stool at the kitchen island.

“I don’t suppose anything I said would stop you anyway, you may as well,” Destiny answered. She wanted to tell him to get out but she knew he wouldn’t go. If she were honest with herself it was more than a little interesting to see the two of them so close together; her old love and her everything now, sitting side by side. There were quite a few likenesses between the two but the thing that stood out the most was their hair. That tinge of auburn was unmistakable.

“Thank you for the gracious invitation.” He narrowed his eyes at her to stem her snark in front of Sophia.

The usual response when someone thanked you for something was to say ‘you’re welcome.’ Destiny refused to say that. He
wasn’t
welcome to worm his way into their lives. She wasn’t fooled by his sudden change of mood; she knew that it was purely because Sophia was in the room. He was watching the little girl like a hawk; he was either trying to catch her out on something, some flaw that he could then blame on her mothering skills or he simply wanted to get to know a little person that he believed to be his child. Even if he
had
found out about Sophia—too bad. This was
her
daughter, she had her on her own and she had raised her on her own. No man, not even this bossy man who had only gotten more handsome in the nearly ten years since she’d seen him last, was going to stick his nose in to their lives. “Here, you may as well make yourself useful,” she said, passing him a few potatoes and a peeler.

“No problem,” he said. He picked up the kitchen tool and deftly stripped the potatoes of their skin. “What are we doing with these, mashed potatoes?”

That’s what she
was
going to do. “I’m going to wrap them with foil and bake them,” she said. So it was a little childish but there wasn’t a person alive that would blame her for trying to wrestle back some control.

“Won’t that take ages?” he asked.

“Fine, I’ll do the mashed potatoes,” she said. Destiny picked up a rather large knife and proceeded to hack at the potatoes.

“Watch your fingers, Desi,” Justin said, directing an exaggerated scared expression towards Sophia. “Mom is a bit crazy with a knife.”

The little girl almost smiled, but not quite.

“So, busy day Soph?” Justin asked. “Did you get any school work done?”

“My name is Sophia,” she said.

Destiny tried to communicate with her eyes; she did her best to make Sophia not say anything about the school work. Major fail.

“Sophia, did you do some school work when you got home from brunch?” he asked.

“Not today,” she said. “I’ll catch up tomorrow.”

“Why was that?” Justin asked, slipping Destiny a disapproving look.

“Cos after brunch and our nails, we went shopping.” Sophie said with enthusiasm.

“
Did
you just and did you buy something nice?”

“Mommy bought me a camera, and it’s really cool. It spits the photos straight out; you don't have to put them onto your computer or anything.”

“Is that so?” Justin said, again glancing at Destiny. “Would you like to show me?”

“Sure!” Sophia said. She jumped down from the stool and ran up the stairs.

“Tell me her birthday is coming up,” he said, “or maybe she saved some allowance?”

“She doesn’t get an allowance,” Destiny said, slinging the seasoned chicken onto a tray and tossing it in the oven with a little more gusto than was necessary. “This really is none of your business!”

“Or maybe it is,” Justin said.

Sophia darted back into the room with camera in hand. “If you take a picture it slides right out here,” she said.

“Why don’t you show me how to use it, Sophia? You could take a picture of your mommy’s pretty pink face.”

“Wow, it is pink,” Sophia said, clicking the button and taking a photograph.

“You know what? I think you should put that one on the fridge,” he said.

* * *

Justin watched as Sophia forked piece after piece of all the vegetables on her plate and popped them into her mouth. It was impressive and he found himself over the moon at what would seem to anyone else a small achievement. It was a big thing to him because so far he had only found negative things about this child and that wasn’t really fair. She was a beautiful child, and now that he had taken the time to actually look at her features, he was surprised that it hadn’t occurred to him on their first meeting just how much like Lily-Grace she was.

“Why are you staring at me?” she asked.

“I was just amazed at how much you like your vegetables,” he said. He almost said, “my little girl has to be coaxed” but then he realized when this all came out, that might hurt her feelings. There would be no my little girl and your little girl. If Sophia was his, she would have his whole heart, just as Lily-Grace did.

“You’re amazed pretty easily aren’t you?” she asked.

“Sophia,” Destiny cautioned with a wide smile.

“Huh? What? The principal doesn’t care about food,” she said.

“Who’s for dessert?” Destiny asked.

“Depends on what it is,” Sophia asked. “Do we have strawberry ice cream?”

“I thought this wasn’t a strawberry type of a day.”

“That was this morning,” Sophia said. “Do we have it or not?”

Justin didn’t exactly find this exchange amusing. He may have done if he was watching a stranger’s child and if he hadn’t read all the school complaints about her. This sassy side of her nature had gone past being cute and was having an impact on her life outside the bubble of this house. If Lily-Grace spoke to him like that, she would be straight to bed and wouldn’t taste ice-cream until she couldn’t remember what strawberry tasted like. Destiny glanced at him and he could tell she was embarrassed. No one wanted to be caught with their kids talking to them like that. He purposely said nothing. His time would come but that time wasn’t now. It was all so confusing. One minute he wanted to hug this little girl tight and tell her that he was her daddy and the next we wanted to tell her to watch her tongue. More than anything, he wanted to hear the truth. There were other, much slower routes, but he was sure of one thing, that it wouldn’t be necessary to wait that long. He didn’t want to waste time and money or clinical tests. If Destiny didn’t want to tell him the truth and the whole truth as soon as Sophia was asleep, then she would be telling it anyway while nursing a very sore rear. “Did anyone ever tell you that ice cream was a reward for good behavior?” Justin found himself asking. He couldn’t help himself, it just slipped out.