Come Home (8 page)

“Think she has a boyfriend?”

“Yes, I see him all the time, on Abby’s Facebook page.”

Jill blinked, not surprised that Megan was checking Abby’s Facebook page, too. “Let’s find our seats. They’re going to start the service.”

“Mom, Abby just saw us, she’s coming over.” Megan stiffened. “What do I say to her? I already said I’m sorry.”

“Say what you feel.” Jill looked over to see Abby walking toward them, wiping a tear from her eye. It struck Jill that no one else was crying, or even upset, except for Abby, and that didn’t surprise her, either. William had lots of acquaintances, but no real friends, which was only one of the red flags Jill had ignored. Love was not only blind, it was colorblind.

“But what
should
I say?” Megan asked, worried.

“You can say you’re sorry again, that would be nice.”

“Like, ‘I’m sorry’? Or, ‘please accept my … sorrow’? Or what?”

“‘I’m sorry’ will do, sweetie,” Jill answered, as Megan met Abby and gave her a hug.

“Abby, I’m so sorry, again, I really am.”

“Thanks.” Abby squeezed Megan tight, her eyes brimming with tears, then she let Megan go, turned to Jill, and practically fell into her arms. “Jill, thanks for coming.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Jill embraced her, trying to will the strength from her body into Abby’s.

“This makes it so real, doesn’t it? Like he really is gone, and all these people I don’t even know them.”

“I know, sweetie, I’m sorry.” Jill released her when she spotted Victoria heading for her, with a deep scowl.

“Jill, what are
you
doing here?” Victoria’s eyes flashed with anger. “You have no right to be here. This is a private ceremony.”

Jill froze, stricken. “I’m sorry, I thought—”

Abby interrupted, “I asked her to come, Victoria.”

“Are you
crazy
?” Victoria shot back, then turned to Jill, infuriated. “How
dare
you! You should be ashamed of yourself. You know what you did to Dad. To all of us.”

Megan gasped, teary. Heads turned. The rector’s mouth fell open.

“Victoria, wait.” Jill put up a palm, stunned. She’d never seen Victoria so angry, especially not at her. They used to be so close. “Listen to me—”

“No,
you
listen to
me.
” Victoria’s fair skin flushed with barely controlled rage. “You didn’t love Dad, and you didn’t love us, either. You threw us out!”

“No, that’s not true.” Jill edged away, mortified. Her face felt like it was on fire, her mouth had gone dry. She wouldn’t stay another minute if it upset the girls. The crowd murmured. The rector grasped Victoria by the arm, but she pulled it away.

“Now it’s my turn to throw
you
out, Jill. Leave. Go!” Victoria pointed to the door, but Jill was already in motion, turning to catch up with Megan, the two of them fleeing, their pumps clattering on the colonial floorboards.

“Jill, no!” Abby shouted, and just when Jill thought it couldn’t get worse, she realized that Abby was running after them.

“Megan, wait!” Jill called out, but Megan blew through the glass doors into the church’s courtyard. Jill ran through the doors after her and reached Megan, who was crying, full bore, in the rain.

“Mom, what did I do? What did I do?”

“Nothing, honey.” Jill hugged Megan just as Abby came flying out, her cheeks tear-stained, her mascara dripping black.

“Jill, I’m sorry.” Abby ran headlong toward her, and Megan backed off. Jill caught Abby as she burst into new tears. “I’m so sorry.”

“Abby, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry, it’s my fault, I messed up. I didn’t tell her, but I didn’t think she’d freak out in front of everybody.” Abby sobbed, shuddering. Megan stood aside, wiping her eyes, but Jill couldn’t go to her, because she was comforting Abby. “Dad said you cheated on him, that you wanted a divorce, you met another man.”

“
What?
” Megan blurted out.

“No, that’s not true.” Jill released Abby. “Abby, go inside. This isn’t the time or the place—”

“Was he lying?” Abby wiped her eyes, leaving mascara smudges. “You didn’t really cheat on Dad, did you?”

“My Mom would never do that!” Megan shouted. “She cried, I heard her, lots of nights! He probably cheated on
her
!”

“No, he didn’t!” Abby shouted back.

“Yes, he
did
!” Megan yelled louder, veins bulging on her neck.

“Stop fighting, both of you.” Jill took control, horrified. “Abby, we have to leave. Go inside. Take care. Good-bye.”

“No, wait, don’t go.” Abby grabbed Jill’s arm, her tears abruptly stilled. “Can’t you just come over, like I asked? Please, after the service? Somebody murdered Dad, and we have to find out who.”

“No, Abby, I can’t.” Jill pulled her arm away.

“Mom, was William
murdered
?” Megan asked, her voice breaking.

“No, he wasn’t,” Jill answered firmly, taking Megan’s hand. She could see Victoria inside the church, hurrying toward the glass exit doors. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, he was, Megan!” Abby called out, and behind her, Victoria was opening the door, followed by the rector. “Somebody killed him, I know it! Jill, please, help me!”

Jill hustled a weeping Megan away just as Victoria emerged with the rector.

“Please, Jill, I need you!” Abby called again, but Jill kept going.

Running from one crying child, with another.

Chapter Ten

Jill sat across from Megan in a restaurant near the church, a small, quiet place that seated them at a table in the back. Megan had stopped crying in the ladies’ room, though her eyes were still puffy and reddish, and she’d cut her lip on her braces. “Are you okay, honey?” Jill asked Megan, worried.

“Yes.” Megan drank some water, crestfallen. “Victoria was so mad, I didn’t mean to upset her.”

“Honey, stop, you didn’t do it. Victoria didn’t expect us, and we caught her by surprise. She’s a little crazy right now, is all.”

“What’s Abby talking about, that William was
murdered
?” Megan’s eyes rounded, a bloodshot brown. “Was he, Mom?”

“No, sweetie.”

“Why does Abby think he was?”

“She’s wrong, honey.” Jill shook her head. “People say and think strange things in grief. She’s too upset to think straight. They both are.”

Megan sniffled. “I know you didn’t cheat on him, Mom.”

“I didn’t. I never would.”

“I know, you’re honest.” Megan managed a weepy smile. “You don’t let me sign your name to anything,
ever.
Even absence notes.”

Jill smiled.

“Did he cheat on
you
?”

Jill sighed, inwardly. A couple of tourists got up from a nearby table. “I’m not sure we should get into this here and now, honey.”

“Mom, I can take it. I’m not a baby.”

“Frankly, it’s not your business. Or Abby’s. Or anybody’s but mine.” Jill wanted to stand her ground. It wouldn’t help for Megan to know more, and it was too emotionally charged a day. “I had to divorce him, and I did, and we’re better for it.”

“Mom, tell me, please?” Megan leaned forward, putting her hands on the table, palms down. “William told Abby and Victoria. He thought they could handle it.”

“William lied to Abby and Victoria.”

“Trust me, Mom. Trust me enough to tell me.”

“It’s not a matter of trust.” Jill tried to shift gears. “I wish we would use this day, and the fact that he’s gone, to put this chapter behind us and go forward.”

“We can’t go to the next step until we understand this one.”

Jill blinked. Either Megan had read that somewhere, or she was getting smarter.

“You told me that, last week. When you were helping me with equations. You said you can’t go to the next step until you understand the last one.” Megan leaned over, bearing down. “Now tell me what happened. Why did you and William really break up?”

Jill felt her resolve weaken. She spotted their waitress, coming toward them with their meals. “Hold on.”

“Here we go, ladies,” the waitress said, setting salads in front of them, filling the air with the tang of balsamic dressing. They both thanked her, and Jill waited for her to leave before she spoke.

“Honey, I don’t know if he cheated, and it really doesn’t matter to me.”

Megan’s eyes flared. “Of course it does. It
should.
”

“Let’s keep the drama to a minimum,” Jill said, though she doubted it was possible. Mothers and daughters were automatic drama, and if you add dead ex-husbands, it rose to operatic levels.

“So what went wrong?”

“We were happy for a while, but then the trouble started, and I didn’t notice it at first. I ignored things, like symptoms you minimize when you don’t want to change your initial diagnosis. Classic confirmation bias.”

Megan nodded, used to medical analogies by now.

“You remember William, right? What was he like, to you?”

“Fun. Silly. He liked to do things.” Megan smiled. “Like when he got the bouncy house, and the trampoline.”

“And the red convertible. Remember that day? He took you all for rides?”

“Right. The Mustang.” Megan smiled more broadly, and Jill hoped she hadn’t made a mistake, having her recall such happy times, but that was the point.

“Well, somebody had to pay for all that. William made money, but not as much as I did, and he wanted that lifestyle. He wanted to buy cars and trampolines, whatever he wanted, you name it.”

Megan frowned. “So what’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing, but he began to run up huge credit bills and wanted to take loans against the house. I’m not a big spender, and married people are supposed to agree on things.” Jill tried to explain, but it was impossible to explain divorce to a teenage girl, with a head full of
The Bachelor.
“He wanted more money, so he was always investing in things. He wanted to buy into a biotech start-up, and when I gave him that, he wanted to buy a title insurance company. He was all over the place.”

“So it was only about money?”

“Not only about that, but money matters.”

“He was trying to follow his dream, Mom.”

“Not exactly.” Jill wasn’t surprised by Megan’s defending William, because she always did, which was why these conversations were no-win. “It’s not ‘follow your dream,’ like
American Idol.
You can follow your dream, but you have to be practical, too.”

“So he couldn’t afford to pay for his dream.”

“No, he didn’t really have a dream. His only dream was being rich, and that doesn’t count as a dream. That’s just plain greed.”

Megan blinked.

“Pretty soon I could see a pattern, and I knew it would never end. No matter how much money I gave him, it would never be enough. If I let him, he would bankrupt me.”

Megan frowned. “So that’s
it
? That’s
all
?”

Jill felt her chest tighten. “One day he asked me for a lot of money, for another business venture.”

“How much did he want?”

“$325,000.”

“Wow.” Megan’s eyes flared, though Jill knew she had no idea how much or how little that was. If it was as much as an iPhone, it was a lot.

“I said no.” Jill wouldn’t tell her that the money William asked for had belonged to Megan. It was her inheritance, since Gray’s parents had established a small trust for her after his death. Gray hadn’t had any life insurance; they both thought he was too young to die, and in fact, he was. “And when I said no, he asked me to take out a loan for it, and I refused. Then he did something that broke the camel’s back.”

“What?”

Jill hesitated, but maybe it was time. “He used to come to the office at night and bring you. He’d wait for me, and you’d play with the toys in the waiting room, then we’d go out to dinner.”

“I remember, it was fun.”

“I thought he came by to see me, but he didn’t. It turned out that he was stealing from my office.”

Megan’s lips flattened, and Jill could see hurt flicker across her face.

“Petty cash went missing, and drug samples. It took us a long time to notice, because we weren’t talking to each other about it, with all the work we had to do. He did it in small amounts, especially the pads.”

“He took pads? Like school supplies?”

“No, prescription pads. People sell them to other people so they can get prescription drugs, illegally.”

“Really?”

“Yes. You can get as much as fifty dollars for a blank prescription, and they’re usually bought by people addicted to pain meds, like Oxycontin and Vicodin. We didn’t know who was stealing ours, but it was William.”

Megan fell silent, wounded, for William, and Jill kicked herself for starting the story. She decided not to tell Megan about the money William had taken from her purse, or his trick of using her ATM card before she was even awake, withdrawing amounts too small to notice, until too late.

“You okay, sweetie?” Jill reached across the table and rested her hand on top of Megan’s.

“How do you know he stole the pads? You could have been wrong.”

Jill sighed inwardly. “No, actually, we caught him in the act.”

“Really?” Megan asked, hushed.

“He was caught in the basement, taking old pads out of the box. We left them down there, out of the locked cabinet, to catch the bad guy. We even set up a hidden video camera, which was my idea. I never thought the bad guy would be my own husband.”

Megan set down her fork, stricken.

“It was a terrible thing he did, embarrassing to me, and worse, it could have ruined me and all of the docs in our group. My colleagues, my friends. We could’ve lost our licenses.”

“He didn’t have to go to jail, did he?”

“No.” Jill felt touched, and saddened, that Megan was still concerned for William. “The group didn’t report it, out of kindness to me, but I had to leave the practice and I paid back every penny he took. I was lucky to get work anywhere else, after all the gossip. That’s why I took the job at Pembey Family. They were the only ones who made an offer.”

Megan blinked. “Do you think he cheated on you?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care.”

“
Really,
Mom?”