Rush to the Altar (17 page)

“You were in love with him.” Maddie voice sounded dead. Her whole being felt numbingly dead. “Why would he do this to me?”

Sabrina shook her head. “I realize it will take some time for this to sink in, but I have plenty of proof and I’ll get it to you if you need it. The important thing is that the bank doesn’t decide to make a criminal case out of this. Brandon’s dead, they can’t get him. They are trying to track down and recover the money in accounts outside the US, but this bank is aggressive. They are now investigating you and me to see if we were accomplices, or at least ‘willfully blind’ as they say in a case like this.

“Were you?” Sasha asked. “You said you approved many of the false loans.”

Sabrina shook her head and looked straight into Sasha’s eyes. “I didn’t know anything about it. I find it hard to believe that I didn’t. I thought he told me everything.” Looking at Maddie, she gave her a small, sad smile. “I’m sure you didn’t know anything, but you’ll have to convince the private detectives. We don’t want them to prosecute either of us in a criminal case. We can’t have this going to court. You would probably lose your fancy job with the Racers.” A brief pause. “You could even lose Max.”

Maddie just stared, terror-numb.

Sasha growled, “Don’t you dare bring Max into this. She’s innocent and nothing will take Max away from her.”

The woman shrugged one shoulder. “There’s one more thing.”

“There’s more?” Sasha asked incredulously.

Sabrina nodded. “I don’t think Brandon died of a car accident. I think he…committed suicide. I think he knew that he was in too deep, that he couldn’t keep it going much longer and panicked.”

“How could you say that? He lost control. He drove off an overpass on the highway.” Maddie gritted her teeth. “His body was unrecognizable from the fire.”

“Yes. Perfect wasn’t it?” Sabrina tapped her French-manicured fingernails on the table. “I’ve thought about this a lot. The guardrail on the bridge would have made it a very unlikely accident. He went over the side just before the rail began, angled right for the ravine. And I know something else. He had been researching explosives before the accident. I think he had a bomb in the car to make sure…to make sure he died.”

The pretty lights in the room, lights she’d so admired when they had first walked into LoLa’s, started to blur. The room tilted to the right, then slid forward. Maddie closed her eyes tight. She found she couldn’t breathe very well and heard her breath coming in short gasps, but didn’t know they were coming from her. Sasha grasped her on the shoulder. “Maddie. Maddie, get a grip on yourself. Look at me, Maddie.”

Maddie turned as if in slow motion to her friends familiar face and said in a little girl’s voice that sounded as if it were coming from a long way away, “It’s not true, is it, Sasha? It can’t be true.”

Sabrina downed her drink and stood up. Looking at Maddie, she handed her a card. “If there’s anything…well. Goodbye.”

They watched her go, both too stunned for words.

~~~~~~

Maddie’s grip on the steering wheel left finger indentations on the leather cover she’d bought to conceal the paint-chipped original, weaving in and out of the traffic, trying to get home to Max, the only solid thing left in her life.

“I can’t do this!” she yelled into the empty space of the car. Then she looked up and yelled at God. “I can’t do this. Do you hear me? It’s too much. I can’t…” Angry tears started to fill her eyes so that she couldn’t see. She dashed them away with the back of her hand, determined not to cry. “It’s not fair. What have I ever done to deserve this? I’ve always tried to be good, do the right thing.”

Maddie turned onto the quiet, tree-lined side street that led to her parents’ house. It was growing dark and this street, curvy and dense with woods on either side, had always felt a little creepy at night. She pressed on the brake and just sat, staring. “What am I going to do?”

A car came up behind her, slowing down, obviously wondering what she was doing stopped in the middle of the road. Stepping on the gas, she quickly gathered some speed. She turned the corner and saw her driveway. A black car was sitting in front of her parents’ house. It was her in-laws.

“Oh, come on,” she groaned.

Maddie pulled in behind the black car, remembering the first time she’d met Lydia and Robert Goode. Brandon had brought her home with him from college during Christmas break. She later learned that he had planned to ask her to marry him in front of his whole family on Christmas Eve but that the days with his parents had been so stiff and uncomfortable, had gone so badly, that he’d waited, angry at his parents for not thinking Maddie was a good match for him, angry at her for being so shy and insecure that she wouldn’t stand up to them, angry period. He’d proposed the following weekend, and Maddie had sensed a determination behind the proposal that had little to do with her. But she’d been young and inexperienced and very much in love with the most handsome boy on campus, so she’d happily agreed to become Mrs. Brandon Goode. Now, she had to wonder if she ever really knew him. How could he have lived two lives right in front of her? Why hadn’t she seen any signs? There must be something terribly wrong with her, with her judgment of people, to have had such a horrendous thing happen.

His parents in the driveway might mean they knew of the investigation, she realized, getting out of her car. They would never drive all this way just to visit her and Max. Suddenly, she was intensely glad that she knew. Hearing it from Robert and Lydia would have been worse. They would have somehow blamed her. They were the kind of parents that if Brandon had gotten into trouble at school they would blindly take his side and blame the other party. Brandon could do no wrong.

When she walked in she saw that her parents were sitting in the living room with the stiff-faced Goodes, who were sitting far apart, on either end of the couch. Lydia sat straight up, her back not touching the back of the green upholstery, her hands knotted together in her lap. Robert was red-faced and tense, clutching the iced tea her mother had apparently given him.

“Oh, Maddie, you’re home.” Gloria rose and gave Maddie her seat, dragging in a dining room chair and saying, “I’ve been calling you for the last twenty minutes. Your cell phone must be dead.”

Maddie frowned. She was quite sure the battery hadn’t died. Nodding to her in-laws, she found herself numb again, as if watching the scene from outside her body. “Robert, Lydia, what a nice surprise. It’s so good to see you. Have you seen Max?”

Max ran into the room at the sound of his name being called. “Mommy, you’re home,” he cried out in delight, propelling himself into Maddie’s legs. Seeing his adorable face, the face that looked so much like Brandon’s, and thinking that someone could take him away from her made sudden tears spring to her eyes. She picked him up and gave him a big hug, hiding her face in his curly hair.

“Max, did you say hello to Grandma and Grandpa?” She looked at her in-laws, her cheek pressed against Max’s. Max looked over to Maddie’s parents and said, “Hi, Grammy. Hi, Poppy.” Her dad waved at him and gave him a funny face, sticking out his tongue and making Max giggle.

“No, sweetheart. I meant your other grandma and grandpa. You remember Grandpa Robert and Grandma Lydia, don’t you?”

Max shook his head and stared at the strangers with wide eyes.

“Of course he doesn’t remember us, Maddie,” Lydia scolded. “You never bring him to visit. You can’t expect the child to know us.”

Maddie didn’t remind her that she was a single parent, working full-time and trying to give Max a stable routine. She didn’t mention that it would be easier for them to come to Indianapolis, but that they hadn’t, had only even called twice since Brandon’s death.

Then the truth suddenly filled her. Those were excuses. If she loved these people, nothing would have kept her away from their love and support during such a difficult time. She had needed them to lean on and maybe…maybe they had needed her too.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have come more often.” She found herself saying instead, “I’m so glad you’re here now.” She looked down at her precious son, remembering that Max was the only thing they had left of their son too. “Max, can you show your grandparents what’s in your pockets? I know you have some treasures in there somewhere.”

Max eagerly scrambled down and ran over to his grandparents. He was a quintessential packrat and Maddie knew there would be something in there to give them all a moment’s relief. Digging into first the right one and then the left one, he pulled out a plastic ring that was too big for his finger, a toy car, some plastic snakes and frogs and a yo-yo. With adorably pudgy hands, Max carefully spread out his goods on the cushion between them. Maddie watched as they responded, their faces changing from harshness to delight, as he held out first one toy and then another for them to admire. When Max came to the yo-yo, Robert said, “I used to have a little skill with a yo-yo. Can I see that, Max?” Max looked doubtful for a second, studying the big outstretched hand suspiciously, and then looked up and into his grandfather’s eyes. He seemed to deem him trustworthy and dropped the yo-yo into Robert’s hand.

Carefully, as if the little toy were made of precious material instead of plastic, Robert slipped the loop around his middle finger and held out his arm. Max watched in wide-eyed amazement as Robert made the yo-yo go up and down, up and down.

“Teach me, Grandpa,” Max demanded, making them all laugh. Robert pulled him over to his lap and placed the ring around Max’s chubby finger, showing him how to curl his fingers around the yo-yo in his palm, facing the floor. Together they let go, watching the toy head for the floor, then Robert gave Max’s hand a little lift and the yo-yo came back into Max’s hand. Max laughed out loud, yelling, “Do it again. Do it again, Grandpa!” Which they did, several times.

Watching them, Maddie wondered if maybe they
had
come just to visit and see Max, but that thought was quickly burst when Lydia said, “Maddie, we need to talk to you.” She stopped for a second and seemed to gather herself. “It might be best if it were in private.”

Maddie glanced at her parents—her mom’s face filled with worry, her dad looking curious. “My parents know everything there is to know about my life to this point. I think they should stay. And Max won’t understand. He’s fine.”

“But you don’t understand. This is of a nature to be quite embarrassing.”

Maddie nodded. “I’m sure we’re all going to have a moment’s shame while this comes out.”

Lydia gasped. “You know? Has the private investigator been here too?”

“Private investigator?” her dad piped in. “What’s going on, Maddie?”

Maddie started and then stopped. Started again, looking down at her clasped hands in her lap, not knowing how to break the news to her parents. They had loved Brandon almost as much as she had. “Someone called me today. Her name is Sabrina Bridgestone and she demanded I meet with her. That’s where I’ve been for the last couple of hours.” She looked up at her mom, pain radiating from her chest. “Brandon was having an affair with her.”

Her mother gasped. “An affair? Brandon?”

Maddie nodded, looking at the stunned faces of her in-laws, knowing they hadn’t been told this part of the story. “She was also Brandon’s boss. She told me Brandon embezzled over a half a million dollars from the bank.” She rushed through the rest, “I didn’t believe it, I still can’t quite believe it, the news is still so new to me that I haven’t had time to piece it together. But she told me the bank is investigating and that they will want to question me, just like they questioned her.”

Brandon’s parents sat and stared at her with blanched faces. Her parents sat there and stared at her with shock in their eyes. Why was she so calm? It was as if it was happening to someone else and she was relating a story about a stranger. When no one said anything, she asked her in-laws, “What were you told?”

“He couldn’t have had an affair. Not Brandon. I don’t believe it,” his mother exclaimed.

“You didn’t believe the embezzlement either, and they showed us some pretty strong evidence,” Robert reminded her. “Maybe this woman demanded a lot of money. Maybe that’s why he did it.” He looked around the room, bewildered. “I just can’t make sense of it.”

Maddie’s parents found their tongues at the same time. “Is that where you went today? To meet his mistress?” her mother asked. Her dad’s face turned red. “I want to see that proof. When did he do this? How did he do it?”

“Maybe it was the pressure of being the only breadwinner,” his mother said as if on a side note.

Maddie had taken the heat before, silently, when Brandon’s mother had made little biting comments about her giving up her job and staying home with Max. Lydia had worked all her life and Maddie wondered if she wasn’t envious, but there was no excuse for it this time. Maddie exploded, “Brandon never complained about me staying home with Max. It was more cost effective than working and paying a babysitter to raise our son.” Her voice lowered. “I didn’t see one dime of that stolen money. Your precious son didn’t bring it home to his wife and son, not that I would have wanted him to, but still, he spent it on himself and his mistress. Don’t ever blame me for this again, do you understand, Lydia? Never again.”

Lydia looked as if she’d been slapped, then she started to cry. “I’m sorry, Maddie. I just can’t accept it. There must have been something…”

Maddie knew the feeling but she was too angry at the moment to comfort anyone. She was grieving all over again. She got up and got Max a cup of milk to have a moment to collect herself and then sat back down, trying to answer all their questions to the best of her ability. Lydia and Robert filled in some missing blanks. They had been shown loan applications with their son’s signature of approval on it. They had been assured that the identities of the people requesting the loans were fake. Brandon hadn’t even bothered to try and write differently for each one. The police had also verified that they were reopening the accident case and investigating whether to reclassify it as a suicide.