Second to Cry (13 page)

‘Were we lovers?’ Deena mocked the question. ‘Yes, Mr Connelly, Brandon and I were lovers, though I wasn’t the only one, I’m quite certain of that.’

‘He was married,’ Aiden suddenly felt incredibly defensive. Brandy had sat at home, night after night, enduring horrific acts of abuse whilst her husband was out romancing ex-Playmates. The thought sickened him and he had to take a long drink of his iced tea to fight the urge to vomit. He could feel anger rising in him, causing his hands to bunch into fists and his cheeks to redden.

‘So was I,’ Deena replied. ‘We were both consenting adults. We knew what we were getting ourselves into.’

A long silence fell between them, Aiden unable to speak, struggling to subdue the outrage he felt on Brandy’s behalf.

‘Did he know about Davis?’ he asked at length, not wanting to know the answer.

‘No.’

Aiden fell silent again. All he could think about was Brandy and how hurt she’d be to know of the betrayal.

‘I know you were close to the case,’ Deena said, seeming uncomfortable. ‘I know you were close to Brandy.’

‘Don’t you say her name!’ Aiden snapped.

‘Don’t be a hypocrite, Mr Connelly,’ Deena said, a wry smile now playing on her ruby-reddened lips. ‘You sit here defending a woman you clearly care about when you are married to another, so surely you understand that the heart may not always want what it’s supposed to have.’

Aiden was at a loss for words, sadly she was right.

‘Despite what you may think, Brandon was a good man,’ Deena continued.

‘He most certainly was not!’ Aiden countered vehemently.

‘He was to me,’ Deena smirked. ‘Maybe not to others but, to me, he was only ever a gentleman.’

Aiden could feel himself seething, angered by her smugness, by the fact that she’d had Brandon’s child, that she was defending him even when he beat upon his poor, defenceless wife.

‘I trust you’ll keep my secret,’ Deena said, reaching into her bag for her purse as she prepared to leave.

‘And why would I do that?’

Deena retrieved several dollar bills and placed them down before looking up at Aiden, her face marked with a victorious smile.

‘Because you wouldn’t want to break her little heart. You know it would kill her if she ever found out.’

Aiden felt frozen to his chair, held down by his inability to act. Deena was right and he hated that. She’d manipulated his feelings for Brandy to protect herself and he was so blinded by his feelings that he was unable to overcome or see past them.

‘I didn’t want to tell you,’ Deena admitted, standing up and straightening her sundress. ‘But you kept pushing. And now you know the truth and it’s messy. It’s messy and, to a degree, you’re involved.’

‘What about the paternity suit?’ Aiden asked, wanting to frighten Deena, not wanting to appear completely powerless.

‘Go ahead,’ Deena shrugged. ‘But then she finds out. I don’t think she’d take it too well, do you? Brandon always said she was an emotional wreck.’

‘Leave her out of it,’ Aiden managed to get a grip on his emotions, making himself sound formidable even if he didn’t feel it.

‘Don’t you think you owe your husband, and your son, the truth?’

‘No,’ Deena replied simply. ‘I think if Davis had to choose between a fake millionaire daddy or a dead one, he’d pick the millionaire.’

‘You’re cruel.’

‘No, I’m just a mother trying to do right by my kids. You can hate me if you want to, Mr Connelly, I don’t care what you think of me. I just care that you stay the hell away from this case.’

‘Don’t worry, Mrs Fern,’ Aiden said his voice cold. ‘I intend to.’

*

‘Aid, can you grab that spoon off Meegan?’ Isla asked but her husband didn’t even turn his head to acknowledge her.

‘Aid!’ she shouted.

‘Sorry, what?’ Aiden asked, pulling himself out of his thoughts and into the present. Since his encounter with Deena Fern, he had been completely distracted.

‘Can you get that spoon off Meegs?’ Isla asked again.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Aiden retrieved the spoon from the toddler who promptly spat on him in protest. Yet Aiden didn’t even register the defiant act.

‘Don’t let her get away with that!’ Isla declared from her vantage point by the cooker where she had seen everything unfold.

‘With what?’

‘She just spat on you!’

‘She did?’ Aiden sighed and then turned to his daughter who pulled in her cheeks as though she was preparing to spit on him once more.

‘Meegan, don’t spit on Daddy, its wrong,’ his voice was stern but unconvincing.

‘Aid, is everything all right?’ Isla asked, concerned, leaving the cooking dinner for a moment to join him at the table.

‘Yeah, I’m fine. Work is just a bit intense.’

‘The paternity case?’

‘Yeah, amongst other things.’

‘What other things?’ Isla asked, anxious to get to the root of her husband’s unease.

‘It doesn’t matter,’ Aiden waved a dismissive hand and made a mental note to try and not dwell too much on the whole Brandon White baby situation whilst at home. But it was hard to ignore the issue as it was at the forefront of his mind. Every time his thoughts were momentarily idle it would creep in, his fears and anxieties over what Brandy would think. And then his thoughts would turn solely to Brandy, and he’d find himself zoning out whilst he wondered what she was doing at that very moment and, more importantly, if she was happy.

‘It does matter when you’re not focusing on your family,’ Isla told him.

‘I’m just tired.’ It was a feeble excuse but the only one Aiden could muster on the spot.

‘Do you want to go rest in the lounge while I finish up in here?’

‘You don’t need any help?’

‘I’ve got it.’

Giving Aiden space was perhaps the last thing he needed. Alone in the lounge he got out his iPad and began idly browsing the Internet, fighting the urge to search for Brandy Cotton Chicago.

Perhaps if he just saw a picture of her he would feel better. If he could see an image of her smiling, appearing happy, he could forget what he knew about Brandon and accept that it was all part of her troubled past, something she was trying hard to move on from.

As Aiden caught up on the news he wasn’t really taking any of the stories in. There was unrest in North Korea, an old TV actor had died. None of it particularly sparked his interest. He imagined the headlines if the story about Deena and Brandon ever leaked out. It would undoubtedly be big news locally as Deena was a semi-celebrity and Brandon a local star still to this day, despite the revelations about his abusive marriage. The town of Avalon were quick to forget if not forgive his indiscretions as he remained a footballing hero and, moreover, he was deceased and the superstitious residents of the town refused to speak ill of the dead. Even Father West escaped their scathing rumours as being a man of God, albeit a fallen one, still marked him as untouchable.

It was Brandy’s name which continued to be dragged through the mud. She was wise to have left Avalon, the horrors of her scandal would have followed her around like an unpleasant odour for the rest of her life if she’d stayed.

Perhaps the story of Brandon and Deena’s baby would even make national news. With Deena being an ex-Playmate and Brandon a murdered football hero it was definitely the sort of story that the trashier newspapers loved to run with.

Aiden hated the thought of Brandy being subjected to yet more gossip and cruel talk. He wanted to shield her from that, to protect her from how horrid the world could be. She still seemed so innocent to him, despite all she had been through. She retained a purity which he would do anything to save from corruption.

‘I said dinner is ready!’ Isla appeared in the doorway to the lounge, looking dishevelled and angry.

‘Did you not hear me calling you?’

‘Sorry, no,’ Aiden shook his head and switched off his iPad with one swift flick across the screen.

Aiden went into the kitchen where the air was now hot and humid due to the cooking of dinner. Isla had opened a window but it was slow in breaking down the density of the steam.

‘She spat on me,’ Isla said as they began to eat their lasagne.

‘She did?’ Aiden was surprised. He thought Meegan had only spat on him as a way of attracting his attention, be it a very crude way.

‘Ever since the pirate party she’s been displaying some really bad habits,’ Isla continued while Meegan merrily tucked into her own dinner, oblivious that they were talking about her.

‘Like what?’ Aiden asked.

‘The spitting, she’s bitten me and even called me a cow.’ Isla lowered her voice for the latter part, not wanting her daughter to hear her repeating the word.

‘It’s going to happen, the more she plays with other kids she’s going to pick up their bad behaviours. All we can do is let her know it’s not acceptable,’ Aiden said calmly.

‘But I thought the whole point of being here was that she wouldn’t exposed to bad kids!’

‘There’s no such thing as bad kids, only bad parents.’

‘You know what I mean!’

‘Look, hon, she called you a farmyard animal. It really isn’t so bad. Kids in the city would be saying a lot worse at this age.’

‘Like what?’ Isla queried, unconvinced.

‘Like a see you next Tuesday,’ Aiden offered casually.

‘What?’ Isla’s eyes widened in shocked outrage. ‘You can’t be serious!’

‘Oh yeah, it could get really bad. Back in the city one guy told me that he found crack in his son’s bedroom. His son was eight.’

‘That’s crazy,’ Isla gasped.

‘That’s why we are here,’ Aiden concluded. ‘So being called a cow isn’t so bad.’

‘Don’t say it!’ Isla whispered tersely.

‘It’s not a bad word,’ Aiden turned on his chair so he was facing his daughter who was now covered in her own dinner.

‘Meegs, what does a cow say?’

‘Moooo!’ Meegan instinctively replied, giggling and squelching her dinner between her hands.

‘See, she’s still our adorable little girl.’

‘Yes, but for how long?’ Isla sighed, still feeling the fresh splatter of spit which had been launched across her face.

That night sleep didn’t come easy for Aiden. Beside him Isla had already drifted off, indicated by her slow and low breaths. He envied her. He longed for sleep, to release him from his mind which continued to run at a million miles per hour.

He was trying to make sense of what Deena Fern had told him. She had lucked out because his connection to Brandy meant he would back away from the case. But it was only a matter of time before Samuel Fern called someone else in, the old man was, quite rightly, convinced Davis wasn’t his and Aiden doubted he would cease his enquiries until he got a response. The next law firm involved might be more ruthless than he was. It didn’t seem a question of if the story broke but when.

By 3 a.m. Aiden had been tossing and turning for hours but was still no closer to getting some rest. Giving in, he rose out of bed, pulled on some pants and headed downstairs. The house had the eerie silence which all homes have in the middle of the night. You get a sense that all the world sleeps whilst you wander around. The impact of the silence made Aiden suddenly feel unbearably alone.

He tried to shut these feelings out by turning on his iPad. He thought about checking the news but knew it wouldn’t clear his thoughts. There was something specific he wanted to see.

Accessing a password protected file, marked as ‘work, important’, Aiden opened his private treasure trove of images of Brandy. They were all from media coverage of her life, from when she won her beauty pageant to the more scandalous stories regarding Brandon’s murder.

Aiden had set up the file just after she left and rarely even opened it. It was there if he felt he just had to see but couldn’t risk an Internet search, the aggravation he’d get if Isla ever saw it in his search history wasn’t worth it. The files were his secret stash.

He opened the image of Brandy when she won her beauty pageant and extended it with two swift glides across the screen so that it was as large as it could be.

Brandy was beaming in the picture, a tiara upon her head and a sash covering her ball gown. Even though the image was in black and white she sparkled. With her head titled slightly to the right and a cascade of white blonde curls falling around her, she truly looked like an angel. Aiden felt something pinch in his heart at the thought of Brandon cheating on her.

He imagined Brandy sat at home, waiting upon him to return when he’d been out treating Deena like a queen, making love to her, impregnating her, only to return home with anger for his wife and fists eager to pummel something. The sadness of the situation was almost too much to bear.

Aiden thought briefly of Father West and how he now completely understood why he felt driven to do what he did. Not the part where he was willing to let Brandy assume responsibility, but the part where he flew into an angry rage and plunged a blade into Brandon’s body countless times.

All the anger bubbling up inside Aiden was doing little for his need to get to sleep. If anything, it was only making him feel more awake, more energized.

He looked back at the picture and tried to focus on her smile, how that smile could make all the bad things in the world just instantly melt away.

His eyes grew heavy as they fixed upon her image and his head began to droop lower and lower until his chin met his chest and sleep finally took him, to a place where he and Brandy could be together. Where there was no illegitimate baby scandal threatening to break. There was only him and her and everything was perfect.

*

Brandy did her best to focus on her new life in Chicago. There was so much to see and explore. Everything felt new and wonderful. When Brandy wasn’t in college working towards her diploma or at Chez Vous, she’d wander the wide streets of the city visiting shops and restaurants.

She particularly loved the river and loved spending rainy Sunday afternoons beneath an umbrella watching the raindrops bounce heavily into the water and the world slowly pass her by.

But try as she might to heed her aunt’s advice of putting Avalon behind her, there was one aspect about the town which Brandy struggled to forget about; Aiden. Often she thought she saw him walking purposefully down the street in one of his smart suits and her heart rate would quicken. Then the man she was watching would turn around and her shoulders would drop with disappointment when she realized it wasn’t him. She needed something to help occupy her free time, something more substantial than sight-seeing.