Paper Marriage Proposition

by Red Garnier

  Landon’s gaze flicked to hers. He lowered his voice to a rough whisper, and although he wore an expression of cold indifference, his eyes gleamed with intensity as he stared at Beth. “Yes.”

  If Beth had just been torpedoed, the impact would have been less than that single word.

  “How do you feel about this picture, Mr. Gage?”

  A shadow crossed Landon’s eyes as he inspected the photograph she showed him—no doubt the same disgusting, humiliating photograph she’d shown to Beth. “Enraged,” Landon said, his low, silken voice laced with a threat.

  “Why does it enrage you?”

  “Because Halifax exploits the fact that my wife loves her child—and will go to any lengths to blackmail and hurt her.”

  The lawyer seemed vaguely amused as though she couldn’t fathom where Landon got such an idea, then asked plainly, “Do you hate Hector Halifax, Mr. Gage?”

  The question hung in the air for a tense moment. Sirens wailed inside Beth’s head, a warning.

  “Do you admit, Mr. Gage, that you hate Hector Halifax and would do anything to hurt him? Would go to any lengths to ruin him?”

  Silence.

  Beth held her breath until her lungs burned, mentally willing him to deny this accusation. If he didn’t, they would be doomed. But then she knew Landon, and she knew that Landon Gage did not lie….

  Then a hard, murderous word resounded in the room, spoken without apology or hesitation. “Yes.” Mason cursed quietly at Beth’s side, while Landon continued. “I hate Halifax. And I will ruin him.”

  Hector’s attorney smiled in victory, then waved an arm out as though that were that. “No more questions, Your Honor.”

  The second day of the hearing, Landon again held Beth’s hand.

  His grip was warm and strong, offering much-needed support as they watched Hector take the stand. While she put every effort into reining back her nervousness and her bleak thoughts of the day ahead, Landon looked eerily calm today.

  The men had been locked in Landon’s study all through last night, and it seemed that whatever last minute evidence Landon had provided made the lawyer conspiratorially tell Beth this morning, “It’s in the bag.”

  Beth had no idea what the men planned to accomplish today, but as the hearing got underway, when Hector’s head nurse and primary character witness was being questioned, Beth prayed they had a plan.

  Because the head nurse somehow managed to make it sound like the bastard was on his merry way to being canonized.

  “He’s been a good father, completely dedicated to providing for his son…” the head nurse was saying. A tidy woman, she had clear skin, little makeup, a bun at her nape that did not have so much as a hair out of place. Her hands remained clasped over her lap as she spoke.

  Mason didn’t seem impressed.

  “Dr. Halifax provides his son with what, exactly?” he asked her, addressing the court first, then the woman. “Money? Or time, love and comfort, as his mother did?”

  The head nurse bit her lower lip.

  “Your Honor,” Mason then said, when the woman didn’t answer, “may I submit for evidence this recording of the witness speaking.”

  Before Beth could register what happened, a small tape recorder played, and the nurse’s eyes went huge as a voice remarkably like hers rang out.

  Oh, yes, he’s horrible in that respect. He’s cheap with money, cheap with praise, cheap with everything. We have photocopies of patient records and submit them twice for insurance payment. All I do is change the patient’s name…

  Murmurs erupted in the courtroom. Astounded whispers.

  Patients are so paranoid, it’s so laughable. If the doctor tells them there’s a miracle drug that will cure all their troubles, most will jump in without question—they’re addicted to the medical marijuana the doctor’s supplying. It’s such good stuff, do you want a little hit?

  The courtroom whispers escalated to shocked voices.

  “Tell me, Miss Sanchez,” Mason broke in in a booming voice. “Is that you speaking?”

  “Objection on the grounds of irrelevance, Your Honor!” Hector’s lawyer cried, hands on the table.

  “Overruled,” the judge said. “Sit down, counselor.”

  Landon gave Beth a reassuring hand-squeeze as the nurse shifted uncomfortably in her seat, a bug under the microscope. Her eyes sought out Julian John’s in the benches, and Beth puzzled to see her brother-in-law shoot the woman a winning, you’re-screwed smile. The kind of smile the cat would give the mouse. “Yes. It’s my voice,” she admitted, shooting daggers at Julian, who didn’t seem to mind at all.

  “Is that you speaking about Dr. Halifax?”

  “I…yes.”

  “Is that you referring to Dr. Halifax committing insurance fraud in order to ‘provide’ for his lavish lifestyle while negligent of his child?”

  “Uh, well—”

  “Is that you admitting to Dr. Halifax’s numerous illegal activities, in which you’ve played a part?”

  “But I was only—”

  “Is that you, Miss Sanchez, speaking from first-hand knowledge about Dr. Halifax being engaged in medical malpractice and the illegal prescription of medical marijuana?”

  She lowered her face as though she wanted to bury it under her sweater. “Yes.”

  Mason allowed the answer to echo in the room until it faded into a charged quiet. Then, curtly, with a pleased nod, he said, “No more questions, Your Honor.”

  When Hector was called up to the stand, the air of the courtroom became charged with hostility. His own lawyer interrogated him first, asking him questions about his son, making suggestions that hinted at his being a loving father when Beth knew that was not the case at all! How could she have ever married him? How could she have thought that whatever childish infatuation she’d felt for him could be love? What she felt for Landon defied even comparison—an ocean compared to a grain of sand.

  When Mason got to have his go at the man, he had a take-no-prisoners expression on his face. He lifted a piece of paper for all to see. The court, the judge and then the witness.

  “Is this your email, Dr. Halifax?”

  Hector didn’t so much as glance at the page. “Possibly.”

  “Yes or no, Dr. Halifax. Did you write this email to a patient of yours, Chrystine Gage?”

  “Yes,” Hector tightly conceded.

  “And is this you, Doctor, threatening not to hand out any more prescriptions to your patient unless she did what you commanded?”

  “I was merely—”

  “Is it or is it not you, threatening a patient?”

  “Yes,” he ground, through clenched teeth.

  Mason shook his head in bleak disapproval. “What drug was your patient on?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Your Honor.” Mason produced a new piece of evidence. “We have a prescription from Dr. Halifax made out to Chrystine Gage two days before her death for a drug called Clonazepam.

  “Isn’t Clonazepam prescribed not only as an anti-anxiety medication, but also as a sleeping pill?”

  Hector was silent.

  “Isn’t it risky for a patient to drive under the influence?”

  Hector still didn’t respond.

  “The witness will answer the counselor,” the judge commanded.

  “Yes, the drug can be used as a sleeping pill!” Hector grumbled. “Driving is not recommended while using it.”

  “And yet that is precisely what you were demanding your patient do—that she drive to a lonely parking lot in the middle of the night to meet you. That is what your patient ultimately did, resulting in the crash that killed her and her young boy. You killed a ten-month-old baby, Dr. Halifax. You killed a mother and her child—what’s there to recommend you for taking care of your own child?”

  “Objection, Your Honor!”

  “Overruled. The witness’s comment on this is relevant. Answer.”

  Hector scowled at Beth, the blatant fury in his gaze palp
able as a tornado.

  He began shaking, visibly shaking in his seat, and burst out, “You.” He trained his finger like a gun on Beth’s forehead, and his mocking tone felt like shards of glass scraping down her skin. “You’re worse than I am! Who do you think you are, you little tramp?”

  “Silence!” The judge hammered.

  Hector’s face contorted as he stood, his stormy, furious blue eyes tempting Beth to curl herself into a ball. “You think you can come here and humiliate me?”

  “Counselor! You will silence your witness or I’ll hold you both in contempt!” Furious now, blue veins stuck out on Judge Prescott’s neck.

  Hector fell quiet, chastised and displeased, but Mason wasn’t yet done with him.

  The little black book came up for showing. In the book were Hector’s contact numbers for Miguel Gomez, the man who smuggled the illegal marijuana Hector had been sticking to his patients. Also in the book were the numbers of several bribed members of the press who’d promptly been fired not only by the Daily, but from the competition as soon as their questionable activities had been reported. Stumbling over his denials, Hector ended up, unwillingly, admitting to all the allegations Mason presented.

  By the time he left the stand, her ex-husband looked like an unstable madman, unfit for being a doctor or a parent, while Landon sat quietly beside her, the epitome of the somber businessman.

  Scrambling to get back the upper hand, Halifax’s lawyer called up the last witness. The entire case now hinged on the nanny.

  Anna took the stand, and once she settled in the seat, she made eye contact with Beth.

  Hector’s lawyer interrogated her on Hector’s parenting. Anna answered the questions easily at first, but she kept glancing at Beth, as though waging some sort of silent battle inside herself. Her answers seemed to be limited to “yes” and “no,” but she spoke them as though they were wrenched and squeezed out of her by force.

  When it was Mason’s turn, he first asked her basic questions about her role in raising David. He seemed to barely be getting warmed up when her eyes scanned the room, took in the sight of Landon’s family, then returned to Beth, and she blurted, “I can’t do this,” in a wild and frantic voice.

  Like a predator spotting his prey’s weakness, Mason jumped at her. “What is it you can’t do? Continue working for Dr. Halifax? Continue allowing this injustice—”

  “All of it. I can’t do it anymore!” Her eyes welled up, and her voice broke as she continued, slightly calmer, “They promised…I’d live well for the rest of my life. As a token of appreciation from the doctor, if I testified. The nanny who testified previously is no longer working at the home. She took the money they gave her to testify last time, and now there’s just me. I’ve been promised a good education for my son, you see. He’s almost David’s age…” She trailed off and swallowed, as though the next words proved difficult to say.

  “But I can’t bear to watch this anymore. The child shouldn’t be punished like he has been. David needs his mother. There’s only so much a nanny can give him, and he gets none of it from the doctor. The boy needs his mother.”

  Tears pricked Beth’s eyes, and she quickly delved into her bag in search of her tissues. She hadn’t expected the nanny to come through for her like this, but then maybe, just maybe, there were more good, decent people in this world than bad ones.

  Whispers spread across the room. Hector jumped to his feet and called the nanny a liar, and the judge moved his hammer as he demanded silence.

  During recess, Beth wiped the moisture from her cheeks and sat with Landon on a small bench out in the hall. “I’m sorry,” she said, clenching her damp tissue in her fist. “That must have been difficult for you. Talking about Chrystine and…”

  “Nathan.” Landon’s timbre dropped to a rough whisper. “His name was Nathan.”

  The pressure mounted in her chest. She nodded. Nathan.

  Imagine Landon as a father. He’d be such a great father. Great brother. Great husband. Oh, God, would he ever trust her again? He was a just man but she suspected he wasn’t a forgiving one.

  Feeling faint and pale, Beth smiled exhaustedly at him. “You talked to Anna, didn’t you?”

  “We made sure the court knew what a scumbag Hector is, but we didn’t talk to her, Beth. That was all your doing. Clearly she respects you.”

  The words, somehow, seemed a compliment.

  She hesitated, then edged closer, desperate to again reach places she’d reached in him before. “Do you think we’ll win?”

  He continued absently staring at the crowded hall before them. “We’ll win.”

  She wanted to say something, but felt emotionally drained. Still, she attempted something light and funny, even though she didn’t feel like laughing. “Lucky you, you’ll be getting rid of me soon.”

  He turned to her then, and the lack of emotion in his eyes frightened her. His empty smile in no way warmed her. “Not soon enough.”

  Still stunned minutes later, Beth couldn’t even hear through the noise of her blood rushing as they went back inside. The judge resumed his seat and began speaking. He mentioned foreseeing Hector having to answer some severe new accusations in the short future.

  Beth heard the fateful words only barely, still struggled to swallow the sour dose of truth Landon had given her. He couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

  “Custody awarded to the petitioners…effective immediately…”

  The verdict gradually sunk into her thoughts. She saw the judge rise to leave and Hector’s stunned reaction. She noticed Landon shaking Mason’s hand. Beth blinked, swayed as she rose to her feet.

  Had they won?

  So fast? She’d waited months and had expected her misery to last days and days, and now they’d won?

  The rest happened in a flurry of movement. Being hugged by the Gages, by her mother, her father, by everyone but Landon.

  Outside, after a wait that felt eternal, Beth squinted as she watched a car pull over, and David stepped out, running toward her with a grin and another drawing. She glanced at Anna, who smiled at them both from the bottom steps of the courthouse.

  “Anna, thank you,” she murmured under her breath, then quickly started for her son. God, was she dreaming? She wanted to sing and cry and dance.

  “Mom! Mom, I made us a drawing!” He didn’t kiss or hug her but immediately showed the paper to her and pointed at the figures drawn. “You, me and dog man. See!”

  Beth’s stomach clenched. The gigantic brown dog he’d drawn covered nearly half the page, and the rest of the picture contained David, Beth and Landon, holding hands while straddling the monster dog. “But sweetie, dog man…” Won’t be around for long.

  She fell quiet when Landon walked up beside her. “Dog man is taller in person,” she improvised, flustered as she straightened. Her mom’s sad, sympathetic look made a lump grow in her throat. Why was it when you made one dream come true, another fell apart?

  Landon remained at her side, and all she became aware of was the fact that he didn’t touch her. “Home?” he asked.

  Temporary home, Beth thought, already pained to expose David to Landon’s household. He couldn’t get too settled in, could he?

  Beth seized David’s hand and tried a smile that didn’t quite make it. “We’re ready.” God, that tiny hand inside of hers felt so right.

  Ducking his head to meet David eye to eye, Landon bumped fists with her son, both of them smiling and doing it naturally this time. “You can sleep in Nathan’s room,” he told the child.

  The generous offer only made Beth’s misery complete. For she, better than anyone, knew how zealously Landon had guarded that room. Before he’d known the truth about his baby.

  Thomas opened the car door, and the three of them climbed inside, David excited, Landon quiet and Beth torn between excitement and despair, on their way to a make-believe home.

  She and David hugged all the way.

  Fourteen

  The house was silent toni
ght.

  Four months had passed, and every day of living with a fake family had been silent, wretched torture.

  Landon stared out the window, not really seeing the manicured lawns outside. He was in his room, alone. Just him and the divorce papers. His bedroom had never felt so empty. The furniture couldn’t fill the space. Nothing could fill the vast feeling of loss and emptiness.

  Mask and Brindle, who’d taken to sleeping with David now, were down the hall in the boy’s room.

  And Beth…

  He didn’t know where she was. What she was doing. They barely spoke a word to each other. He knew she worked long hours at the computer during the day, and that she waited by the window when David arrived from school. He knew she slept with the door halfway open to hear anything amiss in David’s room at night.

  He knew that sometimes, when tired, she spoke in her dreams. And he knew that most of those times, she spoke his name. He’d also heard her cry once. Soft sniffles at midnight, coming from her room, making him toss in his empty bed wondering why she cried. He didn’t hold his breath thinking it was him she cried for.

  They’d been with him for four months now, four months and twenty nine days. Living with them felt like living with a ticking time bomb.

  It was impossible to explain to Garrett, who’d been asking questions, or to anyone, what he’d been feeling all this time, seeing Beth every day, seeing her son frolicking out in the gardens during the afternoon. Her son, who was the same age Nathan would’ve been.

  Longing didn’t hold a candle to the emotions that bombarded him. Now his every muscle was taut with tension, tension which could find no relief, no kind of comfort. Because the tension that most gnawed at his gut stretched between Beth and him—and it was always home as long as she was.

  He had to get rid of them, both of them.

  He had known, from the moment he’d seen her in his hotel room, that she attracted him. He was a man accustomed to analyzing before acting, and he’d believed he’d somehow be able to remain immune to Beth’s effect on him.

  He hadn’t.

  Just as he hadn’t predicted how badly he wanted to make things right for her. Even in ways he hadn’t been able to make them right for himself.