Saltwater Cove

by Amelia Addler

  Connor followed her, as he always did. Jade asked the trolley driver to wait for a minute so she could make a call to Chief Hank.

  Unfortunately, he didn’t know where their mom was either. Jade knew that she should probably go after Brandon anyway – so she decided to get on the ferry with her siblings.

  Yet now, here they were, stuck in jail. Maybe for the rest of their lives!

  The hysteria started to overtake her, all of the emotions flooding in. Jade felt tears pooling in her eyes. She was biting her lip, trying to hold it together, when she realized that the deputy hadn’t searched her or taken away her cell phone.

  Jade pulled out her phone and called Brandon.

  “Yeah?”

  He answered!

  “Brandon! Thank goodness. Listen, we’re in trouble, we’re in the San Juan County Jail and I –”

  “Sucks to be you then,” he said. “I’m going home. Have a nice night.”

  The call disconnected.

  Jade couldn’t hold it in anymore – she started crying. It wasn’t just Brandon, it was everything – everything that happened that night was overwhelming. There was so much anger and so many nasty words. Jade just wanted the night to be over.

  Just then the door opened, and Chief Hank walked in.

  “Chief Hank! It’s you! Did you come to help us?”

  “Hey Jade,” he said slowly. “Yeah. You could say that.”

  Chapter 25

  For almost an hour, Margie anxiously waited to hear from Hank. Finally, a call came through.

  “Don’t worry – everything is fine. Tiffany, Connor, and Jade are down here with me at the jail.”

  “Are they okay?”

  “Of course. I had one of my deputies detain them so that we could – you know, talk.”

  Oh dear. “What did you talk about?”

  “You know, this and that.”

  “Do they still want to leave?”

  “They can’t. The last ferry left for the night.”

  “Oh.”

  “Plus I told them that they can’t leave.”

  Margie didn’t know what to say.

  “Are you still there?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “I’m still here. But I was hoping that they didn’t leave because they wanted to talk to me.”

  “Of course they want to talk to you! Anyways – who cares what they want. They’re kids. Just come down here, tell them what happened, and tell them that they’re going to stay here for a week and have some family fun, dang it.”

  Margie laughed. “It’s not that simple.”

  “Eh, sure it is,” Hank said. “I already talked to them for a bit. They know that everything you did was for them. Moving here, fixing up the house, fixing up that barn.”

  Margie felt a little flutter in her chest. “I don’t think they’ll believe that now.”

  “Of course they will. I mean – they do. I’m the Chief Deputy Sheriff, and I’m pretty sure they knew that I meant what I was saying.”

  Margie laughed again. Somehow he was able to make her feel better even though everything had gone so horribly wrong.

  “Alright. I’ll come down now.”

  Still in her pretty blue dress, Margie went out to the car and made the drive to Friday Harbor. The whole way there, she practiced what she was going to say and how she was going to say it. She anticipated some harsh questioning from Tiffany, and worried that perhaps Jade’s trust was broken forever. Margie had no idea how Connor would react – he was always a wildcard.

  Hank greeted her outside the jail and led her into the building. She opened the door, and as soon as she saw their three faces, promptly burst into tears.

  All three of them jumped up to hug her, which caused her crying to intensify.

  Finally she was able to get ahold of herself and sit down with them at the table. She told them the full story, with Jade interjecting only to clarify some details that she was present for.

  When Margie finished, she remarked, “I can’t believe you guys let me get that whole story out.”

  Connor laughed. “Yeah, the big scary police guy said that if we weren’t nice to you that he’d open up some jail cells for us to spend the night in.”

  Tiffany rolled her eyes. “He was obviously joking. It was a very thinly veiled threat.”

  “I don’t know if he was joking,” said Jade.

  “Well anyways,” said Margie. “I didn’t mean to hide anything from you kids. You are the most important people in my life. I just wanted to do things the right way and…I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay Mom. It all makes sense to me,” said Jade.

  Connor shrugged. “I mean it’s weird, having a half-sister, but we’ll get used to it. And I like Morgan’s style.”

  “Yeah,” Tiffany added. “I can’t say that I hated her telling Dad off like that. I mean Mom – did you really think Dad was innocent in all of this?”

  “Now you know that I don’t like to say anything negative about your father –”

  Tiffany cut her off. “Yeah, but sometimes you have to say the truth. Listen – I won’t go there. I’m sorry that this party didn’t go the way you’d hoped. And I’m sorry that Dad is selfish. But he’s always been that way. I’m over it – and, the thing is – what I really wanted to say is that I appreciate you trying to make this place nice for us. And I love you.”

  Margie felt tears coming to her eyes again. “Thanks sweetie. Does that mean that we can try doing this whole family week thing over again?”

  “Of course Mom,” said Jade.

  She looked at them – they looked tired, but they were smiling. Margie took a deep breath. It didn’t quite work out as she’d hoped – but it worked out in the end.

  Now all that was left was to tell Hank the truth – and see if he could forgive her, too.

  Chapter 26

  It was only after they got out of jail and Jade got a good night’s sleep that she realized they were never actually under arrest. In her tired and emotionally overtaxed state, she didn’t question it. Clearly, it was Chief Hank’s doing, and they likely could have left at any time.

  She was glad they didn’t leave, though. The next morning, they woke up and had breakfast together. It felt different – it felt like it used to be when they were kids. Before the divorce – and before they knew the truth about their dad.

  Tiffany insisted that she wasn’t surprised by the news at all, and Jade believed her; she was rather cynical and was historically the most harsh on their dad.

  Jade, on the other hand, felt quite silly – like her mom, she’d always given him the benefit of the doubt. Now she didn’t know what to think. He never apologized to them or attempted to explain anything. All he did was threaten to remove them from his will.

  Who thought like that? It was disgusting to her; to think that she would sit around, waiting for him to die, so she could get some of his money. She had no interest in his money. All she ever wanted was her family to be happy again.

  It seemed that they finally had that – they just had to remove their dad and add Morgan instead. It was a bit strange at first, but Morgan and her dad came to visit after the dust settled. She apologized to everyone individually; Jade, of course, accepted her apology without hesitation.

  “I need to apologize to Brandon too,” said Morgan. “I’m sorry about what I said.”

  “Well, he’s been giving me the silent treatment,” Jade told her. “But I can try calling him.”

  Morgan nodded. “Okay, that works. He was the one, after all, who told me the truth.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” said Jade. “I completely forgot that part of the story. What exactly did he say to you?”

  “Well,” Morgan said, biting a fingernail, “he said that you, Margie, your dad, and your siblings were trying to trick me into leaving town so I wouldn’t ruin the image of your perfect family.”

  Jade’s stomach dropped. “You’re kidding.”

  “No,” Morgan spoke quickly no
w. “I swear that’s exactly what he said to me. And that’s why I said all of those horrible things. Well no – I said all of those horrible things because I’m an idiot and I believed him. And I wanted to be really mean and get you guys back. But if I had stopped to think for a second, I would’ve realized that it couldn’t possibly be true, and –”

  “It’s okay. I know that Brandon can be very…persuasive.”

  Jade saw her mom busying herself and fussing around them. “Mom, did you know about this? About Brandon?”

  She stopped what she was doing. “I knew that he was the one who told Morgan about your dad, but I didn’t know that he’d said all of that.”

  “I can’t believe that he did that. Why would he do that?” asked Jade.

  Her mom’s eyes darted to Morgan, then back to her. Her facial expression remained neutral. “I’m not sure, honey. But it seems like something that you should talk to him about.”

  It took the rest of the night for Jade to digest that conversation. She was never a spontaneous person, and it took her a while to process new information. Yet it became clear that she did need to talk to Brandon; there was no excuse for what he said to Morgan.

  Before breakfast the next morning, Jade went into her room and closed the door. She tried calling Brandon, but he didn’t pick up. He was still ignoring her to teach her a lesson.

  She knew why – he would tell her that she chose her family over him, just like he claimed she always did. But this visit with her mom and siblings was planned – she took time off of work so that they could all be together. He was invited too, of course. But he was angry, and he expected Jade to follow him. Normally, she would have. But this time…

  An idea popped into her head – she sent him a text message saying that her company needed a DJ for an event that Friday. A minute later, her phone rang.

  Bingo.

  “Hello?”

  “Alright Jade, give me the details of this job.”

  Oh dear – he was not being friendly. He was going to be livid when he found out that she made it all up. “I will. But first I need to talk to you.”

  “No. We’re not doing this. Not while you’re still over there. You need to come home.”

  Jade bit her lip. She needed to have this conversation with him. “I need to know why you told Morgan about my dad.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I know that you were the one who told her the truth about my dad. Why didn’t you tell me about it? I had no idea.”

  He scoffed. “Of course you had no idea, your family never tells you anything.”

  “I heard what you said to her. It was nasty. You made things up about me, and my mom, and –”

  “I can’t even believe you right now. You’re being ungrateful.”

  She took a deep breath. “How am I being ungrateful? Why would I want you to be mean to Morgan? She’s my half-sister.”

  “Oh boy, here we go. So she’s your sister now? Another one? It’s always about your family. You find a new half-sister and suddenly she’s even more accepted that I am.”

  “Don’t be like that Brandon. If you were here, spending time with everyone, you’d be accepted too, and –”

  “No I wouldn’t. You heard those things that she said about me – it’s what all of your family thinks of me, isn’t it? Meanwhile, I’m working my butt off to make something really special, and you know that I have talent and I’m one of the best DJs in the state!”

  How did he always manage to make things about him being a DJ?

  “Brandon, no one thinks those mean things about you. The only reason that Morgan said any of it was because you told her that everyone was trying to run her out of the family. And that wasn’t true. Why would you say that?”

  “For you, you idiot! What did you think was going to happen when Morgan found out that your dad was her dad?”

  “Well, I thought that –”

  “You didn’t think, did you? You didn’t realize that Morgan was going to go after her part of the inheritance. Why wouldn’t she? She’s just as much his kid as you are.”

  Jade’s jaw dropped. “What?”

  “Maybe in your world, where everything is a mystical la-la land and people are fair and kind –”

  Jade cut him off. “You told her lies about us so that she wouldn’t go after my dad’s money? What is wrong with you?”

  “What’s wrong with you! You know that we need that money.”

  “How can money be all that you think about? How can that even – you’re not even –”

  “I’m not having this conversation with you right now. You’re being way too emotional. Are you going to give me the contact information for that job or not?”

  Jade didn’t respond for a moment. Her head felt all jumbled. “Just forget about it.”

  She disconnected the call and sat there, listening to the laughter rising from the kitchen – it sounded like Connor was telling a story with his best British accent, for some reason.

  Jade felt so strange sitting in that room, alone, the ceiling fan rotating slowly above her. She was so close to her family, yet still felt so far away.

  She ran through her conversation with Brandon and tried to sort out what happened. Brandon said she was being emotional, and he called her an idiot. Normally, she brushed these sort of comments off; he said stuff like that all the time. But there was something that she couldn’t shake – something that bothered her more than anything.

  Jade stood up, her head still muddled, and went to look at her reflection in the mirror. Her cheeks were red and her chest look splotchy – she couldn’t go back into the kitchen looking like this. Her mom would instantly know that something was up.

  But she felt so angry at Brandon for saying those horrible things to Morgan that she couldn’t help it. Her skin got angry for her.

  She took a deep breath and decided that she needed to calm down. It was a beautiful day, and she still couldn’t believe how lovely everything was here – the house, the barn, and the incredible view.

  “Brandon thought that Uncle Mike should have left all of this to him. He was mad about that too,” she muttered to herself.

  She sat back down on the bed. Brandon wasn’t always difficult – when they first started dating, he was like a model boyfriend. Jade couldn’t believe how sweet and thoughtful he was; all of her friends were jealous. Not that Jade cared for that, but it made her feel like she’d gotten a wonderful partner. She didn’t even think twice when he proposed.

  It wasn’t until they graduated school and he had a hard time finding work that he started to get the way he was now. Moody, obsessed with money. Obsessed with his talent. Self-centered.

  Jade felt guilty because her job search was easy. So when Brandon came up with his DJ thing, she wanted to support him. She thought that maybe if he could follow his dreams, he would get back to being the nice guy that she knew.

  But he’d been like this for years, and now it seemed that all he could think about was money. Especially money that didn’t belong to him. Properties, inheritances – he was so much like…

  Jade took a deep breath. It was hard to admit it to herself. But Brandon was so much like her father.

  She was still sorting out how she felt about her dad after what he did to Morgan – but there was a voice in her head that kept repeating, “Do you really want to be married to someone like Dad?”

  She got up and looked at herself in the mirror again. Her cheeks were almost back to normal, so she decided to rejoin her family and put these things out of her mind.

  Back in the kitchen, she successfully hid that anything happened. She was grateful that Morgan didn’t ask about Brandon – though Morgan did give her a bit of a funny look when she relayed that they’d spoken for a bit.

  After breakfast, Chief Hank took them all out on his boat. Jade left her phone at home, because after she hung up on Brandon, he didn’t take it well. He started calling her repeatedly and sending her text message after
text message.

  They had a wonderful time out on the water, and it was a great distraction. Jade allowed things to settle her mind. By the end of the day, she’d given her thoughts about Brandon enough room to breathe. She felt comfortable with them. She was no longer horrified that Brandon was so much like her dad – well, she was still disgusted by him, but she was no longer shocked.

  When they got back from the boat, Jade quietly excused herself and went back to her room. She had sixteen missed calls and a whopping thirty-four text messages from Brandon.

  It was interesting, in a way, to scroll through the messages and watch him cycle through different moods. At first he was pleading, then he was angry, then he berated her, and lastly he apologized before starting all over again.

  She took a deep breath and called him. He picked up right away.

  “Where have you been all day, I thought you were dead!”

  “I’m not dead. I’ve taken the day to think.”

  “Okay? It took you all day to think?”

  Jade cleared her throat. “Brandon, we are getting a divorce.”

  He was silent for a moment. “Excuse me?”

  “We are going to get a divorce,” she repeated. She kept her tone even – this wasn’t going to be an argument.

  “Are you kidding me? Just because I said something mean to your half-sister? I’m sorry, okay? I’m really sorry. I can’t believe how much you’re overreacting about this.”

  “I’m going to meet with an attorney early next week. We can talk more after that.”

  “You have got to be kidding –”

  Jade disconnected the call and turned off her phone. She felt emotionally drained, but at the same time, there was a lightness in her chest. Her heart felt happy for the first time since she could remember.

  She slipped her phone into her purse and went back to the living room, where everyone was trying to make S’mores in the fireplace.

  Chapter 27

  After a wonderful week together, it was finally time for Margie to say goodbye. Morgan was the first to go – she left early in the week with her dad. Margie made her promise that she would come and visit – and that she would finish her degree at school.