by Chloe Barlow
“He’s far too old for you,” her mother stated, “but he sure is something. I think I may be sweating. Do I look shiny to you? How embarrassing.”
“You look beautiful, as always. Does this mean you’re staying for a while longer?” Claudia teased.
“No, no. That would be silly. I’ll let you talk to them. You will go to Wy and Jenna’s house for the last ESPN taping, right? Wyatt is insisting on everyone being there.”
Terror at rejoining the world seeped in for a moment, but Claudia knew she couldn’t hide out forever, especially not from something so important to her brother’s career.
“Of course. I can’t wait,” she answered, with a tone that was a bit unconvincing.
Claudia’s mother kissed her on the cheek and prepared to leave when Feng walked in followed by a very handsome man in his late fifties. She couldn’t see his whole face, but something about him looked remarkably familiar.
He kissed her mother’s hand, causing her blush to darken.
“Sofia, it was lovely to meet you. I hope it isn’t the last time our paths cross,” he crooned. Claudia couldn’t hear her mother’s reaction, but the smirk on Feng’s face assured her it was appropriately giddy.
After the door closed behind her mother and abuela, Claudia moved to welcome her guests.
“Please, come in,” Claudia said.
“Thank you. I have someone here who wanted to meet you,” Feng responded.
The man reached out a hand to shake Claudia’s, and no sooner did she get a good look at his face when she squealed, “You’re… My god.”
“Hardly.”
Claudia giggled like an idiot.
“No, I mean…you’re Aldous Adler. I’m pretty sure I’m in heaven. I grew up studying your work. Feng, please stop me before I say something really stupid.”
“I think you’re doing great,” Feng interposed. “I will make some tea while you two have a chance to speak. May I use your electric tea kettle, Claudia?”
“Of course. Thank you.”
“Yes, thank you, Feng,” he added, before turning back to Claudia. “I agree with her. You are quite an impressive young woman.”
“Thank you, Mr. Adler,” she answered, feeling her cheeks heat in response.
“Please, call me Aldous, or Aldy, if you prefer. Have a seat,” he ordered, and she obediently sat on the sofa. “How are you feeling?” he inquired, inspecting her face with an intensity, which made her slightly nervous.
He was very attractive, with the same dark hair and strong build as his son, but he lacked Trey’s distracting beauty — particularly his haunting gray eyes and perfect smile — traits she could only guess came from his mother, Abigail Adler.
Feng had informed Claudia how her secret boyfriend, Colin, had used his position in Lexis’s group to rescue Trey’s mother. The woman was safe now, if still a little shaken.
Claudia hoped Trey would let Abigail be fully in his life now. It wasn’t technically any of Claudia’s business, but it had never stopped her before.
“Better,” Claudia finally managed to squeak out in response to Aldous’s query. “It’s been a long few weeks.”
“I can only imagine. Made all the worse for facing them without my son, I presume,” he added, and Claudia had to bite her lip to keep from crying.
“My dear, I didn’t mean to upset you. I came here in the hopes of making you feel better. Ever since Stephen informed me you two had been taken, I have been very worried about how Trey would handle the situation.”
“Trey was wonderful,” she assured him. “He’s a hero.”
Aldous smiled with pride, before continuing. “I didn’t mean it that way, but thank you. I agree. Trey has always been wonderful in a moment of crisis. It’s what he does afterward to hurt himself, which keeps me up at night. Is that what he’s done here?”
“I don’t know if it was hard for him or not, but he doesn’t want to see me again. It hurt me,” she whispered.
Aldous held her hand. “I am sure it was the hardest thing he’s ever done.” He remained silent for a moment, and asked, “Do you know Trey’s birth name was actually Theodore?”
“What? Um, no. Now I feel stupid.”
“Not at all. Almost no one knows that. His mother insisted on the name. I never liked it, but I’d already been such a dictator on everything else I thought I’d let her have that. After she left us, I couldn’t bear the name anymore.”
“So you changed it to Trey?”
“Yes. It means the number three.”
“Wait, after the ‘Rule of Three?’” Claudia asked, excited by the prospect.
“Very clever. Yes. What does it mean to you?”
“It’s a rule of thumb that states when the same computer code is used three times it should be extracted into a new procedure…replaced with something else,” she answered with the eager desire for approval of a star student.
“Correct. No wonder my son is so taken with you.”
Claudia’s cheeks warmed, but the bitter disappointment still ate at her throat.
“I’m not so sure of that,” she muttered.
“I am,” he countered. “The point is, I named him Trey because I wanted him always to remember, you don’t have to keep making the same mistake over and over.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Claudia asked quietly.
“Because I don’t want you to give up on him,” he answered, as Feng appeared and set out the teapot and three mugs.
“Thank you, Feng,” Claudia whispered, trying not to cry.
“He’s right you know,” Feng said. “I’ve watched you all these days, and I know you are blaming yourself.”
“How could I not? Trey and I were together and then he decided he doesn’t want me.”
“He thinks it’s for your own good,” Feng challenged.
Aldous interjected, “Correct. He blames himself for you being kidnapped and tortured, and doesn’t want to risk causing you harm again.”
“He isn’t the one who harmed me,” she lamented.
“I know that, and you know that, but he doesn’t see it that way. His actions, and inactions, ultimately led to you being taken, and that’s enough for him. It’s the same reason he’s dumb enough to feel bad I help him when he’s in trouble. But I will always do it. And I can’t help but guess so will you, whether he knows it or not…”
Claudia thought of how she was attempting to monitor Trey from afar, and blushed at Aldous’s strength of perception.
“Of course. I’d do anything for Trey. But I can’t make him take me back.”
“Can’t you?” Feng asked, leaning against an armchair. “Did you tell him to reconsider?”
“I did — at the hospital. I even threw a bottle at him,” she added sheepishly, which elicited a smile from Aldous.
“Good girl,” he said.
“It was all pretty humiliating. And now, well…even if I knew where he was, I don’t know if I could take him rejecting me again,” Claudia answered.
Feng released a throaty sound, subtly harrumphing her disapproval, before proceeding to open Claudia’s blinds, one after another, before turning to look at her with a sharp expression.
“You Americans. You’re so scared of seeming weak, you’re willing to risk losing the very thing, which makes you strong.”
Feng moved to pour three cups of tea with delicate precision, before distributing them and meeting Claudia’s eyes intently.
“You have to fight for what you want in this life. Don’t be afraid — or ashamed — to fight for your man. Colin was my first, and only, love. He broke every promise he made me, but I never gave up on him. Once he disappeared, I chased after him for years. I did many things I’m not really proud of, but it was all to protect Colin, and my love for him. It was all for the hope of a chance at a life with him. If that’s what it took to bring him back to me, I’d do every single part of it all over again…and then some. Sometimes you need to be the one who is brave enough to beg.”
“You should listen to her. Forget about the rules, Claudia. And please…enjoy your tea,” Aldous instructed, a conspiratorial half smile playing on his lips.
“Claudia, how are you feeling, sweetie? Come in,” Tea said, ushering her into Jenna and Wyatt’s home.
The sight of so many guests, along with the camera crew and lighting staff, made her feel suddenly shy, but Tea’s arm around her shoulders gave her comfort.
She searched her brain for a good answer. Perhaps she should say: Hanging in there. I finally got Netflix, other than that, I have been dying inside. You?
Instead, she chose to go with a lie, “I’ve been doing okay,” she stated, also hugging Aubrey when she appeared by her side.
“We wanted so much to come by and see you,” Tea continued, “but Wyatt told us how you needed some time alone.”
“It’s true. I didn’t want you all to feel unwelcome, but…”
“Don’t explain, we completely understand,” Aubrey assured her.
“Have you heard from Trey at all? He won’t answer Griffen or Jenna’s calls. They are so worried. Johnny misses him, too.”
“No, I haven’t. I’m sorry,” Claudia muttered.
“Don’t bum her out, Tea, jeez!” Aubrey exclaimed.
“It’s okay, I promise,” Claudia answered, smiling slightly.
“No matter what happened, you should know he barely left your side when you were asleep in the hospital. He was so worried about you,” Tea assured her.
“Thank you,” she answered, suffocating under the weight of how much she missed him.
“May I have your attention, please?” Claudia heard a booming voice announce from Wyatt and Jenna’s living room.
“That’s the producer,” Tea whispered. “We’d better get in there.”
“Thank you all for coming, but please remember, this is for all intents and purposes, a ‘live set,’ so we will need you to be as quiet as possible during this last interview we are taking for our feature on Wyatt McCoy. It will be of Wyatt and Dr. Jenna Sutherland together. I am happy to announce that we will be airing this piece during the Thanksgiving holiday, next week.” The room gasped in response. “You can be loud right now if you’d like,” the producer joked, and the room erupted in cheers.
When the room fell silent, Claudia watched with rapt attention as Wyatt and Jenna were placed in position and the ESPN interviewer, Peter Wilde, sat in a chair angled next to them.
Her heart froze for a moment when Jenna’s blonde hair, light blue eyes, and curvaceous figure brought back flashes of A.J. It was shocking how much they looked alike, and for a moment, Claudia thought she might faint.
Forcing the fear away, Claudia reminded herself that experience was long gone. Yet, it also drove home just how painful life must have been for Trey for so many years. If the palest reminder of A.J. could do that to Claudia, what must it have meant for him?
The interview ambled through Wyatt’s upbringing, and the ups and downs of his career, culminating in his current undefeated season. Jenna held his hand, and fielded the interviewer’s questions posed to her with the ease of a pro.
Claudia’s heart swelled with pride at the discussion of Wyatt’s involvement in the NFL’s September celebration of Hispanic heritage. She smiled when Peter addressed Wyatt’s insistence on wearing every pink uniform option during October for breast cancer awareness, in honor of its role in Jenna’s life. Yet, it was the end of the interview that brought tears to her eyes.
“You turned us down when we first reached out to you, Wyatt. Why was that?” Peter asked.
Wyatt looked at the correspondent with a strong, steady gaze and responded, “Sometimes you have to press the reset button on your life. That’s how it was when I met Jenna. I decided to become a better man for her, one who would never let anyone hurt her, including myself. I also refused to let anything interfere with the life I wanted to build with her.”
Tears welled in Claudia’s eyes. Although Wyatt’s words filled her with joy at their happiness, they also drove home just how alone she was now.
“Why did you feel this ESPN feature could be a problem?”
“Growing up in the public eye like I did made me very protective of the people I love. After what I put Jenna through, I was intent on doing all I could to shelter what we’d created. I was worried inviting the press into our lives would threaten that.”
Claudia felt a pang in her heart, remembering how hard it was for Wyatt after their grandfather died and dad left. He’d wanted to take care of the whole family, though he was still just a teenager himself.
“And what happened to make you change your mind?”
“Well, Jenna has a knack for making me see things her way. She felt this was an important decision we would make as a team — as co-captains of our life together.”
“We’ve been learning that in a relationship it’s not who’s right or wrong, it’s how you sort through things together,” Jenna added. “Plus, I bet him I could beat him at a backyard game of flag football.”
Peter laughed, and most of the audience needed to stifle a chuckle of their own. “And who won?”
“I did,” Jenna answered proudly.
“Yeah, but she plays dirty,” Wyatt countered.
“I do not. You held me the whole time when I was on offense!”
“Spoken like a true dirty player. Though I do like to hold her, Peter, I won’t lie.”
Peter chuckled, and asked, “Wyatt, do you think Jenna has played a role in your winning streak?”
“Absolutely. Since I met Jenna, I’ve been nothing but a winner. And it’s not just on the field. It’s in every aspect of my life, and I’m never going to let that go.”
Wyatt rose from his seat and pulled a velvet box out of his pocket, before lowering to one knee in front of Jenna. Claudia gasped along with the rest of the room. She’d always wanted Jenna and Wyatt to get married, but for him to do it so publicly, showed just how far he’d come in terms of opening himself to the world. For a moment, all her pain left, as she became overcome with pride for her brother.
Jenna’s jaw dropped. She darted her eyes back and forth between Peter and Wyatt.
“Wyatt, what are you doing?” she whispered, with a combination of shyness and glee invading her voice.
Wyatt smirked at Jenna, opening the box to reveal a large princess cut diamond, nestled in the middle of smaller matching diamonds on a platinum band. It was beautiful, but also strong and elegant, just like her.
“Mi belleza, te amo. I wish I spoke a thousand languages, because I would use every one of them to tell you how much I love you. But this is all I know. I’m in front of you today, offering you everything I have — my words, my heart, my life, and my future. Will you marry me?”
Jenna nodded intently.
“Of course, Wyatt, my beautiful, crazy, stubborn man,” she answered, taking his face into her hands, and kissing him softly.
When they finally separated, Wyatt grinned and placed the ring on her finger.
For so many years, Claudia’s brother had been surly and intense, weighted down by the pressure and resentment lingering after their father left them. Yet, now all of this pain was gone from his face. It was everything Claudia had always wanted for him. No amount of wins on the field, or Claudia pleading with him to relax, ever had any effect. Jenna had done that for him — love was the difference.
“Wyatt, this diamond is huge. How can I wear this on rounds?” Jenna teased.
“Sorry, Doc, everything is bigger in Texas, and I am a Texas boy.”
They laughed, and Peter finally interposed with a question.
“Jenna, what are you thinking right now?”
“That I am so happy. I mean, what can I say? I guess when a McCoy wants something, they don’t give up until they get it.”
Claudia felt like a bullet had shot right into her heart. As the production assistants ushered Claudia’s mother and Jenna’s father onto the set to hug and kiss the happy
couple, Claudia knew she needed to fight for her own happiness.
Grabbing Tea, she said, “Please tell Jenna and Wyatt I am so happy for them, but I have to leave, but I’ll see them soon.”
“Okay,” she answered. Tea was clearly confused, but Claudia couldn’t wait another moment.
She grabbed a business card from her purse as she rushed to her car and dialed the number. “Stephen? Hello. It’s Claudia McCoy. You were right, we do need to talk.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Trey stared across the undulating expanse of the mountain lake outside his cabin, as the sun merged into the edge of the horizon. The image was eerily similar to the manner in which the minutes of his life had blended into the hours, and the hours into days, since he’d left Claudia.
He’d barely even owned the place a month, but when Stephen had instructed him to go home, it was the first destination to come to mind.
After collecting various belongings and projects from his Pittsburgh place, he felt pretty confident he could disappear here long enough for the damage he’d caused to those he loved to subside.
At least when he and Stephen were chasing after the shadows of A.J.‘s remaining team members, there was something to keep him occupied. Now all he had was his own regret to fill the empty spaces of his life. Its power had wrapped around Trey’s chest, crystallizing into a frozen vise — one so powerful, it amazed him his heart could even beat at all.
Perhaps Claudia had already forgotten about him. What if she’d moved on with that Jason guy? Would he give her the nice¸ safe life she deserved? The mere thought of her with someone else moved the frigid grip of his misery up to his throat, throttling him until it hurt to breathe.
Every time Trey closed his eyes, his mind immediately went to the memory of Claudia asleep in his arms, unable to awaken, in spite of the loud helicopter above them.
His strategy for avoiding the image had been to stay awake as much as possible. This night, he was adding the idea of getting very drunk to his plan. The process had only just started, but he was already feeling delightfully numb, which was probably the best he could hope for these days.