Phoebe thought this was a rather evasive omission of some kind, which she wasn’t supposed to get, but she had a feeling she might be finding out this information sooner than she thought.
Throughout lunch, the twins were a good distraction. Stephanie, who was usually the shy one opened up to Jacoby completely. She was enthralled by him asking him so many personal questions it was almost embarrassing, but Jacoby was so entertained he answered them, his patience never wearing thin to the adorable little girl.
When they boarded the People Mover to return back to the office, the twins fell asleep almost immediately.
“Do you work all the time?” Phoebe inquired.
“It helps get rid of the boredom. It keeps me out of trouble and it’s a great distraction for me personally,” Jacoby answered keeping his eyes forward and not looking at her at all.
Phoebe had noticed throughout the entire lunch he had purposely not made direct contact with her. Matter of fact, he seemed to speak to the children more than he spoke to her. Never had Phoebe felt more hurt than now. It was as if to look at her would kill him.
When the People Mover stopped, he lifted the sleeping Stephanie into his arms and offered to carry Stephen as well to her car. They went straight to the parking lot where she had parked, but she stopped dead in her tracks when they were five cars away from where she normally parked.
He followed her eyes to the old Chevy. The car was in good condition, except there was a large hole in the middle of the windshield.
“It would seem the vehicle would be difficult to drive like that? Please don’t tell me you drove it around like that,” he teased looking around cautiously.
Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, “I don’t find your levity funny anymore, Jacoby.”
Jacoby wiped the grin off his face. “Who would do something like this?” he asked handing Stephanie to her to free his arm to get to his cell phone.
“I don’t know.” She opened her car and gasped. Someone had cracked the column and slashed at the seats of the car with a knife. It smelled as if someone had tried to start a fire, but was unsuccessful, but her radio was stolen and the pedal off the accelerator looked as if it had been hammered down.
“This was deliberate malicious destruction,” she said getting out the car, slamming the door closed in frustration.
Jacoby called his car to his location and looked into the car himself. After assessing the damage, he waited with her for his car to arrive. “No one suspicious comes to mind?”
Sarcastically and angry, she responded, “You do, but you have an alibi.”
He finally looked directly at her. “You think I would hurt you?”
“I don’t know what you’re up to, Jacoby. One minute-” she stopped almost saying something she knew he would just use to hurt her with. “Since I don’t suspect you, I would suspect Simon.”
“He’s in jail, just like Madeline, isn’t he?”
Phoebe would have figured he knew where Madeline was. “No, his father bailed him out. Don’t ask me why Joseph did this, but Simon was ordered to stay away from me by the judge personally. I received a call just yesterday letting me know I would be needed to testify at all three of their trials.”
“You think he might do something extreme?”
“Simon doesn’t seem like the type on the outside, but if he could deceive his own father, who is to say he would do anything to stay out of jail.”
“Even hurt you?”
“Oh, he’s hurting me good. He knows hurting my pocket book is always painful.”
A black limousine pulled up. Jacoby took the car seats out the Chevy and the driver assisted in placing them in the back of the limousine. While the driver placed the twins in and securely strapped them down, Jacoby turned to her keeping arms length away.
“My driver will take you home and I’ll stay here for and have this towed to your home.”
She took a deep breath filled with a feeling of disappointment. “I don’t know how I will ever pay you back, Jacoby. You’ve done so much for me and my family.”
“It’s not about paying me back, Phoebe. It never was and you know it.”
Phoebe held back what she wanted to say so bad and turned away to get into the limousine. He grabbed her arm and turned her around holding her shoulders tightly.
“Dammit Phoebe say it! Say what you have to say or I swear I’m going to go insane.”
She bit her lip and searched his eyes that were filled with so much pain and anger. Yet all she could think about was today when he had deliberately avoided her eyes, chances to touch her when other times he had, and how now it seemed to pain him to even get this close to her. Why should she speak her mind or her heart when she knew he wouldn’t care? Maybe Lawrence was right? She probably wasn’t the only woman on his plate. Why should he care about her feelings for him?
“Nothing Jacoby,” she forced out, using every bit of strength not to collapse in his arms and mold her body against him. “There’s nothing to say.” She moved out of his arms and quickly got into the limousine.
Jacoby was barely able to control himself as the car pulled away. He slammed his fist down on the hood of her Chevy creating a large dent in the middle. Cursing violently, he paced trying to get his temper down.
If that woman didn’t come to her senses soon, he swore he would end up raping her where she stood.
Chapter 29
When Phoebe got home that night, after telling her mother what had happened at the parking structure, she went to her phone book and found Amy’s home phone number. Amy wasn’t home, but called her back after an hour.
“What’s up?” Amy asked concerned.
Phoebe told her what happened with her car, then asked, “Do you think it was Simon?”
“It may sound like something Simon would do, but that would be impossible since his father put him into a drug rehab Friday night when the sheriff busted him at a rave party with a bunch of teenagers.”
“What was he doing there?”
“Getting high on Ecstasy, I suppose. Don’t really know the real details, Phoebe. Do you have any other enemies?”
“None that I know of. This is all very confusing, Amy.”
“Did you report it to the police?”
“I was going to make a report, but I wanted to speak with you first.”
“You be careful,” Amy warned. “Not to change the subject, but what happened to the affair with the boss you were talking about with me the other time?”
“I never got the chance to do what we spoke about because he’s been avoiding me like I’m the plague. I don’t know what to do, because I don’t know what he really feels. Maybe I’ve hurt him too much for him to like me again. I had a chance, but I don’t want to be disappointed, Amy.”
“That’s part of life, Phoebe. You’re going to have to deal with whatever he feels for you now in order to get through this. If you keep it all bottled up inside of you, you’ll hurt even more.”
She got off the phone with Amy thinking more about Jacoby than the destruction of her vehicle as the minutes passed. Phoebe didn’t sleep well Saturday night. When the morning came and Patricia asked if she would like to go out to Great Lakes Crossing Mall, she declined feeling every muscle in her body screaming for rest. Patricia let Phoebe know she was only taking Stephen with her because Stephanie was still asleep.
About one in the afternoon when her mother had yet to return, she heard Stephanie coming awake and decided to crawl out of bed and get something to eat. After making a light breakfast for the both of them, she started to clean the kitchen.
When the telephone rung, she answered it by the third ring with a tired, “Hello?”
“You sound exhausted,” Lawrence said on the other end. “Are you up or still curled up in bed?”
“I’ve been up for awhile.”
“Is working for Jacoby that exhaustive?” he asked.
“No, someone wrecked my car on purpose.”
“Are you all righ
t?” he asked quite concerned.
“Yes, I’m fine. Jacoby took care of all the details. He even put the car in the shop.”
“Jacoby was in Detroit yesterday?” he questioned quite shocked.
“Yes, he was at the office. He said the appointment he had canceled because his son was sick.”
“But he was supposed to be in Canada with Thaddeus Newman, right?”
Phoebe only shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Mr. Newman doesn’t have any sons. His wife, Skye just had a daughter. That’s their first child together. He lied to you.”
Phoebe frowned. “Why would he lie? He didn’t know I would be in the office. Seeing me was very unexpected.”
Lawrence changed the subject. “I was wondering if I could come over and speak to you about some things that I think we should talk about. It’s really important. I wouldn’t stay long if you didn’t want me to.”
She really wasn’t in the mood to entertain, but decided today would be a good time to tell Lawrence that they shouldn’t even be friends. Phoebe knew he wanted more than just friendship and today she would really put her foot down about them spending time together and her true feelings for Jacoby would be revealed to Lawrence so she wouldn’t feel as if she were pulling him along in some kind of game. Although she had made it evident to Lawrence that she had no intentions of taking their relationship any further in the past, she felt he would be a hindrance in her pursuit to get with Jacoby with his negativity. “I’ll see you in a few minutes?”
“Sure.”
Just as she hung up the phone, the doorbell rung and she put down Stephanie in the playpen to answer the door. An Amazon dark chocolate woman about five feet eleven stood in the doorway. She would be beautiful, almost angelic if it wasn’t for that horrendous frown on her face. Her light green/gray eyes glared down at Phoebe as if she had committed treason in the United States. Either that or Phoebe was standing in the door naked.
Phoebe looked down at herself to see if she was dressed appropriate. Today she had only dawned on some jeans and a sweater because she had no intentions of going anywhere. The cooking glove was still on her hand and her hair was still undone from sleeping restlessly.
“Are you Phoebe Green?” the young lady asked vehemently.
Phoebe was unsure if she should answer her, but curiosity was killing her to know why this woman wanted her. “Yes, I’m Phoebe. Do I know you?”
“It doesn’t surprise me that you wouldn’t know who I was or you wouldn’t care that you’re breaking up a marriage.”
“What are you talking about?” Phoebe demanded to know.
“I’m talking about you and my man being together shamelessly in public while his wife sits at home five months pregnant.” Suddenly the woman burst into tears. “I’ve tried to keep our marriage together. I’ve known he’s been sleeping around. We only married for convenience, but instead of him helping his wife run a business, he decides to start another business. He understood if my daddy found out we weren’t running the business together, he’d come and take my business away from me. He knew this yet he’s still going to file for separation.” The sobs became louder.
Stephanie, who was just in the other room, began to whimper in distress.
“Who are you talking about?” Phoebe asked.
The woman suddenly stopped crying and asked incredulously, “Are there so many men in your lives that you don’t know one from the other?”
“No!” she exclaimed. Flustered and confused she said, “Why don’t you come in and have a seat.”
The woman came in and Phoebe found some Kleenex for her while ushering her to a seat in the living room. Phoebe didn’t even bother closing the main door to the house too eager to hear what this woman had to say.
Phoebe thought to take it from the top so she could get an understanding of what was going on. “Let’s start all of this back over, Miss. You think that I am seeing your husband and that I’m breaking up your relationship.”
“I know you’re seeing my husband and I know you’re breaking us up because a lawyer, Abraham Blue called yesterday to ask for my social security number so he could file the separation papers. I knew you had to be different from all the others, because even though he sees other women he’s never made any attempt to leave me until now.” She broke into another round of loud sobs.
Phoebe didn’t know how to handle this. Abraham Blue was Jacoby’s attorney and if Jacoby was married...the thought of it made the room spin and Phoebe had to sit down across from the woman to keep from passing out.
“I swear to you I had no idea he was married.”
Spitefully the woman asked, “You don’t think he gets his money off of trees, do you? He used my money to front the money for part of his business. He wouldn’t have become a partnership if it wasn’t for me.”
“But Jacoby doesn’t have a partner,” Phoebe pointed out completely perplexed.
The woman stopped the sniffles and sobbing. In an about faced disgusted tone, she spat, “I’m not talking about that sex maniac! Any woman crazy enough to even sleep with that man won’t walk straight for the rest of her life. I’m talking about my husband, Lawrence Ripley.”
Phoebe’s jaw dropped wide open. “You’re Lawrence’s wife?”
“Yes,” the woman sobbed. “I’m Natalie Ripley.” She touched her stomach tenderly. “And this is Lawrence’s baby I’m carrying.”
“You’re pregnant?!” Phoebe was feeling more nauseous by the second. Even though it was the second time the woman had stated that, it was now that it really hit home.
Proudly, Lawrence’s wife said, “Five months.”
Patricia chose that time to enter the home carrying Stephen. She seemed oblivious to Natalie as she spoke, “You’ll never guess whom I found outside,” she sang merrily. “He pulled up at the same time we pulled up.”
Lawrence came around the corner. “Hi Phoebe, I was...” His words trailed off as he saw both women glaring up at him. He looked from one to another speechless.
Patricia noticed the horrified look on Lawrence’s face and then looked at her daughter. “Who is this, Phoebe?” she asked.
Phoebe stood up. “This is Lawrence’s wife, Natalie Ripley, Mother.”
It was Patricia’s turn to look shocked.
“You little bitch, what the hell are you doing here?” Lawrence snarled.
Natalie stood up and snapped, “I wouldn’t be here if you had not broken your promise.”
“What promise are you talking about? I never broke any promise to you!”
“Oh and Abraham Blue, your lawyer, doesn’t plan on filing separation papers tomorrow morning.”
“Abraham Blue isn’t my lawyer! That’s Jacoby’s lawyer,” Lawrence pointed out.
“So why is he calling on your behalf?!” Natalie demanded to know.
“I DON’T KNOW!” Lawrence screeched.
Phoebe saw Stephen about to get upset and decided to calm the situation down. “Mother, please take the children up to their room and close the door.” Patricia was still stunned. “Mother!”
Patricia startled and picked up Stephanie from the playpen and took both twins upstairs as fast as she could so she could return.
“Lawrence, why didn’t you ever tell me you were married?” Phoebe asked angrily.
Flustered, he looked from her to Natalie, then back at Phoebe. “I was going to. That’s why I was coming over here to speak with you. I wanted you to know everything.”
“So she was special enough for you to leave me?” Natalie cried.
He huffed. “No, dammit, Natalie. Stop twisting my words around.”
“But you did keep it from me, didn’t you, Lawrence?” Phoebe questioned.
“Yes, but only because I thought you probably wouldn’t understand our arrangement.”
“Arrangement? Is that what you call this marriage between you and her?” Phoebe asked. “Does this arrangement have any provisions about children? Your wife is five months pregnant.�
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He looked at Natalie seething in anger suddenly realizing something very terrible. “You lying bitch!”
“You’re the one who’s lying!” Natalie shouted.
“You told me nothing happened that night!” he accused her. “You drugged me on purpose to get me to sleep with you.”
Natalie looked very guilty. “I wanted to make sure you didn’t break the promise. I wanted to insure that we stayed together because you knew what the consequences would be if we didn’t.”
“How the hell do I know if that’s my child?”
Natalie slapped him as hard as she could and then burst out in loud sobs.
Lawrence looked only a little bit sorry, and then looked at Phoebe for help.
Phoebe moved between Lawrence and Natalie saying calmly, “I think you should leave, Lawrence. It would be best.”
“You’re going to believe this bitch. She’d do anything to ruin my fucking life-”
The backhand Phoebe delivered was more a blow to his conscious than for pain, which made him stop talking. “Get out, right now,” she sneered through clenched teeth.
He actually looked as if she had broken his heart before he turned around to leave.
Natalie quickly stopped her crying after he left, dried her eyes and moved to the door. “I should go. I’ve caused enough problems.”
Phoebe didn’t respond to this still somewhat stunned over what had occurred.
Natalie came back over to Phoebe and pressed something into her hand. “This is for yesterday. I’m sorry. Just write in the amount of the cost of damages and send me the receipt. You know how love goes, don’t you, sweetie?” She didn’t give Phoebe time to respond, nor time to see what was given to her before she left out of the home closing the door behind her.
Patricia came down the stairs. Mother and daughter eyes met and Phoebe looked down at her hand to a signed check with no amount put on it.
“And you wanted me to start a relationship with him?” Phoebe asked her mother incredulously.
Deceptive Nights Page 19