by Shealy James
“Eve,” the stranger said. “My name is Owen Graybill. I went to law school with John. With video evidence and statements provided by your father, John, and Holly Benton, we are prepared to press charges against Mark for the assault of Holly Benton and your sister. Here.” He turned a laptop around and pressed play on a parking lot security feed.
It was Mark attacking Holly in the parking lot. You can’t see their faces, but I could pick Mark out of anywhere. I knew his walk and how he moved. I had been watching him for years. Another video started, and this time the parking lot was crowded. This video was grainier than the last. A couple was walking to their car until someone interfered and grabbed the smaller person. That was when I could tell the other figure was John.
“Turn it off.” I had tears running down my face. “Where did you get those?”
Grant spoke up. “Maddox was able to get them, Eve, along with some additional incriminating evidence.”
“Mark, I didn’t know about this.” I sobbed horrifically. “I didn’t want any of this. I just wanted a divorce and my inheritance back. I was willing to give you everything if you would just sign the fucking papers.” I stood abruptly and looked down at Grant. “I asked you specifically not to do this. You wondered why I didn’t tell you anything? Now you know why.” My eyes went to my dad. “You of all people should have known better, Dad.” With that I darted from my chair and out of the room. I heard the men’s voices calling my name, but I was in the car and racing out of the parking lot before anyone caught up to me.
I drove straight home and ran in the house. “Mom! Mom! Where are you?” I was running around the house looking for her.
“I’m right here. What’s wrong?”
“Did you know?” I sobbed.
“Know what, honey?”
“What Dad, Grant, and John had planned for today?”
“No…I…What are you talking about?”
I started crying even harder, and she wrapped her arms around me. “They are threatening him with jail time. I told them I’d handle it. I wanted to handle one thing on my own. It was a done deal. Mark was about to give in, but they just couldn’t let it be.” My stomach rolled. I quickly got up to run to the bathroom, but I didn’t make it and threw up all over the wood floors in the hallway. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry, Mom.”
“It’s okay, peanut. Go into the bathroom. I’ll clean this up. It isn’t the first time I have cleaned up your vomit.”
My stomach rolled again, and I just kept heaving and crying. It was miserable, and I had no control over it. My mom came in and rubbed my back until I stopped heaving. I lay down on the floor, and she put a towel under my head and cleaned up the bathroom. “Sorry, Mom.”
“It’s all right, honey. I’m going to call your Dad and find out what’s going on. You stay here just in case you feel sick again.” I nodded and she left the room.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I woke up, my sister was in the bathroom with me, stroking my hair like she always did. All the pins were out and on the floor in front of me. “Janie?”
“Yeah, peanut. It’s me. How you feeling?”
“Like shit.”
“Yeah. Mom said you threw up waffles all over her hardwoods.” She laughed and I did too.
“Did you know what they were up to?”
“No. John didn’t tell me, but he and Grant had been talking since last week when we told you about the restraining order.”
I sighed and sat up. “Why couldn’t they just believe that I would have handled it? It was a done deal.”
“They interfered because no one wants you to go through anything like that. I have never known anyone to go through a dark time like you did, and I’d do anything for you not to ever feel so helpless again. When you moved out of that house, you were terrified. We thought you were going to hurt yourself Eve, and Mom, Dad, John, and I have never been so scared or worried. Grant caught a glimpse of that last week and called Dad. We’re lucky we have men in our lives who would drop everything to make sure we’re safe, you know that?”
“I’m not helpless,” I said again, even though it felt like no one believed me.
“We know that, but they can’t sit back and watch you hurt. Our guys are fixers. Remember that time the neighbor kid pulled the chain off your bike? Dad went over there and made him come apologize to you, then he taught the kid how to fix your bike. It’s what they like to do. Mark wasn’t like that. He only brought you down. Grant, on the other hand, is like Dad and wants to protect you.”
“Then why do I feel so terrible?”
“You have never been good with surprises, for one thing. Mom and I would have told them that if they had asked us. For another thing, even though Mark has been really awful to all of us, you probably didn’t want to be the one to cause him any more pain.”
“Close the door.” She leaned over and pushed it shut. “I feel like this is all my fault, like Mark would have never been this way had I done something. I only made it worse by divorcing him. He wasn’t like this in high school. His dad had just died, and he was the nicest guy. When we met back up, he was just kind of a mess. I always thought the old Mark would come back, but he never did. I thought that if I handled this without making it worse for him, then maybe I could redeem myself. I need Mark to forgive me.”
“I just don’t think he’s going to forgive you, because there is nothing to forgive. He needs help, Evie, and Dad and the boys are going to make sure that happens.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I think it’s time you leave the bathroom and go talk to Grant. He’s been wearing a hole in the family room since I got here. Dad even opened a bottle of scotch.”
“Everyone is pretty upset with me, huh?”
“No one is upset with you. They just want to explain. Remember, they’re on the outside looking in, so they don’t have the emotional ties you feel to Mark.” I hadn’t thought about that before. What would I have done if I had watched Jane or Holly go through what I did? I can’t even imagine what that was like for my parents.
“I’m ready.” I stood up and looked in the mirror. “Holy shit, I look like the bride of Chucky.” I washed my face and rinsed my mouth out again. My sister tried to comb out my hair with her fingers and pulled it into a braid. My sister gave me some clothes that my mom left for me, so I changed into jeans and an old sorority shirt and looked in the mirror. “Not a total Betty but a vast improvement.”
“Well, we did our best,” Jane said, finishing the quote from Clueless.
“We gotta book it if we’re going to make it to P.E.” We laughed as we walked into the living room to find my dad was indeed drinking scotch and Grant was sitting on the edge of the sofa with his elbows on his knees and his hands together like he was praying. John had a beer and the remote in his hand.
“Gentlemen, she’s all yours,” Jane announced happily as we walked in the room.
Grant looked up and was in front of me in two strides. He took my face between his hands and made me look up into his worried brownish eyes. “You okay?”
I nodded, and he led me over to the couch. I sat on the middle cushion between Grant and John and pulled my knees up to my chest. John turned the television off, and Mom and Jane came in from the kitchen and sat in the matching light grey tufted club chairs after Jane handed me a bottle of water. I waited for someone to talk, but no one said anything.
I spoke first. “Someone talk.”
Grant started to speak, and Dad interrupted. “It’s all right, Grant. I got us into this mess. Peanut, Grant called me after you told him what we talked about last week. He told me how upset you were, so I got in touch with Martin. He told me what the hang up was on your divorce. I understood what that money meant to you, but Mark’s problem was never with the money. He wouldn’t have signed the papers if you gave him your left kidney, and he was banking on you wanting to stay out of court.”
“Dad, he was about to agree. We had just told him that we were g
oing to court, and he and his lawyer were discussing it.”
“We were already there at that point, and Martin went into speak with them. Mark was about to make another big ol’ mess for you.”
“He was just trying to hurt you, Evie,” Mom said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Grant cut in angrily. “There was no way I was giving him the chance to hurt you anymore. We made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He could fight the divorce and go to jail where a judge would still grant you the divorce, or he could sign the no-contest papers now.”
“And?” Everyone looked at me except Grant.
“And what?” my dad asked.
I turned to Grant. “I know you better than that. You’re an expert negotiator. It wasn’t simply sign the papers, was it? It was sign the papers and something else. There was some other stipulation, wasn’t there?”
Grant ran his hands through his messy hair. “Does it matter?”
“Yes,” I said simply.
“What was it, Grant?” my sister said. When he didn’t answer she tried the other two. “Dad? John? What were the other stipulations?”
“Sorry, man,” John said to Grant. “She wears the pants in my house. Mark had to agree to enter a ninety-day treatment program, sell the house, and give you half of what was left prior to his credit card debt being paid.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” my mom said, but I knew better. They weren’t finished. Grant hadn’t looked up since he last spoke.
“Tell me the rest.”
“Jennifer is selling the house for you,” Dad added. That explained her presence at the meeting.
“Keep going.”
John was sipping his beer, ignoring my death glare. Dad found something interesting in the kitchen that he was staring at, and Grant hadn’t looked up from his hands.
Grant finally spilled his guts. “I’m paying for his treatment program and for him to move to Florida with his mother. I purchased him a condo near her that he will be able to live in, because he signed an agreement never to contact you or your family again. If he contacts you he loses everything. The condo will not be transferred into his name for five years, so he can’t sell it. If he chooses to move, he does so without financial support.”
“You bought him a condo?” Jane screeched, and I sat dumbfounded.
“Yes, it’s nothing extravagant, but it’ll keep him out of Georgia and near his mother. The treatment center is only an hour away from her, so she will be able to visit. When he decides to move on or if he ever wants to buy it from me, I’ll likely make money on the condo. It’s in an up and coming area, and Mitchell Corp owns the company that owns the building anyway.”
“I don’t know what to say to that,” my mom said more to herself than anything.
“Your dad also lined up a job for him with a construction crew. That will help him stay sober and give him some money,” Grant added and nodded to my dad.
It was all too much to take in. Jane and Holly could have pressed charges, but they didn’t because they knew that would upset me. I had put everyone in danger while I lived my five minutes of bliss with Grant in Seattle, and they had done all of this because of me. With the help of John and my dad, Grant made sure that my family was safe and Mark was taken care of and getting help.
The room stayed silent for a moment until my sister said, “Evie, say something.”
I looked around the room with tears in my eyes, happy tears. I had never felt so loved as I did right then. They did everything to make sure what I wanted, happened. Grant made my wish from last night come true. I looked at him last. “Thank you,” I said before I crawled in his lap to hug him.
I surprised him, but he automatically pulled me to him and wrapped his arms around me. “You aren’t mad?”
“No. You made everything I wanted actually happen. I wanted to be free and for my family to be safe, and I wanted Mark to get help and stay out of trouble. You guys made it happen, so thank you.” I hugged him tightly.
“I told you I’d move mountains for you,” he whispered in my ear.
“And you did. Thank you.”
Just then the front door burst open and Holly’s voice shouted, “I’m ready to celebrate.” We all looked over at her in surprise, and her face dropped when her eyes met mine. “What happened? Why do you look like shit?”
I climbed off Grant and went to give her a hug. “Thanks, Holly. Nice to see you too.”
“Why are you crying?” She looked at Jane and my mom. “Why are you two crying?”
Jane laughed. “These are good tears. We just had a moment. Everything’s good.”
Holly looked relieved. “Oh good! I brought champagne.”
In that moment the tension broke, and I introduced Holly and Matt, her very apologetic fiancé, to Grant. As they chatted, I went over and hugged my dad and thanked him and did the same with John. My sister was right; I was lucky to have them.
“Dinner’s ready,” my mom called out, and we all piled in the dining room to eat a celebratory dinner, complete with a toast from my dad that had me teary-eyed and then laughing happily. That was my dad in a nutshell.
While Holly was busy grilling an amused Grant about what his intentions with me were, I noticed it was a little quiet for our usual dinners. “Where are the kids?” I asked, feeling bad it took me this long to realize they were missing.
“They are staying with John’s parents tonight. John called them last night when he and Grant decided…well, you know.”
I smiled to myself. “Yeah. I know.” I slid my hand into Grant’s, and he winked at me while he continued to pay attention to Holly’s asinine questions.
After dinner, everyone was around the house talking. Grant and John were hanging out at the table with my dad. Holly, Matt, and Jane were talking in the kitchen with my mom, and I took the opportunity to sneak away for a minute.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Grant before I grabbed my purse and ran up to my room. I closed the door and pulled out my cell phone. The ringing on the other end made me nervous, but I knew I had to make the call.
“Hello.”
“Mark?”
“What do you want, Evie?”
“I wanted to apologize. I didn’t know they were going to do that, and I really do wish you all the best.”
He let out a loud sigh. “You know what’s crazy? I loved you. You were everything to me, and I wanted to be married to you forever, you know that?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, still feeling guilty.
“You never felt that way about me. The way you looked at me in high school, I used to dream about it. It was like I was the best thing to happen to you. One day that look was gone…prom.” The first time we had sex. “You never looked at me that way again, but you agreed to marry me, to spend your life with me, and now look.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. If I had just waited, I would have gotten to see that look for the rest of my life. Now that guy who’s sending me to rehab and putting me up in a condo near my Ma is going to see that look, and I get what?”
“You get a free condo and the help you need. I know it isn’t what you want, but maybe with this fresh start, you can get everything you want. It just won’t be with me.”
“Maybe. I’m sorry about Jane and Holly and the texts. I don’t know what got into me.”
“I know that wasn’t you. Deep down you’re a good man, Mark. You just need to find that man again.”
“Yeah. We’ll see.”
“Look, I have to go, but good luck in Florida.”
“Good luck to you too.” He paused. “Bye, Evie.” He said the last two words in a whisper.
“Goodbye, Mark.”
I hung up the phone and went back downstairs. Everyone was eating dessert and sitting where I left them. My mom gave me a bowl of strawberry shortcake, and I went over to sit next to Holly to spend time with her before I had to fly back to Seattle to face the rest of my problems. For now, I just
absorbed being around all the people who loved me the most.
Chapter 26
That night I took a long, hot shower—alone—and crawled into bed where Grant was waiting on me in just a pair of blue boxers. “Hey, baby.”
I crawled right on top of him, so my forearms were resting on his chest. “Hey, handsome.”
“You tired?”
“Nope. I took a nap on the bathroom floor.” I smirked.
“Not funny.” He smacked my butt.
I laughed. “My mom didn’t think so either.”
“You aren’t upset with me, are you?” he asked as he ran his hands through my wet hair and down my back.
“How could I be? I wish you had included me, because I may have handled it a little differently, but you made everything I wanted happen. It wasn’t perfect, but you did it for me, and for that I’m grateful.”
“Grateful…hmmm…I didn’t expect that.”
“I need to tell you something.”
His green eyes glittered in the light of my bedside lamp. “You love me?”
“That too, but I have something else to tell you. Something you might not like,” I warned him.
“Spill it, peach.”
“I called Mark.”
I could actually see his eyes darken as he tried to keep that maddeningly passive expression. “Why?”
“Because I felt bad about the way things were handled today. I don’t agree with what he’s done to hurt everyone, but I didn’t like that we ganged up on him. I desperately needed him to let me go, and we forced his hand. It worked out for the best, but I would have never known had I not called him.”
“As much as I hated you running out of the room, it was probably for the best. Things were not as simple as we made them sound, but maybe after he had some time to think about it, he felt more agreeable.”
“I don’t know. I think he knew he needed help, but he didn’t know what to do. His friends are probably trying to fix it with getting him drunk and laid.”
“Let’s see if the second part of that works.” He wiggled his eyebrows.