by Rachel Bo
“You’re not such a stranger.” His good humor faded, replaced by the wistful sadness she had sensed earlier. “I love David, you love his son. We didn’t get our chance at happiness, but I’ll do what I can to make sure you get yours.”
Kendall put the pictures back in the envelope and fastened the brad. “What if he calls my bluff?”
“You couldn’t go public, could you?”
Kendall shook her head. “Like I told Joy, I don’t want to destroy him. Just wake him up.”
“Good luck with that,” Jason said. “David never listened to anyone but his father.” He watched her with sad eyes. “I don’t know, Kendall. The best advice I can give you is—don’t let him see that you’re bluffing. If he believes you’ll expose him, your Josh may just have a chance.”
Chapter Fifteen
Bringing up Baby
The hardest part was telling Sutter. She had to let him know what was going on and how she wanted to handle it. At first he didn’t believe her—wouldn’t even consider the possibility that David was behind Josh’s arrest. He kept insisting that the police had just made a mistake. That they would look at the evidence and realize that they had arrested the wrong man.
Kendall felt like she was living a nightmare. She woke up every morning feeling like she was going to throw up. Brandy thought it was the flu, Kendall was convinced it was the stress. Days became weeks. Kendall finally went to the doctor the day before Josh’s hearing. She had a bad feeling about the hearing, and wanted to get something to settle her stomach. Later that day, she met Brandy for lunch.
“Sutter still hasn’t come around, huh?” Brandy asked, watching as Kendall played restlessly with the soup she had ordered.
“No.”
Brandy was worried about her friend. She looked pale, tired—wrung out. And she’d hardly eaten anything in the past few days. “Look, just show him the pictures. He’s got to believe you then.”
Kendall shook her head. “I just—I don’t want to go that far unless I absolutely have to.” She made a face and pushed her soup away. “I’ll be back in a second.”
Brandy grabbed her wrist as she stood. “What did the doctor say? Is it flu?”
A brief flicker of some unidentifiable emotion passed across Kendall’s face. “No, but he did give me something for it.”
Brandy watch with concern as her friend made her way to the bathroom, a nauseated expression on her face. “So what are you going to do?” Brandy asked when she returned.
Kendall rubbed at her temples. “Josh’s bail hearing is tomorrow. If we can get him out on bail, then I’ll tell him what’s going on, and maybe between the two of us we can convince Sutter.”
“What if bail’s too high? Or they deny it?”
Kendall’s eyes were bleak as she met Brandy’s concerned gaze. “Then I guess I’ll have to show him the photos, whether I want to or not.” Brandy reached out and covered Kendall’s hand with her own. They sat that way for a long time, Brandy offering silent support and Kendall lost in her own thoughts.
Her premonition regarding the bail hearing turned out to be valid. The prosecutor claimed Josh was a flight risk. Supposedly, ticket purchases had been made by Josh on-line, and the tickets had not been found. The prosecutor argued that there was no way to be sure they had frozen all the accounts Josh had access too, and that there was a good chance he had stashed tickets and money so that he could run if he got caught. Unfortunately, the judge agreed. Sutter and Kendall returned home that evening devastated. Josh had been denied bail.
Kendall woke at two in the morning to find the other side of the bed empty. She crept down the stairs and found Sutter sitting in the living room, staring at cold embers. She sat down beside him and held out the envelope. “I know how hard it is to believe everything I’ve been telling you, Sutter.” She wanted to cry, but couldn’t. “That’s why I’ve been waiting. Hoping that you would—” She shook her head, unable to continue for a moment, choking back tears. Finally, she went on, “I didn’t want to show you these, but maybe they’ll convince you.”
She watched him—scared to death, her heart in her throat. If he reacted the wrong way, this could break them. He opened the envelope and thumbed through the pictures, his face blank. Kendall could feel nothing through the bond. He was shielding. When he had finished, he looked up, his eyes fierce. “He did do this, didn’t he?” He threw the pictures to the floor. “Damn him!”
Kendall reached out to touch his arm, but he backed away. “I’ll kill him,” he said, his voice colder than ice.
“Stop it!” Kendall’s tears finally fell. “He made mistakes, but they can be fixed. He thought he was doing the right thing.”
Sutter grabbed her by the shoulders. “How can you defend him? Josh is in jail! Do you know what it’s been like for him?”
Kendall’s voice shook. “I feel everything he feels, Sutter.”
He blinked. He stared at his hands as though just realizing what he was doing, and let go abruptly. Kendall rubbed at the red marks on her arm. “I’m sorry.” His voice shook.
Kendall swallowed the lump in her throat. “I know this is hard, Sutter. He tried to destroy us. But you have to forgive him. He’s your father.”
Sutter shook his head.
“We have to confront him, Sutter. But you need to be able to tell him you understand. That you forgive him.”
“I can’t do it. Besides, he’ll never admit he framed Josh. How can he? It would ruin him just as surely as these pictures would.”
Kendall wiped away her tears and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I think there’s a way around that.” She ran her fingers through Sutter’s hair. “Do you trust me, Sutter?”
He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair. “You know I do.”
“Then let me go to him. He can fix this, I know he can. But it has to be different after this. We have to make him a part of our lives.”
“He doesn’t want that, Kendall.”
“I think he does.” She tilted his head up so she could see his eyes. “Please. Trust me.”
“What about Josh?”
“If this works, he’ll understand. He’ll work through it—we all will.”
Sutter finally nodded. Kendall took his hand and led him back up the stairs to bed.
* * * * *
David let Kendall into the office and waved her to a chair. They sat staring at one another for several minutes. She didn’t look good. Her eyes were dark. She looked tired, unhealthy. He felt an uncharacteristic pang of concern. After all, the woman was his daughter-in-law.
Finally, Kendall reached into her bag. She pulled out a manila envelope and slid it across the desk. “What is this?”
“Just open it.” Devoid of any feeling, her voice was a raspy whisper.
David opened the envelope and looked at the top photo. All color drained from his face. Without looking any further, he set the stack on his desk and met her gaze with empty eyes. “I suppose these aren’t the originals.”
“You suppose correctly.”
“How did you find out about this? Where did you get these?” He studied her face while he waited impatiently. Kendall’s determination certainly hadn’t diminished, but she definitely seemed exhausted. Another unaccustomed emotion darted through him. Regret? David looked away. It wasn’t his fault. Sutter and Josh should have done as he said long ago. All this was a result of their refusal to listen.
“Let’s just say I’m a very determined woman who happened to know the right people to ask,” Kendall answered.
David rubbed his face with his hands. “I knew I should have burned those pictures.”
Kendall sighed. “I wish you could see that there’s nothing wrong with what the three of us have.” She watched him for a moment. “There’s nothing wrong with you, either. Or with the relationship you and Jason had.”
David raised his head and stared. “Things were different then.”
“Exactly.” Kendall leaned forward earnestly.
“Things have changed. Yes, there are people now who don’t approve of the three of us. But there are quite a few who do. They understand that we don’t choose who to love. Love chooses us. True love isn’t a conscious act—it’s something that just happens.” David stood and began walking back and forth. “If we don’t care what people think, why should you?”
“Because it—it is wrong.”
“Do you honestly believe that?” Pausing, she watched him pace. “I don’t think you do. You’re just afraid of what people will think, and how Sutter’s reputation might affect yours.” She sighed heavily. “Look, I don’t want to destroy you, David. I didn’t even want to hurt you, but you left me without a choice. I can’t let you do this to Josh. You’re not just hurting him, you’re destroying me and Sutter as well. Your son and his wife. Is that what you really want?” Kendall stood and walked over to the window, watching seagulls wheel above the gulf. “I know how hard it must have been.” She turned and met his eye. “It’s one thing to feel like there’s something wrong with you. Like you’ve passed that something on to your son. It must be even harder when you know you’re responsible for bringing Josh into Sutter’s life.”
David stopped in his tracks. “What are you talking about?”
“I know you sponsored Josh at Whitecliff.”
Appearing genuinely shocked for the second time, David made his way around the desk and sat in his chair heavily. “Who—who told you? Those records are confidential. Sutter even told me Josh tried to hack into them and couldn’t.”
“Jason knew. Through Joy. They’ve been keeping in touch with each other all these years.” Kendall had gone to visit Joy right after she returned, telling her what she had found out and promising again that it would only be a bluff. It had turned out that the reason Joy knew about David’s sponsorship was because she had been the second-grade teacher who recognized Josh’s potential and had asked David for help. She had then gone on to pursue an advanced degree, winding up eventually as Brandy’s professor at the college. It really was a small world.
“Joy.” David shook his head. “Can’t trust anybody, damn it.”
“She cares about you, David.” Kendall leaned back against the windowsill and crossed her arms. “She likes for people to know that there’s more to you than meets the eye.”
David had regained his composure, his features a familiar mask of calculated disdain. “It was a tax write-off.”
Kendall shook her head in wonder. “You really do think that the slightest sign of compassion will be taken for weakness, don’t you?”
David suddenly felt tired. More exhausted than he’d ever been in his life. He couldn’t seem to remember a time when he hadn’t been fighting—with his father, with Sutter, with himself.
Kendall saw his carefully cultivated public mask slip again. She caught her lip in her teeth. Making a sudden decision, she moved over to the desk and knelt beside him. “I want you in our lives, David. Sutter loves you. Josh and I could at least like you, given a chance.”
David turned to face her, disbelieving. “Why?”
“Because we love Sutter, and he loves you, despite everything. He’s your son. And—I shouldn’t tell you this. I haven’t even told Josh and Sutter yet—I wanted to wait until Josh came home.” She hesitated. She was deeply bitter over what David had done, but she felt as though she were very close to breaking through that brittle façade. She took a deep breath. “I’m pregnant, David, and I’d like our child to know his or her grandfather.”
David hadn’t felt anything so remarkable in years. I’m going to be a grandfather! He felt like laughing, but to his surprise, tears came to his eyes. What have I done? he thought. The stress Kendall was going through. Now, while she was pregnant— “You can’t possibly want me involved. Not—” he swallowed, then forced himself to admit, “Not after what I’ve done.”
Kendall nearly broke down at the admission. “We forgive you, David.”
He shook his head. “I can’t—I can’t accept that. What about the boys?” David asked. “At the very least, I can’t imagine Josh would ever be able to forgive me for this. Or—do they know?”
“They’re not boys anymore, David. They’re men. And yes, they know. Everything.”
David’s face reddened and he glanced at the pictures. “Everything?”
“All of it,” Kendall said softly. “And they don’t care.”
“That can’t be true.”
“They’re angry, yes. But David, without your sponsorship, Josh would never be where he is today. You felt guilty for bringing him into Sutter’s life, but you actually made two of the best things that ever happened for him possible—Sutter and his education. And I keep telling you—Sutter loves you. You don’t stop loving someone just because you’re angry with them. The anger fades—love doesn’t. The nature of our relationship means that his love for you is a part of us, as well. We’re willing to forgive everything, David. Clean slate. If you stop this now.”
David leaned back in his chair. “How? You can’t expect me to go to the police and say I did it. It would ruin me.”
Kendall stood and moved back to the chair in front of the desk. “You paid someone to do this, I assume.”
David nodded.
“Where’s the money?”
David eyed her suspiciously, but finally answered. “Dummy account. Just like the stunt Josh pulled.”
“Have him transfer the money back, then come forward and expose it as a prank. Make it worth his while. Do you have enough influence to get him off with probation?”
David’s gaze narrowed. “Probably. But he’d have to have a legitimate reason for pulling the prank in the first place.”
Kendall had thought of that. “Does he have a job?”
David’s eyes gleamed. “I don’t think so. Lives in a dump. Hacks for grocery money. He diverts a million dollars, and charges me a couple hundred.” Kendall raised her eyebrows. “Doesn’t have a degree. Like Josh when it comes to computers, self-taught. Hard to find a job in the field nowadays without a degree.”
“Would he be interested in a legitimate job? Say, designing firewalls or writing security programs?”
David was nodding. “I’m getting it. He could say he did it for the recognition. To get job offers. And he waited a while to come forward because he wanted it to be high-profile.”
“Will it work?”
“It’s going to sound like a pretty stupid stunt, but people pull stupid stunts all the time. You wouldn’t believe the strange things I’ve heard in court over the years. We can make it fly. I have an associate who would be happy to represent him for me. Especially if the guy’s cooperative. And he will be.” David smiled. “I can get him hired. One of my clients owes me a favor. For a little financial incentive up front, probation, and a job offer—yeah, I think the guy will do it.” David stared admiringly at his daughter-in-law. “You really are remarkable. I can understand what Sutter and Josh see in you.”
Kendall’s smile was bright with relief. “I just want to live my life with the two people I love.”
Epilogue
New Year’s Eve
Kendall tapped a spoon against her glass. “Could I have everyone’s attention, please?”
Faces turned her way from around the large table. All their old friends were present, along with David and a couple of new ones—Joy and Jason. Kendall smiled as Josh and Sutter came to either side and put their arms around her. “We have an announcement to make.” She beamed as she looked around. “You all know I’m pregnant, but we found out today—it’s twins!”
“Omigosh!”
“Congratulations!”
“Cheers!”
Happy chatter broke out all around. Several people came up to hug Kendall and congratulate all three of them. When the crowd had thinned, David stepped up. Everything had gone according to plan. His hacker had come forward. With every penny of the diverted funds returned, the associate David had mentioned had been able to arrange a plea barg
ain with the District Attorney’s office on behalf of his client, and the man would begin working for Datatech Industries in February. David’s relationship with Sutter and Josh remained tense, the three of them still finding their way around several issues, but Kendall made him feel at ease. “That’s wonderful news,” he said.
Kendall gave him a hug. “I’m glad you came.” He appeared more relaxed than she’d ever seen him. More real.
David shrugged. “It’s hard,” he admitted. “Facing people you’ve hurt. But I love my son and I don’t want to lose him. He and Josh and I—we’re working things out.”
“I know.” She smiled, and glanced down the table. “Have you spoken to Joy? Or Jason?”
David frowned. “I—don’t feel comfortable.”
Kendall cupped his cheek with her hand. “Dad—” David still found himself surprised at the sense of contentment he felt when she called him that. “Don’t waste any more time. You’ve wasted far too much already.”
David’s jaw dropped. Kendall was probably the only person that could tell him something like that and get away with it. He shut his mouth.
She smiled. “There’s unfinished business between the three of you.” She patted his cheek. “Finish it,” she commanded.
David shook his head. “You are—”
“Right,” Kendall insisted. David glanced down the table. Joy was in animated conversation with Jason, her face bright and beaming. She wasn’t the slender young imp he had dated in college, but she still looked beautiful to him. And Jason—he swallowed. He couldn’t think about that right now. He turned back, to find Kendall watching him shrewdly. “I’ll try, Kendall, but—not tonight.”
She looked as though she were going to protest, but finally nodded. Raising her glass of sparkling grape juice, she said, “Happy New Year, Grandpa!”
David raised his own glass to hers. Maybe it will be, he thought. This year, just maybe it will.