“A girlfriend? Michael wasn’t at the event with anyone tonight. Who told you he had a girlfriend?” A seriousness fell over the woman’s face, and she looked ready to fight, not with Jules per se, but with anyone who disagreed with what she knew to be the truth.
“When I walked in a man named Spencer told me Michael and his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth, had just left the dance floor. He said they were taking photos.” Jules didn’t want to let the small glimmer of hope that there was a misunderstanding penetrate her anger.
“Elizabeth and Michael haven’t seen each other in probably seven or eight years. She is certainly not his girlfriend. The only reason they danced was at her adamant insistence. They’re a terrible pair together, and I never really cared for her. Michael has no interest in her at all, and he’s been avoiding her since the moment he came back into town.”
“But Spencer,” Jules shot back, ready to defend what she’d heard.
“Spencer is a rumor-spreading gossip who likes to feel important. You can’t believe a word the man says, and everyone knows that about him. Michael and Elizabeth are strangers to each other at this point. I promise you that. But you, you are his wife, and you’re a stranger to me.” She shook her head and covered her heart with her hands as she took a few steps into the hotel room. Jules stepped aside to let her in, though she didn’t really want to. She certainly hadn’t invited her, but this woman didn’t look like she was often denied entry anywhere in her life.
“I’m sorry you’re finding out this way, Mrs. Cooper,” Jules apologized, genuinely sorry Michael’s mother had been left in the dark.
“Please, dear, I’m your mother-in-law. For goodness sake, call me Tabitha. It sounds like you have nothing to apologize for. It’s my son who has that responsibility. He’s in an awful way right now, and I’m desperate to get through to him, but I can’t do it alone.”
“He doesn’t want me here,” Jules retorted, stressing every word to make sure it was unavoidably clear.
“I’m sure that’s not the case. He is lost right now. He and his father had a very complicated and tumultuous relationship. With his unexpected death, Michael never had the chance to make amends or get answers he so desperately wanted from his father. I think he’s drowning in regret and grief right now even if he won’t admit it. I’m sure he was just trying to shield you from that.”
“You don’t shield your wife from your feelings. You rely on her to help you through them. He’s never told me a single thing about any of you. I never knew your name until I looked you up online. I ignored every red flag and now I’m paying the price for that. I’m sorry Michael might be hurting and misled you about his life, but I can’t help you. I need to focus on getting my own life back on track.” Jules wanted Tabitha gone, if that meant she evaporated into thin air or fell out the window, she didn’t care. She was finding no comfort knowing she wasn’t the only one being lied to by Michael.
Jules made her way toward the door, and as she reached for the handle, ready to gesture for Tabitha to leave, she heard the familiar late night cry of her daughter. The wails cut through the room and sent Jules’s heart into her throat.
“Is that a baby?” Tabitha asked, stepping farther into the hotel room rather than taking the clear hint Jules was giving her.
“Yes,” Jules said, giving up on Tabitha leaving and pushed past her to get to Frankie.
“I’ll get her,” Piper, who’d been noticeably silent but clearly observant, insisted.
“Is it your baby?” Tabitha whispered as though her voice were as weak as her shaky legs. “Is it Michael’s baby?”
“Yes,” Jules said flatly, trying to ignore the tears that formed in Tabitha’s eyes and then spilled past her mascara to her cheeks. “She’s our daughter.”
Overwhelmed, Tabitha gave in to her tears, and Jules’s empathetic heart could not let the woman fall to pieces without offering some kindness.
“Sit,” Jules insisted as she pulled out the desk chair from the corner of the hotel room and wheeled it closer to the hallway where she leaned against the wall. “I’m sorry you found out like this. I’m sure this is upsetting.” Jules wasn’t convinced that her standing in this world, her practical peasant status, wasn’t what was causing the tears.
“I’m not upset,” Tabitha choked out as she blotted her eyes. “I just lost my husband and I had this overwhelming feeling my family was shrinking and it was suffocating to me, and now . . .” She let out a few more sobs before drawing in a deep breath. It reminded Jules of the old movie starlets of the black and white screen whose deep tears could strike you right through the heart. Whether she was acting or not wasn’t clear, but the impact was the same. “Now all of the sudden I find out my family has grown. I’m a grandmother. You can’t imagine how healing that is. How whole I feel again.”
“I truly am sorry for the loss of your husband. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling, and I’m glad finding out about us brings you some comfort.” Jules didn’t know what it was like to bury a husband, but she’d been grappling with losing Michael ever since he’d come out here. Now where did they stand? He didn’t have a girlfriend, which was a positive. But he’d still hidden Jules and Frankie away like some dirty little secret he was ashamed of. He’d still insisted she leave his father’s celebration of life tonight. Something still wasn’t adding up, but a small glimmer of hope was wearing her defenses down.
“May I see her? I know it’s late, but may I hold her? She’s my granddaughter and I’ve never even met her. Please.” Tabitha’s eyes were wide and anxious, wet eyelashes fluttering in a panic.
How could Jules deny a woman something like this? If it were Betty wouldn’t she want someone to give her that small gift, even if the situation was a mess?
“Of course you can.” Jules slipped around the corner to the second room in the hotel to retrieve her daughter. Piper stood with her, doing the rhythmic, lightly bouncing dance that always calmed Frankie at night.
“She wants to meet Frankie,” Jules said, reaching her arm out to take her daughter.
Piper’s hushed voice was so low Jules had to strain to hear her. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. What do we really know about her? How did she find you so quickly and what does she want from you?”
“Could you stop playing skeptical detective for five minutes of your life? She saw Michael and me argue at the party. She knows Michael is struggling and she’s worried about him. She doesn’t want to lose him. I’m sure she called the car service and used that information to find me.” Jules stepped in and took Frankie from Piper’s arms.
“Fine,” Piper sighed as she folded her empty arms across her chest. Jules knew she hadn’t won the debate, just staved off Piper’s negativity about new people in their lives.
Tabitha’s arms were already open and waiting as Jules rounded the corner with Frankie. She couldn’t block the nagging feeling that handing her baby to a stranger, even if she was family, was wrong. But the warmth in Tabitha’s eyes seemed so genuine and reminded Jules so much of how Betty looked at Frankie.
“Oh my goodness,” Tabitha whispered as a nearly sleeping Frankie curled affectionately into her arms. “She looks like you, but I can see so much of Michael as a baby, too.”
There was another reminder of Michael’s disconnect from his past. Jules had never seen a single baby picture of her husband. She’d never known if Frankie and he had similar features at that age.
“I’ll need to feed her before she goes back down,” Jules apologized as she reached her arms out and lifted her daughter back into her arms. The expression on Tabitha’s face was like swirled paint, all the colors recklessly swept together. Overwhelming joy brushed through sadness and pain.
“Please come to my house for lunch tomorrow,” Tabitha begged as she shot to her feet, now seeming very steady. “I’ve just met you and your daughter; what is her name? I don’t know your name either.”
“My name is Jules, the baby is Frankie,” Jule
s explained, peering down into her daughter’s eyes, now at half-mast, ready to fall back into slumber if she were not fed soon. Jules knew that would mean she’d be up again in a few minutes crying to be fed.
“That’s an adorable name. Please come to lunch tomorrow. I can’t imagine you leaving now. Not after meeting you and knowing how kind you are. I don’t want to lose Michael either. His relationship with his father always got between him and me, and if there is any silver lining to my husband’s untimely death, I had hoped it would bring Michael and me closer.”
“Tabitha, you seem like a very nice woman, and I’m sorry for your troubles with Michael, but I have my own. He abandoned us, lied, and then just tonight told me to leave. I’m sure you can tell from this not-so-fancy hotel we’re staying in, I don’t exactly come from your lifestyle. Knowing Michael isn’t seeing another woman, I have to assume his not wanting me here has more to do with the drastic differences between my upbringing and your family.”
“His father was an impossibly difficult man. If that is why Michael is keeping you away from us then it truly stems from his father, not from me. I’ve always just wanted Michael to be happy, with whomever that may be. But I do know his father had other plans for Michael and maybe that is why he is keeping you separate from us now. Please know I wouldn’t care where you are from. You are family to me now and I beg you to consider coming to lunch tomorrow. It is my house and I want you there. And in my heart, judging by Michael’s reaction after you left tonight, I am certain Michael wants you there too. He is just turned upside down right now.”
“I guess we could come by for a little while. I’d like a chance for Frankie to meet her aunt as well.” Jules looked down at her baby and struggled with the thought of facing Michael again.
“Josephine will be over the moon when she meets you both. She adores Michael and wants him to be happy. Please bring your friends as well. They are all welcome.” Tabitha, seemingly rebounded from her emotional shock, made her way to the door.
“Thank you very much. We’ll come for lunch then.”
“A car will be here to pick you up at noon. One of my drivers will come and help you bring the baby and her things.”
“I’d like to bring something. What will we be having? I could bring a dessert.” Though Jules knew she wouldn’t be whipping anything up in a hotel she thought it rude to show up empty-handed.
“What’s your favorite food, dear? My chefs can make anything you like. No need to bring anything. Everything will be handled.”
“I’m a down-home country girl at heart. I like any kind of southern cooking. I couldn’t pick a favorite really.”
“Don’t you worry about a thing. You just get in the car when it comes to get you and the rest will work out.” She leaned in and hugged Jules who entered the embrace stiffly, but then gave in. She needed a good hug tonight. “All of this will work out, and we’ll be a big happy family.”
Chapter Nine
Michael checked his phone again to see if Jules had replied to any of his text messages or calls. He had barely slept because the look on Jules’s face had haunted him most of the night. Getting out of bed and facing the sun was making him feel sick to his stomach.
For the hundredth time the screen on his phone was still blank. Sending her away, begging her to leave the event, had ripped out his guts, but he didn’t know of any other way. He wanted desperately to keep Jules from being pulled into this life he hated. The last thing he wanted was for her to be like a flimsy house in the wake of his mother’s tornado: ripped up and destroyed. He was counting the minutes until he could get on a plane and get the hell out of here. Even though Jules had told him he wouldn’t be welcomed back he had to believe he could explain and then, with time, she’d forgive him. He needed to believe that, or he’d go mad.
“Michael, you remember Isobel Corey from the Gazette?” Michael’s mother hummed in her fake singsong voice as she approached him in the entryway of her home with the familiar woman in tow.
“Vaguely,” Michael retorted flatly as the woman stretched her hand out for him to shake. “I recall years ago you wrote a piece on me proposing to Elizabeth even though that never happen. It caused quite a few problems for me, especially with her parents.”
“People want a juicy story, Mr. Cooper. I think you can understand that, being from such a prominent family.” Her pink shimmery lips curled into a devilish smile. Isobel met all the stereotypes of a society reporter. From her power business suit to her over-styled blond hair. She was not a person; she was a persona.
“Is that what brings you here this morning? Hunting a hot story? I have to warn you, I’m not some kid anymore. I know my way around a libel lawsuit these days.” Michael pulled his phone from his pocket, and checked for a response from Jules, and when there was still nothing he busied himself with scrolling through email. He wouldn’t give his mother or Isobel much of his attention if he didn’t need to. His flight was in four hours, which was all he’d focus on.
“I am writing an article, but I’m sure you’ll like this one. It paints you as the prodigal child returning to swoop in and take the helm after your father’s unexpected death. It might also mention something about you being the most eligible bachelor in the city.” Her smug smile had Michael clamping his jaw down so tight his teeth ground together audibly.
“Your accuracy is as astounding as usual,” Michael hissed as he began to walk away, no longer caring about keeping up appearances. Let them call him a jerk. Let people start asking questions about the perfect Cooper family falling apart. Once people started digging into his father’s illegal business practices and embezzling, the house of cards would fall anyway. Why should he bother trying to hold it up in the meantime?
Before he could reach the hallway the loud chimes of the doorbell rang. The doorman, Ben, a man he’d known since he was five years old, scurried obediently past him toward the door. It was enough to slow Michael down, though he had no intention of stopping. It wasn’t until he heard his mother’s greeting that he froze in his tracks.
“Jules, you’re here,” she squealed, and Michael thought for sure he’d heard her wrong. It couldn’t possibly be his wife here in his parents’ home. His mother couldn’t possibly know her name or have invited her here. But he knew full well, with his mother, anything was possible. When he spun around he saw Jules’s fire red hair glimmering in the sunlight that streamed in behind her from the open door. Then in stepped Piper, holding Frankie in her arms. This was his worst nightmare come to life. With all his might he’d tried to keep these worlds from colliding, and now he could see he’d failed. His attempts had been no match for his mother’s reckless selfishness.
“Hello Tabitha,” Jules replied, and it nearly took Michael’s feet out from under him to know his wife was on a first name basis with his mother.
“And who’s this?” Isobel asked, her journalistic inquisitiveness taking over and ignoring any regard for privacy.
“This is my daughter-in-law, Michael’s wife, Jules. And this,” Tabitha cooed as she scooped Frankie into her arms, “is my granddaughter, François. Isn’t she gorgeous?”
At that sight, the ringing in Michael’s ears stopped and his seething anger took over. He marched toward his mother and plucked his daughter away. It had been hard to send Jules away last night, damn near impossible. But staring at the plump cheeks of his daughter and her red ringlets of hair, he knew he’d be sending no one away this morning. The smile that spread across the baby’s face at the sight of her father was undeniably sweet. Though everything felt like it was crashing down around him, there was shelter beneath his daughter’s little laughter.
“How in the world did you keep this quiet?” Isobel asked, punching something into her phone as she spoke. “You’ve fallen off the radar here and reemerge with a wife and daughter. People are going to go mad for this story. You’ll be on the cover of the paper tomorrow. I can get a photographer here in an hour.” Like a shark who’d gotten a whiff of blood acr
oss the ocean, the reporter was racing toward her prey.
“No,” Michael boomed. “We’re not posing for photographers and becoming tomorrow’s gossip. We’re eating lunch and leaving. My family isn’t staying in Ohio.”
“Do I sense some bad blood?” Isobel asked, with a raised eyebrow as her fingers froze on the keypad of her phone.
“Not at all,” Tabitha cut in and put her arm around Jules. “You know how private Michael is about his personal life. He doesn’t want his beautiful wife’s face splashed across every paper tomorrow morning.”
“Even without photos the story is going to run. I’d be mad not to be the one to break it. It’s the media age, Michael.” Isobel’s apology was nothing but empty words as she tossed her phone back in her bag. “Sorry I can’t stay for lunch now, Tabitha, but I have work to do. I’ll show myself out.” Not seeming to mind looking ridiculous or rude, Isobel broke into a near sprint as she headed out the door.
“Perfect, Mother. I’m sure that timing was no coincidence. Nothing you do ever is,” Michael growled and then stopped suddenly as his daughter yanked on his ear and giggled again. It was damn hard being angry when he was holding the best thing that had ever happened to him.
“Jules,” Michael started as he realized there was so much he wanted to say, but none of it was something he’d like to share in front of his mother. Now as his sister came running down the steps, skipping two at a time, he knew the conversation would need to wait.
“Are they here? Is this my niece?” Josephine shrieked as she nearly bowled Michael over to get to the baby.
“Yes dear, this is your niece and your sister-in-law, Jules,” Tabitha explained, tightening her grip on Jules’s shoulder. Jules was smiling broadly, clearly unaware of the danger these people carried with them. Michael glanced over his shoulder at Piper whose expression was flat as she took in every word passing between them.
Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6) Page 5