Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6)

by Danielle Stewart

  Josephine’s face crumpled. “Why are you doing this? You planned this from the beginning? I thought you were trying to protect me, but you were being strategic? For God’s sake, I’m your daughter.”

  “Exactly. You are my daughter and by now you should know better. At least your brother realized early on that I would do anything to keep this family at our present status. I’m not going to start buying dresses off the rack and clipping coupons. I gave your father almost four decades of my life so when I was finally rid of him I could live the life I’ve always wanted. I’m not letting your brother’s conscience get in my way.”

  “What do you want?” Michael asked, knowing he couldn’t negotiate if he didn’t know her specific terms.

  “You stay here. You recant what you said to the media and let them know we’ve reconsidered and intend to keep everything business as usual. If you do, then I won’t expose what your sister did.”

  “That’s it? That’s all it will take?” Josephine asked, looking desperately at Michael. “Just do what she wants, and this can all go away.”

  “Do what she wants? That means walking away from my home and dragging my family into this toxic hellhole. It means compromising myself to the point that I will eventually get caught and end up in jail myself. None of this is sustainable. The fact that Dad never got caught was miraculous. That luck is going to run out. He knew that; it’s why he started shifting things into your name, Jo. I can’t do this.”

  “So you are going to just let her send me to jail? I can’t go to jail for murder, Michael. You have to understand, I was heartbroken he would betray me. I loved him. He was my hero. I didn’t mean to do it.”

  “I know that and a jury would too. There was nothing premeditated about it. It was an accident. You didn’t mean to kill him.”

  “A jury?” Josephine asked as she began to sob. “You can’t honestly be considering letting her turn me in? I’m about to start my life and be married. I can’t go to prison. Please, you’re my brother. You have to protect me.”

  Michael looked from his mother to his sister and wondered how he’d ended up tied to these people. What miserable things had he done in a past life to be born into this family? “I need time to think about it, Jo. I can’t make that promise right now. I have my family to worry about.”

  “I’m your family,” she cried. “I’m your baby sister and I need you.”

  “Michael,” Jules shouted as she rounded the corner of the office and plowed her way in. “It’s Frankie. She just threw up, and she’s lethargic again. We’re taking her to the emergency room right now.”

  Michael shot up from his chair and grabbed his wife’s hand as they rushed together toward the front of the house. Everything that was crushing him fell away, and a new boulder of worry took its place.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  As Jules strapped Frankie into her car seat in the back of the chauffeured car Michael looked around frantically for Bobby. He needed his best friend’s help, and as though a super hero signal had been sent up to the sky, Bobby appeared.

  “I need your help, man,” Michael said, as Bobby and Lindsey approached quickly.

  “Is she all right? I saw her get sick at the table; that was so scary.” Bobby peeked over Michael’s shoulder and tried to get a look at Frankie.

  “Jules, I need you and your mom to go on ahead of me. I’ll be right behind you. I need to talk to Bobby.”

  “Is everything okay?” Jules asked, and her tired face was drawn down with fear.

  “It will be. I won’t be more than ten minutes behind you, I promise. Just get our baby to the hospital, and I’ll be right there.” He leaned into the car and planted a kiss on his daughter and his wife before shutting the door and tapping the roof firmly to indicate to the driver to go.

  As the car pulled off down the long driveway, Piper jogged up and the four of them stood there for a moment watching the car disappear.

  “What’s going on?” Piper asked looking panicked. “Why didn’t you go with them?”

  “I have a problem. I need to talk to you, Bobby. Can you ride with me?” Michael asked, flagging another car to pull up.

  “Can’t we help too?” Lindsey looked insulted.

  “You’ve been really helpful already. The information you gathered on my father’s associates was perfect. But this is something different entirely. I don’t want to get you involved in it if I don’t have to. It’s not fair to you. Once I tell you, you’d have an obligation to act, and I don’t want to put you in that position.” Michael looked down at his watch and reached for the car door.

  “You don’t know me that well,” Lindsey said shrugging. “You forget, I was the one in the cabin with Bobby the day Christian killed the man hunting Piper. I’m the one who convinced Bobby to cover it up. I look at the big picture, the greater good. You can trust me.”

  Michael glanced up at Bobby quickly and read his barely perceptible nod of agreement.

  “Fine. This is very time sensitive. My mother is blackmailing my sister, and I need to find something to protect her. I can’t give in to the terms my mother is demanding. I need other options, and I need you to find me something.” Michael rubbed at the tension that had built in his temple.

  “What could she possibly have on your sister?” Piper asked, looking skeptical.

  “This isn’t easy for me to say.” Michael drew in a deep breath and reminded himself that there was no other solution but to ask for help, even if he hated doing that. “My sister knew my father was setting her up. I didn’t think she was aware of it but she was. On the day my father died she argued with him about it. In the heat of the moment she picked up a trophy he kept in his office and threw it at him. The base is solid marble and it hit him in the head. My mother has a report from the medical examiner saying the cause of death was that blow to the head.”

  “She killed him?” Piper asked, catching her breath at the realization.

  “No,” Michael barked back, cutting through the air with his hand. “No, she didn’t mean to do it. I need you to dig into this and find me something I can use to counter my mother.”

  Bobby ran his hand over his nearly shaved head and gave the situation some thought. “What does your mother want from you?”

  “She wants me to tear up the papers I was about to send off and stay here to run the circus. I can’t do that.” Michael shook his head adamantly.

  “You can’t move forward with your original plan. You’re not going to send your sister to jail.” Piper’s voice was stern as she raised her hands to her hips. “That’s not what we do. We help the people who deserve it.”

  “I wouldn’t be sending her to jail. She made a choice that day. Don’t you think I wanted to throw a hundred things at my father over the years? But I didn’t. She lost control. Plus it’s not as though this was premeditated. She certainly didn’t plan it. With a sympathetic jury and one hell of a lawyer she could walk away with a limited punishment.”

  “Or?” Lindsey asked, seeming to already know the answer to that question.

  “Or she could be convicted and spend the rest of her life in jail.”

  “You need to help her, Michael.” Piper stared straight up at him with a fierce look in her eye.

  “I’d be trading my life for hers because of something she chose to do. It would only be a matter of time before I’d get caught up in my father’s mess and arrested or sought out by someone he double-crossed. I can’t be under my mother’s thumb for years to come just because she’s holding this over our heads. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here. It’s why I need some other option. Get me something. Find me a bargaining chip and do it quickly. I need to get to the hospital. Please just get me something.”

  “I’ll ride with you,” Piper offered, but Michael waved her off.

  “Stay with my sister please. Just keep an eye on her and try to keep her calm. She’s just been hit with harsh reality. I don’t want her flying off the handle. You guys know I hate ask
ing for help, but I do appreciate it.”

  “Just call us when you know anything about Frankie. Above anything else, that’s what I care about.” Bobby extended his hand and shook Michael’s firmly then they leaned in for a quick thump of their chests before they let go of each other’s hands.

  “Be careful. Try to stay out of trouble,” Michael called through the half-opened car window as the vehicle started to speed off. “Don’t be yourselves,” he added with a shout across the large driveway. He leaned forward and tapped the driver on the shoulder. “I want to be to the hospital in the next ten minutes. I don’t care how you have to drive to make that happen. Just get me there.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “What if something is really wrong, Ma. I don’t know what I’ll do if Frankie is really sick.” Jules was lying in the hospital bed with her daughter curled against her as the doctor walked in with Michael two steps behind him. Even though she had Betty by her side, these new arrivals felt like the cavalry arriving.

  “Mrs. Cooper, I hear your daughter is not feeling well. I’m Dr. Dracon, the head of pediatrics for the hospital, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this. Tell me about her symptoms.” Without hesitation the doctor began examining Frankie as she lay sleeping on the bed. It was frightening to see how sound her sleep was and how she could be moved without stirring.

  “Yesterday morning after breakfast she started acting strangely and wouldn’t eat. Then she fell asleep, which she never does that time of day. She slept most of the day away and was hard to wake. The nanny took her temperature multiple times and she had a fever over one hundred one. We called the pediatrician and he came by and told us her ears were very infected. He prescribed some antibiotics that we were going to get that night. Sometime that evening her eardrums burst and she had bloody gunk in both ears. She continued to be really lethargic and not acting at all like herself.”

  “Her eardrums have not burst. Her ears are pristine actually. No infection to speak of. Are you sure that’s what the pediatrician said? Who does she see?”

  “We’re here from out of town. My husband’s family knows a pediatrician, Dr. Sans, and he made a house call. I’m positive that is what he told us.”

  “Did you start the antibiotics?”

  “No,” Betty cut in. “I don’t think they are necessary for ear infections, especially in someone so young. I had a cousin who suffered as a child and he did fine with some home remedies. I talked them out of using them. Plus, hardly any of the baby’s symptoms seemed like those of an ear infection to me.”

  “I’d have to agree with you on both counts. I don’t like to give antibiotics at such a young age. The body can often fight the infection, and they clear up on their own. I just like to manage the child’s pain, but ear infections don’t seem to be Frankie’s problem. I’ll reach out to Dr. Sans and get some more information, but at this point, looking at Frankie’s ears I don’t see any indication of current or recent ear infection. So let’s try to get to the bottom of this. She’s lethargic, has she been consistently that way since yesterday?”

  “She was spry as a spring chicken this morning when she woke up, and she took a full bottle of breast milk. I thought for sure she was on the mend.” Betty looked over solemnly at a snoring Frankie.

  “How long after the bottle did she get sick and begin acting lethargic again?” Dr. Dracon asked, scratching some notes down on the chart.

  “Maybe twenty minutes later,” Betty offered, looking at Jules for confirmation. When Jules nodded, the doctor made another note.

  “Mrs. Cooper, is there a chance you are passing anything to her through your breast milk? Have you been drinking or taking any medication that might be impacting her?”

  “What? No, of course I haven’t. I’m very careful about what I put in my body. I don’t drink, and I’m not on any medications.” Jules felt her palms become sweaty and her heart start racing as she considered she could be making the baby sick by accident.

  “I’m sorry, I just needed to ask. Sometimes mothers do it without realizing the impact it might be having. This could be something as simple as an allergy. You may be eating something that doesn’t agree with her, or she may be eating something new that doesn’t sit well.”

  “It would cause this type of drowsiness?” Michael asked, furrowing his brows in concern.

  “Not usually, but there are some cases where it happens. Everyone reacts to allergens differently. We’ll run a series of tests as well. The nurse will be in momentarily to start an IV and draw some blood.”

  “No,” Jules said feeling the tears starting. “She’s too little for that. She can’t have that sticking out of her arm and hurting her.”

  “Unfortunately we need it. If the situation turned emergent we’d need quick access for delivering life saving medicines. I promise our pediatric nurses are wonderful at this. They know exactly how to care for someone your daughter’s age. We’re going to get to the bottom of this. I’m going to go give Dr. Sans a call to see where the confusion came in about the ear infection, and then we’ll be taking your daughter up for some more tests.”

  “I want to be with her,” Jules insisted. “Every second. Every test. I want to be with her.”

  “I understand Mrs. Cooper, however there are some places in the hospital—” The doctor was silenced by a wave of Jules’s hand.

  “I don’t care. I want to be with her.”

  “All right. We’ll make sure.” Dr. Dracon stepped out of the small room and Jules went back to affectionately stroking her daughter’s cheek.

  “What is going on, Michael? What is wrong with her?” Jules pleaded, hoping he had an answer.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted as he came up behind her and rested his large warm hand on her back. “But we aren’t leaving here until we find out and know what to do.”

  “Something’s going on though, with your mother? She’s done something you need to deal with? You can’t be in both places,” Jules sniffled.

  “I don’t need to be. That’s what our best friends are for. They’re taking care of it now. You don’t have to worry, Jules. I’m not going anywhere.”

  Chapter Thirty

  The sun was setting on this horrific day, and Michael had no more answers than when the hot yellow globe had risen that morning.

  “I’ve tried to reach the doctor who made the house call a few times but can’t locate him. He doesn’t seem to be practicing medicine at any particular place anymore. But even without speaking to him I’ve completely ruled out any ear trouble at all. Her eardrums are intact and there is really no sign of recent infection. Her urine looks good, and the fluids she’s been given have perked her up quite a bit. There is a chance she was dehydrated, but we can’t say for certain that was the case. We’d like to admit her overnight while we wait for the rest of her blood work results. Her counts seem fine, but we’re looking for any kind of toxins and that takes a little longer. I think keeping her here on steady fluids is the right thing to do for this evening.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” Michael said, extending his hand and shaking the doctor’s firmly.

  “So we still don’t know?” Jules asked as she paced around the room. Frankie had been moved upstairs and was now sitting up in the hospital’s steel cage crib. “She looks like she’s in prison, and we still don’t know any more about why she’s been sick.”

  “She does look better though,” Betty offered as she leaned over the side of the crib and dangled a toy for Frankie to grab, which she happily did.

  “Have you heard from Bobby? Has he made any progress in helping your sister?” Jules bit nervously at her nails as she continued to pace the room. This full disclosure thing was new for Michael. Normally he’d have tried to handle his sister’s situation much more quietly. The lawyer in him wanted to make sure his wife had some plausible deniability should she ever be asked about the situation. But he knew if he wanted to start rebuilding complete trust with his wife, something she deserved was
the constant truth. And Betty, well she was just there and the right kind of nosy to find anything out anyway, so he’d told her too.

  “I called and left them voicemails earlier in the day, letting them know how Frankie was doing, but I haven’t heard back. It’s getting late; I’m sure they’ll be checking in soon.” Michael glanced down at his watch and did the math in his head. His mother had given him twenty-four hours to make his decision, and he had about twelve of those left. His sister had called a couple times throughout the day to check on Frankie and melt sadly on the other end of the phone about her situation and the fear it was causing. He just had to put his faith in his friends.

  A quiet knock on the door had them all turning quickly, expecting to see the doctor with some results. Instead it was Bobby peering in the room cautiously and then perking up when he saw Frankie looking alert and with more color in her cheeks.

  “Sorry to barge in, guys, but I need Michael.” Bobby waved at Jules who gave a small wave back but then went straight back to biting her nails.

  “I can’t leave, Bobby. I want to stay here with Frankie. Can we just step out into the hallway and talk?”

  “We have somewhat of a situation. It’s time sensitive. I just want to get your opinion before we move forward,” Bobby explained.

  “Out with it,” Betty called, narrowing her eyes at Bobby. “We already know the whole story. No need to step into the hallway. I want answers too.”

  “This might be something that would be better if you didn’t know about it. Less chance you’ll get in trouble,” Bobby pressed.

  “Out with it,” Betty repeated loudly and gestured for him to start talking.

  Bobby looked over at Michael who nodded that it would be fine to disclose anything in front of them. “Suit yourself. Lindsey and I found a money trail between your mother and the medical examiner. It’s complicated, though, because there was a pass through. She used Dr. Sans to funnel the money to the medical examiner. Fifty thousand dollars over the last week. She has it marked as payment for the home visits over the last couple of days, but it doesn’t make any sense. The dates don’t even match up. It’s a cover-up and a lousy one.”