Chapter Thirty-eight
True to his word, Daniel had one glass of wine after helping me carry a few things from the RV into the guestroom. Julia finished her wine, and after helping Angelina settle the puppy into the laundry room for the night, she asked me if I’d like to tuck Angelina in, as she’d already done it once tonight and it hadn’t worked well at all.
I jumped up, anxious to say goodnight and to get away from the zinging heat I felt when Daniel and Julia looked at each other with those bedroom eyes. It was time we all turned in and got some sleep. Yeah, like they were going to bed to sleep. I shouldn’t have been jealous, but I was. Not that I wanted Daniel, oh no, but I was coming to realize that I wanted a little bit of the life Julia had.
The puppy kept us all awake for forty-five minutes, then finally stopped whining and settled in. It was almost three o’clock before I nodded off.
In the morning I woke to the delicious smell of bacon frying and fresh brewed coffee. After a quick touch up in the hallway bathroom, I headed to the kitchen to find Julia making pancakes for Angelina. Sweetie was in her arms, dressed in doll clothes, licking syrup from Angelina’s fingers. I made a mental note to let her know that too much syrup or candy wouldn’t be good for the dog.
“Hi,” I mumbled, as I staggered to a stool at the counter.
“Hi!” Angelina said and went into a long tirade on all the things Sweetie had been doing so far this morning.
“You thought of a name for her yet?” I asked, as I took the glass of orange juice Julia handed me. She looked perky and fresh and I knew the reason.
“Yup. Cutie Pie!”
“That’s cute.” Then I had to laugh, “Get it, Cute for short?”
Julia gave me a wry smile. “Funny. How many pancakes would you like?”
“They’re shaped like cats. Mom tried dogs but they looked like bunnies. She’s good with cats, though.”
“I’ll have two cats and a bunny,” I said and tousled Angelina’s soft curls.
“Daniel at work?” I asked.
“Yeah, he had to go in early but he’ll be home early. He said to wait for him and he’ll help you get set up over at the campground. It’s real nice over there, we checked it out. I think you’ll like it.”
“I’m sure I will. So, tell me all about your new life here in Texas.”
All morning long we talked about everything under the sun, and it was a hot sun we were under today. I got the grand tour of their cute little rambler, was entertained while I did some laundry, showed Angelina how to take care of Cutie Pie, and learned all about the area and their new friends. Daniel had a job as a heating and air conditioning technician and was making enough money so that Julia could stay home with Angelina. When Angelina ran into her room to get something, Julia leaned over and whispered that there was a little one on the way but that they didn’t want to tell Angelina until she was fairly far along. I hugged her and cried with her.
“I owe my new life all to you, you know. He wouldn’t ever have come looking for me if you hadn’t threatened his custody of her.”
“I’m so glad things worked out the way they did, because for a while there, I thought I’d made Angelina a homeless orphan.”
“Daniel says you’re the only person he would have trusted with her and he knew it right from the very beginning. You must have touched something in him.”
“I just think he was ready to make some changes. He couldn’t have gone on like that forever and I think he knew that. It wasn’t the best thing for Angelina being on the road like that with no friends or family.” We heard a loud wail of protest from Cutie Pie.
“ . . . or dog,” Julia added.
We both went to see what Angelina was up to and found her trying to tie a bonnet under Cutie Pie’s chin. There was a bit of snarling going on and I had to intervene. “Let’s let Cutie Pie go au naturale while we take her to the park at the end of the block and let your Mom get a nap. She looks very tired. I think your new puppy kept her awake last night.”
“I think it was an old dog named Daniel to be truthful,” she said and we both laughed at Angelina’s forthright comment. She leaned close to me and whispered in my ear, “He takes her to the bedroom all the time but I don’t think he lets her sleep. There must be something wrong with the wall in there, I hear them beating on it all the time.” I just about lost it.
When we got back from the park Daniel was waiting to help me get set up at the RV campground a few miles away. He had a big grin on his face and I accused him of “working on the wall” again. Julia blushed and pulled him aside to explain, then he blushed. It was a sight to see.
Angelina wanted to come with us, so while Julia stayed home to fix dinner, we headed out, Angelina and Cutie Pie with me in the RV and Daniel in his company pick-up truck.
The campground Daniel had picked out was a wonderful place—my site, well treed and landscaped, was unbelievably pristine, not a weed or stone out of place. Daniel was familiar with all the idiosyncrasies of RVing and together we efficiently did the hook ups in record time. We had only one mishap. That was when I was walking Cutie Pie on the leash as Daniel was hooking up all the connections and hoses. He asked me to hand him the water filter that was on the ground and just as I was standing back up with it, Cutie Pie’s nose detected a delightful aroma at the septic connection which she just had to investigate at that exact moment. She pulled me off balance; I tripped over the sewer hose, scraped my leg on the way down, twisted my ankle, and hit my ear on the side of the compartment door of the RV. I actually saw stars, lots of them. I recovered everything but my dignity and the ankle needed babying for a little while. Angelina, who had been squatting trying to get a caterpillar to climb up on a twig at the time, could not stop laughing and recreated the whole scenario for Julia when we got back.
Julia’s nursing instincts kicked in and I was relegated to the couch with frozen peas wrapped in a towel around my ankle. Angelina slid in beside me, her head on my arm, and together we watched Dora the Explorer with Cutie Pie asleep on the sofa bolster beside me while Daniel helped Julia get dinner to the table.
I stayed with them off and on for three days until I got sick of the domestic bliss all around me, heartsick that is. They were so happy, all of them, and being with them like this just kept reaffirming what I was missing, and had been missing all during my marriage—a loving, adoring family. They were a unit, each caring for the other, completely unselfish and eager to make the other’s happiness their goal. Angelina, the glue that had brought Daniel and Julia back together, was the light of their lives, and I knew that when the new baby came along, their joy would double.
On the fourth day I told them all about Connor and Diana, and said I had to get back on the road. I had chosen a storage facility that would store the Dolphin inside a large warehouse while I flew to the east coast to witness Connor’s marriage. They all begged me to stay longer, especially Angelina and I couldn’t get away without promising to see them when I came back for the Dolphin. I finally got Daniel to take me back to my RV, where I drank myself into a stupor because I hadn’t been lucky enough to find the wonderful life they were living. At least not yet.
Chapter Thirty-nine
I left the Dolphin at the U-Store-It Storage facility in Austin and took a cab to the airport. I had gone online at Daniel’s and had booked a flight from Austin to Providence, Rhode Island, deciding that the detour to Virginia was just too chancy. I was afraid Jared would be home or learn that I was there before I could get in and out. I decided I would work within the system and try to get a duplicate passport since mine was still valid.
It felt strange getting on a plane as I hadn’t been on one in years, although I had used one to runway. Up ‘til then the last time I’d flown was for my aunt’s funeral and to visit my sister and parents in Washington State. Gosh! How long ago was that, I wondered, and was disgusted with myself when I realized it had been almost three years. I promised myself I would find a way to RV back that way for
Thanksgiving or Christmas.
The woman I sat next to on the plane would not stop talking, so I finally had to feign sleepiness even though I wasn’t at all tired. I created a fantasy about Brick in my mind and ended up squirming all over the place and getting annoyed looks from my seatmate.
My connecting flight was delayed and I remembered what it was about flying that I hadn’t liked—the surprises, usually bad. I sat in the Charlotte airport for two hours before being notified that my flight had been cancelled. I would have to spend the night at the airport hotel.
As I was walking toward the exit, I noticed the flight board and saw that there was a flight leaving to Dulles in less than an hour. I rationalized that it was a sign that I could get away with sneaking into my old house to get my passport and birth certificate, which I had stupidly left in the safe when I had left so many months ago.
I went to the counter, changed my ticket and went back through security. Three hours later, I was in a rental car on my way to the house I had lived in with Jared during our six-year marriage.
Driving down the access road to the beltway, I marveled at how everything looked the same, but then again, it hadn’t been all that long since I’d been here. Taking the winding road up the hill to where our mansion sat behind gates and down a long drive, I grew nervous. Sweat pooled between my breasts and I had to keep wiping my upper lip. I boosted the air conditioner in the car to the maximum setting so that I was sweating and freezing at the same time.
What if he’d changed the keys, the access codes for the gates and alarms? What if he was home? On an impulse, I got my cell phone out and called the local store where Jared’s executive offices were. It was a number I’d dialed so often that I knew I’d never forget it. When I disguised my voice and asked for him, I was told that he was at a meeting at the Silver Spring store and that he wasn’t expected back for several hours. I smiled and pulled away from the curb, where I had been parked at the bottom of the hill leading into our exclusive development.
The gates were open, but that wasn’t unusual as we’d hardly ever closed them, and when we did it was only at night. I could see no signs of life. There were no cars parked on the cement apron on the side of the house and all four garage doors were down. I pulled around and parked in front of the last one, the spot that used to be mine, where I had parked my Mercedes, the car I had sold for the cash I needed to leave Jared.
I had no key or garage remote, but I remembered the combination that worked with the keypad beside each door. Taking a deep breath, I turned off the car and stepped out. It was eerily quiet, almost too quiet, I thought. Where were the birds that used to keep me company with their chatter high up in the trees? Where were the squirrels that would swing from one branch to another and steal onto the decks on every level to eat the blooms off my hibiscus plants? I tiptoed as if that would keep anyone from hearing me approach. When I got to the keypad, I punched in the four-digit code and held my breath when I pressed the # key, afraid it wouldn’t work, that the sequence had been changed. The whirring and rising of the garage door in front of my rental car jolted me. I was going to be able to get in. A part of me hesitated. Did I really want to go in there? Did I really want to take this chance?
I stepped into the immaculate garage and looked to the left to see what vehicles were in the other bays. Jared’s antique Porsche squatted there at the end, homage to the man’s obsessions with rare things. No other vehicles were in the garage, no one was here.
I tiptoed across the cement floor and across the cushioned rubberized section in front of the workbenches and toolboxes before reaching the connecting door to the house. There was no sound save for my harsh breathing and the tiny echo of my heels tapping as I went from the rubberized section to the Versacover cement flooring again.
I reached for the door handle and gave it a tentative turn. It turned easily and opened when I pushed in. A small voice said this is too easy, but I didn’t listen.
The garage opened to a mudroom and from there to a long hallway that took you by the indoor pool and then upstairs to the kitchen. The safe was in Jared’s study, one floor above that. The house was so quiet and eerie and I wondered at that. We had staff—maids, landscapers, and an occasional cook. Were they all off today, as they had been the day I had left? Had he fired them all, holding them responsible for my leaving?
I walked into my old kitchen and looked around, marveling at how big it was. It had never seemed all that big before. But then, I was now living in a bus whose total square footage was not even the size of the master bathroom in this house. I ran my fingers over the smooth, cool granite countertop as I made my way to the main living area and the grand staircase. The sun shown through the high windows of the first landing, leading me up the carpeted steps to the main living level where the bedrooms, guestrooms, billiard room and study were. The hallway was daytime dark, as the house on the backside was away from the sun, but still, it was easy to make out the familiar pictures on the wall and the golden threads in the draperies at the end of the hallway. The fragrance from the arrangement of flowers Jared insisted be freshened everyday wafted over to where I stood looking into the first room, my old sitting room. A nostalgic feeling came over me when I saw my old sewing machine and stitching looms, like shadows of stick men leaning against the walls. It looked like nothing had been touched. The Four Seasons cross-stitch I had been working on forever was still in its stretcher bars waiting for someone to come along and finish it. I smiled to myself; well, it sure wouldn’t be me. Those are the kinds of things I had done to stay busy and to keep from growing restless. When you were a full-time RVer, you didn’t have time for too many pastoral pastimes—you go, go, go, as there are always fun places to go and interesting people to meet.
I backed into the hallway and took a quick peek at the master bedroom door. This room had memories, too many to have flooding back right now, so I walked by with my hand beside my face. Next was the study and my target, the safe. The door, usually closed, was ajar but as it was so quiet I didn’t give it much thought.
I crept into the room and walked over to the desk. I sidled around looking at all the expensive statuettes and art pieces Jared had accumulated over the years. The Remingtons, in niches in the walls, were his favorites and an impressive manly collection indeed.
I pushed his oversized chair under the desk so I could get to the painting on the back wall that hid the safe. My hand reached out to the corner of the frame that housed an antique hunt country painting we had bought while we were in Middleburg, celebrating our first anniversary. I gave it the slight tug that was needed to swing it away from the wall. The safe was digital and my hands were anything but sure fingered as I punched in the code—our wedding date forward and backward. The safe clicked open and a second later the door behind me clicked shut.
A chill that I likened to ice water flooding my veins made me gasp. I spun around to see Jared leaning against the polished cherry door, his hands crossed over his chest and a smug expression on his face. He was in business attire but I knew he hadn’t been anywhere near the Silver Spring store. I had been set up. How had he known?
“I’m glad to learn that you still remember the date we were married because you seem to have forgotten where you live. Where we live. I’m afraid I’m going to have to remind you where it is that you belong.” He took a step toward me, and I ran to the other side of the room.
“You’re not getting away this time. You will never get away from me again!” His voice, barely a whisper, was low and harsh and it brought me to my knees.
How had I been so stupid? He’d set a trap and I’d walked right into it.
Chapter Forty
I tried to make it to the door even though I knew I had no chance at all. He was bigger, faster, closer. But I couldn’t just stand there trembling and let him come get me.
I only managed to make the game more fun for him. He easily overtook me when I ran by the sofa, capturing me and quickly securing both of my wrists beh
ind me. He knew I would fight and that I wouldn’t be nice about it. I kicked and tried to pull away, using every bit of strength that I had. He took great pleasure in my pitiful, futile attempt. I had forgotten how big he was, how regularly he worked out and how cruel and bruising he could be. He forced me back to the area behind the desk and started pulling things out of the safe.
“What was it you wanted in here?” he said, mocking me.
He rifled through wads of money with his thumb so I could hear the riffling sound, “Was it cash? Have you run out of money, my dear?” He put the money aside and dumped out a large portfolio, “Stocks, bonds, insurance papers? No?” he said eyeing me with a feigned look of puzzlement. He was taunting me, like a cat with a mouse’s tail under its claw.
He drew out several large folders and let the contents fall onto his desk. I saw my passport and my birth certificate flutter to the desk and inadvertently sighed.
“Ahhh . . . was it this?” He picked up my passport and waved it in front of my face. “Was this why you came back?” The game was over; I could see his rage building now.
“How did you know?”
“I didn’t, you just told me.”
“How did you even know I was coming here?”
“You were on speaker phone when you called the store, my assistant recognized the signal for your voice.”
“I disguised it.”
“I have it programmed to your unique pattern, you would not have been able to disguise it.”
“Why would you do that?” I was frustrated and frantic, so I screamed it as I tried to get my hands out of his grasp. He tightened his hold and I could feel the pressure sending shooting pains up my arms.
“I think you can see why I would do that.”
“But you’re supposed to be at the Silver Spring Store.”
“I would have been if you hadn’t gotten on that plane in Austin using your real name. And I’m sorry your flight was cancelled in Charlotte, I was expecting you sooner.”
Running Up the Score Page 20