Laced In Lies

by Colleen Helme

  “Shelby,” Frank said, licking his lips nervously. “I’d like to introduce you to your… your real mother. This is Maggie Manetto.”

  Chapter 7

  H oly hell!

  “Are you all right?” Miguel asked, patting my back and placing his hand over my fist where I’d clenched the tablecloth. He was thinking that, from the croaking noise I’d just made, I was probably in a state of shock. I took comfort that at least I hadn’t blurted out the ‘holy hell’ part.

  “Here,” Miguel continued, “have a drink of water.”

  He brought the glass toward my lips, and I let go of the tablecloth to take the glass before water spilled down my chin and all over my new dress. After a couple of gulps, I put it down and glanced up. Everyone gazed at me expectantly. Both Frank and Sylvie had the same expression of glee on their faces, thinking they had done something wonderful in reuniting a mother with her long-lost child.

  Maggie’s lips curved up into a calculating grin. Her wavy, silver hair was cut short, reminding me a lot of Uncle Joey, and she wore very little, if any, makeup. Even without it, she had beautiful bone structure and only a few wrinkles to show her age. With her strong jaw and piercing gaze, there was no question that she was a Manetto through and through.

  She also knew I wasn’t who I said I was.

  “I thought you were a nun,” I blurted.

  Her face crinkled into a full-fledged smile. “I am a Sister, which is a little different than a nun. A sister is a woman who lives, ministers, and prays within the world, rather than being cloistered in a monastery. I have taken simple vows, so I don’t wear a habit, and I go by Sister Mary Margaret.

  “Right now, I run a half-way house. I spend my time helping out a few women who have been newly released from prison. Still, I don’t go anywhere without this.” She grabbed the large silver cross dangling from her neck and held it toward me like I was a vampire and she was using it to send me straight to hell.

  At my widened eyes she let it drop, willing to play along with my story until she could get me alone. Then she’d get to the bottom of this charade. If I was lying to con Joe for his money, or anyone else in the Manetto family, I’d be damn sorry I was ever born.

  “Why don’t we all sit down,” Frank said, wiping his perspiring forehead and wrinkling his nose with disappointment that this wasn’t the happy reunion he’d imagined. “I can tell that this is a shock to you, Shelby. But I thought you’d be happy to meet your mother.”

  “Oh… of course… I’m just a bit… surprised, that’s all. I never thought this would happen.”

  Maggie’s lips turned up. She thought that at least I wasn’t lying about that. “It’s okay dear. I didn’t either. In fact, you could say that I was just as shocked by the news as you seem to be.”

  Everyone chuckled, but they all picked up the underlying friction of something-not-quite-right about this reunion.

  “Well, I think it’s pretty awesome,” Miguel said, hoping to break the ice. Besides, he totally understood the shock of meeting a parent this way. That’s exactly what had happened to him and his dad, and everything had turned out great, so the same was bound to happen for me.

  Frank and Sylvie voiced their agreement, so I nodded and smiled as well. A waiter entered our little room, giving me a reprieve from the shock. But what was I supposed to do now? I swallowed, knowing I needed to take control of the conversation. After the waiter took our drink orders and left, I took a deep breath and jumped right in, hoping for the best.

  “So…” I smiled at Maggie, trying hard to sound calm. “Uncle Joey… well, he hasn’t told me a lot about you. Do you live here? In New York? He didn’t seem to know that.”

  “Yes I do,” Maggie answered with a pleasant smile. “I’m not surprised he didn’t know. After we left New York all those years ago, I missed it here so much that I came back.” That wasn’t exactly true. It was Stan whom she had missed, and she didn’t regret one moment she’d shared with him, even if it wasn’t long enough.

  “I wrote my parents and told them I was in San Francisco to throw them off. I don’t know what they told Joey, but I got a few letters over the years until they died. The address in San Francisco belongs to a friend of mine there, and I made sure she forwarded me any mail she received. I remember getting a couple of letters from Joe, so that’s why he probably thinks I’m still living there.”

  “Oh… yeah, that makes sense.”

  “I only wrote him once, and that was to tell him I was fine, and living the life I wanted.” She remembered telling him to leave her alone, and that she didn’t want to have anything to do with the family ever again. He didn’t know about Stan, so he probably thought she’d betrayed the family, but it was too late to fix it now.

  “What I’d like to know is how he found you.” Her sly gaze caught mine and she smiled, but there wasn’t a lot of warmth involved, reminding me of Uncle Joey when he knew he had me over a barrel.

  I chuckled to cover my total lack of such a story, and decided to lie and blame Uncle Joey for everything, since this whole debacle was his fault anyway. “Well… I don’t really know much. Uncle Joey’s probably the one you should ask. He’s the one with all the details. But I’m pretty sure it involved a private investigator and lots of time and money. Maybe he was even looking for you to begin with?” I shrugged and smiled. “So how did Frank find you? Uncle Joey thought it was pretty clear that you didn’t want to be found by anyone in the family.” Based on her thoughts I figured that was a safe thing to say.

  “I guess you could say it was a happy coincidence,” Frank answered, jumping in since Maggie didn’t. “We went to mass several years ago and happened to see Maggie there. She made us promise not to tell anyone, but we’ve kept in touch. When Joe told me about you and that you were coming for a visit… well, naturally I had to tell her.”

  The waiter came back for our orders, and I sighed with relief for the reprieve. Since I hadn’t even looked at the menu, I feigned interest while I listened closely to Maggie’s thoughts. How far was she willing to go with this? I needed to know if she planned to expose me in front of everyone.

  I picked up that she was thinking about what she wanted for dinner since the food here was amazing. Then, after she placed her order, she glanced at Miguel, and the muscles around her eyes tightened. There was something familiar about him, but what? Had she seen him somewhere? Did he look like…

  “You miss?” the waiter asked.

  “Uh… uh… I’ll have what she ordered,” I said, nodding at Maggie, mostly to get Maggie’s attention off Miguel. “It sounded good.”

  “Like mother like daughter,” Frank said with satisfaction.

  Maggie smiled. Her left eyebrow rose and she thought nicely done.

  “Did you hear about Miguel’s audition today?” I asked, totally de-railing her intended interrogation. “He was amazing.” I launched into the story, going over how good Miguel was, and how fun it was to be in the theatre. Then I spoke about Times Square and all the sights. After that, I asked them what else Miguel and I should see before we left. By the time we’d finished talking about that, our food arrived, giving me a moment to catch my breath.

  As we began to eat, I heard Maggie thinking that I was putting on quite the show. She’d even be proud of me if I’d been her real daughter. A sudden pang of grief shot through her. Grief and pain for all she’d lost nearly overwhelmed her, but she pushed it back before it took hold.

  Turning her focus to me, she vowed to get to the bottom of my little scheme. Then it hit her that she could play the part just as well as I could. Why not enjoy this chance to be a mom for a while. After Frank had called to tell her the news, she’d felt more alive than she had in a long time. This whole situation added a little spice to her life, something she’d been missing for a long time.

  “How long are you staying, dear?” she asked me. “There’s so much I want to know about you.”

  “Uh… we’re leaving tomorrow.”

&nb
sp; “Certainly not!” she gasped. “After just finding you… you can’t leave yet. I need more time to get to know you better first.”

  “I’m sure Joe wouldn’t mind if you stayed a few more days,” Frank agreed.

  “Well, yeah,” I said, trying to figure a way out of this. “But it’s not just me. Miguel needs to get back to school. And I’ve got my family to get back to.”

  “Your family?” Maggie asked.

  “Yes. I have a husband and two kids.”

  Sylvie gasped and turned her excited gaze to Maggie. “Maggie! You’ve got grandchildren… two of them! Isn’t it wonderful?” Sylvie clasped Maggie’s hands, thinking that she’d always felt bad that Maggie was all alone in the world, but now she had a family! What could be better? Tears sprang to Sylvie’s eyes and she let go of Maggie’s hands to dab at them with her napkin.

  Oh hell! This was just getting worse and worse!

  “Anyway,” I said, trying to gain some control over this fiasco. “How about we get together in the morning? We probably won’t leave until early afternoon because Miguel might get a call back to audition again.” I glanced at him. “Isn’t that right?”

  Miguel shrugged. He wasn’t sure it would happen, but he wanted to stay a little later just in case. “Hey Shelby, I’m sure if you want to stay one more night, I can work it out. Who knows? It might be a good thing, especially if they want me to come back tomorrow.”

  “Wonderful,” Maggie said. “If we can get together tomorrow I’ll take it, no matter how much time you can give me.” She smiled and reached for my hand across the table. “I know it won’t make up for all the time I’ve lost with you, but it’s a good place to start. Just think! A new beginning for both of us.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “It sure is.”

  She squeezed my hand, then sat back in her chair. “Thank you Frank and Sylvie. I never thought I’d meet my… my own flesh and blood.” She shook her head in wonder, playing it up for all it was worth. “I don’t know what to say.”

  Sylvie leaned toward Maggie and gave her a teary hug. “Hey, we’re family. Nothing more needs to be said.”

  I closed my eyes and tried not to shake my head or roll my eyes or something. Wasn’t a nun, or whatever she was, supposed to tell the truth? Of course, if she’d accused me of lying, that might have been worse. But I wasn’t so sure this was any better. Why had I ever agreed to this?

  Miguel patted my arm to comfort me, but he couldn’t take his gaze off Maggie. He marveled that she was his real aunt. Too bad he couldn’t tell her. But this was great for me. I’d probably always wondered what my birth mother looked like, and today I’d met her. How awesome was that? This trip was worth it just for that.

  I let out a little groan. What was it with these Manettos and their focus on family? It was like there was nothing more important in the whole entire universe. Sheesh! If they really believed that, then why weren’t they asking Maggie how she could have abandoned me in the first place? I’d like to hear her answer to that.

  Just then, Syd entered the room with a pleasant smile on his face. “Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time to go.” His gaze traveled over our little group and came to rest on Maggie. His brows drew together, then his eyes got as big as saucers. “Maggie? Holy shit! Is it really you?!”

  She smiled, amused at his outburst. “In the flesh.”

  All sorts of swearing came from Syd’s mind, and his mouth gaped open in shock. “How… how…”

  Frank chuckled and explained how they’d met at church a few years ago. As the implications set in, Syd glanced at me in wide-eyed horror. Then he turned his gaze to Maggie and realized she was going along with the whole thing. She had to know the truth… so what was going on?

  “Sorry to cut this short,” I said, standing. “But we’d better get going or we’ll miss the show.”

  Everyone murmured in agreement and stood, giving Syd a moment to adjust from his shock. Then Maggie came toward me and gave me a quick hug. She even kissed me on the cheek. “I can hardly wait until tomorrow to talk to you again, Shelby. There’s so much I want to know about you.”

  “Uh… yeah. Me too,” I agreed. “How about we meet in the morning around nine? We could meet here in the lobby and maybe have breakfast.”

  “That will be perfect.”

  “Good, see you then.”

  I grabbed Syd’s arm while Miguel said his goodbyes, and led him out of the restaurant ahead of everyone. “Maggie’s going along with it,” I whispered. “Why’s she doing that?”

  Syd shook his head. “I have no idea.”

  “So is she really a nun? What’s she been doing all this time?”

  “I have no idea,” he said, repeating himself.

  “Well, maybe you’d better call Uncle Joey while I’m at the play and tell him what’s going on so we can come up with a plan.”

  “Yeah… sure. I’ll do that.”

  Miguel caught up to us, ending our little chat, and we began the short walk to the theatre. The walk helped me calm down, and I was grateful Syd got to be the one to tell Uncle Joey about his sister. I just hoped that didn’t mean we had to stay one more night because, as far as I was concerned, that wasn’t going to happen.

  Syd left us at the theatre entrance and told me to text him when the play ended so we could meet up to walk back. I assured him that I would, and we got in line with our tickets. I turned my attention to my surroundings, and excitement to be at a Broadway play quickly distracted me from my problems.

  Inside, the attendant led us to our seats, and I could hardly believe where she took us. Our seats said mezzanine overhang box, but I had no idea it meant that we had our own private box above the stage. “Whoa,” I said, glancing around. “These seats are amazing.”

  “That’s just what I was thinking,” Miguel agreed.

  We stood there for a moment, taking it all in. Our box was positioned over the left side of the stage. It held only two cushioned chairs, so it was quite intimate, and we had a perfect view of the stage and everything on it. We could even see the orchestra below as they got their instruments tuned and ready to begin.

  The theatre itself was amazing, with flowing, ornate carvings of flowers and vines framing the stage and interior walls in the typical art nouveau style. Even our boxes were not boxes at all, but round like teacups, with beautiful flowing vines decorating the outside. This lent a flavor of magic and anticipation to the atmosphere, which I hadn’t expected.

  Just then, the orchestra began to play the intro music, and the lights dimmed. The curtains drew apart, and the Genie of the Lamp opened with a resoundingly enthusiastic rendition of “Arabian Nights.” With a delighted sigh, I let go of my worries and settled back to enjoy the show.

  I learned several things during the show. First, even though the show was called Aladdin, he was not the only star. The genie was incredible. Aladdin and Jasmine had their parts to play but sometimes took a back seat to the genie, and I could tell that it made Miguel feel more comfortable about his possible involvement as the lead.

  The actor who played Aladdin gave his character the light, carefree touch of youth, which I could totally see in Miguel. In fact, the part seemed like it was made for Miguel’s personality. Maybe there was a good chance that he’d get the part. From here, my worries that Miguel didn’t have the huge resume didn’t seem to be that big of a deal.

  I picked up from Miguel that he loved the limelight, but he wasn’t so sure he could carry a Broadway show. Still, if he got a chance to play any part on the show, he couldn’t pass it up. This production was bigger than anything he’d ever seen in his life.

  As the show progressed, his confidence grew that maybe he could play Aladdin. There was quite a bit of dancing involved, but he was good at dancing; he’d just never wanted anyone else to know.

  It gave him a lot to think about. Was he ready to jump into a production that was functioning at such a high level with his own limited experience? It would be a challenge, but he was mo
re than willing to make it work if he got the chance.

  That kind of surprised me. If I was good enough to be in that group, I’d feel pretty intimidated. These guys were top-notch, nothing like a high school play. With all that pressure, I’d probably crack, and tell them I wasn’t ready.

  But Miguel wasn’t thinking that at all. By intermission, he was more excited than ever to be a part of the production. I thought he was a little crazy to even consider it, but what did I know? Some people were born to perform, and he was obviously one of them.

  I knew Uncle Joey would be disappointed, but wouldn’t Miguel be better off if he wasn’t groomed for Uncle Joey’s kind of life? Sure, there were bad elements to everything, and the theatre was no exception, but it had to be better than becoming a mob-boss, right?

  The special effects mesmerized me, especially with the genie coming right up out of the floor. It was also amazing to see Aladdin and Jasmine flying through the sparkling, night sky on their magic carpet. The scenery and set changes, along with the costumes were also fantastic, especially Jafar’s change into the most powerful genie in the world. I absolutely loved it.

  Then it had to end, and I couldn’t believe the magical journey was over so quickly. I knew one thing for sure: the actors had certainly earned their standing ovations, and I couldn’t wait to see it again… hopefully with Miguel playing a part.

  After it was over, I sent Syd a text, and we stood to leave. At that moment, an usher hurried into our little box and gave Miguel a note.

  I looked over his shoulder and read that the director wanted to speak with Miguel. He asked if we’d wait for him in our box. Miguel caught my gaze, thinking this was unexpected, but excitement bubbled inside of him.

  Just a few minutes later, the director came inside the box and shook our hands. “How did you like the show?”

  “It was awesome!” Miguel answered. “Something I’d love to be a part of.”