Next Door Secrets (Secrets Series Book 2)

by Lenfestey, Karen

  "It's not Ryan's."

  "What?" Her jumbled thoughts made it difficult to speak. "Whose is it then?"

  Hannah sighed loudly. "Do you remember the last night when I was visiting you and Parker?"

  Her heart sped up. "Yes." Beth didn't know if she wanted to hear this, but of course, she needed to. "Did somebody. . ." She couldn't even say the word rape. ". . . take advantage of you?" Every muscle in her body tightened, waiting for Hannah’s response.

  A half laugh-half sob came over the line. "Not exactly." She paused. "I wanted to do it. I was tired of being a virgin. I was afraid of losing Ryan."

  "Oh, Hannah." Disappointment replaced fear. Why hadn't Beth taken her to get birth control? Why had she been so afraid to overstep her bounds? Now Hannah's life was messed up. "Why didn't he wear a condom?" Not that it mattered now. Beside her, Parker closed his eyes and shook his head. He understood.

  "We were both drunk and it just kind of happened. It was stupid."

  There it was again. Stupid. Was having sex what she'd meant that night about doing something stupid? Beth had assumed she'd meant drinking too much. One stupid thing had obviously lead to another. "Who's the father?"

  "Larry."

  Swallowing, Beth knew that Parker would want to fire the intern again. If Larry was lucky, that's all Parker would do. Who knew what his paternal instincts would push him to do?

  Beth sighed. "Are you going to tell him?" He had a right to know, but part of her felt that he shouldn't have a say in Hannah's decision. He'd taken advantage of a naïve teenager. He'd ruined her beautiful future. Would Hannah ever make it to college? Would she ever have the chance to put herself first? Would she work a job she hated just to provide for her child? All of these questions had motivated Beth to place Hannah for adoption all of those years ago. "What about adoption? Have you thought about that?"

  "I might. I don't know for sure." Hannah's crying had subsided.

  Beth's heartbeat slowed a little. At least with adoption, Hannah could try to continue along her trajectory toward a top-notch school and ultimately a satisfying career. Even then, Beth knew there'd always be a scar inside her soul. You didn't place a child for adoption and forget about him or her. It would create a void inside of her that could never be filled.

  Then it hit her. A stroke of brilliance! She stood and started pacing. "Hannah, I have an idea. I'll adopt your baby!" It would be the perfect solution. "You could go to college, but you'd be able to stay involved as much as you'd like."

  "Beth, slow down."

  "No, it would be great. He or she would be with family instead of strangers. And I'd love him or her just as much as you would." Catching a glimpse of Parker, she saw him draw together his bushy eyebrows as if she was crazy. She looked away.

  Hannah cleared her throat. "Beth, I appreciate the offer. . . but if I do place the baby for adoption, I'd want to pick the family. What I mean is, I'd want the baby to go to a two-parent household. You can understand that, can't you? That's what you wanted for me, wasn't it? To have as close to a normal home life as possible? If I wanted my baby to be raised by a single mother, I'd keep him or her and do it myself."

  The phone started to loosen in Beth's grip and she almost dropped it. A pain shot through her forehead. "Of course." She uttered the words but didn't like them. Her feet stopped moving. "Are you gonna be all right? Do you want me to talk to Connie for you?" Not that she wanted to do that, but she needed to make sure Hannah was fine before she hung up.

  "I feel a little better now." Hannah breathed loud enough for Beth to hear. "I hope I didn't hurt your feelings."

  "No, I get it. You have to do what you think is best for you and your baby." Beth chewed on her lower lip. "Please call if you want to talk more. I'm here for you."

  "Thanks." Several more deep breaths. "Bye."

  Rubbing her forehead, Beth put down the phone and sat back on the couch. "Wow."

  Parker cocked his head at her. "She's pregnant?"

  "Yep. The cycle repeats itself." Her voice sounded flat. She'd hoped her daughter wouldn't make the same mistakes she had.

  "What's she going to do?"

  "She's considering adoption."

  "Is the baby's father supportive?"

  Beth toyed with her earring. "He doesn't know." She hoped Parker wouldn't ask any more paternity questions. "I'm betting he'll sign off, though." If only Hannah would let Beth take the baby.

  A minute later, excitement zinged through her. She had another great idea. She faced Parker and took his hands in hers. "Let's get married!"

  He flinched. "What?"

  "Let's get married and adopt Hannah's baby.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Beth squeezed Parker’s palms. “Wouldn't that be something?"

  "Something crazy."

  She dropped his hands. "Come on. I love you, you love me. I know you do." Even though he never said it. She knew he was protecting himself. Supposedly protecting her. "It's like we have a do-over."

  "There are no do-overs in life."

  "But Hannah said she wouldn't place the baby with me because I'm single. If we got married, we'd be the ideal choice."

  He rose and crossed the room. "You act as if we're going to live happily ever after. We're not. At least I'm not." Pacing, he moved his hands for emphasis as he spoke. "Beth, you need to realize that I’m never going to marry you."

  Sadness constricted her throat. Her breaths jerked in and out as a precursor to crying. Oh, how she hated to cry in front of people! "Parker, I know about your condition and I keep telling you, I don't mind. I want to be with you anyway."

  "You're settling because you don't think you'll find someone else. You don't think you'll ever get married and have your own baby. It's not too late. If you'd just forget about me. . . ." He turned away and crossed his arms.

  "I don't want someone else."

  "I've got to go." Pulling away, he marched toward the door. "Oh, so who is the father of Hannah's baby?"

  "Promise me you won't do anything rash."

  His square jaw moved as if he were grinding his teeth. "Who is it?"

  "The intern. Larry."

  # # #

  Storming out of Beth's apartment, Parker slammed the door behind him. Humidity in the air made him instantly feel sticky.

  He drove home thinking about ways to kill Larry. He'd screwed Parker's innocent little girl. Was that statutory rape? Hannah was only a junior in high school, but he was pretty sure sixteen was past the age of consent. But Larry was in college. That was like a whole different level of sexual maturity. Well, maturity wasn't the right word. He knew guys in college were busy sowing their wild oats, trying to bang as many pretty girls as they could before they graduated. And poor Hannah had been one of those numbers. Just another notch on Larry's belt.

  Behind him, a police siren whirred. His gaze landed on his speedometer and he realized he was going sixty in a thirty-five zone. Uh-oh. He eased his foot off the gas and pulled over to the side of the road.

  His knuckles had turned white from squeezing the wheel so hard. He lowered the SUV's window and forced himself to be cordial to the man standing there. "Hello, Officer."

  "Do you know how fast you were going?"

  "I didn't realize until you turned on your siren. Sorry. I'm having a shitty day."

  "License and registration." The twenty-something officer was clean-cut and all business. He probably wasn't much older than Larry. Clearly, a high school girl should be off-limits.

  Parker leaned over to the glove compartment and rifled through receipts for oil changes until he found the registration. He handed it to the young man. "I just found out my teenaged daughter is pregnant."

  The officer's face lost its tight expression. "That's a new one." He studied the driver's license.

  "What?"

  "I've heard all sorts of excuses. I'm on my way to the hospital, I got caught up in a fast song on the radio, I can't get a ticket or my wife will kill me. But a pregnant teenage
d daughter? Wow."

  "It's not an excuse. I'll pay the ticket because I was speeding."

  The officer's eyes narrowed at him. "You admit you were breaking the law?"

  Parker nodded. "Just give me the ticket so I can be on my way."

  He put up his index finger. "I’m going to check that you don't have any outstanding warrants or anything." The officer stepped back to his vehicle and called in on the radio.

  While he watched through his rearview mirror, Parker took some cleansing breaths. He needed to relax. This day had been a wild one. His precious daughter was pregnant. His "girlfriend" wanted to get married and the man he'd hoped could fulfill her dreams of a family, might be on the run from the law. He shook his head and was still shaking it when the officer returned.

  "Your record's clean." The man with the crew cut handed Parker his license. "If you hadn't been going so far over the limit, I'd let you off with a warning." He scribbled something on a ticket and passed it to Parker. "Sorry to hear about your daughter. Please drive carefully."

  Parker didn't speak. He'd thought he might get out of the ticket and even though he'd been willing to pay, the additional rise and fall of emotion was too much. Checking for traffic, he slowly pulled into the road. He stopped at the South Bend Chocolate company on the way to his place. As soon as he got home, he washed his driver's license, then put the chocolates in the box for Bethany.

  # # #

  When someone rang her doorbell, Beth set down her cup of hot cocoa and crossed her fingers that it was Parker coming to apologize. The Sci-fi channel played in the background, but she hadn't been able to focus on it. Without checking the peep hole, she pulled open the door to a surprise.

  A silver-haired woman, in a yellow sundress and cardigan, reached out to hug her.

  “Mom!” Even though Beth embraced her, disappointment tugged at her insides. In the five months they’d been together, she and Parker had never fought, so she’d expected a quick resolution. “What are you doing here?”

  She stepped into the apartment. “You sounded upset in your message, so I thought I’d see if you’re OK.”

  Something about her mother’s concern caused her tough exterior to crack. Sadness tightened in her throat. “I’m not OK.”

  “What’s wrong?” Her mom touched her shoulder.

  Sighing, Beth gestured toward the couch. “Can I get you something to drink?”

  “No. Just sit and tell me what’s got you down.”

  Beth did as she suggested. “Well, the reason I called is that I’m concerned about Kaylee. I found this website that has pictures that kind of look like her and it claims she’s missing.” Her mom gasped before she went on. “I’m wondering if maybe her dad took her away from her mom to protect her. Maybe he’s not her real dad. Maybe this website is a hoax. I really don’t know. Could you use some of your contacts to try and figure out what happened to Kaylee in the past?”

  “Is that why you look like you want to cry? Because you’re worried about Kaylee?”

  Shaking her head, Beth tucked her foot underneath her butt. “Parker and I had a fight.” She took a deep breath trying to figure out where to begin. “I asked him to marry me and he said that’s never gonna happen.”

  Sympathy etched her mother’s face. “I’m sorry. But don’t you want to marry somebody you can grow old with?”

  Anger reared inside of her. “I want to grow old with Parker. It’s not fair that he has this stupid disease! Wouldn’t you stay with Dad if he got sick?”

  “That’s different. We’re married.”

  “But what if you knew he had a bad gene when you first met? Would you have walked away from him then?”

  Her mom pushed her silver bob behind her ears. “It’s hard to say.”

  “Exactly. Oh, Mom. I love Parker. I want to be there for him until he takes his last breath. But he keeps pushing me away.” She blinked back tears.

  “All I want is for you to be happy. You’re thirty-five years old. Are you willing to give up on having a family in order to be with Parker?”

  Beth turned toward her mom. “That’s just it. I thought we could get married and adopt Hannah’s baby.”

  “Hannah’s baby? Hannah—you mean your Hannah?”

  Nodding, Beth watched her mom’s face fall. “I just found out and I wanted to swoop in and save the day by offering to raise the baby. Neither Hannah nor Parker thought it was a good idea.”

  Her mom rubbed her forehead, but didn’t speak. She was probably getting a headache.

  “I hate that she has to go through the same thing I did.” Beth’s shoulder muscles pulled tight. Even though it had happened years ago, she was still uncomfortable discussing Hannah’s adoption with her mom because she’d done it in secret.

  “This is even worse than you. She’s still in high school.”

  “Don’t you think it makes sense for me to raise the baby? I make a decent living and nobody could care more about this child. Nobody.”

  Her mom patted Beth’s knee. “You’d make an excellent mother.”

  Beth bit her lip to stop herself from crying.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  A loud boom came from the microwave as Parker entered the break room.

  Laughing, Larry opened the microwave door. "Oops. I guess two minutes was too long to heat up scrambled eggs." He pulled out a Styrofoam McDonald's plate with fluffy yellow eggs and a round slab of sausage. He walked over to the table with a cocky look in his eye and sat with Elaine and Michael.

  Parker's hands fisted at his sides. He wanted to wring Larry's neck, but HR probably would have some kind of a problem with that. The thought caused the edge of his lip to pull up.

  Larry sat down and started eating with his plastic fork. "I'm glad you came to your senses, Parker, and gave us our internships back."

  The muscles in Parker's neck tensed. "That's Mr. DuBois to you."

  Shrugging, Larry took another bite of his eggs. The other interns looked from Larry to Parker as if they were waiting for a bomb to explode. Larry held the match and Parker was the fuse.

  Parker handed Elaine a folder filled with papers. "These are the applications for the scholarship we give away to high school seniors majoring in business. Would you please read these and tell me your top five candidates?"

  She nodded. "When do you need them?"

  "Next week should be fine. Michael, I'd like you to do the same." Parker's gaze landed on Larry. Trying to keep his voice steady, he took a deep breath. "Larry, I want you to clean the break room from top to bottom." He walked over to the microwave and opened it to reveal bits of yellow egg splattered all over the inside. "Starting with the microwave."

  Larry dropped his fork. "But you can't make me do that."

  "You're an intern. I can make you do absolutely anything I deem necessary. And since you're the one who created the mess, it only makes sense you clean it up." Opening the full-sized refrigerator revealed stacks of Tupperware and carry-out packages filled with forgotten food. "Then you can work on this." He pointed toward the cabinet beneath the sink. "Cleaning supplies are in there. The broom and mop are down the hall in the janitor's closet."

  Larry rose. "I won't do it."

  "Good. Then you're fired."

  The intern's eye twitched as his mouth struggled to form words.

  Parker didn't wait. He walked out the door. Once he got to the sanctity of his office, he washed his hands.

  # # #

  Parker refused to strip down when he went to the doctor's office any more. He didn't sit on the exam table, either, but in a comfy chair. He flipped through a Newsweek until the balding man, wearing khakis and a blue-striped dress shirt, walked in. “Hello, Dr. Gartin.”

  They shook and Parker felt the bones in the doctor’s hands. It didn’t seem right that this frail man would live longer than Parker. He stomped down the useless thought.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Pretty good.” He didn’t like to wallow in the negative.
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  “So what brings you in today? Any new symptoms?”

  Watching Dr. Gartin washing his hands made Parker want to go next. “It’s strange, but lately I feel the need to wash things. I not only want to wash my hands all the time, but I’ve washed everything in my wallet. People at work are starting to think I’m crazy.”

  The doctor sat in a chair and rolled closer. “You’re not crazy. Between twenty to fifty percent of people with Huntington’s develop obsessions or compulsions.”

  Parker looked down at his chapped hands and told himself they were already clean. “It’s another sign that the disease is progressing.”

  “Yes.” The doctor put the stethoscope in his ears and listened to Parker’s heart. “Haloperidol, also known as Haldol, has been shown to help reduce OCD symptoms. I could write you a prescription.”

  Taking a deep breath, Parker considered whether he wanted to start taking medication for his symptoms. He knew once he started, the drugs would only increase in number until he couldn’t get through a day without a cocktail of chemicals. “What are the side effects?”

  “Rapid heartbeat, blurry vision, drowsiness, dizziness, restlessness, dry mouth--”

  “Hold it right now. I could live with all of those except I draw the line at dry mouth.” They both laughed. “Seriously. I’m not sure the side effects are any better than the disease.”

  “It’s up to you.” He shined a pen light into Parker’s eyes, one at a time. “Any other new symptoms?”

  “Just the shaking in my hands and trouble remembering things.” He didn’t mention the anger. He didn’t want that on his record—especially now that he was trying to get into the Peace Corps. Hopefully they’d never see any of Dr. Gartin’s records, but just in case. “How long will the Haldol stay in my system?”

  “It has a half life of 14 to 24 hours.” When he saw Parker giving him a quizzical look, he added, “That means within three days, it will completely clear your system. Why?”

  Parker silently berated himself. He should’ve been able to figure that out. “Just wondering.” Maybe he could try the meds to see if they helped, then he could go off of them before his medical exam for the Corps.