by Nancy Adams
“It’s hardly going to be as good as his current school. He’ll be left behind.”
“He’ll be fine. The kid practically teaches himself! He spends so much time with his head in a book that I’m sure you could drop him in a library for a week and he’d come out smarter than the guys that wrote the books! I assure you, Juliette, this is our only option in this.”
He looked deep into her eyes, a benevolent look on his face, his thumb rubbing the back of her hand.
Letting out a long sigh, she replied, “Okay.”
“Hotdog!” he pronounced. “I’ll get all our gear up and tell Jose that it’s all go.”
Jules got up from his chair and went off to get his phone, leaving Juliette to sit at the table. She was deeply worried that she was once again endangering her husband through her own actions. Back in Louisiana all those years ago he had taken the rap for the dead farmer so she wouldn’t end up in prison, and now he was about to take the fall just so she didn’t end up inside a nuthouse. She feared that her great love, Jules Lee, was about to once again find himself behind bars, all so she didn’t have to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Sam and Jess where sitting in the dining room playing chess at one end of a long table. Like always, the father wasn’t giving his daughter any leeway and he almost had her defeated. In all their games of chess, Jess had only ever come close to beating him twice, but never actually managed the feat. Sam had always promised that the day she beat him would be the day he handed her the keys to Techsoft and retired for good.
As Sam pondered his next move, Karl came into the room.
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said softly to Sam, “but the gate just called to say there’s someone there who wishes to speak to you.”
“What’s his name?” Sam asked, glancing away from the chessboard.
“Paul Bishop.”
Sam was stunned. He turned sharply to Karl and asked what he wanted.
“He said he simply wants to talk. Nothing else.”
Sam mused for a moment, before getting up from his chair.
Turning back to his daughter, he said, “Jess, we’ll have to put the game on hold for a moment. Daddy has to speak to someone. Go and play in your room and I’ll call you down when I’m done.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed in gentle disappointment. “Well, I guess if you have to.”
She jumped off of her chair and made her way out of the room.
When she was gone, Sam began walking out of the house with Karl.
“Who is this guy?” Karl asked as they made their way down the driveway toward the gate.
“He’s Claire’s ex-boyfriend.”
“The girl you’re seeing?”
“The same.”
“And he’s going to cause trouble? Because if so, I’ll just call the police and get security to deal with it.”
“I’m not sure if he is. I just want to see him. If he’s cool, then I’ll let him in and we’ll talk.”
At that moment they reached the gate and saw the forlorn figure of Paul on the other side. Standing next to him was one of Sam’s security officers.
“Hey, Paul,” Sam said as he reached them.
“Aren’t you gonna let me in?” Paul replied without returning the greeting. “I let your man here search me. I’m clean. I don’t mean you any harm. I just wanna talk.”
“He’s clean, sir,” the security man agreed.
“See. Just let me in and we can talk.”
“We can talk here, Paul,” Sam responded.
Paul began sniggering and his face lit up in a smirk as he shook his head.
“I don’t think you want that, Sam Burgess. What I have to tell you is better done inside the walls of your nice big house rather than this open street here.”
Sam stood gazing at him with his arms crossed, trying to weigh the guy up.
“Okay, Larry,” he said to the security man. “Let him in.”
“Sure thing, Mr. Burgess.”
Larry made his way back to the gatehouse and pressed the button for the gate. The moment it was open, Sam turned his back and began walking off toward the house. With a shrug, Paul began following him, Karl walking alongside him, giving him a suspicious look. When Sam reached the house, he waited in the hallway for them.
When they showed, Sam said firmly, “We’ll do this in the study.”
Without waiting for a single word in reply, he turned and continued to said study. On reaching it, they all walked inside and Sam told Karl to leave them and close the door, which he did immediately. Once he was gone, Sam sat down on a small leather couch that sat across a black ceramic coffee table from another small couch of exact design. When he was seated, he beckoned Paul to sit opposite him.
Having watched him sit down, Sam immediately asked, “So, Paul, what is this all about?”
“Why are you being so defensive, Sam?”
“Because you come all the way across the country to my house just to ‘talk.’ It’s a little weird, don’t you think?”
“It’s not when you consider what I’ve come to say.”
“And what’s that?”
Paul began glancing around the study, noticing the simple nature of it all.
“This is a rather plain study,” he remarked.
“Its simplicity helps me think. But we’re not here to talk about the decor. I’d like to know the purpose of your visit.”
Paul looked away from the room and fixed his eyes directly on Sam.
“Do you ever wonder sometimes when you’re with her,” he began in his most solemn tone, “if there’s not something she’s hiding behind those brown eyes of hers? Are you ever with her and she seems somehow distant, like she’s not exactly there with you, like her mind’s off somewhere else? Do you ever feel that she’s holding back, hear it in her voice, feel it in her presence, but you just can’t put your finger on it? Do you ever feel like that?”
“What are you getting at?”
Without a word, Paul thrust his hand into his jacket pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, before holding it out across the table for Sam. The latter merely looked down at it with a bemused expression for a moment, not sure what to do.
“Go on,” Paul prompted. “Take it. It’s yours. My gift to you.” Sam continued to look at it and Paul barked, “Come on! It’s not going to bite you for fuck’s sake!”
Sam scooped the piece of paper out of Paul’s hand and began looking at it. Written down in pen was the address of a hospital in Maine, a date, and the name and address of an adoption agency.
“I don’t understand,” Sam commented, looking up from the paper at Paul.
“That’s everything I know about the baby son that Claire gave birth to five years ago. Your baby son.”
“Baby son!?”
“Yeah. I held him. Held your child the moment after he was born. I cut his cord. I showed him to her, but she didn’t want to know, couldn’t bear the sight of him.”
“You’re lying.”
“I am not. I wish I was, but I’m definitely not. I’m sure you can get some of your people to go rooting through the files of that adoption agency and find out for sure that Claire Prior gave a male child away for adoption on that date. And you’ll also notice that the date of birth corresponds to almost exactly nine months after your little affair. And the kid certainly wasn’t mine; I never even slept with her until after she gave birth.”
“What the fuck!?” Sam spluttered, gazing back down at the paper.
“When Claire returned back to college after the affair, she was pregnant. That’s when I began seeing her. She saw the sucker that I was and got me to be there for her the whole time she secretly had a baby up in Maine. Not even her parents know about it. She kept everyone in the dark. Including you.”
“Where is he now?”
“No one knows. She gave him away straight after he was born. That’s the address of the adoption agency she sent him to. Someone with your wealth might be able to get him back. I d
on’t know.”
Sam continued to gaze at the paper. The hospital he was born in. His date of birth. The adoption agency he was given to. Paul had given him everything he could to prove his claim and to throw a huge spanner into the works of Sam and Claire’s relationship.
Feeling an inner fury erupt inside of him, Sam burst up from the couch and shouted at Paul, “Get the fuck out of my house.”
“Okay,” Paul exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air and getting up. “I’ll see myself out,” he added as he went to leave.
As he reached the door and opened it, Sam inquired, “Why did you do this? Why come out here to ruin us?”
“Because she’s doing it again: starting a relationship off with a lie.”
At the drop of this last word, Paul walked through the door and closed it behind him, leaving Sam’s life forever. The latter, meanwhile, leaned forward on the couch, glaring at the piece of paper. He realized that it was highly improbable that Paul had lied, and it would be easily discovered if he had. He would still check it out, but it would only be for complete clarity, just in case. No, he was sure that everything Paul had just said was true and that he did indeed have a secret child out there in the world somewhere. So much suddenly came crashing down on him. But the thing that he most felt, the thing that bore into him the worst, was the betrayal that he saw from Claire.
Was she ever going to tell me? he asked himself. And why didn’t she tell me all those years ago? Why go through it all on her own? Why not give me the choice? Was it not my son as well as hers? Don’t I get a say? How could she keep me out of something like this? And now my son is out there somewhere with God knows who.
Such anger spread through him and he screwed the piece of paper up tight in his hand, before smashing his fist down hard on the ceramic table.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
It was three AM, the time that Jules had put aside for their escape. The couple had decided to tell no one in the neighborhood about their sudden flight, including Mrs. Jefferson, and even David didn’t know. All day long, Juliette and Jules had secretly been filling the car with all their belongings that they were taking. When the alarm sounded, they both silently awoke, already dressed, and Juliette made her way out to the car while Jules went to fetch the boy. Going quietly into the spare room that stood as David’s bedroom, Jules gently roused him.
“What’s up, Pa?”
“Shh,” Jules whispered, placing his finger over his mouth. “We’re playing a game, Davey. We gotta get out to the car without waking Mrs. Jefferson. Momma’s already out there, so she’s still in the game. So in order for you and me to stay in the game, we gotta get outside without waking no one up, especially not the dog.”
“Okay, Pa, I’ll be good,” the boy whispered back up to him with a smile.
With delicate care, David gingerly got out of bed and got into the clothes that Jules already had for him, including his coat. The two then snuck out of the room and out through the trailer, a beaming smile on the excited boy’s face the whole time. David always loved games of any kind. Once they were outside, Jules closed the door silently behind them, having left a note for the old woman on the kitchen table, and they made it into the car, David immediately jumping onto the back seat.
“I made it, Momma,” he cried out when he was inside, instantly reaching forward into the front and placing his little arms around Juliette’s shoulders.
Smiling into the back at him and patting his arms softly with her hands, she said, “Now sit down, we’re going for a drive.”
She took a blanket she had on her lap and told him to wrap himself up in it and try to get back to sleep.
“Where we going, Ma?” he asked as Jules came and sat down in the driver’s seat.
“We’re going on a secret holiday to a place you’ve never been to: Mexico,” she told him as Jules started the engine. “Do you remember when Momma told you about Mexico?”
“Yeah. It sounded really nice. Are we going to the beaches there?”
“Soon we will. Soon.”
“And when will we get there?”
“We’ll be there by tonight.”
“But it is night.”
“No, the next night. It takes a day to get to where we’re going, right in the middle of a place called Durango.”
“And we’re going on holiday?”
“Yeah, a long holiday.”
“Why couldn’t we tell Mrs. Jefferson?”
“She does know,” Jules commented as he drove them out of the trailer park and onto the nighttime streets of L.A., “we were just playing a game. Mrs. Jefferson bet me last night that we couldn’t all wake up and leave the house without waking her up.”
“But we did, didn’t we, Pa?”
“We sure did, kid. We sure did.”
“Now you get all tucked up in the blanket,” Juliette said to the boy, “and try to fetch some more sleep. Hopefully by the time you wake, we’ll be across the border and in Mexico.”
“I hope so, Ma.”
“Now be a good boy.”
She kissed her finger and touched it on his forehead. David got himself comfortable and closed his eyes.
“Night night, Papa.”
“Night night, Davey.”
“Night night, Momma.”
“Night night, my love.”
Juliette turned from him and glanced at Jules. Smiling, she leaned toward him and kissed him on the cheek, before settling herself down in the passenger seat.
“It will be okay, won’t it, Jules?” she asked.
“With the love that exists between us, it will always be okay.”
He reached his hand across the car and took her own. They gazed ahead at the night’s road, holding hands and feeling that nothing could break their love.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Claire was out to dinner with Annabel and a couple of her other colleagues from the hospital, Kirsty and Tara. The four women sat around a table enjoying themselves, laughing and giggling with each other.
“So Claire, for instance,” Annabel was chuckling, “has this mystery man who she won’t let me meet.”
“Oh! One of them!” Kirsty let out with a mirthful frown.
“Yes, one of them!” Annabel put back. “She goes gallivanting around the Hamptons and staying at his place in Manhattan, but she won’t dare show him to me.”
“Who is this Ted?” Tara inquired of Claire.
“He’s my guy, I guess,” Claire announced with a bit of a face.
“My guy!?” Annabel exclaimed with giggle. “Gosh!”
“What does he do?” Tara inquired further.
“He’s rich,” Annabel answered for her. “She stays at his penthouse apartment near Madison Avenue. Apartments rent in the millions there and apparently he owns the joint.”
“Oooh!” the other girls exclaimed.
“He sounds old,” Kirsty remarked.
“How does he sound old?” Claire asked her.
“Ted! The name sounds old. I mean who calls themselves Ted anymore? Ed or Eddy, but not Ted. How old is he?”
“He’s thirty-six.”
“Oh! So he is older then,” Annabel commented.
“Not that much older,” Claire retorted.
“Not as old as Ted would suggest,” Kirsty said.
“No. Not that old,” Claire replied with a smile as she took a sip of her white wine.
While she did, her phone went off in her handbag and, when she retrieved it, she saw that it was Sam.
“I have to get this,” she announced to her friends as she got up from the table.
“Must be Ted!” Annabel put to the others with a grin.
Claire walked off to the edge of the restaurant and answered it.
“Hey, Sam,” she said.
For a moment, she waited for an answer, but all she could hear on the other end was his heavy breathing.
“Sam, are you there?”
“Why, Claire?” was all he said in a despondent tone
. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Why didn’t I tell you what?”
“Why didn’t you tell me that we had a son?”
She instantly froze at the sound of these words, the restaurant shrinking all around her as she found herself frozen in time. The phone in her hand became increasingly heavy as her whole body went weak, and she darted her eyes around in search of somewhere to sit down. Before she knew it though, the phone was tumbling out of her hand and she was tumbling onto the floor, the restaurant dashing past as she fainted.
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CHAPTER ONE
Claire awoke on the floor of the restaurant with Annabel’s benevolent face gazing down at her, a concerned compassion gleaming from her eyes. Around Annabel stood several other people—restaurant staff, the rest of Claire’s friends, and several customers, those on the tables nearby, compelled by an inner urge to see the catastrophe.
“What happened?” Claire mumbled as she attempted to lift her sore body.
“Be careful,” Annabel advised. “Don’t try to get up straight away, you could faint again.”
“I fainted!?” Claire let out in a confused voice, rubbing the side of her head where it had struck the ground.
The moment she had gone down, one of the waitresses had been passing and spotted the falling girl, immediately rushing to her aid. Several people sitting on a table nearby had also observed it and someone had called out if there was a doctor in the house. This had sent Annabel into action, and when she found her potential patient, she was alarmed to see it was her friend.
“It appears so,” Annabel replied in answer to Claire’s question.
“I think I’m alright to stand.”
“Shall I call an ambulance?” someone asked.
“No. Just give her space,” Annabel ordered.
Eventually, two men helped ease Claire up onto a chair that someone else had placed close by for her. As she sat on it, someone held out a glass of water, and after taking a few sips she gave it back. It was then that she spotted her phone on the floor and realized that its screen was still lit up with ‘Ted.’ Sam had been listening this whole time.