Intent

by A. D. Justice

  “Let me tell you a story.” George dips his chin to his chest and squints one eye. “Hypothetical, of course.”

  “Of course.”

  “Once upon a time, there was a judge who had the distinct misfortune of seeing a child appear repeatedly in his courtroom. Juvenile court is hard on everyone. Seeing all the kids who come through the system and knowing you can’t save them all is heartbreaking. Takes a toll on you after a while.

  “There was one girl who started getting in trouble at an early age. She was ten the first time the judge saw her in his courtroom. She started out with what seemed like normal childhood antics at the time—rolling yards with toilet paper, shoplifting a pack of gum, borrowing a bicycle without permission. Her lawyer always convinced the judge to handle it off the record to give the girl one more second chance.

  “As the girl got older, her crimes increased in severity. Her childish pranks morphed into assault, harassment, and underage alcohol possession. The judge became concerned for the girl’s safety as much as for the safety of others. He ordered her into psychiatric testing and treatment. It seemed to help her for a while. Until she went off her medication, that is. Then she became even worse than she was before.

  “She showed up again one day when she was seventeen. You see, the kids were the judge’s weakness. He just wanted to help them, but being too soft on them doesn’t help them any more than being too hard does. But it was too late for the girl who had frequented his courtroom. The crime she was accused of was worse than anything before, and he just couldn’t believe it could be real.”

  George stops speaking and stares at nothing in particular. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he tries to swallow the emotion that threatens to overtake him.

  “What did she do, George? What was the crime?”

  “Another student found a handwritten note that was allegedly written by the girl. It detailed how she was going to burn a house down while the family slept inside. It listed step-by-step details of how to approach the house, how to set the origination point so it would appear to be an accident, and how she’d sit back and watch as the flames claimed the lives and property of a family that had wronged her.”

  A shiver runs up my spine and chills spread across my skin. This hypothetical story is hitting a little too close to home.

  “How had they wronged her?”

  “She’d been neglected for most of her life. One day, she accidentally found out they’d lied about her whole existence. Her parents had experienced marital problems, separated for a while, and her mother got pregnant by another man. When her mother reunited with her husband, he agreed to raise her as his own, but the girl was a constant reminder of a dark time in their lives. The parents started taking in foster children and showered them with the love and attention the girl had always craved.

  “Her grandparents tried their best to fill the void her parents created, but there’s nothing that can replace a mother’s or father’s love. When the girl eventually confessed that she’d known about it since she was ten, it finally made sense why she’d started acting out. So, at seventeen, she’s standing before the judge again, charged with this horrendous crime of conspiracy to commit arson and murder.

  “The same lawyer who had always defended her was still by her side, strongly encouraging her to take the court-ordered inpatient psychiatric admission rather than have her case remanded over to be tried as an adult due to the violent nature of the case. It was conspiracy to commit, but when the police investigated, they found she had already collected all the supplies, and she had every detail planned and documented. She took the inpatient psychiatric admission deal. By the time she was discharged, she was eighteen and her record as a juvenile offender was sealed.”

  “And the judge?”

  “He left the juvenile court system and decided it was better to be in the adult system for a while before he retired. He just didn’t have the heart to sit in juvenile court for even one more case. Sending his granddaughter off to that awful facility for ten long months broke his heart—and completely destroyed their relationship.”

  Tears sting my eyes before spilling over on my cheeks. His heartbreak is still as alive today as it was the day he sentenced her. The judge and his granddaughter. George and Margot. “Marcia was her lawyer, wasn’t she?”

  “That’s right, she was,” Louise replies. “Marcia did everything she could possibly do to try to help Margot. Even when she had Margot’s parental rights taken away, had her declared mentally incompetent, and then had her incarcerated in a psychiatric hospital, at our request, it was all to save Margot from herself.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Layne

  My visit with George and Louise lasted much longer than I thought it would when I left home this morning. Louise shed a lot more light on what happened in the first few months of River’s life, when Margot kept her away from Ace. I heard the pain in Ace’s voice this morning as he described not knowing if his baby was being cared for, or even where she was.

  He’ll be comforted to know that Louise recognized the symptoms of Margot’s rapid cycling bipolar disorder and took River away from her. Margot would stay at George and Louise’s house with River when she was thinking clearly, though their relationship was still strained. Then she’d leave when the urge to party with her friends became stronger than her desire to be with her daughter.

  Margot became increasingly reckless with her own health, using drugs and alcohol as her buffer to the world. After being missing for a week, she showed back up strung out on meth and talking out of her head. A heated argument ensued between Margot, George, and Louise when Margot tried to take River with her. In Margot’s ramblings, Louise deciphered that Margot planned to trade River for more drugs. Louise immediately called the police while George barricaded the exits. A social worker from the Division of Family and Children Services was summoned to their home and the process to take Margot’s parental rights away was initiated.

  That’s the case Marcia was working on the summer I came to Georgia with her as an intern. We stayed in another town because of Marcia’s familial involvement in the case. She was worried about my safety should the ruling not turn out to be in her favor. I think about how close I was to meeting Ace at that time, but it was best that I didn’t. I wasn’t ready to give Bobby up, and Ace was going through the most tumultuous time of his life then.

  When I turn into the driveway, I know my plan to beat Marcia here so I can share everything I’ve learned with Ace is dashed. Her rental car is already in the driveway, parked behind Ace’s truck. With a deep, calming breath, I walk inside and immediately assess the situation. Body postures, facial expressions, and eye contact are all crucial to reading what’s not being expressed verbally.

  “Laynie!” River calls and runs to me with her arms stretched up.

  “Hi, baby girl,” I greet her and swing her up to my hip.

  “Look who’s here! She’s my grandma,” River says excitedly and points at Marcia. Only, in her sweet, four-year-old voice, “grandma” sounds like “gam ma.”

  Marcia rises and crosses the room until she’s standing in front of me. “Hello, Layne,” she says softly. “I’ve missed you.”

  “Hi, Marcia. I’ve missed you, too.” While still holding River, I pull Marcia into a hug. My eyes lock with Ace’s over Marcia’s shoulder, and I recognize the look of relief and contentment in them. When we separate, I look between Ace and Marcia and say, “Sorry I’m late to the discussion. Where are we in the timeline of information sharing?”

  Marcia and Ace both laugh nervously. “I’m not sure we talked about anything in a chronological order that would make sense to you. Where have you been?” Ace replies.

  “I’ve been at George and Louise Edwards’s house since I left home this morning,” I admit.

  Marcia’s gaping mouth and wide eyes reveal her shock. “Did they tell you?”

  “They told me everything, Marcia.”

  I put River down and kn
eel down to talk to her. “River, I need to talk to your daddy and your grandma. I need you to go play in your room for a little while. Okay?”

  “Okay,” she agrees begrudgingly. “Can you talk fast?”

  “I’ll try,” I chuckle. “I’ll come get you when we’re done.” With that, she walks to her room, stopping every few feet to look over her shoulder, just in case one of us changes our mind.

  When River goes in her room, I take a seat beside Ace and wrap my hand around his before I recount the entire “hypothetical” story George and Louise told me. As I move from one part of the story to the next, the events begin to make sense to Ace. They click into place, one after the other, until the whole jigsaw puzzle is pieced together to make one large picture.

  “My guess is Marcia never told you for a variety of reasons. First, she was bound by attorney-client privilege and her client was a juvenile. Those records wouldn’t be available for just anyone to read. If she’d told you and it somehow got out, she would’ve been disbarred. Secondly, Margot was young, and Marcia was doing everything she could to get the young girl help. Revealing her secrets at that age would’ve been catastrophic to her. And lastly, she was the granddaughter of the judge. If the people of this town even suggested preferential treatment was given to her, he would’ve lost everything.

  “You’re older than Margot, so a lot of the later events happened while you were away at college. Had you been here to witness it firsthand, you may have thought twice about dating her at all. Marcia wasn’t trying to control you or do anything behind your back. She was trying to do her job and save a young girl from a mental disorder that made her spiral out of control.”

  “Mom?” Ace looks at Marcia. “Are George and Louise telling the truth? Did all that really happen?”

  Marcia gives him a weak smile. “I can’t comment on sealed juvenile records. But to my knowledge, George and Louise have always been known to be honest, upstanding citizens. I can tell you that Margot intentionally got pregnant. She thought it would make you marry her, then you’d support her so she didn’t have to work. Coming from an influential family in this town spoiled her in some ways.”

  “But, Mom, all this time I’ve been wrong about you. And you never told me. This all could’ve been cleared up years ago.”

  “You have no idea how many times I’ve thought the same thing. That if I just called and told you everything that actually happened, you’d understand and we’d reconcile. But something you said to me the last time we talked stuck with me. You said I’d tried to control you and every decision you’ve ever made in your life.

  “While I certainly never intentionally did that, I had to admit that I absolutely did it when I looked back over time. Part of me thought you’d think I was just trying to manipulate you if I told you after all this time. Another part of me said you had to come to the realization about Margot on your own before you’d really believe it.

  “That didn’t stop me from keeping tabs on you. I am your mother, after all, and I love you with all my heart. Depression also played a big part in my inability to function. I never got over losing your daddy. I lost my way when I lost my soul mate. So I took the job in New York as a way to start fresh. Good thing I did, too, or I wouldn’t have my beautiful daughter-in-law right now.”

  “I guess Martha and Ralph called you, huh?” Ace asks.

  “No, they didn’t,” Marcia replies. “I was there for your wedding. Martha called me after the fire and filled me in on what was happening. I got a flight out the next morning, and I’ve been staying with her ever since. So when you two showed up at their chapel to get married, I snuck out the back door of her house and around the opposite side of the barn to find a good spot to watch.”

  “Did you know Margot was behind it when you got the call?” I ask.

  “I was ninety-nine percent sure. The way it was described to me was almost exactly the same way she’d planned to kill her parents and foster sister. I had the cameras installed for security last time I stayed here, but I didn’t use a local company to install it. Since we live out in the country, most people around here didn’t know anything about it.”

  “George said he and Louise are leaving town for a while. They know the police are looking for Margot, but they don’t want to be here when she’s arrested. They also don’t trust her not to come after them in her retaliation plot. Louise said, at their age, they’re just not physically able to deal with the possible outcomes. It’s really sad that they have to fear for their lives at the hands of their granddaughter,” I tell them.

  “They have good reason to fear. She’s hated them all these years,” Marcia replies. “I suspect the reason she set my house on fire is twofold. First, she knew you were in there and you’ve been dating Ace. Secondly, she hates me and wouldn’t think twice about destroying everything I own.”

  “I have to question if she’s mentally unstable enough to try to burn this house down with all of us in it,” Ace adds. “I’ll be taking the night watch until she’s caught.”

  “River, come on out here, baby,” I call to her. She comes bouncing out of her room and I release the breath I was holding. An overwhelming urge to make sure she was safe overcame me when Ace questioned Margot’s stability regarding River. Marcia and Ace give me a questioning look and I shrug. “As long as Ace takes the night shift, River will sleep with me.”

  Ace pulls me into his lap and places a soft, sweet kiss on my lips. Then his brows draw downward and he pulls back to look me up and down. “Layne, what did you eat today?”

  “Are you trying to say I’m too heavy to sit in your lap, Ace?” Irritated and instantly pissed off accurately describes my mood right this second.

  “No, baby. I can tell you’ve lost weight since our honeymoon. What have you eaten today?”

  “Toast,” I admit.

  “Are you still sick? It’s all this stress taking a toll on you. You’re safe here with me. I’d never let anything happen to you or River.”

  “I believe you, but my stomach is still in knots. I can’t wait for all of this to be over.”

  “I’ve been craving some loaded baked potato soup from the diner in town,” Marcia announces. “It’ll be easy on your stomach and you’ll love it. How about I go get some orders to go and bring it back here to eat? We can spend more time catching up and I can spend some time with my granddaughter.”

  “You don’t have to do that, Mom. I can go get it,” Ace offers.

  “No, you should stay here with Layne and River. Keep them safe. She probably doesn’t even know I’m back in town yet.”

  When Marcia leaves, Ace turns his attention back to me. “What’s really going on with you, babe?”

  “I’m okay.” I lay my head on his shoulder and snuggle into his embrace.

  “Daddy?” River’s busy with her coloring book and crayons on the coffee table. “Can I call Laynie ‘Mommy’ now?”

  My head instantly jerks up. My heart just skipped a beat in my chest, and it’s now running wild. Ace looks at me and raises his eyebrows. With the biggest smile, I nod in agreement. “You sure can. Is that what you want, River?”

  “Yes. I love her. I want her to be my mommy.”

  I slide out of Ace’s lap onto the floor beside her. “I’d love to be your mommy, River.”

  “Okay.” She draws the syllables out at least three times too long. “But I’m not gonna call you Laynie anymore now.”

  “You can call me mommy if you want to, baby. I don’t mind.” I don’t mind at all. In fact, my heart is so full of love and gratitude it feels like it may burst.

  This makes her head snap up to look at me. Her eyes grow as big as saucers and her little lips part. She jumps into my lap and throws her arms around my neck. “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I have a mommy!”

  It’s amazing how love multiplies exponentially with no effort at all.

  Marcia returns with soup and sandwiches for everyone, and Ace intently watches me with my food. “You know, you’re kind of frea
king me out. Stop staring at me while I eat.”

  The devilish grin he flashes says he knows exactly what he’s doing. “But I love to watch you eat. You wouldn’t deny me something you know I love, would you?”

  “You don’t play fair,” I complain.

  “But it’s all out of love, babe.”

  With my bowl of soup finished, I’m too stuffed to attempt the sandwich as the soup is the most I’ve eaten in one sitting since Zoe disappeared. “You’re the best, Marcia. Thank you for the soup. It hit the spot.” I move from the table to starting cleaning up from our meal but Ace grabs my hand and stops me.

  “I’ll get it. Go get some rest, babe.”

  “Thank you,” I lean over and kiss him. “That’s so sweet of you. If you three don’t mind, I actually could use a quick nap. Sleep has been evading me recently.”

  “Mommy, can I take a nap with you?”

  “You sure can, baby girl. Let’s give Daddy and Grandma some time alone to talk.”

  River takes my hand and we walk to my bedroom and climb into the enormous, soft bed. She cuddles close to me and I wrap my arm around her. When she’s finally still for more than three seconds, she’s out like a light. My eyelids feel weighted down and finally close on their own. I feel myself drifting into sleep right behind her. Late nights and early mornings have finally caught up with me.

  * * *

  ACE

  “I’m glad you’re here,” I admit. “I’ve missed you.”

  Mom moves to the seat beside me on the couch and wraps her arms around me. “I’m so glad to have you back. I’ve missed you more than you’ll ever know. It doesn’t matter how old you are, Ace. Whether you’re eight or eighty, you can never stop being your mother’s baby.”

  This makes me smile. “You’ve told me that all my life. Guess my mom knew what she was talking about after all, huh?”

  “Your mom is a genius, son. I’ve told you that all your life, too, but it still hasn’t sunk in.” She laughs heartily, and memories of all the good times with her flood my mind.