by Ana E Ross
“Okay, Uncle Bryce.”
Bryce pulled out a chair for Samantha. “Can I get you something to drink? Tea, coffee, water?”
“I’m fine, Bryce. Just sit.”
Bryce reclaimed the chair he’d vacated. “So, what’s your prognosis on Jason?” He was never one to beat around the bush.
“The pain for a young child losing a parent is horrendous,” she began. “Jason has lost both, and he’s finally accepted that they aren’t coming home. It’s a start in the healing process. The next few days are going to be volatile. He may cry a lot. He may become distant, or he may have sudden outbursts of anger. It’s different for each child. But given Jason’s strong psychological and emotional background, I have no doubt that he’ll eventually adjust to life without his parents.” She looked from Kaya to Bryce. “You two have to be there for him.”
Bryce’s gazed locked with Kaya’s across the table. Was that a hint of uncertainty he saw lurking in her eyes? Her hands seemed a bit unstable as she rubbed Anastasia’s back. She was displaying the same nervousness as she did this morning in Steven’s office when she talked about Jason. What had gone down between the two of them?
“There are some issues that need to be addressed immediately,” Samantha said, placing a pair of reading glasses on her nose. She pulled a pen and an appointment calendar from her tote bag.
“What kind of issues?” Bryce asked.
She opened the calendar. “I’d rather not discuss them now. I would like to see you both in my office in the morning. Uh… around ten. Is that possible?”
They both nodded, their eyes locking in silent combat.
“Good.” Samantha glanced at the empty feeding bottle. “She’s eating.”
Just then Anastasia burped loudly, pulling chuckles from all of them.
“Well, there’s my answer.” Samantha reached over and ruffled Anastasia’s head of curly black hair. “At least this little darling is spared the pain of grief. One day you’ll have to tell her about her parents.”
“I’ll do that,” Bryce said, his gaze capturing Kaya’s again. “I knew them better than anyone else. I will fill the void Michael’s absence has created.”
“I can’t think of anyone who’s better suited for the job. They’re lucky to have you, Bryce. And you too, Kaya.” Samantha sighed. “Well, I think I’ve done all I can here for the night.”
“Thanks for the house call, Samantha.” Bryce rose to assist her.
“No need to thank me, Bryce. I’ll do anything to help these little ones cope. Their parents were faithful members of our church.” She picked up her tote and slid it over her shoulder. “Oh, I forgot to tell you that I called in a mild sedative for Jason. The pharmacy will be delivering it shortly.”
“A sedative?” Kaya exclaimed. “Is that wise?”
“I understand your concern, Kaya, but I’m a board-certified psychiatrist, and I did discuss it with the pediatrician who’s covering for Dr. LaCrosse.”
“I don’t mean to question your qualifications. It’s just that he’s only a kid.”
“I only prescribe sleep aids for children in extreme situations. This is as extreme as it gets. Jason hasn’t slept in two days. He told me that whenever he closes his eyes, he pictures his parents in the ravine screaming for help.”
“But didn’t he think they were in Europe with Bryce?” Kaya asked.
“Ah, the mind is an intricate entity, Kaya. Jason knew his parents were dead. He knew how they’d died. He just didn’t want to accept or believe it, at least not until he was with someone he felt comfortable with, someone he trusted as much as he trusted them, someone he knew loved him, and would be there to catch him when he fell apart.” Samantha gave Bryce a knowing nod and a smile, though grim.
Bryce understood exactly what Jason was going through. He’d almost gone crazy the first few weeks after Pilar’s death. He didn’t eat. He was afraid to sleep because of the nightmares.
“We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk you out.”
“No need, Bryce. I know my way. Go check on Jason.”
All was silent in the kitchen after Samantha left. Bryce stared out as the last bits of light faded into darkness. Night had descended upon them. Figuratively and literally.
Kaya stood up with a sleeping Anastasia over her shoulder. “I’ll put her down then take care of Alyssa while you tend to Jason.”
Bryce watched her closely. Were those dark circles under her eyes and worry marring her brow? Maybe she’d back down now that she understood the magnitude of the responsibility that had been dropped in her lap. “I’ll order the pizza,” he said. “Anything special you want on yours?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Neither was he. They were going through the motions, keeping their wits about them, and being tolerant and understanding of each other for the children’s sake. But when all this was over, one of them would walk away with only a handful of memories.
* * *
Kaya was finishing the laundry Lauren had started the night she died when the house phone rang. Recognizing Jack’s number on the caller ID, she grabbed the receiver on the first ring. She’d asked him to call the house phone since she seemed to have misplaced her cell. She just hoped Bryce didn’t pick up another extension in another room.
She pressed the receiver to her ears. “Hi, Jack.”
“Hey, babe. Sorry for calling back this late, but I was held up at work.”
“At this hour? It’s almost midnight. I thought one of the perks of management was that you don’t have to work late.” She walked to the door of the laundry room and leaned against the frame with her face in the direction of Jason’s room. She didn’t want Bryce sneaking up on her like he’d done in the nursery that afternoon.
“I was busy,” Jack said.
“You’re too busy to call the woman you asked to marry you.”
“Hey, I’m calling now. Quit badgering me.”
“I’m not badgering you.” Why was he so irritable?
“I’m sorry, babe. I guess I’m just tired. How are things going up there?”
“A little better.” Before leaving to see Steven this morning, she’d brought Jack up to date on the children. He knew she had a half-sister because he’d met Lauren at their father’s funeral, years ago, and she’d shared the contents of Lauren’s recent letters with him. “Jason just met with his therapist and Anastasia is eating, finally.” She refrained from mentioning Bryce, that he was the children’s godfather, or that he played a crucial role in their lives.
“When are you coming home?”
“The funeral is on Saturday, so maybe in a week or two.” She crossed her fingers.
“Okay. That should give me enough time to move my stuff into your place. It doesn’t make sense for us to continue paying rent on two places. Since you have a two-bedroom apartment in a nicer area of town, I think it makes sense for us to live at yours. Don’t you think?”
Kaya swallowed back the bile that rose to her throat. She pressed the receiver to her chest and closed her eyes, searching for the right way to tell Jack that she was a mother. That marrying her would be a package deal, and not to pack his stuff up just yet since they would have to find a bigger place to live. She took a deep breath and put the phone back to her ear. “Jack, my sister made me legal guardian of her kids. I’m bringing them to Florida with me.” There she’d said it.
A long silence ensued, during which a numbing sensation settled in Kaya’s belly. “Jack, say something.”
“Do they come with money?”
“What?”
“A trust fund, an insurance policy, an inheritance?”
“No, Jack. They have no money. Their parents died bankrupt.”
There was another long silence. “So how are you going to take care of three kids, Kaya? Do you know how much money kids cost these days? You have a good career and all, and it would be enough for both of us, but taking on the responsibility of three more mouths to feed
—”
“They’re my sister’s children, Jack. They’re my family.”
“Look, Kaya, one of the reasons I asked you to marry me is because you said you never wanted kids. Now, we had a deal. No kids. So make a choice. Them or me.”
Kaya gasped at his cold cruelty. Was this the man she was contemplating marrying? “Jack, I’m not going to abandon them.”
“Then you’ll have to find yourself another sugar daddy.”
Sugar daddy? Was he serious? The man couldn’t even afford to buy her an engagement ring. He worked at a tire warehouse for crying out loud. “Jack—”
“Look, babe, I gotta go. Think about what I said. It’s me or them. I don’t want my own kids, and I’m sure not going to bust my ass trying to raise somebody else’s.”
Click.
Kaya slid to the floor, hugging her knees to her chest. She couldn’t believe Jack had just blown her off so heartlessly. She knew he never wanted kids of his own, but when you love someone, you go to hell and back for them. You do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. You change your mind and your rules for them. You supported their decisions, even if they don’t correspond with yours. You sacrifice.
How could she not have seen this side of Jack before? She’d known him for most of her life. Had he been that good at hiding his true self, or had she been too naïve to see the real man behind the mask?
One thing became crystal clear to Kaya as she hunched in the quiet darkness of the laundry room: Jack Grainger never loved her. She’d always been alone. Truly alone.
* * *
“Stay where you are, or I’ll blow her brains out!” The woman aimed the gun at him for a split second then jammed it back to Pilar’s head.
Her petrified whimper ripped at his heart. Stark fear glittered in her green eyes.
Big drops of sweat raced down his armpits; his hair stood on end. “Victoria, give me the gun.” He reached out his hand.
“Tell her that we’re in love, Bryce. Tell her you’re divorcing her. You promised we would always be together.”
He swallowed a mouthful of anger. “I never promised you anything, Victoria.”
“Shut your mouth! Shut your lying mouth!” She pointed the gun at him again.
Good! If he could just keep her wrath centered on him... “You’re a deranged psychopath, Victoria. I wish I’d never met you!” He began walking cautiously toward her as he spoke. “You are crazy, and sad. Pathetic…”
Victoria played into his game and released Pilar to steady the gun with both hands.
With his head, Bryce motioned for Pilar to get out. He willed her not to bolt and spook Victoria.
She stood frozen to the floor, staring at him, all the love he would ever need in this world, rushing across the distance between them. He implored her with his eyes, even as his heart longed to run to her, to hold her, to tell her how sorry he was to have let this happen.
As Pilar began inching away, he returned his attention to Victoria’s icy stare. He prayed she’d miss if she fired at him. “I never loved you, Victoria—”
“One more word and I’ll blow a hole in your heart!”
He raised his hands to distract her attention from Pilar as the love of his life eased around a table laden with crystal ornaments. Any moment and she’d be safely out the door.
“I’m sorry if I misled you, Victoria. I never meant to hurt you.” He changed his tactic and pacified her now that all he had to worry about was his own safety, his own life. Pilar would live.
“Does she know we were together in Seattle just weeks after your wedding? Does she know we spent the night making love, and that’s why you didn’t call her? Does she know, Bryce?”
A gasp echoed in the air. Glass shattered on the tiles. The chilling blast of a gunshot ricocheted in his ears. A body slapped to the floor. Blood splattered against the walls.
“No! No! Nooo...”
CHAPTER FIVE
Bryce bolted up in bed, his convulsing body soaked in cold sweat. Pressing his hands against his temples, he tried to stop the explosions in his head while he took desperate gulps of air into his lungs.
When his breathing finally slowed to a normal pace, he wiped the moisture from his eyes and checked the Rolex on his wrist. 3:45 a.m. He’d been asleep for a little over two hours. That was all he’d get tonight.
As usual, his gaze switched to the nightstand and the picture of Pilar in her wedding gown. The happiest day of his life was when she stood beside him in church and pledged to love him for the rest of his life. He had no idea it would’ve been so short. He picked up the photo, holding it against the sliver of moonlight streaming through the windows, his mind rewinding to the worst day of his life.
“Hold on, baby. Hold on. Don’t leave me.” He ripped off his shirt and stuffed it against the bullet hole, trying desperately to stop the river of hot sticky blood that slowly seeped from her chest to the floor.
“God, help me! Please help me! Don’t take her. Don’t take my wife.”
“Bryce, I— I—” She choked on a mouthful of blood, her nails digging into his flesh as she clutched to him, to life.
It looked bad. She looked bad. Ashy, like the angel of death had already spread his wings over her.
“The paramedics will be here soon, baby. Don’t try to talk. Just look at me. Draw life from me. Stay with me, Pilar.” He held her head in the crook of his arm and brushed her long chestnut hair away from her face.
“I— for— forgive— you.”
The love in her sapphire eyes flooded his soul. “There’s nothing to forgive, Pilar. I was never unfaithful to you. Never.” Tears poured out of him, landing on her face, mingling with hers. He dabbed at them with his knuckles.
“I— I— we— ba— ba—by.” She managed a weak, pain-filled smile and touched his lips with her bloodstained fingertips. “Ba—by,” she whispered again before her hand dropped lifelessly to her stomach.
“You can’t leave me, Pilar. I’m nothing without you. I love you. I love you.”
With a deft jerk of his head, Bryce stopped the cerebral tape and gazed at the white-gold ring on his finger. He only wore the band in the privacy of his home. He’d grown tired of people asking about his family, and of having to explain that his wife was dead when she was still so very much alive in his heart.
Sliding his fingertip along the glass frame, he traced the image of Pilar’s face, his heart aching with emptiness, his soul caving under the guilt.
He should have known what Victoria was capable of doing. She was disturbed. He’d had several warnings, but he’d ignored them. Victoria had indeed put a hole in his heart as surely as she’d put one in Pilar’s.
Bryce jumped as a barrel of black fur landed on the bed and a pair of bright yellow eyes stared into his. Settling the picture of his wife on the nightstand, he folded the cat in his arms. “Come here, you.” He stroked the animal’s thick, sleek fur.
Webster purred and burrowed deeper into his embrace, his long, bushy tail tickling Bryce’s face.
“Okay, boy.” He set Webster on the bed and pulled the ring from his finger. “Until tonight, darling.” He kissed the ring and placed it next to the picture.
He shrugged into his bathrobe, grimacing as the cold silk clung to his clammy flesh. Swinging his feet over the side of the bed, he made his way downstairs with Webster trotting at his heels.
It had been a while since he’d had that nightmare, but considering the circumstances, he’d been expecting it. That is why he’d left L’etoile du Nord, even though Jason had begged him to stay. He didn’t want to scare the boy awake in the middle of the night. Nor was he in any mood to explain away his midnight screams to Kaya Brehna.
In the kitchen, Bryce warmed up a bowl of milk for Webster and a glass for himself. Then he set about making a pot of coffee to take to his den. As his grandmother’s old coffee maker groaned and sputtered, he raised the lid of a cookie jar on the counter and reached inside.
His heart lurched when his fi
ngers grabbed a handful of air. He dropped the lid as a numbness settled in the pit of his stomach. There would be no comfort treats tonight. Bracing his hands against the counter, he fought off the feeling of dread that threatened to paralyze him yet again.
Five years ago, he’d lost his wife and an unborn child he didn’t know about until after it was dead. Two days ago, he’d lost his best friends. And now he was about to lose his three godchildren to Kaya Brehna and her fiancé.
Bryce slammed his fist against the cupboard.
When the phone rang at L’etoile du Nord last night, he’d picked up the extension in Jason’s room at the same time Kaya had picked up another somewhere in the house. Ethics told him he should hang up the phone when he heard Kaya accuse some man of being too busy to call the woman he’d asked to marry him. When Jack told her that he missed her and to hurry home to plan their wedding, Bryce knew he’d had enough.
She was getting married, yet she didn’t think it important enough to inform him that some other man, another total stranger, was about to be added to the mix.
Bryce dumped his glass of milk down the drain. When the coffee maker ceased its sputtering, he picked up the whole pot, grabbed a mug, and took them to his den. He had a lot of thinking to do. Choices to contemplate. Decisions to make.
He was sitting on the sofa, watching the night grey into dawn through the window when his cell began to ring. Thinking it might be the private detective whom he’d instructed to call him the minute he found something on Kaya, Bryce rushed to his desk and grabbed the phone. It wasn’t the detective. It was Michael’s cell number flashing across the caller ID.
Bryce’s heart leaped for a split second, then he closed his eyes and let reality sink in. He took a deep breath and raised the phone to his ear. “Yes.”
“Uncle Bryce, did I wake you up?”
“No, Jason.” Realizing that his voice conveyed his disillusionment, he grimaced. “You know you can call me any time, night or day, don’t you, son?”