Heir to Scandal

by Andrea Laurence

  “Xander!” she yelled at its peak.

  “Rose, Rose...” he repeated in response, driving harder and faster than before until he stiffened and groaned. He gasped her name one last time as he surged into her body, leaving him exhausted and trembling.

  He dropped over to her side, sucking ragged breaths into his lungs as his muscular chest rose and fell. They both lay together quietly for a few moments before Rose pushed herself up onto her elbow to look down at him. His hair was damp and plastered to his forehead. His brow was furrowed as he lay with his eyes closed and his hands just barely trembling.

  It made her think of the very first time they’d made love. Ken had loaned Xander his truck to take her to dinner and a movie, but they’d opted for a picnic by the river with a blanket spread out in the truck bed. Under a blanket of stars, she’d given herself to him, heart and soul. Afterward she remembered looking at him as he lay just like this. A dozen years had passed since that moment, but it seemed as though she’d never gotten either of them back.

  He had her, still. Heart and soul.

  Eleven

  We have a problem, the text from Brody read. Deborah Wilder just identified the remains of her brother.

  Xander’s stomach sank. Returning to Cornwall and reality after his fantastic time with Rose in D.C. was hard enough. He wasn’t ready to face this yet.

  He set his glass of tea on the kitchen counter of Rose’s apartment and frowned at his phone. The moment of truth had arrived. And the timing couldn’t be worse. There was never a good time for that sort of thing, but they were on the verge of telling Joey that Xander was his father. He needed to be here with Rose and his son for this big moment, not at the farm fighting off the press and police that would come when the news broke. But that was why he was here. Why he’d returned to Cornwall in the first place.

  Xander looked up from his phone. Joey was playing a video game on the television, shooting at zombies or something. He was wearing a headset that allowed him to talk to players networked in other places around the world. A far cry from the Nintendo Game Boy he’d had at Joey’s age. Fortunately, his son was immersed in slaying the undead and oblivious to everything going on around him.

  Rose was in the shower. He could still hear the water running. They’d returned to Cornwall on a morning flight and then driven to camp to pick up Joey that afternoon. Rose wanted to shower and change before they shared the big news with Joey and, assuming all was received well, went out for a celebratory family dinner.

  His gaze drifted back to the words on his screen. How? he managed to type despite how badly his shaking fingers were stymying him.

  His ring, Brody texted back.

  Xander silently cursed and refrained from texting the same sentiment. Of course. He had burned all of Tommy’s things that night, but they’d all been too freaked out by the body itself to remove anything from him. Tommy had always worn a large gold ring with a black onyx stone in the middle. It was large, like a class ring, and left a distinctive welt on the skin if it came in contact with your face. Wade had found that out the hard way. Xander had luckily not gotten close enough to Tommy’s hands to get a good look at it, but it was distinctive enough for someone, especially his own sister, to recognize. He’d always worn that ring and it had been buried along with Tommy.

  After all these years, it was probably the only thing left behind and damned if it wasn’t the one thing that someone would recognize.

  She heard about the unidentified remains and called Sheriff Duke. He asked her to come down from Hartford and take a look. They’re working to match dental records. Expect things to start happening anytime now, Brody added.

  Before he could respond, his phone started to ring. It was Heath. Word was spreading fast. He got up from the barstool and carried his phone with him into the bedroom. The water was still running, so he had time to take the call.

  “Hey,” Xander answered, his tone flat. He sat on the edge of the bed and muted the television that was playing.

  “You hear from Brody?” Heath asked, skipping pleasantries.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you at the farm?”

  “No,” Xander admitted. “I’m at Rose’s apartment. We were...going to tell Joey tonight.”

  Heath whistled softly through his teeth. “I’m sorry. Not the best day to ID a body. What are you going to do?”

  “Postpone, I guess. Hopefully, she’ll understand.”

  “Xander,” Heath began, and then paused. “It’s probably all going to come out now. What happened that night. I’ve been thinking about this awhile and I’ve decided that I’m okay with it. I know it isn’t all about me. You all have something at stake here, too. But I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret trying to protect me.”

  “Of course I will. You’re—”

  “No, Xander. Listen to me.”

  Heath’s voice was firm, resolved and very much unlike him. Xander didn’t like it. He much preferred his carefree, fun younger brother. Why fate had trapped a boy so young and innocent into such a terrible deed, he would never know. He’d wished a hundred times that he had been the one to find them. That he had been the one to stop Tommy.

  “I’m tired of all of this. I think the game is up. You have your own family to protect now. That’s more important than taking care of me. I’m a grown man, now, not a child. It’s not ideal, but I will tell my story and deal with the consequences. I don’t want this hanging over our heads any longer.”

  “What about Mom and Dad?”

  There was an extended silence on the line. “I’ll tell them. I think Dad will understand what I was doing and why we couldn’t tell him before now. Hopefully, I can beat the cops to the punch.”

  “What about Julianne? Have you spoken with her?”

  He heard Heath sigh. “No, but I’m certain we’re on the same page. She’s been under this dark cloud for as long as we have. All of us knew this moment would come eventually. She probably feels responsible for it.”

  “They’ll make her come back and make a statement. You, too.”

  “I’ve been thinking about taking a few months off from the firm anyways. Things are going well. I think my partner can take the reins for a while. I need to spend some time in Cornwall and deal with all of this. I can’t do it from Madison Avenue.”

  “So what do you want me to do, Heath? Just let it happen? I can’t do that. Don’t ask me to. I came to Cornwall to handle this and now you’re asking me to forget why I’m even here.”

  “I’m not saying you should march into the police station and confess everything. But be prepared for it to unravel. I am.”

  Xander didn’t know what to say. He’d spent more than half of his life protecting this secret. It was against his nature to just let the truth come out now.

  The water in the bathroom turned off. Rose would come out any minute. “I’ve got to go,” he said. “I need to talk to Rose.”

  “Good luck with everything,” Heath said. “I can’t wait to meet my nephew. And for Mom to find out. I really want to be there when she does. I want a front-row seat and popcorn.”

  As if he didn’t already have enough to worry about. “Shut up, man.”

  He heard his brother laugh, and then the line went dead. Shaking his head, Xander slipped his phone into his pocket and tried to think of what he would say when Rose came out. Like any political speech, he thought through his words and practiced it several times in his head. It made him wish he had one of his staffers here to help him draft something. He never was the best speech writer.

  She exited the bathroom a moment later. Her body was still slightly damp and wrapped in a fluffy cotton towel. Her hair was wet and combed out down her back in long straight strands. She smiled at him as she settled onto the bed and started rubbing lotion into her legs.

  He was afraid to open his mouth. He, the politician, the master of spin. He, the one who always knew just what to say and when, couldn’t find the words. Somehow he just knew
that the second he started to speak, things would change. He would never be able to get back to this moment where she smiled at him, so loving and trusting.

  Xander wanted this to work with Rose. He wanted them to move to D.C. and start a life with him there. But every bit of that fantasy was riding on her reaction to what he was about to say.

  “Rose,” he said, “I hate to do this, but I have to take a rain check on tonight.”

  Her dark eyes narrowed at him as she finished applying her lotion and stood up. “On tonight? I thought we decided it was The Night. That’s a pretty big event to skip out on. What’s going on that’s suddenly more important?”

  “I know it’s a big deal. I’ve been looking forward to and dreading this moment since we decided to tell him. I’m so nervous that he won’t like me or that he’ll hate me for not being in his life.”

  Rose moved around the bed to sit shoulder by shoulder next to him. “He’s not going to hate you. He adores you. Finding out that you’re his father will only make it that much sweeter for him. It’s like finding out Superman is your dad.”

  “There’s no superpowers to be inherited,” Xander said drily. “Just my chaotic political life.”

  “Are you wanting to wait because you’re nervous about it?” She patted his knee reassuringly. “It’s going to be fine, really.”

  He ran his fingers though his hair. “No. I’d much rather do it and get it done so I can stop being so anxious, but I don’t want to do it and rush out. Can we postpone a day or two?”

  “Why not,” she said with an undertone of sarcasm. “We’ve already waited ten years. Really, what is more important than this, Xander? Tell me.”

  “Rose, please.” Xander said. “I’ve got to get back to the farm. There’s an emergency I need to take care of.”

  Her irritation was quickly replaced by concern. “What happened? Are Ken and Molly okay?”

  “Yes, they’re fine. There’s just something going on there that I have to be home for. It’s the reason I came to town in the first place.”

  “Something going on?” she repeated. “Get a little more vague, Xander.” Rose turned away from him and looked up at the television silently playing in front of them. The local station had cut into the syndicated television show to broadcast breaking news.

  Xander couldn’t hear the newscaster, but the image over the woman’s shoulder said Body Identified. As usual, Brody’s information had been correct and timely. The truth was out.

  * * *

  Rose picked up the remote and turned the sound of the television back on.

  “...remains discovered on the former Garden of Eden property have been identified as that of seventeen-year-old Tommy Wilder. Tommy was a foster child taken in by Ken and Molly Eden, the owners of the Garden of Eden Christmas Tree Farm, several weeks before his disappearance. His sister, Deborah Wilder Curtis of Hartford, identified the body yesterday and dental records have confirmed the match.”

  “Rose...” Xander said, but she ignored him and turned the sound up another notch on the television.

  “Tommy Wilder was reported missing by his foster parents more than fifteen years ago. All of the boy’s belongings were missing from his room and a note was found by one of the other foster children indicating that he ran away. Police will be questioning Ken and Molly Eden to try to piece together what happened the night of Tommy’s disappearance.”

  Rose swallowed hard and tried to process the information. She remembered Tommy Wilder. He was a senior when he came to live with Xander’s family. The few times Rose came to the farm while he was staying with them, she’d been thoroughly creeped out. She’d been a girl who spent most of her time being ignored, and Tommy’s heavy appraisal of her had been unnerving and unwelcome. She’d been admittedly relieved when he ran away. It had gotten to the point where she didn’t want to come to the farm or she wouldn’t let Xander out of her sight if she did.

  After Tommy’s disappearance, she and Xander had hit one of the low points in their relationship. They hadn’t been dating long, but things changed quickly. He’d suddenly become distant. He had canceled a few of their dates and made excuses not to see her. For a while she’d been certain that he was going to break up with her. Even the other Eden boys had avoided talking to her or anyone else.

  Then, after a few weeks, her old Xander came back to her. He had told her that they were all concerned about Tommy running away and all the police attention around the farm. As foster children, they could be placed in a new home at any time if the parents were deemed unfit. The Edens were the fittest parents in the world, but she could understand that it might look bad with Tommy running away.

  Things had returned to normal and after that point, she’d forgotten all about Tommy Wilder. Apparently, the story had not ended as neatly as it seemed. Xander had been excited to talk to Joey today. They had a great afternoon planned as a family. Now he was agitated and wanted to bail on the whole thing to go home. This had to be why.

  “You call that something, Xander?”

  He sighed and stood up, shaking his head. “What do you want me to say, Rose? I have to go home and protect my family from scandal and criminal charges?”

  Rose lifted the remote to turn off the television and slowly got up from the bed. When she looked at Xander, she saw an expression there that she’d never expected to see. Guilt. His hazel eyes couldn’t quite meet hers, the corners of his mouth slightly downturned as if he was trying to think of what to say. His hands were thrust in his pockets and his shoulders were hunched over.

  Her father had looked the same way when she visited him the first time in jail after the robbery. They couldn’t afford bail, so he was locked up for the months leading to his trial. Long before he was convicted, there’d been guilt in his eyes and his broken stance that he couldn’t hide from her.

  “Protect your family or protect yourself?” she asked.

  “I want to protect everyone,” he clarified. “Including you and Joey.”

  “Xander,” she said very slowly and deliberately. “Look at me. Do you know what happened to Tommy Wilder?”

  His eyes reluctantly met hers and he nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “He didn’t run away, did he?”

  Xander turned his back to her and took a few steps away to examine the collage of pictures on her wall. He studied them in great detail before he spoke.

  “You noticed what the news left out of that broadcast, didn’t you? That his parents lost custody of him because they couldn’t control him? That he was suspended for fighting and bringing a switchblade to school? That he’d been arrested for theft and assault? He was under eighteen, so all that got swept under the rug. Now that he’s dead, they’ve conveniently forgotten he was a rotten person. They talked about him like he was an abused child instead of a two-hundred-pound menace.”

  He was right, but she was afraid to follow where he was going with that. “So you’re saying he deserved it?” she asked hesitantly.

  Xander turned on his heel to look at her. She watched his expression shift as he fought with the words he really wanted to say. He probably wanted to say yes, he did deserve it. But he wouldn’t. He’d run it through his political filter first. “I’m saying that whatever happened to him, they need to consider that he probably brought it on himself.”

  He wouldn’t say the words, but he didn’t have to. Whatever happened on the farm all those years ago, Xander had been involved. The hows and whys didn’t matter. She was certain her father had reasons for doing what he’d done. He’d probably stated them in the hundred letters she’d thrown away. In the end, nothing changed the truth and nothing would bring the dead back to life.

  “I suppose it’s just as well that we don’t talk to Joey today. Under the circumstances, perhaps we shouldn’t tell him at all.”

  “Rose, wait. This doesn’t change our plans or how I feel about you or Joey. I just need time to work this out.”

  She detected a pleading edge in his voice. H
er father had pleaded with her, but it had fallen on deaf ears just as Xander’s pleas did now. She’d thought that loving Xander would be a safe choice—as far away on the spectrum from her father as she could get. Xander was a politician who carefully dodged scandal. He certainly wouldn’t commit a crime, right? She felt so foolish. Some people would say that all politicians were criminals to different degrees.

  “Time to work it out?” Rose rushed into the bathroom and came out wrapped in her robe. She couldn’t have this conversation in a flimsy bath towel. “How long, Xander? Ten to fifteen? He already has a criminal for a grandfather. Do you honestly think I’m going to let him have a criminal for a father, too?”

  Xander flinched and his jaw tightened in response. “I’m not a criminal, Rose. You don’t understand.”

  “Of course I don’t. I’m just a silly law-abiding citizen trying to live a decent life, and everyone around me seems hell-bent on dragging me down with them. I don’t know what happened that night, Xander, and I’m not sure I want to know. It’s bad enough that I know how the night ended.”

  “It’s not as simple as that, Rose.”

  “I don’t know what I was thinking,” she said, ignoring him as her blood pumped furiously in her ears. “Just like the rest of the voting public, I sat back and ate up all your practiced and polished words, but they didn’t mean anything. All this time, all the promises you made about our future together, our future with Joey, you were just talking big. Nothing but lies.”

  Color suddenly rushed to Xander’s face and clenched jaw. “Lies? I meant everything I said to you. If we’re going to talk about lies, Rose, how about the ones you’ve been spouting to the whole town for the last ten years, huh?”

  “How dare you even compare those two things! I didn’t kill anyone. I just protected your career.”

  “And made a fine martyr of yourself in the process. Don’t throw stones, Rose. Neither of us is innocent.”