by Marcy Blesy
“What is it?” I ask.
“Take it, and see for yourself. Maybe you’ll believe me now.”
I take a couple of steps forward, the stand-off between father and daughter still upheld by the distance between us. I grab the envelope and rip open the top, pulling out a piece of paper. It’s a bank statement. Written underneath the name of the bank is my name: Reese Prentice with a current balance amount showing $109,007.12. My fingers start trembling as I squeeze the paper between them. “I don’t understand.”
“Ted Oakley told me to leave Tremont Lodge sixteen years ago after a series of horrible accidents.”
“So you say.”
“You’re right, Reese. No one but your mother and Nadia know what happened up on that ski lift, and…”
“I’m not talking about the ski lift accident. I’m talking about you killing my mother in your lodge room.”
“I did not kill your mother, Reese. I tried to stop her. You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth. She was determined to kill herself after the accusations that swirled around when Nadia fell. She was angry with me for the affair. I assume you know about that, too. But I swear on my life that I tried to stop her that night. It just wasn’t enough.”
“If that’s all true, then why did you take the money and leave?”
“Because no one could prove that what I just told you is the truth.”
“Because it could also have been murder?”
“Because to some it may have looked that way. And because I didn’t want your mom’s memory disparaged with implications that she may have killed Nadia in a fit of rage over my infidelity, that you might someday find out that your mother was dead and your biological father didn’t claim you.”
The last words sting the hardest, a continual reminder that no one wanted me.
“I took the money and opened a checking account for you. That statement proves that what I tell you is the truth. It’s all there—the $100,000 plus interest. And you have only to call and have the money transferred to whatever bank you are using now or ask them to close the account and send you a check. Your choice.”
I drop into the nearest chair, feeling warm and sweaty. Breathe in. Breathe out. A throbbing pain stabs at the front of my head, and I am dizzy.
John puts a water bottle in my hand. “Drink this, Reese. You’re overwhelmed.”
I do as I’m told, and for the first time, look into his deep grey eyes, the color of Blake’s. Blake. “What about Blake?” I ask. “He really is your son.”
“Oh, Reese. You are really my daughter. You always have been, and you always will be, whether you acknowledge that or not. No lack of a DNA connection will ever change how I feel about you. I’ve been proud of you every step of your life.”
“Then why did you wait until now to contact me?”
“Because I wasn’t sure you wanted to know the truth, and no matter how much I wanted to tell you, to let you know that it cut me deep to leave you at the lodge all those years ago…” He puts his hand on his chest and takes his own deep breaths. “But when I found out you were coming to the lodge, I knew it was time, finally, to come clean…because you were looking for answers.”
“You’ve been following me,” I say.
“Ah, I see you’ve discussed a little of my life with Mr. Oakley. Yes, his private investigators tailed me for years, but they need not have worried. I would never have blown my cover. Your feelings meant too much to me.”
“If that were true, then why did you leave Blake and me to be raised by two emotionally absent people?” The venom sits just below the surface, and I know he senses it.
“My parents—your grandparents—never supported my choice to leave. They made that abundantly clear when they told me to never show my face in Bridgman again, or they’d call the police themselves. But they loved you both the best they could despite my problems, and I am forever grateful to them for that. Blake was too young to remember…”
“That he was left strapped into his car seat in an empty bathtub with his five-year-old sister to watch over him while her mother lay dead in a pool of her own blood in the next room?” I say.
“Y…yes. He’s had a much easier adjustment with all of this, I suppose.”
Silence floats between us, the new revelations floating around in my mind. “Why have you been sending me messages and spying on me at the lodge? It scared the hell out of me,” I say.
“I felt it was a little safer to contact you once you started seeking answers, but I was afraid you’d bolt if you knew I was here. I guess in my mind I imagined we were having dialogue. I didn’t see it as a one-way communication. I don’t know, Reese. I didn’t mean to frighten you. I hoped you would want to see me, but I didn’t know…” He takes a deep breath and blows the air out slowly.
“I…I did want to see you.” It’s true. Ever since I found out that John Prentice was alive, a part of me has wanted to see him. A part of me needed to confront him about what he did to Blake and me so long ago. So, now what?
We both turn our heads to the back of the room as the doors are burst open. “Reese!” Lawson is out of breath by the time he gets to us, filling in the empty space between my dad and me. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“I’m fine, Lawson. This is…this is my dad, John.”
He holds out his hand to shake Lawson’s, but Lawson needs my approval before he takes it, so I nod my head that it’s all okay. “Hello, Lawson. It’s a pleasure to meet a friend of Reese’s.”
That makes me giggle out loud, but I stop laughing when they both look at me like I’ve gone crazy. I can’t help it, though. If I didn’t find something to laugh about in this situation, I’d cry. And God knows I’m tired of crying. “Sorry,” I say. “Why are you here, Lawson?”
“I found out that he…uh, that, John checked out of his room already, but he didn’t take the last shuttle to the airport. I was worried about you.”
“It seems your heart has grown a few sizes after all, Lawson,” I say.
His lip curls up on one side, and a twinkle returns to his eyes. “Keep my secret,” he says.
“You have my word.”
“Reese.” We turn our attention back to my dad. “I did miss the airport shuttle, but there should be a taxi waiting for me in front of the lodge. I do have a plane to catch.”
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“I have some friends that live in Florida I’m staying with. They have a construction company. It’s good to stay busy.”
“But, don’t you want to see Blake…and your parents?”
His face says it all, and I feel his pain. “Blake doesn’t know any different, so there’s no need to create a wound. And my parents? Well, they’re better off without me.”
“Why would you say that?”
“I disappointed them one too many times in my life. There are too many poor decisions to recall. But the best decision I ever made was to put you in their care. You may not see it that way, but at the time I felt like it was the best choice for the two of you. Maybe someday you can come to forgive me.” He walks a little closer so that he is standing next to Lawson and in front of my chair. “I won’t check up on you any more, Reese. You don’t need to live your life looking over your shoulder. If you want to contact me, you have my number.” He pauses a moment more before picking up his suitcase from the floor and walking toward the door.
“Wait!” I say, jumping up from my chair and following him. “You…you should call your parents. I think they need to hear from you.”
“I don’t know about that, Reese.”
“Trust me,” I say.
“I’ll think about it. Good luck to you. You seem happy. That’s all I’ve ever wanted for you.”
When he gets to the door, I call out one last time. “Thank you!”
“For what? I destroyed your life.”
“Thank you for the money. Thank you for not trading your love for me with a love for money.”
“There’
s nothing that would make me trade my love for you.”
I walk toward my dad and reach for his arm which tenses upon first touch. Then I throw my other arm around the man I’d known my whole life as dad and hug him. He hugs back, and to the casual observer, our embrace looks like a normal goodbye, but to us, the sentiment is so much deeper—and I hope it’s enough to carry me through the rest of my life, for I may never see John Prentice again.
When he is gone, I wipe away the remaining tears and Lawson holds open the door. “Thanks, Lawson,” I say.
“For messing up your summer?” he asks, grinning.
“No, for giving me a happy memory with my dad.”
“Any time. Now, shouldn’t you be meeting Finn or something?”
Chapter 17:
Finn is waiting at the base of the ski lift. I see him before he sees me, the bright setting sun blocking his view. He looks so handsome dressed in plaid shorts and a blue v-neck t-shirt with a Detroit Tigers baseball cap shielding his eyes. A large smile crosses his face when he sees me. He holds out a single red rose. “This is for you, my lady.”
“Wow! I didn’t know we were exchanging gifts,” I say.
“Well, you were supposed to bring a gift, too. How are we going to rectify this problem?” I plant a kiss on his cheek. “Hmm…not good enough,” he says, pouting. I kiss the other cheek. He shakes his head no.
“How about this?” I wrap my arms around Finn’s neck and pull my body as close to his as possible. I kiss each cheek again and end on his lips, kissing soft and long, stopping only to inhale and take another breath.
“Are you going to open your eyes?” he asks.
“I don’t think so,” I say, laying my head on his chest.
“How come?” He holds up my chin until I’m forced to open my eyes and look at him. “Because then this dream might end, and I don’t want it to end.”
“It’s not a dream, Reese. I’m right here. All you have to do is accept me, for who I am now, for the mistakes I’ve made in the past, for who I’ll be in the future. I’m right here waiting for you.”
“I do. I want you, Finn.”
“Good. Then we agree, and your gift is accepted.”
We take the next ski lift to the top of the mountain though we’d have our pick as no one else is here tonight. We watch the sunset as we ride up the mountain, the lodge growing smaller in the distance. I try to capture this moment in my memory bank to add to the other good memories of this summer, for there really have been many. And though I know it’s important to tell Finn about my dad, this isn’t the right time.
When we get to the top of the mountain, Finn grabs hold of my hand and leads me down the path away from the old restaurant. I know where we’re going…our secret grassy spot down the mountain a bit but still with an amazing view of Tremont City below. By the time the blanket is laid out, the city is coming alive with twinkling lights in the homes and businesses, but none can rival the twinkling stars in the sky above us. We lie on our backs next to each other.
“First one who finds a shooting star gets to give a dare,” says Finn, grinning devilishly.
“You’re naughty,” I say. We lie still for a long time, just watching the sky, discounting airplanes overhead from shooting stars. Finn brushes my hair with his fingers until my ponytail falls out. “Tell me about the baby,” I whisper.
He sighs. “Two summers ago Sam and I tried to see if we had enough in common to forge a relationship. I thought we might. She’s really not as much of a bitch as she seemed. She’s…different now—a lot more closed off from the real world. Anyway, it wasn’t working as well as I thought when I got that picture of her and Lawson in bed together. Then a month after she left, I got a call. She told me she was pregnant. She told me the baby was mine, though there was never a paternity test. For all I know, Lawson was the father.”
“What’d you do?” I ask, turning on my side to face Finn, his butterfly calling me closer.
“I freaked out a little. I didn’t want to be a dad. She came up to see me, and we agreed she would keep the baby, and she and I would have to see if we were meant to be.”
“You started dating again?”
“We tried, but there wasn’t a whole lot of trust left on my side. I drove out to see her and we went to a few doctor’s appointments together. Then one night in October—she was four months pregnant—she called me in the middle of my set, freaking out on the phone. She said she was bleeding, and they’d done an ultrasound and the baby wasn’t alive and that she’d have to…” He closes his eyes and inhales before continuing. “And that she’d have to deliver the baby dead.”
“Oh no,” I say.
“So, I drove out to see her again and went with her to the hospital. Her parents were spitting mad at me. They pretty much disowned her anyway after that night, too.”
“That’s why they weren’t at the wedding.”
“Yes. Anyway, after that whole ordeal, we didn’t really talk much. She dropped out of my life. I dropped out of hers. That was that except for some minor social media following.”
“Until she showed up this summer and wanted you back.”
“I guess that’s probably an accurate assessment. Like I said, she’s not quite right anymore, but Anthony seems like a nice enough guy, and if money is her new goal, then I hope it makes her happy. I really do.”
“Look!” I sit up and point to the sky behind Finn. “There’s a shooting star.”
“No fair,” he says, “You distracted me by making me talk so long.”
“Totally fair. And I get to issue the dare.”
“Dammit. I had a good one, too,” he says, smirking. He sits up and scoots closer, putting his arm around me. “But go ahead. I’m ready.”
“Finn.” I reach out and stroke his butterfly, kissing it gently. “I dare you to take that job on the cruise ship next spring, and I dare you to take me with you.”
“Reese. Don’t. You know Ted wants you to stay here. Whether I go or not, I haven’t decided, but…”
“But I’ve decided. I want you to go. The opportunity might never come around again, and if music is your passion, then you need to take the next step. And if you want me, then I want to be with you…on the cruise ship. It’s time for me to leave Tremont Lodge again—at least for a little while. It will be good for me to take a break. Ted will understand, and Lawson, as much as I hate to admit it, is quite capable of handling things here.”
Finn tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear, puts his hand on the back of my head, and pulls my mouth onto his, the coolness of the night heating up around us. “I take that dare, Reese Prentice. I don’t care where we go, as long as we’re together. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Hey! Look, another shooting star,” says Finn.
“If you’re a good boy, I may let you give me that dare anyway,” I say.
We lie on the ground, tangled in each other, forgetting the problems of our pasts, and focus on the here and now. Because maybe a focus on the present is the answer I’ve been missing all along.
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The third book in the Tremont Lodge series will be released in early summer 2015.
www.marcyblesy.com
@marcyblesy on Twitter
Young Adult books by Marcy Blesy:
To Know Me YA Romance Series:
To Know Me
To Love Me
To Forgive Me
To Choose Me
To Know Me: http://amzn.to/1BxAuGF
To know me is to die...
Seventeen-year-old Mae is convinced that the consequences of her poor decisions have caused the untimely deaths of her dad, sister Laura, and grandma who all die within a year, no matter how ludicrous her thoughts seem to those she loves. The solution? Run away so no one else she cares for gets hurt (even if she has to keep a GPS tracker on her phone at al
l times).
Desperate to earn her diploma and salvage something of her life, she transfers schools when people get too close. After switching to Woodson Prep with only two months to go until graduation, Mae keeps her goals in sight. But when she meets Ty, the "perfect boy" with his own secrets and a relentless interest in Mae, she must decide if she can stop running from the past and still protect those she loves.
For a sneak peak, at TO KNOW ME, continue reading.
Chapter 1:
To know me is to die. I mean, to really know me, like when you know I can run for hours without so much as a water break, or that cinnamon sugar doughnuts are my weakness, or that my dad gave me a whole different name. But I don’t let people get that close. I’ve learned the hard way. Too many people die in my life. Grandma said I was only unlucky.
“It’s not your fault all those people you love die. It’s just bad luck that you’ve had to deal with grief so young. Not fair at all,” she’d said. That was right before she died on my seventeenth birthday and right after my sister Laura, my dad, and my dog Petie.
I direct Mom Number 4 toward the front door of the high school. I always get a new mom when I transfer schools. I have yet to find a school that allows a seventeen-year-old to register herself. I wanted to graduate in Ohio, but too many people started asking questions. They weren’t important questions. Just stuff like, “How come I can’t ever come over to your house?” or “Why won’t you ever talk about yourself?” or when I do, “That’s not what you told so-and-so.” I had to leave. To let people into my life isn’t an option anymore. But, there’re no worries anyone will start to ask questions here. It’s already March. That diploma is as good as mine. Then I can enroll in online college and try to salvage something of my pathetic life.
Mom 4 is a crackhead. It’s not the first time I’ve had a Mom that was a drug addict. They’re easy to find, standing on the street corner pretending not to be desperately looking for someone to give them a fix. They’re agreeable. All they want is my money. I have plenty of that. This Mom seems a little rougher around the edges than most. I had to rouse her from sleep wedged between the 7-11 and an ethnic grocery store downtown. She was curled like a ball using her own body temperature as a blanket. When I shook her a little, she started screaming. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” as she rocked back and forth. It took her a few minutes to process that I wasn’t the person she was apologizing to. Then she seemed embarrassed, even patting her hair down as if she could make herself look presentable. After a short discussion, neutral-colored concealer for the spots on her face, a brush through her hair, and a spritz of cheap cologne, Mom 4 was transformed. Right now she shakes as she reaches for the buzzer that will admit us to Woodson Prep School. I imagine she’ll get more drugs as soon as I’ve paid her.