The Marriage Conspiracy

by Christine Rimmer

  Camilla grinned. “I ordered her out, at first.”

  “But I was persistent.”

  “You certainly were.” The two women shared a smile that could only be called fond.

  Then Antonia looked at Joleen again. “I approached your mother because, by the time I got up my courage…by the time I finally accepted the fact that I would have to take action, that I could not allow things to go on as they were, you and your new husband had gone out of town. It was all over the newspapers, about your marriage—” she glanced up at Dekker “—and about you, Dekker, about what you’d learned of your real background.” Her eyes met Joleen’s again. “And Robert was furious. He had talked to our lawyer, of course, and been told that your marriage and your new husband’s wealth would make things a lot harder for him. Pretty much impossible, really, was what the lawyer said…”

  Antonia paused. A small sound of distress escaped her. “Oh, my dear Joleen, the whole time, even before your sister’s wedding day, when Robert first told me what he planned to do, I knew it was so very, very wrong. I’d seen you with Samuel, seen with my own eyes what a fine mother you are. And I also knew…” She hesitated, as if whatever she meant to say was just too difficult to admit.

  But then she forged on. “I knew that Robert and I had not been the parents to our darling Bobby that we should have been. That Bobby had grown up to be…weak. And irresponsible. That what he’d done to you, leaving you all on your own with a baby to raise, was unforgivable. And yet, there you were, reaching out to us, offering us a place in your little boy’s life. I did admire you. So much. But Robert—” Antonia hung her beautifully groomed head. “Oh, I don’t know. I just don’t know about that man.”

  “Now, now, Tony.” Camilla wrapped a comforting arm around the other woman’s shoulder. “It is going to be okay, now. You know that. It will be all right.”

  Antonia sent Camilla a grateful glance, then turned to Joleen again. “Oh, I wish you could understand, though of course I know I cannot expect you to. My husband could not bear to admit how totally we failed, with our son. And he would have given anything for what he will never have—another chance. He was—he still is, really—terribly confused. He convinced himself that he could somehow start all over. That it was his duty to steal your son from you and raise Samuel the way he knew, deep in his heart, that he should have raised our Bobby.” Antonia’s eyes had a faraway look, at that moment. Faraway and infinitely sad.

  She seemed to shake herself. “But that was then. Now, as I told you, there is no way he will even try to take Samuel away from you.”

  Joleen leaned forward. “You sound so certain about that.”

  “I am. Very certain. You see, after I talked with Camilla…” Antonia paused to fondly pat the hand that clasped her shoulder. “I went to Robert and I told him that there would be no custody battle. That if he tried such a thing, I would not only leave him, I would be there, in court, to testify in your behalf.” A bleak smile lifted the edges of Antonia’s mouth. “He was not happy with me. I spent two nights at your mother’s house, as a matter of fact, to give him a chance to cool down a little. But we are…working on our problems now. And it looks as if we may come through this together, still married to each other, after all.

  “Joleen.” Antonia pulled away from Camilla. She took a step to the side, as if she would go on around the coffee table, come to where Joleen sat in the comfy old chair. But then she stopped herself. “I hope someday you can bring yourself to forgive me. And maybe eventually even find it in your heart to forgive Robert, too. I should have come forward sooner. I know that. I am so sorry, not only for what my son did to you, but also for all those terrible things Robert said to you the day that your sister was married. And beyond that, for the constant anxiety you must have suffered in the past few weeks, believing you would be facing a long, drawn-out court battle. I wanted to try to call you, as soon as I’d confronted Robert…”

  “But I stopped her,” Camilla said, sounding thoroughly pleased with herself. “I wanted you to have that time away.” A knowing gleam lit up the big brown eyes. “I can see I was right, too—that your little getaway has been very good, for both of you. And, anyway, the news was right here, waitin’ for you, when you got home. Oh, it is all going to work out, now, isn’t it? It is all going to work out just fine.” Now those brown eyes were brimming.

  Joleen said, “Mama,” in a warning tone.

  “I won’t,” vowed Camilla. “I will not start in cryin’ right now. You do not have to worry. You have my word.”

  Joleen turned her gaze to the woman at her mother’s side. More than a good haircut and a few makeup tips had happened to Antonia Atwood. A much deeper change had taken place. Here was a woman who had finally stood up for what she believed in. The quaking mauve mouse was no more.

  Slow down here, a more cynical voice in the back of Joleen’s mind cautioned. A little suspicion is healthy. This could be a trick, some new angle Robert Atwood has decided to try against you, a clever way to get you to let down your guard.

  But Joleen didn’t believe that. How could she?

  Just looking in Antonia’s eyes told the real story. Bobby Atwood’s mother had taken a stand. And she would not be backing down from it.

  Joleen said, “Thank you, for this. For doing the right thing. For…coming to me now.”

  Antonia dipped her chin in a nod of acknowledgment. “It’s not enough. But it is a start. And I also want you to know that arrangements have been made for you to get the financial support Bobby should have provided when he learned there would be a baby. It will be a considerable amount of money. Our family lawyer will be contacting you in the next few days to discuss all the details.”

  Joleen opened her mouth to protest that she didn’t need any money. But she shut it without speaking. It wasn’t her money, after all. It was Sam’s, and he did have a right to it.

  The grandmothers left a few minutes later, after Camilla extracted a promise from Joleen that she and Dekker and Sam would have dinner at her house that night.

  As soon as she let the two older women out the front door, Joleen turned to her husband. “Well. What do you think of that?”

  He shrugged.

  She peered at him more closely. “All of a sudden you are very quiet.”

  “What is there for me to say?”

  Something had changed. She couldn’t put her finger on what. “Is something wrong?”

  “Not a thing.”

  It came to her what was probably bothering him. “You don’t trust her.”

  “No, that’s not so. I think she was telling the absolute truth. I think Robert Atwood knows now that he doesn’t have a prayer of taking Sam away from you, not under any circumstances.”

  Joleen realized she’d been holding her breath. She let it out in a rush. “Oh, Dekker. I believed her, too. But I couldn’t completely allow myself to think that we were in the clear until I could hear it from you. I know, sometimes, I can be kind of a fool about trustin’ people.”

  “You are no fool, Jo. And you’re right about this. That woman’s on the level. I’d stake my whole, newly acquired, totally unearned fortune on that.”

  So silly, but right then, she felt hesitant about going to him, putting her arms around him, laying her head against his heart. Why? “You know, you do seem kind of distant.”

  He shrugged again. “Just preoccupied. I should get over to the agency, check my messages. Who the hell knows what I’ve got there that I need to deal with.”

  Well, she was not allowing this strange feeling of distance that had popped up out of nowhere to get between them. She moved forward, wrapped her arms around his waist and put her head where she wanted it—against his broad chest. “I’d like to keep you here forever.”

  She felt his chuckle, a deep rumble against her ear. Was it just a little forced?

  He kissed her, on the crown of her head, a sweet, warm pressure, his lips against her hair. And then he was taking her by the arms, s
etting her back from him. “Gotta go.”

  “But I—” She stopped herself from begging him to stay a few minutes longer. For heaven’s sake, the man did have a business to run. He’d been totally hers for over a week now. And she was spoiled. Now they were back home, she was going to have to get used to giving him a little space.

  She thought of Stacey and almost shivered, though the heater had done its job and the house was now cozy and warm. She was not going to become the kind of wife that Stacey had been—clinging and needful, never letting him have a moment to himself.

  She put on a bright smile. “Well, go on, then. You get to work.”

  He turned from her. She trailed after him and stood there in the open doorway, the chilly air outside bringing up the goose bumps along her arms, watching as he hurried away from her down her front steps.

  He called sometime later. She wasn’t sure exactly when. She and Sam were out picking up a few groceries at the time. He left a message saying he had even more to deal with at the agency than he’d anticipated. He wouldn’t be making it back for dinner at Camilla’s. He didn’t know when he’d get in.

  And she shouldn’t wait up for him.

  She could hear it in his voice. Something was bothering him, in spite of his earlier denials.

  She tried to call him. At the agency, and on his cell phone. She got voice mail both places. She tried his apartment. Same thing.

  Well, fine, she told herself as she put away the wedding gifts Camilla had left in the guest room for her while they were gone. He had to come home eventually. And she would insist they talk about it as soon as he did. However late it ended up being, she would be waiting up.

  Right after dinner Camilla asked Niki to take Sam upstairs and keep an eye on him for a little while. “And you,” she said to Joleen. “You come on with me.”

  “Mama…”

  “Don’t you ‘mama’ me. Come on. This way.” Camilla grabbed Joleen’s hand and dragged her toward the study, shutting the door behind them once they were inside.

  Camilla folded her arms across her middle. “You’ve had a frown between your brows all evenin’. And Dekker is missing. I can hardly keep up with all the changes around here lately. I want you to tell me. Just tell me straight-out. What has gone wrong now?”

  Joleen spoke with measured calm. “Dekker is not missing. He has work to do. He’s been away for two weeks and—”

  Camilla waved a slender hand. “Don’t give me that. There is somethin’ wrong here. I can see it in those eyes of yours. And I do not like it. This afternoon I was feelin’ so good, too. I actually thought all of your problems were solved.”

  “Mama—”

  Camilla shook her head. “No. Wait. Let me say what I have to say.”

  “But—”

  “I mean it. Let your mother talk.”

  Joleen let out a groan and dropped into one of the soft, old chairs. “Oh, go ahead. As if I ever could stop you.”

  Camilla narrowed her eyes and pursed up her mouth. “Don’t get righteous on me now, not after the way you have lied to me.”

  “Mama—”

  “Shh. You think I wasn’t bound to get it all figured out? You think your mama is a fool, she can’t add two and two and come up with four? You two, you and Dekker. I know what you did, schemin’ together, deciding to marry to keep Robert Atwood from having any chance of stealing Sam. I had it figured out from the first, even though you lied right in my face and said it wasn’t so. I knew. A mother knows. And by the time Tony came looking for me at the shop, I’d done a little deep thinkin’ on the subject. And it had come to me that maybe you and Dekker were not such an impossible pair after all.”

  Joleen shifted in her chair. “Oh, now, what is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, I got to thinking how it was for you two. That maybe it wasn’t a problem of there being no spark between you, but that over and over again life had got in the way of you findin’ out what you were to each other—first, with your daddy dying, God rest his sweet, sweet soul.”

  Joleen leaned forward. “Daddy dying? What does that have to do with—”

  “Joly honey, you got so responsible after Samuel passed. You had no time for the love that was waitin’ for you. And then, along comes that poor, pretty, mixed-up Stacey, getting between you and Dekker, snatchin’ him away from you before you even knew he was yours in the first place. And then she hurt him. Hurt him down to his very soul. And after Stacey, well, there was that foolish, handsome Atwood boy. And then that boy dumped you and you had Sam. And by that time both you and Dekker had convinced yourselves that you were immune to love.

  “But you know what I told you, that morning after you announced to the family that you and Dekker were tying the knot. It was the truth, what I told you. There is no mistake so big that love can’t find a way to make it right in the end.

  “Once I saw the truth about the two of you, I knew what you needed. A little time, in close quarters, away from it all. And that is why I didn’t let Tony call you with the news that the custody battle was off. I wanted the two of you to have that time. I wanted you to have the chance to find out that you are not immune to love, that you love each other, in a soul-deep, man and woman way.”

  Camilla parked her hands on her hips and let out a hard huff of breath. “And it worked, didn’t it?” She waved a hand again. “You don’t even have to answer. I saw you two together today. And there it was, at last. The fire, as well as the tenderness. You two have it all—or, at least, I could have sworn you did this afternoon.”

  Camilla fell silent. The beloved, shabby room seemed to echo with everything she had said.

  Joleen swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. And then she jumped from the chair.

  “Oh, Mama…”

  “Come here, baby. Here to me…” Her mother’s arms were waiting. They closed around her.

  “Oh, Mama. You are so right…”

  “Well, of course I am, baby.”

  “But…something is wrong. I don’t know what. He got so far away, all of a sudden, right after you and Antonia left this afternoon.”

  “You have told him, haven’t you? You did say the words?”

  “The words?”

  Camilla took Joleen’s face in her hands. “Honey, I mean, have you told him that you love him—as a man? Have you done that?”

  Joleen swallowed again.

  And her mother dropped her hands, stepped back and sent a look of pure exasperation heavenward. “Oh, well, I should have known. You haven’t even told him.”

  “But, Mama, you don’t know how it has been. We’ve been so happy, just livin’ every minute for all it was worth. I didn’t even think about telling him, about sitting him down and saying, ‘Look, I love you. You are the only man for me.’ It didn’t even seem necessary to say it in words. Everything was going so wonderfully. It’s been so beautiful. So right.”

  “It is necessary,” her mother said softly. “He needs to hear that you love him, and he needs to hear it from your mouth.”

  “Yes. Yes, of course. I can see that. I can see that now.”

  “Tell him.”

  “I will.”

  “As soon as he has sense enough to come home to you.”

  “I promise.”

  “And then find out what happened this afternoon that made him pull away.”

  “Oh, Mama. I…I worry—”

  “That is not news, baby. Since your daddy died, you have worried way too much.”

  “I mean, I worry that he’ll think I’m like Stacey, clinging to him, making demands on him that he can’t handle.”

  Camilla took her by the shoulders then and gave her a shake. “You listen. You listen to me. You are not Stacey. You never were and you never could be. You are a strong and self-sufficient woman who knows what she wants out of life, not to mention how to go about gettin’ it. And Dekker knows that about you. He probably knows it even better than you do. Never, ever is he going to confuse you with
that poor, troubled girl. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, Mama. I do.”

  “Talk to him. Stick with him. Get him to talk to you.”

  Chapter 17

  Dekker surprised her.

  In spite of that message he’d left, saying he would be in late, he was waiting on her front porch, one leg slung up on the railing, when she got home from her mother’s. A quick shaft of pure gladness passed through her at the sight of him, hunched down in his leather bomber jacket against the bite of the chilly night wind. And then apprehension rose up, tightening her stomach, making her heart beat a little faster than before.

  He had his own key. She had given him one a year ago, when she first moved in. It bothered her—a lot—that he hadn’t used it. It seemed as if he made a sort of statement, by not letting himself in, by waiting out here in the cold and the dark like a stranger, like someone who didn’t have the right to enter her house when she wasn’t home.

  When he saw her drive up, he jumped down from the porch and jogged over to pull open the garage door for her. She drove her car in, got out and went to get Sam from the back seat.

  Dekker waited for her to emerge and then lowered the door. She turned for the back steps, carrying her sleeping son on one shoulder.

  When Dekker fell in beside her, she asked, carefully, “Why didn’t you let yourself in? No need to sit out here in the cold.”

  He didn’t answer. His silence, to her, seemed ominous. She sent him a glance. And for that she got a shrug that might have meant anything.

  They went up the back steps. “I’ll just put Sammy down,” she said once they were inside.

  “Fine.”

  She left him, turning the light on as she went out of the room.

  She took Sammy to the bathroom and got him to use the toilet. Then she put him to bed, taking off his little jacket and his shoes and socks, but leaving him in his clothes so as not to wake him any more than she had already.

  Once she’d tucked him beneath the covers, she kissed him, on his soft little cheek, taking comfort from the contact. Then she smoothed his hair off his forehead, whispered a good-night he did not hear and tiptoed from the room.