Masks and Lies

by McKechnie, A C J

  “Why didn’t he call me then?”

  “Would you have answered?” her dad asked with a raised brow, and Kendra thought on that. Honestly, she didn’t know. Her initial inclination was to say no, she wouldn’t have, but she wasn’t too sure if that really would have been the case.

  “I’m not sure,” she replied honestly and watched as her dad’s eyebrows shot up at the admission before he studied her closely again. “He didn’t even try though.”

  Sighing again, Howard put his hands in his pockets before looking back at her again. “He didn’t want to tell you something like that over the phone. The fact was that Elizabeth was in a bad way when he first called. It’s not the type of news to break to somebody like that,” her dad said, and Kendra looked at him in surprise.

  “What do you mean when he first called?”

  “He tried to get hold of me last night, as soon as it happened.”

  “What? Why’d it take us so long to do anything then?”

  “Because I wouldn’t take his calls. He managed to get through to me this morning under false pretenses,” he explained, and Kendra interrupted him.

  “He’s good at that,” she mumbled, and her dad shot her a quick look before continuing.

  “I was about to get rid of him when he told me why he’d been trying to contact me. As soon as I found out I got everything ready.”

  “I still don’t understand why he didn’t try me if getting hold of you was so difficult.”

  “Because he wanted to make sure that you had somebody there for you, Kendra,” the man explained with a sigh, and Kendra found herself caught off-guard by his response. “And most likely because I warned him not to,” he added, and Kendra looked at her father for an explanation.

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you told me what Astley had done I confronted him about it all. I was angry at him. You were angry at him. He’d hurt you, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again, so I told him to stay away. I warned him off.”

  “Warned him off?” she asked in confusion.

  “I promised him that if he ever tried to contact you again, I’d destroy him, Kendra. The man knows I could as well. And he also knew that I would,” her dad confessed, and Kendra stared at the man in utter shock.

  “I … what?” she finally settled on as she stared at her dad, and watched as he just shrugged.

  “You’re my daughter. I’d do anything to protect you.”

  Shaking her head, she decided to put her father’s actions to the side while she got some answers to the other questions circling in her head.

  “Okay. Well, what about Ni– Mitchell finding Betsy then. What did he mean?”

  “Exactly what he said. He found her. She’d collapsed and didn’t have a pulse. He administered CPR and called an ambulance,” her dad supplied, and Kendra stared at him with wide eyes.

  “He saved her life?

  “By all accounts, yes.”

  “What was he even doing there?”

  “That I’m not sure about.”

  “Why’s he even in Granville?”

  “That I do know. He’s been staying here. He sold his condo in the city and relocated here.”

  “What? Why?” she asked in surprised confusion.

  “I’m not sure. I only know that much because I wanted to keep tabs on him, to make sure that he wasn’t planning on trying to get back in touch with you.”

  “If he’s in Granville though, wouldn’t you realize that we’d bump into each other?”

  “You haven’t been in Granville. I was going to decide on what to do once you’d moved back. If he were still around at that point of course,” he added, and Kendra just shook her head.

  “As much as I appreciate it, Dad, you can’t protect me from everything. And that includes heartache,” she said with a rueful smile and watched as her dad exhaled before nodding.

  “I know. I guess deep down I’d managed to figure that out, which might explain why I hadn’t done anything to get Astley out of here before. I’m new to this father thing, I’m still learning,” he said apologetically, and Kendra smiled at him before reaching over to lay a hand on his arm.

  “I know. You’re doing good, Dad. But I’m not just your daughter, I’m also an adult. You might not believe it of me, but I can cope. I know that in the past I haven’t exactly done so in the most effective and safest of manners,” she said quietly, “but I’m getting better with all of that. And keeping me wrapped up in cotton wool isn’t going to help in the long run. I need to learn how to deal with things myself.”

  “I know,” he said with a sigh. “I just hate the idea that I introduced somebody into your life who hurt you so much.”

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she comforted.

  “I still feel responsible though.”

  “You were only trying to do what you thought was best at the time.”

  “Maybe, but that doesn’t change what happened.”

  “No, but dwelling on it doesn’t either,” she said softly as she realized that although the hurt still remained, the anger had somehow dissipated over time. Whether it was seeing the man face to face a few minutes ago, or whether it had been a gradual process which she’d only just realized had occurred, but whatever it was, the anger was gone. She didn’t feel angry at Mitchell Astley anymore. The hatred wasn’t there. The hurt was left, but so was the regret, the regret and also the desire to understand.

  Suddenly Kendra wasn’t so keen to avoid him, to block him out. Knowing that he hadn’t tried to contact her directly about Betsy had hurt, and she realized that it was because she’d wanted him to. Wanted him to talk to her. Suddenly she wanted to hear the man out, to find out what had happened from his point of view.

  She wanted to figure it all out. And she desperately wanted to know why he was in Granville. Why had he come back here? What had been the purpose of doing so?

  Looking over at her dad, she knew that he didn’t have the answers, but she was almost positive that she knew of two people that did. One of those people was currently recovering from open heart surgery, but the other one she knew she could turn to and knew that they’d do whatever they could to help.

  Picking up her cell, she watched as her dad pointed out the ‘no phones’ sign and sighed in impatience. Her curiosity would have to wait. But she would get her answers. And once she had them, she’d then be able to start making some much needed decisions.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Waiting impatiently for an answer on the other end, Kendra paced outside of the hospital with her cell against her ear. It was cold. It was snowing. But she was determined to get some answers and she wasn’t going to go back inside until she had them, even if she had to drive back to Granville and track the man down herself.

  Betsy had woken up again, and Kendra had had about two minutes with the woman before they’d kicked her out. As desperate as she’d been to find out all about Mitchell’s motives for being in her town she wasn’t going to pepper the woman with questions about it at the moment. Instead she’d asked how Betsy was, told her that she’d be sticking around, and then let the woman get some more rest.

  With her mind settled on Betsy’s wellbeing, she’d been free to deal with the other subject which had been cluttering her thoughts. Her dad had gone back to the hotel to spend time with her mom, leaving Kendra at the hospital as per her request. So with nothing else to do, she was focusing on finding out about Mitchell’s presence.

  “Hello?” a voice said in her ear, and Kendra sighed in relief.

  “Notaku?” she asked and heard the man chuckle.

  “That is who you called, isn’t it?”

  “Just making sure that some stranger hadn’t stolen your phone.”

  “And was answering it?” he asked dubiously, and Kendra smiled at that. “I heard you were back in town. Still with Betsy?” he asked, and Kendra furrowed her brow at that.

  “Who told you I was back?” she asked.

  “Mitchell
of course. He let us all know that you were here and waiting with Betsy. Also told us that the hospital didn’t need to be turned into a reunion party so we should just wait until you were ready to head back to your own home,” he continued, and Kendra found herself feeling off-kilter with his easily spoken statement. Since when had Mitchell Astley been considered a part of Granville?

  “What’s going on?” she asked in frustration and waited for an answer from the other man. “Notaku, what is going on?” she repeated when he didn’t respond.

  “Oh! You were talking to me? I thought that maybe something had happened on your end. What do you mean?” he asked in confusion.

  “What the heck is Mitchell doing in Granville?” she asked more directly.

  “The same thing that he’s been doing for the past four months or so,” he answered, and she rolled her eyes at that.

  “What? Lying to everybody?” she mocked.

  “Alright, not exactly the same thing then. But he’s been getting to know everyone and becoming a part of life out here,” he said, and Kendra found her eyes widening at the proclamation. “Well, he’s also been working for Betsy so I guess that things are quite different,” he mused.

  “Wait. What? He’s working for Bets? Doing what?”

  “Waitressing,” the man said with an obvious smile in his voice.

  “Waitressing,” she said slowly as though trying to assimilate that. Mitchell Astley, right hand man to one of the most powerful men in the country, was waiting tables at a local diner? This wasn’t adding up.

  “You should have seen the teasing he received from Walter about it all,” Notaku reminisced with a chuckle. “Imagine being a city boy and fulfilling a role that Walter refuses to accept isn’t solely for women.”

  “I am so bloody confused right now,” Kendra said more to herself than to the man on the other end, but he responded anyway.

  “About what?”

  “What exactly is the man doing in my town?”

  “Your town?” he asked in amusement.

  “Yes. My town. He has no right to be there,” she said more angrily.

  “It’s a free country, Kendra.”

  “And he’s stealing all of my friends now,” she continued to vent, ignoring Notaku’s logic.

  “He’s not stealing anybody, Kendra. People can, and often are, friends with a variety of people.”

  “He’s even stolen my bloody job!”

  “Filled in for you, I think you’ll find.”

  “It’s not fair!”

  “Mapiya,” the man sighed. “What’s the real problem here?” he asked.

  “It’s not fair. He can’t just come in and replace me!”

  “He’s not replacing you.”

  “Why did he even come back?” she pouted as she hugged herself with one arm.

  “Come back? From where?”

  “From the city.”

  “He never left, Kendra.”

  “What?”

  “Mitchell never left. You left, he didn’t,” he explained. “He never went to the city. He’s been here the whole time.”

  “And you let him stay?” she accused.

  “Why wouldn’t I?”

  “Because he’s a liar.”

  “No, Kendra. He’s not. Yes, he lied,” he continued hastily before she could argue with him over that fact, “but he’s not a liar. There’s a difference.”

  “Why are you defending him?” she demanded angrily again.

  “Because you’re wrong, Mapiya,” he said gently. “Yes, he made mistakes. He made some big mistakes. But, Kendra, everyone does. Even you,” he added, and she bristled at his words.

  “That’s not fair, Notaku. It’s an addiction –,” she started but found herself cut off.

  “I’m not talking about the alcohol, Kendra. I’m talking about the way that you treated your mom for two years,” he said, and she stumbled to a stop at that. “You treated her badly, really badly, Kendra.”

  “She … she lied to me. I was hurt,” she defended lamely.

  “You’re justifying your actions. You know you were wrong with how you treated her. She didn’t deserve it. You hurt her. A lot.”

  “This is different,” she interjected. “I was looking out for myself, the situation with Ni– Mitchell isn’t the same.”

  “No? How do you know? You’ve never spoken to him about why he did what he did, have you? How do you know it’s different?”

  “He wasn’t protecting himself from me,” she declared.

  “Maybe not, but maybe he felt his actions were necessary for some other reason that was just as valid,” he supplied, and Kendra found her mind running over Growling Bear’s words.

  “What do you know?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Nothing that I can tell you,” he said cryptically, and Kendra glared down the phone at him, even though he couldn’t see it.

  “I thought you were my friend,” she grumbled peevishly.

  “I am, Kendra,” he said with a sigh. “And you’ll soon realize how good a one I am,” he added wearily. “Just so that you know though, Mitchell’s made a life for himself here, and people have accepted him. Whether or not you want him around, it’s not likely that he’s going to be going anywhere. You’re going to have to deal with him whether you want to or not.”

  “Wha–!?” she tried before Notaku cut her off again.

  “So I think that you need to sort out your feelings for the man and what you really want from him, Mapiya, because he’s going to be a part of your life whether you want him to be or not. It’s going to be up to you what role he has in it though,” Growling Bear counselled, and Kendra just stood there in the falling snow, with a gaping mouth, as the man disconnected the call.

  She might have gotten answers to some of the questions she’d had before calling her friend, but now she had even more floating around inside her head. And the new ones were ones which she didn’t have any hope of having somebody else answering for her.

  * * *

  “Hi,” a tentative voice said from the other side of the room, and Kendra looked up to see Mitchell standing there, looking wary while casting his glance around the rest of the waiting area.

  “Uh, hi,” she said uncertainly and found herself struggling for what to say next.

  “Did you manage to get in to see Betsy?” he asked, and she nodded in response.

  “I did. Not for very long, but I got to see her,” she confirmed and watched as he smiled slightly at her.

  “The doctors and nurses are very protective of her and her recovery,” he said, and Kendra nodded at that. They were. She’d noticed that herself.

  “I … I was told that we owe you,” she said shyly and watched as he looked at her in confusion. “Apparently if it hadn’t been for your intervention, she wouldn’t be here,” Kendra elaborated and watched as he shrugged.

  “I was lucky to have found her when I did,” he said in an effort to brush off her praise.

  “Still. You saved her, Ni– Mitchell,” she said and stumbled over his name.

  Shaking his head, he said, “I should have noticed something before. I knew that something wasn’t right with her, but she kept telling me to butt out, kept insisting that she was fine. And she seemed so full of life and strength that I believed her,” he said with a sigh.

  “I know. I’ve thought the same thing since returning from Europe,” she said with a tentative smile. “She’s so independent though. And stubborn,” she added with another smile.

  “That she is,” Mitchell agreed before cautiously stepping further into the room and slowly perching himself on a seat there. As he settled himself down the two of them lapsed into silence again, and Kendra found herself repeatedly glancing his way. He seemed to be thinking something over in his own head, and she wondered what it was.

  As she continued to take in his form she couldn’t help but find herself feeling that same pull of attraction to him. There’d always been something about the man, always something t
here to tempt her, and it hadn’t disappeared. Looking at him, he was still the man who she’d fallen in love with. Still had that same sandy blonde hair, those same piercing blue eyes, that same strong jaw.

  Instead of the confidence that he’d always exuded though there was something almost humble and wary about him. He was still strong, but he wasn’t as self-assured. He seemed unsure, something that she’d never seen him being before, and Kendra quickly tore her eyes away before he caught her staring at him so intently.

  Uncomfortable with the tense silence that they’d found themselves plunged into, she felt the need to initiate some sort of conversation.

  “I … uh, I heard that you’ve been in Granville this whole time,” she ventured and watched as he looked over at her in slight surprise.

  “Yeah,” he said with a wary smile.

  “Strange choice. I thought that you’d be heading back to the city,” she tried, and he just shrugged.

  “It kind of lost its appeal to me,” he admitted. “Turns out that Granville kind of grows on you,” he added with another small smile.

  “And you’ve been waitressing,” she added and watched as his smile grew.

  “That I have. It gave me something to do, and Bets needed the help. Joanie was busy with school, after all.”

  “Walter’s been having a field day I hear.”

  “He’s finally forgiven me,” he added with a wider smile. “Though it did take plying him with extra pie before he did.”

  “That man does like his pie.”

  “And of course he couldn’t exactly talk once he’d flooded the kitchen, now could he?”

  “Ah,” Kendra said as she remembered the call that Betsy had cut short because of her kitchen disaster.

  “Yeah. We have an amicable truce now with regards to masculinity,” he added, and Kendra couldn’t help but sweep his form at his words. Blushing, she quickly averted her gaze and wondered how the heck Walter could ever cast aspersions on a man like Mitchell’s manliness. The man oozed male.

  “Well,” she said as she cleared her throat. “At least it didn’t come down to shotguns,” she said lightly, or at an attempt to be light, before they lurched back into silence again.