“I don’t like having my kids put in bad situations.”
Destiny heard the indictment of her mothering skills in his words. “I’m a good mother, Kenneth, and you know it.”
He met her eyes. “I’m a better father.”
Destiny’s head jerked as if he had struck her. “What do you mean by that?” she asked, fire building in her chest.
Mary Margaret cut a hard glance at her husband. “He didn’t mean anything by it,” she said. “It’s been a tough afternoon for us. We didn’t know what was going on with you at the police station and we were worried. As you can imagine, all sorts of negative thoughts went through our minds.”
Destiny heard the “our” in Mary Margaret’s words but she knew it was Kenneth who’d had the negative thoughts. How had she even put herself in a situation for him to question her mothering skills? She’d gotten off easy with the authorities but she wasn’t sure Kenneth would be as accommodating. “If you have something to say, Kenneth, just say it.”
When Kenneth only glared at Destiny, Daniel spoke up. “Why don’t we all take a few minutes and calm down.” He turned to Destiny. “Now is a good time for that walk on the beach. Are you ready?”
She shot a hot glance at Kenneth. “Let’s go,” she said to Daniel. “Apparently, Kenneth didn’t have anything to talk about after all.” With those words, she turned and followed Daniel out of the house and down to the beach.
Chapter 37
DID YOU HEAR WHAT KENNETH SAID TO ME?” DESTINY asked. “I can’t believe his nerve.”
“I heard it,” Daniel said, “but I wouldn’t read anything into it. Like his wife said, this was a difficult day for all of us. I’m sure it crossed Kenneth’s mind that if anything happened to you, he and Mary Margaret would be left to take care of the kids.”
“That’s exactly what he wants. Well, he’d better get rid of those thoughts. I’m the custodial parent and that’s not going to change.”
Daniel stopped and tugged on her arm, forcing her to stop as well. “Give him a break, Destiny. He’s had a rough day, too. I can only imagine the thoughts that went through his mind when he got the call from your mother to come get his kids.”
Destiny exhaled slowly. “I came too close to losing everything important to me. I can’t believe I was so reckless. And when I think of the lives that could have been harmed—”
“Be grateful none of that happened.”
She turned and looked at him. “I need to call Bertice and let her know what happened to me. She needs to take precautions so it doesn’t happen to her. I need my cell.”
When she turned to head back to the car where she’d left it, he stopped her. “You don’t have to worry about Bertice. She’ll be fine.” He pointed to some beach chairs nearby. “We have to talk. Let’s sit over there.”
As Destiny followed him to the beach chairs, her anxiety rose. Whatever Daniel was going to tell her, she wasn’t going to like. She was sure of it. After they sat, Daniel folded both of his hands around both of hers. “I want you to know that I had your best interests in mind the entire time.”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, her apprehension rising. What had Daniel done?
Daniel sighed deeply. “Let me start at the beginning. I told you before that I started a cybersecurity firm with a couple of friends from college.”
She nodded. “I remember.”
He rubbed her fingers. “That firm, GDW Investigations, has been investigating HR Solutions since before I moved to Atlanta.”
She heard his words but they didn’t make sense to her. “What? How?”
“Phil contacted them and reported the fraud that was going on. He felt people were being hurt and he wanted to get out. He felt particularly responsible for one person.”
“Bertice?”
He nodded. “He’d come to care for her, and knowing what he’d gotten her into began to weigh on him. He was looking for a way out for him and her. The parameters of a deal have been in place for them for a while now. You don’t have to worry about either of them.”
She met his eyes. “And you know all this because?”
“Because when my friends at GDW learned that I was moving to Atlanta, they asked me to help them out.”
She pulled her hands away from his. “Help them out how?”
“Phil was getting nervous. They’d warned him it would take time to gather the information they needed to shut down the crime ring, but he was feeling more and more guilty each day. He didn’t like lying to Bertice. He didn’t like that he’d gotten her involved and then moved on to getting her friends involved. My job was to see that he stuck to the plan.”
“To make sure he didn’t tell Bertice what was going on?”
“That’s right.”
“So you’ve known HR Solutions wasn’t on the up-and-up since before you came to Atlanta?”
“I only learned the day before I was to come here. I am no longer involved in the day-to-day activities of the company. This was to be the last case I worked on for them. I only agreed to do it because my friends convinced me I was the best person for the job.”
“Why?”
“Why was I the best person for the job?”
She nodded.
He shrugged. “There were several reasons. Phil and I had history from another case in the past so they felt he’d be comfortable with me. It helped that I am a pastor, so if anybody was watching Phil, they wouldn’t think anything about my presence in his life.”
“So you were undercover?”
“You could say that.”
“Did Gavin and Natalie know?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ve worked cases like this before. The best way to run them is to keep everything on a need-to-know basis. Even though a part of me wanted to, I couldn’t tell Gavin, Natalie, or you about my involvement. I couldn’t tell you for the same reason Phil couldn’t tell Bertice. The only way we could track the electronic footprint of the illegal transactions was to make sure the pipeline continued.”
“You found out I was involved, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I learned about Bertice first. It’s such an odd name that I suspected she was the same Bertice who had captured Phil’s heart.”
“And a woman who was also involved in his illegal activities.”
“Yes, I knew that, too.”
She was glad it was dark. She looked out at the ocean. “When did you find out I was involved?”
“The day after the cancer walk. I confirmed with Phil that your Bertice was his Bertice and then I asked about you.”
“And yet you never said anything to me. Never tried to warn me.”
“It was too late. By the time I found out, you were already involved. You’d already submitted your application. Once you were in their system, you had to stay in. We didn’t want the ringleaders to suspect anything was wrong. You have to catch these criminals in the act. If they had suspected we were on to them, they could have shut the whole thing down.”
“What would have been so bad about that? Isn’t it what you wanted anyway?”
He shook his head. “No, they would have shut it down with Phil and HR Solutions and just started up with some other person in some other company. We wanted to shut it down for good, not just give them a reason to move on to the next target. The only way to do that was to keep the pipeline flowing.”
Destiny wasn’t sure she agreed with him, but she knew he believed what he was saying. “When did you learn that identity theft was a part of the fraud?”
“I knew from the beginning, but I couldn’t be sure who would be a target. Bertice has been involved much longer than you and there is no evidence of identity theft related to her. You fit the profile, but I honestly didn’t think you’d been in long enough to be a target.”
“Profile? You had a profile and you still didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t tell you, but we were keeping track of you. I really didn’t think you would be a target.”
“Yes, I was wrong. It never should have come to this. The L.A. police overreached. That situation at the restaurant should have ended with the declined credit cards. It was a case of one authority not knowing what the other was doing. I do apologize.”
She looked at him, his face, clear in the moonlight. “So all of this that happened today could have been avoided if you’d told me what was going on.”
He reached for hands again. “Maybe or maybe not,” he said again. “Once you submitted that application and did the first job for HR Solutions, they had you. Telling you after the fact would have only made you aware and may have resulted in you being subject to criminal charges. You have to believe me. From the day I learned of your and Bertice’s involvement, I’ve worked to make sure you were protected.”
“Well, you didn’t do a very good job, did you?”
“I know you don’t see it now, but things could be a lot worse. By wiring that money from your account to the designated HR account, you broke several federal laws. This was a very serious situation, Destiny.”
Destiny looked down at her hands. “I really messed up, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, you did, but it’s nothing that can’t be fixed.”
She looked up at him. “You must think I’m an awful person.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that at all. This isn’t the first case like this that I’ve worked. I’ve learned that you really can’t judge the people who get involved. In your case, you felt you didn’t have many options, so it was fairly easy for Phil to convince you the job he offered was on the up-and-up.”
“I think they call that willful ignorance or something like that.”
“It doesn’t matter what they call it. It’s over now and you can move forward.”
“But it’s not over,” she said. “You heard Kenneth. Because of what happened today, he’s threatening to take custody of my kids.”
“I wouldn’t read too much into what Kenneth said tonight. Give him a day or so to cool off and then talk to him again. He’s running on fear right now.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “He wants custody of the kids. He’s been angling for it since they started going to school in his district.” She chuckled, but it wasn’t from joy. “It’s ironic, isn’t it? I took the job with HR Solutions so I could move to Gwinnett and put a stop to Kenneth’s efforts to take custody of the kids, and now the job with HR Solutions may give him the very ammunition he needs to gain custody.”
“You can’t think like that, Destiny.”
“I’m scared, Daniel. I can’t lose my kids.”
“You won’t.”
“You can’t be sure.”
He tilted her chin up. “We’ll get through this, Destiny. I promise you.”
When he pulled her into his arms, Destiny didn’t resist. She needed the comfort right now. Everything else would have to wait until tomorrow.
Chapter 38
MARY MARGARET SAT UP IN THE BED, TRYING TO read a budget outlook for one of her entertainment projects. She couldn’t really focus because her mind kept wandering back to the events of earlier in the evening. Kenneth had crossed a line tonight. No way should he have drawn her into an argument with Destiny about who should have custody of the twins. If Kenneth was even considering making a move like that, they should have discussed it together. And, frankly, it was not something she wanted. She loved Kenneth’s kids and enjoyed having them around. If anything happened to Destiny and they had to take custody, she would willingly and gladly do it. She wouldn’t even mind if the kids stayed with them during the week when school was in session so they could get to and from school more easily. What she couldn’t do was strip the kids away from their mother on a whim from Kenneth. It wasn’t right on a lot of levels.
She looked up when the bedroom door opened and Kenneth walked in. “Don’t ever do that again, Kenneth.”
“Don’t do what?” he asked, kicking off his shoes.
Mary Margaret leaned over and placed her unread report atop the nightstand on her side of the bed. “Drag me into a discussion with Destiny and then blindside me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about what you did tonight, threatening to take custody of the kids from Destiny. We haven’t discussed anything like that.”
“I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “I was angry about what happened today. I still believe there is more to it.”
“Well, she says there wasn’t, and I think we should believe her. She has done nothing in the past to make me question her parenting of the kids, so she deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
“If you say so,” Kenneth said.
Mary Margaret didn’t like his noncommittal attitude. “I’m serious, Kenneth. You can’t threaten to take custody of the twins without talking to me about it first.”
Kenneth came and sat next to her on the bed. “I won’t lie, Mary Margaret. Since the kids started going to school in our district and spending so much time at our house, I’ve thought a lot about becoming the custodial parent. Haven’t you enjoyed having them with us this summer?”
Mary Margaret didn’t like where this was going. “Of course I’ve enjoyed them. I always enjoy having them around. You know that.”
“Don’t you see?” he said. “The next logical step is for them to live with us. We can give them a more stable home, where they’d have both a father and a mother.”
Mary Margaret began shaking her head. “You’re wrong for even thinking about doing this.”
“I’m not wrong. I love my kids and I know that we can provide a better home for them than Destiny can. What’s wrong with wanting them to live with us?”
Mary Margaret took a deep breath. “You’re living in a fantasyland, Kenneth. You can’t just take the kids from their mother on a whim. It wouldn’t be fair to them or to her. She’s the custodial parent and she should remain so until she does something that shows she’s not fit.”
“Maybe she has and we just don’t know it yet,” he said. “I’m going to be watching her more closely from now on.”
Mary Margaret just shook her head. “You’re going down a dangerous road, Kenneth. If you continue on this path, you may find yourself somewhere that you don’t want to be.”
“What are you saying?” he asked.
“I’m just thinking of the old Mahalia Jackson adage: If you dig one ditch you better dig two cause the trap you set just may be for you.”
Chapter 39
DESTINY THOUGHT THE DRIVE BACK TO THE HOTEL would never end. As the conversation between her mother and Daniel swirled around her, her thoughts moved from one dire consequence to another. Despite Daniel’s attempts to calm her fears about Kenneth’s threat to seek custody of the kids, she still felt threatened by the possibility. She’d concluded that she needed some legal advice.
Then there was Daniel. When she’d left Atlanta, she’d been so hopeful about where their relationship was going. That her first thought when she was in trouble was to call him showed just how much he’d come to mean to her in a short time. On the surface, his response showed that she’d come to mean a lot to him as well. But below the surface was the fact that she had been a person of interest in an undercover operation he was running. As a result, she couldn’t be sure if his response was out of his feelings for her or his duty to his job. Even more complicated was the idea that it was some convoluted combination of each. She had really screwed up this time. And she wasn’t sure how she was going to fix it.
When Daniel finally pulled the car up to the front of the hotel, Destiny resisted the urge to jump out and run yelling into the night. Her mother’s presence forced her to stay seated and say, “Thanks for the ride, Daniel.”
“Yes, thank you,” her mother added, opening the rear passenger car door so she could get out. “You really came through for Destiny today. I still can’t believe that you flew all of the way out here to supp
ort her and get that police mess cleaned up, but I’m glad you did. We needed you today.”
“I’m glad I was able to help,” Daniel said. He reached for her hand. “Destiny is very important to me.”
“I’ll see you upstairs, Destiny,” her mother said, getting fully out of the car.
“Okay, Mom, I’ll be up shortly.”
Alone in the car with Daniel, she looked down at their joined hands and then back up at his face. She searched his eyes for some hint of a change in his feelings toward her but saw none.
“Feeling any better?” he asked.
“I don’t know how I’m feeling,” she said. “The words that come to mind are unsettled, uncertain, and unstable. I feel as though I’ve lost my footing.”
He squeezed her fingers. “It’s natural. You went through a major ordeal today. Things will look a lot better tomorrow.”
She met his eyes. “I wish I could believe that.”
“Believe it,” he said.
But faith without works is dead, she thought. “I think I’d feel better if I could talk to an attorney about Kenneth’s custody threat. Do you think we could get Malcolm to come over in the morning?”
Daniel nodded. “I’m sure we can. He’s not a family law attorney but he may have some insights that will help ease your mind.”
“That would be great. If he can’t help me, maybe he can recommend somebody back in Atlanta. I don’t want to be blindsided if Kenneth decides to go through with his threat.”
“I’m sorry for all of this, Destiny,” he said. “All I’ve tried to do this whole time is help you and protect you. Your getting arrested was never even a consideration.”
She sighed again. “I know,” she said. “It’s not your fault. In a way, I wish I could blame somebody else, but the only person to blame is me. This is all on me.”
“What can I do to help?” he asked.
She gave him a sad smile. “You’ve done more than enough already. You don’t have to stay out here and babysit me. I’ll be fine.”
The Summer of Me: A Novel Page 21