Too Close to Home

by Susan Lewis

  “So you don’t blame me for not wanting to see him?”

  “No. I don’t want to see him either, but I don’t expect we’ll have much choice in the matter. Are you ready to carry on now?”

  Though Paige was desperate to spill out everything that was happening at school, she didn’t feel it was fair to load any more on her grandma when Kay already had so much to be dealing with. Everyone was leaning on her, especially Josh and the twins, and of course her mum too, which was only right when they were mother and daughter. Paige’s problems didn’t mean anything in comparison to everything else that was going on, so, keeping them to herself, she simply watched her funny little grandma turn around in her seat, put the car into gear, and steer them back onto the road. To hell with the Durmites and her father; they were nobodies who meant nothing, and she wasn’t going to let them get the better of her.

  Jenna was sitting in her car with Waffle asleep in the back and the radio turned off. She was staring at the building opposite with its smoky glass facade, revolving doors, and ornamental trees outside. It wasn’t possible to see through the windows, but she knew Martha’s offices were on the third floor with gold lettering on the door saying Gwynne & Associates and a pretty receptionist to welcome visitors.

  She wasn’t intending to go up; she’d probably never get past ground-floor security anyway. She was here waiting for Martha to come down.

  “I’m outside in the car,” she’d told her on the phone a few minutes ago. “I want to talk to you.”

  After a pause, Martha had said, “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “I’m in the car park opposite, and I’m not going anywhere until you come down here and face me.”

  There was every chance Jack would come instead, or maybe Martha would sneak out of the building by a back door. There was nothing Jenna could do to prevent either eventuality; she was only able to wait in a place where she knew they could see her, so they’d know she wasn’t going away.

  More minutes ticked by. She wondered what they were saying to each other, what sort of plan they were making, whether they were even considering calling the police. It made her feel so terrible, so sick of herself, and yet how could she not have come? She needed to fight for her marriage, to do something other than yell at Jack and torment herself with how empty and awful life was going to be without him.

  She checked her messages, and after listening to Paige’s she rang her back. “Where are you?” she asked, keeping her eyes trained on the revolving doors.

  “We’ve just got home,” Paige replied. “Grandma’s making me something hot to drink, then I’m going to bed. Auntie Hanna’s here.”

  “I know. I shouldn’t be long. Do you think you’ve picked up Charlotte’s cold?”

  “Maybe.”

  “I spoke to Mr. Thomas. Actually, he called me.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He wanted to know why you’re not interested in editing your video.”

  “So you said…?”

  “That I’d talk to you about it. I’m guessing it’s because you shot it with Dad.”

  “Something like that.”

  “You shouldn’t allow this to—”

  “I don’t want to do it, OK? And I don’t want to have a discussion about it either.”

  Sighing, Jenna said, “It’s your decision, but I think it’s a shame when it’s showing so much promise.”

  Silence.

  “Are you still there?”

  “Yes, but my drink’s ready.”

  “OK. Sorry I’m not there.”

  More silence.

  “Bye then. I love you.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  As she rang off Jenna was watching Martha coming toward her. Her heart was starting to thud with so many emotions they were making her nauseous. The hardest part of this was that she could understand what Jack saw in the woman. What man wouldn’t be attracted to such a luscious figure and come-to-bed eyes? Martha oozed sex appeal, fun, daring, and excitement—and she was rich.

  Thankfully, Jack wasn’t with her, but Jenna felt sure he was watching from a window, and would probably come down after a set amount of time to rescue his lover. Five minutes? Ten? How was it possible to know? How had she even come to be in this position where she was the enemy and he cared more about somebody else than about her?

  Pulling open the passenger door, Martha got in, and Jenna instantly recognized her perfume.

  As they sat there, neither of them speaking for the moment, Jenna could feel the demons at work, conjuring images of Jack’s hands on this woman, his mouth seeking hers, his passion as he sated himself on her.

  “You don’t have to do this,” Jenna said in the end. “No one is forcing you to. You can let him go and we can all get on with our lives.”

  Martha didn’t answer. She simply kept her eyes straight ahead, as though only half listening, though of course she’d heard every word.

  “He has four children,” Jenna pointed out. “Don’t you at least care about that?”

  Martha swallowed and pressed her hands together. “Of course I care,” she replied quietly. “Believe me, none of this has been easy. We didn’t want it to happen. We’ve done everything we can to fight it, but we can’t…we can’t help the way we feel.”

  Almost flinching from the words, Jenna said, “So the way you feel is more important than the way anyone else feels, including his children?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “That’s what it sounds like.”

  At last Martha turned to look at her. Her face was strained; her eyes seemed clouded and tired. “Look, I understand what you’re going through—”

  “No you don’t. Your husband hasn’t left you or abandoned your children.”

  “Jack hasn’t abandoned his.”

  “Yes he has. I know you want to put a different spin on it, tell yourselves a sweet little story about how he’s going to pick them up from school every day, always be there for their birthdays and Christmas, take them out for weekends, actually anytime they want, but it’s not going to happen, and shall I tell you why? Because I’m going to take them away from here. I’m going to take them so far he’ll never get to see them, if they even want to see him. Is that what you want for him? To separate him from his children?”

  Martha’s eyes went down. “Jenna, I—”

  “I’m appealing to you as one woman to another,” Jenna broke in harshly, “as one mother to another. You can’t really want to do this. Your place is with your own family, not in some…love nest with my husband.”

  Martha took a breath. “I’m with him,” she said, “because it’s where he wants to be, where we both want to be. You have to know he’d never have left you unless he was sure.”

  Forcing herself to speak over the pain, while grabbing at anything she could think of to shatter this woman’s belief, Jenna said, “You think you know him, but you don’t. You don’t have the first idea what makes him tick, so take it from me, you’ll end up destroying him. He can’t live without his children, but he’ll have to if you don’t let him go.”

  “I understand what you’re doing….”

  “You’re nothing special, Martha. I know he’s making you think you are, but believe me, he’ll drop you the minute he realizes you’re going to cost him his children.”

  For a long time Martha simply stared down at her hands, letting Jenna’s words hang in the air, absorbing their damage.

  “Do you want all your clients to know what kind of woman you really are?” Jenna said in the end. “I’d be duty bound to tell them.”

  “Jenna…”

  “Tell him to come home,” Jenna continued through her teeth. “Do it now before you lose your business and reputation.”

  “I only came out here—”

  “He’s going to leave you anyway,” Jenna shouted over her, “so spare yourself.”

  “Listen, whatever you say, whatever you’re telling yourself, I know how h
e feels about me and I know what it’s costing him to do this. It’s not that he doesn’t love you anymore, because he does; he’s just not in love with you, and that’s what makes the difference.”

  Jenna could feel the words whipping her into a fury. “That’s what he’s telling you,” she cried, “but he’ll end up coming back to me, and shall I tell you what? It’ll be too late. I won’t want him by then, and he won’t want you, so what will you have achieved, Martha? What good is this going to do anyone?”

  Martha was shaking her head. “I’m sorry, Jenna, I really am. I hate to see you hurting like this….”

  Jenna tried to cling to her temper, but everything was falling apart; her resolve, her hope, her dignity were rapidly deserting her. She was so close to breaking down, to begging and pleading, that she hardly trusted herself to speak. In the end she managed to say, “And your husband? What does he think of it all?”

  Martha took a breath. “We haven’t been close for a while. In fact, it’s quite possible that he already has someone else.”

  “So rather than be left on your own,” Jenna sneered, “you’ve found yourself another man who happens to be someone else’s husband, and father to someone else’s children? How proud you must feel of yourself.”

  “What happened between me and Jack…I swear I didn’t expect it, but since knowing him I’ve come to realize that I’ve…I’ve never actually been in love before.”

  Jenna’s voice was choked by the misery in her throat as she retorted, “And I suppose he’s saying he hasn’t either?”

  “No, he’s simply saying that it’s different with me.” Her eyes flicked briefly to Jenna. “I don’t think we need to go into any more detail than that.”

  Unable to bear the thought of them discussing her, their love, or the life they were planning together, Jenna said, “You can go now.”

  Martha’s hand went to the door. “Will you be all right?” she asked.

  Jenna’s eyes darkened with outrage. “Don’t you dare ask me that,” she seethed. “Just get out of my car before I end up doing something we’ll both regret.”

  Martha opened the door, but she still didn’t leave. “The more you try to hurt him,” she said, “the more you’re going to hurt yourself and the children.”

  Before she could stop herself Jenna was grabbing the blond curls, twisting them ruthlessly, yanking Martha’s head back so violently that hair was coming loose in her hands. “Don’t you ever tell me what to do again,” she hissed furiously. “Do you hear me? Don’t ever tell me how to live my life.”

  “Let me go,” Martha cried. “I’m sorry, I was only trying…Jenna, please…”

  “I could kill you, do you know that?” Jenna raged over Waffle’s barking. “That’s what happens in situations like this. People end up dead.” Thrusting Martha away, she started the engine and barely waited for the door to close before driving off.

  Minutes later Jack was on the phone. “What the hell got into you?” he snapped. “I saw what you did.”

  “Get off this line,” she sobbed. “One of my children might be trying to get through.”

  “Jenna, listen—”

  “No, you listen. I’m going to see a lawyer. I want a divorce and I’m going to do everything in my power to stop you ever seeing—”

  “You shouldn’t be driving,” he shouted over her. “You’re too upset. Pull over.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do. And don’t pretend you care, because we know it’s not true.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “Home. Where I have responsibilities, children…”

  “I’ll see you there when I bring Josh and the twins. Does Paige need picking up?”

  “No. And don’t take the others out for tea. It wouldn’t be fair to let them think everything is normal when it’s anything but.” And before he could say any more, she cut the connection.

  —

  When Jenna walked in the door an hour later, dumping groceries and parcels on the floor and finding a treat for Waffle, Bena, Hanna, and her mother were all in the kitchen looking so serious that she felt sure Jack must have been in touch.

  Before they could start remonstrating she cut them off with, “How’s Paige?”

  “She was asleep the last time I went up,” her mother replied. “I think she’s having problems at school.”

  Jenna frowned. “What sort of problems?”

  “She said some girls are being mean to her.”

  Sighing, Jenna started to unpack the shopping. “You know what teenagers are like. They’re always falling in and out of friendships.”

  Her mother didn’t argue; she simply continued to look concerned as Hanna said gravely, “We have something to tell you.”

  Jenna looked at her and felt her heart turn inside out. “Please, not one of the children,” she implored desperately. “I couldn’t—”

  “The children are fine,” Hanna quickly assured her. “It’s not about them. It’s about Jack and the new company.”

  Jenna looked from her, to Bena, to her mother.

  “You need to come and sit down,” Hanna told her. “Mum’s already made some tea….”

  “What I need is for you to tell me what this is about,” Jenna almost shouted.

  Hanna took a breath as she glanced at Bena. “Jack has been charging the contributors to put their submissions on the website.”

  Jenna shook her head. “That’s not right. The whole point of the—”

  “I know what the point was,” Hanna interrupted, “and frankly I was always skeptical about how it was going to work, but I’m afraid it’s gone even further than charging them to upload their material. They’ve been invited to take part in a quite costly marketing plan, and it would appear that more than a few have done so.”

  Jenna started to speak but didn’t know what to say. This was going against everything she and Jack had intended, everything they’d believed in.

  “Mum’s been through the figures,” Hanna went on, “and over the past few months the company has taken in over twenty-five thousand pounds.”

  “That’s right. From the Welsh Arts Council.”

  Hanna shook her head. “There’s no grant,” she told her. “Or not that we can find.”

  Jenna’s head started to spin.

  “The twenty-five thousand in deposits,” Hanna continued, “has come from contributors, and the entire amount, plus a further five thousand, has gradually been transferred out of the company into Jack’s personal account. Right now there is just over one thousand pounds in the business.”

  Jenna’s mouth opened and closed again.

  “I’m sorry to say it gets worse,” Hanna pressed on. “During the past several weeks he’s received a good number of emails from writers demanding action or their money back. Some are quite threatening, particularly the more recent ones. I take it you haven’t received any?”

  Jenna shook her head. “No one’s even mentioned it,” she replied. “I mean, they’ve been badgering me about a launch date, naturally, and they’ve wanted to know when they’re going to see a return for their…” Her eyes widened with alarm. “Investment,” she finished. “I took it to be a euphemism for their work, but…Oh my God, this can’t be true. There must be some sort of mistake.”

  “I’ve created a document for you to look at,” her mother told her. “It shows the funds that have come in, when they’ve gone out, and how much the company now owes to the contributors unless the company is launched—”

  “Which it can’t be,” Hanna cut in, “because I’m afraid the business model simply isn’t viable.”

  Jenna reeled. The company was in debt, with only a thousand pounds to its name? The business model wasn’t viable? “But Martha oversaw it,” she pointed out.

  “I’ve no idea how much Martha knows about the accounting,” Hanna replied. “All I can tell you for certain right now is that these people will have to be paid back or you could find yourself facing criminal charges. I’m no expert
, but I’d imagine it would be fraud.”

  Jenna’s throat was dry. Her disbelief was so great she was suddenly finding it difficult to stand. “I need to get this straight,” she said. “What you’re saying is that Jack has knowingly, purposefully stolen money from the people who trusted us?”

  “We’ve gone over and over it,” Hanna assured her, “but there’s no other way of seeing it, especially when you factor in the transfers to his personal account.”

  Jenna didn’t want to accept it. She put up her hands, almost as though she could push it away. “But he’s not…He would never…” She stopped, silenced by the realization that until a week ago she’d never have believed he’d cheat on her. Now it seemed he’d cheated their writers too. “I don’t know what to say,” she murmured. “This isn’t…I can’t…How has he managed to hide it?”

  “He takes care of the business side of things,” Bena reminded her. “We’re the creatives.”

  “Who aren’t supposed to worry our pretty heads about such things as how it’s all going to work, because ‘It will, trust me, it’s going to be a sensation.’ That’s what he said, and I believed him. I allowed myself to be distracted by everything else, to put the children first, but of course I would, I’m their mother….He kept encouraging me to write….Dear God, I should have realized what was happening. How could I have been so blind?” She looked at her sister, then her mother. “Who have I been married to all this time? What kind of a man is he?”

  “He can be very convincing when he wants to be,” Hanna said lamely.

  “Let’s go back to Martha Gwynne,” Bena put in. “She’s surely got to have known what was going on; for all we know, she’s the architect behind it all.”

  Hanna said, “As much as I’d like to believe that, I have to point out that Martha runs a very successful company with a great reputation. I can’t see her putting it in jeopardy for this sort of scam, which, in the grand scheme of things, hasn’t actually brought in that much money. My guess is, Jack started it, she found out, and now she’s very likely doing what she can to troubleshoot.”

  “Or,” Bena suggested, “she could be using it to blackmail him into leaving you to live with her.”