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The Last House on Sycamore Street

Page 29

by Paige Roberts


  “Listen, that guy Lev—the one who came by the house looking for Julian?—he dropped by again tonight. He was pretty agitated, and he threatened Noah, which scared the crap out of us and sent Rob through the roof. I wanted to warn you because he knows where you guys are staying, and I’m a little worried for your safety.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa—how does he know where we’re living?”

  “Well, he doesn’t know the exact address, but he knows you’re on Stocton in Meadowbrook.”

  “Right, but how does he know even that?”

  “Because things got really heated, and he was threatening us—”

  “So you told him?”

  “He threatened Noah. Okay? Do you understand? He threatened our child. And anyway, let’s back up for a second. If it weren’t for Julian’s involvement with this guy, he never would have stopped by our house in the first place. If you want to direct your rage at someone, direct it at your husband.”

  She was quiet for a beat. “So what am I supposed to do?”

  “For starters, you should tell Julian that Lev is looking for him.”

  “Julian isn’t here.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Does it matter?”

  It did and it didn’t, Amy thought. Was he out with friends? At a meeting? Out buying pills? Given their earlier interaction, Amy was suspicious of his whereabouts.

  “Then call him. Because if Lev finds your parents’ property, he doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’s going to make it very pleasant for either you or your parents. Frankly, if I were you, I’d get out of there.”

  “Fuck,” she muttered under her breath.

  “Do you have anywhere else you can stay?”

  “I don’t know. I’d . . . I’d have to think about it.”

  “Do your parents have a security system? Maybe you could stay in the main house until this blows over.”

  She hesitated. “I guess that’s possible. They’re in New York until tomorrow anyway. They have pretty good security—cameras, an alarm. Maybe that’s what we’ll do. Although . . .”

  “What?”

  “I just don’t want to have to explain any of this to them when they get back. With all the cameras and everything, they’ll know we slept in their house. I’m just really sick of lying to them.”

  “So don’t.”

  “Easy for you to say.”

  Amy wished Grace could see how much harder she was making everything for herself. If she’d been truthful with her parents about Julian’s addiction and recovery, maybe she wouldn’t be in the position she was in now.

  “You can come here, if you want,” Amy offered. She knew she was enabling Grace’s secrecy, but in the near term, her biggest concern was Ethan’s safety.

  “Why would we do that? Wasn’t that guy just at your house?”

  “Looking for Julian, not you. Why don’t you and Ethan hang here for the night?”

  “Are you sure Rob would be okay with that?”

  The answer was almost certainly not. He wouldn’t want to give Lev a single reason to revisit 120 Sycamore, and she didn’t blame him. But she wasn’t inviting Julian. Whenever he came back from wherever he was, he would return to the Sterlings’ guesthouse and deal with the consequences himself.

  “I’ll work on Rob,” she said. “Just pack your things and get over here.”

  Chapter 24

  As expected, Rob was not on board with Amy’s plan.

  “No, no way. Have you already forgotten how fucking terrifying that guy was? I don’t want the Durants anywhere near this place.”

  “It’s just Grace and Ethan. Lev will find Julian where you told him Julian was.”

  “I hope he gives him a good punch to the gut.”

  “Rob!”

  “Seriously—who puts his family in danger like this? I can’t believe someone would fuck up an otherwise amazing life for, what? Some pills?”

  “He isn’t intentionally fucking up his life.”

  “Well, intentionally or unintentionally, he’s doing a spectacular job at it.”

  Amy didn’t have the energy to give the “addiction is a disease” speech she’d given dozens of times before. Every time she did, Rob nodded his head and seemed to understand, but then when her brother would do something reckless, like break into a neighbor’s house or shoplift from Walmart, Rob would seem to forget everything they’d discussed. She realized part of this was because he was observing Tim’s behavior from a distance—closer than most, but not as close as her or her mother. The natural instinct of someone relatively unfamiliar with addiction was to say, “Jesus, why can’t he get his life together?” Frankly, she felt that way herself sometimes, even though she knew better. If she had to remind herself, she supposed it was only natural that Rob and others would forget, too.

  The doorbell rang. Rob’s eyes met hers. “Amy . . .”

  “It’s just for tonight. Please.”

  She hurried down the stairs and opened the door. Grace was there with Ethan, whose ebullience seemed incongruous, given the circumstances.

  “We’re having a sleepover!” he said.

  Noah came running down the hall from the kitchen.

  “What? We are?”

  She hadn’t had time to brief Noah on their plans, which meant Ethan’s arrival was even more of a delightful surprise.

  “Just for tonight,” Grace said. “Special treat.”

  The boys jumped up and down, and Grace ushered Ethan into the house with his backpack and sleeping bag.

  “Where should I set this up?” she asked.

  “In Noah’s room. I’ll help you. Rob, why don’t you take the boys into the family room and put something on the TV.”

  “Minions!” they cried in unison.

  “We don’t have time for a whole movie.”

  “Just part of it? Pleeeeease?” Noah begged.

  “Fine, whatever. Rob?”

  Rob took a long, deep breath. “Okay. Boys, come with me.”

  The boys clapped and giggled as they scurried down the hallway. Amy showed Grace upstairs.

  “I like what you’ve done with his room,” she said, after Amy had flicked on the light. “It’s really cute.”

  “Oh. Thanks.”

  For a brief moment, Amy had forgotten that this room used to be Ethan’s. Of course it had. How else would she know the Durants? Why else would Grace be here?

  Amy stood by and watched as Grace unrolled the sleeping bag and fixed it up with a few of Ethan’s favorite stuffed animals.

  “I ran into Julian earlier today,” she said as Grace fluffed a small pillow.

  Grace looked up. “You did? Where?”

  “Meadowbrook Pharmacy.”

  Her cheeks reddened. “Oh.”

  “He’s using again, isn’t he?”

  Grace stared at her for a long while. “I’m not sure. We don’t . . . he hasn’t been around a lot lately.”

  “Grace . . .”

  “Listen, I’m trying my best. Okay? I’m just... everything is really fucked up and crazy right now.”

  “I’m sure it is. But nothing is going to improve if you keep burying your head in the sand.”

  “I’m not!”

  “Then do something.”

  “About what?”

  “Julian’s addiction, the missing benefit money—take your pick. Leroy Harris called again. He still hasn’t seen his money from the benefit. No one has.”

  “I’m still looking into it, okay? It’s . . . complicated.”

  “What is?”

  “Everything.”

  “Grace, look at me. No, look at me.”

  Grace looked up from the sleeping bag. Her eyes were wet.

  “The money’s gone, isn’t it?”

  Her lip started trembling. She wiped at her eyes. “I don’t know. I mean, yeah. I think it might be.”

  “Julian needs to fix this.”

  “Like I said, it’s complicated.”

  “Stop saying that
!” Amy was nearly shouting, but she didn’t care. She could hear Minions playing downstairs, so the boys wouldn’t be able to hear. “It isn’t complicated. It’s pretty fucking simple. Julian has taken a lot of money from a lot of people, and he’s using it to either buy drugs or pay off debts or both. Forget all those people at the benefit for a moment, the ones who thought they were giving money to a good cause. Think about yourself, your parents, Ethan. I mean, Christ! Julian drained Ethan’s trust fund, for crying out loud!”

  Grace looked stricken. “What?”

  “Ethan’s trust. The one in your dad’s name. There’s almost nothing left in it.”

  “What are you talking about? How do you know that?”

  Amy opened her mouth, then paused. How did she know that? Then she remembered: the letter. The one she never should have opened.

  “Because one day I accidentally opened a letter for Julian, thinking it was for us. But it wasn’t. It was a letter informing him that the trust’s holdings were valued at $500 or something.”

  “And you never told me?”

  “I figured you already knew.”

  “Well, I didn’t. I didn’t know about any of it. Fuck.” Her lip started trembling. “You should have said something.”

  “Hey, don’t turn this around on me! Your husband is the one who took the money.”

  “Okay, and what am I supposed to do about it now, huh? The money is long gone, and God knows where he spent it.”

  “You know what you can do about it? You can get Julian into a serious rehab program.”

  “He’s already been to rehab.”

  “And it clearly didn’t work. He needs something more intensive.”

  “He doesn’t need something intensive. It’s just pills.”

  “It isn’t just pills!” She stomped her foot. “Don’t you understand that by now? Haven’t you been watching the news? It started as ‘just pills’ with my brother, Tim, and then it progressed to heroin, and now he’s dead. Is that what you want for Julian? For Ethan?”

  “Of course that isn’t what I want!” Tears were streaming down Grace’s cheeks. “But I don’t know what else I can fucking do. I can’t make him want to stop.”

  Amy couldn’t argue with that. If Julian didn’t want to go back to rehab, it wouldn’t work in the long run. The times Tim had gone under someone else’s direction, he hadn’t stayed clean for more than the length of the program, often less.

  “At the very least, you can fix this Food Fight mess. Leroy Harris is threatening to go to the police, and I don’t think he’s bluffing.”

  Grace suddenly looked scared. “The police?”

  “The police and the press. Once he does that, you won’t be able to control any of this anymore.”

  Grace rubbed her cheeks and nose on her sleeve, leaving a trail of tears and snot. It was strange to see her unhinged like this when normally she was so refined. The Grace she had met all those months ago would have politely blown her nose in a tissue, probably out of earshot. Grace’s carefully constructed façade was falling away. Maybe now that Grace felt free to be emotionally naked in front of her, they could establish a true friendship.

  “I just . . . I’m not sure how I can fix this. All that money . . . all those people . . .” The tears came faster now, and Grace covered her mouth to keep the sobs from reaching Ethan on the floor below. Amy knelt next to her and wrapped her arm around Grace’s shoulder.

  “You do whatever it takes. If that means telling your parents the truth and getting their help, then that’s what you do. Or you find another way—friends, family, a Kickstarter. But you can’t keep closing your eyes and hoping all of this will just go away. It won’t unless you do something.”

  Grace leaned her head on Amy’s shoulder, her body shaking as she choked on the tears. “This isn’t how I wanted my life to turn out,” she said.

  Amy held her tight and rubbed her shoulder. “I know,” she said. “But the good news is, you still have plenty of time to start over.”

  * * *

  When Amy woke up the next morning, Grace and Ethan were gone. She wasn’t sure when they had left. She hadn’t heard anyone making noise in the night, although she was so exhausted from the day’s events that she probably would have slept through it. But Rob usually armed the security system, which would have gone off if Grace had tried to slip out the front door. The only explanation she could come up with was that they’d snuck out just after Rob left for work. He’d left at 6:30 for an early meeting, at which point Amy and Noah were still fast asleep. If Grace had gone then, Amy wouldn’t have heard it.

  She tried not to worry too much as she ate breakfast and packed Noah’s lunch, but given what had happened the day before, it seemed only natural that she’d be a little concerned. Had Grace gone home? Or had she taken Ethan somewhere else? Was Lev still looking for Julian?

  “Mommy . . . where’s Ethan?”

  Noah rubbed his eyes as he toddled into the kitchen. His face was still puffy with sleep, and he had a big crease across his cheek from his pillowcase.

  “I’m not sure, sweetie. He left with his mommy before I got up.”

  “But I wanted to have breakfast together.” He frowned.

  “I know. But I’m sure there are plenty of sleepovers with Ethan in your future, and you will definitely have breakfast together at one of those.”

  He sighed. “Okay.”

  “What do you want to eat? Cereal? Toast?”

  “Toast with peanut butter and honey.”

  “Done.

  “But, Mommy?”

  “Yes, sweetie?” Amy grabbed the loaf of bread and stuck a slice in the toaster.

  “I’m sad because I wanted to have breakfast with Ethan today.”

  “I know you did. But you’ll see him in about an hour at school, so that’s like the next best thing.”

  Except he didn’t see Ethan at school because Ethan wasn’t at school that day. Nor was he at school the next day, or the one after that. When he hadn’t appeared by Friday, Amy began to worry. Had something happened to him? She’d tried to call Grace to check in the day after Lev’s visit, but Grace hadn’t picked up, nor had she picked up the other two times Amy had called. Where were they? Was everything okay?

  When she went to pick Noah up from school Friday afternoon, she noticed through the glass in the door that he was sitting sullenly on a small couch in the corner of the room. His arms were crossed, and his head was tilted down. She could barely see his face, but she could tell his bottom lip was sticking out. She didn’t know why, but she was almost certain his pouting had to do with Ethan’s absence.

  Amy made eye contact with Miss Karen, who nodded to the assistant teacher to take charge while she stepped outside. She met Amy in the hall.

  “What’s up with Noah? He looks miserable.”

  “He’s been like that all day,” Miss Karen said. “Ever since I announced that Ethan wouldn’t be in our class anymore.”

  “What do you mean? What happened?”

  “I’m not exactly sure. As you know, he hasn’t been here all week. I think they’re moving.”

  “Moving? Where?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t have any details. All I know is that Grace called Ruth this morning and said Ethan would no longer be attending Beth Israel.”

  Amy couldn’t believe it. No wonder Noah was devastated.

  “They didn’t even say goodbye,” she said. She was talking to herself as much as she was talking to Miss Karen.

  “I know. A number of the kids took it very hard. But none as hard as Noah.”

  “He was Noah’s best friend—his first best friend. This is going to destroy him.” Amy’s eyes were wet. She tried to hold back the intense heartache she felt for Noah, but she was doing a very bad job.

  “He’s a tough little boy. He’ll be okay.”

  Amy opened the door to the classroom and went inside. When Noah saw her, he ran over and threw his arms around her, burying his head in her belly as
he began to cry.

  “Shhh, shhh, shhh,” Amy said, rubbing his head. “It’s okay.”

  “N-n-n-no it’s n-n-n-not. I m-m-miss E-e-ethan.”

  She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. “I know, sweetie. I know.”

  She escorted him out of the classroom and gathered his things. She could barely get him to put his coat on. He was inconsolable. In the past when he’d had meltdowns, as any preschooler did, they’d blown over fairly quickly. But she wasn’t so sure this one would.

  When she finally got him into the car, she brushed the tears off his cheeks. “What if I called Ethan’s mommy to see what’s going on?”

  He sniffled. “Could I talk to Ethan?”

  “Sure. Let’s do it at home, though, okay?”

  They made it home without another explosion of tears, and when they got inside, Amy pulled out her phone and called Grace. Given recent experiences of trying to get in touch with her, Amy worried she wouldn’t pick up, but to her relief, she picked up after three rings.

  “I guess you’ve heard the news,” she said.

  “Sort of. All Karen said was that Ethan wouldn’t be coming to school anymore. She seemed to think maybe you were moving?”

  Grace took a deep breath and released it slowly into the receiver. “I just need to get away for a while.”

  “Away? Where?”

  “Texas. A friend of mine lives in Austin. Ethan and I are going to stay with her for a few months.”

  “What about Julian?”

  There was a pause on the other end. “We’ve separated.”

  “Oh. I wasn’t . . . I didn’t know.”

  “That’s okay. We haven’t told anyone.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “Not really? But it had been building for a while. That’s why things were so frosty between us. I just felt as if I couldn’t trust him anymore. There were too many lies, too many excuses that didn’t add up. I realized I couldn’t live my life questioning his every move. The story about Ethan’s trust fund only confirmed that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Me too. I thought he was the love of my life.” She sniffled, and Amy heard her blow her nose. “Remember when we had drinks all those months ago and you told me about your mom raising you and your brother by herself, and I was like, ‘I could never do all of this alone’? Well, here we are.” She laughed bitterly.

 

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