Changing Fate (Book 3) (Piper Anderson Series)

by Danielle Stewart

  Betty blew out a long breath and took the other seat by the bed. “I’m so out of practice with this relationship thing I just don’t know what to think. He’s a wonderful man who seems to be very interested in me, but I’m leaving here at some point. Edenville is my home, and that’s no place for a fancy chef like Clay. What would he do there? Make eggs at the diner?”

  “This might be the first time I’ve seen you anything but optimistic, Ma. It will work out if it’s meant to. Home isn’t where you live, if he’s the right person for you, one of you will make a new home.”

  “I ain’t living in this city.” She shook her head definitively. “But I do like him . . .” she blushed like a schoolgirl, “a lot.”

  “Oh, Ma, that is so cute. I’m happy for you. No one knows what will happen, so just enjoy every minute you get with him.”

  “Who are you?” Betty raised a skeptical eyebrow at her. “When did you get all grown up and wise? Someone must have raised you right.”

  Jules leaned over and kissed her mother’s cheek. She rubbed her belly and looked down at it warmly. “I just hope I can do half as good a job as you did.”

  “You won’t,” Betty said curtly, drawing the eyes of Piper and Jules. “You’ll do twice as good as I ever did.”

  “You guys are going to make me cry,” Piper choked out.

  “None of that. None of that, girl.” Betty stood and hugged her. “You are doing an amazing thing here today, and I am so very proud of you.”

  “Me too,” Jules sang, as she joined the group hug. “I still can’t believe I got in the car with you and ran off to New York. It was the most impulsive thing I’ve ever done, and I don’t regret it for a second.” They all released each other, brushing away tears.

  Piper hadn’t wanted to make the moments leading up to her surgery about saying goodbye, about saying things you were afraid you’d never get a chance to say, but she couldn’t fight it anymore. “Betty, the few months you’ve been like a mother to me have been enough to make me forget every minute I didn’t have one. Everything that’s happened to me in the last few months would have swallowed me up if it weren’t for you.” Betty waved her off, unable to respond.

  “Jules, if you hadn’t gotten in the car with me I don’t know where I would have ended up. I don’t think I’d have even stopped in New York. I would have just kept driving until I found a place to hide away for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t have had the courage to even look for Marty.”

  “You’re my sister, Piper; I told you that that day. So just make sure you come out of this surgery, because now I’m the one who needs you.”

  “I will,” Piper agreed, lifting her chin up, trying to look strong.

  A stout, pig-nosed nurse walked in and broke up the emotional moment. “If you’d still like time to see Clarissa before the surgery, we need to go now.”

  “I’m ready,” she gulped, not looking back at Betty and Jules as the woman released the lock on her bed and wheeled her away.

  “So what do you think, are you ready for this?” Piper asked as her hospital bed was wheeled to the side of Clarissa’s. She didn’t realize how quickly she’d connect with the girl once she had met her.

  As she sat beside Clarissa, Piper realized being confined to a hospital bed for months and fighting her body’s urge to give up made her weak, but not defeated. She hadn’t lost the fiery spirit of someone convinced she’d make it.

  A nurse walked in with a chart in her hand and called Clarissa’s name. “You’re first, sweetheart. Mom, you’re coming to the prep room with us, right? And, Dad, you’re going with your other daughter?”

  “Yes,” they said in unison, and kissed each other as Connie split from his side.

  “Munchkin,” a nickname Marty had never stopped using on his daughter, “I love you so much.” He leaned down to hug and kiss Clarissa. “I’m so proud of how brave you have been. You are going to feel so much better after this, and we can go back to doing all the things we love.”

  “I’m a little scared, Dad,” Clarissa whispered, her mouth turning down in preparation for tears. Since the moment they had been introduced, Piper had not seen any fear in Clarissa, but now it couldn’t be hidden.

  “That’s just fine, Munchkin, you can be scared if you want to. I will be brave for now and you can be a little scared.”

  “Okay Daddy, you be brave.” He leaned down and kissed her head again. It was funny how in moments of greatest need, one tended to regress back to the place it all began. Marty could have just as easily been talking to his scared five-year-old, afraid of a monster under her bed.

  “You got it, Brave Daddy on duty.” He stood and mockingly puffed out his chest, saluting her as the nurse wheeled her away. When the bed was out of sight, the air came out of his chest and his soldier-like shoulders slumped.

  “Are you all right?” Piper asked, seeing the blood had drained from his face.

  He took in a centering breath and forced a smile. “I’m fine, this is all going to be over before you know it. We’ll be celebrating everyone’s recovery and toasting everyone’s health.”

  Another nurse came through the door holding a chart and calling Piper’s name. “Are you a little scared?” Piper asked him, as she reached for his arm.

  “Y-y-yes,” he stammered, looking away from her, his eyes glossy with the hint of tears.

  “It’s okay, Daddy, you can be a little scared if you want to. I’ll be brave.” Much to her surprise the word didn’t feel awkward. She straightened her back the way he had and puffed out her chest, giving the same salute he’d given just a moment before.

  He leaned down and kissed her head the same way he had just done for Clarissa. “Piper, I’m in awe of you, how you’ve endured so much and yet have still found a way to give. I’m so glad you’re mine. I love you, Piper. I truly do.”

  “I love you, too,” she managed to quietly say.

  She stared up at the ceiling as her bed was wheeled toward the operating room. She felt oddly calm as she was lifted onto the operating table by the efficient arms of the nurses.

  The anesthesiologist was at her head. “Piper, I’m going to put this oxygen mask over your nose and mouth. Just breathe normally.” Piper concentrated on breathing in and out. All the prepping had been done, all the paperwork signed. She thought she would be more afraid than this. She thought the nerves she was feeling an hour ago would be raw and raging now. Maybe this was the gift that had come from having such a terrible childhood, the ability to stare down your fears and control your emotions.

  “I’m administering the drug that will put you to sleep now, Piper. Begin counting backward from one hundred, then you’ll be asleep,” the anesthesiologist said through his surgical mask.

  Piper nodded and began counting.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Do you want me to call and get an update on Piper from Jules?” Michael asked, reaching for his cell phone.

  “No.” Bobby’s smile faded as he turned to stare out the window. “I just want to hear when it’s over and know she’s okay. Until then, I need to be distracted. That’s why I asked you to take this ride with me. How do you feel about prison?”

  “Um, that’s a loaded question. I’ll need some more details before I answer that one.”

  “I want to go visit my brother. I’ve been putting it off, and I promised Piper I would do it before she had the surgery. I’d like to be able to tell her I went when she wakes up.”

  Michael smirked as he pulled the GPS from the center console and handed it over. “Put the address in there and let’s go. I swear, I have been an attorney for years and I’ve never met anyone with more secrets than you people.”

  Bobby turned the radio off and placed the GPS on the dash. “We’ve got forty-five minutes, I guess I should start at the beginning.”

  “This should be good. I feel like I’ll need some popcorn.” The ride was filled with a factual description of what had transpired all those years ago. Jedda’s crimes,
the trial, how Bobby and his family had moved to Edenville. But unlike his conversations with Piper, his chat with Michael was void of any emotional commentary. They arrived at the prison and Michael did his best to convince the warden Bobby needed the visiting time. And it worked.

  Bobby sat down on the bench of the metal table in the common room of the prison and tried to fight off his raging nerves. He hadn’t seen Jedda in so many years, and he had no idea what to say to him. When the door buzzed open, two guards escorted a man in an orange jumpsuit, and Bobby immediately recognized him as the brother he had admired so much.

  Bobby watched as Jedda’s face passed through multiple stages: first confusion, then recognition, and finally, sheer joy. “Bobby?” he asked with a light in his eyes, reminiscent of the day the paperwork had been signed for his adoption.

  “Jedda,” Bobby replied as he stood and opened his arms to him. They were just about the same height now which was something Bobby never dreamed would happen. Jedda had always seemed so much bigger than him. They embraced tightly and years of not speaking melted away. They weren’t strangers who had missed out on so much of each other’s lives. They were just brothers.

  They took a seat across from each other and sat in silence for a long moment, examining each other. Jedda spoke first. “When they told me I had a visitor I was surprised. It’s not even visiting hours yet. How did you manage to work that out?”

  “You’d be surprised what having a lawyer as a best friend can do for you. He smooth-talked my way in for me. I expected to be talking to you behind some glass through a phone. They said you’re a model prisoner, that you have been since the day you got here.”

  “I’ve tried. It isn’t easy. I’m glad you could come. You know your parents have been visiting me? They told me you might be coming. I was trying not to get my hopes up. I’m just so glad you’re here.” Jedda reached across the table and slapped Bobby on the shoulder, something he did often when they were children.

  “I’m not really sure why I am here.” Bobby looked down at his hands as he wrung his fingers nervously. Jedda looked so different, so damaged, so weathered. He had hoped by some miracle he’d come here and see his brother exactly as he had left him: young and unmarred by the ugliness of the world.

  “Bro,” Jedda smiled, saying the word just like he always had all those years ago, “you’re here to talk, so talk.”

  “I’ve had kind of a crazy year. It’s complicated, but it got me thinking back to everything you did.” Bobby hesitated on those words. He wasn’t trying to be accusatory, but Jedda had killed two people, those were the facts. “I had to make some choices, and I struggled with my decision. I feel like I crossed a line. One I can’t come back from.”

  “And you’re what? Wondering if you did the right thing?” Jedda looked as though he was trying to decipher the code Bobby was speaking.

  “I guess I’m trying to understand—I’m wondering, if you could do things differently, would you? Don’t you regret what you did? You’ve spent more than half your life in prison.”

  “There have been plenty of days I wished I wasn’t in here. But then I try to think about Willow, and I hope what I did helped her find a better life.”

  Like a little boy with a secret, Bobby’s face reddened. “She does have a good life. I found her.” Bobby couldn’t help but light up a little. He had always wanted to make Jedda happy—impress him—and he could tell this information was certainly doing the trick. “She’s a musician, and she’s happy. Well, except for one thing.”

  “You found her?” Jedda’s eyes grew wet almost instantly. “What is it, what isn’t she happy about?” He said the words as though he would do anything to fix it once he was told.

  “She wants to see you. She misses you and she says every time she tried to visit years ago, you wouldn’t see her. She’s planning on coming to school in New York. I’d love to be the one to call her and tell her you want her to visit.”

  Jedda’s hands immediately covered his face. “She can come,” were the only words he could manage. It took a few minutes for him to compose himself. But when he did, the smile on his face was wide.

  “I’d do all this again.” He looked straight into Bobby’s eyes. “I can’t tell you if whatever you did was the right choice because I don’t know why you made it. But for me, knowing why I did what I did, I have no regrets.”

  Bobby dropped his head, a mixture of relief and exhaustion. None of the things he’d found out on this crazy journey were curative separately. Hearing from his mom, from Willow, now from Jedda, individually, might not have been enough to lessen his guilt. But seeing the whole picture through the eyes of an adult gave him new perspective. In his normal fashion, he found himself ticking off little boxes in his head. Jedda is actually okay, and not broken completely by being in prison. Willow has had a good life, not one in which she would have been destroyed, but one in which she flourished. She can see that it was love that drove her brother to kill for her. His parents had found their marriage again; something they may have lost had Jedda not pulled the trigger. His relationship with his mom has been be reconnected. He might be able to settle things with his father at some point. He might be able to reconcile with himself, understand that Chris’s actions and his acquiescence, allowed the woman he loves to be free.

  Jedda rubbed his hand on the top of Bobby’s head like a big brother would. “There are people looking at my case you know,” Jedda beamed, slapping his hands together. “That’s right, there is talk that the proper procedures may not have been used in my trial because of my age. It’s complicated legal stuff, but I’m hoping I can get a good lawyer this time and really fight some of this. Back then I just didn’t want to drag you all through the mud. I wanted to end it all as quickly as I could. Now that everyone is exactly where they are supposed to be, it’s time for me to focus on what I can do.”

  “My buddy, Michael, might be able to help. I don’t know if it’s a case he would handle, but at a minimum he could point you in the right direction.”

  “Thanks.” Jedda’s expression shifted as he grew serious. “And I’m sorry if what I did hurt you or changed you. You were a great kid; I hope I didn’t ruin that.”

  “What you did, made me want to live my life in a way I now see isn’t really possible. I wanted to make sure I always played by the rules, and I thought if I did, nothing bad could happen. But . . .” Bobby’s expression didn’t match his words. He looked amused rather than introspective.

  “But what?”

  “I met a girl. And this girl challenged everything I’ve ever believed in. She needed me to be something I thought was wrong, but really she made me more myself than I’ve ever been. I can’t imagine my life without her. I just needed to hear from you that the risk was worth it.”

  “It was,” Jedda nodded. “Knowing that Willow has a real chance at life is all that ever mattered to me.”

  “I only wish I had had you longer.”

  “You have me now, and whenever you want, come to visit. I went through my own struggles, telling myself that seeing you guys would hurt you too much. But when your parents reached out to me, the first time I hugged them again, I realized I was wrong. You can’t tell people not to care about you for their own sake. That’s their choice.”

  The guard came up to the table and knocked on it lightly. “All right, guys, time’s up.” Jedda rose and nodded obediently to the guard. “I love you, Bobby. Even if I haven’t always been there for you, I love you.” Bobby stood up and pulled Jedda in for a hug.

  “I love you, too, bro. I’ll be back to visit.”

  “Bring that girl with you, I want to meet the person responsible for straightening you out.”

  “Trust me, you two would get along just fine.” Bobby hadn’t anticipated how hard it would be to watch Jedda disappear behind the large steel door with a guard. It felt like an old wound being poked at. And judging by Jedda’s face, it wasn’t too easy for him either.

  As the second o
fficer escorted Bobby back through the other door he was relieved to see Michael standing there. He hoped Jedda had someone on the other end as well, a familiar face to lessen the ache.

  “How’d it go?”

  “He seemed good, better than I thought, I guess. Hey—” Bobby stopped and Michael turned to face him. “This is kind of a lot to ask, but some people are looking at Jedda’s case again, something about how it was handled considering his age at the time of the crime. He’s looking for some legal advice, do you think you could help him out?”

  “Of course,” Michael slapped Bobby on the shoulder as they headed for the parking lot. “I’ll see what I can find out. I got a call from Jules.” Bobby held his breath and waited for the news. “They surgery went well. One of the nurses stepped out to give everyone an update and said the transplant was complete and that the surgeons were, you know, sewing them back up.” Michael shuddered at this last part which made Bobby chuckle. “If we hurry, we can be there when Piper wakes up in the recovery room.”

  Bobby threw his hand against his chest in relief. “That’s great. I knew she’d be okay.”

  “Of course she is, that girl is invincible.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Another law Piper would enforce if she ruled the world: when waking up from anesthesia an audience would not be allowed. Piper vaguely remembered making some very inappropriate sexual requests aimed at Bobby and a poorly timed joke about a nurse who happened to be standing right next to her. Those things would be embarrassing enough, but when there were five people, not including the doctors and nurses, listening intently, embarrassing just didn’t seem to cover it.

  But now the fog had lifted, and apparently it was not too soon to start teasing her about it.

  Jules was planted on Michael’s lap on the chair closest to Piper’s bed. “You seem to be feeling better, should we leave you and Bobby alone so he can collect on some of those promises you made while you were waking up?” he asked and quickly blocked Jules’s playful slap.