Because of Audrey

by Mary Sullivan

  Taking out the iPod first, he handed it to Joe, whose grip was weak, but he managed to hold on.

  “We already loaded it up with a bunch of music. We guessed what you would like. We got Maroon 5. Sound good?”

  Joe nodded too hard again, and Gray laughed and righted him. With his less-than-perfect dexterity, Joe had trouble putting the buds in his ears, but Gray stopped him.

  “Not yet, buddy. There’s more.” He pulled out the tablet and passed it to Joe. Joe’s eyes got huge.

  “Mine?” he breathed.

  “Yours.” Gray turned it on and explained everything they’d put on it, describing every game and naming every book. “We bought the mini tablet because it’s light. You should be able to hold it for hours with no problems.”

  “What’s Hatchet about?”

  “I don’t know. That was Audrey’s idea.”

  Joe looked at Audrey.

  She stopped playing with Tiffany. “It’s about a boy close to your age who’s in a small plane that crashes into a lake in rural Canada. The pilot dies, and the boy is stranded with no way to let anyone know where he is. He’s miles from civilization without food, water or blankets. The only thing he has to use for survival is a hatchet. It’s an awesome story.”

  “I want to read it now, please.”

  Gray opened the story, Joe took the tablet and started to read, so intent he blocked out all of the noise around him, his scoliosis a nonissue with the small tablet.

  Shelly didn’t respond. Only then did Gray realize how quiet she’d been.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  She inclined her head toward the kitchen, her mouth tight. Gray knew that angry-woman look and wondered what he was about to catch hell for.

  In the kitchen, he asked again, “What’s wrong?”

  “I wanted to be the one getting my kids that stuff.”

  “You would have been buying it with money from my dad. What difference does it make if I jumped the gun and picked it up today?”

  She whispered fiercely, “I want to make you take it all back, but I can’t do that to my kids.”

  Only when her voice broke did Gray realize that she wasn’t just angry, she was also sad.

  “Whether or not it was your dad’s money, I wanted the pleasure of buying things for my kids, of seeing them open something from me at Christmas.” She swiped tears from her eyes. “I know it would have been an illusion, but it would have been my illusion. I’m their mom.”

  That responsibility, the knowledge that she couldn’t provide for her children, weighed heavily on her, made her look older than her years.

  “I’m sorry,” Gray said. “I wish I’d been thinking clearly. I got excited about buying things for them.”

  Mollified, she nodded. “Nothing can be done about it now.” Shelly’s sudden smile was wobbly and wet. “Thank you for buying gifts for Joe. He’s not always treated like a child. People tend to forget him, as though Duchenne makes him unaware of what’s happening around him.”

  “No problem. I really enjoyed buying everything.”

  They returned to the living room where Tiffany was dressed in her tutu, slippers and fairy wings, dancing around the room, singing off-key.

  Gray retrieved the small bag from the holistic store and explained what it was, but Shelly was still watching her son read.

  “This is so much better than him staring out the window for hours. It will keep his mind occupied.”

  “We need to get him to a therapist to get his body moving.”

  “I can’t until I get the money from you.”

  “I’m working on it. Before I leave today, I’ll write another check for next month’s rent.”

  He explained about putting his condo in Boston for sale and getting the money to her then. She would have to trust him that the rest would come in time.

  * * *

  AUDREY CARRIED THE empty mugs to the kitchen. Shelly took them from her to wash. No dishwasher, Audrey noted.

  “How did you first know?” she asked.

  “My mom told me who my dad was long ago.”

  That was a problem Audrey would have to wrap her head around at some point, but that hadn’t been what she’d been asking.

  “No, I mean Joe. Was he born that way or did it develop?”

  “He seemed normal at birth. His symptoms didn’t show until he was five. Maybe earlier, but I think Tom and I were in denial that anything was wrong with our perfect little boy.”

  “How did you finally figure out something was wrong?”

  “Muscle weakness in his legs. He couldn’t run or jump properly. He fell down a lot. We thought he wasn’t much of an athlete.” Shelly dried the mugs and put them in the cupboard. “Plus, he was always tired. We could no longer deny it, though, when he had trouble climbing the stairs to go to bed at night.”

  She closed the door with a restrained click. “Then we got the diagnosis, and our world fell apart.”

  Audrey sighed. “How did you deal with it?”

  “I cried for two weeks. Maybe more. I went into a depression that lasted months. Finally, I picked myself up and went to the library and learned all I could about it. I went there a couple of times a week, researched online, joined chat groups and learned all I could from other parents.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, essentially hugging herself. “We’d already had Sam, and I worried about him, but as you can see, he’s fine.”

  “He won’t get it?”

  “We had him tested. He doesn’t have the gene, thank goodness.”

  “And Tiffany? Can she get it?”

  Shelly shook her head. “Girls don’t get it. She can carry it, though.”

  Audrey sat in a chair at the spotless kitchen table.

  Shelly sat across from her. “When I realized I was affecting Sam, as well as Joe, with my depression, not to mention my marriage, I entered life again and threw myself into making everything work.”

  “You’ve done an amazing job. Your kids are great.”

  “Thanks. The thing is...” She tapped her fist against the table. Her face screwed up, but she stopped herself from crying. “I can’t make it work now that Tom is gone. I can’t go to work and still care for Joe. I can’t make enough money to pay for a caregiver.” She took a tissue out of her pocket and dabbed at her eyes. “I never had a career that paid much. I couldn’t afford college, so, after high school, I worked in a retail store. When I met and fell in love with Tom Harper, we married and started a family right away.”

  “You could have had Harrison pay for college.”

  Shelly shook her head, a hard, emphatic denial. “When he didn’t care that my mom was pregnant and never sent her support, she didn’t ask him again, and I decided I never would.”

  That was so unlike the Harrison Audrey knew. There was no denying that Shelly was a Turner, but something felt wrong about all of this. She didn’t think it had anything to do with Shelly.

  When they’d first arrived today, Audrey had thought Shelly was scamming Gray. No more. Shelly was as honest as the day was long.

  But she would have sworn that Harrison was, too. The whole idea that Harrison could have...that he might have...

  No. It was beyond the realm of possibility, beyond the stretching of her imagination. Maybe she was still in shock.

  Abigail. Oh, dear lord, what would this do to Abigail? Before the day was over, Audrey was getting to the bottom of this.

  Shelly spoke. “I contacted him now only for the children’s sake. Otherwise, I never would have.”

  “If it’s any consolation, in your shoes, I’d be doing the same thing. Harrison has a lot to make up for.” Audrey stood. “Time to leave, I think.”

  Gray sat on the floor in the living room playing
Go Fish with Sam and Tiffany, looking very much like an oversize kid himself.

  When Audrey and Shelly entered the room, and Audrey picked up her purse, he understood that it was time to leave.

  There were hugs all around.

  Anger underlay Audrey’s shock, simmering while she hugged the children. They were not a part of this. Harrison had always seemed to be honest. All of these years, had Audrey—and Abigail—been such poor judges of character?

  * * *

  “HOW DOES SHE COPE?” Audrey asked.

  They were in the car, and Gray was driving them to the lab. They’d left a happy home, but Audrey had been subdued until now. At the house, Gray had thought she’d been coming to grips with Harrison’s dishonesty, but maybe not.

  “Shelly?” he asked.

  She nodded. “Tell me more about Duchenne.”

  “The only research I’ve done is on the internet, but what I’ve learned is that it’s a form of muscular dystrophy that progresses and worsens quickly.”

  “I was afraid to ask Shelly what the future held. Worsens how?”

  “The muscle weakness will continue to get worse. He’ll eventually have difficulty breathing, and heart disease will begin to set in at about age twenty.”

  “So young,” Audrey whispered. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

  “It gets worse,” Gray said, grimly staring at the road ahead. “He’ll probably be dead by the time he’s twenty-five, most likely because of a lung disorder. Between now and then, there can be a whole slew of complications. Cardiomyopathy, decreased mobility, pneumonia or lung infections.”

  “Shelly will need every penny you can give her.”

  “Yes. More than money, too. She’ll need emotional support. Her mom is dead, and she has no other family.”

  “Why did you buy all of those gifts today?”

  “Guilt, mostly. I had such a great childhood. My parents gave me everything. I had a college education that allowed me to become successful in business.”

  “Guilt is a great motivator. Is that why you’re giving her money?”

  “No. She’s blackmailing Dad.”

  “What?” Audrey sat up straight.

  “That’s why I had him declared incompetent. To void the sale of the land to you so I could sell to a huge agricultural conglomerate. They were willing to pay a fortune.”

  He glanced from the road for a second to look at her profile. “Don’t judge her harshly. She’s desperate. She’d run through her husband’s savings since his death and didn’t even have the rent for September. If I hadn’t given it to her, those kids would be on the street. Can you imagine Joe in a shelter?”

  “Or worse,” Audrey said. “They would have taken him from Shelly and institutionalized him. It would have killed her. It’s obvious she loves him.”

  “Yeah, I’ve had the same impression. That’s why I had to wrench that land back from you. It wasn’t worth a fraction as much with you and those greenhouses sitting in the middle of it. Shelly wanted one lump sum that she could use to support the children until they grew up.”

  He pulled into the lab’s parking lot.

  “So, what will you do now?” Audrey asked.

  “Sell my business in Boston.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. I’d held on to it thinking I would someday return there after Mom and Dad...passed away. They’re healthy, though, and could hang on for years. I hope they do.”

  “They’re fragile now, Gray.”

  With a sharp glance, he noted her frown. “Do you think this did them any permanent damage?”

  Audrey hesitated, and he hated it, terrified that he might have diminished them so deeply with his actions that they might fail.

  “Tell me,” he demanded.

  “When I visited, they didn’t look good. I’m worried about them.”

  “Can you see why I couldn’t bring this to them? Why I had to handle it myself? It would break Mom. Kill her.”

  Audrey was quiet for so long, he thought she wouldn’t answer, but she nodded.

  “I know you’re going to think I’m being paranoid, but I paid to have a DNA test done here. I need to run in to pick up the results.”

  Five minutes later, he returned.

  “This is it,” he said. “The moment of truth.”

  He tore the top off the envelope and pulled out the papers, and what he read took his breath away.

  “What is it?”

  Gray handed the results to Audrey.

  “What on earth?” She handed them back to him. “You need to talk to your parents. There’s something really strange going on.”

  He drove out of Denver, and neither he nor Audrey said another word until they reached Accord.

  “I’m going with you to see Harrison and Abigail,” she said. “We need to find out what this means.”

  “We? You would help me with this?”

  “I love Abigail as though she were my own mother. When I was little, after Mom died, Abigail treated me like a daughter. I want to help her get through this.”

  Gray nodded. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  When they drove into his parents’ driveway, his nerves skittered and danced. He hadn’t seen either of his parents since that awful day when Dad had kicked him out of the house.

  Man, he loved them. He didn’t want this tornado barreling down on his family to demolish what he’d only ever known as a loving relationship. Mom and Dad were devoted to each other. He didn’t want this huge change to destroy a once-happy couple.

  Audrey knocked on the front door.

  Harrison answered, shocking Gray with his appearance. He’d aged more in the past week than in the past five years.

  Oh, God, Dad, what did I do to you?

  Gray’s knowledge that his dad was lost to him overwhelmed him.

  “What do you want?” Harrison asked, his once hale voice now a whisper, his gaze on Gray both hungry and angry.

  “We need to talk,” Gray said, his tone not quite as confident as he’d hoped, not when he wanted to wrap this frail man in his arms and beg his forgiveness and swear his undying love.

  Harrison frowned. “What is there left to say?”

  “May we come in?” Audrey asked. “Please? There are things you need to hear.”

  For the first time, Harrison registered her presence.

  “Audrey? You’re with Gray?” He seemed to mean, You’re siding with Gray? Supporting him in this?

  “Gray is right, Mr. Turner—you need to talk. He has something important to show you and Abigail.”

  Heaving a sigh, he stepped aside. “Come in.”

  Gray stepped past him and into the living room, where Mom waited. She’d aged, too. More than anything, he wanted to take her in his arms, to cherish and protect her from the tornado.

  Everyone sat but Gray. He couldn’t settle, just needed to get this done quickly. While his parents were too well-bred for outright hostility—no vulgar cursing or screaming here—their unhappiness burrowed under his skin.

  “There’s no easy way to say this. When I came home, I started to handle all of your correspondence. Last month, I received a letter from a woman who was trying to blackmail Dad.”

  “I remember,” Dad said. “I told you she was full of nonsense.”

  “Yes, you did, but I went to visit her anyway. Dad, she looks like me. She has my smile. Her son is the spitting image of me at that age.”

  “Would someone please explain who and what you are talking about?” Abigail asked.

  “Did you ever know a woman named Edie Kent?” Gray asked.

  “No, I’ve never heard of her.” Abigail sat up straighter. “Is she blackmailing Harrison? Why?”

  “No, not her. Apparen
tly, she’s dead.”

  “Oh. Sorry to hear it. Then who’s blackmailing my husband?”

  “Her daughter.”

  “Why?”

  “Because she thinks she’s Dad’s daughter.”

  “That’s absurd,” Abigail said.

  “As it turns out, it is impossible, but I didn’t know that until this afternoon.”

  “Tell us everything, Gray,” Mom ordered.

  Gray explained it all—the photo of Sam, his visits to Denver, the family resemblance and the DNA test.

  “Here’s where it gets interesting. The DNA test says that she isn’t Dad’s daughter. But she is family. How can that be? You are both only children.”

  Harrison and Abigail exchanged a significant look.

  “What?” Gray asked. “What did that look mean?”

  “Craig,” they said together.

  “Craig?”

  Dad nodded. “Craig. Another one of his tricks.”

  “Who is Craig?”

  “Your uncle.”

  “My what? I’ve never heard of him. Why not?”

  “He died before you were born. This is no doubt his daughter.”

  “He envied your father his success something fierce,” Abigail said, “and played tricks to subvert him wherever he could.”

  “Including,” Harrison said, “pretending to be me on occasion. Used to go into Denver and impersonate me, throw around money, pretend he was a big-shot owner of a big company.”

  Knees weak, Gray fell into an armchair. Delayed shock. Dad truly was the man Gray had always thought him to be. What a blessed, awesome relief. The larger part of the shock might be that Gray had an uncle he’d never known about.

  “We stopped seeing Craig just before he died,” Abigail said. “Sort of booted him out of the family.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he made advances toward your mother.”

  “Mom was beautiful. That’s enough to get angry about, but to cut him off from the family?”

  “He was...” Mom looked away. “He was forceful about it. If Harrison hadn’t shown up when he did...”

  Okay, for that, Gray might have killed the man.