When I Saw You
Laura Branchflower
Copyright © 2017 Laura Branchflower
All rights reserved
ISBN: 9780999175217
ISBN: 0999175211
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No Part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other – without written permission from the publisher.
For Jordan
Content
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Also by Laura Branchflower
Prologue
Arlington, VA
“I want you to understand this is between me and your mother,” the man was saying as he paced back and forth in the center of the living room.
The twelve-year-old girl concentrated to hear him, the wails from her younger brother increasingly loud. Not that anything else he said mattered. He was leaving them behind. The Navy was sending him to San Diego, their mother had been talking about the move for months, and now he was telling them they weren’t going.
“This has nothing to do with the two of you,” he continued.
How could this have nothing to do with us? the girl wondered, no longer listening as he droned on. He was moving three thousand miles away. The movers just left with half their furniture.
“Why?” she asked, interrupting his monologue.
He looked at her in confusion. “Why? That’s what I’ve been explaining to you. Your mother and I—”
“Why can’t you make it work?” She could feel the pressure behind her eyes, but wouldn’t let herself cry. She didn’t want to cry.
“We’ve been trying, honey. We just can’t—.”
“Why can’t you try harder?” Her eyes flew to her mother. “Do you want this too?”
Her mother’s tear-filled eyes met hers from across the room. “Your father thinks—”
“What about what I think? Does it matter to either of you what I think?” She stood up. “This is our life too.” She gestured with her hand towards her brother. “We don’t want this to happen.” She hated the desperation she could hear in her voice and knew her eyes were preparing to betray her.
“Calm down, sweetheart.” Her father moved towards her.
“Don’t touch me,” she whispered, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. “I don’t want you to touch me,” she cried as he pulled her trembling body into his arms. “I don’t want to be divorced, Daddy.” She laid her cheek against the soft material of his sweatshirt, taking comfort in his familiar smell. “Don’t you love me?”
“Oh, honey, of course I love you.” His voice caught on the last word. “This has nothing to do with you.”
Then why do I feel so awful? she wondered. If it had nothing to do with her, why did she feel her very existence was being redefined?
1
Fifteen years later…
“Mommy…Mommy…Mommy,” Taylor Merrick said as she pulled on her mother’s arm.
“Taylor, please.” Lia Merrick’s eyes remained on the legal document in her hand. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”
“But, Mommy,” Taylor continued, tugging harder, “you have to see this. Lizzie and Raymond have been turned into turtles and they’re—”
“I can’t right now. I have to finish reading these documents.”
“I just want you to see this one part.”
“Taylor, no!” She closed her eyes, instantly regretting her harsh tone. “I’m sorry.” She turned to Taylor, running her hand down the girl’s mane of dark brown hair. “I just can’t right now.”
“Why are you crying?” Taylor asked.
“I’m not.” She wiped at the few stray tears beneath her eyes. “Go finish your show and let me finish reading this, and then we’ll watch a show together, okay?”
“Okay.” Taylor wrapped her small arms around her mother’s waist, giving her a tight squeeze. “I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you too,” she whispered.
As soon as Taylor left the kitchen, Lia’s eyes returned to the document. She was legally divorced. It felt surreal and yet there it was, in dark, bold letters. She was no longer Mrs. Ned Merrick.
She walked the short distance from the kitchen to her bedroom and lay down on the unmade bed, rolling onto her back and staring up at the ceiling. Ned was free to marry Candice. The thought made her stomach turn.
She must have fallen asleep because sometime later, Taylor was waking her up.
“Mommy, I’m hungry.”
“What time is it?” She turned her head towards her alarm clock.
“I think it’s eighty-two,” Taylor answered.
“Eight twenty,” she corrected, her eyes focusing in on the red digital display.
“I’m hungry,” Taylor repeated.
“I know.” She reached for the bedside lamp and turned a small knob, lighting up the room. “I must have fallen asleep.”
“You must have,” Taylor agreed. “Did you finish reading your paper?” She picked up the divorce papers from the bed.
Lia’s eyes focused on the document in Taylor’s hand. “No.” She took the papers and set them on the nightstand next to the bed. “I’ll finish them later. How about Chick-fil-A for dinner?”
“Yeah!” Taylor jumped into the air. “Can I play in the—”
“No, just the drive-thru. It’s late.” She slipped off the bed she used to share with her now ex-husband and looked down at her wrinkled suit, regretting not changing into something else before lying down. “Let me put on some jeans and I’ll be ready.”
“Okay. I’ll get Maggie.” Taylor ran off in search of her favorite doll.
Lia pulled open the middle drawer of her dresser, riffling through her clothes in search of a pair of jeans. She sighed, remembering she needed to do laundry. Taylor didn’t have anything clean to wear to school the following day. She walked into the closet-sized adjoining bathroom and found some jeans lying over a wicker basket in the corner. After judging them clean enough to wear, she walked back into the bedroom and changed out of her suit.
She was in desperate need of new casual clothes, she thought as her eyes focused on the frayed knees of her jeans. But then again, she needed a lot of new everything.
Her eyes swept over her bedroom with its worn beige carpet and off-white walls, which, like the rest of the apartment, looked like they were decades from their prime. She pushed down the feeling of self-pity attempting to surface.
It could have been worse, she reminded herself. She could still be a twenty-eight-year-old living with her mother and stepfather, upsetting their lives. No. As old and decrepit as the apartment was, at least she had her own place and she was managing, albeit barely, to pay her own bills.
Lia pulled her long hair back in a ponytail and tried to remember
the last time she changed its style. Too long ago, she decided when she couldn’t immediately recall. She knew she was pretty with her light blue eyes, ivory skin, and dark hair, but she also knew she was dated.
She found Taylor lying on the carpet in the windowless family room, which, after several steam cleans, still looked soiled and stained. “Come on, Taylor.”
“But I think Ross and Rachel got divorced,” she said, pointing at the television screen. “Look, Ross is in bed with somebody else. He must be married to her now, right?”
Lia looked up at the ceiling. She needed to start monitoring Taylor’s TV watching. “He must be,” she agreed before pushing the off button on the remote. “We have to go if you want to eat.”
“What are we going to do tomorrow?” Taylor asked moments later, preceding her mother out of the apartment.
“The same thing we did today.” Lia closed and locked the door before taking Taylor’s hand and leading her towards the stairs. “You’re going to preschool and I’m going to work.”
“Ohhh,” Taylor whined. “I don’t want to go to school. I hate school.”
“You told me yesterday you liked school.”
“Well, I don’t.” She held on to the rail with her free hand as they walked down a flight of stairs. “Can’t I go to Grandma’s?”
“No. You’re five now, remember? Kindergarten is going to start in a couple of weeks and you can’t miss school anymore.” She continued to hold Taylor’s hand as they walked out into the parking lot.
“Where did I park?” Her eyes scanned the parking lot in search of her two-and-a-half-year-old Honda, which Ned surprisingly let her keep. She recalled how happy they were the day they bought their first new car. It was Labor Day weekend and they were celebrating Ned’s new position at Blackman and Associates. He’d been working for the district attorney’s office in Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC, since graduating from University of Virginia Law School two years prior, and the new job came with a substantial pay increase. Of course, if she knew then it also came with a woman who would steal her husband, she may not have been so happy.
“There it is.” Taylor pointed to the blue Honda Accord across the parking lot.
“Good job, sweetie.”
It was 10:00 p.m. when Lia finally closed Taylor’s bedroom door. She needed to organize her life a little better, she decided. Taylor never seemed to go to bed before ten and getting her up and ready in the morning was becoming an increasingly difficult task.
As she headed towards the laundry room, balancing a basket of dirty clothes on her hip, her cell phone began to ring and she glanced at the display. She thought about not answering it, having no desire to talk to her now ex, but after a moment’s hesitation she brought it to her ear.
“Did I wake you?” Ned asked.
“No. What do you need?”
“We never spoke logistics about Friday.”
“We didn’t?” She set the basket of clothes on the dryer and began sorting through them.
“Not that I recall.”
“We agreed you would pick her up from my mother’s at six thirty,” she said, knowing he was lying. Ned remembered everything.
“Right, okay.” There was a pause and she knew he was about to reveal the real reason for his call. “Did you get the papers today in the mail?”
“The divorce papers? Yes.”
“Good. I’m not sure what’s going on with your job search, but the rehabilitative alimony only goes on for another year.”
“I’m aware of that, Ned,” she said shortly.
“These temp jobs you’re working for twelve dollars an hour aren’t going to be enough.”
A now familiar sinking feeling gripped her stomach. “I received my degree in May.”
“May was three months ago, and you should have been looking for a job before you graduated. This area isn’t even in a recession. I don’t understand why you haven’t found a real job yet.”
“Remind me of how this is your business. You’re not my husband anymore, remember?”
“But I am Taylor’s father. I don’t like her living in that dingy apartment.”
“Well maybe you should have thought about that before you left her.”
His sigh was audible. “Look, Lia, I’m sorry I hurt you, but we need to put this in the past. Candice is going to be a big part of Taylor’s life, and—”
“Are we done?” she asked. “Because I have things to do and frankly, Ned, I don’t want to waste any more of my time talking to you.”
“Actually, there is one more thing. I want to keep Taylor overnight on Friday.”
“We’ve been through this. Taylor is not spending the night with you while you’re living with a woman you’re not married to.”
“Well, you see, that’s the thing. That’s why I’m asking. Candice and I got married yesterday.”
Her grip on the phone tightened. “Then I guess she can. Is that all?”
“Yes. That’s all.”
“Goodbye, Ned.” She slowly sunk to the floor.
“Taylor, your waffle’s getting cold,” she called out the following morning. She poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned back against the counter, still feeling numb after the events of the previous evening.
“Can’t you bring it in here?” Taylor called from the family room.
Lia was about to tell her she had to eat at the table, but stopped herself. Who cared where she ate her breakfast? “Here you go,” she said moments later as she set a cut-up waffle and glass of milk on the coffee table in front of the couch. “Don’t spill the milk,” she called over her shoulder as she left the room.
“I won’t. Mommy, you forgot my fork.”
Lia went back to the kitchen and forced open the utensil drawer, which seemed to have come off its rollers. As she picked up a fork, she noticed an unheard voicemail from the evening before on her cell phone.
“Hello,” an unfamiliar female voice began. “This message is for Lia Merrick. My name is Cecile Mann, and I’m in human resources at Zurtech in Reston. We received your resume last week and are interested in speaking with you and setting up an interview. Would you please call me at (703) 555-8910 at your earliest convenience? Again, my name is Cecile Mann and I’m in human resources at Zurtech.”
“Thank you, God,” Lia said looking up at the ceiling
Lia felt a little nervous as she pulled her Honda into the massive parking lot at Zurtech’s sprawling campus in Reston, Virginia, two weeks later.
After what she thought was a promising interview the previous week, she’d received a phone call Monday morning with the news that they were going with a different candidate.
“I do have another vacancy,” Cecile Mann continued before the rejection took full root in Lia’s mind. “We have an opening in our Marketing Department, and I think you would be perfect for the position. I know your resume indicated you are interested in finance, but would you consider a different direction, possibly?”
Lia assured her she would, admitting she was more interested in working for Zurtech in general than in any specific department. Now she was sitting in their parking lot, twenty minutes early for her 11:00 a.m. interview with the vice president of marketing, trying to preserve her confidence. Receiving the initial call from Cecile Mann the same day she received her divorce papers wasn’t a coincidence. No, she was meant to work for Zurtech and this job was going to serve as the catalyst she needed to turn her life around. Not even Ned’s recent nuptials could dampen her excitement at the prospect.
An international company with offices in fifty countries and one hundred thousand employees in North America alone, Zurtech was one of the largest computer technology companies in the world. Their Reston location, which housed over fifteen thousand employees, served as the corporate headquarters.
In a classic-cut black suit and a chic new shoulder-length haircut, Lia looked the part of a young corporate professional as she entered the lobby of building number
five. After giving her name to security she was handed a badge and sent to a bank of elevators with instructions to go to the sixteenth floor and ask for Stan Hall.
Lia stepped off the elevator into a reception area, and a young woman sitting behind a desk looked up from her computer. “Good morning. May I help you?”
“Hi, good morning. I’m Lia Merrick. I have an appointment with Mr. Hall.”
“Please have a seat,” the receptionist said. “I’ll let him know you’re here.”
“Thank you.” Lia turned and almost collided with a tall, distinguished-looking man of about forty-five with sandy-colored hair, a lean build, and intense blue eyes.
“Lia, I presume?” he asked, touching her arm briefly to keep her from walking into him.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see—”
“It’s fine,” he said, smiling. “I’m Stan Hall.” He held out his hand.
“Hi.” She slipped her hand into his, feeling mortified she’d practically plowed him over.
“You’re blushing,” he said, his eyes alight with humor.
Lia forced herself to maintain his gaze. “It’s a trait I curse daily.”
He laughed aloud. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Lia. Cecile couldn’t stop raving about you. Let’s go back to my office.” He released her hand and led her through an expansive open space, filled with sleek gray-and-white work areas, to a corner office.
“After you,” he said, pushing open his door.
Lia preceded him into his large office, her eyes taking in the modern furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows offered an unobstructed view of the woods surrounding the campus.
“Have a seat.” He indicated a conference table to their left with the toss of his hand.
Lia lowered herself into one of the eight high-back leather chairs, her eyes continuing their perusal of his office. “This is nice.”
He followed her gaze to the two abstract paintings on the wall behind his desk. “Are you into art?”
When I Saw You Page 1