by A. J. Wynter
Megan steeled her eyes on the man in front of her. The man she thought that she knew. “So how do you know now?” She knew what he was going to tell her but wanted him to say it out loud. To her face.
“I was starting to get the feeling that Roberta’s baby wasn’t mine. I went and got tested and found out that I’m sterile. It was me, Meg. Not you. There was never anything wrong with you.”
Megan prided herself in being calm and collected in all situations, but within her, she held some pent-up rage in a vault deep inside. She must have held it there for years, and it brewed like a volcano, churning and bubbling, waiting for enough pressure to make it explode. She took a deep breath and then as calmly as her voice would allow it seethed at Alex, “You make me sick. I thought that I knew you, but it looks like I never knew you at all. You’re a vile, disgusting man, and everything that’s happening to you. You deserve it.
That’s when he smirked.
“You think that this is funny?”
“You know what Meg? That money is so well hidden, not even the best lawyer in the country could find it. I tried to do you a favor and tell you the truth, but it looks like you’re just an angry sad old woman.”
Megan stepped out onto the snow-covered pathway in her sock feet, reared back and brought the bouquet of flowers down hard over Alex’s head, the roses exploded in a cloud of petals, spilling down on the white snow, and Megan kept hitting him with the stems and screaming at him, raw, guttural, primal screams that she didn’t know she was capable of making.
Alex scurried down the pathway as Megan kept pummeling him with the thorny stems until he jumped into his car and sped away down the road. She tossed the fractured stems into the snow, and stood at the end of the driveway, breathing clouds of heavy anger, like a bull, drops of blood from the thorns dripped from her fingertips punctuating the white snow with the story of her fury.
“MEG. ARE YOU OKAY?” Charlotte’s voice echoed through the hallway as she burst into her house.
Megan heard her friend bounding up the staircase.
“I’m okay,” she yelled from behind the closed door of the guest room.
Charlotte threw open the door anyway.
“Come in,” Megan said, putting on a fake smile for her friend.
“You’re smiling?” Charlotte asked and then sat down on the bed. “I thought that I saw some blood out there. I guess it belonged to Alex?”
“Actually, it was me, my hands feel like a pincushion,” she said, holding up her swollen hands.
“What happened?” Charlotte’s eyes were wide as she held up Megan’s hand, inspecting the damage. “Are these from the thorns? Did you beat Alex over the head with those corner store roses?”
“I did. Oh, Char. It felt so good, but it was so bad.”
“Tell me everything,” Charlotte said, holding Megan’s hands gingerly in her own.
Megan told her the whole story, Alex’s weak attempt to get her back, his confession about his fertility, how he seemed genuine and then turned around and was a complete asshole. How he told her she deserved the money one minute, and the next, how he told her she’d never see a red cent.
“What an asshole,” Charlotte gasped when Megan finished the story.
“And then I beat him over the head with the roses.”
“As one should.” Charlotte squeezed her shoulders.
Megan sighed and then smiled at Charlotte. “You know what? A couple of months ago this would’ve ruined me.”
“I know.”
“But I know that I’m going to be okay. And I owe that to you. Thank you for helping me.”
Charlotte’s eyes welled up with tears and her voice was shaking, “You’re practically family Megan. I would do anything for you. But you know what? You did this yourself. You picked yourself up and built a powerful and independent Megan. I’ve seen a huge change in you. It was all you – and I think you may have had a little help from certain blue eyed local.”
“Oh that. Well, I royally f-ed that up.”
“Do you want to tell me what happened there? We were just getting into it when that no-good ex of yours showed up.”
Megan sighed and pulled her knees up to her chest. “I told Josh the truth about who I am, that I don’t own the café, or this house.”
“Yeah, we got that far in the story.”
“I didn’t tell him who you were, are... He pushed, he didn’t understand why I had lied to him. I couldn’t betray your secret, Char. I couldn’t tell him the whole truth, and when I refused, he was pissed. And rightfully so. I get it. I know what it’s like to be lied to.”
“Oh, I see.” Charlotte’s voice was uncharacteristically quiet. “You were protecting me.”
“I guess I was. I should never have said anything. Actually, I should never have agreed to the façade in the first place.”
“And I should never have asked you.” Charlotte stood up.
“Where are you going?” Meg slid to the edge of the bed and put her feet on the floor.
“Come with me Meg. There’s something I need to show you.”
Meg stood and followed Charlotte down the hallway and into her office. Meg had never been in the office and was surprised at how hard and modern the space was, like a mission control centre. It was in stark contrast to the feminine and rustic style of the rest of the house. Two big screens sat on her desk, there were huge maps lining the walls with pins pushed onto addresses, Megan assumed locations of where Charlotte had sold homes. The walls were filled with white boards covered with numbers and goals.
“This is quite the man cave,” Megan said.
“I know. The designer almost had a heart attack when she saw it. This is the one room I wouldn’t let her touch.” Charlotte tapped the touch pad on her keyboard and one of the screens sprang to life. Charlotte pulled up a high definition image and then turned up the sound on the computer.
“Is that your front door?” Megan stared at the screen.
“It is,” Charlotte smiled. She trailed her finger across the touch screen and the camera panned across the driveway and returned to capture the big wooden front door. “Ready for the best part?”
Megan nodded.
Charlotte typed in a few things and then the other screen sprang to life, the time stamp running across the top. She saw Alex’s baseball hat, Charlotte answer the door. She saw the flowers, the way he was nervously kicking his feet at the ice on the welcome mat. Charlotte punched at the keyboard and Megan heard Alex’s voice on the video asking to speak to Megan.
She turned to her friend in awe. You’ve got the whole thing on tape.
“Yep. We’ve got him in high def admitting to embezzling money. He’s done.”
Megan stared at the screen and watched herself come to the door. “I don’t need to see it again, I was there.”
Charlotte stopped the feed and then opened up her email. “I’m sending you and Margot this file. You’re going to get everything you deserve.” She stood up and walked determinedly out of the office. Megan followed her downstairs. Charlotte pulled her coat from the closet and grabbed her keys.
“Where are you going?”
“There’s something else that I have to do.” Charlotte said and then before Megan could ask any more questions Charlotte was out the door.
Chapter 26
Josh watched as his friends and fellow carpenters helped to unload the pieces of the benches and tables into the café. The light fixtures were being installed and as soon as Freddie was finished, Josh was going to be able to assemble his pieces. The café looked amazing, and as much as he hated to admit it, Megan had done a good job, whether it was her property or not.
Freddie was up on a ladder installing a pendant light above the glass display cabinet. He hopped down off the ladder, his boots landing on the hardwood flooring with a thud. “How was your date?” he grinned and elbowed Josh in the ribs.
“Are those Edison light bulbs?” Josh asked, sidestepping the question.
�
�Yep. Twenty bucks a pop. And they don’t last all that long – but they look cool.” Freddie gazed up at his handiwork. “When is the boss coming in?” Freddie asked.
“How should I know?”
“Weren’t you out with her last night?”
“That doesn’t mean I know her schedule, Freddie. She’ll be in when she comes in, that’s all I know.” Josh was telling the truth. He had no idea when Megan was going to show up, but he hoped it would be after his job was done. Once the tables and benches were assembled, he was going to be done with the Sugar Peaks café, and Megan Brittle.
“Easy now,” Freddie replied, holding his gloved hands out in front of him. Josh saw his eyes glance over his shoulder with interest. “Now who do we have here?” Freddie muttered under his breath.
Josh turned to face the front door and it took him a minute to realize who was standing in the doorway.
Charlotte.
She strode into the room and headed directly towards Josh. “Can we have a word?” she asked.
“Sure.” Josh undid his tool belt and set it down on the floor. “Let’s go in the back, we should be able to have some privacy there.”
They walked past Freddie and the rest of the crew, their eyes following the duo as they passed through the swinging door into the rear of the café.
“I owe you an apology.” Charlotte turned and faced Josh. He leaned against the stainless-steel dishwashing station, his arms crossed across his thick chest.
“Is that so.”
“It is.” Charlotte met Josh’s gaze with her deep brown eyes. “I’m going to tell you the truth. It’s something that I should have done years ago. Long before I dragged Megan into anything.”
Josh remained silent, watching the confident woman as she waited for a response from him. He wasn’t giving it to her. He let the silence get awkward and then she conceded their silent standoff and proceeded. “You moved to Chance Rapids after I left here, so you don’t know my history. My name isn’t Charlotte, it’s Billie Jo Bunkman.”
Freddie was right. He cleared his throat, “Go on.”
“It’s a long story, Josh, and I’m not going to stand here and tell you every detail, but I will tell you that I had a terrible childhood here. I couldn’t wait to get out of Chance Rapids and never come back again.”
“But you did.”
“I did.” Charlotte sighed. “I wanted to show everyone. I wanted to come back to town and show just how successful I had become. How the girl that they had teased about wearing the same clothes day after day now had expensive designer clothes and a fleet of cars worth more than their houses. I wanted them to see just how far I had come. It was my revenge. But then I came back here and realized that I had left that girl behind in Chance Rapids, and I never wanted to see her again.”
“So, you hired Megan to play you.”
“In a sense.” Charlotte pulled off her deerskin gloves and shoved them into the pocket of her jacket. “I didn’t think it through. She never wanted to lie to anyone. I asked her to manage the project and if people assumed that she owned the café and the Sugar Peaks house, just to let them. Did she ever tell you that she owned either of them?”
Josh thought back through all the conversations that he’d had with Megan, “No. She never said that, but she let me assume it.”
“Megan has been through the wringer and she’s really found herself here in Chance Rapids. Her face lights up when she talks about you, Josh. You made her smile again. She wanted to tell you, I was the one that stopped her. If you’re upset with anyone, it should be me.”
“She wanted to tell me?”
“Of course, she did. Can’t you tell that the woman is in love with you?”
Josh flashed back to the roses and the hug that he had witnessed, “What about her husband?”
“Ex. Her ex-husband,” Charlotte replied. “What about him?” she narrowed her eyes at Josh. He could see how sitting across a boardroom table from this woman could be an unnerving experience.
“I saw him. At your house. They were hugging. It was all I needed to see.”
“Ohhhh, if you would’ve stayed you could’ve seen Megan beating that piece of sh—, work, over the head with flowers.”
Josh felt his hands start to shake. “What? Is Megan okay?”
“Megan is more than okay,” Charlotte laughed. “You helped her realize that there are still good honest men out there. She would never ever in a million years go back to that jerk.”
“Shit,” Josh muttered to himself. “I wasn’t a man this morning. I should’ve listened to her. I should’ve believed that there was a good reason that she couldn’t tell me the whole story. I mean, I’ve gotten to know Megan. I know that there isn’t a deceptive bone in that woman’s body—”
Charlotte’s phone rang, interrupting their conversation. Charlotte pulled it out of her purse, “Sorry Josh, I’m expecting an offer on a property.” She looked at the screen, “Well, speak of the devil,” she said and jabbed at the screen to take the call. “Hi, Meg.” She smiled into the phone.
Josh watched Charlotte’s smile quickly fade and could hear Megan’s voice coming through the tiny speaker. She sounded panicked and Josh strained to make out her words. “Where are you?” Charlotte said into the phone. “No, don’t move. Stay there. We’re on our way.”
Charlotte looked at Josh. “Get your coat. Megan’s in trouble.”
Chapter 27
Megan’s belly was cold, even through her down coat. Her teeth were chattering so hard that her chin was bouncing off the cold ice beneath it. All she wanted to do was curl up into a ball, but every time she moved, she heard the haunting groaning and creaking of the ice. Her jeans were frozen solid, and her legs felt like she had pins and needles in them.
Stay calm, Megan. Don’t try to run for shore. She kept repeating this to herself when all she wanted to do was stand up and make a run for it. She wasn’t that far, but after barely being able to drag herself back onto the ice after crashing through, she knew she didn’t have it in her to heave herself out if the lake fractured and tried to swallow her whole again.
After Charlotte had left the house, she felt like she needed to get out and clear her head. With Timber, she always walked the same trails that meandered through Sugar Peaks, but for some reason today she turned away from the subdivision and followed the trail through the woods. She had never been one for the outdoors until she met Josh and Timber. Now she took her time to appreciate the colors, smells, and sounds around her. She hadn’t realized that there were so many different types of snow, and today she felt like she was walking on snow cones, the snow squishy and sloppy beneath her feet as she walked. The trail ended at a big open field with cute little huts or shacks in the middle. The snow had blown across the clearing, making it a harder packed surface, something easier to walk on.
She breathed deeply, feeling the cool air fill her lungs and making her cheeks flush. For the first time in years, she realized that no matter what happened to her, she was going to be okay. She was working through different scenarios in her mind, trying to figure out a way to win Josh back. She knew that he might not take her back but had decided that what they had was worth fighting for. If she lost him, at least she would have tried to save the best thing that had ever happened to her. She was imagining his lips trailing down her chest, his beard tickling her sensitive skin as he nipped at her breasts. She was remembering how good and how full he felt inside her. The rest of her daydream was interrupted when she heard a groan. It was nothing like she had ever heard before. She whipped her head around to try and figure out where it was coming from, it sounded near and far at the same time. She shrugged and then kept walking through the field until she noticed that her boots were starting to slip. She kicked away at the surface snow and revealed ice, clear ice that had bubbles underneath it. She whipped her head to the left and the right and it dawned on her, she wasn’t in a field, she was on Chance Lake. How could she be so stupid?
A few y
ears earlier Megan had watched a crack in her windshield spawn from a rock chip and snake its way across her line of vision as she drove. Cracks were forming beneath the soles of her boots, just like the one in her windshield. She heard the eerie groaning sound again somewhere in the distance, but this time it was accompanied by cracking sounds, and those were close, they were coming from the ice under her feet.
Megan screamed and started to sprint back toward the shore, the ice creaking and cracking with every step that she took.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Megan repeated to herself as she ran. When she felt her boots break through the ice she screamed, a guttural scream of terror. She caught the edge of the ice surface with her elbows as the lower half of her body plunged into the icy water.
It only took second for her boots to fill up with water and she clawed at the ice with her gloves attempting to pull herself out of the cold water. Her hands kept slipping as she clawed grooves into the snow-covered ice, trying to hoist herself free.
She stopped and took a deep breath. That’s when it hit her. If she kept panicking, she would die. “Okay, Meg,” she said to herself. “You can’t get these boots off, and you can’t pull yourself out. You’ve gotta try something different.”
She leaned forward onto the ice and straightened her legs out behind her and flutter kicked. She started to feel herself moving forward and wriggled and rocked, kicking her legs until she was able to roll away from the hole in the ice.
She was gasping for air, but she didn’t feel cold. She put her hands on one knee to help herself to her feet. She stumbled forward another couple of steps, but then heard the groaning and creaking again. She dropped to the ice, figuring that it was better for her to spread her weight out, but this time the cracking didn’t stop. She felt the ice shifting beneath her and knew that she wasn’t going to be able to crawl, roll, or shimmy her way anywhere without going through again.