A Love Story
32)
"Her water broke."
Pausing in his intent work, he looked over his shoulder, eyes falling on the woman for a moment before he simply shrugged. Clenching her jaw, she made a noise of muffled disgust and turned her attention back to the woman, laying a hand on the curve of her stomach and feeling a movement, however small, that reassured her.
"We need to get her somewhere… to a hospital."
His only response was a short snort and she shook her head, disgusted but knowing it was useless to try anytime soon. Smoothing blonde hair from her eyes, she once again gave a glance to the woman, licking her lips nervously. Again, she checked that she was as comfortable as she could be before quietly clicking the door shut.
Her brother was hard at work and she moved closer, watching, arms crossed over her chest, snapping, angrily, "Didn't you hear me?"
No response and she quickly darted backward when he moved from the front door of the car, straightening to peer into the seat thoughtfully. Nodding to himself, murmuring something under his breath, he looked at his little sister, offering up a slight smirk, one that didn't erase the naked relief in his gaze.
"You hit her with that chloroform just in time."
She looked away and he sighed, passing her to get something from his car, where she lay in perfect silence, still out like a light despite the beginning of the labor. Yeah, just what the baby needed, more stress. "We can match up the tire tracks perfectly where she swerved. Nice catch of the wheel by the way... looks like you got pretty close to the edge there," he added, nodding at were the car sat, frighteningly close to the rim.
Returning to the car, he frowned at the wetness on the front seat, a slightly irritated look on his face as he glanced back at her. "What's this?"
"I told you, her water broke!" the crazy mix of fright and adrenaline and other unsavory things were smothering and it was becoming difficult to breathe. "Her water broke and we need to get her to a hospital!"
"No hospitals," he hissed immediately and the look she found leveled at her made her move back a few steps, unhappily recognizing traces of their father there. Even when he wasn't drinking, his favorite pastime, there was a hint of something vicious there. Their sister had somehow gotten out with no big flaws, but them?
"No hospitals, I told you that. You can take her to your place or whatever but we're not taking her anyplace that she might get away from. I told you, remember, we can't let her get back to him and tell him everything." Shaking his head furiously, he leaned into the car just enough to start the ignition, starting up the car.
They were really going to do this and all because he was feeling greedy this week.
She glanced back at the other car, where her patient waited, possibly losing the baby, and felt something tighten in her middle. Rubbing her stomach, not caring how useless it was, she shook her head furiously, tears pricking her eyes. Why her? Out of all of the people given to her to talk to, to help, she had to get her… "What are you going to do, huh? Are you going to chain her up in some basement or brainwash her or something?"
The look he gave her was shockingly nasty, an ugly glittering of mocking making them even darker than they usually were. "You're a smart girl, you'll think of something."
He was right. The son of a bitch was right, because, even as she stood there, watching him correct any flaws he might have left in the first plan, her mind was already spinning up a way to keep herself out of trouble and get him back out of her life, even if it meant destroying a woman in the process.
She hadn't survived years in that hellhole with their father just to waste it all now.
She looked down at their footprints, licking her lips tiredly and knowing, full well, that they would be able to pull this off. There was just an hour of so of relative peace now before the next part of the storm hit them. From where the car went over, there'd be a slim to none chance that people would ever find that car anyway.
And, even if they did, the fire would destroy anything else, leaving nothing but some metal husk to testify to something that had never really happened in the first place. She paused, shaking her head. But it was true, though, wasn't it? At least, technically. Dixie's car would be going over, just without her in it.
Not all of it was a lie.
Adam didn't want to let her know anything and she could see it as easily as she could see him rubbing his hands together nervously, eying her like she was something impossibly dangerous and shockingly deadly. Making a noise in his throat, an odd mix of frustration and desperation, he stood, crossing over to the mantle, his eyes latched onto the pictures scattered across the top.
She opened her mouth, intending to make him talk when his voice reached her, oddly ragged, something that unsettled her badly. "I know I'm not a good father. I know that and I get that and I try. I don't succeed, I never have, but I try anyway because, believe it or not, I do love my children."
He looked at her, turning half-way to regard her silently for a moment or so, studying the expression on her face, the quiet strength there. There was something of Charlotte there, something that had been in Charlotte before she had started crumbling so fast and so badly he'd been helpless as to what to do, feeling like some lost child. "I love my children and you are one of the only people in the world who understand that."
Something flitted through her mind, an odd sort of something that made her grimace, trying to grab it and unable to. Shaking herself, staring at him, she smiled slightly, bitterly, arching one eyebrow. "You haven't answered my question," she murmured and he gave her a vicious smile, something harsh and aching.
"You want to know what happened to our son, ex-wife of mine?" He shook his head, making that odd noise again, eyes sliding back to his favorite picture, reaching out and tracing the edge of the frame with his fingertips. "I think if I told you, you wouldn't believe it… however, since you look like you're around to strangle it out of me, I'll try anyway."
"I did it. I was the one who had to look him in the eyes and make it real. I was the one who had to do it, I was the one who had no choice and no way out and I did it. I killed his son and I took his little girl and I'm the one who made him see it." He turned, regarded her with an ache in the back of his eyes that made her throat close. "I did it while that son of a bitch was at the hospital playing hero."
Crouching at the foot of the stairs, Kate "Cady" Cole studied her mother and grandpa with sharp blue eyes, regarding them with a cool calculation that was sometimes frightening in its innocently raw intensity, honed further when she pulled out a flutter of eyelashes or a brilliant smile with the gap between her front top teeth.
Gina had helped the little girl use her natural gifts and, while the thought of her baby-sitter brought a small ache to her insides—sort of like when she had too much ice cream even though Mama said not to but Gina said what Mama didn't know wouldn't hurt her—she smiled the smallest bit, not taking her eyes off the two people talking, the quiet murmur of their voices filling the silent mansion.
A slight frown marring her delicate features, she turned and slunk back up the stairs, waving one hand furiously when she caught sight of Jinxie moving restlessly at the top of the staircase, clearly agitated by how many differences the usually relaxed dog was undergoing in such a short span of time.
Finally reaching the top, she dug small fingers into thick fur and pulled herself up, standing bare-foot in the lush carpet of the second floor hallway, patting his head as she stared down the hall, at that room, at the closed door that JR had been so upset about. There wasn't much she had a good hold on, not right now.
She knew her name was Kate but that she went by Cady and now people were saying that she was Kate and that was that. Gina said that it would be okay if she went around being called Sir Lady of the Highest Blonde Intensity because, as long as the little girl was happy, nothing else really mattered.
And then there was that guy who said he was her grandpa.
He said that he was her daddy's daddy but, seeing as how the man people called her daddy had run off when she had looked at him, she highly doubted that. JR acted like her brother, cuddling her and telling her how much he loved her enough to almost but not quite annoy her and she found that this man they called her Daddy wasn't really acting like it.
"Bess…" She thought back to those web pages, that disgusting obsession they had with things from her son's life. "Tad was getting Miranda back to her mother…" Opening her eyes, she stared at him, studied him sadly. "And you gave them the DNA?"
"Yes." He nodded shakily, eyes on that picture. "Yes, I gave them the DNA and that son of a bitch had the audacity to stand there and look at me like I was some bastard. He stood there, after I heard the results, while I was trying to find the way to tell my son that his little boy was dead and that he had nothing left that he had so desperately wanted, that bastard stood there and looked at me like I was some scum."
"I'm sure that he had his reasons…"
"His reasons? Oh, yes, he had his reasons, Dixie. He was so busy helping his filthy son run off with my ex-daughter-in-law and playing stupid to give a damn about me or my family. The second you left, Dixie, the second you were gone he simply stopped caring about our son." He jabbed a finger at her angrily, rage coursing from him like invisible smoke. "Our son didn't matter when he didn't have yours pants to get into!"
It was like a slap in the face and she took in a sharp breath, held it for long moments, calming herself before looking back at this man, the father of their son, who looked so frightened and helpless as she stared at him. "I heard that David Hayward was the one who figured it out. I read that Erica was the one who told Tad after she found out."
"It's a lie," he snapped immediately and she shook her head furiously. "Tell me what happened. Stop ranting and raving and, please, tell me what happened. I mean, none of this makes any sense. Tad—Tad would die before letting someone suffer like we did. We lost Bess, Adam. You know what that feels like, Adam. You lost Anna Claire, you know that pain… he wouldn't just let a mother grieve like that."
"He did." The same force behind it, the same anger.
"It makes no sense! Tad would not go running around town knowing full well that a baby that was thought to be dead was alive... it makes no sense and we both know that."
"He took it too easily, Dixie." He moved closer, bending to meet her gaze intently. "He didn't even jump the smallest bit when he found out that Bess was Bianca's daughter, he never even looked shocked. A few days before I heard this, Hayward saw me and Miranda at a park and he looked like he was going to pass out. He had no connections to us and he still had no chance at hiding how emotional he got when he saw her, knowing full well that she was his goddaughter and you and I both know how good that son of a bitch is at lying."
"You're wrong."
A long silence before he shook his head, looking bitter. "Once again, Tad can do no wrong."
"It just… that isn't Tad… everything's still hazy and a lot of stuff is still clouded and but I know that he would not do this."
"He did it to me."
"No—" She held up a hand, her gaze getting the slightest bit angry now. "What Tad and I did with our son is different than what Jamie and Babe and Krystal did to Bianca Montgomery. You knew that he was fine, even if you weren't able to get to him. What Krystal and the others did was completely different, Adam. They let someone grieve for a child when all they had to do was tell that truth and stop pulling Haywards on DNA tests."
"You don't know everything—"
"Then tell me!" Dixie caught his hand, gripping it tightly. "Not with Bess and Miranda and our grandson… this didn't start overnight, Adam, things like this don't just pop up!" She pulled him closer, locking both hands around his. "Tell me why JR brought home someone who went off and slept his brother, tell me why Jamie is off somewhere with that… woman! Tell me why my son is acting like someone I don't know and I can't help… please… start at the beginning."
Kate "Cady" Cole was a curious child, at least by nature and, right now, she found herself moving forward helplessly towards the room, feeling the same way she did when she decided that she would not eat any of the cake her mother had accidentally left out even though she was already poking the edge of it with a fork and how she felt when she knew she shouldn't be doing something bad but she found her hands moving towards the balloons and pudding all of their own.
Turning the knob very quietly and very carefully, she peeked in, finding it black inside, and filled with something that reminded her of when she got sick and Mama and Gina would be walking around and watching her like she was growing a second head even while they stared at her… the same way Ms. Janine got nervous whenever Mama got those bad headaches.
With one last stealthy whisper for the dog to hush, she pushed the door open, the dim light from the hallway spilling in and falling across the crib, reminding her of the fake monsters in the movies that Mama didn't want her watching with Gina but Gina would sneak in anyway because, of course, what Mama didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Stretching on her toes, her fingers brushed against the switch and she bounced as high as she could, flicking it up and lighting up the room, studying the many decorations intently, holding Jinxie at her side as she quietly clicked the door shut behind her. Moving forward, hoping Mama didn't catch her in here now that Gina wasn't around to get her out of trouble, she stopped at the crib, watching and not quite understanding why.
Her eyes shifted, sliding across decorated walls and then the shelves that held so many books, some that had been dropped and left on the ground, nobody bothering to pick them up. Bending, she picked one up, studying it and taking a few moments to piece together the title, something about a good-night and a moon. Quickly losing interest, she set it on the table nearby, eyes flitting over the higher shelves far above her.
"Babe Carey is good at lying." He paused, his eyes on the hands holding his, the hands that had rocked their son to sleep at night, the hands that had signed those papers and let him love his son, even if he didn't do it right. "She was good at lying and she smiled and she told him that she loved him and, like the man you wanted him to be, he believed her."
He twisted his hand, pulling it out of her grasp and stepped back a few feet, slipping hands into trouser pockets. "He brought her home and she slept with his brother….on her honeymoon." He shook his head, snorted slightly before adding, "Or, at least, we thought it was her honeymoon… she was already married to another man, so, hey, what's the problem, right?"
"And, of course, since Tad wouldn't dare do anything to hurt JR, of course not, he decided to keep the lie. And, of course, the lie came out and, since this is Pine Valley, it was all very dramatic and then, like an idiot, he forgave them. He forgave of them, Dixie, like they were worth being forgiven after what they did."
She was staring at her hands and he wondered if she remembered Jamie, Brooke's little boy, yet another thing that Tad martin had taken from him, that son with Brooke, the son that was supposed to be his with Brooke's… yeah, and look how the little twerp had turned out… some son of Brooke's, abandoning her like she meant nothing to him… "And then, of course, JR found out that she had never really been married to him in the first place."
"And…"
"And then we decided to rub our hands together, twirl our moustaches and cackle evilly… What do you think we did, Dixie! We tried to keep JR's daughter safe from that whore and that lapdog of a step-son of yours!" Gesturing harshly towards the second story, he snapped, "That lapdog that was running around like a dog in heat, trying to prove that babe loved him and that what JR and her shared was all a lie. It may have been a lie on her part but, clearly, he never knew JR to begin with if he could so quickly decide that his brother was a heartless SOB, right?"
"Adam—"
She never finished, going silent when they heard the sound of something crashing overhead. Staring at each other for long moments, simply staring at each other, they both moved towards the door in a shared movement, moving side by side as they swept up the stairs and towards wherever the hell the sound had come from.
And then she froze, eyes gluing to the fading image right smack dab in the middle. It was her mommy. Her hair was longer and darker and she didn't have those lines around her mouth and eyes from sitting up all night but it was her mommy. Her interest piqued very quickly, the girl effortlessly yanked out the two bottom drawers, leaving one farther out than the other and, promising the now sighing dog that she wouldn't fall on him, she pulled herself up.
She moved like a monkey, yanking herself up and then sitting on her knees on the dresser, looking down at her dog. He was just a foot or so below but, to her at least, he was miles away and, squashing down the nervous flutters in her tummy, she straightened, holding the shelves and scrabbling for the bottom of the frame.
A split second later she bit back a startled shriek when it fell past her face, narrowly missing the dog and landing hard on the rug-covered carpet below her and she cringed when other things toppled after her, little things that didn't quite look like they belonged up there, music boxes and little trinkets. She heard glass shatter at the force, even with the thick material between floor and frame. Trying to ignore the dirty look that Jinxie was leveling at her, she climbed down quickly, holding her breath and waiting for her Mama to come rushing in.
When there came nothing, she scuttled forward and, eyeing the bits of glass warily, she bent, picking up the heavy frame with her little hands, gripping the edges and studying it thoughtfully, curious to see the three people. It was her mommy and she grinned slightly to herself, having never seen her mommy look so young before. They had no pictures at home, none other than of her growing up but still, she found herself grinning almost absurdly in the nursery.
And there was that guy that they said was her daddy, sitting beside her, and holding and the little guy in her mommy's lap and, glancing at the closed door, she wondered if this was her big brother before he had gotten so big. Beaming, eyes glittering, she got a better hold on the shattered frame, studying the faces that smiled back at her, noting how happy they looked.
She suddenly squeaked when the door opened and she found her mother staring at her, eyes focusing on her. In a few seconds, she had her arms crossed over her chest and her hips cocked, regarding the young child with a cool and firm gaze. Looking past her, she picked up the sight of—
"Hi, Grandpa!" she cried brightly, shooting him a bright smile despite the dark look her mother gave her.
With a strained noise and a slight roll of his eyes, he left, muttering quietly under his breath as he stomped off, vanishing. She looked towards her mother, offering a small but hopeful smile and then she sighed quietly when her mother moved forward, plucking the frame carefully from her tiny hands and simply pointing.
With the air of a prisoner marching towards her execution, she slunk out; Jinxie on her heels, heading towards her bedroom, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she trudged out of sight. Sighing, knowing innately that Adam had run off and hid like a big baby with issues, she stalked back downstairs, finding the room empty.
Fine… she'd just have to tie someone down and torture the answers out of them…
She stared down at the frame, stared at the faces that smiled back and swallowed thickly, eyes rising to the image of father and son so proudly displayed for all the world to see. Setting the shattered frame carefully just beside the other, she found that it was a pitiful sight, sharp edges of broken glass glittering nastily in the light.
It was all broken.