Jo Leigh - Confessions Bundle

“I said no.”

Whew. Juliet’s breathed hissed out on a long sigh. “How’d he take that?”

Marcie chuckled. As much as she could while choking back tears that had obviously been falling a lot already that evening. “He said he’d like to help me move, that he was going to be financially responsible starting immediately, and that he wasn’t ever going to quit asking.”

“In that order?”

“Yeah.”

“That was decent of him.”

“He’s a decent man.”

But not what Marcie had ever said she wanted. And not where her sister wanted, either. Marcie wanted to travel. And to meet new people. She wanted a busy life, social and involved in the world around her.

She didn’t want to sit at home every night in Maple Grove and watch life go by on the television screen.

And that was all Hank had ever wanted.

Marcie wanted magic when she looked across the dinner table every night and woke up every morning.

Juliet understood. It was what she’d always wanted, too.

That was a part of their mother they’d both inherited. The part that, if they weren’t careful, could kill them. Just as it had her.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, one week after Blake’s arraignment and two days before her sister rented a truck and drove from Maple Grove to San Diego, Juliet called Marcie.

“Hey, Jules, only two more days,” Marcie said, out of breath from packing as she answered the phone.

She sounded energized, as though now that her decisions had been made, she was ready and hopeful about what the changes would bring.

“Mary Jane and I are spending all day tomorrow cleaning out the playroom,” Juliet said from the beach outside her door. The child had talked of nothing else over dinner at the spaghetti warehouse that night. Assured that the key relationships in her life weren’t going to change, she thought Marcie’s moving in with them was the greatest thing that had ever happened. She had already planned which of her toys she could part with to make room in the small cottage for another adult.

“Hank still driving you down?” The man had taken a day off from the hardware store to help Marcie move.

“Yes.”

Juliet didn’t like that uncertain note in her sister’s voice. “Don’t get cold feet now, Marce. You’ve said a thousand times this is what you want.”

“I know.”

“The baby is just a catalyst making it happen.”

“I know.”

“And if you want to get married someday, San Diego has lots of men to choose from.”

“For a woman with a newborn child?”

“For anyone.”

They chatted for another couple of minutes about the logistics of the move. Juliet could see only good in Marcie’s decision. They’d never had any difficulty living together. Marcie would finally begin the life she’d always wanted and Juliet could quit worrying that her sister was going to end up like her mother someday. And she’d have help with Mary Jane.

She’d never felt more in need of the latter than she did right then.

“How are things going with Blake Ramsden?” Marcie asked just as Juliet was starting to feel relaxed enough to sleep.

She kicked at the sand. Watched the moon’s glow bob out on the ocean. Wished the waves would kick up enough of a breeze to cool her heated skin.

“As well as can be expected,” she said, telling her sister about the plea agreement Blake had rejected. And that she thought he’d done the right thing.

“So,” Marcie pressed, “you’re doing okay?”

“I don’t know.” Juliet admitted to her twin what she wouldn’t have told anyone else. “I think so, and then he’ll say something and I get this horrible guilty feeling.” She dug a little tunnel in the sand with her toes. “I think he’s lonely, Marce. He bought this puppy….”

If she hadn’t known all the reasons it would be a mistake for her to fall for Blake Ramsden, she might have been tempted when he’d been sitting there chuckling over the dog’s having chewed a corner off the cupboard when Blake had locked him in the kitchen while he’d showered on Monday night.

“He got the dog from the pound. Named it Freedom because that was what they both needed. The puppy needed freedom from its cage and imminent death, and so does he….”

She had to stop before she did something stupid. Like start to cry.

“Sometimes I think it’s cruel of me not to tell him about Mary Jane,” she added when she could.

“How many days has it been since Mrs. Cummings called?” Marcie asked.

“Two. Mary Jane has failed three math tests in a row.” It would be a cause for concern with any child. And with a child who could blurt out the answers to math problems in class before her teacher even had time to write them out on the board, it was especially worrisome.

“Is she doing it on purpose?” Marcie asked.

Juliet tried to concentrate on loosening the knot in her stomach. “Obviously,” she said. “The question is why, and what to do about it.”

“What does Mary Jane say?”

“That she’s not doing it on purpose.”

“She’s never lied to you before.”

The sky was black, with shades of navy and gray where the moon shone through. So much out there—unseen.

“I don’t think she’s lying now. She’s somehow convinced herself she can’t do the math,” Marcie added.

“We had her talk to the school counselor and Mary Jane answered all her questions like a happy, normal, well-adjusted kid.”

“What does Mrs. Cummings say?”

“That Mary Jane is troubled about something.” Juliet had been trying desperately not to think of her most recent phone conversation with the elementary-school principal. She’d suggested that Juliet look into some kind of special-education class that worked with children one-on-one to determine the extent of Mary Jane’s needs.

As if her daughter wasn’t already segregated enough by her differences from the other children.

“And you think she’s troubled about her father?”

Juliet didn’t know what else to think. “School’s always been a bit of a struggle, you know that,” Juliet said. “She’s too smart for her grade, too outspoken for her age, and she bores easily. But she’s always taken that in stride. It never really seemed to bother her, until the past few months—ever since the first conversation about her father came up again. She seems to have lost, at least to some degree, her sense of security.”

“Which is why you can’t tell Blake anything about her,” Marcie said. “Obviously Mary Jane comes first. And introducing a huge change into her life certainly isn’t going to enhance her security. Besides, for now, Blake needs something else from you far more than he needs to know that you had his baby eight years ago. He’s a client and should remain that way if you’re going to do your job and set him free. You tell him about Mary Jane now, and there’s no way you’d still be able to keep him on as a client. Things would be too personal.

“Think of it this way, Jules,” Marcie continued. “It’s not going to do him a hell of a lot of good to know he has a daughter if he’s locked up and can’t see her anyway.”

“Yeah.” She’d already told herself all the things that Marcie said. Still, the validation helped.

“Maybe after the case is over, and third grade is over, and I’ve been living there for a while, Mary Jane will be feeling secure enough for you to tell Blake about her.”

Maybe. But that thought struck as much terror in her heart as anything else.

ON FRIDAY, two weeks after his arraignment, Juliet was back in Blake’s office.

“I met Fred Manning coming up in the elevator,” she told him, holding the back of her black silk skirt down as she took her usual seat on his couch. It was beginning to seem routine, all in a day’s work, having her there.