Emilie Rose - A Better Man

“You gonna stand there and tell me you wouldn’t lie to protect Josh? Because I know better. You’ve lived a lie for the past eight years.”

She flinched. He was right. Her life since returning had been one big lie. She’d forgiven her father for sending her away. Now it appeared that hadn’t been his only sin.

“I wouldn’t send an innocent, hardworking man to jail.”

“You’re making a fuss over nothing. Sterling would have turned on that boy before going to court. They were tight, but they weren’t kin.”

His continued justification of his misdeed infuriated her. “If you think he would have betrayed Chuck, then you don’t know Roth very well.”

“Turned on you, didn’t he? Left you in a bad way.” Rage rumbled in his voice.

“So did you, Daddy. But what you did was worse. At least Roth had the guts to tell me to my face that he didn’t want me. You, the man I loved and trusted with all my heart, stabbed me in the back. And when you found out I was pregnant you threw me out of your house for falling in love when your sin was so much worse. No wonder Mom left you. You’re a hypocrite and a liar.”

Her voice broke.

“You are not the man I thought you were, and I don’t know if I can ever forgive you. I do know I will never trust you again.”

* * *

JOSH CLOSED his math textbook. “I’m going to bed.”

Finally! Piper hadn’t had a moment alone with her mother since arriving home.

She forced herself to smile, rise and kiss Josh on the top of his head as if nothing were wrong, despite her tumbled thoughts. And then she hugged him. He tolerated the embrace. He never hugged back anymore.

“You’ll get the math. Hang in there. Sleep tight. Love you.”

“Yeah.”

She missed the return “I love you.” Those had ended within the past few months, but everyone assured her he’d be her affectionate son again sometime between eighteen and thirty. She might have to lose the closeness to him because of his age and maturing process, but she wouldn’t let Roth come between them.

But that was another worry. Tonight she had a more important concern. She had to know if her mother had been a part of her father’s deceit. If Ann Marie had been in on the lies, Piper would never trust either parent again. With anything. Especially Josh.

She listened until Josh’s bedroom door clicked shut then went to look for her mother. Piper found her curled in her usual spot on the sofa reading her favorite cooking magazine.

Piper’s tongue felt thick. Her pulse accelerated. She and her mother had become very close since Piper’s return from Florida. Had their relationship all been based on a lie?

“Mom, did you know Daddy forced Roth to join the Marines by threatening to make life difficult for Eloise if he didn’t?”

Her mother’s shock and dismay looked real. “Lou would never—”

“He admitted to me today that he did. He implicated Roth for stealing and wrecking Gus’s car even though he suspected Chuck, then Dad threatened Roth with jail if he didn’t enlist. He even drove him to the recruitment office.”

Her mother’s mouth opened, closed. She shook her head, her bewilderment too genuine to be faked. “I can’t believe your father would— He lives for that badge.” And then the horror on her face transformed into understanding.

Understanding?

“Your father would do anything to protect you. You know that, don’t you?”

“But to send an innocent man to jail?”

“Piper, I hate that your father did what he did, and I certainly don’t condone it. But I know how much it used to upset him when he couldn’t do anything for Roth’s mama. He begged Eloise to press charges. And she refused. Time and time again.

“I remember one night after another visit to the Sterling house he came home and made me promise that if he ever lifted a hand to me, that I’d wait until he was asleep then take his pistol and put a bullet in his head.”

Revulsion rolled through Piper.

“If Lou did what you claim, then it was to keep you from walking in Eloise’s shoes. That woman loved her man. Too much. More than she loved herself or her son. Promise me that won’t ever be you.”

Her mother’s words didn’t excuse Piper’s father’s betrayal. But they did explain his motivation. Piper wasn’t ready to forgive him. But she was a step closer to understanding his actions.

CHAPTER FOUR

JOSH SLAMMED into the kitchen Saturday morning, startling Piper into splashing liquid over the rim of the hummingbird feeder. But then Josh slammed everywhere these days. He seemed to always be in a hurry. And she was preoccupied.

“Good morning, Josh,” she said over her shoulder, feigning calm she was far from feeling. Anger at her father had kept her up most the night. She didn’t want him anywhere near her or her son. But how could she keep them apart? Josh worshipped his grandfather—a man whose soul had been blackened by dishonesty. Not a good role model.

“You aren’t ready,” Josh said with eleven-year-old angst and flung himself against the counter.

The bicycle helmet on his head sent her stomach plummeting. She and Josh rode every Saturday she didn’t have to work unless it was pouring rain. Why couldn’t it have rained today?

Her mind raced. They could hardly tool around town and then calmly have breakfast at the diner with her father the way they had in the past. Not without her pretending everything was normal, and not without running the risk of bumping into Roth. She wasn’t eager to see either man at the moment.

Searching her brain for an excuse that Josh would accept, she capped the feeder and rinsed the sticky solution from her hands.

“Grandma asked me to set up the hummingbird feeders. The birds usually come back around the first of April. After I finish I thought we’d drive into Raleigh for a movie.”

“There’s nothing good playing, and I told Will I’d go with him to check the trotlines later. If we catch any catfish, can I eat dinner with him? His mom’s fried catfish is the best!”

“Last week you said your grandfather’s fried catfish was the best. And you’ve been begging for new shoes.”

“Oh, man. Do we have to do that today?”

“I have time today. Next weekend the clinic’s open on Saturday. I’ll have to work.”

“What about breakfast with Grandpa?”

“He can eat without us.”

And tomorrow she’d have to figure out somewhere else she and Josh could go where they’d be unlikely to encounter either of the men on her Dislike list.

Josh stubbed the toe of his sneaker into the tile floor. “Okay.”

“Call Will and tell him about your change of plans.”

“Will has a cell phone.”

She welcomed the old argument—anything to keep her mind off the ache in her heart. “You’re eleven. You don’t need a phone. Besides, you know I can’t afford one for you right now.”

He shuffled out of the room, his slouching shoulders revealing his lack of enthusiasm over spending a day with his mother. She’d try to make it up to him by letting him have lunch in the mall food court. There were no fast-food joints in Quincey.

One potential disaster averted. For now. That left tomorrow to rearrange. She wasn’t sure how long she could cocoon Josh before he figured out something was wrong. But what choice did she have? She wanted to avoid Roth as long as possible.

Avoiding him could prove expensive if she had to keep carting Josh out of town for extracurricular activities. But if she was lucky, Roth would run out of patience with Quincey before she ran out of money and ways to dodge him.

* * *

THE BELL TINKLED with obnoxious cheer above Roth’s head as he let himself into Ann Marie Hamilton’s real estate office on Saturday morning. Her assistant, the same woman from twelve years ago, sat behind the desk acting as gatekeeper. He couldn’t recall her name.