A Lie Unraveled (2 page)

“I just need to get my phone,” Sophia said.

“Oh, I wonder who that could be,” Destiny said with frustration, snapping her make-up purse shut and going to answer the door. As soon as you are about to leave the house, someone knocks. She pulled open the front door and just about swallowed her tongue when she gasped, coughed and spluttered all at the same time. “Justin, oh my Lord,” she answered breathily. It was all she could do to get out a few words let alone get them out into a sentence that made a modicum of sense. She wanted to slam the door in his face and run and hide, at the very least tell Sophia to run and hide. This was bad, really bad but he was standing in front of her, in her doorway; she would have to say something. He beat her to the punch but he wasn’t any more articulate than she was.

“Hi,” he said. “I, ah um, came to talk to you.”

No shit Sherlock, she thought. Obviously he must have a reason to be there. Ask him you ninny, she thought. “What do you want?” He blinked and she wondered if she’d offended him, well who cares if she did? She wanted him out of there as fast as possible, before he ran into the one person she didn’t want him to meet.

“Like I said, I came to talk to you.”

His eyes roamed all over her and she wished she could make out what it was he was seeing. She didn’t care anyway, what he thought, really she didn’t but it would be nice to know if he thought she’d improved with time. She
was
only twenty-eight but she had had a child since she had seen him last. “Look, I’m a bit busy to catch up right now,” she said, trying to close the door. It was too late; Sophia was beside her.

“Aren’t we going out, Mom?” she asked, glaring at the unwelcome visitor who was holding up their day.

“Yes, we are, honey,” Destiny said, smiling at her daughter with a flicker of guilt. This was a life changing moment for two people and neither of them had any idea it was even happening. “As you can see, we were about to go out.”

“We’re having brunch and getting our nails done,” Sophia said helpfully.

“Are you indeed?” Justin asked. “I’m still going to need to have a word Destiny, Mrs. Bridges, in private if that’s okay.”

“It’s not okay, we were just leaving,” Sophia said with a pout.

Mrs. Bridges? That sounded like her mother. “I’m still Destiny,” she said. “Do you have to be so formal?” His matter of fact tone hurt her feelings more than she would like to admit, even to herself.

“This is not exactly a social call, Destiny,” he said. “I need to talk to you now and it’s business, at least from my end.” His eyes shifted back and forth from Destiny to Sophia.

Destiny sighed. “Sophia, wait upstairs please,” she said.

“No, it’s not fair, you said we were going, you promised!” Sophia stomped her foot.

“I just need a minute to talk to my daughter,” Destiny said, hustling her little girl into the house.

“Sophia,” Destiny said. “If you do as I ask and wait upstairs until I call you, then after we get our nails done, I’ll take you shopping and you can choose something nice, okay?” Not her best parenting moment, but she didn’t want to have a knock down drag out war with the child in front of Justin. Her head was spinning; he was still as gorgeous as he always had been, better even and he was here, standing at her door while she demonstrated how out of control she was as a parent. “Sophia, upstairs please, now.”

“Okay, I’m going but you better not change your mind or say it has to be a book or something.”

Destiny closed her eyes. She really had to do something with that child. She plastered a fake smile on her face and walked back to the door. “Now, what is it you need to tell me?”

“Maybe I could come in?” he said. “I mean, this isn’t easy to talk about on the doorstep.”

“Sure,” Destiny said, hoping she had left the house tidy enough. She opened the door wider and allowed him to pass. “I’m sure you remember the way,” she said.

“I sure do. Your Mom and Dad aren't here?” he asked.

“My parents passed away,” she answered, “within six months of each other, actually. That’s why we’ve come back to live here in the old house.”

“I’m so sorry, Destiny, I didn’t know. I’ve only just come back to Benson myself. My daughter and I moved back the last couple of weeks before the end of summer.”

“Oh, you have a daughter?” She felt like she’d been stabbed in the heart. She knew he’d moved on, but she didn’t know he had a child. That hurt.

“Yes, Lily-Grace, she's almost eight.”

“Her mother didn’t come with you? To Benson, I mean.” Was she pumping him to see if he was still with his wife? Who knew, she sure didn’t.

“No, Lily-Grace’s mother passed away when she was two.” He smiled thinly. “Lily-Grace and I manage by ourselves mostly. I came back to be closer to my mom and for a job actually, and that’s partly why I’m here; I’m the new school principal.”

Well, there is an
oh shit
moment, Destiny thought. Now she knew why he was here and she felt a bit of a heel for pumping. “I’m sorry about your wife.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry that Sophia had such a hard time last year that you felt you had to pull her out of school.”

Destiny could feel him watching her, waiting for her answer. Oh well, he was a captive audience, she may as well tell him how she really felt about the school. “She had a really hard time fitting in. The kids were mean to her and the teachers picked on her. It was like everything that happened was her fault,” Destiny said. “I’ve decided that I can better educate my daughter at home.”

“That’s what I’ve been told. Destiny, I really value the whole school experience. It isn’t just about the learning. I would like to try and help Sophia to better fit in at school. I know what it’s like to struggle with being in a new place.”

“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m happy with my decision. Sophia and I will be just fine.”

“I was hoping we could deal with this nicely and do what’s best for Sophia,” he tried.

“I
am
doing what’s best for Sophia,” she said, trying hard to keep the frustration out of her voice. God, she thought that even more now. She couldn’t have Sophia in that school now that Justin was there as the principal. There was no way. “She’s staying at home with me.”

Justin pressed his lips together in annoyance. “Perhaps Sophia’s father would like to be in on this conversation,” he said.

“I just bet he would like to be in on this conversation, but it just isn’t possible. He’s out of the country with work. He uh, works overseas, in mining. Sophia and I visit him when we can.” She couldn’t even pass that off as a fib. She had just told Justin a bold faced lie, she had good reason though, so she didn’t feel guilty at all.

“I noticed on Sophia’s file that you have the same name as you always did and so does Sophia.”

“Yeah.” She fake giggled, really badly. When was this person going to leave? She didn’t remember Justin being so over the top bossy and inquisitive. “It was really quite the coincidence to meet a guy who shared the same last name as me.”

“I bet,” he said. “Are you sure we couldn’t do some kind of video conference or something. It doesn’t seem right to me that you would make such a life altering decision without the approval of your child’s father.”

“No, I mean, he would like nothing better than to be included in all of Sophia’s life decisions, but I don’t believe there’s a stable Internet connection where he is most of the time.”

“It must be hard for you to stay in touch.”

“It sure is,” she said. Pretty hard to stay in touch with a man who didn’t exist. Some would say it was downright impossible.

“Now, back to business. Have you filled out all the relevant forms to homeschool Sophia? What are the subjects she’s going to be learning?”

“Oh, well I have all the details upstairs in my office,” she said. No need to tell him that her office mostly consisted of a laptop and her bedside table. It had a drawer full of incidental stuff that could be considered office things. She was pretty sure she saw a paper clip in there once. Destiny had definitely opened a file and typed up some notes on what she thought they should cover for the term and she had even purchased an online math and English program. There you go, that might appease him some. “I purchased an online program,” Destiny said proudly.

“Oh, which one did you choose?”

“Which program did I purchase?” she asked. “It has math and some English I think.”

“I meant the name of the program.”

“The name of the program?” See she was very well qualified to teach her daughter. This man had her so rattled that she couldn’t remember anything at all. “Does it matter what the name of the program is? I have all the stuff somewhere.”

“Have you given the district superintendent notice to homeschool? That should have been done by August fifteenth.”

She was so confused, but nodded anyway, she was entwined in so many lies now, what were a few more?

“So when you gave notice, you sent the subject forms and all the other relevant information along with that affidavit?”

“I’m not an idiot,” she spat indignantly. And yet she was doing a pretty decent impression of an idiot, it seemed. She had no clue what affidavit he was talking about.

“I’m curious,” he said.

“You sure are,” she said.
Did I say that out loud
? “I don’t see what the big deal is. People home school their children all the time.”

“If you truly understand what homeschooling is about and you’re committed, why are you and Sophia about to spend the day out having fun? You do realize that your daughter is supposed to be keeping the same school hours as she would if she were attending a public school? If you want to take Sophia to get her nails done and God knows what else, it should be done on the weekend.”

Destiny felt like her head was about to explode, she hadn’t known any of that stuff about all the regulations. Why should she answer to other people about the way she raised her own child? “You listen to me, mister high and mighty principal, Sophia and I do just fine. I don’t need you or anyone else coming into my home and telling me what I can and can’t do with my kid. Now get the hell out of my house!”

“You have just confirmed what I was already thinking,” Justin said. “I know you, Destiny. You might be all grown up now and a mom, but you
still
fire up into a frenzy when you’re lying and backed into a corner. Let me tell you this, I see you and what you’re doing. I won’t let this drop. I am going back to my office and I’m going to check that Sophia is properly registered to be homeschooled.”

“You can’t go prying into my business just because you know me personally,” she said. “It isn't fair.” Now she sounded like Sophia, great.

Justin leaned in so close that his breath sent tingles right through her. “You are the same spoiled child you were when we were dating. Maybe I should have turned you over my knee and spanked some manners into you way back then. It’s obvious your husband has lost control of his home.” He turned and walked away; the door closed softly behind him.

Tears filled Destiny’s eyes. She had dreamt of Justin coming back into their lives for years. Now, when it had finally happened, he was only there long enough to make sure he made trouble for her.
Could
he really make trouble? Surely there wasn’t a law that could stop her doing what she wanted with her own child.

“Mom,” Sophia called from the bottom of the stairs. “Why did you tell that man lies about my dad?”

Fabulous, now she had to try to explain some of this to Soph, or fob her off if that were possible.

“Sophia, I just wanted to make the man go, so we could go on our shopping trip.”

“Why couldn’t you just say, go, we’re busy?” Sophia asked.

“I didn’t think that would be enough to make him go, honey,” Destiny explained.

“I don’t understand why you said that stuff about my dad. Is my dad overseas?”

Destiny blew out a frustrated breath. “You know he isn’t,” she answered, hoping like hell the little girl would drop the subject. She had explained to Sophia a long time ago that her dad wasn’t ready to have children when she was born. Destiny had told her that she was so lucky to have her little girl all to herself. It wasn’t like she really expected Soph to accept that story forever, it had been a quick solution to a problem she had no idea how to deal with. Had this story really gone past its best before date?

Sophia shrugged. “I thought maybe he changed his mind or something and maybe he did want me now.”

That stung. Is that what she’d done? She’s made her daughter, the person she loved more than anyone else in the world feel like she had been rejected by her father? That had never been her intention; she was so young and she hadn’t looked too far into the future, the simple statement had been designed to make Sophia stop asking questions, that’s all and for the most part it had worked, until now. “We could stand here and keep going over all this or we could get out of here and enjoy our morning. What do you say?”

“I say let’s go, I want waffles and ice cream,” Sophie babbled happily.

“Me too, although maybe it’s a bit early for ice cream for me,” Destiny said with a grin. Maybe she was still happy to accept things as they were after all.

“Then while we’re eating brunch you can tell me what all of that talk meant.”

“I think you need to remember, miss, that sometimes adults have conversations about kids and the kids don’t necessarily need to know everything,” Destiny said.

“I get to know everything if you’re talking about me, don’t I? That is my business then.”

“If I think you need to know something, then I’ll tell you. Now buckle up so we can go,” Destiny said. Before anyone else can come out of the woodwork and ruin our day.

* * *

“I love my new camera! Thanks, Mom!” Sophia said, ripping her Instax out of its box. “Look what it does, it makes a picture and then spits it out straight away.”

“Nice,” Destiny said. “You’ll be able to take some lovely pictures with that, honey.” The camera had been an expensive token but it had also been successful in finally shutting down the daddy talk. In a perfect world, before Justin came barreling into it, she would have told Sophia the truth about her heritage but with their real world tilting on its axis at the moment, that wasn’t possible. It just might open up something that couldn’t be closed.

Sophia turned around and clicked the shutter, the flash going off in her mother’s face. “Oops, sorry,” she said, wincing at her mom’s reaction.

“Sophia, not while I’m driving, you’ll cause an accident.” She blinked and tried to refocus her eyes.

“I didn’t mean to, honest.” Sophia, did look genuinely sorry.

“I know you didn’t,” Destiny said, patting her daughter on the leg. “Just be careful huh?”

“I will.” She put the camera back into its case. “I won’t get it out until I’m in my room.”

“Oh my, I had no idea it was that time,” Destiny said when she finally was able to look at the clock.

“Do I have to start work today? It would be just as easy to do it tomorrow. We could start really early and get more done then. If I did start today, I would be all tired and stuff and I’d probably get everything wrong anyway.”

Now that they were closer to home, the worries all flooded back. What was she going to do about registering Sophie for homeschooling and how were they going to live in a small town knowing that Justin lived there; not only lived but was actually in a pretty respected job? It would stand to reason that they would bump into each other at some point; maybe in the supermarket or at the dry cleaners. Could she live that way; always looking over her shoulder to see who was watching them? Maybe she could learn to live with the fact that her first love was living his own life in a part of this town. It was possible that she could ignore the fact that he wanted nothing to do with her or her daughter. No, it wasn’t possible at all. The time may have come for her to cut and run. She could take Sophia and run to somewhere a long way from there and they could start all over again but it didn’t seem fair that she had to leave her home. Things could have been so different if only Justin hadn’t cheated on her…

Destiny wriggled her bottom over, trying to make a little space on the bus seat between her and the man next to her. Unfortunately, that also pushed her into the side of the bus and the filthy window. Was she doing the right thing, actually chasing Justin down at college? Probably not but what choices were there for a pregnant eighteen-year-old? She would tell her parents eventually but she wanted Justin to know first. That way when she did tell them, she could say that she and Justin had a plan. It didn’t really matter what the plan was at this stage, any kind of plan would help; did she dare hope for marriage? Was she being too old fashioned and too presumptuous to hope that he would propose and tell her that everything would be okay; that he would take care of them? That would be her perfect scenario, there was nothing she’d like more than to become Justin’s wife and the mother of his baby. Destiny had never been very keen on the thought of college anyway really; she was only going because it was expected of her. Now she definitely wouldn’t be going, not this year anyway, maybe not at all.

The bus rattled to a stop and Destiny breathed a sigh of relief. While she’d done this before, nothing could possibly prepare you for an hour and half bus ride with a pregnant nose. Didn’t people wash? Maybe it was the mix of lunches and whatever it was that made the floor sticky. All she knew was that she was ecstatic to be getting off what could only be called a trash can on wheels.

She strode along the winding paths, through the young people who were mostly sauntering along in groups. There were a few loners and a few hand holding couples. It was such a nerve wracking walk, that it seemed to take forever to make it to the dorms. If only she was sure that Justin would take this well. Destiny took the several flights of stairs to Justin’s floor, stopping every now and then to catch her breath and quell the nervousness that was quickly rising. It had been hours since she left home and she hadn’t really been nervous at all, but now that the moment was imminent, random thoughts were going through her head, clouding her confidence that their relationship could survive this. What if he wasn’t home? What if he told her to get an abortion? What if he didn’t believe her or he thought it was just an attention seeking game? There were lots of what ifs but none of them even came close to the scenario that smacked her dead in the face when she got to his room. The door wasn’t even closed. There in the middle of the day, standing in the middle of his dorm room was Justin with a girl curled up in his arms. She stood there for a second, unable to turn away. Were they dancing, were they just hugging? He took her by the arms and separated her from him for a moment and Destiny couldn’t breathe. She was actually going to witness Justin kissing a girl, right in front of her. There was no way to deal with such a thing. She turned tail and ran; down the stairs, across the long path, through pathways between buildings. It wasn’t until she was totally alone in a bathroom of the cafeteria that she let go and threw up, before finally bursting into tears.

Destiny could still feel the very moment that she felt her heart break. That had been all the motivation she needed to send Justin a dear John letter telling him she’d met someone else. There had been no way she was going to tell him what she’d seen and give him the chance to justify his cheating. If he wasn’t committed enough to being a family with her, then she and the baby would be a family on their own.

* * *

Justin arrived back at school, fully intending to follow through with his threat but he decided before he went that far, he’d check in with Sophia’s teacher from last year. Of anyone at the school, she would have the most insight. “Katie, could you have Miss Ryan come up and see me please?” he asked.

“Of course, Justin,” Katie said. “She’s teaching class though. It’s nearly recess, do you want to wait until then or do you want me to get someone to take over from her while she comes to the office?”

“It will wait until recess,” he said. “I won’t keep her long. I just want to pick her brain about something.”

“Sure,” Katie said. “I’ll go let her know you’re waiting to see her.”

“Thanks, Katie, I appreciate your help.” Justin read through some more of Sophia’s file while he was waiting for the teacher to finish with her class. It didn’t take very long and there was knock at his door. “Come in,” he said. “Miss Ryan, take a seat.”

“Please, call me Candice,” she said.

Justin smiled. “I just wanted to talk to you about Sophia Bridges, Candace.”

“Ah yes, it was an interesting year with Sophia and her mother,” the youngish woman said.

“In what way?” Justin asked. “What would you say was the main problem?”

“Dealing with Sophia wasn’t like dealing with a normal nine-year-old. She has an answer for everything, to the point where she could almost be described as impertinent.”

Justin tapped his pen on the table, while he tried to think. So the child was definitely a problem, they had established that. What was the root cause though? “So if I asked you to write a list of problems from worst to least, what would be on the top of the list?”

Candace gave a grim smile. “Talking back is definitely one of them. For instance, I would ask her why she hadn’t handed in her homework; this happened on numerous occasions. Sophia doesn’t like homework; she had a million excuses why she didn’t get it done. Once she told me that she and her mother think everything she needs to know should be taught in the classroom. That if I needed to give homework, then I wasn’t organized enough to get the entire lesson taught in class.”

Justin opened his eyes very widely. “She said that to you?” If he found out that Destiny had really said that to her child and told her it was okay to repeat it to a teacher, he would be furious.

Candace nodded enthusiastically. “She did.”

“And her mother knew exactly what she had said?”

“Uh huh, I told her. I have to tell you I was really upset. I sent her to the principal.
He
called her mother and she came to get her, but by the time she arrived in my classroom to collect Sophia, the child said she was sick and started to cry. Well, I just had to tell her what Sophia had said to me.”

Justin looked down at the notes regarding the incident. “That’s when Destiny, the mother, got really upset with you and the school?”

“Yes, it is. I told her, and the principal told her that what Sophia had said was a breach of the school rules as was her constant refusal to do homework. Destiny said that the child had a point. It was kind of the truth that there
was
a lot of time wasting in schools today.”

Justin could feel himself getting worked up. He had already read the rest of the incident and how Destiny had made a complaint to the board. It was bad enough when a child was rude but to know that that child was not exactly being reprimanded for her behaviors at home but she was being
taught
to behave that way by her mother was even worse. “What else would you say was a concern?”

“She doesn’t get along with the other kids. I have encouraged them, sometimes quite sternly to allow Sophia to join in their games but she isn’t happy unless she’s running whatever game it is. If they call her on her bossiness, she will ruin the game for everybody.”

“How does she do that?” He was finding himself quite worried about Sophia, this kid had issues.

“She’ll throw the ball up on the roof, or she’ll break something. I told her mother she was doing this and she said the children just didn’t understand her. She was highly intelligent and it wasn’t in her nature to be subservient to other children.”

“In your opinion is she gifted?” Maybe that was the problem, he thought. Gifted children have been known to have trouble fitting in and bore easily.

“It doesn’t look that way, not on paper. It’s hard to tell really, if she’s not being difficult, she’s almost asleep.”

“The child is tired?”

“Oh yes, she’s extremely tired. The mother doesn’t believe in setting bedtimes. She prefers to let Sophia decide when she’s tired enough to sleep.”

Justin rubbed a frustrated hand over his face. At this point he was feeling sorrier for Sophia and very angry with her mother. What was she thinking? It wasn’t just the child who was in need of some discipline in her life. Destiny needed someone to pull her into line too. “Is there more?”

“She can be a little mean in general. Sophia clearly thinks she’s better than the other kids and she isn’t backward in telling them so; she doesn’t hold back. Then there’s the issue with the make-up. What nine-year-old needs to come to school with make up on?” She rolled her eyes. “I asked her one morning to go to the bathroom and wash it off. Next morning her mother was waiting for me. Apparently I destroyed her self-esteem and took away her right to make herself feel comfortable in her own skin.”