Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6) (6 page)

“What do you mean he told you to leave? Tell me exactly what happened. There has to be some kind of explanation.”

Though misdirected, Jules felt a burning anger that needed to be fired from her, and Piper was the closest target. “Could you, for one second,” Jules barked, “stop being his friend and start being mine? There is
no
explanation. There is no excuse. He was there with his girlfriend. I saw her on his arm. The man at the door said they’ve known each other since high school. When Michael came up to me, all he told me was to go. That I couldn’t be there. I think that’s all pretty clear.”

“I’m sorry, you’re right. There is no excuse. I shouldn’t have said that. You’ve always had my back, even with stuff with Bobby, and I’ll do the same for you. Just tell me what you want to do now.” Piper’s voice was hushed and it reminded Jules of her sleeping baby just around the corner. That was all she wanted to do now. Scoop her baby up and run back to Edenville, on foot if that’s what it came to.

“I want to go home. I got the answer I came for, and I want to go back to Edenville and try to put all the pieces of my life back together. Who in the world would have thought I’d be twenty-seven years old and already have burned through two marriages?” She thudded against the wall as she pulled the pins out of her hair, letting it fall. She rubbed the ache out of her scalp, and she wished it would be that easy to comfort her heart.

“We can call the airline in the morning and get on the next flight home if that’s what you want to do.” Piper leaned against the wall and patted Jules’s shoulder. Knowing Piper the way Jules did made the act even more impactful. Piper wasn’t one to show much physical affection to anyone besides Bobby. She had worked so hard on her empathy and her ability to connect with people, but she’d never be deemed a hugger the way Jules and Betty were. The small gesture was her way of trying. 

The light knock on the door sent both of them jumping, and Jules covered her thumping heart with her hand. “That scared me half to death. It’s probably Lindsey checking on me. I said some pretty harsh stuff on the way here. I bet she’s afraid I’ll go back over there tonight.” Without checking who it was, Jules swung the door open while patting her wet eyes with her free hand.

Standing with all the regal elegance of a 1930’s Hollywood starlet was Michael’s mother. Jules recognized her at once from the pictures Piper had pulled up online. Her mouth dropped open and words escaped her. It took all her willpower not to let the door slam right in the woman’s face, simply out of sheer shock.

“I’m sorry to bother you tonight, dear, but I believe you were at my husband’s memorial charity benefit tonight. My name is—”

Jules cut in with a wave of her hand as she regained her voice. “I know who you are. What are you doing here?”

“I saw you with my son and I need to know who you are. Judging by his reaction, you are clearly very important to him and I need your help.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint you but I’m clearly not important to him, considering he asked me to leave the benefit. I can’t help you with anything.” Jules let the door begin to slide shut, but the woman’s leg popped out from the slit of her dress and held the door open with her designer-clad foot.

“Please, I just want to know who you are. Are you his friend, or his girlfriend?” The woman’s dark eyes drooped with a desperation that screamed for relief.

It wasn’t Jules’s job to maintain any of Michael’s lies. Whatever web he weaved she wouldn’t be a part of that. With that in mind she blurted out the truth. “I’m his wife.”

“What?” the woman cried as though an arrow had just pierced her heart. She clutched at the doorframe trying to steady her now shaking legs. “When did he get married? How could he not tell me that?”

Jules’s fears were confirmed. Not only did she know nothing about Michael’s life in Ohio, the people here knew nothing about her. “He seems to be full of secrets. It came as quite a shock to me that my husband had a girlfriend at your event tonight. But now I know where I stand.”

“A girlfriend? Michael wasn’t at the event with anyone tonight. Who told you he had a girlfriend?” A seriousness fell over the woman’s face, and she looked ready to fight, not with Jules per se, but with anyone who disagreed with what she knew to be the truth.

“When I walked in a man named Spencer told me Michael and his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth, had just left the dance floor. He said they were taking photos.” Jules didn’t want to let the small glimmer of hope that there was a misunderstanding penetrate her anger.

“Elizabeth and Michael haven’t seen each other in probably seven or eight years. She is certainly not his girlfriend. The only reason they danced was at her adamant insistence. They’re a terrible pair together, and I never really cared for her. Michael has no interest in her at all, and he’s been avoiding her since the moment he came back into town.”

“But Spencer,” Jules shot back, ready to defend what she’d heard.

“Spencer is a rumor-spreading gossip who likes to feel important. You can’t believe a word the man says, and everyone knows that about him. Michael and Elizabeth are strangers to each other at this point. I promise you that. But you, you are his wife, and you’re a stranger to me.” She shook her head and covered her heart with her hands as she took a few steps into the hotel room. Jules stepped aside to let her in, though she didn’t really want to. She certainly hadn’t invited her, but this woman didn’t look like she was often denied entry anywhere in her life. 

“I’m sorry you’re finding out this way, Mrs. Cooper,” Jules apologized, genuinely sorry Michael’s mother had been left in the dark.

“Please, dear, I’m your mother-in-law. For goodness sake, call me Tabitha. It sounds like you have nothing to apologize for. It’s my son who has that responsibility. He’s in an awful way right now, and I’m desperate to get through to him, but I can’t do it alone.”

“He doesn’t want me here,” Jules retorted, stressing every word to make sure it was unavoidably clear.

“I’m sure that’s not the case. He is lost right now. He and his father had a very complicated and tumultuous relationship. With his unexpected death, Michael never had the chance to make amends or get answers he so desperately wanted from his father. I think he’s drowning in regret and grief right now even if he won’t admit it. I’m sure he was just trying to shield you from that.”

“You don’t shield your wife from your feelings. You rely on her to help you through them. He’s never told me a single thing about any of you. I never knew your name until I looked you up online. I ignored every red flag and now I’m paying the price for that. I’m sorry Michael might be hurting and misled you about his life, but I can’t help you. I need to focus on getting my own life back on track.” Jules wanted Tabitha gone, if that meant she evaporated into thin air or fell out the window, she didn’t care. She was finding no comfort knowing she wasn’t the only one being lied to by Michael. 

Jules made her way toward the door, and as she reached for the handle, ready to gesture for Tabitha to leave, she heard the familiar late night cry of her daughter. The wails cut through the room and sent Jules’s heart into her throat.

“Is that a baby?” Tabitha asked, stepping farther into the hotel room rather than taking the clear hint Jules was giving her.

“Yes,” Jules said, giving up on Tabitha leaving and pushed past her to get to Frankie.

“I’ll get her,” Piper, who’d been noticeably silent but clearly observant, insisted.

“Is it your baby?” Tabitha whispered as though her voice were as weak as her shaky legs. “Is it Michael’s baby?”

“Yes,” Jules said flatly, trying to ignore the tears that formed in Tabitha’s eyes and then spilled past her mascara to her cheeks. “She’s our daughter.”

Overwhelmed, Tabitha gave in to her tears, and Jules’s empathetic heart could not let the woman fall to pieces without offering some kindness.

“Sit,” Jules insisted as she pulled out the desk chair from the corner of the hotel room and wheeled it closer to the hallway where she leaned against the wall. “I’m sorry you found out like this. I’m sure this is upsetting.” Jules wasn’t convinced that her standing in this world, her practical peasant status, wasn’t what was causing the tears.

“I’m not upset,” Tabitha choked out as she blotted her eyes. “I just lost my husband and I had this overwhelming feeling my family was shrinking and it was suffocating to me, and now . . .” She let out a few more sobs before drawing in a deep breath. It reminded Jules of the old movie starlets of the black and white screen whose deep tears could strike you right through the heart. Whether she was acting or not wasn’t clear, but the impact was the same. “Now all of the sudden I find out my family has grown. I’m a grandmother. You can’t imagine how healing that is. How whole I feel again.”

“I truly am sorry for the loss of your husband. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling, and I’m glad finding out about us brings you some comfort.” Jules didn’t know what it was like to bury a husband, but she’d been grappling with losing Michael ever since he’d come out here. Now where did they stand? He didn’t have a girlfriend, which was a positive. But he’d still hidden Jules and Frankie away like some dirty little secret he was ashamed of. He’d still insisted she leave his father’s celebration of life tonight. Something still wasn’t adding up, but a small glimmer of hope was wearing her defenses down.

“May I see her? I know it’s late, but may I hold her? She’s my granddaughter and I’ve never even met her. Please.” Tabitha’s eyes were wide and anxious, wet eyelashes fluttering in a panic.

How could Jules deny a woman something like this? If it were Betty wouldn’t she want someone to give her that small gift, even if the situation was a mess?

“Of course you can.” Jules slipped around the corner to the second room in the hotel to retrieve her daughter. Piper stood with her, doing the rhythmic, lightly bouncing dance that always calmed Frankie at night.

“She wants to meet Frankie,” Jules said, reaching her arm out to take her daughter.

Piper’s hushed voice was so low Jules had to strain to hear her. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. What do we really know about her? How did she find you so quickly and what does she want from you?”

“Could you stop playing skeptical detective for five minutes of your life? She saw Michael and me argue at the party. She knows Michael is struggling and she’s worried about him. She doesn’t want to lose him. I’m sure she called the car service and used that information to find me.” Jules stepped in and took Frankie from Piper’s arms.

“Fine,” Piper sighed as she folded her empty arms across her chest. Jules knew she hadn’t won the debate, just staved off Piper’s negativity about new people in their lives.

Tabitha’s arms were already open and waiting as Jules rounded the corner with Frankie. She couldn’t block the nagging feeling that handing her baby to a stranger, even if she was family, was wrong. But the warmth in Tabitha’s eyes seemed so genuine and reminded Jules so much of how Betty looked at Frankie.

“Oh my goodness,” Tabitha whispered as a nearly sleeping Frankie curled affectionately into her arms. “She looks like you, but I can see so much of Michael as a baby, too.”

There was another reminder of Michael’s disconnect from his past. Jules had never seen a single baby picture of her husband. She’d never known if Frankie and he had similar features at that age.

“I’ll need to feed her before she goes back down,” Jules apologized as she reached her arms out and lifted her daughter back into her arms. The expression on Tabitha’s face was like swirled paint, all the colors recklessly swept together. Overwhelming joy brushed through sadness and pain.

“Please come to my house for lunch tomorrow,” Tabitha begged as she shot to her feet, now seeming very steady. “I’ve just met you and your daughter; what is her name? I don’t know your name either.”

“My name is Jules, the baby is Frankie,” Jules explained, peering down into her daughter’s eyes, now at half-mast, ready to fall back into slumber if she were not fed soon. Jules knew that would mean she’d be up again in a few minutes crying to be fed.

“That’s an adorable name. Please come to lunch tomorrow. I can’t imagine you leaving now. Not after meeting you and knowing how kind you are. I don’t want to lose Michael either. His relationship with his father always got between him and me, and if there is any silver lining to my husband’s untimely death, I had hoped it would bring Michael and me closer.”

“Tabitha, you seem like a very nice woman, and I’m sorry for your troubles with Michael, but I have my own. He abandoned us, lied, and then just tonight told me to leave. I’m sure you can tell from this not-so-fancy hotel we’re staying in, I don’t exactly come from your lifestyle. Knowing Michael isn’t seeing another woman, I have to assume his not wanting me here has more to do with the drastic differences between my upbringing and your family.”

“His father was an impossibly difficult man. If that is why Michael is keeping you away from us then it truly stems from his father, not from me. I’ve always just wanted Michael to be happy, with whomever that may be. But I do know his father had other plans for Michael and maybe that is why he is keeping you separate from us now. Please know I wouldn’t care where you are from. You are family to me now and I beg you to consider coming to lunch tomorrow. It is my house and I want you there. And in my heart, judging by Michael’s reaction after you left tonight, I am certain Michael wants you there too. He is just turned upside down right now.”