A Silken Thread (25 page)

Chapter Thirty-Three

“A
nd how was your visit with April?”

Erica glanced across the dinner table at her mother. Surprisingly, she didn’t detect the normally sarcastic tone in her voice whenever she mentioned April. Erica had been asleep when her mother had arrived in Lake Tahoe late last night and Erica had deliberately pretended exhaustion to sleep late this morning. She needed to give her body time to heal from pain and hoped her mother couldn’t look at her and tell she’d been crying the last two days. Her eyes were no longer as red as they had been but her heart was still aching inside.

She had checked her messages and saw Brian had tried calling her several times but she didn’t want to hear anything he had to say at the moment. The evidence she’d seen spoke for itself and, as far as she was concerned, there was really nothing he could say. And knowing there was no way he could redeem himself made it that much harder, because she loved him so much.

“Erica?”

Remembering that her mother had asked a question, she plastered a smile on her face. “My visit was great. It was good seeing her again,” she lied. No matter what, she refused to let her mother know what had happened between her and Brian. Karen had enough garbage of her own to sort through. Besides, the thought of her and her mother sharing a pity party only made her pain that much worse.

“And what about your trip, Mom? How was it?”

A huge smile touched her mother’s mouth from corner to corner. “It was simply wonderful. I wasn’t sure how things would turn out before I left but I think it was worth the trip.”

Erica continued to eat her food while her mother chatted away about people Erica didn’t know. But she could tell by the sound of her mother’s voice that getting away had been good for her. She was glad and hoped her mother’s attitude stayed intact when she made the request she was about to make.

“Mom, can we go home?”

The smile on Karen’s face left instantly. “Why? Aren’t you enjoying spending time with me?”

Erica breathed deeply. Good grief! The last thing she wanted was for her mother to assume that she was disloyal. But she needed to be alone to wallow in her own grief. “That’s not it, Mom, but I just want to go home now. I think we’ve been gone long enough, don’t you think?”

Karen nodded slowly. “Yes, I guess you’re right.” She hesitated for a moment, fidgeting with her napkin in a nervous gesture before saying, “I didn’t want to mention this to you. In fact I put it out of my mind until I was ready to deal with it.”

Erica had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “Deal with what?”

Karen held her gaze. “I talked to your father a couple of weeks ago while we were still on the cruise.”

“Yes, he mentioned it when I spoke with him a few days ago. Why didn’t you tell me he called? Why did you have me believing that he hadn’t cared enough to do so, Mom?”

She saw fire flare into her mother’s eyes. “Because there was no way I could tell you he called without telling you why he called. And the reason was too upsetting.” She placed her fork down beside her plate to make sure she had Erica’s attention. “He has filed for the divorce and is in the process of moving out of our home.”

Erica’s mouth dropped open from the news.

“And he plans to divorce me and marry her,” her mother added.

Erica frowned. “Is that what he said?”

“No, that’s what I’ve prepared myself for and that’s fine. I’ll just live my life alone until I die.”

Erica’s heart took a nosedive and a part of her wished she hadn’t asked to go home now.

“So I hope you understand why I didn’t mention his call,” Karen said. “It was just too devastating to think about and I was determined to put him and that tramp he’s been messing with out of my mind.”

“I can understand that.” She reached across the table to take her mother’s hand in hers. “Mom, I’m truly sorry.”

Her mother nodded. “So am I. Maybe you’ve been right all along. Your father and I had an arranged marriage and things didn’t work out. I guess marrying for love is the only way to assure your heart won’t get broken.”

Those words were too much for Erica to hear. She wanted to tell her that marrying for love wasn’t what she thought it would be. On the verge of tears, she pushed back from the table. “Excuse me, Mom, I need some time alone for a minute.”

Karen watched as Erica quickly left the room. Poor baby. The smile that formed on her lips couldn’t be withheld. She lifted her glass to take a sip of her wine. Things were going as planned, and yes, she was ready to go home, as well. The sooner she could get Griffin and Erica together, the better.

If two people were drawn together to console each other’s broken hearts, then so be it.

Rita nibbled on her bottom lip as she waited for Wilson to answer the phone. “It’s Rita,” she said as he picked up.

“Rita, how are you, love?”

She hung her head and took a deep breath. Such words coming from him should not make her heart beat so fast. Should not cause goose bumps to break out over her arms. But they did because no matter how their relationship had begun or how wrong it was to have started in the first place, she loved him. He was her love, like she knew she was his.

It had been over a month since they’d been together and she knew if given the word he would hop the first plane to Dallas to see her. But they had agreed they would not be together, could not be together, until he was no longer a married man.

“There’s a problem between Erica and Brian,” she said, her heart almost breaking just thinking about it.

“What problem? I talked to Erica a few days ago. She called me from the airport on her way to Dallas to see Brian.”

“Yes, and someone set him up, Wilson.”

“Set him up? How?”

She spent the next thirty minutes going over in detail what Brian had shared with her a few days ago. He had appeared on her doorstep on the brink of exhaustion. He’d barely been able to eat and had taken time off work to try and pull himself together.

It had been totally heartbreaking for a mother to see her child in such pain but know there was nothing she could do about it. Even now she was worried about him, although he had returned to work today and claimed he was doing better. He had tried calling Erica but she refused his calls.

“There is no way Brian would cheat on Erica, Wilson,” she said, almost in tears.

“I know, sweetheart. To be honest with you, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if Karen didn’t have something to do with it.”

Rita’s breath caught. That had crossed her mind originally, but there were so many things that had happened that were so out of Karen’s reach. “How is that possible when she was at Lake Tahoe?” His suspicions were beginning to sound like a demented soap opera.

“I know, but over the years my wife has kept secrets of her own.”

“Really?”

“Nothing involving an affair or anything, as far as I know, but a secret I discovered last year regarding her sister.”

“Her sister? Erica once mentioned her mother had one sister who’d been in a car accident and went into a coma and later died.”

“Yes, that’s what we all thought.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know for a fact that her sister Blair is alive, although Karen fabricated the funeral years ago to make us think other wise.”

Rita nearly dropped the phone out of her hands. “What?”

“Yes, I only found out because I came across the checks Karen has been writing for her care in a private exclusive nursing home. She makes sure Blair is getting the best of care, but just to think Karen went so far as to fabricate her sister’s death and funeral lets me know she is capable of doing just about anything.”

“Yet you stayed with her?”

“Yes, only because I figured, with the way Karen thinks, if people knew Blair had finally come out of her coma it would be embarrassing for Karen. Blair was her younger sister, beautiful and vibrant. The car accident took place a week before she was to get married.”

“How awful.”

“Yes, it was. But if Karen has managed to keep Blair a secret all these years then it wouldn’t surprise me what else she can manage to do.”

The thought of that sent chills down Rita’s spine. “Brian has hired a private detective, his best friend, and Matt is good and feels he has a personal stake in this. Someone is out to ruin Brian’s happiness and Matt’s not going to be satisfied until he finds out who it is.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

O
ver the next couple of weeks Brian tried to continue to hold his life together, going to work and coming home while hoping Matt would have something for him that would explain the madness he was going through.

Erica still refused his calls and he’d even thought about flying to Hattersville to confront her again but followed Matt’s advice not to do so. They both needed time to think and Brian was hoping, praying, that eventually she would realize what a mistake she’d made in not believing in him, in not trusting him completely. More than anything that is what hurt him the most.

He might be wrong but it seemed Donna was deliberately keeping her distance. Matt had decided he would check her out first, verify she was not involved in any way.

Brian stood and walked over to the office window to glance out. Basically he was a man operating on autopilot. He went home every day, ate dinner and went to bed. He tried getting absorbed in his court cases and would admit they helped tremendously. But it was late at night, when he thought of Erica the most, that the pain tore through him.

He turned when the phone rang and moved to his desk to pick it up. “Yes, Jessie?”

“Matt Seacrest is on the line for you, Mr. Lawson.”

“Please put him through.” He hadn’t heard from Matt since last week and hoped he was calling because he’d found out something. “Matt?”

“I found out some things that might interest you, man. When can we meet?”

Erica was glad to be home but even within these walls she felt only bone-deep loneliness. She had returned to find her father had moved out and was living in one of those exclusive apartments near the lake. And now most everyone in town knew her parents were getting a divorce and the reason for it. This was a small town and news, good or bad, traveled fast. Her mother had had a lot of messages waiting for her when she returned. Erica was sure they were from her mother’s country club buddies, who were eager to give her a shoulder to cry on while getting their ears filled with what they thought would be some juicy gossip.

Erica hadn’t seen her father since she and her mother had returned a couple of weeks ago. He had wanted to meet with her but the pain of his betrayal was still raw and, now that he was actually going through with the divorce and had moved out, she was more torn than ever. A part of her wanted to understand what had driven him to such madness. Was this nothing but a middle-age crisis?

And she would have to admit that more than once over the past few weeks she had questioned herself, wondering if she’d jumped to conclusions, been too quick in accusing Brian. Her mother was worried about her and had tried getting Erica to stay a few days with her. But she had needed the privacy of her own place. She had needed her space.

She was about to go into the kitchen and prepare something for lunch when her doorbell rang. She moved to the door and glanced out the peephole and saw her visitor was none other than Griffin Hayes.

She opened the door and smiled. “Griffin, how are you?”

“I’m fine, Erica. May I come in?”

“Sure.”

She stood back and let him in and then she saw the strain surrounding his eyes. He appeared deeply worried about some thing. “Griffin? Is everything all right?”

He drew in a deep breath. “No. I’m trying to find April. Do you know where she is?”

“April?”

“Yes.”

Erica fell silent for a few moments as she contemplated his response. Of course she knew April and Griffin were acquainted but had never considered them as even friends. She did know April had had a crush on Griffin for years, although she was certain April wasn’t aware she had figured that out years ago.

Why was Griffin looking for April? She decided the only way to find out was to ask him. “Why are you trying to find April?”

He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and then said, “April and I have been involved for about four months, and a few weeks ago she sent me a letter saying she needed space and didn’t want to see me.”

Of all the things Erica had expected to hear, that wasn’t it. “You and April have been involved?”

“Yes.”

She shook her head. “This is news to me.”

“She didn’t want to tell you until after your wedding.”

Erica was confused. “Why?”

“She was obsessed with not letting your mother find out. She figured as long as you weren’t married Mrs. Sanders would still harbor hope that something would develop between you and me. She thought once you were happily married then it would be okay to let everyone know.”

Erica nodded. She could see April thinking that way. For some reason April had always been afraid of her mother’s wrath. It was sad. “April should not have let my mom affect her happiness. Gosh, she’s loved you forever.”

The tightness around his mouth eased into a smile. “She said she has.”

“She’s not lying, although again because of my mother, she never wanted me to know. I figured things out on my own years ago, while we were still in high school. That’s the reason I made sure we called things off in your senior year before you left for college, in case you would be bold enough to let April know you were interested in her, as well.”

This time Griffin threw his head back and laughed. “You figured that out, too?”

“Yes, and to be honest with you, I really don’t know where April is, which is unusual. She hasn’t contacted me in a few weeks, and I’m concerned. In fact, I’m going to pay Ms. Connie a visit. Now your visit explains some things.”

“Like what?”

“Why April doesn’t want to be found. In her mind she’s probably thinking that since I didn’t marry I’ll pose a threat to your relationship with her, which isn’t true.”

Griffin nodded. “Yes, she actually thinks your mother can wield that much power.”

Erica shook her head. “Trust me, my mother has enough of her own problems to deal with at the moment.”

Griffin nodded again. “I heard about your parents. I’m sorry, Erica.”

“Me, too, but someone told me I had to realize their problems aren’t mine,” she said. “In fact I was told it really wasn’t any of my business.”

He gave a slight smile. “And I can just imagine who told you that.”

Erica smiled, as well. Yes, April had been the one to tell her that. So had Brian. Thoughts of him made her heart ache.

“I love her, Erica, and I’ve got to find her and convince her that no one is a threat to us. Do you know where she might be?”

Erica nibbled on her bottom lip. Yes, she had an idea. A few years ago she and April had purchased a house together in Hawaii. It was their “girlcave.” Under normal circumstances she wouldn’t divulge her friend’s whereabouts to anyone. But Erica had a gut feeling that this time was different.

“Erica?”

She looked up at Griffin and made a quick decision.

“April and I bought this place in Maui a few years ago and I have a feeling that’s probably where she is.”

An appreciative smile lit up Griffin’s face and he leaned over to place a kiss on Erica’s cheek. “Thank you.”

“So what do you have to tell me?”

The minute Brian spotted Matt seated at a table in Larry’s Sandwich Shop, he grabbed a seat and cut right to the chase. He knew his friend would understand.

Without preamble, Matt replied, “It seems your girl Donna is the one who set you up.”

Over the past week Brian hadn’t wanted to consider the possibility that Donna had a part in what happened, and to know that she had made his blood boil. “You sound certain.”

“I am. Rule number one. Don’t set a brother up unless you intend to cover your tracks.”

“And she didn’t?”

“Not completely.” Matt then took a sip of his beer. “First there were those infamous red panties with the letter
D.
Turns out they’re made to order. Some designer in Chicago. I was able to track down the identity of the person who ordered them. A professor at the same law school Donna graduated from.”

Brian nodded slowly. “Circumstantial evidence.”

Matt chuckled. “Yes, but what if I told you she was known around campus as the ‘blow-job queen’ and it was rumored that she and this professor had something going on and that their secret affair is what helped her graduate from law school at the top of her class?”

“Still circumstantial,” Brian said after the waiter had placed a beer in front of him and he had taken a sip.

“And what if I were to tell you that she is presently blowing Judge Meadows?”

Brian almost choked on the sip he’d taken. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I put a tail on her and my man reported that, not only does she have a standing time each week in the judge’s chambers, but they also schedule clandestine meetings at the Ritz-Carlton twice a week. And we have pictures to prove it.” Matt paused for a moment. “She was also placed at your home the day of Erica’s visit.”

Brian set his glass aside. “She was?”

“Yes. You live in a gated community. She has access because she lives there as well, so no one had to check when she came in and when she left. But what she didn’t think about was the security cameras. I obtained a video.”

Anger was radiating from every pore in Brian’s body. “But why did she do it?”

“I guess she wanted to make sure there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that you and Erica would marry, and I can only assume she figured once she got Erica out of the picture, she would go after you for herself.”

Brian leaned back in the chair. “Well, I guess you solved that one.”

Matt shook his head. “No, it only opens more questions up in my mind and there is one sticking out further than the others.”

“Which one?””

“How did she know Erica was surprising you and coming to town, in order to time things so perfectly?”

Brian lifted a brow. “That’s a good question and there’s only one way to find out.”

Matt chuckled. “Yes, we’ll be paying Ms. Hardy a visit after we leave here.”

Less than an hour later both Matt and Brian were knocking on Donna Hardy’s front door. When she opened it Brian could tell that she was surprised to see him.

“Brian? How nice to see you.”

“Donna, this is a good friend of mine, Matthew Seacrest. He’s a private investigator and I hired him to find out who broke into my house and set me up.” He saw something flash in the depths of her eyes. It happened so quickly that if he hadn’t been observant he would have missed it.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, really? I wasn’t aware someone burglarized your home. But what does that have to do with me?”

“Give us a few moments of your time,” Matt said, “and we’ll certainly tell you.”

“I was on my way out,” Donna said.

“That may be, but I think it would behoove you to let us come in and discuss a few things,” Matt said.

She shrugged and took a step back. “Mr. Lawson is my boss so I can’t refuse to meet with him, can I?”

A smile touched Matt’s lips. “You can, but I think regarding this matter I’d think twice about it.”

She paused slightly and then said, “Then please come in.”

They entered her home and the smell of Allure greeted them, just like it had that day in his bedroom. “I would offer the two of you something to drink, but like I said I’m on my way out. I have a date.”

“With Judge Meadows?” Matt threw out.

Brian watched her spine stiffen and knew what Matt was doing. He was already going in for the kill before he did any disabling of the defenses. It was a tactic Brian had used in court a lot when he was certain that the accused was guilty as sin.

“I see Judge Meadows in court once a week and that’s enough,” she said.

“No, you see him more than that, but that’s not why we’re here,” Matt said. “Not only am I a private investigator, Ms. Hardy, I also consider myself one of Brian’s closest friends. When someone does something to him they might as well do it to me.”

“How touching.” She then glanced over at Brian. “What’s this about? Or are you letting him be your spokesman, Counselor?”

Brian frowned. In a few moments she would probably regret what she’d just said. Matt might be a pain in the ass but a pissed off Brian Lawson could be one hundred degrees worse than him.

“Why did you do it, Donna?” he asked her.

He could tell before she even opened her mouth that she intended to play dumb. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You set me up to guarantee a breakup with my fiancée. Why?”

She threw her hair over her shoulder. “Look, Brian, if you’ve got problems in your relationship—”

“I have proof you were in my apartment.”

“You don’t have proof because I wasn’t there.”

“Yes, we do,” Matt interjected. “First of all, there are your panties that were purchased for you, as a gift I presume, from one of your professors in law school.”

“You can’t prove that.”

“Yes, we can. And your alibi with Judge Meadows won’t hold much water, when we have security footage that shows you at Brian’s condo.” He held up a copy for effect. “As an attorney you know it’s admissible in court.”