Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6) (13 page)

When the door closed tightly behind them, he was face to face with his mother who transformed quickly into the pit bull he knew she was. Michael was hopeful she’d show her true colors and kill two birds with one stone. Surely if Jules saw his mother’s wrath at the idea of losing her fortune everything would become crystal clear.

“How could you do that?” she hissed. A glance in Jules’s direction reminded her to force tears. “How could you make the decision without consulting me? The charity work I do means the world to me, and I am not ready to give it up. I know you are angry with me, but do you really hate me so much that in my darkest hour you’d take away anything that makes me happy?” She puffed out some sobs as she steadied herself against the wall.

“Michael, you didn’t talk to her about this first?” Jules had a look of horror painted across her face. “All those things you just said out there, they were more lies? You didn’t have a relationship with your father. You didn’t all come to this agreement together. What are you trying to do?” Jules reached an arm out to a shaking Tabitha, offering her support both physically and emotionally.

“You want the truth?” Michael had reached his max as far as the games Tabitha was playing with his wife’s heart. “Those charities are all bogus. They are funnels for laundering money. Don’t act as though you’re curing cancer and supporting sick kids, Mother.”

“I never handled that aspect of the charities, but I fought damn hard to ensure the people who deserved it received funds. I don’t condone your father’s business practices, but I’m also not going to speak ill of the dead.” Tabitha shook her head disgustedly in Michael’s direction, laying it all on thick for Jules’s benefit.

“Bullshit,” Michael bit back and was met with a fake gasp from his mother and a real one from his wife.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Michael?” Jules stepped forward, putting her body between him and his mother like an ill-advised protective shield. “I have never heard you speak to anyone like this, let alone your own mother. You made dramatic and sweeping changes to her livelihood and her passion, and you expect her to just accept that? I feel like you might have gone over the edge or something. I don’t even recognize the man in front of me.”

“Jules,” Michael cut in to explain, but his mother’s voice was sharper and beat him to the punch.

“I know you are trying to hurt me. You think I failed you as a mother by not protecting you from your father’s greed and bad choices. Maybe that’s my cross to bear. I understand that, but scaling back your father’s businesses and closing these charities is not the way to get back at me.” She raised her hands to her lips to hold back a sob. “I promised your sister I’d get things done for her today, and I can’t let her down. Knowing her father’s legacy is being destroyed will be hard enough for her to deal with.”

“I’m going with you, Tabitha. I’ll help anyway I can.” Jules smiled warmly as she put an arm around her and patted her back gently.

“Jules, we need to finish this conversation,” Michael insisted as Tabitha broke away and shuffled solemnly away from them.

“I don’t think this is something we’re going to hash out in a few minutes. You had better take a long hard look at yourself and what you’re doing just to spite your mother.”

“I’m going to finish what I started here with my father’s mess in order to protect Josephine from the backlash he set her up to take. Then we’ll go to her party and be on a plane that night. We need to get back to our lives and start putting this behind us.”

“Putting this behind us? This is your
family
. You can’t just cut it off like a limb you can live without. Why are you trying to hurt your mother so badly? She deserves better than to have everything she’s worked on taken away from her without so much as a say in the matter.”

“She deserves nothing,” Michael growled back. “My mother crushes anything on her path to money. She uses and discards people like chess pieces who’ve served their purpose. That’s why we’re leaving.”

“You don’t get to decide when Frankie and I leave. I feel like this place could be the key to her future and you’re slamming the door before I even get to peek my head in and look around. That’s not fair.”

Michael swallowed hard. The idea of Frankie ever growing up here made a knot in his stomach pull tight. “We can give Frankie everything she needs back in Edenville. There is nothing here worth the trouble.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You grew up here. My mother grew up in a house with dirt floors and cracks so big in the walls that weeds grew in.”

“You didn’t grow up like that. There is nothing wrong with your house,” Michael argued.

“No, my house had running hot water but I was still mucking stalls and doing odd jobs anywhere I could get them to earn money by the time I was ten years old. By fourteen I babysat every weekend to save up for a bike I never bought because my daddy died and I wanted my mom to use the money for bills. And by seventeen I was working at the five and dime and delivering papers in the morning so I could save up for a prom dress that looked a little bit like one I fell in love with in a magazine. I didn’t go to the best school; I went to the school closest to my house. A good college was out of the question for me. I want better for my daughter. I want her world to be bigger than just a tiny town with familiar faces.”

“We are doing fine right now, Jules. We’re not living paycheck to paycheck. There is plenty we’ll be able to do for Frankie. I know my mother bought you a fancy dress and said all the right things to you, but you can’t fall for that.”

“Like I just fell off the turnip truck or something, right? This has nothing to do with a dress or the spa. This is about watching a man I love act like an ass to the person who gave him life. This is about not feeling like I have a voice in my own marriage. I don’t want to be told when and where I need to go.” Jules let her voice grow harsh, but Michael could tell she was standing on a cliff of tears.

“Can you please just remember how much you love and trust me? Remember our vows. I would never do anything to hurt you or Frankie. If I’m telling you something is toxic, can’t you just believe me?” Michael felt a threat of tears himself as he pleaded with his wife.

“I think you are angry. You’re judging your mom based on who she was the last time you saw her almost a decade ago. People change. People grow and get better, and it’s up to us to give them a chance to prove it.”

"Why do you always have to fight me on things?" Michael had to beat back the urge to raise his voice. He knew that wouldn't work with his wife. She never responded well to being told what to do. As matter of fact it usually sent her running in the opposite direction. 

“Is it really so impossible to imagine that maybe I'm right about something? When we made those vows you were holding back half of your life. I knew nothing about your family. Maybe if you had told me from the beginning, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. You left me, you lied to me, and you didn’t trust me enough to help you. Did we give up on Willow when she thought she was running away for her own good? Did we let Piper run off on her own to face her family? We’re supposed to do these things together, but you act like you're an island. Like you don't need anybody. We can do this together but you have to value my opinion. You haven't seen your mom in a long time, but you're acting like you know exactly why she does what she does."

"I'm judging my mom based on precedents and history. It would be foolish of me to think she's changed. I have too much to lose. People like that don't change. Yes we chased after Willow and we stood by Piper but that's apples and oranges. Trusting my mom would be as stupid as believing the man who hunted Piper down had changed over the years."

“I guess I’m just that kind of stupid then, because I look at your mother and I think of my mother when she lost her husband. It’s devastating. She needs you.”

“I can’t think of two more polar opposites in the world than my mother and Betty. They have nothing in common. My mother isn’t mourning the loss of the man she loved—they
hated
each other. They had a mutually beneficial relationship that served a purpose. There was no love or respect or even fidelity between them. My mother is mourning the loss of her bankroll, not her husband. She and Betty have
nothing
in common." Michael felt blood rushing to his face. It was an insult to Betty to ever be compared to a woman like his mother.

"I'm going with her today because I promised to help her. The rest we’ll need to take day by day. I don't have a good solution for the two of you, but I'm not going to stop trying to find one. She's your mother, Michael; don't give up on her. I don't think she's given up on you."

"The only person I care about not giving up on me is you. You're the only thing in my life that matters to me. If I have you and Frankie that's all I need."

"It’s not like we have a huge family, Michael. Who does Frankie really have? It's just my mom back in Edenville."

"How can you say that?" Michael's voice was booming now and he could do little to rein it in. "We have Bobby and Piper. We have Jedda and Clay and Crystal. Hell we even have Willow—she's like the crazy aunt. Just because they're not blood doesn't mean they're not our family. And just because these people here are, doesn't mean we should trust them."

“And just because the road has been bumpy in the past doesn't mean it can't smooth out in the future. All I'm asking is that you give your mother a chance because I intend to. I hope one day when Frankie gets older if I'm ever in this position with her she’ll give me that chance." Jules gestured toward the dining room where her daughter was sitting with Piper.

"You are ten times the mother my mother is. You will never be in a situation like this with our daughter. You'll never need that second chance. And in my case, I’ve given my mother a
hundred
chances.”

"So maybe she needs one more. What do you have to lose?"

"You."

“I feel like we missed something,” Piper said as she sidled up to Michael and nudged him out of his frustrated trance. Watching Jules storm off to find his mother had his skin feeling like it had been raked over with hot barbed wire.

“You did,” he explained as he scooped Frankie up into his arms and squeezed her tight. “Did she eat a good breakfast?”

“She didn’t seem very hungry this morning. I don’t know why. I’ll give her a bottle in a little bit and see how she does.”

“No, I need you to go with Jules today. I completely blindsided my mother by telling her in front of the press I’m closing down all my father’s charities and scaling his business down dramatically.”

“She must have flipped,” Lindsey said with wide eyes.

“My mother is a professional. She has quite the poker face. It’s why I did it in front of the media like that. I knew she wouldn’t fly off the handle, even though what I was saying would drive her insane. And she’s trying to preserve her reputation with Jules so she’ll hold back there, too. But I need you with her today. All day. No exceptions. My mother will have her ear, and she’ll be trying to plant little seeds to get her way.”

“I’m not sure Jules will listen to me. I pushed yesterday and it only got between us.”

“I know. Jules doesn’t like people telling her what’s for her own good. So just be with her. Listen to what my mother is saying and fill me in on what her angle seems to be. I don’t know how she’s going to try to force me to change my mind, but I know she will. Right now my only weakness is my family, and she won’t hesitate to find a way to keep us here long enough for me to go back on what I said.”

“What can we do to help?” Lindsey asked as she folded her arms across her chest and her face fell serious, clearly ready for marching orders.

“I could use some help here. I just announced to all my father’s associates that their laundering and back-room deals are coming to an end. There will be plenty of people besides my mother who will be unhappy enough about this to try to do something. I expect the phone calls and in-person meetings to start any minute. I could use some help building profiles and digging into everyone. Who has the most to lose and who is most likely to try to strike back at me?”

“Sure, I can play detective for the day. I was getting antsy here just eating fancy French toast and waiting for something to happen. But I don’t understand why you don’t just turn everything over to the appropriate authorities. It doesn’t seem like your goal is to protect your father’s reputation. Why not just walk away?”

“My father betrayed my sister and used her name to carry on enough illegal activities she’d face jail time if they come out. I don’t trust my mother to have the desire or skill to protect Jo. She’s too greedy to care what happens to her. My father tried to do the same thing to me years ago. It’s why I left. I just want to spare my sister from having to pay for his crimes. She doesn’t deserve that. The only way I can think to do that is to close everything down and bury what I can. With any luck no one will dig too deep.”

“That’s a tough spot to be in. What does your sister think of all this?” Lindsey asked, already in detective mode.

“She doesn’t know anything about it. She thinks my father was an upstanding guy who was teaching her the ropes of the business. She doesn’t know that every document she signed and every deposit she made was getting her deeper and deeper in trouble. I’d like to get most of this resolved before I let her in on it. She’s excited to start her life and be married; I don’t want her worrying about this stuff.”