Battling Destiny (The Piper Anderson Series Book 6) (20 page)

“I don’t want people to know I’m not doing a good job. If they think I’m not happy being a mom then they’ll look at me differently.”

“With any other group of people I might agree with you. I’m not sure you know it yet, but this little bunch here isn’t average. They won’t judge you. They’ll help you. We can call Josh when we get back to Edenville. He loves you, and he’ll know where to start.” Betty looked down at Frankie who’d rolled herself into a sitting position and was smiling up at them. “She is definitely feeling better.”

“Thank goodness,” Jules said as she scooped her daughter up and kissed her neck in the way that always produced a giggle.

“Mrs. Cooper,” Nicolette interrupted with a little knock on the doorframe. “I thought the baby might be hungry. I warmed some of your milk for her.”

“Thank you, Nicolette. She seems so much better this morning. Almost back to her old self.” Jules forced a smile and hoped Nicolette could ignore her wet eyes.

Nicolette nodded, handed over the bottle, and backed out of the room silently and obediently.

“I’ll give her the bottle. You go ahead and get a hot shower, and I’ll meet you for breakfast.” Betty took Frankie back and settled into the rocking chair.

“Are you sure you want to eat breakfast with everyone? I know you don’t like Michael’s mother but I don’t want to make things any worse then they are.”

“Believe it or not I am very good at biting my tongue. Just because I don’t normally choose to do it doesn’t mean I don’t know how.”

“Thank you, Ma,” Jules croaked as the tears came again. “For everything. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“God’s too smart to let us find out.”

“What a lovely dining room,” Betty said with a smile, and Jules felt a small ripple of relief flow over her. Her mother was trying. That meant something to her. It wasn’t easy for Betty to keep her true opinions to herself.

“Thank you, it’s due for a renovation again. I like to keep things fresh and have it redesigned every couple years.” Tabitha took the napkin from her glistening porcelain plate and placed it across her lap. “Now, I’ve had the cook put together a lovely breakfast this morning. I’m so glad to see little Frankie feeling better.”

“She just took a whole bottle,” Betty explained as Piper, Bobby, and Lindsey entered the dining room and took their seats around the long table. The staff was buzzing around and Jules could see her mother’s eyes following them around the room.

As a young woman with her hair pulled into a bun and pinned in place offered Betty her choice of drinks, Jules could sense something was about to happen. “I’ll just have water, dear,” Betty replied as she warmly touched the woman’s mocha-colored arm. “Tell me, where are you from? I love your accent. It’s beautiful.”

“Thank you. I’m from the Dominican Republic, Miss,” the woman answered obediently as she tried to quickly step away, but Betty caught her arm gently.

“I’ve always wanted to go there. I hear it has the most amazing blue water. What’s your favorite thing about it there?” Betty’s look of sincere interest had the woman warming for a moment, until her eyes darted up and met Tabitha’s.

“It’s hard to miss anything when I live in a wonderful place such as this.”

“But the food, there must be food you don’t have the chance to eat up here. I’d love to travel the world and try food from every nation. What would I have if I went to the Dominican Republic?”

Unable to deflect the question or hold back her excitement to answer it, the young woman lit with a smile. “My mother makes the best smoked herring. I still dream about them sometimes at night and wake up hungry. Her secret was leeks.”

“I’ll have to have you scratch down that recipe if you’d consider sharing it. I own a restaurant, and I’m always searching for new items for the menu. What’s your name, dear? Maybe we’ll name it after you.”

“I’m Gloria, and I’d be happy to write that down for you. It would be an honor for you to serve it in your restaurant.”

Betty extended her hand and Gloria looked as though she wasn’t sure why. “I’m Betty. It’s a pleasure to meet you. If you have time after breakfast I’d like to hear more about where you are from.”

“That might be difficult since she’ll be scraping food off dishes and then going to make up the bedrooms,” Tabitha interjected.

“Yes, of course, ma’am,” Gloria said as she scurried away.

“We try not to treat the staff that way. It sets a poor precedence.” Tabitha tapped her mug and gestured for more coffee.

“I’m sorry about that,” Betty countered. “I do have a nasty habit of treating people like human beings. I’m trying to cut that out.”

“That’s likely because you’ve never had to manage a staff before. If you start talking to them that way they’ll walk all over you. Before you know it they’re asking for time off to visit that country you talk to them about, or they’re stealing right under your nose.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Betty said, nodding in agreement. “You know what they say, kindness breeds evil.”

“Who says that?” Bobby asked, and Jules cursed him for being oblivious to the obvious sarcasm and making this moment last any longer than necessary.

“A moron,” Betty replied curtly as she backed her chair away from the table. “I suddenly don’t feel very hungry. I think I’ll take a walk.”

“Ma, please,” Jules begged as she took the plate of tiny pieces of toast and lay them out in front of Frankie.

“Jules,” Piper suggested, with a look like she was scrambling to change the subject, “I bet your mother hasn’t seen the fountain out back. I’ll walk with her.”

A moment later they were out the door and the dining room was absent of any chatter. The only noises were the clanking of forks and clearing of throats.

Finally Bobby broke the awkwardness, unfortunately with a question that only made it worse. “Where is Michael?”

“He’s working,” Jules answered flatly. The real answer was that he was scanning all the documents to officially file them.

The dining room door swung open as Spencer, the gala’s concierge, walked in. “Mrs. Cooper, this just arrived for you. I think you should open it right away.”

Tabitha shot to her feet. “And is Josephine here yet?”

“She’s just pulled in,” Spencer said with a wicked smile.

“What perfect timing. Have her meet me in her father’s office. I need to see her immediately.”

“What’s going on?” Jules asked, feeling a vice tighten around her heart. “Is it about the party?”

“It’s family business,” Tabitha said coolly as she stepped out of the dining room and left them all looking around in confusion.

“What do you think that was about?” Lindsey asked, leaning nearer to Bobby.

“I’m guessing some last ditch effort to keep Michael here doing what she wants him to do.”

“Should I be worried?” Jules asked, biting at her lip nervously.

“Yes,” Lindsey shot back until Bobby gave her a sideways look. “But I’m sure it’ll be fine.

“That’s not very convincing,” Jules said as she pushed away the plate of food that had been laid before her.

“You don’t have anything to worry about, Jules. Michael has this all under control and we’re all here together. We’re not going to let anything happen. You know how we are in these situations.”

“I’m starting to think Tabitha is an entirely different situation than anything we’ve dealt with before.” Jules ran a hand over her daughter’s wispy hair and down her cheek.

“And I’m guessing we’re entirely different than anything she’s ever dealt with before. It’ll be fine.”

“Mother, I don’t really have time for you to sit in here and stare at me. I’m in the middle of something.” Michael wished the look in his mother’s eye wasn’t getting to him, but it was. She looked downright victorious and that wasn’t something she would fake.

“We’re just waiting for your sister. She needs to hear this too. And don’t worry if it keeps you from sending those papers. After this you won’t need to.” Tabitha patted the large envelope on her lap and smiled.

“What is this about?” Josephine asked as she stepped into the office and read the tension stewing there.

“This is about Michael stopping this nonsense about dismantling our fortune and our future. This ends today.”

“Mother, I think we’ve covered this pretty extensively. I’m not staying here. Dad left everything to me, and I’m not continuing the mess he made. Now if you’ll both excuse me I need to get these documents scanned and emailed.”

“Well then you better give your sister a kiss because this might be the last time you aren’t separated by bars.” Tabitha split open the envelope and pulled out a small stack of paperwork.

“Mother?” Josephine asked as the blood drained from her face. “What are you talking about?”

“You killed your father. The proof is right here. I’ve been waiting for the report, trying like hell to stall your brother, and now it’s finally here.” The joy on her face was scary.

“He died of a heart attack,” Michael scoffed.

“No, he died from head trauma. The heart attack wasn’t the cause of death. He had quite the hit to the side of the head.”

“So he hit his head on the desk after falling over from the heart attack. What does that have to do with Jo?” Michael was trying to keep his face stern but his nerves were raging.

“Everything,” Josephine whispered as her legs shook and she braced herself against the wall.

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked, his anxiety welling up to a level he thought he might drown in.

“I found out, Michael. I knew what he was trying to do to me. I was going to be his scapegoat. He set me up, and I could have gone to jail for the things he had me do. I was furious.”

“You knew what he had done? Why didn’t you tell me that? You were walking around talking about Dad like he was still your hero.” Michael ran his hands through his hair with exasperation.

“Mother told me it would be better if I didn’t tell you what had happened. She said it had been so long since we’d seen you we didn’t know if you would just turn me in. She promised me she’d handle everything.”

“Oh I’m handling it,” Tabitha smirked.

“Tell me what happened, Jo,” Michael begged.

“I found out he was using me to essentially rob people and steal from the government. There was inside trading and all sorts of things with my name all over them. I came in here and confronted him. I grabbed the first thing I saw and hurled it at him. It was that trophy he had from the polo match he won in college. It was so heavy, and it hit him right in the head. He fell out of his chair and on to the floor. I screamed for help. By the time the ambulance came Mother had already picked up the trophy and hid it. They just assumed he’d had a heart attack because of his history and hit his head on the way down. But he didn’t. I killed him.”

“Where is the trophy now?” Michael asked, thinking exclusively as a lawyer for a moment.

“I have it,” Tabitha explained looking very proud of herself. “It’s somewhere very safe just waiting for the moment to turn it over to the police if that becomes necessary. It won’t be hard for them to match it up to your father’s injuries,” she turned her gaze on Josephine, “or find your fingerprints on it.”

Josephine’s face crumpled. “Why are you doing this? You planned this from the beginning? I thought you were trying to protect me, but you were being strategic? For God’s sake, I’m your daughter.”

“Exactly. You are my daughter and by now you should know better. At least your brother realized early on that I would do anything to keep this family at our present status. I’m not going to start buying dresses off the rack and clipping coupons. I gave your father almost four decades of my life so when I was finally rid of him I could live the life I’ve always wanted. I’m not letting your brother’s conscience get in my way.”

“What do you want?” Michael asked, knowing he couldn’t negotiate if he didn’t know her specific terms.

“You stay here. You recant what you said to the media and let them know we’ve reconsidered and intend to keep everything business as usual. If you do, then I won’t expose what your sister did.”

“That’s it? That’s all it will take?” Josephine asked, looking desperately at Michael. “Just do what she wants, and this can all go away.”

“Do what she wants? That means walking away from my home and dragging my family into this toxic hellhole. It means compromising myself to the point that I will eventually get caught and end up in jail myself. None of this is sustainable. The fact that Dad never got caught was miraculous. That luck is going to run out. He knew that; it’s why he started shifting things into your name, Jo. I can’t do this.”

“So you are going to just let her send me to jail? I can’t go to jail for murder, Michael. You have to understand, I was heartbroken he would betray me. I loved him. He was my hero. I didn’t mean to do it.”

“I know that and a jury would too. There was nothing premeditated about it. It was an accident. You didn’t mean to kill him.”

“A jury?” Josephine asked as she began to sob. “You can’t honestly be considering letting her turn me in? I’m about to start my life and be married. I can’t go to prison. Please, you’re my brother. You have to protect me.”