Living Lies (25 page)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Erin stood in the silent den. Behind her, the multi-colored lights from the Christmas tree she’d decorated with her husband and children less than a week ago glowed in the dark room. Christmas Eve and she was alone. But Garret was coming. He’d called this morning and told her he wanted to see her.

A hope she didn’t dare acknowledge grew inside her as she paced the small room. Everything was as she wanted it. From the quilted Christmas stockings she’d made herself, hanging from the mantel over the fireplace, to the book Garret had been reading, carefully placed on the coffee table to appear carelessly laid. She’d cleaned the house until every corner of every room was spotless, all to achieve her ultimate goal—tidy, warm and homey.

Surely Garret wouldn’t throw away their life together. Not after so many years. She drew in a shuddering breath and expelled the air slowly.

She’d feared the worst when he came home from the hospital in the early morning after her confession. He told her Haley was okay, Dean would live, and her father was dead. Then he took the girls and left. She hadn’t spoken to any of them since. Five days. The darkest, longest days of her life.

Still, he hadn’t told the police what she’d done, and he hadn’t let his bitch sisters tell either. From that, the first kernel of hope had bloomed.

At the sound of the front door opening, she froze and her heart fluttered. She stopped pacing and wrung her hands.

“Erin?” Garret called.

She took a deep steadying breath. “In here.”

His footfalls echoed on the ceramic tiles, purposeful and headed her way. She wiped her damp palms on her thighs. He stopped at the threshold of the den as if hitting an invisible barrier.

He glanced around the room and when his eyes lit on her, they blazed like smoldering onyx. For the first time in her life she saw a resemblance to Paige. His hard gaze swept up and down the length of her then his lips curled back in a sneer.

“I don’t have a lot of time, Paige is watching Lilly and Tess.”

“I miss them,” she said. “How are they?”

He shook his head. “Confused. We all are.”

“Where are you staying?”

“My mother’s.”

“Garret, I don’t like the girls around her. The way she drinks, she’s unpredictable.”

“Funny, you had no problem leaving them alone with your psychotic, murdering father.”

The words hit her like a slap and she dropped her gaze to the floor. “How is Haley?”

“She’s okay. Her face still looks like she was hit by a truck, but she seems better.”

“And Dean?”

“He comes home from the hospital today.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

Garret snorted and shook his head. “Are you?”

“Of course I am. I can’t believe you can ask that.”

“Neither can I. How could you have kept this from me?” His voice was terse and filled with fury. She wanted to touch him, but his body practically hummed with pent-up violence, and she was afraid.

“I wanted to tell you, so many times.” She choked on a sob. “I just didn’t know how.”

Garret stared down at his wife’s bent head. No this woman wasn’t his wife. This lying bitch was a virtual stranger to him. “You could have started with, ‘Garret, my father murdered your sister, and you’ll find her body buried in your grandmother’s basement’.”

The urge to hit her, to punch her right in her manipulative, lying mouth, the same way her father had hit his sister was overwhelming. He turned his back to her, the sight of Erin dressed in the clothes he gave her on her last birthday, wearing the perfume he liked, looking soft and hurt only enraged him further. Everything from her to this house felt staged.

“I wanted to. I did.” Her hand closed over his forearm.

He jerked away and snarled, “I guess you couldn’t tell me though, you were an accessory to murder after all.”

“No, it wasn’t like that,” she denied again.

“Then what was it like? What was it like covering up a murder with your father while playing the mourner with me?”

“He was my father, what else could I do? I had to protect him and my mother. What if it had been your family?”

His hand closed into a tight fist. “It was my family. We were just on the other end. The falling apart and losing our minds end. For God’s sake, he murdered your friend. How could you have protected him? Helped him? Let alone stand back while he did it again. Innocent women, and you let him get away with murder.”

“Innocent women?” she asked, narrowing her eyes. The big glassy tears dried. “They lured him, Garret. He was a good man, a family man, but Michelle flirted with him just to hurt me. And Haley was no better.”

The hate glowing in her gaze made him take a step back, and strengthened his resolve. He was doing the right thing. “You’re as delusional as he was.”

“Don’t say that.” She turned weepy again. “Please forgive me. I’ll do anything to get back what we had.”

“What we had is dead,” he said. His heart felt like a stone in his chest. Heavy and cold. “If it existed at all.”

“Think of the girls.”

“They’re all I’ve been thinking of. They’re the only reason the police haven’t carted you off—yet.”

“What do you mean?” Her voice was soft and wary.

“This is a document signing over all of your parental rights for the girls to me. I’ve started the paperwork for a separation.”

“No,” she gasped.

“You can’t honestly be surprised.”

“We can get through this. I will spend every day of my life making it up to you.”

“You can’t make this up to me. You were a part of Michelle’s murder, and you very nearly let Haley end up the same way.”

“There has to be hope for us.”

“There is no us. Now, sign the papers and give me the girls.”

“You can’t take away my babies.”

“You would rather have them see you go to prison?”

“I don’t understand.”

“We’re getting a divorce. You can have the house and everything in it, I don’t care, but you’re going to give me the girls. I’m going to take them and start over somewhere else. If you don’t, I’ll go to the police, and you’ll be arrested for your part in what happened to Michelle.”

“Do you hate me that much?”

“Yes.”

She cried, but she signed the papers. Her sobs filled his ears as he left.

Once he climbed into the truck, he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the cold plastic steering wheel. Again doubt filled him. Memories of Lilly crying for her mama and Tess staring at him with reproachful eyes gripped his heart and squeezed.

Nate had done this. It wasn’t enough to murder Michelle and destroy his parents. It hadn’t been enough to ruin Dean. Or torment Haley. Now Garret’s own children, innocent in every way, were suffering.

His stomach twisted. Was it wrong to take their mother from their lives? How could Erin have lied to him all that time? Let her father try and kill Haley, then to blame Michelle and Haley for what happened? There had to be something fundamentally wrong with her. What choice did he have?

He backed out of the drive and headed to the mall. He had Christmas presents to buy, and Santa would be overcompensating this year. Then, when he returned to his mom’s, he’d find the old artificial Christmas tree that had been his family’s when he was a kid along with the old ornaments.

For the first time in more than a decade there would be Christmas in his mother’s house.

“Here, you can lean on me,” Haley said, helping Dean from the passenger seat of her car.

“I think I can manage.” She ignored his indignant tone and gently took his arm. He rolled his eyes. “The bullet barely grazed me. It was nothing.”

“Then why did the doctors make you stay in the hospital for five days for nothing?”

“They were more concerned about my head than the gunshot wound.”

“Stop your whining and come inside,” Haley told him, leading him up the walk to her front door. “It’s cold out here.”

“And me in my delicate condition.”

She unlocked the front door and they stepped inside. Over the past five days, she’d returned home only a few times to shower and change. Now, the air smelled stale. Empty.

She clutched her keys, the cool metal pressing against her flesh. Why did she feel so awkward and nervous? She knew why. She might want to pretend everything was the same between her and Dean, but it wasn’t.

There was no reason for him to stay now. They had the answers they’d been searching for. Nate had killed Michelle, and she had killed Nate. Something quivered inside her and she forced the images of those terrifying moments in the barn to the back of her mind.

More than once she’d tried to bring up the subject of what happened next, but every time she worked up the courage one of the nurses, or a doctor, or Paige, or Garret would interrupt. They were alone now, though. Finally, they could talk.

“Sit down,” she instructed, helping him to the couch.

“I’m fine.” Gingerly, he lowered himself to the cushion.

She knelt in front of him. “I’ll get your boots.”

“I can take off my own boots,” he said, exasperated. He leaned forward and winced.

“Stop being stubborn. You’re going to rip your stitches.”

She unlaced his boots and pulled them from his feet. He scowled all the while.

“I’ll get you a blanket from upstairs.”

“Haley, I don’t have pneumonia, I was shot.”

“I know.” The image of him falling, hitting the barn floor, his blood spreading out over his shirt played again in her mind, turning her stomach and leaving her cold.

His hand cupped her cheek and gently forced her to meet his gaze. “I’m fine,” he told her, gently tracing her bruised cheek bone with his thumb. The swelling had gone and the ugly purple had faded to an uglier yellow-brown. “I hate that he hurt you.”

She smirked. “I wasn’t so wild about it myself.”

He drew her closer and covered her mouth with his. She melted into the kiss, sinking into his warmth, momentarily finding the reassurance she sought.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, as if of their own volition. His teeth tugged at her lip and heat pooled between her legs. The need to touch him, to feel him against her, warm and living rushed through her, driving away the uncertainty. She shifted closer, running her hands over his chest. His sharp hiss made her scramble back.

“Oh God, are you okay?” What the hell was she thinking, making out with an injured man?

“I just need to lean back.” He shifted on the sofa. “Now, come here, I’ve missed this.”

“No, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“I’m fine, damn it,” he whined.

“You’re not that fine.”

A sharp knock at the front door ended the discussion. Before Haley could answer, Paige let herself in. “Am I interrupting?”

Yes! Haley wanted to scream. At this rate, she’d never get a chance to talk to Dean.

“You seem to be settling in,” Paige said to Dean, shrugging out of her coat and flopping into the armchair. “Your color looks better.”

He looked at Haley. “That’s because I’m fine.”

“Mom wants to see you,” Paige said. “I told her Dean had just gotten out of the hospital, but she’s a little high-strung today and wants to see you now. I think she’s afraid that you’ve died and Garret and I are just hiding the fact from her. Oddly, had you died, that’s probably what we would have done. For a drunk, she’s quite astute.”

“How much does she know?” Haley asked, standing.

“Everything, except Erin helping Nate hide the body.”

“Has Garret decided what he’s going to do?”

“He’s leaving her and wants her to give him custody of the girls. He won’t tell the police or anyone else about what she did as long as she never tries to contact any of them again. Personally, I think he should have hung her out to dry, but I guess he’s worried about the effect on their kids.”

“Nate was crazy. There’s no telling how he manipulated Erin as she grew up,” Haley said.

Paige shrugged. “You’re much more forgiving than I would be.”

“Don’t misunderstand, I don’t want to be her best friend or anything, I just think she’s as much his victim as any of us. More so, maybe.”

“Well, you better get over to Mom’s. Don’t worry, I’ll invalid-sit for you.”

Dean scowled. “I’m sitting right here.”

“Thanks.” Haley dug out an orange plastic pill bottle from her purse. “Here’s his painkillers.” She glanced at her watch. “He can have another one in two hours.”

“Thank God you’re both here. Getting shot in the side did make me illiterate and caused me to forget how to tell time.”

Both women ignored him. “I’ll try not to be long.”

“No rush,” Paige shrugged.

“Speak for yourself,” Dean muttered. “Whatever happened to my car?”

Surprise and hurt speared her heart and she did her best to squash the unpleasant sensation. She would do what she had to do. She had hoped Dean would be a part of that, but if he wasn’t she would manage on her own. She always had before.

“The police impound,” Haley told him. “I’ll take you tomorrow to get it.”

“You can’t.” Paige leaned forward and snatched the remote off the trunk, flicking on the TV. “Tomorrow’s Christmas.”

“Right. I’ll have to take you after the holidays.”

Dean shrugged. “No big deal.”

“Okay, I’ll see you both in a bit.”

As soon as the door closed, Dean hauled himself off the couch, went to the window and waited for Haley to back out of the driveway. His side throbbed dully. Maybe Haley was right. Maybe he was trying to do too much.

Once her car had left the street, he turned to Paige who eyed him suspiciously. “I need you drive me somewhere.”

“Haley will kill me if I let you out.”

“Come on, Paige, help me. It’s Christmas Eve.” He met her gaze.

After a long measuring stare, Paige snapped off the TV and stood. “Of all the disgustingly romantic clichés.”

Doubt flickered inside him. “You don’t think she’ll like it?”

“She’s a big sap. She’ll love it.”

He hoped so.

When Haley got to her mother’s, Garret and her nieces were in the living room setting up a misshaped Christmas tree. While Garret bent the wire branches covered in dark green plastic needles in a sad attempt to hide the gaping holes, Lilly chattered and played with the dusty ornaments. Tess sat on the sofa, arms folded over her chest, glaring at her father.