Taming the Moguls (28 page)

“But Alex—”

“Is a kid who needs a father. He’s yours. How
can I help but love him?”

She wanted to believe him. She wanted to
think it would all work out, but she’d seen too much of the ugly
side of life to be sure of anything.

“Women come with baggage. Some come with a
mountain of debt, some come with crazy families, some come with
kids. I love you enough to deal with your baggage. I want your
baggage. I’m going to love your baggage!”

She shrugged. “I don’t have a mountain of
debt.”

He stepped into her and wrapped his arms
around her waist. “I’d marry you anyway.”

“You’ve met my crazy family.”

He kissed the tip of her nose. “I’m going to
enjoy getting reacquainted with them.”

She swallowed and nuzzled into his warmth. “I
love you more than words can say. I’ll spend every day of the rest
of my life trying to make you happy.”

“Then marry me. Tell your son, tell your
boss, and let’s get married.”

She rested her chin on his chest. “You’re
sure?”

“Gretchen…”

“Okay, okay.” They walked arm in arm against
the fierce Chicago wind. “Are you nervous about talking to your
mom?”

“No. Determined is more accurate. She
deserves so much worse than what I can say to her. I’m
so…disappointed in her.”

“I’m not going to argue about that.” They got
to the car, and she slid into the passenger seat. “Do you remember
how to get there?”

The home where his mother and father lived?
“Oh, yes. I remember.”

“How do you plan to get back to my place?
It’s not close.”

“I’ll walk down to the coffee shop and call a
cab. Or maybe that Irish pub that used to be on the corner, if it’s
still there. I’ll probably need something stronger than coffee
after I talk to her.”

“Will you call me when you leave?” she
asked.

“First thing.” They sat in silence as the car
zoomed along the interstate. When he took the exit for Bickford
University, his phone dinged. He handed it to Gretchen, and she
read the display. “Who’s it from?” he asked.

“Peter. The letter’s been received.” Gretchen
took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Okay. No going back
now.”

“Optimism, honey. Keep your eye on the
prize.”

She studied his profile. “I am.” She ran her
hand along his leg. “I am.”

“Alex!” Gretchen crouched down and braced
herself for the seventy-pound impact.

Alex ran from the bottom step of the bus
directly into her arms. “Mom, you’re back!”

She buried her nose in his collar and inhaled
his scent. “Just pulled up. Let me get a look at you.” She held him
at arm’s length. “You look taller. What’s Mrs. H. been feeding
you?”

Alex smiled up at the woman he thought of as
his grandmother. “She made me eat my vegetables.”

“Good. That’s why you’re growing so big and
strong.”

“I got an A on my spelling test.”

“You did?” She ruffled the cap. “See? Veggies
make you smart, too.”

“Nope. I’m already smart.” He hefted his
backpack from his shoulder to Gretchen’s feet. “Did you bring me
something?”

“I might have something for you in my
suitcase. Go on in the house and grab a snack while I talk to Mrs.
H.”

“Mom…” he complained.

“You’d better give her a big hug for taking
such good care of you while I was gone.”

Elise’s eyes watered when the boy
tackle-dived at her knees. “Thanks, Mrs. H. You and Mr. H. are the
best. Tell Mr. H. next time I’m going to beat him at poker.”

“Poker?” Gretchen asked as Alex bounded
inside the house.

“You know Robert. He says it’s a life skill.
Alex is pretty good.”

“I’ll bet.” Gretchen linked her arm with
Elise and turned toward Elise’s waiting BMW. “Thank you so much for
everything.”

“You know we love him.” They took two, then
three steps while Gretchen tried to gather her thoughts. “Are you
going to tell me why you had me drop your custody agreement off at
a fancy law firm downtown? And why,” Elise continued before
Gretchen could answer, “your smile is brighter than I’ve ever seen
it?”

Gretchen stopped and threw a hand to her
stomach. “So much has happened. So much.”

“Is it good?”

“It could be the best, the absolute best. It
could be more than I ever dreamed possible.”

“Could be?”

“I’ll explain soon.”

Elise shot her an exasperated glare. “Is
there a man involved?”

“Yes. The most wonderful, understanding,
gorgeous man in the world. I promise I’ll explain everything after
I talk to Alex.”

Elise hugged her. “Go. Talk to your son. He
missed you.”

“I missed him, too. Thank you so much for
everything.”

“You can thank me by telling me all about
this gorgeous new man in your life.”

“I will. I promise.” First she had to tell
Alex.

***

Tommy was glad he’d asked Gretchen to drop
him off in downtown Bickford. He needed some time to breathe and
get his thoughts in order before he talked to his mother. He was
more worried about Ryan Lowry than he’d let on. The guy was an
egomaniac with a God complex. He’d probably scoffed at the
papers—if he even read them. They’d know soon enough. The clock was
ticking, and Tommy needed his mom and stepdad as backup. If Ryan
did refuse to sign over his parental rights, Tommy needed the
statements from his mom and Gretchen’s dad as evidence.

He needed to get back to the place he’d been
in Colorado when Gretchen had woken up scratching, punching, and
fighting Ryan out of her memory. He needed to feel that anger, let
it flow through his veins, and fester into a boil near bursting. He
needed to use that anger to scare his mother into testifying.

How could she have not recognized the shock
on Gretchen’s face? Seen the terror in her eyes? And all for
football? He deliberately loosened his jaw when he realized he was
grinding his teeth.

Gretchen was right. Things were moving fast.
Last week, the thought of strolling along the streets of his
hometown after visiting the neighborhood coffee shop, preparing to
confront his mother about the past, would have seemed absurd. He
swallowed his last sip of coffee and tossed the cup in a trashcan
before heading into the residential section of town. He was glad
for the cold. His thoughts had heated his blood; the cold kept him
from boiling over, running up their driveway, pounding on the door,
and yelling in his mother’s face. He would remain calm. He would
let her offer an explanation as if he weren’t banking the instinct
to slap her face.

She answered the door wearing black slacks, a
white and black striped sweater, and a stunned expression.
“Thomas?”

“Hello, Mom. May I come in?”

She looked over his shoulder into the empty
drive. “How did you get here?”

“I walked from town. The Coffee Bean still
has great coffee.” He brushed past her into the marble foyer. The
house smelled of her perfume, something old and sickly sweet.

When she spun around, the sun highlighted the
streaks of gray in her chin-length dark hair. “You didn’t tell me
you were coming to town. I would have made up the guest room and
picked you up from the airport.”

“I’m staying with Gretchen.”

She took only a moment to clear the shock
from her face. She walked past him and fluffed a pillow on a chair.
“I didn’t realize you and Gretchen stayed in touch.”

Tommy watched her every move. She was
nervous. Who stopped to fluff a pillow when the son she hadn’t seen
in over two years stopped by unexpectedly? “I guess you wouldn’t,
considering you haven’t seen or spoken to her in years. Me either,
for that matter.”

She huffed as her eyes turned hard. “Did you
stop by for a visit or an interrogation? Let me guess, your
father’s wife introduced you to therapy and you’ve come to clean
our slate?”

Tommy should have expected her to dig at
Nadine. His mother had never understood how his dad could have left
a born-and-bred society woman for a mountain hippie. Of course she
didn’t understand. She’d have to know what it meant to find love.
“No therapy for me, Mom, although I might need some to help me
understand how you could have let Gretchen shower off the evidence
from the man who raped her.”

“What?” she sputtered. “What in the world are
you talking about?”

“Do you know she still has nightmares? She
wakes up clawing her way out from under him.”

She tossed her hair out of her face and
glided to the bar.
Ah, yes, mother. Take a drink.
Ease the sting of the truth.
“I don’t know what Gretchen has
told you, but she’s lying. After all these years, you’d think she’d
just admit she slept with him and move on. She’s not the first girl
to get pregnant in college, and she sure won’t be the last. Why,
just last week I was reading a study about—”

“Do you want me to tell you what you can do
with your statistics?”

“Why are you here?” She pulled a highball
glass off the shelf and tossed in ice. “What’s this about?”

“It’s about a girl, an eighteen-year-old
girl, who came to you after she’d been raped and what you did to
her.”

“What did I do? I told her to shower and put
her to bed after she admitted to sleeping with a man who was
rougher with her than she was ready for.”

“Rough? How is someone supposed to prepare
herself for rape, Mother?”

“She wasn’t raped. She put herself in a
situation she couldn’t control, and then she didn’t know how to
handle the consequences.”

“You know this how?”

“I was here. I saw her. She was upset because
he got a little rough and they hadn’t used protection. I calmed her
down and sent her to bed before she did something stupid and
involved the police and her father and the university.” She
splashed amber liquid into the glass and carried it to where he
stood barely inside the room. “I remember clearly that she didn’t
want you to know. She begged me not to tell you.”

“And you listened. Well done, Mother. I
didn’t have a clue.”

“So now she’s spinning tales and asking for
your help, is that it?”

“Why weren’t you concerned that your
stepdaughter was treated roughly? You said she was upset.”

“Football is a barbaric sport. Women who
throw themselves at players should know what they’re getting in
return.”

“I played football, Mother, and I’d been
sleeping with Gretchen for months. Did she ever complain that I was
too rough?”

She set her glass down in a deliberately
controlled move. “The little slut deserved what she got, parading
around in those skimpy outfits and showing all that skin. I don’t
blame you for being tempted, Thomas. I wasn’t about to jeopardize
everything we had to cover for her mistakes.”

“You should have taken her to the police! You
should have helped her.”

“I did help her. I didn’t tell you what
happened. I lied to my own son to protect her. And look at how she
repays me.”

“You forced her into marriage.”

“We guaranteed she’d have an income while she
raised her bastard child. If it wasn’t for her father and me, she
would have nothing.”

“He’s still doing it—Ryan, he’s raping women.
He’s done it three times that we know of. The last was with a
minor. It’s going to come out. He’s probably going to jail.”

Tommy thought maybe he’d pricked her armor
when her face drained of color. “That’s his sick problem, and it
has nothing to do with me.”

“It has everything to do with you. If you’d
believed your stepdaughter when she came to you in shock, with
ripped clothing and bruises, you would have taken her to the
police. He wouldn’t have been able to rape again. You’re as
responsible for what happened to those girls as he is.”

“That’s nonsense.”

“Nonsense or not, I’m going to have quite a
story to tell the press. Should I start with the university paper,
or go straight to the
Sun Times
and let it
trickle down? I’m not sure. There’s also cable news. He’s a big
enough celebrity that I think they’d be interested.” Tommy tapped
his chin. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure they’d be interested. Let’s face
it, I’d look damn good on camera.”

“Are you blackmailing me?”

“I’m communicating with you in the only way
you understand.”

“What do you want?” She slugged back her
drink.

“Your sworn deposition about what really
happened that night.”

“Why?” She let out a humorless chuckle. “What
can you possibly hope to gain?”

“You let that son of a bitch force himself on
Gretchen and did nothing to help her. You manipulated her into
marrying him and giving him visitation rights to the son he
fathered when he raped her. Do you have any idea how she lives? How
afraid she is he might take her son?”

“She barely communicates with her father and
me, so no, I don’t know.”

“She wants to terminate his parental rights.
He’s been as active a father as you’ve been a grandparent. I’d say
Gretchen and her son would be better off without all of you.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I’ll go to the press. This is going to hit
the fan. It’s not a matter of if, but when. If you don’t tell the
truth, under oath, your part in it will be as public and
humiliating as his.”

She stared at him, breathing in and out
through her nose like a horse trying to calm down after a run.
“What do you get out of this other than humiliating your
mother?”

“I get what I should have had from the start.
I get the woman I love and the family I deserve. I get to be
happy.”

Chapter 53

Gretchen grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl
and cut slices to go with the cookies Alex had gotten from the
pantry. Her growing boy had a monster sweet tooth.

“What’d you bring me?” he asked with his
mouth full of chocolate chip cookie.