The China Doll (17 page)

As soon as the door slammed, Richard raced
upstairs. He got the key and unlocked the door. Jessie was sitting
next to the broken bowl, trying to clean up the pieces. Her hands
were cut up. "Oh, Jessie!" Richard hugged her. He took her into the
bathroom, washed her hands and put a bandage on her, then cleaned
up the broken bowl and melted ice cream.

He looked at the time. The babysitter should
be back very soon. He’d already started to come up with a plan.
"Jessie, this is what we’re going to do. I’m going to give you a
tee-shirt, and then I want you to change into it and go to sleep.
It’s sort of late. But you have to promise me that you won’t leave
your room until tomorrow morning when I come and get you, okay?"
Jessie nodded. Richard patted her head. "You’re a good girl, Jess."
He got an old-tee shirt of his, then gave it to her to change into.
He gasped when he saw the black and blue marks on her back.

Jessie got under the covers. "Will you read
me a story?" she asked sleepily. "Mommy always reads me a story and
then sings me a lullaby."

"Okay, sweetie." Richard found an old Doctor
Seuss book. He’d finished half of the story when he noticed that
Jessie’s eyes were closed. He waited a minute, then kissed her
little cheek where it wasn’t bruised. He shut off the light and
went downstairs.

He dialed the phone. Miranda picked up.

"Hi, Richard," she said sweetly. "Why are you
calling so late?"

"I need to ask Michael something."

"Ugh!" Miranda said. "What did he do
now?"

"It’s really bad," Richard lied. "I really
need to talk to him right now."

"Okay," Miranda said reluctantly.

A moment later, Richard heard a slight
tussle, then Michael finally came on. "Richard, what are you
telling that little twit?"

"Be quiet, Michael!" he heard Miranda
shout.

"Get out of here, you little princess!"
Richard heard a door slam. "What did I do now?" Michael asked
wearily.

"Nothing, Michael. I’m really sorry, but I
need a big favor, and you can’t tell Miranda or anyone, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

When the babysitter returned thirty minutes
later, she found Richard hard at work on his last few math problems
at the kitchen table. "You’re such a good boy," she said as she put
some things into the refrigerator. Richard smiled uncomfortably,
knowing what was going to come the next day.

~~~

Michael looked up. He remembered. "That’s why
you invited me over! Bastard! I didn’t get to watch TV for two
weeks that summer because of you!"

"I asked you to do your magic on the
babysitter—setting all of her clothes on fire was a bit over the
top, even for you."

"You told me you wanted to make sure she
quit. I was just doing my job." He smiled. "That was just to keep
Jessie there?" He shook his head. "Richard, why didn’t you just
tell me? I could have helped."

"You might have said something to Miranda,
and then she might have said something to Alex."

"I could have been trusted not to say
anything."

Richard smiled. "You were ten."

"And you were twelve." Michael took a deep
breath. "I never knew."

"Thank you for having the decency to feel
bad," Richard said quietly. "Too bad no one else felt the same
way."

Michael was silent for a moment. "How do you
know she killed him?"

"She said she’d take care of it so he
couldn’t hurt Jessie anymore. Come on Michael, it didn’t take a
genius."

"Hmm." Michael smiled.

"What?"

"I guess I understand." He raised his
eyebrows. "Life versus the person you love. Sometimes it’s not much
of a choice."

As soon as Zainab and Emily had gotten to
Emily’s house the night before, Emily had gone through every drawer
and closet she had spent so much time organizing and dragged out
all of Mitch’s stuff. She threw it all into suitcases, and when she
ran out of room, she used garbage bags. She threw the bags
downstairs and triple locked the doors. Zainab heard a car drive up
two hours later. She looked outside and saw Mitch and Martin
outside. Mitch looked up. Zainab waved, but Mitch was too
heartbroken to do the same.

Emily made Zainab talk about Richard, because
talking about Mitch was too hard right now. Zainab didn’t have
anything to say. It was over and she wasn’t angry. She still loved
Richard and maybe she always would, but they were done.

Zainab arrived at Richard’s house at
nine-thirty the next morning. The security guard smiled when he saw
her. She barely managed a smile back. She hoped someone was going
to explain what happened to him.

No one was downstairs. It was better that
way. She went into Richard’s room and got out all of her bags. She
was packed in twenty minutes. It was good that she’d done this
before—it made everything that much quicker.

"Zainab." She turned around. Jessie stood in
the doorway. She had a bathrobe on, but she hadn’t taken off her
makeup. "What time is it?"

"Just about ten."

"What are you doing?" She rubbed her eyes
again. "Oh, right." She flopped her hands down. "I’m so sorry."

Zainab forgot her emotional exhaustion.
"Jessie, don’t. I’m sorry. I never should have let you see that
jerk, and he had no right to rip up your life last night."

Jessie had screamed at Richard and Miranda,
and she would have torn Emily’s head off just for being correct as
usual. But here with Zainab...her lip trembled. "Richard’s a liar,
right? He lied to you. So he’s able to lie. He must have been lying
about my mom. That’s not how she died."

"He wouldn’t lie to you—"

"One way or another, he has."

"—like that." Zainab tried to swallow her own
disappointment. "He was trying to protect you."

Jessie bit her lip. "I don’t want to be
protected. I want the truth." Zainab took her hand as Jessie’s eyes
teared up. "Oh, Z...you didn’t know, did you?"

Zainab shook her head. "I didn’t know. And
Miranda and Emily didn’t know either. We would have made Richard
tell you."

"Why?"

"Because friends don’t lie to each other.

A tear streamed down Jessie’s cheek. "No,
that’s what we have men for." She wiped her face. "What about
Emily?"

"Angry."

"What else is new?"

"Other than the fact that she kicked Mitch
out?"

Jessie was horrified. "What about
Hellie?"

"Hellie’s staying with Emily, but Emily’s not
going to keep Mitch from his daughter."

"Here it was looking like someone was going
to have a father and mother their whole life, then stupid Bob had
to go and ruin that." Jessie buried her face in her hands for a
moment. "Stupid Bob. Stupid Mitch. Stupid Richard. Stupid me."

Zainab held Jessie while she sobbed. Jessie
put her head on Zainab’s shoulder. "I really hate Richard right
now, you know that? Now you have to go, and you’re the only thing
that’s good. And he wasn’t supposed to be such a screw up, that’s
what I was for."

Zainab held back her own tears. "I never
thought you were a screw up."

Jessie looked up and smiled through her
tears. "Nice try."

Zainab laughed, but she kept herself from
crying. "Don’t be mad, honey. He’s still all the good things he was
before. He just made a mistake."

"A mistake you can forgive him for?" Jessie
asked quickly.

Zainab sighed. "I forgive him. I don’t expect
you to understand any better than Emily did, but I’m not angry with
him. I still love him. I still hope we can be in each other’s
lives, because he’s been so much to me. But I can’t be more. I
can’t pretend any more, and I don’t want to watch him do the
same."

Jessie looked at the floor and nodded. "But
what about me?" she asked finally. "What are we going to be?"

"We’re always going to be family, Jess. No
matter what else happens with Richard. Just like you and
Miranda."

Jessie looked back at her. "You realize that
Miranda and I are actually sort of related after all, right?"

Zainab laughed. "Okay, then like you and
Emily. And you’re going to come visit us, right? I think Emily will
need as much company as she can get."

"You’re moving in with Emily?"

"Yeah," Zainab nodded. "It just seems best."
She paused. "I guess I don’t want to be alone either."

At eleven o’clock, Emily was hard at work.
Miranda escaped to the café for her third cup of coffee. Emily was
nothing less than officious with everyone else in the office and
nearly ripped Carlos’ head off when he told her that he hadn’t
finished his documentation yet. After that, everyone decided they
should give her a wide berth.

Richard finally walked in. Emily glanced up
from her computer screen. "Where have you been?"

Richard sighed. He had not been looking
forward to this. "With Michael."

"Wow, this just gets better and better,
doesn’t it?" She sat back. "And how is Mister Abbot? Did he detail
his elaborate stalking of Miranda? Is he the one sending Jessie
those weird notes? Because I’ve always thought—"

"Michael isn’t the bad guy here!" Richard
stormed off and slammed his door. Emily slammed her hand onto the
table and followed him.

"You’re right—you are," she said as she
slammed his door again. "Let me ask you something. Do you really
think saving Jessie, being Michael’s only connection to decent
humanity and rescuing me from Drew gets you a free pass to screw
around? Or is it just that you had lousy parents? So did I, buddy,
and I’ve never stepped out on my husband."

"I’m not making excuses for myself."

"Right. You don’t make excuses. You just
stand there and let people pile stones on your back. Or you
flagellate yourself if you feel like your burden got too light.
You’re too much of a coward to be happy."

"I was happy with Zainab, alright? But I
can’t give her what she wants."

"Because being a husband is harder than the
rest of this freak show?"

"Yes!" Richard yelled. "Family is everything,
and it should all rest on a good marriage. I think you’ll agree
when I say that I don’t know what the Hell that’s supposed to look
like."

"It is painfully obvious that I’m not an
expert either, but I think it’s supposed to be different for
everyone. You and Zainab could have figured it out."

"Yeah, well I guess I’ve pretty well shot
that to Hell, haven’t I?"

Emily narrowed her eyes. "You idiot. You did
it on purpose, didn’t you?"

"I didn’t," he said sullenly. "I just—I
wanted to check on Sophie. Sometimes I do that. After Michael and
Drew—I kept in touch just to make sure she was okay. God, I might
have even mentioned that to Zainab a couple of times. It wasn’t a
secret. And then one time—it just seemed—like what I was supposed
to do."

Emily looked at the floor. "Yes, that is
exactly how you screw up a good thing." She sat down and reminded
herself that Richard was that big brother she’d always wished she’d
had when she was younger. Like he was for everyone. "Richard...how
did you know about your mother?"

"Because I just did," Richard said wearily.
"She could hardly stand it when he was in the room, and he was
always heartbroken. But he could never admit why. Sometimes she’d
deign to let him kiss her cheek, or hold hands for a minute. And
she looked like she wanted to die or be anywhere else. And she
never—there was never any man she seemed happy around." He scoffed.
"Not the way she was around Joanna."

"You knew Joanna when you were younger?"

"Oh yeah," Richard said, looking at some
distant object. "Joanna was over for dinner quite a bit. Sometimes
Dad was there. I bet she got a real kick out of flaunting her
mistress right under Dad’s nose, and Dad not having a clue."

"God, Richard." Emily felt sick for him. "Why
didn’t you tell me?"

"Tell you that your new boss, who was giving
you everything you needed, used to be my mother’s lover and was a
factor in my father’s death? I guess I couldn’t come up with a way
to make that anything but awkward." He shrugged. "It wasn’t your
problem."

"You’re my friend," Emily said, and wished
she had a better word for him. "I’d have happily let it be my
problem."

His eyes thanked her, but he shook his head.
"My mother’s poison. I wouldn’t share with anyone, especially not
the people I care about."

"Richard, I can’t believe I have to say this
to you, but there’s nothing wrong...she didn’t do anything
wrong."

"Yes, she did. She married my father when she
didn’t love him. He worshipped her, and she couldn’t stand him. Why
did he deserve that? And he didn’t know—I could tell." He looked
down at his desk. "And then he figured it out, and he couldn’t live
with it. She’d never love him the way he loved her. That’s what I
can’t forgive her for."

"I don’t like your mother, but last night,
she didn’t look like someone who would go out of her way to hurt
you or your father. I know that doesn’t make a lie okay, but I
think she was doing her best."

"Aren’t we all?" He turned on his computer.
"Emily, we’re going to have to make some changes around here. I’m
going to tell you now, but I need you to keep this quiet until I
finalize everything."

At three o’clock, Miranda fell asleep at her
desk for the fourth time. "That’s it!" Emily said, then walked her
down to her car. "Go home and get some sleep, and I don’t want to
see your ass in here again until you’re awake!"

"Who made you the boss?"

"Who’s going to stop me?"

Miranda went home and crashed. She woke up at
nine in the evening when her phone rang. Without thinking, she
answered. "Hello?"

"Miranda, please don’t hang up," Alex
said.

Miranda fell back on her bed. "Alex, I’m
exhausted. Really. I can’t talk about this now, and I’m not sure
when I’m going to be able to."