The Family You Choose (6 page)

Michael didn’t blink. "Are you done?"

"No. And don’t make everyone feel like they
have to walk around egg shells around you. It is not all about you
today, you get it? I don’t think I’ve seen Richard this happy,
ever. Don’t take that away from him. Just one day, Michael. Are you
man enough for that?"

"Whatever you say."

Miranda got Michael a sandwich and sat off to
the side as he was introduced to Richard’s friends. Michael was
charming and inquisitive and actually able to carry on for some of
their conversation. Miranda was not easily convinced as she knew
what he was capable of, but after about an hour she eased up. Maybe
they could all, if not get along, at least comfortably co-exist
until the evening.

Richard set up a barbeque for dinner and
though Miranda did glance over her shoulder every now and again,
she was pleased to see that Michael was still behaving. Jessie, who
almost completely ignored him at this point, just shrugged.

Richard wanted to show off his latest
technical achievement after dinner. "Aw, Jesus!" Miranda groaned
when they got to his basement study. "You set up a network here?
Isn’t this supposed to be a vacation?"

"Well, yeah," Richard said, looking around.
"But I was kind of hoping the guys and I could test a few
configurations for our lab."

"I’d love to see it," Michael said, pulling
up a chair. "Maybe I can pick up a few things and get out of this
finance racket."

Miranda rolled her eyes at Jessie, who
giggled. "Well, I’m going upstairs to...watch some TV. Any
takers?"

"Ooh, is the Doctor Who marathon on?" someone
said, and then before Miranda could move five guys ran up the
stairs to the living room. Miranda cursed under her breath. "Okay!
Are you coming Jess?"

"Hmm...decisions, decisions. I think I’ll
just wait here."

Miranda threw up her hands in disgust. "Off
to the TARDIS I go!"

"It’s not cool that you know the name of the
ship!" Jessie shouted as Miranda went up the stairs.

Of course Miranda knew the name, although she
wasn’t as up on her Doctor Who mythology as the rest of the
crowd.

"Wait, what happened to Sarah?" she asked
when she saw the Doctor, who looked a lot like some guy who’d
played Iago a few years ago, running away from alien invaders with
a bleached blonde girl who, of course, kept screaming. Someone
laughed, and Miranda was given a full list of the Doctor’s
companions and the actors who played them. That degenerated into a
verbal fistfight over who was the best Doctor. Once they started
talking about the bumblebee scarf, Miranda forced herself to get
into the episodes which, she had to admit, were kind of
entertaining.

An hour later, she heard laughter as Richard
and the other members of the Solar Car team climbed the stairs. She
laughed when she saw Richard, then her face fell as his did.

"Where’s Jessie?" Richard said.

"Where’s Michael?"

"Oh, those two?" One of Miranda’s companions
said absently, popping a nut into his mouth. "I thought I saw them
come upstairs when the last one ended."

Miranda jumped over the couch and ran up the
stairs, right behind Richard. They started opening the doors when
Miranda heard Richard gasp when they got to Jessie’s door. Miranda
ran over and caught just a glimpse of Michael’s hand inside
Jessie’s unzipped pants before he jumped off of her.

Miranda had never seen Richard angry before.
He lunged at Michael and for a moment Miranda thought he was going
to kill him. And she was going to let him. Jessie was barely awake
and hardly noticed what was happening. Miranda saw the half-empty
bottle of Baileys and two glasses knocked over on the floor. She
zipped Jessie’s pants, shushing the younger girl as she started to
whimper. In a moment, Jessie drifted off.

Richard landed one good punch on Michael’s
face. Michael sat on the floor, laughing. Miranda couldn’t tell if
he was drunk, didn’t get it, or didn’t care.

"Get up," Richard whispered. "Get up, go into
the bathroom and then wipe your face off." Michael laughed as he
pushed himself up. He laughed even harder when he passed
Miranda.

"That’s it?" Miranda asked incredulously.

"Do you know how hard I’m working not to kill
him?"

"Yeah, I think I do. I just don’t think I
know why anymore."

A small crowd was starting to gather outside
of Jessie’s room. Miranda shook her head. "Okay," she said, "which
one of you wants to make yourselves useful?" She threw Jessie’s
clothes into her bag and then gave it to one of the men. She went
into her room and quickly gathered up her things, then gave that to
someone else. She shook Jessie a little bit and then convinced her
to stand up. She put her hand around her waist and then walked her
out of the room, down the stairs and outside to the car. The two
men with the bags followed her and silently loaded them into the
trunk. "Thanks," she said, then started the car.

Richard ran out. "Where are you going?"

"I’m going to fix this. It’s too much, and if
they don’t see it now-"

"What do you really think they can do?"

"What they should have done when we were all
kids!" Miranda pulled out and drove onto the open road. She was
halfway back to Boston when Jessie, whom Miranda thought had been
sleeping, started to cry. Miranda pulled over and held her for half
an hour before they set off again.

She got to Richard and Jessie’s house an hour
later. She walked Jessie, now awake but unwilling to walk by
herself, inside. She put Jessie to bed then searched for a phone
number for half an hour before she gave up and dialed another
number.

Lucy Bartolome Hendrickson answered. "Who is
this?"

"This is Miranda. Hello, Mrs. Hendrickson. So
sorry to bother you, but Jessie needs a doctor and though I have
turned your place upside down looking for a name or number, I just
can’t find it. Would you happen to know who it is?"

"What’s wrong with Jessie?"

Miranda thought she heard concern in Lucy’s
voice, but she was unimpressed. "Other than that she drank half a
bottle of Bailey’s and was attacked, I think she’s fine. But maybe
we should have your doctor look after that, hmm?"

"Who hurt Jessie?!"

"Michael Abbot. Now, Mrs. Hendrickson, I
really need that phone number."

Lucy hung up and sent a text with the
doctor’s number. Miranda called and he was there within the hour.
Miranda stayed with Jessie while the doctor examined her, because
Jessie was too afraid to be alone. When he was done, he gave Jessie
some warm milk to help her sleep. Once Jessie drifted off, the
doctor pulled Miranda out.

"Did he rape her?" Miranda said as soon as
the door was closed.

"No," the doctor said slowly. "But there were
some lacerations, and she does have some bruising on her arms,
wrists and hands."

Miranda shook her head. "What does that
mean?"

"He was trying to, but she was trying to stop
him. It is pretty impressive, considering how much she drank."

"When did you test her blood, doctor?"

"I could smell it. She’s very lucky you came
when you did." He patted her on the arm. "She’s lucky to have
you.

"Doctor, will you write that up?"

~~~

It took another two hours for Richard to
return. Miranda had been afraid to leave Jessie alone.

"Where is he now?" she snapped as soon as
Richard walked in. She knew she should feel sorry for Richard's
ruined weekend, but she was tired of feeling sorry for anyone.

"I’m not sure. He left just a little bit
after you did," Richard looked contrite, and she let him.

"I hope he gets hit."

"Someone else might get hurt then."

"That’s just a matter of time, isn’t it?"

She drove home. She burst through Alex’s door
and was not surprised to see Lucy there. She was surprised to see
the drawn expression on her face, and Alex’s cold glare.

"Sorry to interrupt," Miranda said in a
monotone.

"Not at all," Lucy said, standing up. She was
trim and not nearly as tall as her son, but her posture made her
seem much more imposing. "Thank you for helping with Jessie
today."

Miranda blinked. She was in a nightmare.
"She’s like family. That’s what you do, right?"

Lucy looked away. "I’m going to go check on
her now. Alex, I hope you’ll think about what I said."

Miranda froze as Lucy walked past her. She
heard the front door close, and turned to look at Alex. She
couldn’t look at him before. "How do you do it?" Miranda said,
unable to speak above a whisper.

"Miranda, please understand-"

"I think I do. You just iced Lucy Bartolome.
You just played one of the most powerful women in Boston. And you
not only could do it, you did do it. Do you know what Michael
did?"

"I’m sorry you had to be a part of this."

"You’re sorry I had to be a part of this? I’m
sorry Jessie had to be a part of this! He was going to rape her,
Alex! She fought him off, but he was going to win. And he got her
drunk off her ass just to make sure. If someone hadn’t gone for a
bathroom break at just the right time...if Richard and his friends
hadn’t gotten bored when they did...no one would have noticed until
it was too late. He would have raped a fifteen year old girl, and
you are sitting there apologizing to me for my involvement! Prove
you’re sorry and either put Michael in prison or get him into a
treatment program or kill him, I don’t care, but fix this now!"

"He’s been in an outpatient treatment for a
while now."

Miranda laughed as if it were the most
ridiculous thing she’d ever heard. "Why is that? What did he do,
bang up one of your expensive cars?" Alex closed his eyes, and
Miranda stepped back. "Oh my God. He killed someone, didn’t
he?"

"No—no. But he did hit someone. Michael was
very lucky that he wasn’t hurt himself."

"Michael is very lucky because you make sure
of it!" she shouted. "Why didn’t he go to jail?"

"It was his first offense—"

"That you know about!" She walked over and
bent down so that her face was right next to his. "Fine, how badly
was this person hurt? How much did you pay them off?"

"He and his family will be taken care of for
many years to come," he said quietly.

Miranda cried, but not just because of
someone else’s misery. She could not deny how ruthless and cold
Alex could be. "That’s good. I’m sure you sleep better because of
it. Don’t worry, Michael probably doesn’t even remember. But you
didn’t do that to Lucy, did you? You—it has to be something about
her, right? Because she doesn’t really care enough about Richard
and Jessie to back off if it’s something about them. What is it
Alex? What have you got that gets Michael off of a rape
charge?"

"Miranda, don’t do this."

"I can report it," Miranda said, standing up.
"I’m a witness. And so is Richard. If you make him choose between
Michael and Jessie, it’s not going to take him long. And that
doctor knows what happened to—oh, God!" She saw Alex shaking his
head, unable to look at her. "You’re making him go away, too? How
much did that set you back? Ugh!" She hit her hands on his armrest.
He didn’t move. "Why are you protecting this son of a bitch? Don’t
you think this is a little worse than bullying?"

"I am all he has left," Alex said simply.
That was too much for Miranda. She’d heard that so many times when
they were growing up. It excused him breaking a thousand dollar
paper weight, it didn’t excuse hurting Jessie.

"I do not care! He doesn’t have anyone else
because he is a miserable piece of garbage and everyone who can has
run away from him the minute he got too close. Everyone gets away
except me and Richard and Jessie! Even you and Lucy haven’t had to
put up with the crap we have! If he hurts Jessie again…" She had to
stop because she couldn’t stop crying long enough to get the words
out. Alex stood up and held her. She knew how truly sorry he was.
But she had to continue.

"You promise me," Miranda said once she could
speak again. "Nothing else is going to happen to Jessie. Promise
me."

Alex closed his eyes and a tear spilled out.
"I promise," he whispered.

"Okay," she said.

She wasn’t thinking. That was what was so
strange to her when she remembered it later. She took Alex’s face
in her hands and kissed him. She did so as if it were the most
natural thing in the world. It was the first time she had ever
kissed anyone. And he kissed her back. It wasn’t a dream come true,
it was the way everything was supposed to be...

…Until he pulled away and walked out without
looking at her. Miranda caught her breath and held onto the chair,
before she sat down.
He promised
, she thought to herself,
touching her lips.
Jessie’s going to be safe.

She was still sitting in the study an hour
later when she heard the front door. She narrowed her eyes, as she
stood up. The study door opened and there was the devil himself. "I
was just looking for Alex."

She was used to pretending that everything
was normal, even though normal didn’t exist. "He must have stepped
out, fortunately for you."

Michael stepped in and closed the door then
leaned back against it. "Why, Miranda? What do you think he’s going
to do to me?"

"What, exactly, do you want him to do you? To
the untrained eye, it might look like you’re trying to get
someone’s attention."

"That may be the case, but why are you so
sure that it’s Alex’s?"

"Because you know you have Richard’s, and
mine."

"How do you know I didn’t just want
Jessie’s...attention?"

Miranda looked at the smile on his face and
felt violently ill. "You’re right, I don’t," she said, forcing
herself to keep her smile plastered on. "But I do know this." She
walked up closer to him. "You ever try to get Jessie’s attention or
anything else again, and I will kill you. I don’t care who’s
protecting you. You can take that promise to the bank."