A Marriage of Convenience (6 page)

Jillian looked at her mother-in-law as she was being cuffed. The woman was taking Sabrina from the car and cooing at her. Sabrina began to scream.

“NO!” Sabrina said, as another officer took the carrier and diaper bag from the car and searched them before placing them in her mother-in-law’s Mercedes. “No! You can’t do this! NO!!!”

She tried to pull away.

“Ma’am, do you want another charge for resisting arrest?” the officer asked.

“This is a lie!” Jillian said. “This is a setup. Those pills aren’t mine! Look at my record! Drug test me! Do whatever you want! You’ll see that I’ve never even had a prescription for painkillers!”

But the officer was ignoring her. Jillian watched helplessly as the Mercedes sped off as she was pushed into the back seat of the police cruiser. She was sobbing now. How could this be happening. And where was her husband. Was he somehow in on this? Had it been too good to be true? Was he part of this effort to set her up? Jillian did not want to believe it, but worried that she’d been duped. She’d never been in trouble in her life and now she was facing serious charges. And she did not know what to do. She could only cry.

The talk with Evan Hurley was going well. Austin knew that the kindly curator was not comfortable hearing intimate details about the trouble between the museum’s biggest donor and her son. Austin did not hide the fact that he knew his mother’s support of the Forest City Arts Council had impacted the Hurley’s decision to hire him, and he told the curator quite pointedly that he hoped it would not lead to his being fired.

“My mother is sure to react negatively when I refuse to leave my wife and fight for custody, but sometimes a man has to do the right thing,” Austin said.

“I agree, and I admire you for that,” Hurley replied. “It sounds as though you’re convinced that your wife is a good woman and a good mother. You can’t go wrong standing by someone you love. It’s the kind of strength you’ll be rewarded for.”

The secretary knocked at the door then. “There’s an urgent phone call for you, Mr. Bellaford. It’s from your wife. And your mother is leaving messages as well.”

Austin got an uneasy feeling as he went to the phone. The first thing he heard was frantic sobs.

“Jillian?” It took her a moment to answer.

“Austin!”

“Jillian. Calm down. What’s wrong.”

“I’ve been set up!” she sobbed. “I’m at the county jail. Can you come?”

He didn’t need to hear any more.

“I have to go,” he told the secretary.

In the car he picked up his cell phone and dialed his mother. When she answered he could hear his daughter screaming in the background.

“Austin, thank god you finally got back to me! Something terrible has happened…hold on…Rosario! Make that baby be quiet or take her upstairs!...OK, darling. Where was I. Oh, yes. I had Jillian over to lunch today. She was in the bathroom for  a long time and later when I went in I found my medication missing. I didn’t want to believe….but it couldn’t have been anyone else. My instincts told me to call the police! Thank god I did!!”

“What the hell are you saying, Mother?”

“Your wife is a druggie, Austin. Surprised? You shouldn’t be! I told you. Didn’t I tell you that girls from the wrong side of the tracks are trouble? But no worries. I’ve already got you a good lawyer to make sure that she never sets sight on this baby again. He’s willing to meet with you this afternoon. You need to come on over so we can…”

“Mother, I’m not coming over. I’m on my wait to the jail…”

“To the jail? What for?” Martha Bellaford screeched.

“To talk to Jillian! What do you think?”

The other line went quiet. “I think you’re making a mistake, young man. I think you need to turn that car around and head in this direction this instant. I think that you need to decide what you stand to lose in all of this. I think you need to concentrate on your daughter and let the court system deal with Jillian.”

He hung up, unable to say any more. The jail was just up ahead. It was a imposing brick structure with scraggly oleanders growing on either side of the steps. Austin took the steps two at a time. At the desk he explained who he was and demanded to see his wife. He was directed to a small room where he sat down in front of a piece of glass with a phone by the window. Jillian had already been booked and placed in the general population. When she walked in, he could see that she was distraught. She picked up the phone, placing her free hand to the glass as she did.

“My god, what happened?” he asked.

She poured it all out, the invitation, how his mother had insulted her, how she’d started to leave but stayed.

“I never could have imagined she’d do something like this,” she said. “I mean, I know she doesn’t approve of me. But to do this….WHY? I can only imagine how shocked you must be. She’s your mother.”

“I’m not shocked,” Austin said.

Jillian wiped her eyes, shocked. “What? What do you mean you’re not shocked?”

Austin looked down. “Jillian, I should have warned you. My mother has been….planning to have me leave you and take Sabrina. The marriage was supposed to look like a real effort to give Sabrina a two-parent family. But all along she was planning to hire a lawyer for me to use when I….”

“When you what?” Jillian felt cold with shock.

Austin looked at her and sighed. “When I sued you for custody. That was the plan. Well, it was her plan. I had lunch with her yesterday and apparently she picked up on the fact that I want to be married to you. She threatened to pull my inheritance. Today I’ve been at work trying to make sure my job was secure ahead of telling her that I….”

“Wait,” Jillian said. “Back up. This woman was planning to take my child from me and you didn’t warn me?”

“I told you she was controlling…”

“But you didn’t tell me the whole story, Austin. If you had, I’d have never put myself in danger by being around her!”

“How was I to know she’d do something like this?”

“How could you not know?” Jillian was crying again. “And what’s more, how could you not tell me what she was planning to have you do? You said you loved me, Austin. Was that all a lie? What kind of man who claims to love his wife would even associate with someone who would ask him to leave her and rob her of her child? Is this inheritance that important to you?”

She stood up, looking at him as if she didn’t know who he was.

“Jillian….”

“No!” she said. “If I had known the nature of this woman then I would have never been around her. I never would have taken my child around her. But I did because I didn’t have information I needed and now look at me, Austin! Look at me!”

“I’ll fix it,” he said firmly. “I’ll fix this. I swear.”

She stared at him through the glass. “You need to,” she said. “But understand, Austin. Even if you do it’s over. The last few days I’d dared to hope I’d found the last strong man in the world. I felt like a princess with you. I felt loved and led and protected. Why else would I let you….” She paused and they both knew she was referring to the spankings.

“You’re not the man I thought you were, Austin,” she said. “I have to go.”

She turned and he called after her but she ignored him. Austin felt a lump growing in his throat. The scorn she’d heaped on him had been completely deserved. He should have known by the way his mother reacted at the lunch that she was dangerously close to taking matters into her own hands.

Austin was determined to win his wife’s innocence, and to win her back regardless of the cost. The first thing he did was go to the front desk. He knew one of the sergeants and asked for a copy of the police report, which had just been filed. It stated that his wife had been arrested at 1:15. She was charged with two felony narcotics possessions.

He immediately posted bail for her and offered to take her home.

“No, I’ll drive myself,” she said. Austin nodded, but as she was on her way out he asked her what time she’d gotten to his mother’s house for the lunch date.

“Around noon,” she said.

Noon. It was enough information to start with. Something wasn’t right and Austin believed he knew what it was. He went to his mother’s neighborhood. The gatekeeper smiled.

“Mr. Bellaford! Good afternoon! How are you?”

“Fine, Ronnie. Fine. But I need a little information if you don’t mind. My wife was here earlier today. What time did she leave?

The guard looked on the log. “She left at 1:07.”

Austin felt himself getting angrier by the moment. His mother must have had the call placed before his wife even left the house. There was no way narcotics officers would have made it out this far from the station if she’d discovered the pills missing after Jillian had left. And this part of the county wasn’t exactly the kind of place narcs patrolled on the middle of a weekday afternoon.

He called the desk sergeant and asked him what time the call had come in. Austin sat on hold for ten minutes while the record was checked. When the sergeant came back on the line, he confirmed Austin’s suspicions. Te call had come in just before 1:00, and the caller had been a Hispanic woman.

“Rosario,” Austin said, and proceeded to tell the sergeant that he suspected his mother had used her servant to make a false call. “She may have even had Rosario plant the medicine in my wife’s car,” he said. “The staff has always been terrified by my mother. I’m afraid that my wife has been framed and may have a damn good case for wrongful arrest and prosecution.”

The sergeant emitted a long sigh. “If that’s the case you’re trading one set of troubles for another, Mr. Bellaford. Your mother will be arrested.”

The next words were harder for Austin to say than he thought they would be. “Well, maybe she deserves to be arrested,” he said.

“We’ll send a car over,” he said. “Are you with your mother now?”

“I’m almost there,” Austin said.

“Well don’t tip her off,” he said. “This is a serious matter.”

“Don’t worry,” Austin replied. “I won’t.”

Austin tried to keep his face impassive as he greeted his mother. She looked smug and self-satisfied.

“Where’s Sabrina?” he asked.

“Rosario got her down for a nap. Finally. But you’re going to need something bigger than that condo to get away from that sprawling. After you get custody we’ll find something bigger for the two of you.”

He swallowed his response.

“Why did you do it, Mother?”

“Because you were getting soft,” she said. “You’re forgetting to act in your own best interest, Austin. That’s why I’m having to do it now. But I’m glad you’re here now, because we need to get Mr. Chester over here to start talking about how to best proceed with the custody battle. We need to get to it while Jillian is still in jail and busy with whatever public defender she can get. Hit her while she’s down, son. That’s the clearest path to victory.”

She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, son. You’ll get over her soon enough.”

“Maybe you should worry. If they find your prints on that bag of drugs…”

“I’m not stupid,” Martha Bellaford sniffed. “I had Rosario put the things in your wife’s car. And  made sure she wore gloves. She didn’t want to do it, but fortunately she has a niece who needs to get a job or face deportation, so I told her I’d help out for this small favor.” She smiled meanly. “Does your mom know how to get things done or what?”

“Yes, it would appear she does,” Austin said quietly.

The doorbell chimed.

“Ah, that would be Chester,” she said. “Let’s get the ball rolling on  your custody hearing, my dear.” She took his hand. “Just remember, mama is here for you.”

Austin followed his mother to the front door, secretly looking forward to seeing her expression when she realized her visitor was not Arthur Chester,  the attorney, but the police.  He was not disappointed. For all her confidence in the other room, she looked unnerved to see the two cops on her doorstep.

“Mrs. Bellaford,” the taller of the two officers said. “I’m Sgt. Cramer and this is Officer Swan. Can we come in? We have a few questions.”

“Sure,” she said, casting a glance at her son as she stepped aside. “Do you need some more information? Or have you come to return my stolen property. I’m eager to help in any way I can to put away that awful woman who stole from me.”

“I’m afraid there’s a problem, but it’s not from her,” he said.

“Oh?”

“What time did your son’s wife leave today?” he asked.

Austin studied his mother’s eyes. She was not a stupid woman. She turned away as she answered so the cop wouldn’t see the deceit in her eyes.

“She left around 12:30…”

“You’re sure about that?”

Martha Bellaford turned back. “Of course. And I don’t appreciate your tone, young man…”

“Who made the call?” he asked, writing down the information in the notebook in his hand. “When you showed up at the scene you said you called, correct? But our 911 tapes show us receiving the call from this number from a woman who does not sound like you.”