Almost Home (41 page)

“Hey, Dallas, it’s Norma.”

“Thanks for getting back to me right away.” Dallas leaned back in her chair and exhaled. Just hearing her attorney’s always cool and even voice relaxed her.

“I just got in and I was going to call you as soon as I kicked off my shoes.” Norma Bradshaw was not only Dallas’s lawyer, she was also her friend.

“So you heard …”

“Is there anyone in this town who has not? So sorry, Dallas. We knew he was a colossal shithead, but this latest stunt even beats his own personal best.” Before Dallas could respond, Norma said, “So we’re going to want to see if we can move the divorce along a little faster. We’ll file a motion to revise those custody arrangements we’d previously agreed to.”

“You read my mind.”

“I’ll file first thing in the morning. If nothing else, I think we should ask for sole custody for a period of at least six months, given the circumstances, which of
course we’ll spell out for the judge in very specific terms.”

“Would it help to know that that little forty-two-minute production was filmed in his house? The same one Cody and I moved out of just eleven months ago because he refused to leave?”

“Really?” Norma made a “huh” sound. “Are you positive?”

“I picked out that furniture,” Dallas replied. “Along with the carpets and the tile in the bath and the towels that were dropped around the hot tub.”

“That was really stupid on his part. Now you can say you don’t want Emilio to have unsupervised custody because you don’t know who will be in the house or what they’ll be doing. Or who might be filming it.” Norma paused. “How are you doing?”

“On the one hand, I feel devastated. Humiliated. Nauseated. On the other, I feel like calling every reporter who chastised me for being so mean and unforgiving to poor Emilio when our separation was announced and yelling,
‘See? I told you he was a jerk!
’ ”

“Anyone you want me to call for you?”

“No. I’m not making any statements to anyone. This is strictly a no-comment situation if ever there was one.”

“You know you can always refer people to me.”

“I’ll have Elena start doing that tomorrow. Thanks.”

“How did Cody react?”

“He hasn’t. He doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“You didn’t tell him?”

“Of course not. Why would I tell him about something like that?”

“Do you really think you can keep him from finding out? Isn’t he in camp this summer?”

“He just turned six. He’s only in kindergarten.” Dallas frowned. “How many of the kids at his camp do you think caught Emilio’s act?”

“They could hear their parents talking, they could see the story on TV. It made the news, Dallas.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.” Dallas bit a fingernail. “At least, I hope it won’t be. But if he hears about it, I’ll have to tell him … something.”

“Well, good luck with that. In the meantime, if you think of anything else I can do for you, you know how to reach me.” Norma’s calls always ended the same way, with the same closing sentence. She never bothered to wait until Dallas said good-bye. She just hung up, leaving Dallas to wonder just what she would tell Cody if he should hear something.

She didn’t have long to wait to find out. When she arrived at camp the following afternoon, the Cody who got into the car was a very different child from the one she’d dropped off earlier that morning.

“How was camp, buddy?” she asked when he got into the car.

He looked out the window and muttered something.

“What did you say?” She turned in her seat to face him.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Well, how
was
camp? Did you have your riding lesson today?”

He shook his head but did not look at her.

Uh-oh
, she thought as she drove from the curb.
This doesn’t bode well …

“So what did you do today?” she asked.

“I don’t want to talk.”

“Why not, baby?”

“Because I don’t and I’m not a baby,” he yelled. He still hadn’t looked at her.

Oh, God
. Her hands began to shake and she clutched the wheel in an effort to make them stop.

She did not try to engage him in conversation the rest of the way home, and once they arrived, she drove in through the service entrance at the back of the property to avoid the crowd that was still stalking the front gate.

“Those cars out there, they’re all there because …” Cody said accusingly. “Because …”

It was then that Dallas realized he was crying. She stopped the car and turned off the ignition, then got out and opened his door. She unbuckled his seat belt but he made no move toward her.

“Cody, what happened today?” When he didn’t respond, she asked, “Does it have something to do with your dad?”

“They said he did things … with other ladies. Justin’s big brother said his dad saw it on the computer and he heard his dad tell his mom.” Huge, fat drops ran down Cody’s face and Dallas’s heart began to break in half. “Justin’s daddy said my daddy was a very, very bad man. The big kids said he … they said he …” He began to sob.

Dallas had never felt so helpless in her life. She got into the backseat and rubbed Cody’s shoulders, then coaxed him into her arms. How could she have been
so naive as to think he wouldn’t hear something from the older kids at camp? And how could she possibly explain his father’s actions to her son?

“I’m never going back to camp, Mommy. Not ever. Nobody can make me.” He hiccuped loudly. “Not even you. I’ll run away if you try.”

“All right, sweetie.” Silently cursing Emilio for his stupidity and his carelessness, Dallas held her son tight, and let him cry it out. “It’s going to be all right …”

But even as she promised, Dallas wondered if, for Cody, anything would ever be right again.