Read Breaking Josephine Online
Authors: Marie Stewart
Breaking Josephine (25 page)
“Okay, thanks Sam,”
I said, holding the door open for him as he left. As I heard his flip-flops
recede down the walkway and his car start up, I shut the door, collapsed on my
bed and passed out, emotionally exhausted.
I spent the next couple
of days in my apartment, refusing to even open the windows or go outside. Sam
was right that I wasn’t okay. I felt lost and out of control and alone. I
couldn’t stop thinking about how Dex had hidden my true identity from me and
how my life would have been different had I known the truth all these years.
Wednesday
afternoon I heard a gentle thud on my door. Eileen stood there, holding a pot
full of soup in her hands.
“Here let me take
that,” I said as I took the pot from her hands and set it on the kitchen
counter. She walked inside and took stock of my apartment. She looked at the
dirty dishes sitting unwashed in the sink, the overflowing trash, and an empty
bottle of wine sitting on the counter. Then she turned and looked at me. I’d
been wearing the same pair of sweats since Monday and my new blonde hair was
slicked back with unwashed grease into a small ponytail.
Eileen sighed and
said, “Okay Jo. You are going to take a shower and put on clean clothes while I
tidy up in here. Landlady’s orders.”
“Yes ma’am,” I
said sheepishly, as I retreated into my bathroom to do exactly as Eileen
instructed. By the time I came out, wearing clean jeans and a t-shirt, my
newly-clean hair leaving small wet drips on my shirt, Eileen had cleaned the
kitchen to a shine and set multiple bags of trash outside the door. She turned
around and looked at me.
“Now,” she said,
smiling, “that’s better. Let’s get you something to eat.” She pulled two bowls
out of the cabinet and a ladle out of the drawer and served us each a generous
bowl of chicken soup. I sat down at the kitchen table and took a bite. It
tasted delicious.
“Thank you
Eileen,” I said as I swallowed another bite.
“Anytime my dear,”
she answered. “Now eat. I don’t want to hear anything out of you until that
bowl is empty.” I smiled and did as Eileen said, eating the entire bowl and
having seconds. When I was finished, I thanked her again.
“Don’t mention
it,” she replied. “Now how about you help me take out the trash and bring this
pot back up to my house and you can sit with me and tell me all about what’s
got you living like a hermit these last few days.”
I nodded and stood
up, slipping on my sandals and gathering up the trash. After taking out the
bags of trash and washing the empty soup pot, I walked around to Eileen’s front
porch and joined her for a glass of iced tea. I sat down in a rocking chair as
she started talking.
“So, my dear,” she
said, “What has so you upset?”
I sighed. “Dex
Hartley.”
“What exactly can
have you so upset about him?” Eileen asked, a bit surprised.
“I broke up with
him because he lied to me,” I said simply.
“Go on,” Eileen
said, “there has to be more to it than that.”
I nodded and
collected my thoughts. It might help explaining everything to Eileen, someone
who knew Dex for many years and had grown to know me as well. She was as close
to a mother as I had, and I trusted her opinion. “Do you remember how I asked
you about anyone who looked like me who lived here in Cannon Beach, and you
remembered a waitress named Becca?” I said.
“Yes,” said
Eileen, looking thoughtfully at me.
“Well,” I said,
taking a deep breath, “Becca was actually Rebecca Kincaid, my mother. She
changed her name and moved to Portland just before I was born and kept her
entire past a secret. I didn’t even know she lived here. Turns out she was in
the same car accident that killed Dex’s father. And Dex and his lawyer kept it
a secret to keep it out of the papers. I don’t know why she was driving with
Dex’s father or what she was doing out here after all those years. And I have
no idea who my real father is. If Dex hadn’t convinced the police to hush
everything up, or had told me the truth when he first figured out who I was,
then I could have found out about my mother’s past years ago, or at least before
I got involved with him and fell in love with hi—” I stopped abruptly,
realizing I’d gone father than I intended, letting the fact I loved Dex spill
out, something I’d never told anyone but him as I walked out of Hartley Manor
and left him.
Eileen sat in her
rocking chair, letting it rock quietly back and forth for a few minutes. I
thought maybe she had fallen asleep, but finally she looked at me, and said, “When
Dex’s mother died, part of Dex died with her. She was his rock, his anchor in
the sea of his life. His father was the wind that buffeted the waves and blew
everyone where he wanted them to go. When she died, his support, his anchor was
gone, and he had no one to support him. He’d spent two years enduring his
father’s power and dominating personality when suddenly his father died too.
“And then Dex,
who’d never been able to truly grieve for his mother, who’d been browbeaten by
his father’s personality since her death, was alone. He had control of one of
the largest family fortunes in the Pacific Northwest, the largest
Portland-based company in Hartley Industries, and he didn’t even know who he
was or what he could do. He’d never made a decision on his own in his life. And
now he had to make them all. It was an exceptionally difficult time. That’s when
we lost contact, when he disappeared and lost himself.” Eileen paused and took
a sip of tea.
I thought about
her words and what Dex must have gone through when his parents died. How the
loss of his mother changed his life so dramatically and how the loss of his
father wrecked it. Part of me felt sorry for him, but part of me was still
seething in anger.
“I don’t
understand what any of this has to do with me or with my relationship with Dex,”
I said, looking at Eileen.
“Well, my dear,”
she responded, “Dex lost the only two people in his life he’d ever cared about
and it almost ruined him. If he loves you the way you just said you love him,
then think about what the fear of losing you would do to him. He’s probably
feeling right now just how he felt when he lost his mother. Maybe he was trying
to protect you and protect your love for each other from the pain of the truth.
I’m not saying it was right, but maybe he had a reason for doing what he did. Maybe
you should be willing to forgive him and give him a chance to earn back your
trust.”
I took a deep
breath and closed my eyes. I saw Dex’s haunted stare as I walked out on him and
thought Eileen may be right. “I don’t know if I can do that Eileen, or if I
should,” I said, being honest with her.
“Well, it’s just something
to think about my dear,” Eileen said, closing her eyes and rocking back and
forth in her chair. I leaned back, closed my eyes, and did the same, thinking
about Eileen’s words and how Dex must be feeling, alone in Hartley Manor.
“Hello?” Macy
said.
“Hey Macy, it’s
Jo. Would you by any chance be free tomorrow? I think I need a friend,” I said,
hoping she would be free.
“Thursday—let
me think,” she said, pausing for a minute. “Yep. I’m free. The Blackstones
invited me to their house in Los Angeles for the weekend, but we don’t leave
until Friday morning. That’s why I needed you to pick up my shifts at the
Barn.”
I cursed myself
silently. I felt bad for leaving Sam without both of us all weekend. But he had
made it very clear I wasn’t to come back until Monday, and I didn’t want a
repeat of last weekend again. Although Sam had been nothing but gracious, I
knew at some point he’d hit his limit like I’d seen him do with other wait
staff. If I fell apart again while working Sam could fire me and I needed the
job.
“Thanks Macy. How
about you just come over here?” I offered.
“Well …,”
Macy said, hesitating, “how about we go to the spa? You need the break, and my
mom said the spa at the Seaside is slow this week, so we can go if we’d like.” I
smiled, thinking that might not exactly be the whole truth about the Spa, but I
appreciated the thought.
“That sounds great
Macy,” I said.
“Great!” Macy
said, sounding happy. “I’ll pick you up at 10. See you tomorrow.”
I hung up and felt
hopeful for the first time in days. Maybe a spa day with Macy and talking
everything through would give me the confidence I needed to decide whether to
let Dex back into my life or not.
I woke up early
the next day, stuffed my hair into a clip, pulled on a casual sundress, and
made coffee. I’d had a few cups and had already started to feel better about my
life, whether it included Dex or not, when Macy arrived. She knocked on the
door and I opened it, turning to grab my purse and shoes.
“I thought you all
broke up?” Macy said as I stuffed my feet into my sandals.
“Dex and me? We
did,” I said, confused.
“Then why is he
sending you flowers?” Macy asked. I looked up and saw Macy holding another
bouquet of calla lilies. I took them from her and read the note.
Please call me. I’m lost without you. I love
you.
Dex
I opened the trash
can and started to throw the flowers away when Macy stopped me.
“Whoa—hold
on. What are you doing?” she asked, holding my arm.
“I’m throwing them
away, what does it look like I’m doing?” I answered.
“Oh no you’re
not,” she said, taking the flowers out of my hand, and putting them in a spare
glass. She filled the glass with water and set the lilies on the counter. “You
might be mad at him, but flowers are flowers no matter who sends them.”
I rolled my eyes
and picked up my purse. “Okay Macy, but if you don’t take them home with you
when you drop me off, they’re going in the trash can.” Macy rolled her eyes and
pulled me out the door.
We walked into the
Seaside’s spa and were ushered to massage rooms. After an incredibly relaxing
massage, we reunited at the manicure stations.
“So, tell me
everything,” Macy said, not looking up from her nails. “What happened? Last
thing I heard, everything was great, and then I show up and you look like you’d
been attacked by garden clippers.”
“A lawnmower,
actually,” I said. Macy raised her eyebrows at me and I laughed. “Never mind. Okay,
let me start from the beginning.”
I told Macy all
about my mother, and what I knew about my past, and my talk with her mom and
how I found out my mother had been lying about her name and her identity.
“Wow. My mom
didn’t say anything to me. But wait, how does this have anything to do with
Dex?” she asked, confused.
“I’m getting
there,” I said. I relayed how I discovered the pearls and how I confronted Dex
with his lying. I explained how he knew from the beginning that my mother had
hidden her identity from me, but he did the same thing, and didn’t tell me
until I found out on my own. Then I explained how she had been following his
father in the rain and if it hadn’t been for his father insisting on driving,
that my mother would probably be alive.
“Jo, wow. That’s …
that’s almost unbelievable.,” Macy said, thinking. “Are you sure his father
made her drive? I mean, maybe she wanted to go as badly as he did. It doesn’t
sound like either of you really know for sure. Do you even know what he was
helping her with, what Dex’s dad was trying to fix?”
I looked at her,
realizing I didn’t know the answers to any of those questions. “No, I don’t,” I
said.
“Well, don’t take
this the wrong way,” Macy said, looking down at the french manicure taking
shape on her nails, “but it seems like all you have is a bunch more questions. Before
you write Dex off, don’t you think you owe him a second chance, and owe
yourself answers? Don’t you think you should at least figure out why she was on
the road and why she was following him out here before you assume it was all
Dex’s father’s fault?”
Macy didn’t look
at me, afraid I’d be mad at her. But the more I thought about it, the more I
realized she was right. I’d let my anger at my mother and my anger at Dex for
keeping her secret cloud my judgment. I didn’t have any idea why my mother was
in her car that night and I did owe it to Dex, and to us, to figure out the
truth.
“Dex told me his
father said he’d ‘put business first’ and was ‘trying to fix a mistake’
involving my mother. That’s why he was meeting with her and helping her. I know
it was before you were born, but do you know anything about Hartley Industries
back then, or what business deal could have been at stake?” I looked at Macy,
hoping she would know something.
“Hmm. Let me
think,” she said. “I’m sorry Jo, nothing comes to mind. I think William’s
family sold a bunch of real estate holdings back then, and his dad used the
money to start his production company in Southern California. Maybe timberland
sales were hot back then too and Dex’s dad needed to push one through. Although
I don’t have any idea how your mother would have been involved in something
like that. You said she was a local waitress, right?”
