Crossing Lines: A gripping psychological thriller (Behind Closed Doors Book 3) (30 page)

“Don’t be so fucking ridiculous!”

“Then there’s no excuse for doing that to me again!”

“It wasn’t real! It was a lie, Ashleigh. A lie you made up, so Darryl could get close to me.”

“You didn’t know that, Julia!” Ashleigh cries. “You were under the impression that this guy might actually have marriage potential?” Her gaze meets with mine, and I see how much that betrayal actually hurt. Not for my part, but for Julia’s part in it. “And you still did it!”

“You won’t even deny that you brought him here to end my marriage!”

“It’s never been about ending your marriage, Julia! It’s about opening your eyes to what’s right in front of you, because you’re under his thrall. But I have never denied, nor will I ever, the choices I make or the actions I take, and I know I am the only person responsible for their consequences. I don’t understand why you would want me to lie to you again and deny I did this! It won’t make you feel any better. I know, because I’ve been betrayed like that. The only person who hasn't betrayed me the way you did is standing right behind you.” Julia looks over her shoulder. “
He
told me I was fucking crazy to do this. But he came anyway, because anyone who hits me and lives, is a fucking danger to everyone!”

“He’d never touch you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ashleigh asks, and rips off her high neck sweater. “Why don’t you ask the bastard you’re married to where these came from?”

“No!” Julia steps back into me. I wrap my hands around her shoulders to steady her. “But … You’d kill him.”

“And then what would you have done, Julia?” Her eyes fill with tears. “I give up,” she snaps in that snooty, hateful tone she usually reserves for Sean. “You keep saying he’ll make all this go away; if you’re so fucking adamant that I'm the problem in your marriage, go home then, because I can’t protect you anymore!”

“I don't need or want your protection, Ashleigh. I've never wanted it … or needed it!”

“I disagree,” Ashleigh says, shaking her head. “But it’s your choice. I don't have to like your decision. If you want to go home, then go. I’m not fooling myself into thinking you’ll come back. He won't let you. But I can’t do this. I can’t have him in my life anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

Ashleigh turns and walks away, muttering “It’s your choice: me or him.”

Sean waits until she closes her bedroom door before he whispers, “I don’t believe you did it.”

Julia gasps.

“You told me she was having an affair with him, and that she was pregnant with his child.”

“You think this is my fault.”

“No, it’s Wayne’s!” he shouts. "So, maybe now you’ve seen him reduce the strongest person both you and I know, to a nervous wreck, you’ll open your eyes.”

“What the hell is going on around here?”

“You have no idea what she’s lived through for you,” he says quietly, “or even what drove her to do this for you.”

“You believe
her
now?”

“She might be walking away from this, but I swear to God, he’d better not come anywhere near me, because I’ll break every bone in his body—before I kill that bastard! I don’t care if he’s your husband and you love him, no one—fucking no one—touches the woman I love and gets away with it!” He turns away, stops and then looks over his shoulder. “I might remind him that you have a big brother while I’m at it.”

“He’s never hurt me!” Julia cries as he walks away. But I know it’s a lie. She’s told me he hit her once, and she’s told me he was responsible for her broken arm several years ago. Before I can say as much, she steps away from me, then spins around and pins me with a frosty glare. “Why won’t anyone tell me what the hell is going on?”

“She doesn’t want you to know.” I look down.
I can’t tell her, can I? Ashleigh doesn’t want her to know, because she thinks it will influence the decisions Julia has to make.
But right now, despite the bruises Ashleigh has just revealed to her, I think she’s still going to go back to him, to make their marriage work. And she can’t, she just can’t.

“I’m sorry, Julia. What happened yesterday is under privilege. I can’t tell you.”

“Do you consider everything I said to you under privilege too?”

I know that this is a trick question, and whatever my answer will be it’s going to trigger a backlash. I answer her anyway. “Yes.”

Her head tilts to the side as she regards me with suspicion. “You haven’t told her anything?”

“No.”

She backs away. “So this really is about making me see something I don’t … or didn’t …” Her eyes are swimming as she looks at me. "Then how am I supposed make the right decision, when you’re all keeping something monumentally important from me?”

“Hold that thought.” I take her hands in mine and lead her toward Ashleigh’s bedroom. I knock before I walk in. Sean is cradling her in his arms and she lifts her head from his shoulder to look at us. “Now say that again, Julia.”

“You’re keeping something about my husband from me, Ashleigh,” she whispers. “If this isn’t about what I did to you, and it’s not about breaking us up, then how do you expect me to make the right decision?”

“I don’t want to influence your choice, Julia.”

Julia lets my hand go and walks toward the bed. She perches on the edge and looks at the carpeted floor. “You’ve already given up on our friendship, Ashleigh.” She lifts up her gaze and adds, “So you have nothing left to lose now.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

SEAN AND I
walk down
the stairs together, not discussing whether leaving Ashleigh and Julia alone is a good idea. I hope it is. As we reach the bottom, he mumbles something about going to call his daughter, Stephi, but I stop him. I have to know what he said to Ashleigh in her gym yesterday morning, because I was all out of ideas.

He hesitates and takes a deep breath before replying. “You know, I thought I’d lost her for good when she brought you here, and that wasn’t easy to swallow. But hearing what she’s been living through, while I had my head stuck up my ass … That's when it hit home. I needed to tell her the truth.”

“Which is?”

He looks nervously over at Rylan, who has come out of the kitchen with the mail in his hands, then continues, “I want that hole in my head more than anything else in this world.”

Before I have the chance to reply, Rylan shoves an envelope between us and grunts something I don’t fully hear. The envelope has a Jordan Academy stamp, which brings a smile to my face. I know what this is. “Where’s Lisa?”

He nods toward the living room. “She’s not in a great mood today.”

“This might cheer her up,” I say, opening the letter. As I suspect, it’s an appointment with the admissions board. I turn and walk in that direction. Lisa's grown more and more distant the longer we’ve been here. It’s only been two weeks since we arrived, but so much has happened in that time, I haven’t spent very much of it with her. Today, she has her headphones in, and her eyes closed, as she lounges on the sofa.

I’m hoping what I’m about to say is going to go down well, better than well, in fact. Hopefully getting Lisa an interview at Jordan Academy is going to make me the best uncle in the world. It wasn't easy. Despite having Angela Valentina’s help, I still had to call Georgia and ask her for help. I needed her to email samples of Lisa’s writing.

She was actually nice to me. Despite my having dumped all the shit in her lap when Lisa ran away, and then for a second time when I decided we weren’t returning to New York, she’s being very supportive. “You’re doing something right for once, Darryl,” she said, I don’t know what’s brought this change about in her.

Lisa’s been asking me all week to do stuff: swim in the sea, walk on the beach, or play soccer in the garden, now that the landscapers have repaired the damage Ashleigh did with her car. She’s asked at the wrong time on every single occasion. I was on a conference call with the foundation's board, trying to convince them I won’t be back, and they need to let Caleb step into my shoes. If not for Rylan, Lisa would have spent most of the last two weeks alone.

When she opens her eyes, she pierces me with a horrid glare.

“Fancy a walk?” I ask.

She pulls the earphone from her ear. “Sorry, what?”

“I thought maybe we could go for a walk.”

She just puts the earbud back in and closes her eyes again. “I’m busy, thanks.”

I gasp at the venom in her voice. “I’m sorry I haven’t had much time for you these last couple of weeks, Lisa.” Her eyes open, telling me she heard me the first time, and was just being facetious. “The time difference between New York and L.A. is making things a little difficult. My intention to step down as the CEO at both the practice and the foundation isn’t as simple as walking away. There are plans to be made. Lucky for us, both Caleb and Georgia want to fill my shoes. But there’s still a lot to do.”

“Right,” she shrugs. “Again, thanks for keeping me in the loop!”

“I thought we’d moved forward. I thought we were going to communicate better, but you’re pissed at me for something now, and I don't know what I’ve done wrong.”

“Same thing as always. Pretend I’m not here and let someone else take care of me.”

“Huh?”

“Rylan!” She shouts at me. “You’re too busy to go into town with me. You’re too busy to take walks with me. You’re too busy to eat a meal with me. So now I have this cute guy hanging around with me, which would be cool if he wasn’t just taking pity on me!” My heartbeat speeds up, and I caution her about their fourteen-year age difference, and the fact that Rylan has three kids with his ex-wife. “Yes, I know that. He told me that, because he’s the one driving me places, walking with me, and eating with me, because you’re ignoring me. I thought it would be different now. But it’s not. You’ve just exchanged the housekeeper in New York for a babysitter here in L.A. I don’t need a babysitter, Darryl. I’m sixteen in three days!”

“Well, you’re going to have to get used to it, Lisa. Because Rylan’s going wherever you go for the rest of your life!”

“What?”

“Rylan is Ashleigh’s head of security. But he’s been assigned to babysit, as you put it, you. He’s sticking around. But you weren’t supposed to know about it, and he wasn’t supposed to be so blatant about it. He’s supposed to hang back, give you some space and freedom, and just make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

“Oh great!” She rolls her eyes. “It’s not even a pity party. He's paid to hang with me. My life sucks!” She tucks her legs up and curls herself toward the back of the sofa. After a moment, she whispers. “This is so hard. I have no friends here. And I'm not even going to school, so I can’t make any.”

“That’s what I was coming to talk to you about.” I reach out and take the earbuds from her ears. “You have an interview, with a school here in L.A. It’s a performing arts school. A good one, and they’re interested in enrolling you as a freshman.”

“Really?”

I nod.

“That’s cool.”

“This school is kind of exclusive, Lisa. It’s not somewhere you can just apply to. They look for you. And they’ve made an exception, because Ashleigh's mom has looked at your work and asked them to consider a place for you, since we’re staying here for a little longer than we’d anticipated.”

“Like forever?”

“Maybe.”

“Darryl?”

I look up at Lisa.

“If you didn’t hurt Izzy, why did she leave?”

“We had a fight. A really bad one.” I have no idea how to explain this to her. “I had been dodging the issue of starting a family for a while, because, honestly, I didn't want one.”

“You didn’t want me?” Her earsplitting gasp bounces off the walls around us, and my gaze locks with the horrified expression on Lisa's face. She shuffles along the sofa until I’m no longer in her way and stands up. “Oh my God!”

“No! Lisa that’s different. You’re not mine.” She cries out again as tears pool in her eyes. “Lisa, please, I’m sorry.” I jump up to my feet. “That’s not what I mean.” For a psychiatrist I totally suck at talking about myself. I step forward in hope, and reach out to her, but she shrugs my hand away. “Please Lisa, let me explain.”

“You're an asshole, and I hate you!” She runs away. I chase her through the hall, and the kitchen into the sunroom, where she proceeds to slam the bi-folding doors in my face and run down the path to the beach. Before I can go after her, a hand wraps around my shoulder.

“Let her go.” I turn to look at Rylan. “Give her some time to calm down. Julia’s out there.”

“Julia’s with Ashleigh.”

“She came down in floods of tears and ran outside. I don’t think she was ready to hear what Ashleigh had to say.”

“All the more reason I should go out to them.”

“Darryl, I’ve known Julia almost two years, and I think I’m getting a handle on Lisa too. Right now, the only thing they have in common is that they're both pissed at you. A little Darryl-bashing will do them both some good.”

* * *

I hover in the kitchen. Make a cup of coffee. Drink it. Then open the fridge and see an apple pie, and think of Faith. I think that’s all the time I can give them, and head out toward the beach. As I reach the wall above the fire pit, I can hear Lisa and Julia's conversation drifting up from below. I know I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but Lisa is asking Julia why she doesn’t like me, and I freeze.