Here Comes the Bride (17 page)

Her mom continued to examine the pictures. “I bet you these photos are from years ago.”

“Look at the dates. Dominic wore that same shirt the other day. He disappears during the day at odd times. There have been a couple of nights when he didn’t return home until late. I ask him where he’s going and what he’s doing but he always finds a way to skirt the subject.”

“It looks like some sort of ranch. There are a lot of dogs in the background.”

Sam exhaled. “What am I going to do?”

“If you’re in love with Dominic, you need to talk to him. Tell him about your meeting with Mitzy. Show him the pictures. Don’t brush it all under the rug like your father and I did.”

“But he’s only my temporary husband.”

“In the eyes of the law, the two of you are married. But forget about all of that, Sam. Even if you weren’t married, I would tell you to sit down and talk to Dominic. After you do, and if you still don’t trust him, then this thing between the two of you, whatever it is, will never work anyhow.”

Sam took a moment to think about what her mom said. “You’re absolutely right. I need to talk to him, tell him everything. What about you, Mom? What are you going to do about Dad? Are you still in love with him?”

“I’ve always loved your father. That’s why I let him punish me for so long. He wasn’t the only angry person in the house. I swallowed my anger and let it grow into something much worse. I began to hate myself.”

“Are you going to come home with me and talk to Dad?”

She shook her head.

Sam’s heart dropped.

“I’ve managed to make things worse for everyone. Look at you,” her mother said. “You thought you did something wrong. That it was your fault. And your brothers…I’m afraid I’ve ruined them.”

“Mom, that’s not true. Taylor and Kevin have always been demanding and overbearing—”

“They’ve watched your dad treat me badly for so long, they’ve lost all respect for me. I just didn’t see it soon enough. I’m not ready to talk to your father, though. I need more time.”

“I understand.” After a long pause, Sam added, “I know this must be difficult for you, Mom, but if it helps at all, you’re looking really good.”

A smile brightened Rebecca’s face. “I went shopping and then I spoiled myself with a day at the spa.”

“I’m glad. You deserve to be happy.”

“So do you, dear. Now let’s eat this delicious salad before it goes to waste.”

Sam took a bite, looking at her mom—this woman she hardly recognized—through her lashes.
Would her mother and father be able to work things out? Would they reconcile?

Her life was suddenly turned upside down. Everything was happening so fast: her parents, her job, Dominic.

Dominic.

The pictures.

As soon as her father left, she would talk to Dominic.

Chapter Twenty-Two

While Dominic gave Sam time with her father, he watched Maria wash the dishes. It dawned on him then that she was working too hard. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d given her time off. “Maria, I want you to go home and enjoy your family. Take the rest of the week off—paid, of course.”

Maria turned slowly from the sink and stared at him. “The week? Are you sure?”

Dominic almost laughed at the deer-in-the-headlights look on her face. “Definitely. With everything going on, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”

“But, I need to finish these dishes,” she said, “and then, if you’re sure, I’ll take you up on your offer. My eldest son is visiting and I’ll be able to spend more time with his little ones.”

“Perfect.” Dominic clapped his hands together in a loud smack. “Forget the dishes. I’ll take over from here.” He took the plate and sponge from her hands. “Now go.”

Maria took off her apron. “You’re a good man, Mr. Dominic. You deserve to be happy.”

He didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just smiled at her.

“I’ve known you for ten years now and I think it’s past time for you to let go of your trust issues from the past.”

He arched a brow at Maria as he scrubbed a dish.

“You need to stop letting past disappointments and betrayals affect your life,” Maria explained without any prompting from him. “It’s not healthy. It takes time to earn someone’s trust, but it should never take forever.”

Dominic stopped what he was doing. “Maria, what are you trying to say?”

“I don’t know what’s going on between you and Mrs. Dominic, but I wasn’t born yesterday. I like her. I haven’t been able to say that about too many of the women you’ve brought home in the past. Being unable to trust can cause fear that destroys friendships, relationships, and even marriage. The only way to learn to trust again is to talk about your feelings.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all for today, Mr. Dominic. I’ll see you on Monday.”

“I can’t wait.”

Maria laughed as she walked off.

Dominic shook his head and went back to work. With his accounts nearly depleted, he really couldn’t afford Maria or any of the staff for that matter, but Maria had a family to care for and he wasn’t about to let her go.

He finished putting the dishes away, and then walked into the family room to see if Sam or her father needed anything.

They were both asleep.

Mr. Johnston was passed out on the couch, his mouth hanging open. Sam was asleep on the Lazy Boy nearby. Sam had returned home exhausted after quitting her job and visiting with her mom. While she was gone, her father had consumed too much wine while pouring out his troubles to Dominic.

Dominic felt a strange sense of satisfaction knowing Sam and her father were getting a chance to work out their past hurts.

He’d listened to her father talk about all the mistakes he’d made over the years. Once Mr. Johnston opened up, there had been no stopping him. The good news was her father realized he’d let his family down and he was ready to make amends. He only hoped it wasn’t too late.

Of course, Sam had been more than willing to give her father a second chance. As father and daughter talked about life goals, dreams, and fears, Dominic contemplated how empty his life had been before he’d met Sam. And yet the idea that he might need her in his life terrified him.

Maria was right. His belief that most people were deceptive in some form or another was not a healthy one. It was time to think about changing.

A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as he watched Sam sleep. She looked so cute. She’d only been gone for a few hours today and yet, he found himself missing her, thinking about her, longing to have her all to himself.

The high-pitched shrill of the phone prompted him to return to the kitchen, reminding him that he’d left his cell phone in his car.

***

The ringing phone awoke Sam. She rubbed her eyes. It took her a second to realize she’d fallen asleep in the family room.

Her father was asleep on the couch.

She pushed herself from the recliner, but before she got to her feet she heard the click of the front door being closed. She went that way, surprised to see Dominic’s car disappear through the gates at the bottom of the driveway.

It took her less than two seconds to decide what to do next. She needed to know, once and for all, where he went at odd times during the day and night. She rushed back to the kitchen, wrote her father a note, grabbed her purse and the keys to her father’s car and then made a mad dash out the front door.

She trusted Dominic, didn’t she? Of course she did. She reminded herself that she was an investigative reporter at heart and that’s why she felt compelled to follow him. What woman wouldn’t follow her husband after being handed pictures of him in compromising positions and after receiving strange phone calls from women with husky voices? She’d called the number belonging to the woman with the husky voice and left a message saying they needed to talk. So far no one had returned her call.

She had also planned to talk to Dominic about the message she’d seen in his car and the pictures Mitzy had given her, but having her father at the house had made talking to Dominic impossible.

She pulled her notepad from her purse and glanced at the address she’d gotten from Dominic’s navigation system. Another pang of guilt stabbed her in the gut. As she waited for the gate to slide open, she glanced over her shoulder at the house. She could turn around and go back, wait for Dominic to return, and talk to him then. But the robotic voice in her father’s car told her to make a right, so she pressed her foot to the gas pedal and did as the lady said.

Less than twenty minutes later, Sam pulled to the side of the road. It was dark, but thanks to a full moon, she could see a small ranch house lit up at the end of a gravely driveway. She got out and walked, her heels wobbling on the rocks and pebbles.

The hoot of an owl caused her muscles to tense.

She shouldn’t be here. This had nothing to do with good investigative reporting, she thought as she approached a wooden gate, and everything to do with not trusting Dominic.

She might have turned around and headed home at that very moment if she hadn’t spotted Dominic’s car parked next to the house.

She opened the gate, then tottered across clods of dirt and thick grass. It might have been helpful if she’d thought to grab her sneakers, but she hadn’t planned on trespassing or walking across gravel and dirt.

Half hidden behind a row of overgrown rose bushes, she spotted Dominic and the same woman she’d seen in the pictures on the front porch of the ranch house. The woman appeared to be crying. She fell into Dominic’s arms and he held her close, comforting her.

Sam took a moment to let the scene tumble around in her brain. Her heart lurched. The truth was right there in front of her. A golden retriever lay on the porch. A pug walked close by, sniffing the ground. If she called out, they would hear her.

And now what was she supposed to do?

Dominic had obviously gone to great lengths to keep the love of his life hidden from the world. Obviously there weren’t a lot of options when it came to the two of them finding privacy. He’d done a hell of a job keeping his love interest secret, too.

Sam wanted to be angry with him, but she’d known exactly what she was getting into when she married Dominic DeMarco. She just hadn’t expected to fall in love with him. And despite everything they had shared, she refused to be the one to ruin his only chance at happiness.

Turning around, hoping to sneak back the same way she’d come, she heard a low growl. She stopped, frozen in place. The pictures she’d looked at today flashed in her mind’s eye. There had been at least a dozen different breeds of dogs, including pit bulls and Dobermans. Afraid to look, she dared to peek over her shoulder, relieved to see that the growl belonged to a smaller dog, a breed she didn’t recognize. She lowered her gaze in an attempt to let the dog know she wasn’t a threat. The dog wasn’t born yesterday, though, and the animal knew she didn’t belong on the property.

Sam took a step backward onto a fallen branch.

CRACK!

The noise set the dog into attack mode. The tiny thing came after her with a vengeance, going straight for her ankle.

“Ouch! No! Stop it, doggy.” She shook her leg. The dog let go and she ran for it. Before she could get to the gate, the outside lights came on. Big blinding lights. She froze.

“Sam, is that you?”

“Afraid so,” she said, feeling like an idiot, afraid to move while the dog continued to bark and nip at her feet.

“Winston,” the woman yelled. “Stop it. Come here!”

The dog backed off. Sam tried to limp away, hoping they would let her go without further questioning, but that would be too good to be true.

“She’s bleeding,” the woman told Dominic. “You need to help her.”

“I can see that,” Dominic grumbled. “Why don’t you take Winston into the house and I’ll take care of this situation myself.”

“Absolutely not,” the woman said. “Bring her inside so I can take a look at her leg. You two will just have to have your little chat in front of me.”

Sam squinted into the lights, trying to see where exactly Dominic was, but it was no use. “I’m okay,” Sam said. “I can let myself out.” Sam tried her damndest to limp away.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not getting off that easily.” Dominic swept her into his arms just as he had done after their wedding vows were spoken in New York and she’d almost been trampled. She had no choice but to wrap her arms around his neck as he carried her across the front yard, up the porch stairs and into the woman’s house, a beautifully decorated farmhouse with cushiony chairs and lots of antiques. A picture of three old dogs with gray muzzles hung over the fireplace.

None too gingerly, Dominic set her on the couch. “What are you doing here, Sam?”

“After the phone rang, I heard you leave the house, so I grabbed the keys to my father’s car. I needed to know.”

“You needed to know where I was going?”

Sam nodded.

“You could have called my cell phone.”

“Yes,” she said. “I suppose I could have, but you would have just made up a story. I’ve asked you many times where you go, but you always expertly change the subject.”

Before Dominic could respond, the other woman came into the room with a clean cloth and a bowl of water.

“Dominic has told me all about you,” the woman said as she cleaned Sam’s wound.

“He has?”

She nodded, and then put down the damp towel and offered Sam her hand. “My name’s Linda. I’m Dominic’s sister.”

Sam looked at Dominic. “I thought you didn’t have any siblings.”

“Linda is my half-sister. Before Mom and Dad married, Dad had another child with his first wife…Carol.”

“God, I feel like an idiot.”

“Understandable,” Dominic agreed. He didn’t look angry, but neither did he look happy about her being there.

Linda squeezed her brother’s arm. “You should have told her about me before it came to this.”

“I was going to tell her today, but we didn’t have any time alone.”

“The
LA Beat
has pictures of you two,” Sam blurted, “which means Dominic has been followed here before.”