Painless (38 page)

Chapter 86

As he approached the table, Billy noticed Kelly’s pageant smile rip away like a Halloween mask. She then morphed into the “Cold Klein” character he’d gotten to know so well during their last years of marriage. Klein’s Beer once had an advertising campaign featuring the slogan,
nothing beats the heat like a cold Klein
. As a writer, he knew irony when he saw it.

“What do you want with me?” she greeted him, her face twitching with disgust.

“I want very little to do with you, now or ever.”

“Then why did you have your girlfriend set me up? Or should I say your accomplice—that’s what you felons call it, correct?”

“I want a meeting with your husband.”

“If you haven’t heard, he’s running the Senate hearings today. Senators don’t have all day to fool around,” her gaze purposely wandered to Carolyn, “like kidnappers do.”

Those were fighting words to Carolyn, or any kid. “Whoa—I just took a nap. This kid doesn’t need any napping!”

Kelly drowned out her plea by spastically calling for the maître d’.

“Call Oliver now and set up a meeting at your house for this afternoon,” Billy demanded.

“I can’t do that. And why would I?”

As he looked at her, Billy had no philosophical thoughts of love and love lost. The reunion was nothing like that sappy Dan Fogelberg song they always play on the radio around Christmas time about the old lovers meeting in the grocery store. He no longer loved her, but two emotions shot through him. One was anger for what she had taken from him. The other was his survival instinct—Kelly might be the last link to save Carolyn.

He took out the stapled printout of what would be tomorrow’s front-page headline. “Sam Spiegel of the
Post
has been working on the story of what
really
happened that night and the ugly events that led up to it. Having been there, I was able to fill in a few blanks for him.”

Kelly made another desperate appeal for the maître d’. He was moving toward them so fast he must’ve thought he was the one getting the hundred and fifty grand. Another day, another uppity senator’s wife. In this case it was the wife of the Majority Leader.

“You mean the one where you broke into the home I was using to hide from my abusive husband, threatening to shoot people, and then we cut you the deal of the lifetime by dropping the charges? Which by the way was Oliver’s idea, I wanted you to rot in jail. I also remember the part of the deal that clearly stated that you must stay at least five hundred feet from me at all times. Not a real smart move coming here in front of a slew of witnesses. But then again, smart moves never really were your thing.”

It was a “deal of a lifetime” he never agreed to. He would never have in a million years. It was imposed by those too powerful to fight back against. But now he was going to make a counter offer.

“The article has a different view of the events, and any deal that followed.”

“You’re going to jail.”

“Go ahead, but if Sam doesn’t get my phone call to stop the article, this will hit the front page of tomorrow’s
Post
.”

She angrily skimmed the article. “Who is going to believe a suspected kidnapper?”

“I don’t know,” Billy replied with a sly grin. “But the article makes for good reading. I particularly like the part about how you and Mr. Family Values were having an affair while his wife took her last breaths. And moved in together, pretending he was protecting you from me.”

“We’ll sue for libel and then Oliver will own the
Washington Post
.”

 “But the damage will already be done. And to win a libel suit you’d have to prove it wasn’t true, and I think we both know…”

The mustached maître d’ arrived, cutting him off. “Is this man bothering you, Mrs. LaRoche?”

She took another glance at the article. It hadn’t changed.

“The funny thing,” Billy noted, “is this restaurant is only two miles from Pennsylvania Avenue, yet one piece of paper can make sure there will only be one Pennsylvania where you and the Senator will be residing. Back to your home state in shame.”

She glanced at the paper one last time, and then up at the maître d’. Kleins weren’t used to being the ones getting bullied. “I was just wondered if you could bring my friend and the young lady a chair.”

The maître d’ momentarily left, before returning with chairs for Billy and Carolyn. When he left to wait on another important-looking woman in a power-suit, Kelly began with indignation, “What do you want, money?”

“I told you, I want to meet with Oliver this afternoon.”

“That’s impossible. And besides, the children will be home from school shortly.”

She was a Klein, which meant she didn’t play fair. The comment knocked the wind out of him, but he regained his breath and pushed on. “Make it happen or the article prints.”

She looked him straight in the eye. It was the look that used to make his knees buckle, but he didn’t even flinch.

“I knew you’d be back,” she said with a look of disgust.

“Sorry I couldn’t be more accommodating to your new life.”

“Do you know how much I despise you?”

“I wasn’t the one who cheated and left.”

“I guess we can never fully remove the mistakes of our past. They always come back to haunt us. And that’s what you are, Billy, a mistake from my past, like a bad drug habit. You stole so many years from me, and now you’re here to try to steal my future.”

“I’m only interested in what you stole from me,” he said, his voice choking back his words. “Now stop stalling, or the article prints.”

Without much of a choice, she stood to leave. When she did, Billy’s eyes bugged out of his head.

“Your tummy is big,” Carolyn blurted.

Kelly smiled at her. Billy had seen that smile before.

“That’s because I’m going to have a baby.”

Billy’s heart panged for the first time since seeing Kelly again. And it wasn’t because the past love of his life was having somebody else’s baby. It was the look she had flashed Carolyn. It reminded him of what Kelly Klein stole from him.

“There’s a baby inside your tummy?” Carolyn asked curiously.

“Not for long, I’m due any day now.”

“Did you eat it?”

She chuckled lightly. “No, God put the baby inside of me.”

“It looks like God made a mistake and put a grownup in there!”

The limo drove them the short distance to the LaRoche’s Washington row house, where they lived while the Senate was in session. It was in the Stanton Park neighborhood of Capital Hill, halfway between Maryland Ave NE and Massachusetts Ave NE. It was only a short walk to the US Capital, the Supreme Court, and Senate Office buildings.

It was also typical Oliver LaRoche. The area was once a dilapidated haven for crime, but had seen an upsurge in the last ten years and now was filled with tree-lined streets and couples walking their dogs. It was luxurious and priced in the millions, but still gave the impression he was living among “the common people.” If you play on both teams you can never lose the game.

Billy was quiet on the trip over. Dana tried to comfort him. She knew the truth, so she understood what this moment meant to him.

They entered a museum-like living room with high vaulted ceilings. Numerous photos hung on the walls and filled the mantle of the fireplace. He wasn’t surprised that none were of him, but many of them, especially the ones from recent family trips, taunted him. He fought himself not to look. His head felt like it was leaking oxygen and needed to sit down.

Twenty minutes after they arrived, the pitter-pattering sounds of children’s feet could be heard coming into the house. As they moved closer, the energetic chatter of seven-year-old twins echoed the room. Billy’s knees buckled.

“Anna…Maddie…we’re in here,” Kelly robotically yelled to them like she had a gun to her head. For all intents and purposes, she did.

The pitter-patter grew closer. Then the two girls appeared in the large doorframe of the living room and their chatter stopped. They froze, their eyes growing to the size of pie tins.

Their blonde hair, a genetic trait from their mother, was tied in bows. They wore school uniforms and carried lunchboxes. They had grown a lot since Billy last saw them, and he immediately noticed so many subtle changes he might have overlooked without so much time apart.

Billy tried to talk, but he couldn’t. He always knew he would see them again, but never prepared the words he’d say. It was like death, everybody knows it will eventually come, but it’s too overwhelming of a concept to think about. He was paralyzed.

It was surreal. Nobody could speak…except Carolyn.

“Hey Billy—look—it’s Peanut Butter and Jelly!”

Chapter 87

Maddie, aka Jelly, was the first to react. It had always been her M.O. “Daddy!” she exclaimed and ran to Billy.

Anna’s nickname of Peanut Butter always fit. Jelly was the colorful flavor, but peanut butter was the solid base of the sandwich that held everything together. But the moment appeared to overwhelm her, and she froze. Everything always rolled off Maddie, but Anna always connected to every emotion in the room.

Billy locked eyes with her. They were his eyes. No parent would admit they have a favorite child, and he loved Maddie so much it hurt, but Anna was his favorite. The introspective one—the future writer—the sharp mind always hiding behind her shy demeanor.

With the urging of his eyes, she relented and ran to him. Billy picked up both girls in each of his arms as if he were carrying two bags of groceries. The pain in his shoulder was excruciating, but he couldn’t feel it. They wrapped their small arms around his neck and pulled their faces close. They always liked to smell his cologne.

He looked around the room and noticed Dana gulping back tears. Carolyn stood frozen, awestruck at seeing her bedtime-story heroes in the flesh, and was actually speechless. A rare moment indeed.

He hadn’t come back to get Kelly, seek revenge on LaRoche, or shoot anybody that night. He came back to see his daughters. Having them taken away was the thing that ripped out his soul. He had never been able to bring himself to talk about it.

After learning of Kelly’s affair, he confronted her, and was surprised that she didn’t even make a strong attempt at denying it. Then she went on offense—a Klein trait—as was never doing things halfway. She dropped the bomb that she was leaving him and taking the kids. She threatened that it would be in his best interest to not make any waves in her master plan, which was marrying LaRoche after his wife died, and erasing Billy from their new “perfect life,” trying to eliminate any “political baggage” from their journey to the White House.

Maddie and Anna were his life. The only thing that still mattered. He fought back, demanding joint custody. He threatened to go to the press and ruin Mr. Family Values if she pushed him.

But the all-powerful Klein/LaRoche team turned the story around on Billy. They created the fake photos of Kelly, her face beaten to a pulp. He was made out to be an abuser, stripping any credibility if he came forward with his claims. LaRoche spun his cozy relationship with Kelly as two friends comforting each other in their time of pain—LaRoche’s wife was dying, while Kelly was attempting to escape her abusive marriage. The court bought her lies and ordered Billy to stay away from her and the children indefinitely. Then Kelly moved the kids into LaRoche’s Washington home, continuing to act as if he were shielding a friend from an abusive relationship, while the senator played the role of knight in shining armor.

When Kelly left for Washington, she also brought their longtime nanny, Lucia. But Lucia never really cared for Kelly, who would constantly belittle her. Her loyalties had always been to Billy and the children—her attachment to the children was the reason she agreed to accompany them to D.C.—and she didn’t believe the lies that were being told about Billy. So she agreed to sneak him into the house that night to see his children.

Kelly and LaRoche were supposed to be out at a charity dinner that night for a shelter for abused women, which wasn’t a coincidence. Only one letter separated shame, of which they had none, and sham.

But before he could even get upstairs to the girls’ room, LaRoche showed up with his security detail. The fundraiser had been cancelled. The security pounced on Billy, but during the struggle, he was able to wrestle away one of their guns. It became a standoff. He held the gun at LaRoche, a man who had taken his wife, his good name, and now he wanted to take away his freedom. But most of all he’d stolen what was most precious to him—his children—Anna and Maddie.

At that point, Billy reached a dark layer most people don’t want to admit exists within them. He was about to shoot and kill a United States senator, and was going to pull the trigger without shame.

That’s when he heard Maddie’s voice on the stairwell. She was calling for Kelly—
thought I heard Daddy’s voice
. He was sobered to sanity and dropped the gun. Then the security force dropped him, and he was arrested. The final thing to be dropped were the charges, in a backroom deal between LaRoche and the judge, fearing word would leak of LaRoche’s affair if a trial took place. It was as if the whole thing never happened, a misunderstanding. But Billy still got the harshest of sentences. The judge was able to ban him from his children’s lives on the abuse charges, in a document that was sealed from the public for reasons of “national security,” which was still hard to believe. But no matter how laughable that was, there was nothing funny about it to Billy, as it served as a death sentence to him.

He lightly set down the two girls onto the hardwood floor. They were heavier than the last time he held them, over two years ago. He didn’t know what to do or say, so he just made mundane conversation.

“You’ve gotten really big.”

Anna just stared at him with googly eyes.

“We missed you, Daddy,” Maddie again took the lead.

“I missed you too,” he said, fighting back a tornado of emotions.

“Did you like Australia?” Anna finally talked.

Billy was at a loss. Then he caught a glimpse of Kelly out of the corner of his eye. Her guilty eyes moved to the floor. Australia was the cover story. It did have a nicer ring than the ugly truth.

He smiled at the girls. “It was nice, but it would’ve been better if you were there.”

“Anna did a class project on Australia,” Maddie spoke for her sister.

Class projects?
The last time he saw them was their first day of kindergarten. He remembered having to cajole Anna inside the school after he dropped them off that morning. When he returned to pick them up, they were gone, and the only thing waiting for him was the initial restraining order that started this whole mess. Now they could probably read and write. He’d missed that. He missed so much.

“Is that right?” he addressed Anna.

“I like koala bears,” she replied, her small voice still unsure.

“And she plays the didgeridoo,” Maddie said, referring to a long, wooden instrument of the Aborigine tribes in Australia.

He continued the small talk, but wasn’t really listening. He was too busy taking in every facial expression, and searching for something he hadn’t seen before. The answers from the seven-year-olds were pretty bland anyway—
yes, no, good, I don’t know.

“How’s school?”

“Good,” they said in unison.

“Are they treating you well?”

They looked strangely at him.
Why wouldn’t they?
“Yes.”

“What are you going to be for Halloween?”

“Princesses,” they sung out in chorus, Maddie’s voice dominating.

The princess reference sparked Carolyn from her catatonic state. The children all locked eyes, and Billy was as good as forgotten. “Who’s that?” the twins asked with curious joy.

“I’m Carolyn Whitcomb and you’re Peanut Butter and Jelly.”

“Do you wanna see our room?” Maddie asked.

“That sounds like fun!”

Maddie went to Kelly and asked, “Can we show Carolyn our room?”

Kelly smiled. “Only for a few minutes, we have dinner plans tonight.”

“When is our other dad coming home?” Maddie asked.

Other dad?
Billy felt like Tyson just hit him with a gut-punch.

Kelly again guiltily looked away, focusing on the children. She flashed them the same look she provided Carolyn when she’d asked about the girth of her abdomen in the restaurant. It was the look that always made the children feel safe. He wasn’t about to call a woman who stole his children “a good mother,” but she was in many respects “good for them.” Even at the end when her heart iced over and she turned into Jacqueline Frost, she still displayed warmth for the girls.

Maddie ran up the stairs with Carolyn not far behind.

Anna waited for Billy. “Will you come too?” she asked.

No answer was necessary. He reached out and took her hand, and she led him upstairs into a room so pink it looked like a big piece of cotton candy.

He first noticed the pictures, including one of Anna and Maddie playing on a youth soccer team. He thought of the games he’d missed. Another picture of them with their “other dad” at some important looking political event. Another in which they were flower girls in the Klein/LaRoche wedding. He swallowed hard.

Then he wandered to what he assumed was Anna’s dresser, where he found an ugly clay sculpture that spelled out her name in large block letters. To Billy, it was as beautiful a work of art as the Sistine Chapel. And while he had been erased in the living room like a Russian dissident in the Stalin era, his photos still existed on Anna’s dresser. Anna would never forget him; it meant he really existed.

Maddie began showing Billy the stuffed animal koala bears that lined Anna’s pink bedspread. Then she excitedly showed off her fish named Majority Leader, which he figured had something to do with that “other dad.”

But he wasn’t upset. He saw two happy little girls. They weren’t sulking away their lives waiting for his return. They were resilient. It didn’t exactly thrill his ego that they thought more highly of LaRoche than the Ebola Virus, but when it came to his children, his heart always trumped his ego, and would sacrifice anything, including his own happiness, just to see a smile on their faces. And those smiles were ubiquitous in Maddie and Anna’s room.

The grown-up was long forgotten as the three children took turns blowing into the didgeridoo. It created horrible sounds that more resembled farting than music. The girls giggled.

But to keep the smiles glowing, especially Carolyn’s, Billy knew he had to get back to business. He quietly slipped out of the room and descended the stairs to confront his past. They didn’t have much time.