Sleeping Alone (25 page)

Dan, however, seemed less amenable than before. “It’s starting to come together now,” he said, pulling a notepad and pen from his pocket. “What about the vandalism here?” He gestured toward the boats moored in the various slips. “We’re called out here three times a week. I always thought it was one of you kids, and now I got proof.”

“You don’t have any proof at all,” John protested. “Just because Mark said he smashed Brian’s windshield doesn’t mean he had anything to do with what happened here.”

“Figure it out,” Brian said, disdain dripping from each word.

John turned to Mark. “Did you trash any of the boats?”

Mark stared down at the ground.

“Mark.” John’s voice toughened. “I’m asking you again: Did you trash any of the boats?”

Mark continued to maintain his silence.

“Good as a confession to me,” Brian said to Dan Corelli. “I’d haul his ass into jail and—”

“Shut up.”

All eyes turned to Eddie as he entered the fray. “Drop it, Brian,” he ordered.

“Stay out of it, Pop,” Brian said. He turned back to Mark. “You wrecked the boats just like you wrecked my car. Tell them.”

“You’re making a mistake,” Eddie said. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Brian laughed out loud, then gestured for the crowd. “I don’t know what I’m talking about? This from a man who wanders around in his pajamas?”

John opened his mouth to speak, but Eddie silenced him with a look. “I did it,” Eddie said quietly. “I took a sledge to the
Kestrel
and most of the boats here.”

“No,” Mark cried. “Don’t say that.”

The look Eddie gave the boy warmed Alex’s heart. The connection between them was strong and vibrant. “You’ve been covering up for me for too long, Mark. It’s time I faced up to what’s been happening. I’ve got a real problem,” he said simply, “and it’s scaring the hell out of me.”

“You don’t have to do this, Pop,” John said. “You can talk privately with Dan.”

“No.” Eddie’s voice was firm. “My grandson has been cleaning up behind me for a long time now, and I don’t want him taking the blame for something the wasn’t his fault.”

Grandson.

Tears streamed down Mark’s face. “You called me your grandson.”

“About time, I’d be thinking.” Eddie’s eyes were filled with love and pride. “You saved my life out there tonight, Mark, You risked your own neck to save mine.”

Mark’s expression veered between embarrassment and pride. “You needed me.”

“And you were there for me,” Eddie said. He leveled his gaze at Brian. “More than I can say for my own son.”

Brian reached into his pocket and withdrew a thick stack of currency. He flung it in his father’s direction. “Johnny wouldn’t take it. Maybe you’re smart enough to use it to put yourself in a home, where you won’t get into trouble.”

It was all Alex could do to keep from leaping for Brian’s throat. Mark, however, didn’t hesitate.

“It’s all your fault! Nobody wants you here. Why don’t you go back where you came from and leave us all alone?”

“Mark is a good boy,” Eddie said to Dan Corelli. “I think we can work this out.”

“It’s up to Brian,” he said. “He’s the one who’s pressing charges.”

“Do the right thing, Brian,” Eddie said to his son. “You owe the boy.”

“I don’t owe any of you jack,” Brian said. “What the hell have any of you ever done for me?”

“If you have to ask that,” John said, “you’re more pathetic than I thought.”

“You’ve got it wrong, little brother. Everyone here knows who’s pathetic. I’m not the one who couldn’t hang on to his wife.”

Alex stiffened with fear. She knew Brian was capable of anything.

“Nothing to say?” Brian taunted as John watched him. “No wonder Libby took off—”

John grabbed him by the collar and came close to lifting him off his feet. “You don’t know anything about it.”

“I know she was sick of living with a loser, little brother. I know she wanted more from life than being trapped in this poor excuse for a town. I knew exactly what she wanted and how to give it to her.”

John’s roar of fury tore through Alex.

“Don’t like the truth, do you, little brother?” Brian went on. “Why don’t you admit that Libby was leaving you for good that day, not just going back to New York? She’d had enough of life here in this Jersey Shore version of Mayberry. She wanted to be with someone with a little ambition, someone who wasn’t satisfied with just treading water.” John tightened his grip, but it didn’t stop Brian. “Come on, Johnny. Show me what the big hero can do.”

“He’s not worth it,” Eddie said, placing a restraining hand on John’s arm. “Let it go.”

Alex couldn’t take it anymore. Too many lies. Too many secrets. She had to put an end to them now before they destroyed everyone. She took a step forward, then froze as Brian’s attention turned to her.

“Two more days, Alexandra,” he said, meeting her eyes. “That’s all you’ve got.”

She straightened up, ignoring the pain shooting between her hipbones. John was watching her. So was everyone else at the marina. “I won’t be needing the two days,” she said calmly and clearly. “And I won’t be selling my house to you and Eagle Management.”

The crowd exploded. They started lobbing questions at Brian like hand grenades. She stood there, eyes locked with his, and knew she would pay for what she did. She also knew it was the best decision she’d made in a very long time.

She turned away as John reached her side.

“How long have you known he was behind Eagle?” he asked her, brushing a lock of hair back from her forehead.

“A few weeks,” she said.

“You should have told me.”

“I wanted to but—”

“He was blackmailing you?” She could see the shadow of fear in his beautiful deep blue eyes.

“Yes,” she whispered. “I tried to tell you before, but we saw Bailey and—” She stopped and drew in a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know, John, something I’ve been too afraid to—”

“Alex?” He gripped her by the shoulders. “What is it?”

“I-I don’t know.” She swayed against him. “Dizzy... I’ve been having this pain—”

He gathered her close, and she heard his low intake of breath against her ear. Suddenly she found herself swept up into his arms, held tight against his broad chest. “We need help here, Corelli,” he called out. Dan turned and looked toward them. “We need the hospital,
fast
.”

“The hospital?” She struggled against him, trying to see his face. “I don’t need the hospital. I twisted a muscle, that’s all. I’m fine. I—”

“You’re not fine, Alex,” he said. “You’re bleeding.”

“Faster,” John urged Corelli as the squad car rocketed toward the hospital in the next town. “I’m afraid she’s hemorrhaging.”

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Dan said. Beads of sweat dripped down the sides of his face. “This fog is a bitch and a half to drive in.”

“Did you call Dr. Schulman?”

“She’ll be waiting for us at the entrance to the emergency room.”

“Just go faster,” John said again, feeling powerless to stop what was happening.

“I’m doin’ the best I can, Johnny.”

Alex gripped his hand tightly. “Leave him alone, John,” she said, her beautiful face pale and frightened. “The last thing we need is an accident.”

He knew she was right, but the blood—

“You’re going to be fine,” he told her over and over again. “This isn’t anything serious.”

They both knew better, but there were times when a lie was exactly what you needed.

“Listen to me,” she said as the car careened around a corner. “I have to tell you something, and it can’t wait.”

“It’s going to have to wait,” he said. “We’re at the hospital.”

“No!” Her voice seemed to fill the car. “Now, John. I have to tell you now.”

“We’re here,” Dan said, screeching to a stop. “I’ll go get a stretcher.”

Alex waited until the car door closed behind Corelli. “Remember what I told you about my husband?” John nodded. His gut knotted with apprehension. Sentences like that rarely preceded good news. “That wasn’t all of it, John.” Her words spilled out in rapid-fire succession. “I—I couldn’t get pregnant. We tried for ten years, and I just couldn’t manage.”

“You managed now,” he pointed out, hanging on to her hand as if it were a lifeline. “You’re pregnant, Alex. You’re carrying our baby.”

Her amber eyes filled with tears. “It never happened with Griffin.” She told him about the endless visits to expensive doctors, the joyless sex, the husband who sought comfort in the arms of a string of mistresses while his wife slept alone in their king-size bed.

“All of that’s over,” he said as the doors to the emergency room swung open. “It’s nothing but a memory, Alex. Part of the past.”

“But it’s not part of the past, John. We’re not divorced.” Her voice broke, and she looked down at her hands. “He had a mistress named Claire Brubaker. We’d moved to London to get a fresh start. He swore to me that he wouldn’t see Claire anymore. We were going to make the marriage work even if I never managed to get pregnant.” Her soft laugh was filled with pain. “Back then I used to shop a lot. There wasn’t much else for me to do. I went into Harrods to buy a new Filofax, and Claire was standing at the next counter.” Claire who was supposed to be in New York. Claire who wasn’t supposed to be pregnant with Griffin Whittaker’s child.

“He didn’t deny it,” she continued. “The look in his eyes—” She shook her head sadly. “I’ll never forget that look. That baby meant everything to him, John. Everything.”

“The stretcher’s coming, Alex,” he said. “We’ve got to get you inside.”

“I have to finish this,” she said. “I want to say it once and never think about it again.”

“You left him,” he said. “I know that, Alex. You learned about the baby and you left.”

“I stayed.”

He felt like he’d been gut-punched. “You stayed?”

“He said the baby wouldn’t affect our lives.”

“You believed that?”

“He was my entire world, John. I had no place to go, no one to turn to, nothing to call my own.”

“But you’re here,” he said. “What changed your mind?”

The car door opened, and a technician popped his head inside. “Ready when you are.”

“Wait,” she said, a note of hysteria in her voice. “I need a minute.”

“You can’t wait,” John said, gesturing for the tech to go ahead. “The baby can’t wait.”

And the truth was he had the feeling he didn’t want to hear what was coming next.

* * *

“No sign of placenta previa,” Dr. Schulman said.

“That’s a good thing?” John asked.

“A very good thing,” the doctor said. “I want to do a sonogram, and then we’ll talk about what to do next.”

“You’re doing good, kid,” John said to Alex after Dr. Schulman disappeared to see if the equipment was available. “Looks like you’re finally going to get your sonogram. Now we’ll know exactly when the baby’s due.”

“Claire Brubaker lost Griffin’s baby.”

John’s attention was galvanized. “What?”

“She lost the baby in October. Griffin came home drunk—” She stopped and took a deep, shuddering breath. He noted the small muscle twitching beneath her right eye. “He raped me, John. He was drunk and filled with pain—I tried to fight him, but he overpowered me.”

The buzzing in John’s head all but drowned out her words. In a way he wished it would. The images her words painted would be seared in his brain forever.
I’m capable of murder,
he thought as she spoke. He’d always wondered. Now he knew.

“I walked out that night,” she was saying. “I took my jewelry and some clothes and I walked out the door and never looked back.” She’d left her wedding ring on the end table, silent testament to what had happened between them. “I didn’t care about a divorce. Divorce meant I’d have to see him again or speak to him, and I didn’t want that. All I wanted was my freedom, and I didn’t need a piece of paper to give it to me.” She hadn’t expected to fall in love. She certainly hadn’t expected to get pregnant.

“This is what Brian was threatening you with, isn’t it?”

She nodded, a look of such misery in her eyes that it hurt to see it. “Brian said if I didn’t sell my house to Eagle Management, he would call Griffin and tell him where I am.”

“You could have sold him your house.” She could have protected herself with one simple action.

“I thought about it,” she said, “but then I saw you in action, John. I saw how much this town means to you—I saw how much you mean to this town, and I knew I couldn’t do it.”
And I love you, John. I just don’t have the courage to tell you.

“Even if it meant bringing your husband back into your life.”

“I love this town,” she said. “It deserves a second chance.”

“What about your husband? Does he deserve a second chance, too?”

“No,” she said in a voice that brooked no argument. “He deserves nothing at all.”

“We can handle this,” he said, taking her hands in his. “Whatever happens, we can handle it.”

“John.” Her eyes brimmed with tears. “What if the baby isn’t yours?”

* * *

And there it was. The monster in the closet. The creature under the bed. If Alex lived another fifty years, she prayed she would never see a look of such sorrow on anyone’s face again. Pain was visible in every line, every angle of his face. His eyes were saturated with pain. His mouth was twisted with it.

The seconds stretched into minutes. The minutes would turn into hours if someone didn’t break the terrible silence.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, “but you had to know.”

He nodded, the movement slow, like the movement of an old man. “That’s why you kept putting off the sonogram, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it is. This is my problem, John,” she said, meeting his eyes. “I’ll understand if you walk out that door and don’t come back.”

He lowered his head and buried his face in his hands. She longed to reach over and stroke his hair, trace the curve of his ear with the tip of her finger, but she wasn’t sure she still had the right. That terrible silence was back again, and she was afraid that the answer she feared most was hidden within it.

“John, if you—”

“I love you, Alex.”

The words stopped her cold. Was she just hearing what she wanted to hear? “Did you say s-something?”

He looked up and met her eyes. “I said I love you, Alex.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but he raised a hand to silence her.

“I won’t lie to you and say I wouldn’t give anything for that baby in your belly to be mine, but that doesn’t change anything. I’ve loved you from the moment you walked into the Starlight that morning with your black raincoat flapping around your ankles—” His voice broke, and he cleared his throat. “I didn’t want to fall in love again. I didn’t think I could. But there you were, and there I was and”—he gestured with his hands—“here we are.”

Tears spilled down her cheeks and splattered on her thin hospital gown. “Here we are,” she echoed. “I won’t lose the baby, John. No matter what, I can’t lose the baby.”

“I know,” he said. “I understand.”

“You say that now, but what if Dr. Schulman tells us I conceived in October? How can you be so sure you’ll feel the same way then?”

Again that silence.

“Because the baby is yours,” he said at last. “Because I love you and I love what belongs to you. Because if I met you two years from now, I would love your child the way I loved my own.”

She held onto his words like a talisman as an aide wheeled her into the examination room for the sonogram. John walked next to the stretcher, holding her hand.

Dr. Schulman greeted them, but Alex barely heard her description of what was about to happen. She was vaguely aware of a gel being applied to portions of her belly, of sensors being attached, but her thoughts were far away. For all she knew Brian had already contacted Griffin and told him where he could find his runaway wife. What Griffin would do with that information was anybody’s guess.

Conversation flowed around her. She caught bits and pieces of it.

“Over there... move that sensor... a little more gel... there you go... okay, there it is... are you looking, Alex?”

John’s attention was riveted to the monitor. A look of wonder lit up his face.

“Oh, my God,” Alex said as the image on the screen came together for her. “The baby!”

Tiny hands. Tiny feet. The sweet curve of the baby’s spine.

She clutched John’s hand even tighter than before. “Do you see that?” she asked, her voice high with excitement. “Can you believe it?”

He bent down next to her and kissed her on the mouth. “A miracle,” he said. “It’s always a miracle.”

Dr. Schulman watched the monitor carefully, exchanging opinions with the technician, speaking her notes into a hand-held tape recorder.

“Your baby is being coy,” she said with a laugh. “I can’t tell if we have a little boy or a little girl.”

“I don’t care,” Alex said, tears of joy flowing down her cheeks. “Is the baby healthy?”

“So far, so good,” said the doctor. “But, I think you need some bedrest, for starters. We’ll monitor you for a few days, see if we need to do anything to your cervix, then proceed from there.”

“The due date,” John said.

“Oh, of course.” The doctor glanced at her notes. “I’d say we’re looking at a Labor Day baby.”

“Labor Day.” Alex tried to do the math, but she was too nervous. “The date of conception—?”

“Your Thanksgiving Day guess was pretty close, but I’d put it closer to the beginning of December.”

“And you’re sure of that?” Alex asked, her heart thundering crazily inside her chest. “You’re positive?”

“As positive as I can be without a menstrual chart to guide me.”

“And it couldn’t have happened in October?”

“Absolutely not.”

She looked at John and saw her future in his eyes. She saw a chain of days stretching into months, months moving into years, all of them spent together as a family.

Some women dreamed of jewels.

Some women dreamed of designer clothes.

Some women dreamed of a family to call their own. Alex’s dream was finally coming true.

“Your baby,” she said as he kissed her again. All of his goodness, his strength, his courage—it would all be part and parcel of the child growing inside her womb. The child who would make them a family.

“Our
baby,” he said.

“I love you.” The words came hard for her. It was so much easier to show him how she felt, but she knew he needed to hear those three words as much as she needed to say them. “I love you so much that it scares me, John, because I can’t imagine my life without you in it.”

The look he gave her was enough to break her heart. “So if you love me so much, why don’t you marry me?”

* * *

Of course, they both knew the answer to that. Until Alex and Griffin divorced, there could be no wedding.

Alex was to spend four nights in the hospital. It seemed to her as if everyone in Sea Gate passed through her room to see how she was doing and wish her well. Dee knew about her lack of health insurance, and she took up a collection at the diner and presented Alex with a check. Alex was overwhelmed by the gesture.

“Don’t go thinking this is out of the goodness of my heart,” Dee said with mock severity. “I expect you back at the Starlight ASAP.”

“I can’t wait,” Alex said. “Would you believe I miss everyone, and I’ve only been gone a couple of days.”

“I still believe in Santa Claus,” Dee said. “I guess I can believe just about anything.”

The movement to save Sea Gate from developers had exploded into action since that night at the marina when Brian Gallagher was revealed as the power behind Eagle Management. Family didn’t do that to family. Brian had violated an unwritten code of behavior, violated it in a way that good people like Sally and Rich and Vince couldn’t condone. Sally backed out of her deal the morning after the incident. Rich and his wife were seeing a lawyer about reneging on their deal. Rumor had it the other members of Eagle Management were rethinking their position on Sea Gate and looking to target another Shore town.