The Deadline (The Friessens: A New Beginning) (11 page)

“You threw Laura out
? You lied!” Brian yelled at his mother. “How could you?”

“Brian
, listen, it wasn’t that easy, and what your sister did was…”

“Careful
,” Andy barked out, interrupting her before she could finish. “That’s my wife you’re talking about.”

Sue
firmed her lips and just shook her head.

“Andy
, we need to finish this,” Laura said, leaning toward Chad, who still held Jeremy.

“So Gabriel is your son
, and you’re the father?” George said. He wore an odd look, and Andy, although tired, was sharp enough to pick up on his meaning.

“
I met Laura just over a year ago. Gabriel is not my biological son, but he is my son in every other way that matters,” he said. George appeared to relax.

“
Laura, who’s your son’s father?” Brian asked.

“It doesn’t matter
, Brian,” she said, shaking her head.

“
It does matter to me. Do I know him? Did he help you at all. Where is he in all this?”

Laura looked to Andy
. He knew she didn’t want to say anything, but if Andy had a sister, he’d have wanted to know who messed with her.

“His name is Tyler, and he turned his back
on Laura,” he said. “I just talked to him, got him tested. He’s not in Laura or Gabriel’s life, and he’s not a match.”

“Tyler Cassidy, from our
church?” Brian fisted his hands. “Did you know?” he said to his father.

George and
Sue exchanged an odd look, one of shared secrets. “Yes, we did,” Sue said.

“I swear to
God, I’m going to kill him. You’ve had him over for dinner with his family how many times?” Brian said. His anger had ramped up the energy in the room, and the babies were starting to fuss.

“Brian, let it go
, please,” Laura pleaded. “I never told you, so how did you know it was him?”

George glanced at his wife
. “I’m an elder with the church. He was torn up over what he’d done. He came to me for forgiveness, for help, said he’d been led astray.”

Andy didn’t know what to say. He wondered what was wrong with
these people. Brian still stood in the corner, his hands fisted, and Andy was trying to get his head around the fact that these two parents had tossed their own daughter out into the cold but had welcomed into their home the boy responsible for getting her pregnant. He wasn’t even sure what scale of hypocrisy that put them on.

“Brian
, maybe when you’re a little older, you’ll understand,” Sue said. “Your father is an elder in the church. Tyler and his family are his flock. What your sister did, well, it embarrassed your father. We were just grateful it wasn’t spoken of. This could have hurt all of us―”

“Stop this
!” Laura shouted. “We’re not here to talk about how I embarrassed you with your church. You made your choice. Fine. I have a life. I kept my son, and I’ll do anything to make sure he stays alive. Please, he needs a bone marrow transplant from someone from this family. It has to be a perfect tissue match. I’m not a match. If I was, I wouldn’t be here, and neither would my husband, but I’m begging you to get tested. If you’re a match, then please, please be a donor to my son—our son!” She looked to Andy, and he could see she was shaking. “Could you honestly, in good conscience, live with yourself if Gabriel died and you could have saved his life?”

“Well
, maybe this is God’s way of punishing you. Have you ever thought of that?” Sue said.

F
or the first time ever, Andy wanted to slap this woman for hurting his wife. He couldn’t believe Sue was a mother, that she had given birth to Laura. She had ice in her veins, and he wondered what the difference was between her and Caroline Friessen, his own mother, the ice queen who came from old money. His mother only cared about her position within the oldest Eastern blueblood families, and this woman only cared about her position within their church.

He glanced at Laura,
who had a tear running down her cheek as Chad handed the fussing baby back to her. Chad appeared embarrassed.

“
Okay, that’s enough, Sue,” George said, gesturing quite sharply with his hand.

“I’ll do it
,” Brian said, stepping into the middle of the room.

“Me
, too,” said Chad defiantly.

“Not without my permission
, you won’t. You’re minors,” Sue stated. Was she seriously going to push this?

“
Laura, take Jeremy and wait for me in the truck,” Andy said. Just one look told him she was frantic. “Trust me,” he whispered, and he leaned in and kissed her.

I
t took her a moment and another breath until she stood up. Andy stood with her and could see she was shaking.

“Goodbye
,” Laura spit out, and she started for the door before stopping beside Brian, setting her hand on his arm. “Take care, Brian,” she said. Then she glanced over at Chad, sitting in the same spot on the sofa, looking like a boy who’d had his favorite toy stomped on.

Andy just watched his wife
, who scanned the room as if taking her last look. She left through the front door.

Laura was halfway to the truck when the front door flew open
.

“Laura
!” Brian stepped out and hurried after her in his sneakers, laces dangling. He was seventeen now, she remembered, and he was tall and thin.

Laura pulled the blanket up over Jeremy’s face as the rain splattered down a little harder. She had no hat
, so her hair was getting wet, and her brother was soaked.

“Hey
, Brian, it was so good to see you. I really missed you,” she said.

T
he front door opened again, and Chad raced out. “Laura, don’t leave again!” he said.

“We’re getting soaked out here
, you guys. Come sit in the truck,” Laura said. She climbed in the front with Jeremy, and Brian opened the driver’s door. Chad climbed in the back, slipping past the baby seat and sitting in the middle.

“Laura
, why didn’t you tell me what happened, that you were going to have a baby? I remember you were so upset, and then Mom said you left. She wouldn’t let us talk about you. It was as if you’d done something horrible,” Brian said.

“You had a baby
, Laura?” Chad asked from the back seat.

She looked from one brother to the
other and realized the hole in her heart that would never heal was from the pain of leaving her brothers, having no contact with them
—a bad influence.
Her mother’s words rang through her mind again, making her feel worthless. It had taken her forever to hold her head up again.

“I had a baby.
It happened. I didn’t give him up. His name is Gabriel, and he’s five. He’s amazing and sweet,” she said. Her heart ached, talking about him, worrying about how he was doing.

“
You’re married, Laura?” Brian asked. “You’re barely twenty-one, and your husband is so much older than you. Is he good to you?” He couldn’t hide his concern.

She smiled and nodded. “Andy
’s a good man, and he loves Gabriel as his own. I love him, and he looks after us.” She smiled at her brothers. “So, tell me about you two. I can’t believe how big you are, and, Brian, are you shaving?” She reached across and slid her hand over his chin.

“Brian has a girlfriend
,” Chad teased.

“A girlfriend, do I know her?” Laura was in awe of what she
’d missed.

“She’s a new girl
, moved here with her family last year. She’s nice. Her name is Donna. Mom doesn’t like her, and she made Dad have a talk with me, saying I was getting too serious. You know how she is, and Dad just does what she says.” Brian reached over and rubbed his finger over Jeremy’s hand, and he glowed when Jeremy wrapped his tiny hand around his finger. “That’s so cool, what a grip he has.”

The back door opened
, and Andy leaned in. “Sorry to break this up, but we have to go. Boys, your mom wants you in the house.”

“Laura
, how do I get a hold of you?” Brian asked. “Where are you living?”

“Yeah
, Laura, I want to come with you,” Chad added. “Don’t leave us again, please. I want to help your son.”

“Either of you have a cell phone?” Andy asked.

“I do.” Brian pulled a small, slim phone from his back pocket.

“Give me your number. I’ll text you with our address, phone number.
You call Laura anytime, and if you two need anything, you call me,” Andy said, keying in the phone number into what appeared a new cell phone.

“Brian, Chad
,” George called from the front steps. “You come in now, you hear?”

Chad leaned forward and kissed Laura on the cheek
before hopping out.

Brian touched her arm
. “Don’t worry, Laura. I’ll help your son. After all, I’m his uncle,” he said. Then he slid out, and she watched as both her brothers went into the house, her father lingering at the doorway for a second, just watching them, before he shut the door.

The steam filled the bathroom
, coating the mirror as Laura lounged in the large bathtub of their hotel room for the night. The hot water soothed the ache from the tension she’d been holding on to for what felt like a lifetime. She could hear the twins jabbering away on the bed, where Andy had laid them down after bathing them. They were dressed only in diapers in the warm room.

The
re was a knock on the door, and Andy said in his deep voice, “Coming!” She wondered what he was doing when he poked his head in the bathroom, holding a baby in both arms. “That’s dinner at the door,” he said. “Don’t fall asleep in there.”

She didn’t want to get out of the warm tub, but she was anxious to call Neil and Candy again and get another update on Gabriel.
It was so hard to be this far away, and she was exhausted—not just physically. She felt as if she’d been in the fight of her life, battered and bruised, but she couldn’t shake the sense that maybe she was stronger than she’d thought. She’d faced her parents without crying or falling apart. She’d held it together. Having Andy there with her had been a steel wall of support that kept her sane.

She listened to the rattle of a cart
. There was another voice in the room, and then the door closed. Andy poked his head in again. “Dinner’s here. Come out and eat.”

Laura un
stopped the tub and stepped out, drying herself off and slipping on one of the hotel robes before going into the room, which had one king-size bed and a playpen set up for the babies to sleep in.

Jeremy was making a lot of noise
, and Andy was swaying with him, Chelsea a perfect angel in his other arm. She had a big, bright smile on her face, but then, she loved being with her daddy.

“I’ll take him
,” Laura said, holding out her arms, but Andy only shook his head, letting his gaze sweep over her with an appreciative glint.

“You look relaxed
,” he said. “You eat. He’s just being fussy and demanding.”

Laura took in the four plates with
silver domes overtop. “What did you order?” she asked. She lifted the closest one and sniffed the steak and baked potatoes with broccoli, and the scent had her mouth watering, it smelled so good. Her stomach answered with a loud rumble even Andy could hear.

“There’s salad
, too,” he said. “Chicken, as well. Dig in. There’s lots.” He set Chelsea in the playpen, Jeremy with her, and Laura took a plate and sat at the small table. Andy set a salad in front of her, as well, and a bottle of water. He lifted the cover from another plate and joined her. “I talked to Neil while you were in the bath.”

Laura had just crammed a piece of steak in her mouth.
She chewed and swallowed. “I thought you’d call after dinner.”

He cracked
open a beer and took a swallow, shaking his head. “Gabriel had a rough day, but he settled in with Neil and Candy. He apparently was able to play a game of Snakes and Ladders with Candy this afternoon.”

“
Well, that’s good,” she said, setting her fork down and leaning back.

Andy gestured with his hand and then picked up his own fork and knife
, cutting into his steak. “Eat, Laura. Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything until after you ate.”

“I’m not a child
, Andy.” She picked up her fork again and took another bite, maybe just to prove a point.

“No
, you’re not a child. You’re my wife, and I should have told you how proud I was of you today, the way you took on your parents. You held your head up, Laura, and you didn’t let them knock you down.”

She paused and watched her husband
. He’d never said that to her before. For some reason, she had always wondered if he thought she was helpless.

“I guess I didn’t know where I belonged as their
daughter,” she said. “I felt for so long like a nobody, and then I was just surviving, and then you came along and turned my world and way of thinking upside down. I’ve had to figure out who I am. It helped, having you there, knowing you wouldn’t let them hurt me.”

“You know who you are
, Laura. You’re my wife. You’re a Friessen, and we don’t allow anyone to walk all over us. No one will ever do that to you again.”

She had never considered what Andy was saying. She
’d always thought of herself as an extension of Andy, cared for by Andy, but, as she thought about it, she realized he was right in a lot of ways. She may have been his wife and taken his name, but she was strong and capable. She had to be, to be married to him.

“So what do we do now
, Andy, for Gabriel? My brothers said they would help, but how do we get around my parents? I can’t believe they would actually block this.” She played it over in her mind again and again, how they’d just turned their backs so easily. Laura was having trouble believing she had actually grown up in that family, and she wondered whether that feeling she’d had as a child, never fitting in, was because of all the superficial bullshit that came naturally to her parents. Being out of all that and away from them had helped her see clearly the face they put on for the community, a facade of togetherness, of family values. They saw themselves as pillars of the community, the upper middle class, well adjusted and normal, but that was a load of crap. They were greedy, dysfunctional opportunists. She wondered how many other families were just as messed up. Maybe more than she realized. There was no such thing as picture perfect—it was all about who was better at hiding their secrets.

Andy tapped her plate with his kni
fe. “Gabriel is going to be fine. Come on, Laura, eat.”

She tasted the
broccoli, which was a little soft, overdone and tasteless. “What did you say to my parents when I left?”

She watched Andy cut a big piece of meat
, and he sighed. She wondered whether she was wearing him down, because he didn’t cut her off the way he usually did. She could see his mind working in an odd sort of way, as if considering what to say.

“Let me
be clear about something: I don’t like them,” he said. “They hurt you. They’re a miserable excuse for…I told them to name their price.”

She wasn’t sure what to say
, and she could tell by the way he watched her that he didn’t know how she’d react. Even Laura didn’t know how to react to that. She glanced over at her babies cooing in the playpen, and then there was a knock on the hotel room door.

“Did you order something else?”
she asked

Andy frowned and wiped his mouth with the napkin as he slid back his chair. “
No, I didn’t. Maybe they forgot something.” He went to the door, and Laura stared at her plate, considering how it made her feel that Andy was willing to pay her parents off to save Gabriel. She wondered whether they were the type of people who could be bought.

“Hello
, Laura.”

Laura jumped and felt her face warm when her father stepped into their hotel room
. She pulled instinctively at the front of her robe to make sure it was closed and she was decent, and she looked right to Andy. She knocked her fork on the floor. She felt like an absolute klutz, and she bent down to pick it up, reminding herself she wasn’t a little girl. She was good, and she was decent, and this man had no power over her.

Andy was right there when she stood up.
He slid his hands possessively over her shoulders and held her still. “Your dad wants to talk about Gabriel,” he said, and then he moved her beside him. With his arm around her, she could feel his strength, his power, protecting her. In that moment, she knew she could handle anything.