THE GREAT BETRAYAL (32 page)

She stood there, gaping through the window, watching as they scrambled to get dressed. Luke said something to Grace, and then they both left the bedroom.

Leslie stood there, rooted to the soil. The June air was humid and balmy, and the whoosh of the nearby ocean filled her head. Then suddenly the patio door slid open, and Luke stepped out. He came to stand just behind her shoulder.

Autopilot: Leslie turned around.

He had pulled on his shirt and slacks. Leslie covered her mouth, gaping at his face.
What are you doing
? she heard herself say—but she hadn’t made a sound.
Why would you be in bed with your arms wrapped around my daughter
?

She tried to move her lips, but they wouldn’t work. Luke was staring at her, his eyes so full of pain it blinded her. All Leslie could imagine now was the two of them lying in bed together. Snuggling. Spooning together.

What exactly had she just seen
? Grace?

Grace
?

Of all the women she could’ve found him with…

Luke had been in bed with Grace!

Paralyzed by shock, Leslie suddenly crumpled to the ground.

In her disorientation, she imagined that she was clawing at Luke, raking his face, hitting him in the groin, again and again. Pounding his chest. Punching him. All the while screaming bloody murder at the top of her lungs.

Thoughts collided with one another in her head.

Grace
…
you’re supposed to be in Memphis
!
What the hell are you doing in Florida
?
You just sent me an e-mail last night about how well things were going at Tennessee State
.

Luke, you’re a vile, disgusting animal
!

But in reality Leslie had only slid to the ground, soaking the spot where she landed with tears. The shock, the disbelief poured out in a river of uncontrollable tears. Leslie sat there staring at nothing as she sobbed, in a foggy stupor. Only the sound of the ocean reached her.

Luke knelt beside her. “Leslie…” he said tentatively. What could he possibly have to say in that moment?

Abruptly her crying stopped.

Kathryn
.
A kidnapping
!

God, what the hell was going on with Kate anyway? Leslie shot up from the ground, intending to run to her car. But before she could gather her bearings or realize what was happening, she was being led through the glass doors, into the house, and put to sit on a sofa in the living room.

Her eyes fell to the candles. Candles. Didn’t they mean romance? Seduction? Leslie wanted to curl up in a fetal position and will herself out of the world.

Grace—now dressed, Leslie noticed—stood leaning against the concrete column that separated the sunken living room from the dining area. Her face was blank. She stood simply watching Leslie. And waiting. But waiting for what? For her mother to grab her by the hair and tear it out by the roots? For Leslie to claw out her eyeballs and fry them on the candlesticks?

In any case, Leslie couldn’t move; nor could she speak. She had so much to say. So much to ask. But she was dumb. Shocked into silence for the second time in her life.

Silence reigned. No one said a word.

Luke sat beside Leslie on the sofa. He folded his arms and fell back against the cushions. There was sadness in the pit of his stomach. He resigned himself to Leslie’s will, willing to take whatever he had coming. Whatever she wanted. He was now a ball of clay, and he would mold himself to her wishes. If she killed him right here and now, it would be no less than he deserved.

What would happen next? He had no idea. Leslie was sitting there, looking as though her insides had just been torn out. And Grace…

Suddenly she broke the silence. Her voice was surprisingly calm and even. “Leslie,” she began with a sigh of impatience, “are we just going to sit here all night? Are you waiting for us to apologize or something?”

Luke cut in. “Grace—”

“
Because, we’re not sorry, you know,” Grace continued as if Luke had not spoken. Her tone became matter-of-fact. “Besides—you don’t deserve any apologies. Tell her, Luke. Tell her about what’s happened between us. Tell her your marriage is all over, and has been for a long time.” Grace snorted. “You know, I’m actually glad that you showed up here tonight, because it was only a matter of time before you found out anyway, and—”

“
Stop it!” Luke shouted, standing. “Don’t do this. There is no ‘us,’ Grace. There never has been. All it’s ever been about is—” He broke off, looking at his wife, just sitting there. Silent as the dead. Was she even listening? “There’s never been an ‘us.’ Please don’t make it out to be more than it was.”

Grace looked at him, confused. “More than it
was
? Oh, I think it’s pretty obvious—even to my long-lost mother here—that what she peeked in on is about more than just sex, Luke. Do you shed tears when you make love to
her
? Have all women had that affect on you?”

Leslie turned her head toward the door. She heard the conversation, but she wasn’t listening.

Luke with Grace
?
Her husband and her daughter
?

It was the ultimate shock. The ultimate betrayal.

She was beyond comprehension, of any of it.

Suddenly she looked up at Grace, staring at her face—the face that was so like her own. The girl she’d spent the last five and a half years trying to reach. Trying to make amends and establish a bond with. Trying to be forgiven by.

Leslie’s face crumpled as if in pain.

Jeffrey’s baby
. He’d wanted to name her Elvissa. They had been so excited. So giddy with happiness. This child was to be the light of Jeffrey’s life.

Now here she stood, their daughter, twenty-one years later, making a mockery of the love in which she had been conceived. Making a joke of her very existence and how she’d come to be.

Leslie imagined herself asking,
Why the hell did you come back into my life
?
Why did you pretend to forgive me
?
Make me believe I could trust you
?
Why didn’t you just stay buried in Memphis
?

Grace stared back at her. Their eyes locked. Leslie was stricken by just
how much
of herself she saw in Grace. Perhaps too much.

Punishment
. The thought roared through her disorientated brain. Yes. This was punishment for what she had done. For abandoning Jeffrey’s child. It was a perverse atonement. Perhaps it had always been inevitable, and she had been a walking mark all these years.

Without having spoken a single word, Leslie stood up, and simply walked out of the house.

Outside, she slid behind the wheel of her car. The leather seat gloved her; the familiar feel calmed her. And she started the engine.

Luke had finally run through the front door, chasing after her, but Leslie did not see him. Didn’t hear him screaming her name.

Tires screeching, Leslie sped off into the night.

Dear God
…What in the hell was going on with Kathryn?

Luke watched helplessly as Leslie’s car took off down the street. Dusk had fallen, and the brake lights glowed red in the distance.

The front door opened and Grace stepped out. Luke turned to look at her.

Shame stared back at him, raw and damning.

He looked away quickly. It was over now. No matter what happened next,
this
was finally over.

Walking toward him, Grace reached out to touch his arm. He moved away.

“Luke, it’s okay,” she said. “Come back in—”

“I’m sorry,” he interrupted, without looking at her. He was still staring after Leslie. Every instinct told him he should go home.
Go after her
!

Grace came to stand in front of him. She slipped her arms around his waist. “Luke, please don’t be sorry. She was bound to find out sooner or later—I know we never really talked about it, but you must’ve known that. Besides, she has
no right
to be angry. She’s spent her whole life hurting people—especially you and me. She
deserves
to get a little of her own, don’t you think?”

Luke finally pulled his gaze from the street and looked down at Grace. He saw her for the first time.

Grace Audrey Phillips Cunningham. A daughter scorned.

Turning, he walked back into the house. Grace was on his heels. Once the door was closed behind them he said, “Payback. Of course—that’s why you did this.”

“Did what?”

“This!” he said forcefully, motioning between them. “The sex. With me.”

Grace said nothing, only stared back at him. God, how she looked like her mother. And her extremely expressive eyes confirmed everything.

“Oh, God.” Luke felt ill.

“No, Luke—it’s not like that—I think you’ve got it all wrong. I really do want to be with you. I want us to be together, and now we can be, without it being cloak-and-dagger, you know?”

He moved with a start. He was wasting time. He had to get to Leslie.

Going about the room, he picked up his briefcase and keys. He looked around for his BlackBerry. “Get your stuff. Blow out all those damn candles.” He paused. “Go back to Memphis, Grace.”

“Luke!” Grace stopped him as he was heading for the door, grabbing his arm. “What are you talking about? Come on; you’re not seriously thinking you can patch things up with her, are you? Because anyone can see that’ll never happen after
this
—get real.” Seeing the look on his face, she changed her tone, and begged, “Please just stay. Let’s talk things over; there’s so much we—“

“
Talk
? That’s interesting. You mentioned a little while ago that we had never talked about what would happen if Leslie found out, and I thought to myself, Well, that’s no surprise
.
What have we
ever
talked about?
Period?” He removed her hand from his arm. “This was never a relationship, Grace. You’re a big girl—that should’ve been obvious.”

Grace swallowed. She had really thought they had a future together.

Unbelievable
.

“
Get your things,” he barked, unable to meet her gaze. “Please. It’s over. Just go on back home…” Luke hesitated. “Hopefully in time…Let’s hope there’s a chance you’ll be able to salvage your relationship with your mother.”

Grace stood her ground. “Why are you saying that? Didn’t you hear me? I didn’t do this
just
to get back at her, Luke. I want us to be together. Yes, I’ll admit that at first I wanted to hurt her more than anything…and I guess I still do. She made me feel like I didn’t belong, keeping me at arms length for years so she could protect her precious and perfect little family—I wanted to punish all of you. But, Luke…” Her eyes softened. “Baby, that has nothing to do with what we’ve gotten from each other, or my feelings for you now. We have something special here. We
can
still be together and make it work.” She tried to take his hand again, tried to hug him, but he pushed her away. “Luke, please don’t fight it. This is
me
, okay? I know how you feel—I see it in your eyes when we make love. You’ve never been able to hide it.”

Luke’s head snapped up then. He froze, staring at her. “Oh, God, Grace…I did mislead you, didn’t I?” His eyes filled with empathy…and burning tears of disgrace.

But Grace misunderstood the tears. A satisfied and relieved looked spread over her face. The lines in her forehead vanished. She believed she had won him over, changed his mind. She actually thought he had fallen in love with her. That this had been about
her
all along.

“
It wasn’t you I was seeing, Grace.” Luke admitted softly. He looked away, wanting to bolt. “It was never you. It’s always been about your mother—it’s always been about Leslie.”

Grace’s face paled. Then she turned several shades of red as realization dawned.

Never in his life had Luke felt more ashamed of himself. What the fuck had he done? What had he been expecting the result to be? Reality had now opened his eyes, and he was terrified by what he saw.

“
Go away now, Grace,” he whispered. “Please. Just go away.”

In the temptation of Grace he had seen what he’d so desperately needed: the woman of his dreams. The woman he believed he had married, but lost to a mêlée with the past. The woman he wanted to love. The woman he
did
love.