The Happiest Day (20 page)

“Peter?” Maryanne reached
over and laid her hand on top of his. “Peter, there’s more.  Are you all
right?”

“Just tell me,” he
said tightly.

“They have a baby. 
A son.”

His jaw was so
tight, she worried it might snap.  He stood up in a rush.  “Excuse me,” he
muttered and stalked out of the restaurant.

Maryanne ran after
him, finding him leaning on a railing of a bridge overlooking the water.  His
hands hung loosely, but his back was tense, and his head was dropped.

“Peter,” she
whispered.  She touched his back gently. “Oh Peter, I’m sorry to hurt you like
this, but I thought you should know.  When you left for New York, and with
Blanche, I wasn’t sure what had happened.  Are you still in love with Rachel?”

“What does it
matter?” he asked bitterly.  “I made my choice and I have to live with the
consequences.”

“Why did you leave
her?  I know that you loved her, loved her enough to leave Blanche and make a
life with her.  Why did you choose Blanche?”

He turned his head
to look at his sister.  “I did it to protect Rachel.  Blanche was blackmailing
me.”

“Because you and
Rachel were having an affair?  Who cares?  You could have weathered that
storm.  Our circle of friends loves affairs.”

“No, it wasn’t
that.  Blanche found out something about Rachel and threatened to take it to
the police.  I couldn’t let that happen.”

“What did she find
out?”

“Maryanne…” he
hesitated for a moment but then decided to reveal the truth.  The burden of
knowledge was too heavy to carry alone.  “When Helen and Frederick died…did you
ever wonder what really happened that night?”

Maryanne looked
uncomfortable.  “I tried not to think about it.  Daddy was found innocent and
that’s all that mattered to me.  It was an intruder.”

“That’s what we
decided we would believe, but we knew it wasn’t true.”

Maryanne shrugged
her shoulders.  “What does it matter now, Peter?  Daddy is gone and if he was guilty-”

“It wasn’t him,”
Peter interrupted.  “He told me the truth years ago.  It was Rachel.”

“What?” Maryanne
asked loudly, and then looking around, lowered her voice.  “I don’t believe
it.”

“I didn’t either,
but Norris told me what happened and how he tried to protect her by claiming
that he and Rachel had been together that night before the murders.  I knew it
wasn’t true, because Rachel had been at my apartment.  I dropped her off at the
house around five.  Police estimate that was around the time they were killed.”

“Have you ever
asked Rachel about it?”

“No.  I guess I
didn’t have the courage and in the end, it didn’t really matter to me.  Stern
had tried to assault her at your wedding and you know how brutal Helen had
always been towards her.  I figured she snapped that night and it was
well-deserved.”

“Peter, how can
you say that?  She murdered two people.”

“We don’t know the
circumstances,” he argued.  “None of us were there.  Maryanne, are you willing
for Rachel to face charges, to go to trial?”

“Of course not! 
I’m going to do the same thing you’ve done, protect her,” she said fiercely.  “You’re
right, we have no idea what happened in that house that night.  So, how did Blanche
find out?”

“She slept with
Leonard and he spilled the beans.  When I told her, though, that I wanted a
divorce, and that I was leaving her for Rachel, she played her trump card.  She
knew that I would never let Rachel’s secret be revealed.  I took the job in New
York to take Blanche away.  I didn’t quite trust her that she would uphold her
end of the bargain.”

“So Rachel thinks
that you and Blanche decided to reconcile.  You never told her why you were
leaving.  Do you know how much that must have hurt her?”

“Yes,” he said
flatly.  “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do but all I had to do was
picture her in prison and that’s what gave me the courage to go through with
it.”

He heaved a deep sigh. “Is she
happy?”

Maryanne nodded. 
“She seems happy, Peter.  She really does.”  She reached into her purse and
pulled out a picture.  “I brought this for you.”

He took the
picture from her and stared at it.  He stared at Rachel and Theo, the baby
swaddled in blankets in Rachel’s arms, Theo’s arms around the two of them.  She
did look happy.

“Damn it,” he
muttered ashamedly, brushing moisture from the corners of his eyes.  “God damn
it.”

“I’m sorry,” Maryanne
whispered.  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said again, “but I thought you
would want to see that she finally has the family she has always wanted.”

“No, don’t be
sorry.  I’m glad she’s happy, Maryanne.  I really am.  She deserves so much
after everything she’s been through.” He tried to hand the picture back to his
sister, but she shook her head.

“I brought it for
you.  Do you want to keep it?”

He looked at the
picture one more time, and then shook his head painfully.  “I can’t.  I’m
sorry.”  He handed it back to her.  “I’ve got to go.”

“No, Peter!  I
came all this way to see you.”

He held up his
hand.  “I can’t,” he repeated, his voice thick.  “I love you, Annie.” He turned
and walked away from her, his hands shoved in his pockets.

Maryanne stayed in
the city for a few more days and tried several times to reach Peter, but he
didn’t return her calls.  She mourned the loss of her relationship with her
brother but knew that he had made difficult decisions and it was painful for
him to see family.  With regret, she left New York with her children.  She knew
that Peter would not return to them until he was ready.

“Rae, can we
talk?” Rachel looked up from her work, momentarily startled.  Theo was at the
newspaper office, David was asleep, and Rachel had thought she was alone in the
house. Laurie stood there, hands shoved in pockets, looking nervous.

Rachel smiled and
waved him into her study.  “Of course we can.  It’s so good to have you home
for good but I have to get used to it.  You’ve been gone for so many years,
sometimes I forget you’re here.”

Laurie sat in the
chair opposite hers at the large oak desk.  “It’s good to be home.”

“Things have
changed quite a bit since you were home last summer, I know,” she said gently. 
“But I feel like everything is on the right path now, don’t you?  I mean, I
have Theo and the baby now and I’m so very happy.  I want to make sure that you
are, too.”

“I am happy,” he
said sincerely.  “I mean, as happy as one can be with the tragedies that our
family has had to go through.”

Rachel sat back. 
“We really have never talked about what happened.  Do you miss Norris?”

Laurie looked her
with a serious but thoughtful expression on his face.  “Of course I do.  He was
my father.”

His words fell
like a bomb in the middle of the room.  Rachel stared at him then finally said
in a deceptively calm voice, “You mean, he was like a father to you.”

“No.  He was my
father.  Rachel, I’ve known for a long time.”

She let out a
shaky breath.  “How?”

“One time at
school, a teacher mistook me for Geoff and everyone had a good laugh about it. 
Geoff and I were talking at dinner that night and one of our best friends said
that everyone talked about how we looked like brothers.  It was like someone
had taken a blindfold off of our eyes.  We stared at each other and it hit us.”

“Did you talk
about it?”

“Yes.”

“How did you feel
about it?”

He shrugged. 
“There wasn’t much use in getting upset, was there?  Besides, I loved Norris
like a father, Geoff like a brother.”

“I know, me too.” 
Tears pricked the corners of her eyes and she wished she could be like Laurie,
innocent to the other secrets Norris had tried to keep from them.  “I wish I
understood it, though.  My memories of Mama and Papa are so happy.  They seemed
like they loved each other.”

Laurie leaned
forward. “Don’t torture yourself over it, Rachel.  Just remember our parents in
your own way.”

Rachel nodded and
brushed away the moisture in her eyes.  “So, we’re all set for you to start the
university this fall.”

“That’s what I
wanted to talk to you about.  I’ve decided to not go to college.”

Rachel drew back
in surprise.  “Of course you will.  We need you at the newspaper and I need a
business mind.  That’s you.  You’re so brilliant.”

“I don’t want to
work at the newspaper.”

“You love the
newspaper!” she objected.  “You’ve always loved working there.”

“I did,” he
agreed, “but it’s not what I want to do with my life.”

“Well, what on
earth do you want to do?”

“I’m going to go
to St. Gregory’s Seminary.”

She stared at him,
her jaw dropped.  “You’re what?”

“I’m going to
become a priest.”

She shook her head
as if to clear the cobwebs.  “Laurie, are you crazy?  You can’t become a
priest.”

“Why not?” he
asked calmly.

“Well…because…I
don’t know!  Why do you want to be a priest?”

“I believe I’m
being called to do it.”

“By whom?” she
shot back.

He smiled then. 
“By God.”

His words stopped
her cold.  “Oh, Laurie…” she breathed.  “Do you really mean it?”

“I do.  It’s
something that I have felt for a long time.  I have prayed about it and spoke
with people about and I truly feel that this is my purpose.”

“But…you’ll never
be able to marry or to have children.  Doesn’t that bother you?”

“My parish will be
my family.”

She bit the corner
of her lip.  “Things will be different between us.”

“No they won’t,”
he insisted.  “I will be your brother forever.”

“But you’ll belong
to other people.  You’ll belong to God.”

“I’ve always
belonged to God.”

Rachel raised her
eyes to look at him ruefully.  “See, you’re already talking like a priest. 
Will I be able to swear around you?”

He laughed then
and came around the desk to hug her.  “Swear as much as you like.  I’ll pray for
your soul.”

She mockingly
slapped his shoulder and hugged him hard.  “I just want you to be happy.  Will
this do it?”

“Yes,” he said
with conviction.  He seemed calmly purposeful and she knew that there was
nothing she could say to sway him. “This is exactly what I want.”

“Then you have my
blessing.”  She kissed his cheek.  “I don’t have to call you Father, do I?”

“Only if you want
to avoid Hell,” he teased.

Her eyes grew
serious.  “You’ll never leave me, will you?”

“Never,” he
promised.  “You and me against the world, right?”

“Right,” she
whispered and hugged him again.  For so many years, she had felt the need to
take care of Laurie and protect him from the hurts and pains of the world.  She
needed to accept that he was now a man with a sure path.  A heavy weight had
suddenly been lifted from her shoulders and she was at peace with his decision.

The next few years
flew by with the newspaper taking most of Rachel’s time.  She poured her energy
into the paper, making it a respected and widely distributed media source. 
Having Theo as the lead photojournalist was a feather in her cap and he was
often on the road, travelling to the story.  She believed that she and Theo were
a power couple and felt respected by the community for the first time since she
had come to live at the Thornton estate.

Bert closed his
private practice and came to work at the paper as counsel and her right hand
man in the daily operations.  Many a night, she and Bert sat in her office
studying balance sheets with one hand and potential stories with the other. 
Maryanne good-naturedly complained that she had lost her husband to a mistress
called the Ohio Valley Herald .

Theo was not as
easy-going about the amount of time Rachel spent at the office and she tried to
explain to him how the paper gave her the identity that she had desperately
been searching for.  She reminded him that he spent days, if not weeks, away
from home with his work but he was stubborn in his belief that it was different
for a man.

“You’re a mother
now,” he had pointed out.

“David is in good
hands,” Rachel had argued.  “He’s with Maryanne and his cousins during the day
and then goes home with you or me at night.  He’s perfectly happy.”

Theo had smiled,
not wanting to fight with her, but the smile had not quite reached his eyes. 
Rachel had known when she married him that he believed strongly in motherhood
but she had also thought that he respected her position at the newspaper.  She
couldn’t help feeling that he was very disappointed in her.

Just a few days after
David’s second birthday, Matthew Bressler made his appearance.  Rachel fell in
love immediately with the adorable baby boy who appeared to be a sweet mixture
of her and Theo, and was good-natured as well.  When Matthew was a month old,
she returned to work much to Theo’s chagrin.

“Theo,” she said
in a pleading voice.  “I have a newspaper to run.  I’m bringing Matthew with
me, just like I did with David, for the first few months.”

“With a nanny,” he
corrected her.  “A nanny is taking care of him.”

“I’m right in the
same building.”

“It’s wrong,
Rachel,” he said stubbornly.  “Children deserve to be raised at home by their
mother.”

“Theo, you knew
when you married me that I had a newspaper.  We talked about it and you knew
how important it was to me.”  She felt like they were rehashing all of the same
arguments they had had when David was a baby.

“I have no
problems with you owning the paper, but you don’t need to run it.  Not while
the children are small.  Bert does a great job and you can hire as many people
as you want.  You don’t have to be here seven days a week, twelve hours a day. 
Our children will be grown someday and not know who their mother is.”

“I disagree. 
They’ll know that their mother is a strong businesswoman who created something
special.  They’ll be proud of me.”

It was a continuous
bone of contention between them and Rachel was disappointed when, just two
months later, he announced a trip to Europe.

“Why?” she asked,
trying to hide the hurt.  She felt that he was making this trip to get away
from her.

“I want to do a
series on France post-war.”

“How long will you
be gone?”

“A couple of
months,” he shrugged.  He looked up from his desk, studying her face.  “Rachel,
this is what I do.”

“You haven’t done
it since I met you.  The timing just seems off.  Matthew is only three months
old.  He’ll be completely different when you return.”

“You told me that
you’re a strong businesswoman who creates something special and that our
children will be proud of you.  I want them to be proud of me, too.”

“So you’re not
going because you’re angry at me?”

He stood from his
desk and came around it to draw her in his arms.  “Sweetheart, I’m not angry at
you.  I promise that.  It’s just time for us to both do what we love.”  He
kissed her gently on the lips.  “We’re fine, right?”

She nodded,
blinking away tears stinging the corner of her eyes.  She couldn’t help but
feel that she had failed somehow.  “We’re fine,” she agreed.

Theo’s trip became
a pattern over the years of their marriage and Rachel had to admit that he seemed
contented.  He was gone often for months at a time, but when he returned, he
always seemed pleased to see them and their marriage took on a comfortable, if
not overly close, feel.  They added Steven to their family just two years
later, then finally a girl, Lily, three years after that.  They had been
married for seven years and had fallen into a predictable pattern of family
life.  She was satisfied with her life and if at time she wished for something
more with her husband, she reminded herself how devastating her life had been
before Theo and the children.  There was something to be said about
satisfaction and contentment.  What was happiness, after all?  Just the high
that came before the fall.