The Happiest Day (21 page)

1934-1945

Rachel drank her
coffee tiredly and glanced at the small clock on her desk.  It was well after eight
p.m.  If she didn’t leave soon, she would miss seeing the children completely
today.

“Go on,” Bert
said, his voice rough with fatigue.  “Everything’s under control here.”

She looked back at
her brother-in-law, worry gnawing at her.  “Only if you go, too.”

Bert’s mouth
tightened and he looked away from Rachel, sadness evident in the lines of his
face.  “There’s nothing to go home to,” he said.

It had been only a
month, and the loss of Maryanne was still like a shard of glass in Rachel’s
heart.  Breast cancer had taken her swiftly and painfully, throwing her family
into a tailspin of shock and despair.  The children had cried endlessly for
days and Bert’s parents had agreed to stay, trying to comfort their grandchildren. 
Finally, they had needed to return to their home in Columbus, and the children
had begged to go with them.  Now Bert was alone.

“Come home with
me,” Rachel urged.  “We’ll eat a late supper and listen to the radio.”

“I’m sure Theo
would like to spend some time with his wife, alone.  Go on, Rae.  I’ll just
lock up and head home, I promise.”  His shoulders drooped in constant despair
and Rachel hated seeing him this way.

“If you’re sure…”
she said uncertainly.  She did want to see the children.

“I’m sure.  Hey, I
forgot to tell you, I got a phone call from Peter.”

Rachel stopped
where she stood.  “Where…why didn’t he come for the funeral?”

“He was at a
conference in London.  He just got back and got the news.”

Rachel nodded. 
“I’m sure he was shocked.”

Bert nodded.  “He
asked if I wanted him to come home.”

“Wh..what did you
tell him?”

“I told him there
was no need.  There’s nothing to be done anymore.”

Rachel nodded
sadly and bent down to hug her brother-in-law.  “I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you, too. 
Give the kids a kiss for me, O.K.?”

As Rachel drove
home, the unwanted picture of Norris, swinging from a bedpost entered her
mind.  Despair had driven him to end his life, unable to find a reason to continue
living.  When she arrived home, the first thing she did was to enter her study
and place a call to Laurie.

“Father Lawrence,”
he answered on the third ring.

“Laurie, it’s
Rachel.”

“What’s wrong?”

She laughed
tiredly.  “Something is not always wrong, you know.”

“I’m sorry,” he
apologized.  “You’re right.  To what do I owe the pleasure of this late night
call?”

“Well, something
is wrong.”

He had to laugh
then although he sobered quickly.  “What is it, Sis?”

“I just left Bert
at the newspaper.”  She looked up as Theo walked into the office, holding Lily.

“Mama!” she cried
happily, reaching for her.

Rachel bent her
head to hold the receiver between her ear and shoulder and took her three year
old daughter into her arms, kissing her soundly.

“And?” Laurie prompted.

“He’s not doing
well.  The kids are still in Columbus with his parents and he’s all alone.  He said
he was going home but I’m afraid for him to be there alone.”

“Do you worry that
he’ll do something to harm himself?”

“I just don’t
know.”

“I’ll go and sit
with him.”

“Thank you,
Laurie.  That means a lot to me.  Call me if you need me.”  She disconnected
the call and looked up at Theo.  “Sorry.  I needed to take care of that before
I did anything else.”

“You could have
brought him home with you,” he said, sitting in the wingback chair opposite the
desk, placing one ankle on the opposite knee.

“I offered but he
didn’t want to impose.”  She sighed and stroked her hand through Lily’s honey
blonde hair.  The little girl contentedly rested her head against Rachel’s
chest, thumb placed firmly in her mouth.

“We missed you.”

His words never
failed to tighten her muscles.  She didn’t feel he said them in a loving manner
but more to make her feel guilty.  “I missed all of you, too.  How are the
boys?”

“Homework is
finished.  I’m letting them listen to the radio for a little while, then off to
bed.”  He stared at her for long moments and Rachel looked away uncomfortably.

“I already
apologized, Theo.  What more do you want from me?”

He sighed. 
“Nothing.  Nothing at all.”  He stood and turned to leave.  “I’m going to leave
for Europe next week.  I’m not sure how long I’ll be gone.’

“Do you want a
divorce?” she asked softly.

He turned back to
look at her.  “That’s the last thing I want.”  He looked sincere.  “I just want
you to be a part of this family’s life.”

“You’re leaving
the country in a week.  How is that being a part of this family?”

He chuckled
humorlessly.  “Same argument after all these years.  I’m tired, Rachel.  I’m
going up to bed.  Good-night.”

She waited until
she heard his light footsteps going up the stairs then carried her half-asleep
daughter upstairs and put her to bed.  She read Lily a story, kissed her
lightly, and then left the room, leaving a small lamp on for the little girl
who was scared of the dark.  Headed back downstairs, she found her three sons
listening to
The Lone Ranger
.  She knew better than to interrupt them
but sat in a chair.  Six year old Steven immediately made his way to his
mother’s side and she drew him onto her lap.  His older brothers scooted back
on the carpet so that they lay at her feet.  She looked at them and felt tears
pricking her eyes.  Despite what Theo often told her—that she was depriving her
children—she knew that they loved her and were proud of her work.  She hugged
Steven tightly. 

Theo didn’t want a
divorce.  She vowed to try to spend more time at home.  She treasured this
family and would do anything to keep them.  No person could ever come between
them.  She was sure of that.

Peter stood
outside of the newspaper building, his hands shoved in his pockets, staring at
nothing, lost in memories.  Despite Bert telling him that there was no reason
for him to come home, he couldn’t stay away.  He had visited his sister’s grave
and realized he was all alone now.  Both of his siblings were gone, as well as
his parents.  He had purposely isolated himself from everyone he knew and loved
and now, upon his return, there was no one left.  Sadness enveloped him.

He almost missed
the young boy that came barreling out of the front door, a happy grin on his
face.  He probably would have missed him completely if the boy hadn’t run right
into him, dropping his school books on the sidewalk.

“Oh, sorry
mister,” the boy said earnestly.  “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

Peter steadied the
boy by placing his hands on the thin shoulders and looked down.  At his own
face.

The dark hair, the
unruly cowlick, the clear blue eyes stared back at him.  Peter felt as if
someone had sucked the air out of his lungs.

“It’s all right,”
he managed to say through dry lips.  “No damage done.”  He bent down to help
him pick up the school books.  “Moby Dick, huh?”

“Yes, sir.  I have
to read it before summer break.”

“It’s a good
book,” Peter commented.

“It’s all right,”
he shrugged.  “I’d rather be fishing.”

Peter muttered
something appropriate and opened the book, his fingers trembling.  “
David
Bressler.”
  The book was marked with the boy’s name.  Bressler.

“Is this you? 
David Bressler?”

“Yes, sir,” the
boy answered, holding his hand out expectantly.

“David, I was
wondering if you could help me.  I used to live in this town and I decided to
come back for a visit, but I seem to have gotten a little turned around.  Is
this the newspaper building?”

“Yes, sir.  My mom
runs it.”

“Your mom?  That
wouldn’t be Rachel Thornton, would it?”

David looked
momentarily confused.  “Thornton?  No…Oh, that was her name before she married
my dad.  She’s Rachel Bressler now.”

“I think I heard
something about that.” He handed David the book.  “Maybe I should go in and say
hello to her.  We grew up together.”

“Sure.  She’s
always busy, but I think she’d be glad to see you.  Well, sorry again, mister…”

“MacGregor,” Peter
supplied.  “Peter MacGregor.  It was very nice to meet you, David.”  He took a
deep breath and plunged.  “By the way, David, how old are you?”

“Nine.  But I’ll
be ten next week.  See ya!”  He gave an irrepressible grin and raced away.

Peter stood
frozen, staring after the boy.  “Son of a bitch.”

Rachel was working
diligently when she heard a ruckus outside of her office.  She had barely time
to look up when her door flew open.

“Mrs. Bressler,”
her secretary, Diane, said in a harried voice.  “There’s a gentleman here who
insists on seeing you.  I explained that you are busy…”

“Get out the way,”
a male voice growled and in walked Peter.

Rachel felt
herself rise half-way from the chair then fall back weakly.  “Peter.”

“Damn straight.”

“Should I call
security, Mrs. Bressler?”

“Get the hell out
of here,” Peter said meanly to the woman.  “Rachel, tell her to go unless you
want the whole world knowing your secrets.”

Rachel paled, her
stomach lurching.  “Diane, it’s all right.  Go ahead and take off for the day.”

“It’s only three
o’clock,” Diane protested.

“No, go ahead. 
I’ll see you in the morning.”

Diane looked
unsure but left and closed the door behind her.

“There was no need
to talk to her like that.  She was only doing her job.”

“I don’t give a
shit about her.” Peter stalked across the office until he reached her desk,
leaning his hands on it so that his face was on level with hers.  “I’m going to
give you one chance, Rachel.  Just one.  Is there anything you would like to
tell me?”

He couldn’t know,
she thought frantically.  He just couldn’t.  “No,” she said firmly.

She wouldn’t have
thought that his face could grow any more hateful, but it did.  “You’re
starting this off very badly,” he spat out.  “Did you ever intend on telling me
about my son?”

“I…”

He grabbed her
chin between his finger and thumb painfully.  “I would suggest that you not try
to lie at this point because I am very angry.”

Rachel yanked her
chin out of his grasp and stood quickly, covering her arms defensively across
her chest.  “Fine.  David is your son.”

“I know.  I just
met him.  Anyone who knew me as a child has to know that he’s my son.”

“Everyone who knew
you as a child is dead.”

“Did Maryanne
know?”

“I’m sure she
did.  We never talked about it.”

“Ten years!  Ten
years, Rachel.  You had no right to keep this from me.”

“It was my body,
my life.  By the time I realized I was pregnant, you and your wife had already
moved, she was expecting…”

“She was never
expecting.  It was a lie.”  He didn’t tell her that it had been his lie.

Rachel tried to
digest this, but couldn’t.  “I’m sorry, Peter, I truly am.  But I was alone and
scared and I ran.  Then when I met Theo and we fell in love, it just seemed
easier to pretend that he was David’s father.”

“Does he think he
is?”

“No.  I was three
months pregnant when I met him.  But he agreed to raise David as his own.”

“Big of him.” 
Peter began pacing back and forth, anger etched in every line of his body.  “I
want to meet him.”

“Theo?” she asked
confusedly.

“No, my son!” he
yelled.

“You said that you
just met him.”

“I want to meet
him as his father,” Peter said slowly as if she was stupid.  “I want him to be
told that I am his father.”

Rachel’s mouth
fell open in horror.  “Oh my God!  No!  We can’t do that.”

“Can’t?” Peter
laughed meanly.  “You don’t have a choice in this, Rachel.”

“He’s my child,
too.  Don’t kid yourself into thinking that I’m going to let you just run
roughshod over me and my family.”  Now that the shock was wearing off, she felt
a little bit of fight surging back through her.

His jaw tightened
so much Rachel thought it might snap.  “I don’t give a flying fuck about
your
family.  You can all go to hell for all I care.  I just want my son.”  He stood
in front of her, hands on his hips in a fighting stance.  “Do you know what I
do in New York, Rachel?  Do you have any fucking idea how powerful I am?”

She nodded. 
“You’re a lawyer,” she said tentatively.

He smiled with
angry glee.  “Wrong.  I’m a judge.  I have friends in very high places.”

With a sinking
feeling, Rachel feared she was fighting a losing battle.  When Peter wanted
something, he was like a bulldog.  She had seen him in action in the
courtroom.  She had to change her method of persuasion.  “All right.  But I
need time.”

“You have
tonight.  Tomorrow I meet him.”

“That’s not
enough,” she said, panic rising again.

“Tomorrow.  You
can prepare your family or I can do it my way.”  He straightened from her desk
and turned to leave.  At the door, though, he paused.  “Rachel, I never thought
the worst of you, no matter what happened.  Until now.  This was beneath you.”

“I was just trying
to protect my son,” she said in a near whisper.

He shook his head
with a mixture of anger and weariness.  “He never needed protecting from me. 
I’ll be at the estate at nine tomorrow morning.”

When Rachel
arrived home an hour later, she was exhausted and ill-feeling.  The shock of
seeing Peter again would have been enough to turn her world upside down.  But
the fact that he knew that David was his son was too much to bear.  Theo was
sitting in his study, poring over a European newspaper.

“Hey sweetheart,”
he hailed with a welcoming smile.  She knew she had finally pleased him by
being home early and felt sick to her stomach when she thought of how angry he
would become when he discovered the reason why.  “To what do we owe the
pleasure of you coming home before the sun sets?”

Rachel handed her
purse and coat to Smythe and looked at him with eyes marred with dark shadows. 
“Smythe, are the children well?”

“Yes, ma’am.  They
are all busy presently.  Shall I call them for you?”

“No.  I need to
speak with my husband privately.  You’ll make sure we’re not bothered?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he
said obediently.

Theo sat back in
his chair, his eyebrows lifting curiously.  “Is something wrong?”  When she
entered the room fully and closed the doors behind her, the smile left his
face.  “Rach, you look terrible!  What’s happened?”  He stood and came around
his desk, concern etched on his face.

She allowed him to
embrace her even though she knew he could not ease her trembling.  “Theo…we
have to talk.”

“O.K., it’s all
right.” He smoothed his hands down her back.  “Whatever it is, it’s all right.”

“Can we sit?”

“Of course.” He
led her to the settee and they sat down, her hands in his.  “Talk to me.”

She swallowed hard
and shook her head.  “I’m not quite sure where to start.  I had a visitor
today.”

“All right.  Who?”

“Peter MacGregor.”

“Norris’
step-son?  That was your visitor?”

“Yes.”

“Good Lord, how
many years has it been?”

“Over ten years.”

“Well, that must
have been nice to see him again.  How long is he in town for?”

“I’m not sure.”
She tightened her hands in Theo’s.  “When I met you, I told you a lie.”

Confusion was now
apparent on his face.  “O.K.  What does this have to do with MacGregor?”

“Everything.” She
inhaled deeply.  “Theo, I told you I was recently widowed and pregnant.  That
was true.  But what I didn’t tell you is that Norris was not the father of my
baby.  Peter was.”

His head jerked
back as if he had been slapped.  His brown eyes searched hers.  “Oh, I see.  Am
I to assume that you didn’t let MacGregor know you were expecting?”

“He was married
and his wife had said she was expecting.  I…I was scared and hurt that he had
been with her at the same time he was with me.  I didn’t tell him and he left
for New York with his wife.  I didn’t think beyond the moment.  I never thought
about what might happen if he came back.”

“So, he showed up
today and you decided to tell him that David is his son?”  Anger tinged Theo’s
voice.  “Why didn’t you just let him stay in the dark?”

“He ran into David
outside of the newspaper building.”

“So?  How did he
find out?”

“He recognized him. 
David is an identical image of his father.”

“Jesus…” he
muttered.  He stood and strode over to the cabinet next to the fireplace.  He
poured himself a drink and threw it back in one swallow.  “So what?  So what if
he knows David is his son?  It doesn’t need to come out.”

“Peter insists on
meeting him.  Tomorrow.”

“Absolutely not.”

“He wouldn’t take
no for an answer.  I tried, Theo, I swear I did.”

“Fine.  Let him
come and meet him.  We’ll introduce him as his Uncle Peter.  They meet,
MacGregor heads back to New York, and we put this behind us.”

“He wants David to
be told that he is his father.”

“He can go to
hell!” Theo bit out.  “David is barely ten years old.  He thinks I’m his
father.  He’s too young to understand why we lied to him.”

“Peter won’t take
no for an answer,” she repeated, tears trickling down her face.

“Does he know who
he’s dealing with?  Does he have any idea how much power we have?  We can crush
him!”

“He’s a New York
City judge,” Rachel said in a trembling voice.

Theo froze,
staring at her.  Finally he muttered, “Jesus Christ, Rachel.  You cheat big,
don’t you?”

She flinched at
the disgust in his voice.  “I’m afraid if we fight him, he’ll take David away
from us.”

Theo ran a hand
over his face.  “A fucking judge,” he muttered.  His voice was flat.  “We’re at
his mercy, aren’t we?”

“I’m sorry, Theo. 
If I could go back in time and tell him the truth, I would.  I was young, and
alone, and scared.”

“So what we do
now?  When is he coming?”

“Tomorrow at nine. 
We need to talk to David tonight.”

Theo nodded.  “Let
me at least have one more meal with him before we flip his world upside-down.”

Theo was
disappointed in her, she knew, but her main concern was her son.  Supper was a
quiet affair, the children seeming to feel the tension.  Once supper was
completed, Rachel rang for the nanny and asked her take Lily, Steven, and
Matthew for a walk.  David looked from Rachel to Theo, his eyes wide.

“Did I do
something wrong?” he asked, biting his lip nervously.

“No, darling, you
didn’t,” Rachel said quietly.  “You’ve done nothing wrong.  But I have.”

“What did you do?”

“I told you a
lie.”

Theo cleared his
throat.  “We both did, son.”

David looked
confused and worried.  Rachel wanted to pull him to her and protect him from
the world.  It was too late, though.

“You know I was
married before your father.”

“Sure.  To Norris
Thornton.  That’s why you run the newspaper now.”

“That’s right. 
Before he died, he was very sick…and I was lonely.”

“What was wrong
with him?”

“He was very sad
that his son had died and nothing could make him happy anymore.  I tried and
tried, but he wouldn’t even leave his room.”

“That’s sad.”

“It was.  During
that time, I made a mistake.  I was with another man.”  She drew her eyebrows
together, not sure how much to divulge.  There was no reason for him to know
that she had actually started her affair with Peter before Norris’ decline into
depression.  Only the time period in which he was conceived mattered now.  “I
spent a lot of time with this other man and…I found that I was expecting.”