Thunder Snow (Thunder On The Mountain Series) Page 17

  “Not until you listen to me, little one. You have to hear me out.”

  “First off, don’t call me that. You no longer have the right. You made your decision.”

  “Yes, I’ve made my decision, and I’d like to tell you about it.”

  “Please, Jack, don’t.” I didn't want to cry, and I could feel the tears threatening. “Please, just let me go. Move away from the door so I can leave.”

  “I can’t let you do that. I need you to listen to me.”

  “YOU need? Is that what matters here, what YOU need? Where is John Montgomery?” I felt duped. Had my father been in on this?

  He took a step towards me; I took a step back. “Please, Jack. I’m hanging on by a thread. If you touch me I won’t be able to stand up to you, and I need my strength. For me, for our baby. I can’t cry anymore.”

  A winsome smile crossed his face, the face I would never stop loving. “I have always loved your honesty, little one. Will you sit? Just give me a few minutes? Please? Just hear me out? Allow me to finally be honest with you like I should have been all these months?”

  I sat down on the oversized leather chair because I feared I might fall down. I couldn’t put it all together, and I definitely felt like I had lost all control.

  “Do you want some water?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  As he handed me a glass, his fingers touched mine. I pulled away as though I had been burned. “Oh, Callie, I had forgotten how stunning you are. Whether you believe me or not, there have been few waking moments when you haven’t been front and center in my mind. I miss you every waking moment.”

  “Don’t, Jack. Please. Why are you here?”

  “Look around you, little one. This is the office of John Montgomery.”

  “Yes?”

  Crouching down next to the chair, he was eye level with me when he said, “Callie, I AM John Montgomery.”

  “What? How could that be? Then who is Jack Franklin?”

  Without breaking eye contact, he said, “At your service, ma’am. John Franklin Montgomery. Known to my closest friends as Jack.”

  “Dear God, now I KNOW I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. None of this makes sense.”

  “Will you at least listen to what I have to tell you, and THEN you can make up your mind?”

  When I didn’t respond, he began, “I have left it way too long, but every time I tried to tell you, something came up. So many times I wanted to tell you I would build you anything you wanted, anywhere you wanted. Then you would wax poetic about John Montgomery, and it just didn’t seem the appropriate time.”

  I sat silently, feeling like I had no further grip on reality.

  Jack sat down in the chair next to me. He took my hand. I was numb. I wasn’t even sure where I was, this was such an unreal turn of events.

  “And every time I wanted to tell you who I was, I couldn’t figure out how to do it without telling you about Marcie, and I never could figure out how to start that conversation.”

  Tears streamed down my face. Jack handed me a handkerchief. “Please, don’t cry, little one. Again, things are not always what they seem.”

  “I will never be able to compete with a dead woman, Jack.”

  “I don’t ever want you to compete. Please, please, hear me out.”

  His thumb wiped an errant tear from my cheek. He ran his hand through my hair and twirled it at the end. Quietly, I began to cry. He soothed me and whispered unintelligible words. Kind and patient and tender sounds that made me all the more heartsick, all the more tearful.

  “Callie, I am so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I have to tell you MY truth. And when I tell you, then you can have some time to think about whether or not you ever want to love me again.”

  I laughed through my tears. “Yeah, that will be a tough decision. It’s not a switch, Jack. You don’t get to flip it on and off at will. But you do get to choose what you do with it. The choice is always yours.”

  "As long as I live, Callie, I will spend every remaining day of my life showing you how much I love you if you will let me." I stilled. My breathing slowed. He knew he had my attention.

  “There is only one other person alive who knows what I'm going to tell you, and he only knows parts of it. He will never repeat it to another living soul, and I will never do anything to change people's perception of what happened. They believe what they want to believe. They see what they want to see.” With a gentle smile, he swept his hand to encompass the room, "Case in point.” I blushed.

  “It was all a sham. When we first got married, I did love Marcie. At least I thought I did. Then I realized I didn’t have any idea who she really was. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Marcie was the only person in the world that Marcie cared about.

  “I had money. I was the one that could give Marcie the lifestyle she craved. What she never understood was that I never wanted anything to do with that life. I went to the auctions, the balls, the soirees, the premiers, all because of her.

  “She loved the high society, the money, the prestige, the social position. I loved her at first, or so I thought, so I indulged her. When she told me she was pregnant, I knew I would do whatever was necessary for my child to have a balanced life, but Marcie wouldn’t quit drinking.”

  Jack wasn’t looking at me anymore. He was looking back to his own hell, a place only he could see. I took my thumb and rubbed his hand, trying to soothe him.

  “One night when she was eight months pregnant, I came home to find her drunk - again. I told her she was not fit to be the mother of my child. I told her I would give her enough money that she could live in luxury if she would relinquish her rights to our son, and stop drinking until after he was born. I was prepared to hire an around-the-clock nurse or guard or whatever it would take to make sure she didn't drink again until after the birth.

  “She laughed at me and told me, not for the first time, that she had never wanted to be pregnant; that she couldn’t wait to get this kid out of her. Then she laughed and called me a fool. Told me she couldn't believe how blind I was, that the baby wasn't mine. She had been having an affair with Clark since before we got married.”

  I inhaled sharply. “Oh, Callie, I’m so sorry about that night. I hadn’t seen Clark since Marcie's death, and I could find nothing in me to be civil, to forgive him. Even more so than Marcie, I was so much more devastated by Clark. He had been my best friend and business partner for ten years. I understood her black heart, but felt like I had been truly betrayed by him. I was in shock.

  “’Then go to him,’ I told her. ‘Let him raise your child.’

  “She said she would never give me a divorce, but I would look at that child every day and know she was sleeping with my best friend. I don’t think I had ever hated anyone more than I did Marcie in that moment. She was evil, and I grieved for the child she carried.

  “As God is my witness, all I wanted to do was hit her. If we are to have total honesty between us, you must understand this darkness that overtook me. As she stood there shrieking and throwing the priceless items she had been so busy collecting over the previous year, the thought crossed my mind that there would be a certain amount of satisfaction in strangling the life out of her.

  “I was looking at her, wondering if I would have struck her if she hadn’t been pregnant. When I became conscious of my thought process, I knew I had allowed her venom to poison me. I turned and walked away, up to the room we had shared. The whole time, she was yelling at me, calling me weak, that I was a coward because I wouldn’t fight with her.”

  I remained silent, not moving, barely breathing, listening to the heartbreak, the broken lives pouring out around me.

  "I was so disgusted with her, with me. When I got to the top of the stairs, I became totally composed, wondering where we had gone wrong, and how had we gotten to this point? I grieved for the son I had just lost that had never even been mine. I wondered how to get out of the nightmare that had become my life.

  “
Standing at the window, watching the rain falling steadily, I saw her drive away. I hoped she was going to Clark and that she would never return. Then I remembered how drunk she was, and knew she was in no condition to be driving. I thought about calling Clark, but knew there were no civil words that could be said to him. What could he have done anyway?

  The irony of what happened was that it was someone else who ran the red light. A drunk driver slammed into Marcie's car. He hit the driver’s side, and it took almost two hours to get her out. The baby was dead, and Marcie was in a coma.

  “Before they even got her out of the car, the police were at my door. Marcie lived for two days, never regaining consciousness. I stayed by her side the whole time, overwhelmed with guilt that I didn’t care if she lived. People thought I was the grieving husband. Because the accident wasn’t her fault, they never even checked her blood alcohol levels. They didn’t do an autopsy. They never knew she was drunk.

  “There was a whole bubble of myth that had already begun to grow before I even knew about the accident. I often thought the rain had a lot to do with the eeriness of it. I became the grieving widower who had lost his family. I was the tragic Heathcliff that every woman wanted to soothe.

  “I couldn't talk to anyone. There was no part of me that was a good enough actor to feign that I cared she was gone. When I cried, it was for the innocent child who knew nothing of life before he lost it, and for Clark’s betrayal. Clark never once showed up at the hospital. I wanted him to hurt, if not for Marcie, then for the son he lost or the friend he had betrayed. I was having a hard time dealing with my anger, dealing with the guilt I felt.

  “I went to Nederland. I threw myself into finishing the home I had always wanted, the one Marcie wouldn't even take the time to come and see. She wanted mansions, society. She couldn’t stand the thought of being in the middle of nowhere for even a weekend. I used my middle name, and those close to me have always called me Jack. I hid. Even more of a mystery grew around the tragic life of John Montgomery, the renowned architect who had mysteriously disappeared after the horrific death of his beautiful young wife and son.

  “If I had taken you to see my house, you would have known. I didn’t mind telling you about me, but I was never sure how to be honest about Marcie. I was never sure how to get past the blame I carry about her."

  He was absently rubbing my knee. I got up and knelt between his legs, putting my head on his chest. My heart was breaking for this man who had demonstrated such an amazing capacity to love.

  “Jack, you didn’t kill her. She made her choices. I’m so sorry for all of it, but you didn't do it.”

  “When you told me you were pregnant, the guilt overwhelmed me. I had spent so many months several years ago excited about my child, only to find out I never had one. When I left you, I went to Telluride, to a little place I have there. I didn’t ever want to go through what I had been through again. I didn’t think I deserved you and what you were offering me because I had so much anger in me, so much guilt for the fact that I had never once been sorry she was dead.

  “The longer I was there, the more I realized there is no one in the world like you. You are my world. You’re tough, but the most gentle spirit I have ever known. You were so appreciative of everything. I was so wrapped up in my pain I couldn't see past it, and I was so self absorbed right then I couldn’t see what I was doing to you.

  “More than a week passed of feeling sorry for myself. I finally came to grips with what a fool I was being. All of a sudden I realized how much you must have been suffering. I got all of your emails at once. When I read the last one and knew you thought I was married, I couldn’t bear to think what I had been putting you through.

  “It occurred to me you would have thought I was grieving for her, and nothing could have been further from the truth. There was no way you could have known, and I knew I had to tell you. I knew you wouldn’t take my call, but I had to try.

  “That Marcie’s name was still on title on all of the houses was an oversight, one I took care of immediately. I called your dad and asked him not to tell you who I was because I was so afraid you wouldn’t see me, that you would be done with me.”

  I was crying in earnest now.

  “I looked and looked, and I couldn’t find anything to fill the void that was part of my life without you in it. You aren’t Marcie. There is nothing in you that would ever even understand a woman like Marcie. I will never be able to make up for the hurt I caused. I will never be able to tell you how sorry I am. But I want to spend the rest of my life trying.”

  Tears streamed down my face. I didn’t care if I was getting his shirt wet. I wrapped my arms around him and tried to absorb what I was hearing; tried to let go of the pain.

  “There were days when I thought I wouldn’t be able to survive for the loss of you,” I said. "There was not a minute that passed when you weren’t with me. When you left, most of me went with you. Then I’d remember the baby and know I would find the strength.

  “I have never known the heart could be torn out of the chest and keep beating. There is not a part of you I don’t love – the good and the bad –– the gentle and the hard.”

  He stood up and cupped my face with his hands. “I love you to the point of obsession. You are every fantasy I never even knew I had. There is nothing in my life I want if you’re not in it. Marry me, little one? You have my solemn promise I will never leave you, not ever again.”

  “Yes, please,” I said almost shyly. He tilted my head and kissed me in the magical way that only he could.

  “There will not be a day in your life that you will regret your decision, I promise.”

  He pressed the button on the intercom, all the while keeping me close. “Ms. Hays, I’m leaving now. I’ll be in touch in the next few days."

  “Yes, Mr. Montgomery.”

  He pushed a panel on the bookshelf. It opened to what was obviously a private entrance. He turned and offered me his hand.

  “Ready?”

  Taking his hand, I said, “Beyond a shadow of a doubt . . .”

  ~ The End ~

  Book Two

  In The

  THUNDER ON THE MOUNTAIN

  Series

  T H U N D E R S T R U C K

  Available November 2013

  By

  Mimi Foster

  ~~~

  C H A P T E R O N E

  So I’ll see you for lunch tomorrow?” Andrew said, taking my face in his hands and kissing me on the forehead, nose, lips.

  “That should work for me. I have a dress fitting and a few errands in the morning, but I should be able to meet you at The James about noon.”

  “Sure you won’t stay tonight?” he cajoled. “I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

  “Don’t tempt me. Three more weeks, then we have the rest of our lives. Didn’t think I’d make it, but I’m loving our new playfulness. How are YOU holding up?”

  “Come home with me and I’ll show you,” he teased.

  “You’re incorrigible,” I laughed.

  He took my face one more time and gave me his special kiss. I was glad we had made the decision to not be together the last month before the wedding. It was fun to be back on an ‘I can’t wait to be with you’ footing.

  What a crazy few weeks it had been. With all of the planning, the sale of my Brooklyn brownstone, and plans for the honeymoon, I had taken an extended leave of absence from the law firm. I turned over my case files to Andrew so it was easy to fill him in when he had questions. And, if I was going to be totally honest with myself, I was enjoying the time off. The past few years had been at least twelve-hour days with very little down time. It sometimes surprised me that Andrew and I had been able to build a relationship, but our working proximity made it convenient, and he had been persistent.

  I had sublet an apartment for a month from a friend who was out of town, and it was all working out. Several friends were helping with wedding details, and I was getting excited enough to
want to enjoy the last few weeks of planning, relaxing, and spending time with people who meant something to me. I knew I wouldn’t have this opportunity again.

  “Hello, Father,” I said as he answered his phone.

  “Good evening, Jordanna. Ready to come back to work yet?” My dad was the only one who called me by my full name.

  “Not a chance, but thanks for the offer,” I was quick to reply. “Actually I was calling to let you know I have completely cleared my schedule and handed everything over to Andrew. I’ve brought him up to date on my entire caseload, so if you have any questions, you can check with him.”

  “Are you sure he’s up to the task?”

  “You’re not?” I was a little surprised at his question.

  “Oh, don’t get me wrong. He seems competent enough, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Jordanna Olivia. I have faith in your judgment, though, so I’ll begin showing him the inner workings of Whitman and Burke.”

  “Thank you. I appreciate your vote of confidence. I’m sure you’ll find he’s quite clever at handling the clients in a savvy and skilled manner.”

  “I’ll start spending more time with your young man. But don’t you be a stranger. Stop in when you’re in the City. Maybe we can do lunch next week? Call Carol and set something up.”

  “Sure will. Thank you, Father.”

  ~~~

  September in New York is beautiful. Getting up early, I had a list of things I wanted to accomplish before I met Andrew for lunch. I was going to enjoy my new-found freedom. Finishing two errands, I entered the third store carefree and happy at my morning finds. This boutique was certainly as cute as I had heard. I was looking for lingerie for our wedding night, and the garden-level provided just the right amount of light and privacy for intimate-apparel shopping.

  Coming out of the fitting room, I could see Andrew through the tinted window leaving the building across the street. Surprised and pleased to see him, I started to call out when I remembered my scanty attire. Hurrying to the dressing room, I grabbed my phone and headed back to the window to text him and let him know where I was. Just then he turned toward the blond woman who had walked out behind him. They got very close, and I thought I must have been mistaken that it was Andrew, so I set my phone down.