Safe Harbor (The Lake Trilogy, Book 3) (6 page)

“Where have you two been? Class let out hours ago,” Claire inquire
s as she unloads the dishwasher. She’s wearing running shorts and a t-shirt that I think used to be Luke’s, telling by its size. I love watching Claire do mundane things. It’s a reminder that it is possible to step aside from the drama that always seems to be unfolding.

“We had to make a little stop,” Will tells her. He squeezes my hand and gives me a wink. I think we’ve both made an unspoken agreement to not tell anyone about our practice wedding today. I’m glad because it’s been a long time since I’ve had something to share with just him. So much has happened that we’ve had to share almost every detail of our relationship with at least Luke and Claire.

“Oh,” Claire says. She looks a little perplexed as to where we could possibly have to go. She doesn’t ask and I can only assume it’s because we now live in a world where there is no threat to us.

“I’m glad you’re back, Will. I’ve got to lay out some plans for Holly’s sentencing hearing. You want to grab something to drink and meet me in the office?” Luke heads for the office but Will stops him.

“We can meet here in the kitchen, unless there are too many files to drag in here.” Will gives me a soft smile, letting me know that we are most definitely in this together.

“Sure,” Luke says
with a nod. He’s seen the way Will is looking at me and knows that Will is officially done trying to do this on his own.

Will is taking our vows seriously and my heart fills. It means so much to me that I push to my toes and
wrap my arms around Will’s neck. “Thank you,” I whisper in his ear.

“So what’s going on? How’s Holly?” Will asks.

My heart sinks for a moment when Will inquires about Holly. I float between feelings of gratitude and hatred for her. I’m grateful that she’s rid the world and our lives of the torment of Gregory Meyer, but the wrench she’s thrown into us moving forward with our lives is infuriating at times. I also can’t rid my mind of the fact that she led Will to believe that she really cared for him when it was really another ploy by her mother to infiltrate the Meyer’s lives. Will still thinks that she was as innocent as I was in the attacks his father launched. If I’m honest,
that
is what really makes me hate her.

“She’s doing fine. She knew what she was doing and is re
ady to accept the consequences, although it wasn’t as premeditated as it looked. She saw what was unfolding with the delays in the trial and made a snap decision. She didn’t even know about juror number four going missing. So, I’m working to get the charges changed from murder to manslaughter, or at least the lowest sentence as possible, which is what I need to talk to you about,” Luke tells us. “I’m going to call some witnesses that you and Eliana need to know about ahead of time. These witnesses will speak to the abusive behavior of your father, which will hopefully raise some sympathy in the jury. I’ve got to paint Holly almost as a hero. “Luke looks at me, seeing the disgust spreading across my face. I turn to get something from the fridge so Will won’t see, but Luke knows exactly what’s going through my mind. “It’s not going to be pretty.”

“I can handle it, Luke,” Will says with a stone face.

“I’m going to call your father’s ex-wives.”

“
I kind of figured you would,” Will says. “Do you think all three of them will be willing to testify?”

“Actually, all four of them.” Luke’s delivery is slow.

“Mom isn’t his ex, Luke. She’s technically his widow,” Will says, correcting Luke’s mistake.

“I’m not referring to her,” Luke says with his own stone face.

“What are you saying, Dad?” I ask. Will seems stunned, his forehead creasing.

“Greg was married for a bri
ef time in college,” Luke says.

“
I’m not surprised. I guess he began his parade of arm candy earlier than we all thought.” Will isn’t fazed by this information. At this point, I can’t think of much that would be shocking to find out about Will’s father. “I am a little surprised that we’re just finding this out. Dad never made excuses for any of his womanizing, or
any
of his behavior for that fact.”

“This…this was different,” Luke begins. He’s hesitant. I’ve never seen Luke hesitant like this. He’s usually so confident and I’
m slightly worried.

“What do you mean it was different?” Will asks.

“Well, her name is Loretta. Apparently they met their sophomore year and fell in love almost immediately. They dated for two years and got married right before their senior year.”

“So you’ve spoken with her already?” Will asks.

“Yes,” Luke answers.

“Why are you telling me
this? I’m assuming all his exes share a similar story. He married them, used them, and then threw them away,” Will says, still not seeing the pertinence of this conversation.

“Her story is a little different, Will, and you need to know before Eliana does. I’m not sure how she’s going to take it.”

“What’s so different about her story?” I ask. I’m becoming fearful for Will and Eliana. What could possibly be different? Gregory Meyer made it clear that he’s a cold-hearted man with no use for women beyond photo ops and personal pleasure.

“The way Loretta describes
Greg, it’s like she’s talking about an entirely different person…at least at the beginning of their story.” Luke takes a deep breath. “She told me of a man who brought her flowers, took her on romantic dates, and even asked her father for her hand in marriage.”

Will and I stand there, mouths
open in astonishment. The man just described is nowhere close to the Gregory Meyer we knew. This man shows signs of having a heart and the ability to love and put someone before himself. I see a look of sadness wash over Will and I know what he’s thinking. All this time we thought he wasn’t capable of love, but he was. He chose to give love to someone, and then chose to withhold it from everyone else.

“If he was
this wonderful person, what happened?” I ask. Will still isn’t able to speak.

“
Greg was beginning an internship at his first choice firm. They only took a few interns and he, of course, gave a stellar interview and got one of the three open spots. Well…Loretta got pregnant and had some complications. She ended up on bed rest and she needed Greg to be there. At first he was fine with being there. He was concerned for Loretta and their baby. But…he was frequently late or having to leave his internship early. He wasn’t burning the midnight oil like the other interns were. Eventually the firm let him go and he was left without an internship for the remainder of the semester. Apparently his advisor gave him hell for getting fired from the internship and promised him that unless he made some serious changes, he’d be lucky to find placement with the public defender’s office.

“Something just clicked in him and he became resentful toward Loretta and the baby. He became verbally
and sometimes physically abusive. When she was seven months pregnant, Loretta couldn’t take any more and she left him. He never went after her,” Luke explains.

I remember the day Meyer told us about his father. How he could have been something brilliant…a doctor, I believe…but that he let love get in the way of pursuing his dreams. That he watched his father work his fingers to the bones on his family’s farm and never had anything to show for it. It was then that Meyer made it clear it wasn’t that Will wanted
me
, it was that Will was pursuing love, and that was going to get in the way of him pursuing and fulfilling his destiny. It sounds like Meyer didn’t always believe that. That maybe there was a time when he thought he could have a life of love with Loretta
and
an uninterrupted destiny.

“What…um…what about the baby?” Will stutters. The realization
, if all went well with the rest of her pregnancy Will has a sibling, has dawned on him.

“Loretta had a healthy baby girl two months later.” Luke’s response is slow and guarded, not sure how Will is going to respond.

“I have a sister. So that makes two siblings my father kept from me. I suppose he was secretly supporting them, too,” Will says. There’s deep disappointment in his voice, mourning the life he could have had if he had been allowed to have his siblings.

“No, actually. Loretta contacted him when
Erin was born but Greg wouldn’t even come see her. After a year of trying, Loretta sent him the papers and Greg relinquished his parental rights,” Luke says.

“Does she know about my father…or me?” Will’s voice is still unsteady.

“Yes, and she’d love to meet you,” Luke answers. “She’ll be at the hearing, but you’re under no obligation to meet her if you don’t want to, Will. She understands it could be quite difficult for you right now.”

“Her name is
Erin?” Will asks softly.

“Yes.
Erin Morcos Wagner. Loretta remarried when Erin was two and her husband adopted her. Wagner is her married name. And…she has a son, named David. ”

Will is silent as he absorbs what Luke has just told him. I can’t imagine what he must be feeling right now, but betrayal tops my list of suppositions. Disgust tops the list of my personal feelings. Marcus was so right when he said that Will’s father was capable of unimaginable things. First he signs away all but his genetic connection to his first born child, then he sends Marcus’ mother to have an abortion. I try but just can’t wrap my brain around that kind of rejection. As mean as Gram was to me, she at least admitted I was hers.

It takes a few minutes before Will can even try to speak. He opens his mouth a few times but all that comes out are breathy sounds. When he’s finally able to put a coherent statement together all he can say is, “I need some air.”

Will
takes my hand and leads me outside. We walk down the dock, pushing aside the branches and Spanish moss until we reach the end. We sit and I rub small circles on Will’s back for several minutes before he says anything.

“I don’t know what to do, Layla,” he says
, clearly devastated by this news. “I’m going to have to see my father’s ex-wives, people he betrayed, and now, my sister? I can handle all the others, but, Erin… I’ve already seen what my father’s rejection did to Marcus. It’s been twice as long with Erin. What’s she going to think of me? And what has she told her son? Oh my God, I have a nephew.” Will shakes his head in confusion.

“She wants to meet you, Will,” I say softly. “If she didn’t want to meet you she would have told Luke.”

“She’s going to hate me,” he says.

“Why would she hate you?”

“Because he chose me over her. Look what that did to Marcus.” Will puts his head in his hands, his body a crumpled mess of fearful emotions.

“Marcus’s mother is a psychopath.
That’s
what pushed him over the edge. If his mother hadn’t made him go to Meyer all those times and ask to be taken in like some stray kitten, Marcus would still be alive today. It doesn’t sound like Loretta damaged Erin like Marcus’ mother did him. It sounds like she’s had a good life, actually.”

“Layla…” Will begins but doesn’t say anything else.

“Will…Loretta left
him
. It wasn’t like with the others. She made a choice based on what she thought was best for her and her baby. If she hadn’t made that choice, your father probably would have made it for her just like he did the others. That’s the saddest part really. His other wives didn’t have a choice. He kicked three of them to the curb, and he manipulated your mom into staying when she wanted to make a different choice for a better life.” I hold Will’s hand in both of mine, stroking the back of his hand with my thumb.

“
If Loretta had stayed with him, what do you think would have really happened?” Will’s voice is tired and sad. He’s been thrown a lot of information and gained even more revelations about his father in the last year and a half. He went from knowing that his father was a manipulative tyrant to seeing just how deep his depravity went.

“You can’t do that, Will. Trust me. You can’t spend your life with asking yourself that.”

“I live every day knowing that, for whatever reason, he chose me and my mom. He treated us like property to be leveraged, but he chose us nonetheless. He rejected Marcus, and now I find out he rejected Erin, too. We’re his children, not some mystery prize at an arcade.
Oh, no, I didn’t want that one!
I have to ask…it’s a valid question, Layla,” he argues.

“
Ok, I’ll indulge you,” I say with just the slightest tone of frustration. Will can be so stubborn sometimes. “Let’s just say Loretta stayed with him. Something happened to him, Will. According to what Luke said, it was like something snapped. A switch got flipped. He was angry and resentful toward Loretta and the baby. So, she would have had Erin, he still wouldn’t have cared, and in who knows how long he would have divorced her. Then however many years later, he still would have met someone else, married her, and then divorced her…and so on and so forth.” I sigh, gaining my composure. I can feel myself getting heated because I hate that Will is taking on and carrying the responsibility of his father’s choices. “I spent five years living in
what if
world because I blamed myself for my parents’ death. After Gramps died, it took me a long time to stop playing that game. My parents’ death was tragic, but the bottom line is if they didn’t die that night, I would never have met you. As much as we hate it, if your father hadn’t been a self-obsessed megalomaniac he wouldn’t have had a string of wives, which means he would never have met Eliana, and you wouldn’t be here. Sometimes a tragedy sends us down the path we’re supposed to be on so we can find what we’re meant to find. It isn’t pretty, but its life.