Unbreakable (39 page)

"Shut up!" Gwen barked, losing any semblance of control. "Shut up!"

Audrey actually backed up a step at the murderous look on Gwen's face.

"I don't need professional help. I need my life back!" Gwen whirled around to face Katherine. "I need to not have to worry every second of every day!" She was gesturing wildly, unaware of the tears streaking her cheeks as she spun back to face Jacie. "I need my husband not to be so confused about the way that I've been acting that he thinks I'm cheating on him!" She began to sob.

The other women stood in stunned silence as Gwen continued to rant at the top of her lungs, tears and sobs making her even more difficult to understand.

"What I need," Gwen spat out finally, "is for the blackmail to stop!" She dropped onto the bed and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking violently as she cried. "Please. Please. Please." She wrapped arms around herself and her voice dropped to a raspy whisper. "Please just stop."

Gwen was falling apart and the sight of it made the other women's stomachs roil. It rendered years of bad feelings meaningless because when it came down to it, when she needed them, they couldn't help themselves; they would be there for her.

Instantly, Nina dropped to her knees in front of Gwen. "I don't understand, Gwen." She reached out and tenderly wiped Gwen's cheeks. She spoke slowly, her voice soothing and clear. "You need to explain things from the very beginning. I'll help you if you'll let me, I really will."

Jacie nodded and placed a comforting hand on Gwen's shoulder. And gave it a little squeeze. "Who is trying to make you pay? And for what?"

"I don't know!" Gwen sniffed. "But it's one of you."

"Oh, my God."

They all turned to look at Audrey, who was crouched down on the floor, scanning an email sent to Gwen. It was from the blackmailer and she read it out loud, scarcely believing what she was seeing.

Pay me now or you'll pay more later. If Malcolm finds out that Tucker isn't his son, you'll lose everything.
$10,000.00 is a small price to pay to keep what you love.

Gwen reached out and snatched the paper from Audrey's hand. In a fit of rage, she ripped the email to shreds and threw it in Audrey's face. "I suppose you don't know anything about this either? Well, one of you sure as hell does."

Blinking, Nina sat next to Gwen on the bed. "Someone is blackmailing you over Tucker's paternity?"

Jacie closed her eyes. "Jesus, that's cruel."

"No, really?" Gwen laughed. She was verging on hysterical.

Audrey sifted through several more papers on the floor and found another email. It read basically the same as the first, only the demand went from $10,000.00 to $15,000.00. It was dated last week and sent from someone using a Hot Mail address and calling themselves Truthseeker101. "Is this why you had us investigated?" The letterhead on some of the papers had Gramercy Investigations on it.

"I had no choice. I had to find out who was doing this."

Audrey sighed. "None of us would do this, Gwen."

"Of course not," Nina assured her. "This is sick."

"It has to be one of you," Gwen insisted, her nose leaking down her face. With short, irritated movements, she wiped at it with the back of her hand. "I've never told another living soul my secret. Never! And even the bastard who raped me couldn't know that he got me pregnant. No one knows but the people in this room."

"No one here has more reason to hate you than I do, Gwen," Jacie admitted quietly, her hand dropping from Gwen's shoulder only to be quickly taken by one of Nina's. "But this? No fucking way. I swore to keep your secret. I didn't agree with it then and I still don't, but I'll take it to the grave."

"We all will," Nina promised, remembering the day so long ago that she'd made that vow.

Audrey nodded her agreement, but Gwen wasn't paying any attention to her or Nina or Jacie. She'd stopped crying and was staring a hole through Katherine, who was as white as a ghost.

Jacie sucked in a breath at Katherine's ashen face. "Katy?" she asked incredulously. "You would never tell, right?"

Audrey swallowed hard, feeling as though she'd been punched in the gut. "Katy?"

Katherine's mouth worked for a few seconds before she could manage any sound. And even then it was only a low moan.

"Katy?" Gwen's voice was unnaturally high.

Katherine struggled to clear her throat. "I would n-never blackmail you, Gwen." Her mind was awhirl with thoughts of her young lover.
Sweet Jesus, Tucker, what have you done?

"Then what's wrong?" Nina asked carefully. Katherine looked as though she was going to lose her lunch any second.

"Tucker," Katherine whispered. She glanced down at Gwen with anguished eyes. "I told him about… I told him."

Gwen blinked, all of Katherine's words not registering. "You don't even know him."

"I didn't want to tell you this way, Gwen. Please believe me. I can't believe he would do something so horrible. I-I swear Tucker doesn't know the whole story. I swear."

"You don't even know Tucker!" Gwen roared jumping off the bed and nearly giving Katherine a heart attack. "Don't you try to blame him for this! You sent those emails, didn't you?"

"No." Katherine shook, her body racked with tension. "I didn't. But I do know Tucker. You did the research yourself, Gwen. Or at least you paid to have it done. It was in my file. I'm the office manager of Webster University's Admissions Office. I met Tucker there last year."

Gwen looked at her blankly. "I don't understand."

Katherine fought the urge to flee from the room. "I met him there and recognized his name. We started talking. I didn't tell him that I knew you. Not at first. But after we went out a few times, I wanted to be honest with him and–"

Gwen's hands balled into fists. All thoughts of blackmail vanished into thin air. Her nostrils flared. "What do you mean, ‘went out'?"

Nina's mouth was hanging open so wide Katherine could have driven her Karmann Ghia through it. She was too stunned to say a word.

"Please tell me he isn't your boyfriend." Audrey poked her cousin with an irritated finger. "If this is some sort of a joke, it's not close to funny. Tell me you're not dating Gwen's baby."

"That was downright offensive," Katherine snapped, her resentment showing. "Do I look like I'm joking? And, trust me, Tucker Langtree is no baby." Her eyes pleaded with them to understand. "I didn't mean for it to happen. He asked me out every week for two months before I blurted out a yes. I thought it would be a lark and that maybe I'd hear some gossip about his mother. I didn't know that I'd fall in love with him."

"Holy Christ!" Audrey shoved her cousin hard. "You've lost your fucking mind!" She couldn't help but state the painfully obvious. "You're old enough to be his mother!"

Katy covered her eyes with her hands. If she thought about that part too long things got all yucky in her mind. "I know, but–"

"No. No. No. This can't be true," Gwen rambled, in shock.

"Be reasonable," Katherine begged, close to tears herself. "I love him and he loves me. I wanted to tell you, but he insisted that you wouldn't approve. He thought it would just be easier to keep things quiet."

"Approve?" Gwen looked at Katherine as though she'd never seen her before. "He's so private, all we know is that he's been dating some girl. A girl! As in someone who went to her prom a couple of years ago and still has Hello Kitty wallpaper in her room back home. Not someone who remembers President Nixon and has been having sex since God was a boy! You pervert!" Gwen let out a wild yell and lunged for Katherine, only to have Jacie grab her at the last minute.

Nina watched in amazement as the scene before her played out, irrationally relieved that her son was only in the fourth grade.

"Calm down," Jacie growled, struggling under a surge of surprising strength from Gwen. "You can't kill her. Hey! You can't." Hands made powerful from years of manual labor shook Gwen roughly when it was clear that she was too livid to listen. "Calm down!"

"Let me go, damn you! How would you feel if Katy was sleeping with your daughter? Huh?" Gwen continued to struggle, her eyes flashing. "How would you God damn feel about that, Jacie?"

Jacie froze for a split second as she considered Gwen's words. Then she released her grip.

"Jesus, Jacie!" Nina rushed forward, but Jacie held her back from stopping Gwen. This was between her and Katherine.

Audrey gasped as Gwen flew at Katherine like a quarter horse out of the gate.

"Shit!" Katherine ducked a wild haymaker that would have resulted in her not being able to eat solid foods for months. She scrambled backwards, holding her hands up to stop Gwen's advance, her eyes wide with fear. "Gwen, stop it! Be reasonable. This isn't that bad."

"You're sleeping with my son and you want me to be reasonable?" Gwen clarified slowly. "You're 20 years too old for him and have been married more times than he's been on dates and you want me to stop?"

Katherine's face turned beet red, equal parts embarrassment and anger. "We do more than sleep together. Jesus, I told you we love each other!"

"I'm going to kill you, Katy Schaub." Gwen's voice was so low and wicked sounding that Nina, Audrey, and even Jacie knew they'd have to intervene. The rigid set of her body and guttural quality to her voice left no doubt that she was completely serious.

Nina reached Gwen first and they briefly tussled as Gwen tried to break free from Nina's grasp. They shrieked in surprise when the fabric of Nina's blouse tore and buttons rained down on their feet, exposing to the cool air her pastel green bra and skin lightly spattered with pale freckles.

Before Gwen could draw in another breath, Jacie's vice-like grip took hold of her, cementing her in place and forcing her to release Nina. She muffled a yelp of pain at the long fingers wrapped tightly around her wrists, shockingly reminded of just how strong Jacie was.

Panting, Gwen seethed for a moment, eyeing Katherine with evil intent and cursing Jacie with some virulent word combinations that paid homage to her working class upbringing. But as her pounding heartbeat slowed, and once it was clear that she was locked in an unyielding clasp, she had no choice to but to deal with what Katherine had told her, instead of just reacting. It only took a moment for her fury to began melting into sadness, and finally into a profound sense of betrayal. "How could you, Katy? I know we aren't really friends anymore. But once upon a time we were the best of friends." She gave her a disgusted look. "He's barely grown."

Katherine felt a wave of shame wash over her. Not because she loved Tucker, she knew that her heart had decided that for her. But because she had handled things so badly. She should have never agreed to keep their affair a secret. At least not for so long. And once she began lying and sneaking around, it was almost impossible not to feel guilty about what she was doing.

"We… I should have told you from the start," she readily admitted. "But I didn't know where our relationship would lead. At first I thought it was a casual affair with a handsome, younger man. Neither of us were married or attached to someone else, I didn't really care what you might think... it seemed harmless enough. But…"

An ardent expression flickered across Katherine's face. "He's special. And before I knew it things had gone way past casual. Tucker insisted that you'd never accept us as a couple and that you'd do your best to make trouble for us." Katherine drew in a deep breath. "After what you did to Jacie, how could I doubt him?"

Katherine's words tore at Gwen's conscience, but this wasn't 20 years ago. "I was a foolish girl when I outed Jacie to her parents. You can't believe that I would ever do anything that would hurt my own son! I love him more than my own life."

"I didn't know what to believe." Katherine looked away for a moment and admitted, "I fell hard and fast, and I wasn't willing to risk losing him." She thought of her earlier conversation with Tucker. "I don't want to lose you as a friend, Gwen. I feel like I've just found you again. But I want Tucker more." Her gaze sharpened and her voice took on added resolve. "If I have to choose between the two of you, as much as it would hurt, there's no contest at all. And I don't think that's a choice you want to give him, either. You might be surprised at the results."

Jacie glanced over at Nina. "We should go," she whispered uncomfortably. "This doesn't involve us."

Nina nodded. This was a little like watching a train wreck where people you loved were the doomed passengers. "You're–"

"Stay." Katherine's voice was weary. "You're going to find out sooner or later. You might as well hear it from me."

A big part of Gwen wanted to strangle Katherine, but an equal part was forced to acknowledge that Tucker had been partially right. She didn't approve of their relationship and while she would never have actually sabotaged it, she would have done her best to make him see that he had little chance of a future with Katherine.

Gwen blinked rapidly; the sick feeling that was already fermenting in her gut grew exponentially when she suddenly remembered what they were originally talking about. She gently disengaged from Jacie, who was only loosely holding her now, and gave her a little pat to let her know things were all right.

Gwen went back to the bed and sat down, sinking deeply into the fluffy comforter and grabbing a pillow, which she clutched to her chest. Her eyes were so wide they would have been comical under any other circumstances. "When you said you told Tucker about me, you meant that you told him about us being friends once upon a time, right? That's all?"

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut. This was going to be even harder to admit. "I wish it were, Gwen." Reluctantly, she joined Gwen on the bed, leaving the other women clustered at the other end. She spoke gently, knowing the dangerous ground she was about to tread. "Shit," she hissed from between clenched teeth. "I'd give a kidney for a cigarette right now." She held up an unsteady hand. "See? I have the shakes."

"Katy," Nina warned. Gwen looked like she was going to have a stroke before Katherine could spit out whatever it is she was going to say. "C'mon."