Taking the Fall (39 page)

And I’m supposed to say what to a statement like that?

“Look, Molly, I won’t take too long, but I would really like to have a moment of your time so we could talk. There are things that are long overdue of being said.”

Unable to keep up with the niceties that she was sure Allison expected from her, Molly said rather shortly, “Look, Allison, now is really not a good time. I appreciate your sentiment of regret, but if you will excuse us, we have a lot of work to do.”

Allison smirked slightly and took a few steps closer. “Look, I know I am far from your favorite person, and I understand if you want to tell me to go back on the broom I rode in on, but please, this won’t take too long.”

The pleading look that Molly saw in Allison’s blue eyes struck a chord in her deep down inside, and she found herself nodding in agreement to Allison’s request and watched as Allison turned and left the way she came.

I am completely nuts. Completely batshit crazy.

Unaware of his approach, Greg took the broom from Molly and placed a hand at the small of her back pushing her toward the way the other woman disappeared.

“Silver linings have a way of showing their faces in the blackest of moments.” Greg flicked Molly’s nose and added, “You just have to listen. Then you can tell her where she can stick her platinum card.”

Molly couldn’t help but smile because Greg always could make her smile. With a deep breath, she walked out through the front of the restaurant to where Allison waited.

She stepped out on the sidewalk, having to squint at the bright sun that was showing a preview of the type of day it was going to be. Allison stood next to her brand new Lexus, in her designer denim, J. Crew cardigan set, and the riding boots that were more about style than practicality, she looked beautifully put together as always. Allison turned and grabbed for the two steaming cups of coffee that waited on the luxury sedan’s roof.

“I thought you could use this,” Allison said sounding nervous.

Well, there’s a first.

Molly accepted the extended cup from the perfectly manicured hand dripping with diamonds and gems, which probably cost the same as the insurance settlement Molly would receive for the restaurant damage.

“Just cut to the chase, Allison. What do you want?” Molly couldn’t care less about the bite that dripped from her voice.

“I want to make you rethink throwing things away with Hunter.”

Molly couldn’t believe her ears.

Tossing the hot contents of the cup across the sidewalk and disposing of the Styrofoam cup in the receptacle, Molly had just about had it. “What I do with my personal life has nothing to do with you. I don’t know how you know about any of this, but it isn’t any of your business.”

Molly turned to head back inside when Allison called to her once more.

“Well, see, that is where you are wrong. It is my business because Hunter is my business.”

The loathing Molly felt at that moment was like nothing she ever felt before. “I would have assumed that ended when you dumped him for your seven figure income husband.”

Visibly unprepared for Molly’s tone, Allison tried to remain composed. “Hunter is my business because Leah is my business. You may not like me for what I did, and to be completely honest, I don’t like myself for what I’ve done to both you and Hunter, but the fact remains, what goes on in his life is my business.”

“I don’t have time for this; some of us actually have real problems in our life.”

Molly had just reached the door to the restaurant when Allison said, “Hunter called me last night and told me about the fire. Leah is very upset and wanted to come home, so I told her I would come this afternoon to fetch her.”

Molly’s heart cracked some more at the admission of Leah being upset. Molly felt new and deep shame for not thinking of the third young casualty in all this. Collateral damage as she called it regarding her girls. How could she not think of Leah suffering?

“Well, you might want find a better jeweler who can get you a watch that works, because it is barely dawn.”

“Leah called me last night after you had left Hunter’s place. She heard the two of you arguing. She heard you end things.”

Shit.

“I’m sorry she heard what she did. It wasn’t pretty, but sometimes life isn’t pretty.”

“Even you aren’t that cruel, Molly,” Allison said, indicating Molly’s nonchalant attitude. “She went back to her room and remained there. Hunter doesn’t know she called me or that I’m here. He wouldn’t approve of me being here with you.” Clearly uncomfortable, she continued, “I’m not sure what is going on with your daughter, and I’m sure you feel horrible. I know you are a loving mother and the pain your daughter is experiencing must be excruciating to you. You love deeply, Molly, you always have.”

“You don’t know anything about my daughter or my life, Allison. I’m sorry you made this trip, but I think we have said enough.” She began to walk away before stopping and saying with much more feeling, “Please give my apology and goodbye to Leah. I really will miss her.”

“Please don’t do that. Just listen, Molly. Hunter deserves to be happy. Happy the way he always deserved to be. The way that he should have been twenty years ago if I hadn’t manipulated both of you to get my own way.”

“How did you even know about my feelings for him?”

“Is it really important? The fact is that I manipulated both of you for the sheer purpose of stealing him from you. Just because it would mean that I won.”

“Won what?”

“The game. There were no rules, just a score, and I had no desire to lose to you.”

“You played him? Just to be cruel to me? For some imaginary game that your sick head came up with.”

“Yes.”

“Why, Allison? What did I ever do to you that wanted you to hate me so badly?”

“Don’t you see? You didn’t do anything, other than be you. I was just a bitch, uh, I mean I am a bitch. I don’t know how else to be.” Allison cocked her head, and for a moment, Molly thought she saw moisture in her eye but then Allison went on, “I just couldn’t stand the thought of Little Miss Perfect being happy. I needed to know what made this guy the exception to the rule, so different. I had to know what made him stand out from all the other guys who laid out the red carpet for you while you never gave them a second look.”

“What are you talking about? What guys?”

“See, and even twenty years later, if I have to tell you, only proves my point even more.”

The fact that Molly did know what she was talking about only made the pit of her stomach drop that much more. Allison was finally revealing why she hated her so much.

“But the joke was on me. While I was stomping on your too sweet heart with my Manolo Blahnik’s, I examined and manipulated him so I could find out why he was so different. And you know what, I found it . . . Hunter is one in a million.” Allison looked down at the ground before looking back up with a new shake in her voice and a hint of emotion. “He is everything a man should be; loyal, affectionate, caring, and sexy. What he makes his partner feel is what bathroom stall brag sessions are made of.” She too threw her coffee before continuing, “And I didn’t hold his attention. Oh, he was content to be with me, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say he was happy with me. After all, who would be dealing with me on a daily basis?”

Molly couldn’t help raising her eyebrow. She knew it was in bad taste and rude, but she just couldn’t help it.

“When we found out I was pregnant, he asked me to marry him. But I played hard to get. It was part of the game, it was part of the challenge, so I refused. He asked me every day through my entire pregnancy, and I was tempted to say yes on many days, but something inside of me couldn’t do it. When Leah was born, he asked me again, and I told him that I couldn’t. He asked me why, and for the first time, I could say I was one hundred percent honest with him. I told him that I did not love him. Hunter, being Hunter, tried again for several more months, but one night I just couldn’t bear to hear the words come from him again. I knew he wasn’t asking me to marry him because he loved me in the end all be all way. No, he was asking me to marry him because we shared a child, and it was the noble and responsible thing to do. The Dennison thing to do. He loves Leah; he loved her the moment he knew she grew inside of me. And looking back, I think she was the reason I couldn’t ruin his life anymore. Leah was my reason to set her father free of myself. He and I sat down and I told him I had met Garrett and I was madly in love. Hunter, of course, congratulated without shunning me for being unfaithful.” Allison leaned against her car, looking down the street and then back to
Molly’s
exterior. “When he returned to Clearwater Falls, I was far from surprised. He was coming home; he was coming home to you. I realize now that there was always something that kept him completely out of my reach. Something that I overlooked to make myself feel more righteous, more successful, more triumphant. I always really knew, but I just never admitted it until he came back here. You were his dream. When we were intimate, it felt very crowded, and that is because it may have physically been me, but that was where my involvement ended. He envisioned it was you under him all those years. You were the one he so desperately wanted. You were the one that he wished called out his name every time we made love. You certainly were the one he wanted to feel his child grow inside of. He wanted to wipe your brow during labor. Instead of his dream coming true, he got a nightmare, me.”

Molly’s brain was on overdrive with all that Allison was telling her.

Could it really be true?

“Come on, at this point in life, let’s just call a spade a spade. He has given me a beautiful child and he has taken every shovelful of shit I’ve thrown at him. It is time I rectify the evil I set in motion that caused all of us to age twenty years,” Allison said, standing taller as she walked to her car door. “I’m far from perfect, but I’m also old enough to know it is time to do right by my daughter. And that means doing right by her father, the man whose life I basically ruined.”

Molly went to correct her, but Allison just held up her hand. “I know what I am, but I am trying. Why else do you think I wanted Leah to spend some time with Hunter now? Leah has a huge capacity for love, which is completely the genetic doing of her father. I just want to not have to be ashamed any longer in her eyes.”

Molly didn’t know what to think except for maybe it was time to let Allison off the hook for the shit storm she created decades ago.

“Just think about it, Molly. Don’t do something you will regret and put yourself in the same lot as me.”

Allison got in her car and drove off without so much as a wave. Molly remained on the sidewalk just staring into the distance of where Allison had driven off to and suddenly the weight of the world seemed too much for Molly to bear.

Molly knew she loved him. She loved him so much that she gave him up so he wouldn’t have to settle for the small amount of attention she could give him.

This will be better for everyone in the long run. Yes, the next couple of days will hurt, but soon he will forget about me and be grateful that he will be able to live a full and happy life.

The fact that he will be doing that without you is just the consequence you will have to live with because, after all, this is all your doing, Molly.

Talk about a real wake-up call.

It had been two weeks since both Leah and Molly left him. Fourteen days since his world split in two. The fact that he was here at work seeing patients was a miracle, considering it hurt him to take in a breath. In fourteen days, he knew he’d slept for no more than a few minutes here or there, and he knew for sure the next fourteen didn’t pose to be any better.

He wasn’t living, he was just going through the motions; motions that he could give two shits less about.

Hunter was miserable; his pain was threatening to eat him whole. His existence had become home to work, work to home, and nothing else.

No longer could he bring himself to drive the route he never could seem to give up. Now when he drove, he never touched Main Street or the road that led to the entrance to the park.

His brothers were even going to the extreme to form an intervention—all arriving at his home, Mason barged in, turning on all the lights and ridiculing him for sitting in the dark.

“You are a miserable prick,”
and
“Stupidity found its knot on your limb of the family tree,”
were thrown at him over and over again.

They weren’t telling him anything that he didn’t already know; it just didn’t change anything. Molly asked him to leave her alone. And the only way to accomplish that was for him to do what he was doing, even though he was dying in the process. But his will was in order and Leah would be taken care of, so what difference did it make.

For him to live without Molly, wasn’t living.

“So fix it!”
they hurled at him and finally he screamed back
, “I can’t!”