After arguing with herself for days, Lana decided that it was time to talk to the Wests about their son. She knew that she couldn’t put it off any longer. For one thing, Jarrod was already hounding her. For another, she needed to know more about Daniel’s medical history for Matthew.
She decided to do it when Jarrod was not around, and when there was no chance that he’d see her car in front of the Wests house and stop. This was between her and her in-laws, and as much as the Wests trusted Jarrod, she owed it to Daniel’s memory to keep all of this in the family, unless Rachel and Frank decided to share any of it. Plus, they might not believe her – and if that were the case, she needed the freedom to leave if they wanted her to go. So she chose a Friday when she knew that Jarrod was out of town, told Grace that she needed to take a few hours of personal leave, and headed over to see Rachel and Frank.
“Lana! Are you OK? Where’s Matthew?” Rachel peered out around Lana with a worried look on her face.
Lana put out a hand and laid it gently on Rachel’s arm. “Matthew is in day care. He’s fine. I’m sorry for just showing up like this, but I really need to talk with you and Frank. May I come in?”
Rachel’s look of concern deepened as she ushered her into the house. “Of course, dear. Come on into the living room and have a seat. Can I get you anything? A cup of tea?”
“No, but thank you, Rachel.”
“Frank, Lana’s here. She says she needs to talk with us.”
“Where’s Matt?”
“He’s still in day care. I’ll pick him up on the way home.”
“What’s going on, Lana?”
She sank onto the couch across from the couple that she had come to love like parents.
“I need to talk to you about Daniel,” she said at last. “There are some things you need to know, and some things I need to know. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, but…”
“You needed to learn to trust us.”
Lana shook her head. “No, it’s not that. I needed you to decide if you could ever learn to trust me.”
“Lana…” Frank started to interrupt.
But Lana reached over and laid her hand gently on his. “Frank, it’s OK. I know that Daniel told you a lot of things about me. He was your son. I would expect you to take him at his word.”
When Rachel looked over at Lana, her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Daniel wasn’t telling us the truth.”
Lana sighed. “Not completely. I’m sorry.” She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I don’t quite know where to start.”
“At the beginning, dear. There’s no better place.”
Lana was gentle in the telling. She talked with Rachel and Frank about meeting Daniel and falling in love with him. She told them about their wedding. She was candid when she admitted that Daniel had lied to her about his family, and she quietly built up to the diagnosis of mental illness. She was careful in what she told them about his abuse, and she absolutely held fast to her commitment to keep their last night together from his parents. There was no way that this kind couple needed to know what their son had done to her, or threatened to do to Matt. But she was adamant that she left when she couldn’t help him, and she was worried about the impact on Matthew. And she was honest with them about filing for divorce from their son.
When she was done, Rachel looked over at her with compassion. “This was hard on you.”
“Rachel, I…”
“Let me finish, Lana. We were worried that something was wrong with Daniel. Over the past couple of years, we seldom saw him. When we visited him, he was agitated and distracted. When we talked with him on the phone, he never sounded like himself. To be honest, we thought it was because things weren’t going well in your marriage, but when we met you a few months ago, we knew that there was a lot more to the story. We never knew that Matt even existed until Jarrod told us about him, and we didn’t know about your divorce. We had no idea that Daniel was so sick. We would have helped you if we could have, Lana.”
“If I’d known that Daniel had family, I would have looked for you.”
Frank spoke up then. “I think there’s quite a bit more to this story than you’re telling us, Lana. I’m not going to pry, because you have your reasons for keeping that to yourself. But we’re here for you if you ever want to tell us more.”
Lana nodded, swallowing hard. She had hoped that Frank and Rachel would still welcome Matt into their home, but she hadn’t allowed herself to hope that they would still want a relationship with her. She had divorced their son when he was sick. He had died looking for her, even if his intentions had been dangerous. But these people were still opening their hearts to her. Her eyes welled up with tears as she looked across at Daniel’s parents.
“He was a good man,” she said quietly. “A kind and thoughtful man, with a good heart. I can see where he got those traits from.”
“Lana, you may have divorced our son, but it sounds like you did everything you could to protect our grandson. As far as we’re concerned, you are still our daughter-in-law.”
It was too much. Lana sat on the couch and quietly sobbed into her hands as Rachel moved over to sit next to her, her strong arm around her shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Lana. I feel like we let you down. We were so sure that you were the person Daniel was describing to us. If we’d been more suspicious, we may have figured things out while he was still alive, and when you needed help.”
But Lana shook her head. “It’s not your fault. It’s not anyone’s fault. He was sick.”
“We might have been able to help you get him on his meds.”
“Maybe, but I honestly doubt he would have stayed compliant, Rachel. The side effects bothered him too much. He tried, I know he did. But he ultimately didn’t have it in him to fight.”
“If we had any idea that Daniel had a son…”
Lana laughed then. “You would have been on the first plane out of here, and you would have stayed for months. I know that, Rachel. I would have welcomed it.”
“You said there were things you needed to know from us,” Rachel reminded her as her sobs slowly diminished. “I assume you’re worried about a genetic trait that could impact Matt.”
Lana just nodded.
“There is no history of mental illness in the family. It doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen to Matt,” Rachel said realistically, “but there’s nobody else in our family with any such issues. You have to know, though, that if Matt gets sick, we’re here for you, Lana. You won’t have to cope alone, ever again.”
“Thank you. For everything. I had no idea how to tell you all of this. Thank you for believing me, and for still accepting me and Matt.”
Frank leaned forward in his chair, his big hands reaching out to envelop Lana’s smaller ones in his. “Lana, it’s the only explanation that makes sense. We knew there was more to Daniel’s story.”
Rachel looked concerned. “Does Jarrod know?”
Lana shook her head. “No. I wanted to talk with you about it. Daniel was your son. If you didn’t want anyone to know, I would keep it between us. Mental illness still has a lot of stigmas attached.”
“Tell him, dear. I think it would explain a great deal, and I think it would help him to cope with his feelings about you, and his guilt about Daniel.”
Lana looked over at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Lana, Jarrod obviously has feelings for you. But he also has a huge sense of loyalty to Daniel, and he’s having trouble separating out the you he sees in front of him, and the you that Daniel told him about.”
“He’s said that to me a few times. It’s hard for me to hear, to be honest. If he can’t see me for who I am…”
“Daniel told lies quite convincingly, Lana. Give Jarrod a chance.”
Shaking her head, Lana said quietly. “I think there’s a physical attraction between us, but that’s it. He’s good to Matt, he was a friend to Daniel, and he’s a good employer, but that’s as far as it can go.”
Frank let out a loud harrumph from his chair, causing Rachel to laugh. “I think what Frank is trying to say is that you’re wrong. But regardless, you should tell him what you told us.”
Lana nodded. “I will. When the time is right.”
“All right then. You’ll find the right time. Frank and I will stay out of it. Just don’t wait too long.”
A few days after her conversation with Rachel and Frank, Lana drove across town to have lunch with her sister. She needed to talk to someone about what was happening with her and Jarrod, and Sam was the only person who would really understand her feelings.
Sam’s initial reaction was skeptical. “So you’re saying that he pretty much coerced you into taking a job at his company so that he could check you out and make sure you weren’t going to steal the West family china?”
“That’s my understanding. Well, that and to make sure that I wasn’t going to start dealing drugs out of their family room.”
“I get the distrust thing, to be honest. Daniel was his best friend, and he’d never met you. If he was going to believe anyone, it would be Daniel. What I don’t like so much is how he got you here. Why didn’t he just show up at your door to meet you?”
“I’m not entirely sure. He says that it’s because he wanted to get to know me, and just showing up at my door wouldn’t have given him the information he needed.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“Not sure. Yes, for the most part. I guess.”
Sam started to laugh. “Yeah, that’s a resounding endorsement. OK. So he got you here. He likes your work. He likes you. Enough to propose to you.”
But Lana laughed too, and shook her head. “No, that’s more because he likes Matthew and he’s worried that I can’t provide for him.”
“So he can’t just give you a gift card to Target and say ‘have at it?’”
“I guess not.”
Sam gave her a shrewd look, but let it go. “So what is he like?”
“Not like Daniel. No, that’s not quite right. In some ways, Jarrod has some of the same traits that Daniel had when we first met. He seems strong, dependable, capable. Daniel seemed a bit more sensitive, and Jarrod is more intense.”
“Do you love him?”
“No.”
“Well, that was said a little too quickly. Are you sure?”
Lana laughed without humor. “I loved Daniel. Look where that got me.”
“Daniel had a disease. You know that – you’re the one that kept reminding me of that whenever I got angry at him.”
“I know,” Lana said quietly.
“His schizophrenia didn’t make him a bad person, just a sick one.”
“I thought you hated him in the end,” Lana said incredulously.
“I hated what he did to you and to Matt.”
Lana sighed. After a few moments, she said thoughtfully, “Daniel lied about not having any family from the start, and he lied by omission when he didn’t tell me about any of the money that he and his family had. But I have no idea why. If he was so wealthy, why were we living from paycheck to paycheck, and why wasn’t he tapping into that money?”
Sam shrugged her shoulders. “I’m not sure you’ll ever know, Lana. But what about Jarrod? Is he honest with you?”
Lana laughed without humor. “Brutally so. But we’re in a strange place right now. He’s having a hard time separating the real me from the woman that Daniel told him about. He goes from being sure that I married Daniel for his money to wanting to pay off all my bills. He thinks I cheated on Daniel, but then wants to have sex with me. I’m getting whiplash as he jumps from one of his conclusions to the next. This marriage thing is strange though. I’m not at all sure where it came from, given his constantly changing opinion of me.”
Sam just shook her head. “You’re a wonderful, sweet, beautiful caring person. Any man in his right mind would want you in their life. That’s a plus in his column, I’d say. So when do we get to meet this man? Nick is out of town this weekend, but he’s back on Monday night. Anytime after that would work for us.”
“I’ll check with Jarrod, but Wednesday night would be good for me, if it works for you guys?”
“Sounds fine. You and Nick can cook. I’d offer but I don’t think we want to spend the night in the ER.”
Lana laughed. “If Nick is up for it, I am too. I’ll call Jarrod tonight and check with him and let you know tomorrow. Is that OK with you?”
Sam grinned. “Absolutely. And tell him that if he brings good wine, I’ll love him forever.”
Jarrod had been more than interested in the invitation – he had been wondering if Lana would ever want to introduce him to her family, and had been thinking of suggesting it himself. His calendar was open on Wednesday night, and he agreed to meet her at Sam and Nick’s house at 6:30.
“I’m going to see if Rachel and Frank will watch Matt for the evening. He’d love to see his grandparents, and it would be nice to have an adult conversation without worrying about what we’re saying in front of him.”
“They’ll be thrilled,” Jarrod assured her. “Are you sure I can’t pick you up?”
“I’m going to head over right after work, but thanks.”
So on Wednesday night, Lana dropped Matthew off with his grandparents, and was standing in Sam’s kitchen chopping onions while wearing a “Kiss the Cook” apron when the doorbell rang at exactly 6:30. Samantha left Lana in the kitchen, and went to let Jarrod in.
“Hi Jarrod. Come on in. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Samantha, but my friends all call me Sam. Let me take your coat. My husband Nick is on his way home from work – he should be here any minute.”
Jarrod had brought a bottle of a South African red wine, handing it over to Sam as he shrugged off his jacket. "Nice to meet you too, Sam. I can tell that you and Lana are sisters ‒ you look very much alike."
"I’ll take that as a compliment," Sam grinned.
Jarrod smiled back, and started to relax. Lana had told Jarrod that he could expect a friendly welcome from her sister, but he had half-expected that he would be met by a fiercely protective little dragon lady. It was a relief to find that she was as approachable as Lana was.
“Would you like something to drink?” Sam asked as she took his coat and hung it in the closet. “Lana is in the kitchen if you want to say hello. While you’re in there, please help yourself to some wine, or anything else you can find. I think there’s beer in the fridge, and Lord knows what’s in the liquor cabinet.”
Jarrod grinned and headed into the kitchen. Kissing Lana on the cheek, he grinned. “Nice apron.”
She laughed. “Hi there. Nice to see you. Now make yourself useful and refill my wine.”
Jarrod did as he was told, pulling the open bottle from the countertop and topping off Lana’s glass, then reaching for a glass of his own. When Sam came back into the kitchen, she was followed by Nick, who had arrived shortly after Jarrod.
“Oh, thank God,” Lana said when she saw him. “Nick, this is Jarrod. Jarrod, Nick. Now please get these two out of the kitchen, and come help me cook. Sam wants to add hot sauce to the risotto.”
Laughing, Nick shook Jarrod’s hand, and then moved over to the fridge to grab a beer. “Welcome to my world, buddy.” Pulling off his tie and unbuttoning the top button of his shirt, he leaned down and kissed Lana’s cheek. “I’m just going to go change, and then I’ll come help. Sam, you’re banished. Go interrogate Jarrod.”
Sam grinned. “Fine,” she said. “But I’m stealing the wine.” Grabbing the half-empty bottle and an extra glass, she led Jarrod into the living room and motioned to the couch. “Have a seat. Those two will create magic while we relax,” she assured him. “I find that it helps to be completely inept in the kitchen,” she added with a laugh.
Jarrod chuckled. He was already enjoying himself – these were nice people, he thought. Settling into the soft couch, he leaned back, crossing one leg over the other at the knee. Good wine, a fire in the fireplace, amazing aromas coming from the kitchen, and a woman across from him who was just settling in for an inquisition.
“So tell me about your friendship with Daniel,” Sam asked.
“Is this the start of the aforementioned interrogation?” Jarrod asked with a grin.
Sam shook her head firmly, but looked serious as she responded, “No. I think I have fairly good discernment, and I already like you. But I liked Daniel too. So, I hope you’ll forgive me for wanting to learn more about your relationship to him.”
“You met Daniel?”
Sam looked at Jarrod keenly. “Yes. That surprises you?”
“Where did you meet him?”
“Here. Lana brought him for Thanksgiving one year, after they were first married.”
Jarrod briefly closed his eyes, letting out a long sigh. “His parents live ten minutes from here. And I’m not much further.”
Sam whistled softly. “And he never let any of you know he was here. But how could he, without introducing all of you to Lana?”
“It’s quite a coincidence that you live in the same city that he grew up in.”
“It is. I never thought about it before. But I’m sure it’s just that – a coincidence. How could it be anything else?”
Jarrod nodded. “OK. Let’s assume that, for now. So you had questions about Daniel and me. What would you like to know?”
“Did you get along well?”
Jarrod thought about the question. “Yes,” he said. “Until about seven years ago. He started pulling back from me and from his family. Stopped coming home for the holidays, stopped calling, stopped writing. Pretty much disappeared. To all of us on the outside, it looked like Lana was pulling him away from us. He died before we ever had a chance to learn about what was going on. When he called me, he pretty much just complained about his marriage.” Taking a sip of wine, he continued. “Daniel was my best friend growing up, and we were in the service together. He had my back in Iraq. When his marriage was falling apart, it made sense that he wanted to talk to me. None of us had ever met Lana, so it was easy to believe whatever Daniel told us. He left a lot out, though – he never mentioned that Lana had divorced him, and none of us knew a damn thing about Matthew.”
“Lana didn’t know any of you existed,” Sam pointed out. “Believe me, you and the existence of Daniel’s family came as a shock to all of us.”
Jarrod was silent for a moment before nodding. “I’m starting to believe that, though it’s been hard to accept. Daniel was my best friend. How in the hell did he not tell his wife about me? Or about his family? They loved him.”
Sam looked over at him sympathetically, hearing the frustration in his voice. “I’m sorry, Jarrod. I know this is all as hard for you to hear as it’s been for Lana to live it.”
“I’m starting to have some idea, but maybe you could tell me why Lana left Daniel?”
Sam shook her head. “I like you, Jarrod, but Lana needs to be the one to talk to you about this. Have you asked her?” she added, getting up to throw another log on the fire.
“She’s told me some things. But I haven’t always been very understanding, I’m afraid.”
“Do you still think she’s after the family fortune?” Sam asked with a smile, looking over her shoulder at him as she poked the logs to move them into a better position.
“She’s in a lot of debt,” Jarrod pointed out, though he was growing more uncomfortable with that whole image of Lana. It didn’t fit, he realized. But that left a lot of unanswered questions.
Sam stood up and moved back to her chair. “That’s true,” she answered. “But do you see any evidence in her life that she’s a big spender?”
Jarrod’s eyes narrowed, but he answered honestly. “No. In fact, she rejects me anytime I offer to help her.”
Sam nodded seriously. “I’m sure you realize this by now, but for Lana, it’s all about Matthew. I think that Lana gave up long ago on her own happiness. I think she’s content in finding it for her son.”
Jarrod looked thoughtful. “Will you tell me one thing about Daniel?”
Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. You can ask.”
“Was Lana afraid of him?”
Sam took a sip of wine, looking at the man across from her as she did so. “What do you think?” she asked softly.
Jarrod stared at his own glass with a look of concentration. “I can’t figure out why,” he said at last. “Daniel was… a good man. There wasn’t an evil bone in his body.”
“When did you last see him? Before he was killed, I mean.”
“A long time before that. But we talked a lot. He seemed different over time, I guess. He was often drunk when he called me, but I thought it was because he was unhappy.”
Sam stared into the fire for a moment, not sure how much to say to Jarrod. She knew that he probably didn’t have a clue what had happened to his friend. Lana was finally coming out from under the fear that she had lived with for so long. She deserved a man who understood what she had been through, but Sam was unwilling to betray her sister’s confidence. Finally, she just looked at Jarrod seriously and said, “People change, Jarrod. Lana has her reasons for her fear.”
Jarrod nodded thoughtfully before asking the question he most feared the answer to. His voice was low with tension as he questioned, “Did he ever hit Matthew?”
Sam hesitated. “I don’t know,” she answered at last. “You’ll have to ask Lana that.”
“But you think it’s possible?”
Again, she was silent for a while, but then answered quietly, “I think Lana would have told me if he did, so my guess is that she kept Matthew safe.”
Jarrod took that in for a few moments before asking, “Did he hit Lana?”
But this time, Sam just shook her head. “I think this is a conversation you should be having with Lana, not with me. I don’t know how to answer that one.”
“Either yes or no, Sam. I don’t need details.”
“It’s not that easy. Honestly, Jarrod. Talk to Lana. Ask her these questions. She’ll tell you, if she trusts you.”
Jarrod smiled sardonically. “I’m not sure she trusts me just now, Sam. But I won’t put you on the spot any longer. Thanks for being so open with me. Now what else can I answer for you?” he asked with a grin.
Sam laughed. “I’ll stop grilling you. Tell me about your job.”
For the next fifteen minutes, Sam and Jarrod chatted, learning more about each other as they did so, and each quietly growing to respect the other. By the time Nick and Lana called them for dinner, Sam was feeling much better about Jarrod, and Jarrod was starting to wonder just how badly he had misjudged Lana.
Nick and Lana were laughing loudly as they carried food in from the kitchen. It was good to hear her laugh, Sam thought. It had been a while since she had seemed to really just enjoy herself in the moment. She silently wondered if this man next to her was starting to crack through the wall that her sister had erected around herself.
Dinner was amazing, and after the table was cleared and dishes were in the dishwasher, Sam asked, “Anyone for a game of Scrabble?”
“Sure,” both Lana and Nick agreed simultaneously. All three of them looked at Jarrod.
“I’m in,” he responded immediately. “I have the feeling I’m going to get beat badly, but I’m not one to run from a challenge.”
“I’ll get the board,” Nick volunteered, heading back into the study to find the game. When he came back out, the coffee table was cleared off, and Lana, Sam, and Jarrod were all settled on the floor. Lana took a spot next to Jarrod, and across from Sam.
In between breaks to make hot chocolate and to add wood to the fire, they played three games, with Sam winning the first two, and Jarrod taking the last. Nick and Lana played for fun, occasionally sneaking in nonsensical words, just to see if others would challenge them. Whether or not they did, the words led to a lot of laughter.
“They cheated,” Nick winked at Lana after the final game had been played.
“Of course,” Lana agreed immediately. “Imagine going through life without ‘xenact’ as a part of your vocabulary.”
“Yeah, imagine that,” Nick agreed. “Good thing that you and I don’t feel the need to conform to all of society when it comes to our words.”
Jarrod and Sam just watched the two of them, shaking their heads in amusement.
“Are they always this bad when they get together?” Jarrod asked with a long-suffering expression on his face.
“Sometimes they’re worse,” Sam sighed, laughing when Jarrod rolled his eyes. “Wait till you see them play Monopoly. They actually give their property away ‘to help the little guy’.”
“Hey, when you disagree with the entire premise of Monopoly, you’ve got to find ways to make it tolerable,” Nick argued with a grin.
“Tolerable for you means playing with the shoe as your game piece,” Samantha pointed out.
“Well, that’s true,” Nick conceded. “But you pout the whole game if you don’t get the dog.”
“That’s only because she likes it to pee on your property,” Lana said dryly.
They all erupted in laughter as Sam agreed. It was too bad this couldn’t last forever, Lana thought. But she had to get over to pick up Matthew and get him ready for bed. It was, after all, a school night. Standing up, she thanked her sister for the dinner, and headed to get her coat. When she came back, Jarrod had said his goodbyes to Nick and Sam, and was waiting for her in the foyer.
“Will you have dinner with me on Friday night?” he asked as he helped her on with her coat.
Lana thought for a moment before asking quietly, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Jarrod brushed her hair behind her ears. “Yes. I’m sure.”
She looked up at him for a moment before finally nodding. “All right. Matthew is going to a friend’s house for the weekend, so that will work out fine for me. What time?”
“Do you have any late meetings at work?”
“No. Not on Friday.”
“Good. I’ll pick you up at 7:00. Will that suit you?”
Lana hesitated slightly, but then nodded. “That will be fine.”
“Dress formally. I’d like to take you to a nice restaurant.”
“All right. Thank you.”
“Are you staying at Rachel and Frank’s at all tonight?”
Lana shook her head. “No, we’re heading straight home. I have some work I need to do, and Matt needs to go to bed.”
“I had fun tonight,” he said softly, reaching up and again gently brushing her hair back behind her ear. He hesitated before adding, “It was good to see you laugh. I don’t think I’ve seen much of that before. But I guess I haven’t given you much to laugh at.”
Lana gave him a wistful smile, then said quietly, “I had fun too. I’m glad that you liked Sam and Nick.”
“I did.” Jarrod leaned down and kissed Lana quickly on the cheek. “Drive safely, sweetheart. I’ll see you on Friday, if not before.”
Opening up the door, Jarrod headed for his car, leaving Lana to say goodbye to her sister.
“I liked him,” Sam said from the doorway of the living room, magically appearing after Jarrod left.
“Did you?” Lana asked, looking at her sister seriously.
“Yes. He seems different from Daniel.”
“In what way?”
“More self-assured. I think that Jarrod is good for you, Lana. He seems to care about you.”
“If he could just get past his suspicions about me...”
“I think that will come. He was asking a lot of questions tonight about Daniel and about his relationship with you. I told him to talk to you.”
“He asks questions, Sam, but he doesn’t seem to want to listen to the answers. He still doesn’t trust me.”
Sam sighed. “I want this to work out for you, Lana. You deserve someone wonderful after all you’ve been through.”
“But is it the best friend of the man who put me through it all?” Lana asked with a slight smile. “I wish I knew. But I’d better go,” she sighed. “I need to get Matthew.”
Sam nodded. “OK. I’ll talk to you this weekend. I love you, sis.”
“I love you too.”