37
A little more than a mile away from Laurie’s engagement party, in the offices of Dr. Steven Carter on Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District, Kendra Bell took the cotton-wrapped ice pack from Mrs. Meadows and placed it on a metal tray. The light blue cotton was speckled with tiny spots of blood from the Botox injections that Steven was now inspecting.
“Looks great,” Steven said as he approved his work. “You’ll have those little bumps like bug bites for just a couple days, but then you’ll be good as new. Remember to keep your head upright for the next four hours, preferably six. Don’t apply any pressure, so no baseball caps, helmets, or turbans.”
Mrs. Meadows let out a giggle at that one, as most of the patients did. “But what will I do without my favorite turban?” she joked.
“And this is the part everyone likes best: no workouts for the next twenty-four hours. You want the product to stay inside the muscle, not get sweated out.”
“Oh, not to worry, Dr. Carter. I haven’t seen the inside of a gym for the last twenty-four years, let alone hours. It’s one of my finest accomplishments.”
Steven snapped off his latex gloves and tossed them next to the ice pack. All of it would go into a medical-waste disposal bucket.
Mrs. Meadows gave a quick wave as she hopped out of the treatment chair, adding a blown kiss for Kendra. “See you next time!”
Once she was gone and on her way to the reception desk to pay, Steven pulled the treatment room door closed. Their final appointment of the day was finished, and they were officially off the clock. “So what was the gossip this time?”
Mrs. Meadows was one of their favorite patients, full of personality and moxie. Some of the patients were wary of Kendra, and two of them had even insisted on being seen by a different assistant. But, if anything, the whiff of scandal on Kendra only made her a more attractive gossip buddy for Mrs. Meadows, the name she absolutely insisted on.
“She has a new man,” Kendra announced. “This one’s only thirty-two years old.” That made him less than half the age of his seductress.
Steven shook his head. “Poor boy has no idea what’s coming his way.”
Some might worry about a younger man taking advantage of an older, wealthy widow, but Mrs. Meadows was no victim. She had left a long trail of ex-boyfriends in her wake. “I already had my one great love,” she liked to say. “Now I prefer a frequent change of faces.”
Steven’s tone suddenly grew more serious. “I haven’t wanted to raise the subject, but is everything all right with that television production? I could see how concerned you were about the way they might present the story.”
Kendra’s first instinct was to clam up. The last thing she needed was another person prying into her secrets. But Steven had been such a good friend to her, and she sure did need a trusted confidant right now.
She quickly decided which bits of information to share and which to keep to herself.
“It turns out that Caroline disclosed some information that doesn’t present me in the best light,” she said.
Steven’s expression twisted into a disapproving scowl. “But she’s practically family at this point. Where’s the loyalty?”
Kendra waved her palms, trying to set aside his outrage. “She’s so devoted. That’s why she told me every word she said to the producer.”
“Such as?”
“It doesn’t matter, because I know I’m innocent. In the end, there’s only so much damage they can do to me.” Even as she spoke the words that were meant to comfort both him and her, she remembered her promise to the Beehive man—the horrible man she knew only as Mike. She had sworn on her children’s lives that the producers would never know about him. But now Caroline admitted that she had told Laurie about her habit of stashing away piles of cash that continued to this day. It was only a matter of time before they grilled her about the reason.
And that terrible quote that Caroline had provided: Am I finally free of him? She had been so unhappy in that marriage. Broken, desperate. A shadow of her former self. Even so, it was shameful to say that.
She had been so miserable that she had wished her own husband—the father of her children—dead. It was hard to imagine, and yet she had unmistakably heard the words in her own voice. That outburst, plus the unaccounted-for cash, combined with whatever negative testimony the police could patch together, would be enough to put her in prison for life. Bobby and Mindy would be raised by their ice-cold grandparents, groomed to be miniature versions of them.
She couldn’t allow it. She’d pay Beehive Mike whatever amount he wanted to keep his mouth shut until the end of time.
She was pulled from her thoughts by the sight of Steven, staring at her with nothing but adoration.
“I can’t thank you enough for all that you’ve done for me and the kids, Steven.”
“I’d do anything for you, Kendra. I love you.” She could see that he was surprised by his own words. “Like family,” he added, giving her a quick hug before opening the door to leave.
She knew his feelings ran deeper than that, but—as ridiculous as it seemed—the only man she had ever loved was Martin Bell. But that was before she truly knew him, before he had acted as if he owned her. Was it possible that with Steven she might have another chance at trust and love?