Chapter 9

Samantha

“I didn’t realize you were coming.”

Janice sneered at her, but because Samantha was growing accustomed to that, she merely tilted her chin in the air and stared the other woman down.

She didn’t like to think poorly of anyone, but she really disliked Janice. Would go so far as to call her a class A bitch.

Frank was too disinterested in anything other than his work or his club to really give a damn about who cared for Erin. Grandson or not, it didn’t make him a person who was suddenly interested in rearing a small child.

No, this entire battle had been instigated by Janice, mostly because Erin’s words were tarnishing Janice’s memory of her horrible son.

“Janice, it’s a pleasure to see you,” was all Samantha said, when she’d have liked to say and do far more.

For a second, she imagined herself telling the woman exactly what she thought of her, but knew she was too chicken to do so.

Not only because of the power Janice held over her, a power that could take Erin from her, but also because the woman had claws and wasn’t afraid to use them.

Samantha had never been that way. She was a people pleaser. A comforter, a nurturer. There was no changing her nature. Not even her marriage had done that.

“Where’s Erin?” Janice demanded instead, peering around Josh and her as though Erin could pop up at any given moment.

“He’s with one of my guards. He has children,” Josh assured Janice as he reached forward so he could anoint both her cheeks with a kiss. “It’s great to see you, Janice. It’s been too long.”

“Yes, it has.” Janice shot him a strange look. “You’ve lost weight.”

“I’ve been working out more.”

“It doesn’t suit you,” she countered, putting her hands on her hips. “You’re as bad as Jamie was. Always trying to beef up.”

Josh stiffened, but Janice, as usual, was too self-absorbed to notice. “Work pressures haven’t helped. I’m eating enough, Janice. That I can assure you.” His words were as stiff as his posture.

The other woman pursed her lips in disapproval—a disapproval that made no sense considering the woman was close to skeletal and her body was pumped with so much plastic, she was a walking recycling bin—and grumbled, “Why is Erin with one of your guards? I’d have liked to speak with him.” Janice cut Samantha a look that was loaded with dislike. “What’s going on?”

“He’s down in the car.”

“What? He’s here?”

Josh nodded. “I wanted to speak with you first, and I didn’t think it was a conversation that little ears should overhear.”

“What are you talking about?” Janice said on a huff.

“I’m talking about an announcement I—we—have to make.”

“What kind of announcement?” The demand came hand in hand with a narrowing of her eyes as she took in the way Samantha shuffled closer to Josh’s side.

“I proposed to Samantha and she said yes.”

For a second, she thought they’d managed the impossible—had managed to shut the old bitch up. Janice was so quiet and for so long, she thought they’d stunned her!

Then, came a low keening sound. It fled from her lips, and on anyone else, it would have sounded like she was mourning. But this was born of rage and fury.

“I knew it!” The words came out on a screech. “I knew it. I told Frank but he didn’t believe me. How could you, Joshua Lewis? Your best friend’s widow!”

She turned her snarl on Samantha. “And you, you slut. You’ve barely waited for the grass to grow on his grave before you’re turning your wiles on some other rich schmuck.”

Samantha straightened her shoulders. “Josh proposed to me, Janice. Not the other way around. You’ve known him long enough to know that he’s a man who knows what he wants. I can’t, and haven’t, made him do anything.”

Janice’s hair, dyed a new shade of auburn today, whispered around her shoulders as she began throwing her arms about like some kind of insane whirling dervish. “I told him you were a slut. I told him. But he never listened. He thought you walked on water. The idiot. And you can barely wait for him to grow cold before you’re moving on.”

“Janice!”

Josh’s voice was a harsh bark that had Samantha flinching, and Janice jolting to attention. Having seen the other woman space out before, it hadn’t come as a surprise that she’d reacted that way. It told Samantha that they’d picked an unfortunate moment to come calling—midway through a bottle of Scotch on Janice’s behalf.

“You bastard,” the other woman snarled,

Then turning to Samantha once more, she did the unthinkable, she spat at her.

Honest to God shot her a loogie.

For a second, Samantha stared down at the once-clean light blouse she’d been wearing in astonishment.

That hadn’t just happened, had it?

Surely not.

She blinked down at the sloppy liquid anointing the fabric, and whispered, “You’re an animal.”

“I’m the animal? You’re the slut!”

“Janice, one more word and I’ll have you in court for slander.”

Janice’s eyes flared wide. “You dare to threaten me?”

“I’ll do a damn sight more if you can’t calm down.”

“You were sleeping with her before Jamie died, weren’t you? That’s why he started taking more of that horrendous stuff. I knew it. It’s all your fault!”

A stillness overcame Samantha at her mother-in-law’s words.

She’d thought…

Well, Janice had never caught Samantha’s allusions to Jamie’s addictions. She’d never seemed to catch on, and Samantha hadn’t believed it had been willing ignorance, simply a lack of awareness of her child’s true nature.

But now?

Janice had confirmed something she had never even suspected.

“You knew.”

The words were a statement, not a question. But they didn’t come from her lips, they came from Josh.

“I knew he was taking far too much. I warned him to slow down. But he wouldn’t listen, he never listened. And why would he when he was so upset about his best friend and his own wife fucking behind his back.”

She didn’t know where it came from, didn’t know where the urge stemmed because if anyone knew violence wasn’t the answer, it was Samantha. And yet, she watched, almost as though her hand didn’t belong to herself as she whipped it back, and with full force, aimed at Janice’s face.

With inches to spare, fingers appeared and banded about her wrist. “Don’t. You’ll regret it later.”

Josh was like ice, no, worse. Stone. He was a harsh blend of both, but his tone as well as his grip on her arm jerked her awake.

Shit, she hadn’t really been about to…?

She licked her lips, shaken that her initial response to Janice’s words were violence.

Fuck, what did that make her? As bad as her bastard husband?

She swallowed, but it was hard. Her throat felt full of tears and rage and all kinds of complicated emotions she wasn’t up to exploring. But she had to. She had to because Janice was here, admitting that she’d known all along what was happening with Jamie’s addictions.

Had she known about the other though?

Had she?

Samantha needed to know.

Needed to with a desperate craving that undoubtedly rivalled Jamie’s need for the drugs that had ultimately killed him.

“He hit me.” The words were staccato, and Janice jolted with each one. “Repeatedly. Day after day, year after year. You knew, didn’t you?”

Though Janice remained silent, Josh bit off, “You did. For fuck’s sake, Janice! Why didn’t you stop him?”

The other woman began to shake, the tremors making it seem like she was vibrating. “Get out of my home.”

“No!” Samantha roared. “No! You bitch. You goddamn bitch. He treated me like I was a punching bag. He punished me for daring to say thank you to a waiter, thought I was sleeping with everyone from our sixty-year-old doorman to the driver! And you mean to tell me you knew?”

“I knew nothing,” Janice spat. “Get out of my house. Both of you have outstayed your welcome.”

“No. I’m not going anywhere until you admit you knew,” Samantha raged. “I loved him at the start. I’d have done anything to help him. And with your support, we could have… I don’t know? Got him into rehab. But you just enabled him. You made it okay that he treated me that way!”

Janice’s mouth flatlined. “You’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”

“Not before you hear from mine first, Janice,” Josh inserted, his tone close to silky with threat.

“This fight has nothing to do with you,” she snarled.

“It has everything. You honestly think I’m going to allow my future wife to lose her son? You’re insane. As insane as Jamie was.”

“She’s convinced you, has she? Made you believe all these lies about Jamie?”

“I saw Erin before Jamie died, Janice. I saw him. He was quiet. You’d barely know he was there, he was so damn silent. He stayed close to Samantha. Tucked so close to her like he could turn invisible… That’s what Jamie did to him. I loved Jamie. I thought he was the best man I knew, and I didn’t believe it. Not at first. But seeing Erin now confirmed it. He’s chatty, he smiles and laughs and giggles. It’s a wonder he’s not nervous, but whatever he is, he isn’t sad. He doesn’t mourn his father’s passing and that’s because of Jamie.”

“No!” Janice screamed. “It’s because of her. She’s tarnishing Jamie’s memory. Ruining it with her lies and deceit.”

“It’s the truth! There are no lies here, apart from the ones you’re telling yourself.” Samantha let out a sob. “What do you want? To see my medical records? Do you want to see the ribs he broke? The arm he sprained? Is that proof? Do you want to know that the doctors and nurses of the clinic he took me to didn’t even dare tell me about a nearby women's shelter because women like me don’t escape men like Jamie Garrett.” She gulped. “Your son was a monster, and it will be a cold day in hell that I let my son be raised by the woman who turned Jamie into that.”

Josh murmured softly, “She’ll have all the might of my lawyers, Janice. You might want to consider that before you talk Frank into going to court over a child we both know he isn’t interested in.” He paused. “And, you might warn him from me. He needs to avoid the Sanderson-Montecor group if he wants to have enough money to pay a lawyer’s retainer… never mind anything else.”

Janice’s eyes flashed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means they’re being investigated for insider training. Consider that a friendly olive branch from me, Janice. He’ll have just enough time to pull his stock, and if the SEC think it looks a little unusual, then he can send them my way. I’ll explain it all. You don’t want to make an enemy out of me, Janice. You and I both know who’ll win.”

For a second, Janice stayed quiet, but she jerked her chin up and, with her eyes aimed at the door—for they’d not even left the front vestibule—she whispered, “I’d like you to leave now.”

“Gladly,” Samantha mumbled, and wished she’d never have to darken her in-laws’ doorstep ever again.