Chapter Eleven

Melanie’s Secret

 

 

When they got to the boathouse, they found the boaters already idling next to the dock, smoke coming from the exhaust pipe and only one line of rope holding them to land. Unlike the small yacht Claire figured Mr. Prescott had ordered, it was a speedboat with the capacity to hold six passengers. One more if they wished to strap themselves to the front deck, which was something Claire considered doing. Emily had chosen to seat herself next to Colin, of course. He looked like the bird who’d been caught by the neighbor’s cat. His eyes were as big as golf balls when Claire showed up with Mallory.

Melanie pulled the boat closer to the dock and stepped off. Claire handed down the basket to Mallory, who’d already jumped in.

“Dad, why did you get such a small boat?” Mallory squeezed next to Jason on the white leather sofa that stretched across the back.

“I didn’t know it was this small. The guy told me this is all they had on such short notice.” He pulled down the gear, idling it louder. “Come on, let’s get going.”

Claire looked from the dock to where she could stand in the compartment. Colin stood to walk toward her when Melanie intervened. “Honey, just go on. It’s too many people in there. Claire and I will catch the next trip.”

Colin shouted out to be heard over the engine. “Let me out first, Dad. I’ll wait for the next ride, too.”

Melanie threw the rope over to Mr. Prescott before Colin could get off. He stood next to the rail as the boat trailed off, desperation in his eyes as he stared at Claire. She wanted to cry. Mr. Prescott had won again. Only this time with the assistance of his wife, Melanie, best friend of her dearly departed mother’s.

“Come on, dear. Let’s go and sit in the shade of the magnolia tree and rest until they return. It’s in bloom now and the smell is absolutely enchanting.” She took Claire’s arm and led her to the bench where Claire would always sit when she was little, reading Nancy Drew mystery novels.

The bench looked weathered now. Tiny splinters poked out on the edge where she sat. Something Melanie had failed to remember to get painted.

“I think I know why we’re here, Melanie.” She moved her leg to avoid injury from the chipped wood. “Mallory said she told you about her suspicions of me and Colin. That must be why you pretty much pushed the boat for takeoff without me just now, huh?” She hoped she was wrong, but her gut told her she was spot-on. Question was, why would she? She thought she liked Claire.

Melanie shifted on the seat and pulled something off her pant leg. “Yes, Mallory did mention something about her suspicions of you and Colin.” Her nostrils flared a bit.

“I wish Mom were here so I could talk to her. Tell her how I’m feeling and ask her what to do.”

“What are you feeling?” She leaned in on her knees.

Claire took a deep breath. It was now or never. “I love him.” She let that settle for a second before she continued. “I’m really new at this. I can’t say I’ve ever loved anyone before to compare it, but I love the man Colin’s become. He’s smart, fun, amazingly handsome, and he makes me feel like I’m beautiful. I look at things differently now. I don’t just live in a tiny box. I can do anything I set my mind to. He makes me feel secure. I’ve never had someone, other than Mom of course, who’s made me feel this special. I’m really, truly in love with him.”

Melanie’s face softened. Her nose got back into joint. She rested her hand on Claire’s. “Well, honey, I know I can’t ever take the place of your mother. She was great at this sort of thing, but I’d like to offer you my advice if you’d allow me.”

“Okay.” Maybe she was wrong about Melanie and how she thought she was trying to sabotage her and Colin.

“I think she’d tell you that although you think you’re having all these feelings, that it’s probably no more than confusion from the last six months of your life.”

“What?” What confusion? Claire reared back, reclaiming her hand in the process.

“Claire, you’ve just lost your mother. Honey, you feel lonely. And then Colin comes and—”

“Okay, let me stop you right there. Colin is not taking the place of what I lost with Mom. No one can do that. He’s a man I love in his own right. And yes, I was lonely, but I’ve been lonely all my life to some degree. It’s just been me and Mom. Colin fills that empty space. Not because I was looking for a warm body, but he’s someone I found in a surprising way.”

“Okay, I get it. It’s fun—it’s youthful. It’s something you’ll look back on when you get back home and smile. It was a well-needed diversion from reality. But that’s all it is, Claire. And I strongly advise you to let it go. Let him go.”

Claire’s eyes squinted as she looked at Melanie. Was she serious?

“Forget him and go back to New York to begin your new life as a scientist, or whatever it is you have your degree in. You’ll have a chance to fall in love with someone you can be with. Someone who it doesn’t matter who is his family.” She tapped her chin. “I bet I can fix you up with someone nice. I know you’ll find someone, Claire. You’re a pretty girl with everything going for you.”

Forget about him? Melanie will find someone else for her? What? Suddenly Claire found herself not being Melanie’s biggest fan. She was sounding more and more like her husband James every day. She jumped off the bench and looked down at Melanie.

“I think I’d rather take the advice my mother would’ve given and follow my heart, which will lead to happiness. With Colin. I can’t believe you just told me what you did. Of anyone, I thought you’d be the sound of reason. Someone who was on my side. Would actually be happy that her own son was happy. Have you seen him lately? Seen his smile?”

“I’m on the side of not ruining people’s lives with a knee-jerk reaction to what you think is love. Want my son happy? All I do is for Colin and Mallory. I’ve lived my entire life making them happy. Even if they don’t know it.” Her tone and mannerisms were someone Claire didn’t recognize. It was authoritative and matter-of-fact.

“Knee-jerk?” Did she just hear her correctly?

“Yes. You’ve only just experienced this, this summer with Colin, am I correct? I mean, he’s been gone for the last four years. These are very new feelings. I believe it’s safe to say you’ve only had these for a few short days. You can’t base anything off a few short days.” She dismissively tilted her head. “The flu comes and goes in a few short days. Horrific as it can be, you lay down, fall asleep and wake up to find it’s over. That’s with this, too. Lay down, sleep it off, and it will be over in no time. You’ll be fresh as a daisy when you return to New York and forget about this place.”

The flu? Really? A sickness that makes your insides wrench and gives you the chills? Who was this woman? Where did the compassionate one go who took care of her mother in her last dying days?

“I’ve only just discovered my true feelings for him, yes, but they’re unbelievably strong. And I’ve known him for longer than just recently, Melanie. I’d go to the ends of the earth for him. I’m in love with him. I think I’ve loved him for years. Since high school. I just never believed he could feel the same way about me. But he does—he told me so.”

She actually laughed at Claire. “I think you’re pulling my leg now, Claire. I’ve never seen two more different people than you and Colin.” Shaking her head, she elaborated. “He wouldn’t know the first thing about the world you live in. Not to mention—”

“No offense, Melanie, but it doesn’t matter what you think. We don’t have to justify our relationship to anyone. And I’m pretty sure I know how to live in whatever world in which he resides.” She tried not to be offended at Melanie’s slant against her.

“Well, if it’s something worth ruining three lives for, I certainly wish you’d tell me more about it. Like how it’s going to make you feel when Colin and Mallory have nothing and nowhere to live, should you push Colin to tell his father he chooses you over running the company.”

“What are you talking about?”

“That’s what’s going to happen if you don’t leave him and never look back, Claire.”

Claire had no idea what a drama queen Melanie was. It was difficult to rationalize with an irrational person. “What are you trying to tell me would happen if we tell his dad where to stick his company and new toy airplane? Don’t think I don’t see what’s going on there with that bargaining chip.”

“No one assumes you’re ignorant to the game, Claire. And don’t you assume you’re the only one who’s ever loved someone and it doesn’t work out. For you, though, you can start over. Find someone else you can love. I certainly couldn’t.”

Melanie transformed before Claire’s eyes. No longer sitting erect with a put-together countenance and the temperature of a cold fish, her mother’s friend slouched down and looked brow-beaten with what she was about to say. Years of a poisonous secret began to seep from her mouth. Claire sat back down and waited to hear it.

“I’m not sure what your mother told you about our friendship and when it began, but it started when I was fifteen years old. I came from a broken home. My mother loved her vodka bottle about as much as the men who’d sell it to her. I was fourteen before I found my courage to tell her I wasn’t going to entertain the men she brought home with her anymore. That’s when she kicked me out. I spent a year living on sleepovers with friends from school until social services caught up with me. That’s when I tried to run away. Only instead of a train station, I went to the airport. I thought I’d go to California. I’d always admired Marilyn Monroe and how she’d gotten discovered. I figured I had blonde hair and a decent-looking body and I was going to try my luck in Hollywood. Only instead of boarding a plane that day, I ran into your mother.

“She was sitting in her blue sweater uniform, at one of those café tables. Her hair kept getting in her eyes when she’d take a bite of her sandwich. I watched her take each bite. She wore blue nail polish that kept my attention.” She adjusted herself on the bench and took a deep breath. “Anyway, she saw me watching her from a sign I was leaning on, pretending to be waiting for my mother inside the bathroom. She asked me over to the table and I confided in her that I needed to get on a plane to California…I was going to be the next Marilyn Monroe. Before I knew it, she was taking me back home with her to her little one-room apartment in Queens. Long story short, I’d confessed and told her I was on my own. She enrolled me in school as her younger sister, I got my GED degree and later got a job at the airport with her.

“She was nineteen and just barely getting by, herself, when she took me in. I owed her my life. I shudder to think where I’d be now if it weren’t for her.” She looked out toward the bright water, squinting from the reflection of the sun’s rays on it. “But anyway, I met James while I was working there. He asked me out to dinner a few times and when I saw he was being driven around in a privately owned car and came from money, I made it my mission to become his wife.

“So we got married. Fortunately, I didn’t have to prove myself to anyone but him. His mother’s only concern was that I loved James. And I thought I did, or at least I thought I could, given time. I was married to him for a year when I discovered just how untrue that theory was. I was very unhappy. He was never home, always at the office, and I didn’t know the first thing about being prim and proper, doing work for the Prescott charities and hosting parties. That’s when Richard came into the picture. He was James’s company attorney. Ah, he was handsome.” Her smile melted the wrinkles on her face and she stared off wistfully at the tall magnolia tree. “Dirty-blond hair, kind of the color of mine, laughing eyes, and dimples on both his cheeks, each time he’d smile. Which of course was often. He told me he couldn’t help but smile every time he looked at me.” She paused, more than likely remembering Richard in her mind.

“So anyway,” Melanie had come back off her cloud to finish the intriguing story, “Richard was always at the house to get papers signed and to go over proposals with James. And slowly we fell in love with each other.” She glanced at Claire’s furrowed brow and touched her leg to explain. “Oh, it didn’t happen so quickly. It was a slow progression. He’d come over more often when James was still at the office, or we’d meet for lunch at places where we knew neither one of our friends ever went. It took six months for us to get up the courage to tell James. Richard was going to quit and we were going to move to San Diego. He was going to work with his brother in his law firm.”

Claire wondered whether her mother knew all of this, too.

Melanie found a magnolia leaf that had blown off the tree and began rolling it back and forth in her hand. “I remember it was the day Richard was going to come and pick me up. We’d wait until James left for work and I’d already written a note for him to find, telling him I couldn’t stay married to him any longer. I had a small suitcase packed and waited to hear from Richard. But he didn’t come, and I couldn’t get a hold of him on the phone. I was beside myself with worry.”

Melanie flicked the bloom off her lap and her face went pale. She drew in a deep breath. “James got home first. I heard the front door shut and shoved the suitcase underneath the bed and went downstairs. Mary, our cook, called us in for dinner. I sat next to him at the table, waiting to hear the doorbell ring. Maybe Richard had gotten tied up with something. Or, he had problems at work or his car wouldn’t start. Whatever the reason he was late, I’d forgive him. Only it never rang.”

Claire rested her chin on her hand and leaned in closer. She saw the water pool in Melanie’s eyes.

“Dessert came out and by this time my stomach was nauseous. It wasn’t like Richard to not just show up without a call, send a note, or something. We’d planned for weeks—this was going to be the day. Your mother had reserved our flight for that night.

“Just as James went to put another spoonful of cherry pie into his mouth, he said matter-of-factly, ‘Oh, I forgot to mention. Richard was found dead this morning in his house. Seems it was an aneurism that killed him. His uncle found him when he didn’t return his call from the night before.’”

She clutched the front of her shirt—her knuckles went white. “The room began spinning around me. I couldn’t feel my arms or legs. They were things I could see but couldn’t feel. It was like someone had taken a double-edged sword and driven it right through my heart. I watched as my blood soaked the white tablecloth, running over the cherry pie that sat untouched on my plate. It made its way to the edge of the table, dripping onto the blue chintz rug, soaking through to the hardwood floors.” She wiped her eyes. “And there James sat. Scraping the last morsel on his plate into his mouth.

“Without saying a word, I stood and went upstairs and unpacked my suitcase, putting it back into the closet on the top shelf. I don’t even remember hoisting it up there. My body had taken over my brain and just started doing things for me. Then I took a shower.” She stared out toward the water. All the color from the blush and lipstick had disappeared. She continued.

“I stood in that shower against the wall for an hour that night. Crying uncontrollably. I didn’t care that the water had turned to cold and my skin felt numb. I was numb. The insides of me were numb and they would be for the rest of my life.”

What a tragic story. Claire had no idea Melanie had experienced such misfortune in her life. Her mother always had said they’d been friends forever. She left out the fact she’d practically adopted Melanie and that her story was so completely depressing. At least her mother, she felt, had a happier life with Claire. And who cares they didn’t live on Fifth Avenue. They were happy in their one-bedroom—no blood-soaked floors there.

“I’m so sorry for everything you went through, Melanie.” Claire leaned over and hugged her. “I had no idea what you’d been through. I always assumed you and Mr. Prescott were just two people who had no problems. Certainly not the ones you just mentioned. I hate to sound insensitive, but you proved my point, though. I don’t want to go through life without Colin. At least to not ever know what we have could be built into something more. We should have that right. And you should want that for us. It’s like righting the wrong that was done to you.”

“My story doesn’t end there, Claire. You see, I knew James suspected I was having an affair with Richard. That’s why he waited until dessert to tell me about what happened to him. So when I gave birth to Mallory and Colin five months later, I think we both knew whose children they were.”

Claire grabbed her mouth and swallowed hard. “So you’re telling me that Mr. Prescott isn’t Colin and Mallory’s biological dad?”

“That’s right, and that’s a secret you must take to your grave. And unless you push Colin to leave this family, James will never have the paternity test done. You see, if you take away his only son, James will grow furious and demand to know if Colin is really his or not. When he finds out he isn’t, he’ll disown all three of us—financially.”

“He’d do that? You honestly think he’d do something so catastrophic? So earth-shattering?” It didn’t sound possible. “It isn’t all about blood, Melanie. You’ve been a family for twenty-four years. Surely that counts for something? You’ve all shared a house, gone on vacations. Mallory almost lost her life with an infected appendix. I’m sure Mr. Prescott wasn’t thinking about whose child she was—he was probably worried sick that his little girl was in the hospital.”

“James visited Mallory once in the hospital when she became ill. He never went to Colin’s soccer games or baseball tryouts. There was always something holding him back from showing affection to those children. It’s like they were place cards on the family tree and they’d live out their positions, but he didn’t want to fully become involved in their lives. Colin is the namesake to take over the company. I couldn’t get pregnant again after I had them. All it would take to bring us down is for Colin not to cooperate with his grand plan of moving to North Carolina and running the operations there, so James can retire with a new home on the ocean.”

“If he disowned Colin, he’d be out someone to take over the company. It sounds like a foolish move on his part.”

“Maybe he’s waiting for a reason to find out the truth. Maybe he knows I’ll take care of whatever threat there is to Colin not to take over. I don’t know, Claire, but whatever, you can’t push Colin to leave. I can’t take that chance.”

Something hit Claire. Out of the blue. “Wait a minute, so you’re telling me Mr. Prescott isn’t Colin’s father?”

“Yes. Well, I’m pretty certain.”

“Then Colin wouldn’t care if he lived up to his expectations or not. Don’t you think you’ve done your children a disservice by not telling them the truth all these years?”

“Oh, and take away from them everything they’ve ever known? Summer houses, winter houses, cars, maids, trust accounts? Would you rather they live like I did? No money, just for the sake of not knowing a father who was already dead to them?” Her look of hopelessness suddenly became replaced with a fast talker, savvy salesman. “Claire, we’d die out there in the world. Mallory would have nothing—no trust fund and no home. Please, I beg you, don’t let Colin provoke his father. Go back home and get on with your life. Find a man you’ll love and be happy with. It might’ve never worked with Colin anyway. Please don’t risk all our family has over a silly summer romance. Your mother wouldn’t want this to happen to us, either. She’d tell you the same thing I’m telling you. There’s more here to risk than just Colin’s happiness. I’ll make sure he’s happy.”

But it wasn’t a silly romance. Claire was in love with him and he with her. Still, she couldn’t hold the fate of the family in her decision of staying or going. She’d come from a life of very little. To return to it would be no different for her. Mallory was just beginning her life with Jason. They were going to live on her trust to get started. And hadn’t Melanie suffered enough going through all those years with a man she didn’t love?

Suddenly Ms. Fendi bag didn’t seem so bad for Colin. At least she knew planes were dangerous and liked Colin enough not to want to see him crash and die. It’d take some time, but he’d forget about Claire. It was a long shot anyway.