Chapter 7
Slinging her purse over her shoulder, Megan stood and pushed her chair under her desk. It’d been a long, tiring day. Like a double-glass-of-wine type of day.
Tomorrow was Halloween, and the kids had been distracted throughout the morning. Megan had planned a Halloween-themed lesson and a party for the afternoon. There was no way she was going to get these kids to think about commas, semi-colons, and other punctuation when all they wanted to talk about was their costumes, candy, and haunted houses.
To go along with the festivities, she’d donned a headband with cat ears and an all-black outfit. The kids had loved it.
She needed to stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things. Calli had to work late tonight so it was just her, her cat ears, and a bottle of chardonnay watching reruns.
Megan waved to the custodian on her way out of her classroom. Poor guy was going to be there late with all the Halloween party messes. She’d cleaned up her classroom as best she could, but there were still three bags of trash that would need to be hauled to the dumpster. Just as she pushed out the side exit of the school, her cell phone rang. After digging it out of her purse, she smiled when she saw it was her brother.
“Hi, Sean,” she said, continuing to her car.
“Megan! Meggie! Magpie! How is my beautiful, talented, and generous sister doing today?”
She couldn’t help but smile at his smooth, yet sarcastically sweet voice. He must want something badly.
“You forgot hysterical and wise,” she teased.
“Those were included in my next line!”
“Yeah, yeah,” she laughed. “What do you want?”
“What? Can’t a brother call his sister just to rain compliments on her?”
She shook her head as she smiled. Sean was the epitome of a clown. A charming and endearing clown.
They’d never truly been close while growing up, probably due to their lack of things in common and the fact that as soon as she’d left for undergrad, she’d never really looked back. But ever since she and Niall had traveled to Boston this past New Year’s and she’d stopped by Sean’s place for a surprise visit, her brother had taken up calling her every couple of weeks just to say hello.
Looking back, her marriage had been severely strained at that time, but she was so blinded by frustration over her inability to conceive that she hadn’t seen it. She’d jumped into the rental car and started driving until she’d found herself parked at Sean’s townhouse.
Megan didn’t know it at the time, but Sean had been wallowing in his own sea of self-pity that night. He’d just been thrown to the curb by his girlfriend, Darcy.
The outcome of their visit had turned out much better for Sean than it had for Megan. Her brother had experienced some epiphany and decided that Darcy was the love of his life, and he had to get her back at all costs. One day later, that’s just what had happened, and Sean and Darcy had been together ever since.
Megan had gone back to her empty hotel room and rung in the New Year alone while Niall was out “meeting” with business colleagues. Two months later, she’d walked in on her husband fucking another woman, and she’d been divorced ever since.
But the silver lining of that trip was that she and Sean had reconnected. If she was going to tell anyone about her divorce, she would undoubtedly spill everything to Sean. She just wasn’t ready to have that conversation yet.
“Seriously though,” she replied, trying to find her car keys. “I’m about to get into the car, and I shouldn’t talk on the phone while driving.”
“Right, I forgot. Multitasking is not your thing,” he joked.
“It’s illegal to use your cell phone while driving through a school zone in Illinois. And since I work at a school…”
“Ah, right. Like I said, you’re so wise. Well, listen, I’ll make this snappy. I need a favor.”
“Sure. How can I help?”
“I need to talk to Niall about a project that I want to go after here in Boston.”
Her steps slowed to a halt, a cold panic seizing the muscles in her legs.
Sean continued before she could reply. “There’s this major historical reuse project about to go out for proposal. An investment group recently purchased a former textile mill outside the city in Lowell and wants to turn it into apartments. This property is fucking amazing. It sits right on the Merrimack River. I’m so jealous of those bastards.”
“Yeah.” Megan cleared her throat. “It sounds great.”
“It is great, Megan. So great that I need to talk to Sir Dicks-a-Lot—I mean Niall—because he’s partnered with one of the owners in the past. I even tried calling him this morning, and it just rang without going to voice mail.”
Megan’s throat closed, and it was suddenly hard to breathe. “You called Niall?” she forced out.
“Yeah.” He paused. “So what do you say? Can you relay the message to Niall and ask him to call me?”
Megan bit her bottom lip. Here was her chance. She should just tell Sean. Just blurt out the fact that she and Niall were divorced. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.
“Sure, I’ll talk to him for you.”
Megan squeezed her eyes shut. She was such a coward. Not only was she a coward but she was setting her brother up to fail on this important project.
Grasping for straws she blurted out, “But he’s on an overseas business trip for the next two weeks. Communication with him has been hit-or-miss.”
“That explains why his phone kept ringing with no voice mail.”
No, that was because Niall had blessedly blocked all the members of her family on his cell phone. Not that they’d ever called him very much, but thank God for small favors.
“Well, the next time you happen to speak to him, maybe you could mention this. I’m still gonna go after this project with or without his help. I’ll just turn on the charm and possibly dangle Darcy in front of them in a short skirt as incentive.”
Megan knew Sean would do no such thing. Ever. He’d turn into a possessive crazy man like a werewolf during a full moon if he got even an inkling that some guy was putting the moves on his woman.
“I’ll talk to Niall about it the first chance I get.”
She was such a dirty little liar. And she was probably going straight to hell.
“Thanks, Meg. I’ll let you go. Get home safe!”
She said good-bye to her brother and slipped her phone into the side pocket of her Kate Spade bag. Sighing, she resumed the walk to her car, feeling utterly dejected and like the worst sister in the world.
She should have said something. Sean hated Niall and always had. And Sean would hate Niall even more once he heard he’d cheated on her. But the conversation had turned so quickly that she hadn’t had time to prepare before telling Sean.
She could still make this right. Maybe she should call her brother back and come clean. Maybe once she got to her car, she would take a few deep breaths and just get it over with.
Silently steeling herself to do the right thing, she came around the front of the building. The employee parking lot was across the street from the school, and a few buses full of kids were still waiting to exit school property to drop off their students for the afternoon.
“Stop it!”
The angry shout made Megan turn back toward the front steps of the building. A woman was gripping the arm of a student. The boy had his back to Megan, but she could tell from the wild look on the woman’s face that the confrontation was escalating.
Megan spun and practically jogged in her high heels to where the little boy was trying to jerk free of the woman’s grasp.
“Listen to me,” the woman hissed.
The little boy yanked harder, his giant backpack shaking furiously side to side as he tried to get away. He turned and pulled viciously, and it was then that Megan recognized the little boy was Cade Foley.
“Excuse me!” Megan yelled.
At the sound of her voice, Cade looked up and locked eyes with her. She could see the fear swimming in his expression, and he was trying desperately not to cry.
The woman stilled as Megan approached, but she didn’t let Cade go. Now that Megan was closer, she realized something was off. It looked like the woman hadn’t used a brush on her matted hair in weeks, and although she’d tried, her lip liner was jagged, and blue eye shadow was caked on her lids.
“Hi there, Cade. Hello, ma’am.” Megan tried to sound calm and courteous while remaining alert to the fact that the closer she got to them, the more telltale signs of drug abuse she noticed.
Megan held out her hand in greeting, realizing that in order to shake her hand, the woman would have to let go of Cade’s arm. Although bewildered, the woman released the boy and shook Megan’s hand. Cade immediately moved behind Megan. The woman’s pupils were constricted, and her eyes drooped like she could barely keep them open.
“Is everything okay here?” Megan asked evenly.
As if the question woke the woman up, she snapped, “Of course everything’s okay. Mind your own damn business!”
Realizing she needed to act fast, Megan reached behind her and wrapped an arm around Cade’s shoulder.
“Come on, Cade,” she ordered and quickly steered him up the steps toward the school lobby.
The woman was hot on their heels, and Megan tried to stay between her and her student.
“You wait a minute,” the woman slurred. “I was talking to him.”
Megan ignored her, opening the lobby door and pushing Cade through first. As she was about to step inside, the woman latched onto her wrist and twisted.
“Listen, you bitch,” the woman hissed.
Megan had never had a physical confrontation before, but her adrenaline was spiking, and she would clock this woman in the side of the head with her giant handbag if she had to. Megan pulled hard, and as her hand came away from the woman’s grip, her thumbnail left a searing scratch down the side of Megan’s hand.
The moment she stepped free, she burst into the empty lobby and screamed, “Security!”
###
James finished scrawling his name across the last parts order that was in his inbox when Janie stuck her head inside his office.
“James, there’s a call from Cade’s school on line two.”
He met his receptionist’s eyes only briefly before spinning his chair around to grab his phone off the credenza behind him. The light flashed red next to line two. Although there’d been few, most of the calls were from the school were from the nurse when Cade fell or scrapped his knee on the playground.
Taking a deep breath, he picked up the phone. “Hello. This is James Foley.”
“Mr. Foley, this is Principal Diaz. I hate to alarm you, sir, but we have a serious security issue.” James’s heart plummeted to the bottom of his stomach at the man’s statement. “A Ms. Holly Foley is insisting on seeing your son, Cade. She says she’s his mother. Cade must have run into her on his way to the school bus after the final bell, but his teacher, Ms. McKenna, intervened and brought him back inside. Ms. Foley followed them as far as the front lobby.”
Fuck.
“Since we don’t have her on the list of family or guardians,” the principal continued, “we are denying her access to the school. She’s being rather…difficult about it.”
He could hear yelling in the background followed by cursing.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Don’t let her in.” James didn’t even wait for confirmation before he slammed the phone down onto its base.
He grabbed his wallet and ran to his car, not bothering to change out of his grease-stained clothes. He got to the school in less than ten minutes, and before he even hit the front door, he could hear his ex-wife yelling. Two security guards were blocking the main hallway that led to Cade’s classroom.
“Ma’am,” one of the officers said to her. “If you don’t calm down, I’ll be forced to restrain you.”
Holly was trying to get past them, but the big men were quite agile for their size and used their outstretched arms and wide frames to block her.
“Mr. Foley, I should notify you that we’ve called the police.”
James looked over to see Principal Diaz standing in the doorway to the front office. The tall, slender man looked completely befuddled and at his wits’ end.
"Where’s Cade?” James asked.
“He’s in his classroom with his teacher. They’re on lockdown.”
James nodded and hurried to where his ex-wife was trying to squeeze her way between the wall and one of the burly guards.
“Holly!” he barked.
She spun around at her name and trained her angry eyes on James. She looked crazed, like a cornered wild animal.
“Tell them to let me see my son!” she insisted, her pupils just pinpricks in the center of her stormy blue eyes.
He took her arm and pulled her away from the guards. Christ, his fingers touched his thumb when he wrapped his hand around her bicep. She had wasted away to skin and bones. Her hair was a mess, and his heart ached when he looked at her once beautiful face. He didn’t even recognize this woman anymore.
“What do you expect them to do?” he growled. “Let some crazy woman who’s high as a fucking kite into their school to see one of their students? Jesus, Holly. You know you can’t see him. Especially like this.”
She lashed out at him, hitting him hard in the chest. “You fucking asshole! You’re evil! Keeping me from my own child!”
James quickly restrained her arms, pinning them to her sides. He spoke low and even so only she could hear him. “You listen to me. I tried the whole joint custody thing with you, and it didn’t work. Whatever’s surging through your bloodstream right now is more important to you than your son,” he said through clenched teeth. “Like I’ve told you a hundred times, you aren’t breathing the same air as Cade until you get your shit together and start acting like the mom he deserves.”
Holly’s eyes burned with contempt. Fuck, they were so twitchy it was hard for James to even maintain eye contact with her.
“Sir, please step away from the woman.”
James turned his head and noticed three police officers fanning out inside the lobby, their hands on their firearms. Lifting his arms, he slowly backed away from Holly, but not before he caught the panic that crossed her face.
“Officers,” Principal Diaz interrupted. “This is James Foley. We called him here to help defuse the situation as it pertains to his son.”
The police officer nodded. “Mr. Foley, I’m going to need you to go with Officer Nolan here so he can get your statement. Ma’am, I need you to put your hands against the wall.”
As James moved toward the officer who was holding his arm out to him, he saw the panic drop from Holly’s eyes, replaced by rage.
“Fuck you, you son of a bitch!” she yelled at James and spit across the lobby.
The third officer took Holly’s arm and twisted it behind her back, pinning her to the wall. James didn’t look to see what would happen next, but he could still hear her shrieking curses even after the door to the administrative offices closed behind him.
This wasn’t the first time he’d had to give a statement to the police regarding his ex-wife’s behavior. And it was a fucking shame that it probably wouldn’t be the last either.
###
Megan wished her classroom was farther away from the front lobby. Every time Cade’s mother screamed or cursed, the little boy would shrink a little farther into his seat. He was currently sitting at her desk, studying the class fish tank. He blindly watched as the little guppies circled the bowl.
When a hushed but very clear “Fuck you!” echoed down the hall, Cade squeezed his eyes closed.
“So Cade, what do you plan to be for Halloween this year?” she asked, trying to distract him. She’d just finished washing her hands for the third time, scrubbing the fresh scratch on the side of her wrist.
The boy shrugged. “A zombie.”
“Ohhhh. That sounds scary. I was a zombie once for Halloween myself.”
Cade frowned up at her in surprise. “You were?”
“Yep.” She nodded. “My older cousin, my younger brother, and I dressed up like zombie Ninja Turtles. I was Donatello.”
The boy blinked at her. “That’s…awesome,” he said in awe.
“My dad was supposed to be the fourth turtle but he didn’t go trick-or-treating with us because he stayed behind to pass out candy at our house.”
The boy swung his legs toward her off the side of his chair. “Last year my dad dressed up like Robin, and I was Batman.”
She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her mouth. The thought of James Foley in a Robin costume was hard to imagine.
“Sounds like your dad is a pretty great dad.”
Cade nodded before turning sullen. “He’s going to be pretty pissed about my mom showing up.”
Megan decided not to correct the boy’s language. Instead, she knelt down in front of him where he sat at her desk and looked into his eyes. “He might be upset, but he won’t be mad at you, Cade. None of this is your fault.”
“Yeah, I guess,” he sighed.
A sharp knock on the door had Megan jumping to her feet. She put her hand over her racing heart and looked toward the door to see if the knock would come again.
“Cade? Are you in there?” a concerned voice rumbled from the other side of the door.
“Dad!” Cade yelled as he scrambled off Megan’s chair and ran to the back of the classroom. He started twisting and pulling on the doorknob Megan had locked behind them when they first got to the room.
“Once second, Cade. Let me make sure it’s safe to open the door.”
“It’s okay, Ms. McKenna. It’s my Dad.”
Once she reached the boy, she could see James Foley through the window in the door. His gaze flashed to her, and she saw frustration and embarrassment. Then he looked down at his son, and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.
Megan peered around the large, imposing man and noticed Principal Diaz standing next to him. She quickly unlocked the door, trying to steady her trembling hands. She wasn’t scared, but she was nervous all of a sudden to be facing James again.
She reminded herself that she’d handled the situation in the best way she knew how. She’d removed her student from a potential threat. She wasn’t sure she would’ve done anything differently.
So why did seeing him again make her pulse quicken?
As soon as she opened the door, Cade leapt into his father’s arms. James held the boy to his chest and stuck his nose in his sandy-blond hair. “Hey, bud. You okay?”
Cade let go and looked up at his father. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve been here with Ms. McKenna.”
James looked up at Megan and nodded. All the frustration had left his face, replaced by obvious gratitude.
“Thank you,” he said to her.
His eyes were tired but relieved. She saw the worry and tension leave his strong body as he stroked his son’s head.
Megan smiled back. “It was nothing. I’m glad everything is all right.”
She couldn’t look away from James, like she was caught in some snare.
“Ms. McKenna,” Principal Diaz interrupted. “Can you come with me to my office for a debriefing?”
Her eye fluttered to her new boss, and she blinked. “Sure. Absolutely.”
Unlike James, Principal Diaz was still tense. Which meant she was probably in for a long night at the office.
She went back to her desk and grabbed her purse and Cade’s backpack before she joined Mr. Diaz and the Foleys in the hall. She handed James the backpack and smiled. Their fingers touched for a second, and she could have sworn an electric current coursed up her arm from his warm skin.
“Thanks,” he said again, outwardly unfazed by their contact.
Cade and James trailed behind her and Principal Diaz as they walked toward the front lobby.
“Dad, I changed my mind about my Halloween costume. I wanna be a Zombie Ninja Turtle.”
Megan looked down at the floor and smiled to herself.
“I’m not sure we can find that costume in time. Halloween is tomorrow,” James replied to his son.
“I’ve already got a Leonardo costume. We just have to zombiefy it.”
She heard a husky laugh that sent a wave of warmth sliding through her insides.
“Whatever you want, bud.”
“Awesome,” Cade whispered.
Megan hid her giggle as she slipped into the administrative offices. She looked over her shoulder and waved to Cade and James. Cade waved back happily. James lifted his chin yet his eyes lingered on her as he walked through the lobby with his son.
And she could still feel his eyes long after he was gone.