Next Door Secrets (Secrets Series Book 2) (19 page)

“Judge not lest ye
be judged,” her mom said, sounding just like a minister’s wife.

“Fine. Did you
find out why
Kaylee
had been in foster care?”

“Everything I’ve
told you is in the public record. CPS is supposed to be confidential, so that’s
going to take a little finagling on my part.”

Nodding, Beth took
a deep breath. “Why would Jim lie and say
Gola’s
dead?”

“Only he can
answer that.” Her mom’s gaze landed on the church bulletin board on the wall.
She tore down a flier for a past ice cream social and moved the one for the
Mother’s Day Tea to eye level. “I assume you’re planning on coming to the tea?”

“Yes. I won’t stay
too long afterwards, though, because I’d like to spend some time with
Kaylee
. She said she hates Mother’s Day.”

“Why don’t you
bring her to the tea?”

“I’d like to, but
Jim—or whatever his name is—doesn’t like church activities.”

“It’s just a
chance for fellowship with the community.”

“I know. I’ll ask
him.” Beth looked at the picture of a sundae in her mom’s hands. “Hey, do you
have any left-overs from the ice cream social? I promised
Kaylee
ice cream today.”

“Probably.” She
led Beth to the small kitchenette and opened the freezer to reveal a gallon of
vanilla and chocolate ice cream.

“Perfect. Thanks,
Mom.” Beth gave her a hug.

# #
#

Beth couldn’t
believe what she saw out her apartment window.
Kaylee
was swinging on the jungle gym and appeared to be laughing with the little girl
on the swing next to her. They were talking and pumping their legs vigorously.
She looked like she was having so much fun.

When the phone
rang, she hoped that it was Parker. “Hello?”

“Hi, Bethany. It’s
Ivy’s mom.”

Sitting on the
living room couch, Beth’s lungs deflated. “Oh, hi.” They exchanged
pleasantries.

“I’m calling to
find out if you’re coming to Ivy’s baby shower.”

“
Um.
. . .”

“You got my
invitation, didn’t you?”

“Yes.
So cute.
But, I’m not sure I can make it.” Beth watched as
Kaylee
and the little girl with pigtails jumped off the
swings. Then they climbed back on.

“What’s the
problem?”

Beth chewed on her
lip. “Does Ivy know you invited me?”

“No. It’s a
surprise shower, but I’m sure she’ll want you there.”

“Ivy and I kind of
had a falling out.”

Ivy’s mom groaned.
“You’ve got to be kidding me. Ivy has had a falling out with every girlfriend
she’s ever had since kindergarten. I thought you were different. You’re so
easy-going, I figured you could put up with her.”

Beth stifled a
chuckle. Even Ivy’s mom knew she could be a handful. “Well, I don’t think
she’ll want to see me.”

“Please come. We
need you there. Hardly anyone’s going to attend. Maybe seeing you will remind
Ivy how much she misses your friendship.”

Crossing her legs,
Beth tried to figure out a way to say no. She’d never been good at saying that.

“Bethany, please.
It’ll be sad to have a baby shower with only
me and her aunts
.
Please. I’m begging you.”

“OK.” Why had she
just caved? She was such a martyr sometimes.

“Great. Why don’t
you bring your mom, too?” After chatting a few more minutes, Ivy’s mom hung up.

Frustrated that
she was still such a people pleaser, Beth sat there watching
Kaylee
play for the first time in the apartment’s
playground. She allowed thoughts of
Kaylee
to replace
the dread she felt about seeing Ivy.

Taking a breath,
she went to knock on Jim’s door.

He opened the door
wearing his red apron and waved her inside. “Do you like lasagna?”

“I like everything
you make.” Her hand covered her mouth. “Not that I’m inviting myself for dinner
or anything. I just wanted to talk to you while
Kaylee
wasn’t around.” This was a rare occasion, after all. Should she bring up the
secrets she’d learned?

He gestured for
her to sit at the
kitchen island
while he layered the
noodles, marinara and cheese. “So, Parker’s Mr. Workaholic, I take it.”

“Yes.”

“He told
Kaylee
he’s not your boyfriend, though.”

She shook her head.
“He and I broke up.”

“What happened?”

Sighing, she
thought about revealing her own dirty laundry. She missed how close she and
Parker had been and she could use a sympathetic ear. “I told you I placed a
baby for adoption when I was in college. Well, she’s pregnant and I thought
Parker and I should adopt her baby. He went nuts and yelled that we’re never
going to get married.” She shuddered at the painful memory.

“You knew from the
beginning that he didn’t want commitment, yet you kept thinking he’d change his
mind?”

“I guess so.”

“Why do women do
that? It’s like you look at a man and think ‘I can make him into who I want him
to be.’ Why don’t you leave us alone? Take us as we are or go away. We don’t
try to change you.” He slopped the marinara sauce so hard it splattered on the
counter and onto his apron.

Her spine
stiffened. “Why do you hate women so much?”

Wiping up the
splatter with a paper towel, he didn’t answer.

She shifted in her
seat. “Is that why you told
Kaylee
her mom was dead?
Because you hate her?”

“What?” His body
froze as he studied her.

“Your real name is
Conner Walker, right?”

His eyes blinked
rapidly and the paper towel in his hand crumpled. “I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”

“
Kaylee’s
mom is named
Gola
,
right? She posted on Facebook that she’s searching for her missing daughter.
She said someone took her from the hospital after a car accident.”

He backed up and
leaned against the sink. “Has she been released?”

“So you know she’s
in prison.” Her chest felt tight. She didn’t want
Kaylee’s
father to have kidnapped her.
Kaylee
deserved a
lifetime of happiness after her rough beginning. “How could you lie about
something like that?
Kaylee’s
broken-hearted. She
hates Mother’s Day because of you.”

“She has plenty of
reasons to hate Mother’s Day.” His voice sounded sharp. “How much do you know?”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE

That was a good
question. How much more was there to know? Beth took a breath before spilling
it. “I know her mother killed a man while driving drunk. I know she probably
was an alcoholic and wasn’t a great mother, just like you said. But why don’t
you tell me the whole story?”

He turned to throw
away the paper towel. Perhaps he was trying to decide whether he could trust
her or not. “I thought
Gola
was
gonna
die. That’s what the doctors said.” He faced her but remained with his back
against the counter. “She was in a coma and so messed up, they said she
probably wouldn’t make it. My friend called and told me
Kaylee
had been in a terrible accident and if I didn’t take her, social services
would. So I rushed to the hospital. By some miracle,
Kaylee
only had a few scratches. I realized I’d almost lost my daughter. It’s my duty
as a father to protect her.” He stared into the distance. “And I’d left
Kaylee
in the care of a mad woman.”

“So you took
Kaylee
and never told anyone.”

“I’m her father. I
have every right to take her.”

“Then why did you
change your names?
 
Why did you lie
about what happened?”

His Adam’s apple
dipped on his unshaven throat. “I couldn’t risk losing
Kaylee
again. They’d taken
Kaylee
away from
Gola
before and returned her. I couldn’t risk
Gola
ever touching a hair on
Kaylee’s
head again.”

“But she’s in
jail.”

“She’ll get out
eventually. And the courts favor the mother.”

Cringing, she
hated how sexist he could be. “Not if she’s a convicted criminal. I’m sure you’d
receive custody if you went through the proper channels.”

He shook his head.
“Too big of a risk.” He paused. “There’s stuff you don’t know.” His voice grew
quiet.

“Like what?” She
crossed her arms.

“When
Gola
and I split up, she said she’d make sure I never saw
Kaylee
again. She locked me out of our apartment and put a
chair under the
door knob
the day I came to get my
stuff. I could hear her laughing on the other side.
I was so
mad
,
I broke down the door
. I mean, I paid the
rent so she had no right to lock me out of my own apartment.” His hands started
to shake with anger. “It was all a set-up. She called the cops and accused me
of hitting her. She even banged her own head against the doorframe to make a
bruise.”

Beth couldn’t
believe any woman would intentionally hurt herself like that. Was he lying to
her once again?

Wavy lines formed
across his forehead. “See? Even you don’t believe me. If a woman cries and says
her husband hit her, everyone assumes it’s true. I didn’t have a chance. So I
left. I figured she could have
Kaylee
if she wanted
her that bad.”

“You just walked
away from your daughter.”

“I was drinking in
those days and I told myself
Kaylee
was better off
without me. When my friends told me
Kaylee
was in the
hospital, I decided it was time to pull myself together. I went to save my
little girl.” He ran his fingers through his shaggy hair. “I can’t believe I
left
Kaylee
with
Gola
. I
found out later about how
Kaylee
and her sister would
eat ketchup on saltines for dinner because there wasn’t any food in the house.”

All of this
information swirled inside Beth’s brain. Yes,
Gola
was a terrible mother, but Jim had been an alcoholic, too. “It still doesn’t
justify your kidnapping
Kaylee
and saying her mom’s
dead.”

“Is it better that
her mom’s in jail?”

Beth shrugged. “It’s
the truth.”

“The truth is, I
thought
Gola
was dead for a long time. Then my
friends said she pulled out of the coma and stood trial. By then, we’d started
a new life and
Kaylee
was doing well.” His hands
fisted. “You don’t understand that I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure that
Kaylee’s
safe and happy.”

“I want that,
too.” Something inside of her told her that Jim believed he was doing what was
best for his daughter.

“Are you going to
tell
Kaylee
?”

Her head started
to throb. “It’s not my place to tell.” Beth would always have to defer to
someone else: to Jim and to Connie. She didn’t have the right to interfere with
someone else’s child.

“Damn!” He raked
his fingers through his hair again. “You have a way of making people open up
even when they don’t want to.”

“Are
you going to tell
Kaylee
the truth?”

His chest rose and
fell. “I’ll have to think about it.”

She nodded.
 

At that moment,
Kaylee
skipped through the front door. “Hi, Beth! Are you
staying for dinner?”

Jim and Beth
answered at the same time. “No.”

# #
#

“Thanks again for coming
with me,” Beth said to her mother as she exited the highway.

Her mom, sitting in the
passenger’s seat, looked beautiful with her silver bob and lilac dress. “Baby
showers are always such happy occasions.”

“Even when it’s for a
single mom?”

“Well, that’s all the more
reason to rally around Ivy.” She adjusted the blue ribbon on the gift sitting
on her lap.

Not anxious to arrive, Beth
continued driving under the speed limit. “Her mom said hardly anyone was coming
and I felt bad. You know it’s hard for me to say no, but I’m afraid seeing me
might upset Ivy.”

“Having a baby changes
everything. It makes you less self-centered and it makes you realize that you
need other people.”

“So you’re saying having a
baby could have totally altered Ivy’s personality?”

Her mom laughed. “I
wouldn’t go that far. Just give her a chance.” She twirled her simple gold
wedding band. “I found out some more information about your neighbor.”

Beth’s focus left the curvy
road for a second so she could take in her mother’s face. “Did you find out
what
Kaylee’s
mom did to land the girls in foster
care?”

“It’s just what you
thought. The mother went on a bender and left the kids alone without any food
to eat. The mailman called the police, who found the girls in a
cockroach-infested house. They hadn’t bathed or washed their hair in weeks and
they’d been trying to open cans of soup, but couldn’t figure out how to use the
can opener. Nobody knows how long their mother had been gone.”

“That’s terrible. Why did
they give the girls back to that woman?”

“Because she went through a
treatment program. She said she’d turned her life around and at the time,
according to the case worker, it looked promising.”

Gripping the steering
wheel, Beth shook her head. “Right. And now
Kaylee’s
sister is dead.”

“Actually, that’s the
interesting part. There’s a Willow Moon living in foster care.”

“What?” Beth’s breathing
accelerated. “But the paper said
Gola
had killed a four-year-old
girl while she was driving under the influence.”

“She did kill a girl.
But not hers.
The girl that died was in the other vehicle. The
newspaper must’ve made a mistake.”

“
Kaylee’s
mother and sister are alive? Do you think Jim knows that?”

Her mother shrugged and
fiddled with the gift’s ribbon some more. “If he left the state right after the
accident, he might not. Apparently, Willow was hurt pretty badly.”

“But she’s alive.
Kaylee
will be so happy!” Beth couldn’t wait to share the
news with them. She turned onto a narrow road lined by mature trees. Glimpses
of Lake Michigan could be seen between the houses on the north side. “But why
is she in foster care? Why isn’t she living with her dad?”

“He’s in prison serving
fifteen years. He and a friend broke into someone’s house to rob them and the
homeowner was killed.”

“Poor Willow. Both of her
parents are in jail. At least
Kaylee
has Jim.” As
she’d been instructed, Beth parked in the driveway past the glass house that
belonged to Ivy. That way Ivy wouldn’t wonder why there were a bunch of
vehicles in her drive. Boy, was she in for a surprise.

They climbed out and walked
across the sand-covered road to the front door.

Almost as soon as they rang
the bell, the door flew open and an unfamiliar fifty-something woman with a big
nose greeted them. “Hi, I’m Ivy’s Aunt Fran. Hurry. My sister took Ivy to lunch
and they should be home any minute.” She ushered them past a grand piano into
the living room with cathedral ceilings and white carpet.

“Braham’s Lullaby” played softly
from a hidden stereo system while the lake splashed outside the wall of
windows. Blue and white balloons sat on every glass end table and on a nearby
gift table. Beth and her mom set their gifts among the small arrangement of
packages. Scanning the room of six people, Beth didn’t recognize anyone.

Her mom, who had never been
there before, walked over and touched the pink-tiled fireplace. “Beautiful.”

“Ivy wanted it to look like
the inside of a seashell. She told me the painters had to re-do the
coordinating wall five times until it met her vision.” Beth shook her head,
thinking she would never have the nerve to ask someone to do something five
times.

Staring out the front
window, Aunt Fran flapped her arms. “They’re coming! Everybody hide.” She
flipped out the lights, but because of the sun shining through the glass wall,
the room remained pretty bright.

Everyone crouched behind
cream-colored couches, listening to the lullaby CD, until they heard the door
open. “Surprise!” They jumped up and Ivy’s brown eyes grew wide.

Ivy’s gaze transitioned
from her Aunt Fran’s to her other
relatives
. She
placed the baby carrier on the floor. “What’s going on?” Her tone was light and
playful as people stepped forward to hug her. Her focus landed on Beth and her
expression turned cold. “What are you doing here?”

“Your mom invited me. And
do you remember
my
mom?” Trying to
distract everyone from the awkwardness, Beth made the introductions. “It’s
been—what—fifteen years since Mom visited me on-campus and took us
to lunch?”

Ivy nodded and bent down to
unfasten the baby from his carrier. Dressed in a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and
khakis, Parker Junior looked adorable. His big eyes blinked from behind blond
eyelashes as he stuck his thumb in his mouth. Beaming, Ivy passed him around
the circle and took in the compliments about how precious he was. Just as the
baby was about to be handed to Beth, Ivy stepped forward and grabbed him.

Feigning interest in the
view, Beth walked over to the windows and tried to act as if she wasn’t hurt.

Ivy’s mom, the only one in
the room not wearing makeup, clapped her hands together. “Everyone, take a seat
so we can start the games.” It took only a few seconds for the chatter to die
down and for people to find a spot. “OK, the first game is a purse scavenger
hunt.” She passed out a list of items to each guest. “Whoever has the most
points, wins. If you have more than one of the same
item
,
you get extra points. For example, if the list says you get five points for a
Q-tip and you have two, you’ll earn ten points.” Her shoulder-length, graying
hair fell into her face as she bent forward. She took the infant from Ivy’s lap,
so the guest of honor could participate in the hunt.

“Rock-a-bye Baby” played on
the stereo in the background as Beth’s mom slipped on her dime store reading
glasses. Sitting side-by-side, Beth and her mother opened their purses. Some of
the women dumped the entire contents of their bags onto the floor and started
rummaging through. Beth preferred to reach inside and pull out individual items
that were listed: pens,
Band-aids
, Tic
Tacs
, a Canadian penny and a bottle of aspirin. She earned
five points for a tape measure, which she’d used when she went antiquing with
her ex. Shaking her head, she added up her points (34) and checked to see how
her mom was doing.

“How about a screw driver?
I think that should be worth something,” a twenty-something woman with Fran’s
same big nose said. Others chimed in with the odd things they’d discovered: a
man’s tie tack, a stapler,
a
straw.

A few minutes later, Ivy’s
mom stood in the center of the room. “All right. Raise your hand if you have 20
points.” She kept increasing the value until it came down to Beth and Ivy, who
were tied.

Ivy dug through her purse.
“Wait a minute. Yes!” She held up a gold lipstick case. “I knew I probably had
another lipstick in here. That’s five extra points, so I won. I won!”

Everyone laughed because
Ivy was famous for always wearing red lipstick. She’d managed to unearth five
tubes in her Gucci bag alone.

Beth didn’t mind losing
since it seemed so important to Ivy. “Congratulations!” Ivy refused to respond,
which made Beth’s cheeks warm with embarrassment. Why had she come here?