Chapter 43
When Nikki rolled over the next morning, she awoke to find William already gone, and the spot where he had lain was cold. She didn't like this distance between them, but at least he had stayed home last night. The night had been full of tension, with few words exchanged. If she asked him a direct question, he gave a one-word answer, but it was clear to her he did not want to engage.
Nikki felt bereft at the knowledge William had purposefully left early to avoid talking with her this morning. She stopped short of getting dressed and knelt at the edge of the bed instead. It had been quite a long time since she had spent any time in morning prayer.
She had felt ashamed at her actions and unsure of whether God would hear her. But this morning, her burden was too heavy to carry alone. She opened her mouth to pray, but shut it against the words. God didn't want to hear from her. Not now. Nikki knelt there for a moment longer then quickly rose. She raced through her morning routine, then got Psalm up, gave the child breakfast and drove her to school.
When Nikki returned home, she tried to work on her thesis, but the phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Nikki Broussard, please,” the voice on the other end said.
“Who is calling?”
“This is
The Times
, calling aboutâ”
“I have no comment.”
Nikki hung up. The phone rang again, ten minutes later. She checked the caller ID this time, but received no clue as to the identity of the caller, as it read UNKNOWN CALLER.
“Hello?”
“Is this Nikki Broussard?”
“Who is this?” Nikki demanded.
“I am calling to get a comment about a recent story about stolen credit cards. I have a few questions,” the caller explained.
“I have nothing to say about that,” Nikki said.
“But, we just want to give you an opportunity to share your side of the story,” the caller insisted.
“I'm not interested.”
Nikki slammed down the phone. She finally took all the phones off the hook after a fifth call from a reporter, asking for her comment on the credit card fraud story.
I never meant for any of this to happen
, she thought.
Nikki gave up on working on her graduate school project for the time being, and instead, went to clean Psalm's bedroom. She was in the midst of dusting when she heard the doorbell ring. She quickly put the dust cloth aside and walked to the door. “Who is it?”
“This is Amy Collins, with Channel Seven,” the person replied.
Nikki leaned against the door. “Look, will you people please leave me alone! I have no comment.”
“Ma'am, we'd love to get a few quick comments from you, just so you can clear your name.” The person's voice was insistent. “Just open the door. We can talk.”
“No, just go away!”
“Well, at least take my card,” the woman said.
Nikki sighed. Maybe they would leave her alone if she just grabbed the card. She opened the door and the bright light of a television camera blinded her. She blinked and held up her hands to block the light, stumbling to close the door with her body. But Amy Collins stuck her foot in the doorway and blurted out questions.
“Were you part of a vicious credit card theft ring? How many identities did you steal?” Amy rammed the microphone in Nikki's face.
“No, I wasn't a part of any ring!” Nikki spat the words out. “You people leave me alone! You make me sick!”
She succeeded in ducking back inside the house and slamming the door. She leaned heavily against the wall, her breath coming in sharp thrusts. Her heart was beating furiously. She wiped her sweaty palms on her shirt.
Nikki hid out in the house for the rest of the day until it was time to pick up Psalm from school. The day did not get any better. As she walked to the entryway of the school, she noticed adults staring at her.
“You'd better hold on to your purse,” a tall, thin woman warned her friend in a loud whisper. “That's the woman who steals people's credit cards.”
“Look at her, with her lying, thieving self!” said another woman, this one dressed in a smock over ill-fitting sweat pants. “I can't believe she would show her face around here.”
Nikki tried to ignore the pointed looks, and pretended not to hear the whispers. She found Psalm and loaded the girl into the vehicle as quickly as she could.
“Mommy, what's an ID thief?” Psalm asked from the backseat.
“ID thief?” Nikki asked?
“Yeah, Morgan told the other kids not to play with me because my mom is an ID thief. What's that?”
Nikki almost drove the vehicle into the other lane, but steadied herself. She tried to regain her composure as she realized her daughter was talking about her legal woes. “Do you mean identity thief?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Psalm said. “It sounds bad. I told them my mommy didn't do anything bad, but they didn't believe me. They all laughed at me.”
Nikki ached for her child. She tried to smile. “Don't you worry about it,” she said. “Your classmates will forget about this in no time. The next time someone tries to make fun of you, you just tell them they don't know what they are talking about. It'll be okay.”
Psalm seemed mollified at the response. She grinned. “See, I knew my mommy was no ID thief.”
Nikki drove the rest of the way home in silence. She felt horrible at putting her daughter through this. How much worse would it all get?
She had just finished fixing dinner when William walked in, dropping his keys on the table next to the door. “Daddy!” Psalm raced to her father, who picked her up.
Nikki carefully walked to him, too. She moved to share a kiss with him as was their custom, but he ignored her.
“So, tell Daddy about your day,” he leaned to put Psalm to the floor.
“The kids in my class were making fun of me,” Psalm said, her lower lip trembling.
“Really? Why?” William knelt in front of her. “What happened?”
“They kept telling me my mommy was an IDâI mean, identityâthief,” she said.
William glanced up quickly at Nikki, who looked away guiltily. He looked back at Psalm and gave her a hug. “Well, you just tell those kids to leave you alone. Tell them your mommy is a good mommy and makes better cookies than their mommies.”
Nikki felt a small sense of relief that he took up for her, but she knew that was really for Psalm's benefit.
“I learned a new thing on the computer,” Psalm announced.
“Oh, really?” William said, removing his tie. “Well, you'll have to show Daddy sometime.”
Finally, Nikki tried a greeting: “Hi, baby.”
“Hello.”
“How was your day?”
“Fine.”
“William, Iâ”
“Nikki, I don't feel like talking about all that right now.”
“But, sweetheartâ”
“Psalm, let's get on the computer. Show Daddy what you learned today.”
Nikki watched as her husband scurried away with their child.
Later that night, they each retreated to a corner of the bed, Nikki on one side, William on the other. The silence covered them, but she knew he wasn't asleep.
“Baby, I wish you'd talk to me.” Nikki's tone was plaintive.
Silence.
“Will, I'm really sorry.”
Silence.
“If you'd just let me explain,” she said, reaching to touch his shoulder. He shifted away. Nikki rolled closer to her husband and put her arm around him.
He climbed out of the bed. “I'll sleep on the couch.”
Chapter 44
For the third day in a row, Nikki and William were the top news of the day. The television news had a shot of a wild-eyed Nikki shouting “You make me sick!” at a reporter, while the newspaper quoted the district attorney as saying he was preparing to file charges against the couple for a host of wrongsâincluding identity theft and credit card fraud. One news report even speculated that William had killed Reverend Chance in order to take the man's spot as a candidate.
William cursed as he read the story. Already, three of his volunteers had quit and Reverend Hicks had been hinting that he wanted William to withdraw from the race, with the primary election bearing down on them in mere weeks.
“I saw the news and read the paper,” Olivia said sympathetically. “It's really bad. How are you holding up?”
“Not well,” William said. “I'm so angry that I've got to spend time dealing with this instead of doing what I need to do. And now, I have serious problems. We could go to jail.”
“You don't really think you'll have to serve time, do you?” Olivia asked. “I mean, you didn't do anything.”
“But my wife did.”
“Well, but you and she are separate individuals. I'm sure if you struck a deal with the DAâ”
“I can't turn on my wife like that.”
“Of course not,” Olivia said quickly. “But I'm sure your wife wouldn't want to see you go down for something she did. I'm sure she'll make it right and tell the DA it was all her.”
“I don't know, “he said, changing the subject. “I don't really want to talk about my wife, though. How are the polls?”
“Not good.” Olivia sat down next to William, and leaned in close.
Chapter 45
Raymond placed a report on Danielle's desk. “Hey, I'm about to head out for the day, but I thought I'd help you with your last report first. Here it is.”
Danielle smiled into his eyes. “You are so sweet. She picked up the document and flipped through it. When she saw a couple of changes to it and some additions, Danielle added, “You really didn't have to do that.”
“It's no problem,” Raymond said. “I know you're under a lot of stress. I just wanted to help you out. How is your friend's child doing?”
Danielle's eyes immediately filled with tears. “Things aren't going too well.” She put her hand to her chest.
Raymond stepped around the desk and put an arm around her shoulders. “Hey, hey,” he said gently. “I didn't mean to make you cry.”
She waved her hand and sniffled. “It's okay. I just get so emotional when I think about all that little girl is going through. Doctors don't know how long she has to live.”
Raymond's eyes widened with concern. “Wow. I didn't know it was like that. Is she in a hospital? Maybe we can send her something.”
Danielle spoke quickly. “No, no. But that's a nice thought. Her parents are kind of private. They wouldn't want all the attention.”
“Well, if you need anything,” Raymond said, stepping away. “Anything at all. You just let me know. And I'll be there.”
Danielle dried her eyes. “You're so sweet to me. I couldn't ask for a better office mate.” She kissed him on the cheek and pulled back slowly, letting her perfume tease his nose. “Thank you.”
Raymond seemed to blush under her gratitude, and Danielle stifled a grin. Pretty soon, she would have him doing more of her work, she knew.