The Moment of Truth

The woman had died. Dana could hear it coming.

And had never ached as she did at that moment. What Josh must have put himself through...

All of the times he’d told her he couldn’t be relied upon came crashing down on her as she sat there.

She knew him well enough to know he’d have seen Michelle’s choice to drink so much as a failure on his part. A failure to do his duty. And, as his mother had just said, and as Dana had witnessed during the weeks she’d known him, duty was everything to him.

“Michelle lived.” Barbara Redmond’s words broke into her thoughts. The lights ahead were still pinpricks, but getting closer. The distance in the flatness of the desert was deceiving. She had no idea how far she was from Shelter Valley. Or the California state border, either. How far was Mexico? She’d been told only a couple of hours from Shelter Valley. Had she been driving that long?

“Did Josh marry her?”

“No, dear. She had alcohol poisoning, went without oxygen for too long. She’s in a vegetative state, living in a long-term care facility.”

Oh, Lord. Oh, my Lord.

“When word spread about what had happened, people talked. Everyone had opinions on whether or not Josh should have left Michelle alone that night. And about his lack of attention to her in general.”

In other words, Josh thought it was his fault that the beautiful Boston heiress had lost all quality of life. So many things made sense. Except the lies...

“When Josh came to me to tell me that he had to leave town because he believed his presence there was bad for the company, for the family, and too painful to Michelle’s family, I didn’t believe he was making the right choice. Gossip happens. Especially to people with money—folks like to point fingers. But it also passes.... Josh is a rarity among our crowd. An honest man who tries to make business deals a win-win even at the cost of losing a few. His father is that way, as well. People know that. The talk would have stopped and life would have gone on. The Wellingtons, Michelle’s parents, were distraught, of course, but they never actually blamed Josh. Because, ultimately, the decision to overindulge was Michelle’s, not his. She’s an adult and Josh was not her keeper. He wasn’t even in the same room, where he could have seen her behavior. Her sister was, though.”

She understood.

Everything but Josh’s lies to her.

“Josh visited Michelle every single day when he was in Boston,” his mother said. “He insisted on paying for her care, including the three full-time caregivers. And now, I hear, trips to gardens, as well, even though she doesn’t appear to have any sense of being there. Michelle doesn’t even recognize him. She’s not aware of her surroundings at all. But Josh still went to see her. And didn’t go out anymore, socially, at all. That’s why I finally agreed it might be best for him to leave. Because I couldn’t bear to see what being here in town was doing to him.”

As Dana watched the lights grow closer, and made out at least four vehicles, seemingly all traveling closely together, she listened to Barbara Redmond tell her about having recently found the branch of her family that had settled in Shelter Valley, Arizona. She’d been at peace with Josh’s leaving as long as she knew he was with family, and so he’d agreed that Shelter Valley was where he’d go.

They’d come full circle. She still didn’t understand why Josh had pretended to be something he was not. Why, even after he’d known about their baby, he hadn’t told her who he really was.

But Mrs. Redmond had done what she’d set out to do. She’d raised Dana’s sympathy for Josh to the point where she was ready to agree to whatever his mother thought was best for him. At least in theory.

If the woman was determined to buy her out, she’d at least try to reach a compromise with her. Something that would serve all of them.

“You can’t imagine how thrilled I was to receive his phone call this afternoon, telling me that he was going to be a father.”

What?

Frowning, Dana pulled off to the side of the road. She kept the car running. And locked. She’d start moving again before the vehicles approaching in the distance got too close.

“Then he told me about buying you the house,” the woman was saying. “And the other things, and I’m afraid that he’s going to blow his one shot at happiness.”

She didn’t follow.

“And that’s why I’m calling,” Mrs. Redmond said. “I’m going to interfere just this once....”

And then it occurred to her. They weren’t going to try to buy her silence. They were going to take the baby from her.