Charlotte and Curtis had just walked inside their front entrance, and Charlotte couldn’t have been happier. They’d extended their stay and had been in New York for two full days instead of one, thanks to the other television and radio interviews Lisa had scheduled for them, but as the saying went, there really was no place like home. It seemed they both had been asked every personal question imaginable, and the entire trip had worn Charlotte completely out. Not to mention, it was the first time in a while that she’d gone to New York and hadn’t gotten a chance to spend any real time on Fifth Avenue, her absolute favorite place to shop. There was nothing in her surrounding area that even slightly compared to Bergdorf’s, but in all honesty, shopping had been the least of what had been on her mind. Partly because she still worried about more fallout from Reverend Tolson’s announcement, and primarily because she worried about David and the fact that he just might win his case.
Before she and Curtis had left for one of the radio stations yesterday morning, she had called Attorney Vellman’s office to find out if he’d have some time to meet with them when they returned, and his secretary had told her he had an opening this afternoon at 2:00 P.M. Right now, it was a couple of minutes before noon and Charlotte was glad they’d taken an early flight back to O’Hare, which was an hour from where they lived.
“It’s so good to see both of you back here safe and sound,” Tracy said hugging both of them. “Is there anything I can get for you?”
Charlotte walked into the kitchen and dropped her purse on the counter. “No, I think we’re fine, and it’s good to see you, too, Tracy.”
Curtis followed behind them. “Just seeing your friendly face is more than enough and thank you for taking care of some of our errands while we were gone.”
“I was glad to do it, and I’m so sorry about what that Reverend Tolson did to you on television. Only an evil, heartless man would do something like that, and no good is going to come to him. No good at all, I tell you.”
“Well, what’s done is done,” Curtis told her. “And what we have to do now is move on.”
“I’m sorry I missed service on Sunday, but you know I was out of town seeing my best friend. I wish I could have been here, but how did everything turn out?”
“Very well. The majority of the members were there, and I owe them everything.”
“That’s good. Very good to hear, and maybe things will be back to normal really soon.”
“I hope so.”
“Wait a minute,” Curtis said quickly, turning up the television.
Tracy sucked in air and covered her mouth all at the same time, and Charlotte’s eyes bugged. The noon news was on and one of the young reporters was standing next to Tabitha in front of her house—which had been vandalized from top to bottom. The reporter narrated the scene as the camera showed up-close and very detailed footage of the entire mess: a huge, broken picture window, a couple of other smaller windows that had been cracked, and the word whore, which had been spray-painted across multiple bricks at least ten different times. Even the driveway displayed a good number of obscenities, and the garage read, “Whores aren’t welcome in Mitchell.”
This was definitely the work of Dooney.
“Ms. Charles, do you have any idea who would have done something like this to you?” the reporter asked.
Tabitha gave him a cynical look. “Did you see Live with Michael Price two nights ago?”
“As a matter of fact, I did.”
“Then you already have your answer. The good Reverend and Mrs. Black are as guilty as sin, and as far as I’m concerned they should be locked up immediately. These people have done nothing but cause my daughter and me a ton of heartache, and I say enough is enough.”
“Do you know if they were in town last night when this happened?”
“No. I don’t. But I’ll put every penny I have on the fact that they paid someone to handle this for them. Wealthy people do this sort of thing whenever they feel like it, and unfortunately, they usually get away with it. Not to mention, they were definitely in town Friday night when my tires were slit and the glass on my front door was damaged.”
“Oh my God,” Curtis said. “She’s blaming us for what happened.”
“But you were in New York,” Tracy explained.
“Yeah,” Charlotte said. “But just the fact that she’s planting such incriminating ideas in everyone’s head is enough to make people question our innocence. It’s enough to get rumors started, and it certainly isn’t going to help anything.”
“Charlotte is right. Because by this evening, every news channel in the country will be airing Tabitha’s interview. They’ll be showing her house over and over again, even if only for shock value.”
“Isn’t there anything you can do?” Tracy asked.
“I don’t know. But I will say that while Tabitha is wrong for accusing us of something we didn’t do, I’m now wondering if she really was telling the truth when she called the other night, saying that someone slashed her tires and that they’d also broken the glass window near the door of her house. Plus, who in the world hates her this much?”
Charlotte wished they could talk about something else, but said, “With Tabitha, there’s no telling how many enemies she’s made and how many of them are out to get her.”
“Still,” Curtis continued, “it’s strange, and I can’t help but worry about Curtina’s well-being because what if she’d been near all that glass when it was broken?”
Charlotte despised Tabitha, but she certainly didn’t want any harm to come to Curtina. She’d wanted Dooney to cause enough damage, the kind that would make Tabitha sit up and take notice, but it had never been her intention to hurt Curtis’s little girl—not when she sort of felt sorry for Curtina. Charlotte had tried to rid herself of any and all sympathy for a child Curtis had conceived with another woman, but she hadn’t been able to do so, not since that day she’d seen Tabitha and Curtina in Macy’s and Curtina had smiled so joyously at her—the day Charlotte’s sympathy for her had come into play for the very first time. Charlotte had even wanted to smile back at the child but her bitterness toward Tabitha had prevented her from doing it.
Nonetheless, she would never let on to Curtis any of what she was thinking because she still wanted Tabitha out of their lives. For good. Although she did have to admit that Tabitha’s public accusations made her nervous, and she hoped the police weren’t planning to make anything of them. She also wondered why Dooney had decided to strike last night and not on Monday night the way he’d planned.
Curtis called Lisa to let her know about what they’d just seen on the news and Charlotte called her parents so she could speak to Matthew. She and Curtis hadn’t spoken to him since yesterday, and he still hadn’t sounded too happy with them.
“Hey, Mom,” Charlotte said.
“Hi, sweetie. Are you back?” her mother said.
“Yes, we just got home a little bit ago.”
“Wonderful.”
“How’s Matthew doing?”
“He talks to us just fine, but he’s also been calling his father from his cell phone.”
“What about?”
“I couldn’t hear everything, but pretty much he keeps saying he wants to spend every weekend with him, and that he doesn’t understand why you won’t let him. He also told David that he’s been reading some Internet websites, and that if David was to start paying you child support, you would have to let them be together.”
Charlotte wanted to burst into tears. “I’m so tired of this, Mom.”
“I know. And, honey, there’s something else I need to say.”
Noreen paused and then continued. “Maybe you should just try to go along with what David wants for now, because I just don’t think it’s a good idea for all of you to be battling out Matthew’s fate in court. I know how strongly you feel about this, but in the end, Matthew is going to be the one who ends up hurt.”
“But what if David tries to take him from us? What if he tries to convince Matthew that life with him could be so much better? Which wouldn’t be hard to do right now, because Matthew is so upset with us. Curtis and I have disappointed him so many times, and all I keep playing over and over in my head is what Matthew said on Saturday about wanting to go live with David. The look on his face was so serious, and he was so angry.”
“I understand that, but if you fight David on this, I have to tell you, I’m not sure what’s going to happen. You and I just talked a few days ago about the fact that there are already so many strikes against you, like, for example, you not telling David until now that he had a son. And now with this other scandal, I just don’t know what a judge might think. It’s hard to say how he or she might rule, but what you have to ask yourself is how you would decide if you were the deciding judge. What would you do if you saw a child in Matthew’s position and the parents he lived with had such a turbulent history? And, honey, please, please don’t think I’m trying to criticize you or that I’m not on your side, because I am. But I just want you to do what’s best for all of you. I want you to do what’s best for Matthew.”
“So you think I should let David see him whenever he wants?”
“Well, all he wanted was weekends anyway, right?”
“He also wants him on holidays and the entire summer.”
“But maybe if you really try to talk to him again, you can work out something that will allow him to have certain days, and you and Curtis can have the others.”
“I don’t know.”
“You have to try. It’s your decision, but your father and I talked about this a lot on Sunday after Matthew went to bed, and we both think this is best.”
“I’ll talk to Curtis. And if he agrees, maybe I’ll call David.”
“Good. I’ll get Matthew, and you take care of yourself, honey. Love you.”
“I love you, too, Mom.”
Charlotte waited for him to come to the phone and heard Curtis still talking to Lisa.
“Hello?” Matthew said.
“Hi, sweetie. How are you?”
“Okay.”
“Are you ready to come home?”
“No.”
“Well, you know you have to get back to school, right?”
Charlotte waited for him to respond but he didn’t.
“The sooner you go back, the easier it will be and the quicker everyone will forget all this craziness.”
Matthew still didn’t say anything. Didn’t make a sound.
“Honey, I’m so sorry about everything we’ve put you through.”
“Mom, can I go now?”
He spoke with much irritation and this saddened Charlotte.
“Matthew, I really want to talk to you.”
“I don’t feel well.”
“Why?”
“Because everything is all messed up.”
“I know it seems that way, but things won’t always be like this.”
Charlotte waited for him to speak, but he fell silent again.
“Is being with David every single weekend really that important to you?”
“It really is, Mom. He’s my father.”
“Okay, fine. But let me talk to your dad first. And then I’ll try to call David.”
“You mean it?”
Charlotte wanted to scream the word no, but she said, “Yes. If it’ll make you happy.”
“It will. It really, really will.”
Charlotte was glad he was now sounding more chipper, but she couldn’t have felt more miserable. Although she couldn’t deny what Matthew had just told her. David was his father. She would have done anything she could to change that particular fact, but she knew it wasn’t possible.
She knew that she had no choice but to do what Matthew and David wanted, and that her mother had been right when she’d said a court struggle would mainly hurt Matthew. Something she certainly didn’t want.
Not under any circumstances.