Chapter 8

Clara

The next morning, I stood in my bathroom and stared at my reflection. Unease was making me sick, or I thought it had been that. Now, with my clockwork-like period late, a horrifying other prospect had raised its head.

It had been exactly twelve days since I’d slept with Jack for the first time.

My first time. Unprotected sex.

I’d said I would get Plan B, but in the days after, with all the emotional upheaval I’d forgotten to go right away. I had gone and taken it, however, the pharmacist had told me it was a little late to be fully effective.

A pregnancy test sat on the counter and the two little pink lines glaring at me confirmed that indeed, it had been a little late to be fully effective.

I blew out a shaky breath, feeling dizzy. I grabbed my phone and stared at it. Nothing still, just like the last few days. Nothing from Jack in the wake of telling him about my father. Unease, confusion, and rejection crowded me, squashing me between them. I looked back at the mirror. I was standing in a vest and sleeping shorts. I raised the hem of my shirt with a trembling hand and stared at my flat abdomen. There was a baby in there? Mine and Jack’s baby? I swallowed the nerves that filled my mouth with acid and turned away from my reflection, my stomach churning.

“Clara, darling?” my mother called through the door. I cringed. The sound of her voice was setting off my anxiety. Just the whisper of her quiet footsteps echoing through the house made me nervous.

“What’s wrong?” I called, pulling a robe on, and opening the door. “Is it dad?” I asked in a hurry. My mother blinked at me a moment, before recovering herself.

“No, not Edward. He is stable. I’m sure he’ll be allowed visitors any day,” she said hurriedly. I still hadn’t been able to see my dad in the week I’d been in Boston. “I came to show you something else… and it’s not an easy thing to show you,” she said. The concern in her voice stilled me. Fear froze me to the spot. I had a sudden, terrible foreboding. Emily had something behind her back, and she slowly handed it to me.

“What is it?” I asked, through a mouth of cotton. The shiny magazine was covered in Japanese characters and completely unreadable, but I didn’t need to be able to speak Japanese to see the picture.

In it, Jack sat at a table in a high-scale restaurant, with a striking woman. Her long black hair fell in a waterfall across her shoulders, and her elegant, slim face was creased in a stunning smile. She was reaching across the table and touching Jack’s face.

My Jack.

Or maybe not.

“I thought you should see this, so you could know what kind of man Jack Dawson really is,” Emily said. Her cold, wiry hand on my shoulder was repulsive.

“And you just happen to have a copy of this?” I asked her. I wasn’t one to easily trust my mother, yet, the picture could hardly be faked. Emily stiffened.

“My publicist sent it to me, all part of watching out for the Winter reputation. After the damage Elliot did, we really can’t be too careful,” Emily muttered. “You know what a job it was spinning Mia and her family into an acceptable match for a Winter,” she continued. “Of course, you’re always on the phone, messaging Jack I presume? I’m sure he is being supportive through this time, and there’s an innocent explanation for it, I just thought you should know, in case it gets brought up in the press.” Emily stepped back, having successfully wounded me. She strode away, as I gripped the doorframe. It was all getting to me. The distance, the pregnancy, Emily, Jack’s radio silence, and now this. Something inside me gave a little. The strong and determined belief I had in his love for me, bending under the strain. I retreated to the bathroom and locked the door, leaning back against it.

My mind was racing, I felt sick with anxiety. That can’t be good for the baby.

Panic pressed down further on me, and I took deep breaths, trying to find even a shred of calm to hide in, but there was none, and there wouldn’t be any until I got far away from Emily, this house, Boston… and maybe even America.

I wrenched open the door, surprised to find my mother lingering in the hall.

“Since I can’t see dad anyway, there’s no use in me being here. I’m going to Italy, to see Elliot and Mia,” I told my mother. It was my retreat, the secluded vineyard deep in the heart of the Marche region, on the coast of the Adriatic sea. Elliot was there just now, he’d just flown out a few days ago. I suddenly wanted to see my brother more than I’d ever wanted to see anyone. My mother took a moment to collect herself, and then nodded.

“Good idea, darling, Your brother will be happy to see you. He’s been locked in with Mia and her father for far too long,” Emily said and called for someone to start to arrange the trip. Just like that, I made my escape.

* * *

Jack

I was delayed leaving Japan, problem after problem with contracts arising. Then there was the tabloid story that broke of the dinner in which one of the investors, Fumiko, had wiped a crumb of food from my face, and a pap had caught it. Of course, he didn’t catch immediately after, where I moved away, and told her that I didn’t think it was appropriate and that I was engaged. She had apologized, and we had finished up our business and went our separate ways.

I had called and texted Clara to no avail, and now, as I drove to her parent’s house in Boston, my patience was hanging by a thread. I’d found out from a neighbor in her building that she’d gone to stay with her mother in Boston, and that was apparently the last they’d seen or heard.

I parked outside the fancy gate that concealed the Winter property from street view and rang the door buzzer for entry. When no answer came, I settled in my car to wait. After an hour, a car rolled up to the gate. It r through, and I followed. The gates rapidly closed behind their car, but now I pressed the buzzer insistently. In the distance, I could see Emily Winter, gesturing toward the gate, while a security guard shrugged at her.

“Let me in, Mrs. Winter. I’m not leaving without seeing Clara,” I said over the speaker, raising my voice for good measure. The gates started to open, and I gunned the engine and shot inside. I parked and left the car in a hurry. I strode toward Emily, who was standing in the middle of the courtyard, her arms folded over her skeletal chest.

“And who might you be?” She asked, arching an imperious eyebrow at me.

“Who might I be? We are seriously going to play that game? Ok, fine. I’ll play. I’m your daughter’s fiancé, that’s who,” I said shortly. Another figure was getting out of the car, and I was surprised to see it was Edward Winter, Clara’s supposedly sick father.

“Fiance? Don’t make me laugh. Clara would never marry someone like you,” Emily hissed at me.

“Mr. Winter, I heard about your ill health,” I said, staring at the man. He went red, even the tops of his ears, and his eyes moved between his wife and the ground. Something clicked into place inside me.

I laughed, and once I started, it was hard to stop. The last week of not being able to reach Clara, and that terrible silence from her. It had all been so strange, and frankly, devastating, and only now, I realized, it had all been perfectly planned.

“Was he even in the hospital at all, or was that a complete lie?” I asked Emily directly. Her hooded gaze shot to mine, and she hesitated a moment before she replied.

“Not that it is any of your business, but yes, of course. He just got out.” She lied smoothly. Edward was a different story, he looked guilty as sin, and couldn’t meet my eyes.

“And Clara? Is she locked up in that mausoleum like Rapunzel?” I asked the Winter family matriarch.

“If anyone is acting out a movie, then I am just rescuing Clara from a beast,” Emily sneered at me. I frowned.

“You do know beauty ends up with the beast in that one, right?” I checked, before forging on. “The phone thing, was that you’re doing as well?” I mused aloud, thinking it through. I shook my head. I was reluctantly impressed. ‘Let me guess, Clara doesn’t know any numbers, she trusts her phone like her entire generation, so all you had to do was get hold of it, edit my number to another one and block the original. Quite tech-savvy, aren’t you Emily. You know Clara is an adult, right?” I asked. Why would Clara expect anything strange with her phone? Her mother was the stuff of nightmares.

“She’ll earn the title of adult when she can act one. Sleeping around with men like you-“

“What’s wrong with men like me?” I asked in a flat tone. It was startlingly simple, how she’d come between us. It wouldn’t have worked for much longer. I would always have come back and fixed it. Nothing would keep me from Clara, but at the very least, she had cost us both sleep for a week.

“What’s right with you? You think because you have money you are somehow worthy of my daughter? You, a former mechanic with nobody parents, whose greasy hands will never be clean enough-“

“I have to stop you there, because, frankly, it’s getting boring,” I told her. She looked at me in shock, as if I’d slapped her. “If you want people to listen to your tirades, don’t grandstand,” I advised her. “Let’s have this talk now, and put it to bed because I don’t like to repeat myself,” I said. “First of all, I don’t give a fuck if you hate me. You’re welcome to. I don’t care that you somehow think that by the benefit of your birth, that you are better than me, and lastly, I’m not only going to touch your daughter with these greasy mechanic’s hands, I’m going to marry her, and make a family with her.” My words had sent the color from Emily’s cheeks. Edward approached, taking his wife’s arm to steady her.

“Stop, you’re upsetting her,” he said gutlessly.

“She should be upset. She should be scared for all the years she has mentally abused and tortured her daughter,” I said, stepping closer to the miserable couple for a moment, looming over them. “Because I’m here now, and I’m not leaving. If you want a piece of her, you go through me. But I warn you now… don’t try and make her choose, because she’ll choose me. How does it feel to know that both your children hate you?” I pressed. I wasn’t completely sure about Elliot, but it sounded like he’d done his best to escape the Winter family trap as well. Both Winters were staring at me in shocked silence.

“Now, before we fall out, I’m going to go and see Clara,” I said, “and I don’t expect to have to have this conversation again.”

“You’re too late. If you cared so much for Clara, maybe you shouldn’t have been caught with another woman in public,” Emily cried, a victorious smile on her lips. I turned to study her. My adversary was proving unexpectedly prepared.

“Where is she?” I asked, with quiet menace.

“I’ll never tell you. Threaten me all you want.” Emily said. I studied the woman, looking past the monied exterior and cruel, desperate expression. My face softened in pity.

“Nothing you do will keep me from Clara. You’ve lost Emily, you were always going to lose, and the worst part is that it didn’t have to be this way. Remember that,” I said, and turned on my heel, going for my car.

I was reeling from the revelations but relieved as well. Clara hadn’t been ignoring me. She hadn’t suddenly decided I was beneath her after all. She still loved me. She had to. Everything else could be fixed. Everything else would be fixed.