Jeremiah
“You’re home early.” Elle popped into the house without so much as a knock. I’d given her a key
that morning. “I told you I had this under control-”
Elle’s face ended my conversation. Something was wrong.
“Who is L. Dierks?” she asked, crossing her arms in front of her.
I tried my best to fight off the frustration. “I told you, she’s Amelia and Grace’s mother. I paid her because she needed financial support during the pregnancy.” Elle chewed on her cheek and glared at me.
I had a sleeping Amelia in my arms. Grace had already fallen asleep in the pack and play. I didn’t want our conversation to wake them up, and from the way Elle was looking at me, it was about to get heated very fast.
“Let me put them in the nursery.”
Elle didn’t protest. “I’ll be in the kitchen. We need to talk.”
I put the girls to bed, shutting the door behind me. The kitchen was far enough away from the nursery, so hopefully any shouting wouldn’t wake them.
When I found Elle in the kitchen, she had a beer and was sitting at the table.
“So tell me again, L. Dierks. She’s the mother of the girls, but she was in a situation where she needed money, huh?”
I took a seat across from her. “Yes, I told you all that.”
“So L. Dierks isn’t Lauren Dierks Holt?”
My heart skipped a beat. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I found out today that Elizabeth Holt’s maiden name is Dierks, and that’s not a very common name. Now either this is a huge coincidence, you’ve somehow managed to find one of Elizabeth’s long-lost relatives and gotten her pregnant, or the L stands for Lauren – or even worse, Lizzie, which is short for Elizabeth. Which is it, Jeremiah?”
I opened my mouth to answer her, but I really wasn’t sure what to say. I had to protect the girls.
“Because the Holts aren’t hurting for money, so even if it was Lauren, why would you need to pay her all that cash?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“Why not?”
“Because I can’t, Elle.” From the look on her face, that wasn’t good enough. And I didn’t blame her. “Do you still think I’m innocent?” I asked her. “Do you still trust me?”
“I think you’re innocent, yes, but I hate to admit, this recent revelation is making me wonder. If you’d just talk to me, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation, but unless I hear one – what else am I supposed to assume, Jeremiah?”
I flinched. “I can’t talk about it, Elle. You’re the press and-”
As soon as I said those words, I’d known they were a mistake. Her face was a mixture of fury and pain. I pushed up from the chair and walked across the room to the sink. I stared out the window, trying to focus on anything but what was happening now.
“You trust me with your girls, even allowing me to raise them if you go to prison. But you can’t trust me with this? You can’t trust me to put you and the girls above my job?” Her voice was thick with disgust and hurt. And I couldn’t blame her for that.
She didn’t understand. The girls’ lives were at stake here. If I told her and it somehow got out, it would be a disaster. But it was Elle. I could trust her. I turned around, “Elle…” But she was gone.
I heard the front door slam. I’d waited too long; she must have taken my silence for an answer.
Maybe it’s for the best, I thought. Still, knowing that I’d hurt her, that she didn’t believe I trusted her, killed me. I slammed my fists down on the counter, thankful the girls were across the house, safe in their rooms.
This is why I doubted being a father to them. Everything I touch turns to shit.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and part of me hoped it was Elle. But I knew she wouldn’t be calling me this soon.
“Hey, Sam. Please tell me you’re calling with good news.”
“On the contrary. There’s been a break in the case, but it’s not good for you, Jeremiah.”
I gripped the counter and closed my eyes. Great. Could it get any worse? How could there be a break that tied me to crimes I didn’t commit?
“Go on.”
Sam sighed. “A video surfaced that showed Elizabeth Holt accepting money from Brody Pearson. They’ve managed to link the Holts to the case.”
“That should be good news for me, so what am I missing?”
“The Feds linked the transfers in your account to Lauren
Holt.” Dammit.
Sam continued. “And while the initial witness who saw Lauren’s car in front of James’ house was deemed unreliable, the Feds pulled up some security camera footage from the neighborhood that showed Lauren’s car driving through the night before James disappeared. So now it looks like you may have paid the Holts to kill James Fitzhenry, though none of that makes sense either. They’re still trying to piece it all together, but I’m afraid the final
outcome won’t look good for you.”
“It wasn’t Lauren. It couldn’t be.”
“I wouldn’t worry so much about Lauren Holt, Jeremiah. You need to worry about saving your own ass at this point.
You need to tell me everything so I can help you.”
“I’ll call you back.”
“What?”
“I need to make a phone call, then I’ll call you back.”
Sam was quiet for a few moments, likely exasperated by me at this point. Not that I blamed him. I was getting pretty tired of all the secrets too.
I had info to share with him, info I didn’t think would be relevant. But apparently it was. And it would hopefully not only save my ass, but someone else’s too. But at what cost, I wondered?
“Fine,” Sam said.
“It might be tomorrow, but I promise to tell you everything I can.”
I hung up and dialed another number straight away.
“Lauren, we need to talk. Now.”
Ooo000ooo
“I knew that night had been a mistake.” Lauren Holt wouldn’t sit down. She paced my living room, her eyes jerking wildly around as she nibbled at her otherwise perfect manicure.
“Normally I’d agree with you, but it gave me my daughters.” The girls were asleep in the nursery. Lauren had only agreed to come over if she didn’t have to see them. I told her I couldn’t promise they wouldn’t wake up, but that I’d keep them in their nursery as long as she was there.
Lauren pursed her lips and stared out the window in my kitchen, the same one I looked out hours earlier. It was late, there was no way to see anything out of it, but I don’t think it mattered to Lauren.
She turned to me. “We have to come clean. We have to tell them everything, so I can prove I wasn’t in Liberty. I didn’t have access to my car that night.”
“But if we tell them everything, your family will know about the girls.”
Lauren flinched as if I’d hit her. “I know, but I can’t go to prison. I simply can’t.”
“Trust me, I can’t afford to go to prison either. I have daughters to raise.” I refrained from calling them “our daughters” because they weren’t. They were mine.
Lauren had birthed them, but she was not their mother. She didn’t want to be.
“We need to figure out the next steps. Before we come out about all of this, we need to get everything in place. Your parents cannot come after my girls.”
Lauren didn’t say anything. She continued staring off into the black expanse.
“This is why I hid from them. I did my part. I did everything I could to protect them.” Her voice cracked, and for a second, it sounded like she actually cared about the girls.
I knew, deep down, Lauren only cared about herself. She was looking out for number one. Children would ruin her dreams of a political career.
“We should have been more careful about the money exchanges,” she complained.
“I know that now, but who could have predicted all of this?”
Lauren turned around on her heels. She was an attractive woman, which is why I fell into bed with her a year prior. That and having had too much to drink at the bar. I never asked her the reason she’d slept with me that night. I was just stupid and lonely. But Lauren Holt had an on-again, off-again boyfriend at the time. She didn’t need me.
“I could have,” Lauren said slowly.
“What do you mean?”
“My father and brother, they…” She closed her eyes as she continued to speak. “They put me up to it. It was supposed to be a scandal in and of itself. You were sleeping with the enemy’s daughter. That and they asked me to get some of your DNA. I didn’t know why at the time, but now I suspect-”
“You’re the reason my DNA was found in James’ house and car?” My fists were balled up at my sides. I’d never hit a woman, but damn, I wished she were her brother or father in that moment.
“I had no idea they were going to frame you for murder!”
“What did you think they wanted my damn DNA for Lauren?”
“I don’t know. I just wanted my father to be proud of me.” Her eyes popped open and there were tears in them. I wasn’t sure if they were real or crocodile tears, but the words behind them sounded sincere enough. “He promised me that if we won this election, he’d help further my career. And I’d do anything to make it on my own,
Jeremiah. Anything.”
“Even frame an innocent man?”
She didn’t say anything. She couldn’t look at me either.
For months, I’d sent her money. Not because she was poor she was far from it. But because her own father would suspect something if she touched any of the funds he had access to. And he had access to all her money because Lauren hadn’t done much on her own. She was born a Holt and that was all the work she had to do to get rich.
I sent her money to keep up with doctor’s appointments, to stay in Tahiti, to sip virgin cocktails to her heart’s delight. And for what? For her to frame me for fucking murder.
No, Jeremiah. You did all that for your girls. And you have them. They were worth it.
“Well you’re going to do the right thing now, Lauren. You’re going to tell the cops everything.”
Lauren didn’t answer me. She stared at me, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust her.
Problem was, she was the only one who could save my ass.