Chapter 3 - LUNCH WAS ALREADY WAITING
At 12:07 p.m., Randy’s Mercedes pulled into the driveway.
Eden climbed out carrying a black handbag and a bottle of white wine. She was laughing before Randy opened the front door.
“Joanna better have made the salmon,” she said. “After last night, she owes us a pleasant afternoon.”
Randy stepped through the doorway.
Two police officers seized him.
His briefcase hit the stone floor as Officer Bell twisted one arm behind his back. Randy jerked violently, trying to lunge into the house.
“What the hell is this?”
“Sir, stop resisting.”
Eden froze on the threshold, her smile collapsing.
Joanna stood several feet away in her dusty pink lounge clothes and white robe, one hand resting on the handle of her suitcase. Her bruises were uncovered. The makeup bag lay untouched between them.
Randy stared at her exposed face.
The rage in his eyes came first. Fear followed.
“Tell them you fell,” he ordered. “Tell them this is a misunderstanding.”
Eden stepped forward. “Joanna, don’t do this.”
Joanna’s voice came out low and steady.
“I already did.”
Randy strained against the officers. “She’s unstable. She’s been having episodes.”
From the living room, Daniel spoke.
“Read it before you lie again.”
Randy stopped fighting.
Daniel sat in an armchair with the leather folder across his knees. Behind him stood Joanna’s attorney and a financial-crimes detective.
Eden’s face drained of color.
“Daniel,” she whispered.
Joanna saw the look that passed between Randy and his mother. It was not surprise at seeing an estranged father.
It was recognition.
Daniel rose and handed the detective a packet.
“The forged home-equity application is on top,” he said. “The falsified psychiatric letter is behind it.”
Joanna turned toward Randy.
“Psychiatric letter?”
Randy looked away.
The detective answered. “A letter was submitted with a petition prepared by Mr. Cole’s attorney. It claims you suffer from delusions and cannot manage your financial affairs.”
Joanna’s stomach tightened.
Eden recovered enough to lift her chin. “We were trying to protect her. Joanna has always been emotionally fragile.”
“You mean isolated,” Daniel said.
“You don’t know what she’s like inside a marriage.”
“I know what your son wrote.”
Daniel removed one page but kept its contents turned away.
Randy shouted, “That’s private!”
“So was my daughter’s identity.”
The detective informed Randy that he was being arrested for domestic assault. The financial charges were still under investigation.
As the officers led him toward the patrol car, he twisted around to face Joanna.
“You think your father is saving you? He doesn’t care about you. He cares about winning.”
A few months earlier, those words would have found a wound.
Now Joanna looked at the returned birthday cards stacked inside Daniel’s folder.
“No, Randy,” she said. “You needed me to believe that.”
He was placed in the back of the patrol car.
Eden remained in the driveway, surrounded by neighbors pretending not to watch.
“You’ve humiliated this family,” she said.
Joanna touched the bruise beneath her eye.
“You came here expecting me to cover what your son did.”
“Marriage is complicated.”
“Assault isn’t.”
Eden’s mouth tightened. “You’ll regret turning him against you.”
May you like
Joanna looked through the open doorway at her father.
“He was never the one who turned away.”
