“Why? What in the world has changed? I don’t understand the attitude shift from you two.”
“She feels like you’re siding with Zack, that you’re going to try to take Mindy away from her. Apparently Mindy made an offhand comment about you and Zack being a cute couple, and it upset her terribly. We’re all under stress, Juliet. Lauren is a very private woman, and she’s not at all comfortable with your open relationship with the people she thinks are trying to steal her child away from her. I’ve had to give her Ativan to calm her, she’s been a complete wreck since Zack showed up. Her fears might not be rational, but she is legitimately afraid. I have to keep her calm, keep her focused.”
“She hasn’t seemed like that big of a wreck to me. When did this shift happen?”
“Trust me when I say she’s been trying to keep a brave face on. She’s been under so much pressure lately, and this scrutiny is making her a little anxious. We’ll get through this, but I wanted to remind you to be careful who you talk to, and what you say. We don’t want anything misinterpreted.”
“Do you mean Zack? My God, Jasper, it’s like you’re mounting a campaign to make sure he doesn’t have access to Mindy.”
Jasper doesn’t speak, and then it hits her. “That’s exactly what you’re trying to do. You’re going to mount a legal defense that she’s yours and not his?”
“We’re going to try.”
Juliet shuts her eyes and shakes her head. “Don’t do it. You won’t win. And Mindy wants him to be a part of her life.”
“Mindy is a minor. We make the decisions.”
“For a few more months. Jasper, you will lose her if you try to make unilateral decisions, trust me. She’ll fight you, and so will he. You’d be much better off accepting that now and working with all of us instead of trying to drive a wedge.”
“All of us. So Lauren’s right. You have chosen a side.”
“Jasper. There are no sides here. We’re a family. We are getting Mindy through this trial, and we need to do it together.”
“Hm. Do you really know Zack Armstrong, Juliet?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you know about him? His time in the service is classified, but I know what he did. Has he told you?”
“He was military intelligence.”
“Right. I have a friend in the Defense Department, and he told me the truth about our friend Zack. He killed people. He did it for the government, sanctioned assassinations. The whole incident where he was shot? He wasn’t at a safe house meet like he claims. He was sent to murder the head of the Taliban, and he almost succeeded, but they caught wind of the plot and shot him first. He’s not the hero you think he is, and he’s certainly not the hero the country makes him out to be.”
“Jasper, I know you’re a pacifist, but what happens during a war...”
“There is what happens during a war, Juliet, and there are the black souls of men who are happy to do their government’s bidding and murder anyone they’re told. What kind of man does that make him? He’s certainly not the kind of person I want around my child, and if he tries to take her, I will make sure the whole world knows just who Zack Armstrong really is. And I will let Mindy know who he is, too.”
“Jasper, you aren’t making any sense. Zack isn’t trying to steal Mindy. He wants to co-parent. He’s talking about moving here. He’s willing to upend his life to accommodate you guys.”
“The man is morally corrupt, and I will not have him near my child.”
She is getting angry now. She wants to jump from the car, stamp her feet, scream and pull his hair, but she maintains her measured tone and grips the steering wheel harder.
“He’s saving your child’s life, you idiot. Have you stopped to think about that? His blood is saving her, the same blood you claim is so tainted. I don’t know what world you’re living in, Jasper, but it’s not reality. The stress has gotten to your brain.”
Juliet is so intent on Jasper she doesn’t notice the cameraman who’s snuck up and is filming the entire incident. Jasper moves slightly, and that’s when she hears the whirring of the camera. “Oh, shit,” she says.
But Jasper only smiles coldly and walks back into the hospital, waving off the rest of the reporters who are starting to gather.
She hears someone say, “Did you get that? We better go check it out.” And realizes Jasper has planned the whole thing. He’s made sure he was seen approaching her car so the media would follow to see what he was up to. The bastard. She would never, ever have thought him capable of such cruelty toward another person.
She watches the reporters scramble and spin, talking into their microphones. Jasper wasn’t kidding when he said he was mounting a defense. But it is more than that. He wants to discredit Zack entirely.
She puts the truck in gear with a deep sigh and dials Zack’s phone with her free hand.
He doesn’t answer, so she leaves a voice mail. “We have a problem. Call me back when you get this.”
*
Back in the hospital, Jasper takes his seat next to Lauren and grasps her hand.
“It’s taken care of. There’s no way any court in the land will give him custody now.”
She gives him a beatific smile.
“Thank you, my love.”
69
There is nothing more for Zack to do at the hospital, and he is feeling oppressed by the fluorescent lights and beeping machines and the nasty looks Jasper keeps shooting at him. What a difference a day makes. The tenor of all their conversations has changed; the Wrights have turned on him, closing ranks around Mindy. Juliet seems to have been left out in the cold, too.
Since Mindy will be parked inside the clean room for hours as her body accepts or rejects his blood, and he is feeling decidedly uncomfortable in the Wrights’ presence, he decides to take a stroll. During a press conference, he manages to duck the knot of media out front by following a doctor out the secured back door to the bottom parking lot and walks down the hill into the resort.
Zack wanders around Vail Village, Kat by his side, looking in stores, enjoying being alone for the first time in days. So much to process, so much to decide on. So much to be suspicious of.
Now that he is away from the hospital, and his head is clearing, he can acknowledge what has been bothering him since he arrived in Vail. Something isn’t right with Lauren. She is under duress, certainly—the situation with Mindy is trying and would stress out the Dalai Lama—but there is something more. The way she looks at Zack makes the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
Why? Why does a loving suburban mom set his radar on fire?
Because she is too perfect? Outside of a few lies, told mostly to protect her loved ones, Lauren is absolutely, utterly perfect. Jasper, too, is perfect. They have a perfect home, a perfect life, a perfect daughter.
And Zack knows that no one, no one in the world, is perfect like this. It is almost as if Lauren is directing a play, moving the pieces around. I am a good mother: stage right, my accomplished daughter. I am a devoted wife: stage left, my handsome lawyer husband. Backdrop: our glitteringly perfect home, not a speck of dust in sight. I am creative, concerned, loving, and disciplined. I have money, I have purpose. Nothing fazes me, except the thought of losing my daughter. Spotlight off, and...curtain.
It is practically written to script—the idyllic American family, world-class athlete daughter, parents willing to do anything to help their child excel. A river of normalcy, flowing through the lives around them.
And just below the surface, the current eddies, and is growing in strength.