Page 39 of Sharing Forever in Hope Creek (Hope Creek #2)

Jim and Margaret were both waiting in the car for Callie when she walked out of the prison gates. Jim had insisted on driving her to Melbourne and Margaret had said she wanted to be there too for support.

Margaret didn’t take her eyes off Callie as she approached the car. ‘You okay, Callie darling?’

Callie nodded. At some point she’d sit down with Margaret and Jim and tell them what Julie had told her—that they’d deliberately gone to jail to get away from the crime bosses and to protect her—but she needed time to process all that information herself first. Instead, she focused on the other aspects of their short conversation.

‘It was worth the visit. You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you. ’

They were both blown away when she told them that her parents had known where she was all these years. ‘The system’s supposed to be confidential,’ Jim complained. ‘Watertight, they said.’

Margaret had listened in silence but she finally ventured, ‘I’m glad I didn’t know they knew you were with us.’

Callie agreed. ‘At least the failings in the system are now working for us.’ Callie explained all that Julie had told her, but she was impatient to get to the remand centre where Jack was being held, and to tell him everything she’d found out.

‘I think I’ll organise someone to come and sweep the house for bugs,’ Jim said. ‘It’s a damned shame your mother wouldn’t tell you how she knows so much about your life.’

‘I know. But—’ she tried to reassure her foster parents ‘—I don’t think you have to worry too much.

If she had any bad designs on any of us, she would’ve acted long ago.

’ She looked over to Margaret. ‘Please don’t worry, Margaret, I’m sure you’re not in any danger and I did get her to agree to stop keeping tabs on me. ’

‘I don’t know that we can trust her,’ Jim said. ‘Despite what she’s said, I’m still getting the place swept, and I’m installing surveillance cameras around the station and around the property here in Melbourne too.’

Callie could understand his reasoning and guilt bit deeply.

Margaret and Jim did not deserve to live their lives under a shadow, wondering if their daily conversations had been monitored.

‘I understand you’ll feel more comfortable if you take those actions, but I do believe we said goodbye today for good.’

‘Are you okay with that?’ Margaret asked.

She would be. ‘I’m not even going to process how I feel yet. Let’s get to Jack and focus on helping him.’

***

‘Callie.’ There was a wealth of emotion in Jack’s voice as he stood up from the table in a room that was similar to the one she’d been in with her mother.

‘Jack.’ Her voice broke. Seeing him in clothes supplied by the remand centre made her want to cry. At least his weren’t two sizes too big for him.

Be strong. He’s got enough to deal with, without you falling apart on him.

‘You look well. Are you well? No more fainting?’ His expression was concerned as his gaze ran over her.

Even though her lips trembled, she summoned up a smile. ‘I’m well enough.’

He gestured for her to sit down opposite him and when she reached out across the table to him, he took her hands in the warmth of his and she realised how starved she’d been of his touch.

‘What must you be thinking?’ he worried aloud.

Despite herself, tears welled. ‘What must you be thinking?’ She shook her head sadly. ‘I’m so sorry I doubted you.’

‘I know it doesn’t look good, but I am innocent, Callie.’

‘I know you’re innocent. We all know someone’s trying to frame you.’ God, but he looked as though he hadn’t slept a wink since they’d been snug and safe in her bed and he’d held her in the comfort of his arms.

He frowned. ‘You shouldn’t be here in a prison.’

‘Technically it’s a remand centre, and I’ve already come here straight from a prison, so—’ she held up her hands instantly regretting the loss of physical contact with him, ‘—too late.’

‘Pardon?’ His frown deepened.

‘I have important things to tell you, but I think I need to start at the beginning.’

‘I’m not going anywhere in a hurry,’ he told her with a wry smile.

Hopefully he would be released once the police could act on her lead. Yet even though her secret would hopefully lead to proof of his innocence, it was still hard for Callie to make the admissions about her past. ‘I haven’t been entirely truthful with you, Jack.’

His dark brows lowered. ‘What do you mean?’

Please don’t judge me for what I’m about to say.

‘I told you my parents couldn’t care for me anymore and that I was put into foster care, but I didn’t tell you why they couldn’t take care of me.’ She steeled herself to continue. ‘The truth is, they were both put in jail, where they’re still serving time for their crimes.’

‘That was …’ His brows drew closer. ‘That was twenty-odd years ago, right?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s a long sentence. What did they do?’

‘Apart from talking about this with my family—my foster family—I’ve never admitted this to anyone.’

He angled his head. ‘I’m not going to judge you on what your parents did, Callie. My parents weren’t exactly perfect role models.’

Maybe not, but they weren’t criminals either. ‘My father was a hitman for an underworld gang.’ His eyes widened and she could see that he bit back an exclamation, but she ploughed on. ‘My mother was their main accountant.’

This time, he did curse.

Probably not the best time to explain that her mother had known where the bodies were buried because she’d helped bury them.

‘In any circumstance I would’ve been disturbed by the police carting you off under the suspicion of murder, but because of my parents’ arrests when I was eight, it was even more traumatic.

’ She moved her hands in front of her in agitation and when it looked as though he was about to speak, she kept going.

‘I was transported back in time. All the memories I’d tried so hard to bury surged to the surface—each one sharper and more painful than the last.’

There was silence between them for several heartbeats before he said, ‘I’m so sorry this has acted as a trigger to those memories, Callie.’

She closed her eyes. Even knowing she should be cutting to the chase and telling Jack what she’d discovered, it seemed important to share those memories with him.

‘I remember peeking through the window from behind the curtains and seeing police cars filling the street out in front of my childhood home. The sirens were wailing. Blue lights flashed everywhere.’ He took her hands in his again and rubbed his thumbs comfortingly against the flesh on the backs of her hands in a clear demonstration of his ongoing support.

‘Mum was crying, Dad was wrestled to the ground and cuffed after trying to resist arrest.’

She had to pull her hands out of his hold to reach into her pocket and retrieve a tissue so she could wipe her eyes. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be,’ he said quickly. ‘Thank you for telling me the truth. It must’ve been bad to grow up without your parents—and traumatic for you to see them hauled away by police.’

Despite Jack saying he wasn’t going to judge her, Callie found herself searching his face for any sign of condemnation. It was a huge relief when she found none.

‘Initially, I had no idea what they’d done wrong and I was so scared wondering what made the police come and drag people out of their homes and off to jail.

’ She realised as she spoke that it’d been back then that her fear had been born.

She was so scared that she’d be hauled off to jail, she’d made certain always to do the right thing—to say the right thing.

‘When did you find out about their crimes?’ he asked gently.

‘I first found out a bit about their charges a couple of weeks after they were arrested. I was in an interim foster home before I was placed with Margaret and Jim. I saw my parents on the news and learned the truth.’

Now she saw condemnation but knew as soon as he spoke that it wasn’t directed at her. ‘Bloody irresponsible of the adults you were with to have the news on in front of you under the circumstances.’

She sent him a small smile. ‘It was and I know I’m incredibly lucky to have been given a home at Hope Creek rather than staying with any of the three foster parents I rotated around prior to Margaret and Jim opening up their home for me.

’ She shifted in her chair. ‘I probably shouldn’t have done it, but I had questions and I did some research on the internet a few years later when I was at the school library.

That was when I understood the full magnitude of what they’d done. ’

‘Thank you for telling me. Your reaction … well, everything makes more sense now, but I can’t tell you how relieved I was when I received the message that you’d requested visiting rights with me.’

‘I should’ve been by your side from the start.’ She moved her hand in a sweeping gesture as she straightened and pushed her guilt aside. ‘Now I am here, we need to focus on you.’

He let out a barely audible breath but he may as well have screamed out his frustration because it was in every taut line of his body.

‘I’m not a murderer, Callie. I didn’t have anything to do with Thompson’s death.

’ His expression implored her to believe him.

‘I know it sounds lame and I can’t prove it, but someone must’ve stolen the jack and planted that shirt in my car. ’

‘I know that, Jack. I—’

‘If only the police stations had been manned that evening, I’d have a solid alibi and they would’ve known about the Ponzi scheme. They might even have gone to talk to Thompson and he might still be alive today.’

She knew she was partly to blame. ‘If only I hadn’t fainted and you hadn’t come to hospital in Lancaster to support me instead.’

‘No.’ He shook his head vehemently. ‘Don’t think that. I’d make the same choice again in a heartbeat.’

‘Jack, before Jim drove me here today, he took me to see my mother in prison.’