Page 16 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

Vivian’s legs gave out. She wobbled in place, ready to drop to the cold floor, but Aiden caught her.

“She was pregnant,” Viv whispered to Aiden.

“I ran into her and Ben at the new boardwalk in Port Michaelson two weeks ago. Laura Jean was so excited and so happy. Ben…h-h-he was happy. Ben is never happy. Aiden, he’s never happy, but he was happy, and it was almost scary how normal he seemed. ”

Aiden whispered to Vivian for a moment before snapping at Josie. “What else? You said you came here for help. What the hell do you need help with? ”

The nervous hum zipping through her body went silent, and Josie held Aiden’s stare. The way he cradled Vivian to him… he loved her. Charlie would have probably let her fall to the floor and perhaps helped eventually, but only if someone told him to do it.

“She needs to sit down,” Josie said, keeping her voice strong so they wouldn’t argue. “This next part isn’t going to be easy, and Viv needs to sit down.”

The foyer held a single chair with a pair of men’s running shoes next to it. Aiden looked like a runner. Lean and muscled, he looked like the type of guy that greeted the morning with a jog.

Viv continued to cry quietly as Aiden helped her to the chair. “It’s Charlie,” she mumbled to herself. “She’s here to tell me Charlie is dead. He was living out at that house.”

Well, that was a worry Josie could easily eliminate. “Charlie is alive.”

The look of relief on Vivian’s face was just one more heartbreaking thing to pile onto the millions of other soul destroying moments from tonight. “He’s okay?”

“No, but he’s alive,” Josie spat out. “He’s in the hospital, and the doctors say he’s going to pull through just fin—”

“We need to go.” Vivian was out of the chair and rushing for the door. “Is he at Hollingsdale General or the hospital over in Port Michaelson?”

Josie didn’t move, and neither did Aiden. Viv had her a smart one this time around. “Come sit down, honey, and let her finish,” Aiden said. “I think she has more to say.”

He was a good guy. Any other man would have been pissed at how fast his woman was ready to ride to the rescue of her soon-to-be ex-husband.

Vivian’s baby blue eyes flicked back and forth between them, realizing it wasn’t over. “Say it, Josie.”

“Do you know why he was living at Haven House?”

Returning to the chair, Viv nodded at her question. “Ben cut him off after he started having problems with drinking. Charlie wouldn’t get help, and Ben cut off his allowance, even though it wasn’t his fault. Charlie only started dabbling recently when I failed yet again to keep the baby to term.”

Dear God. How much psychological damage had Vivian endured? They would be lucky if she walked away tonight without her mind completely snapping in half .

“Charlie has been dabbling in drugs for over a decade,” Josie said flatly.

“But do you know about the woman? I’m sure there were others, but do you know about the main one?

Rebecca? He wasn’t staying at Haven House only because Ben cut him off.

He was staying there because that’s where she lived.

Charlie brought Rebecca to live at Haven House when she was barely seventeen years old.

He was newly married to you, and he was sleeping with a seventeen-year-old child at the same time. ”

That had to be the cruelest thing she had ever spoken in her life, but it was the truth, and damn it, Vivian deserved to know. Fuck the Fairweathers and their it’s for the best if we keep things secret motto. It destroyed people—real fucking people—who were just trying to live their lives.

The speech gained the expected reaction. Vivian looked ready to hurl her guts up all over the tile. Josie could relate, but now wasn’t the time to wimp out. Miranda needed her back at Parkland as soon as possible.

“And he…” Vivian swallowed a few times. “He kept her out at that house? No. Charlie wouldn’t do that.”

“Why wouldn’t he do that, Vivian?” Aiden hissed, already pushing through his shock. “You said that his brother hid a woman who he had gotten pregnant out there, so why wouldn’t you expect Charlie to do the same?”

Yep, a smart man. Viv probably didn’t know what to do with herself. “The first baby Charlie and Rebecca had together was a girl,” Josie continued. “They named her Olivia, but everyone called her Livy.”

Vivian quite simply lost control. It was like she was trying to rise, but didn’t even make it a fraction of an inch before sliding right down to sit on the floor.

“A baby? What do you mean, a baby?” she rambled, her head violently shaking in denial as the hysteria bubbled from her. “Charlie had a baby with her? A baby ?”

“Three babies.”

Aiden immediately dropped to hold Vivian when she screamed. Pain and shock ripped through the poor woman, the news shredding the last piece of her heart belonging to Charlie.

Holding her tenderly, Aiden cradled Viv as he settled them on the chair.

She raged and cried in his arms, begging for someone to explain to her why.

He didn’t have the answer, of course. Josie didn’t have an answer, either.

But seeing her in such agony had the words spilling forth, and Josie revealed the plain truth through Viv’s tortured sobs.

“Charlie and Rebecca had three children, and over the last… I don’t know, year?

Maybe two years? They’ve both kind of dropped off from being parents and started getting more into drugs and whatever else the fuck they do.

” Josie recognized that she was shouting, but there was no other way.

“And then tonight, apparently, Rebecca snapped, stabbed Charlie, and then grabbed a gun. From what we can tell, she just started killing people, including her daughter and herself.”

“Oh my God,” Viv wailed, burying her face in Aiden’s chest. “Oh my God!”

“I’m sorry!” Josie continued to shout through the woman’s heartbreak. “I’m so sorry, and I would never have come here and told you all this in the middle of the night if I didn’t need help.”

Long minutes passed until, finally, Vivian’s red-rimmed eyes, so full of contempt, met hers. “And why would I help you?”

“Not me. I don’t deserve it. But they do.

The children. They witnessed it happen and are over at Parkland Grounds with Miranda.

They’re covered in blood. There’s so much blood, Viv, and they need to get clean, but we don’t have clothes or toothbrushes or anything.

I can’t leave Miranda alone to go buy supplies, and I’m here for help.

” Josie wiped her cheeks. Her tears were worthless here.

“Laura Jean’s oldest isn’t speaking. It’s like she’s in shock.

The boys are fighting. Jamison needs pull-ups and—”

Vivian went utterly still, but then shook herself and launched into motion.

“Aiden, can you grab us a change of clothes?” The brisk order had Josie’s mouth falling open.

This quick shift from pained shock to unwavering determination was too swift for her tired brain to comprehend.

“We’ll go over and help Miranda while you get the car ready and our clothes. ”

Aiden took off and jogged up the stairs. Once he disappeared, Vivian turned to Josie. “If Ben is at the morgue, who is handling damage control?”

“Damage control?”

Vivian sighed and rolled her eyes. “Who is handling what the public knows?”

Josie blinked stupidly at her. God, what was with these people ?

“Trevor, I guess? He’s on his way down here with Heather.”

“Absolutely not.” Vivian went to a side table just off the entryway and clicked on a lamp. She dug around in the table’s single drawer until she found a small book. “Hillary should have been your first phone call.”

Picking up the cordless phone, Vivian dialed a number she found in her little book.

“Hillary? It’s Vivian. Ben needs you here.

Now. Laura Jean is dead… shot… stop screaming and listen to me…

SiSi Howard’s husband is also dead, and their little boy has been shot.

No, Selah is fine. He’s with Miranda at Parkland.

I said stop screaming. Charlie has been stabbed and is in the hospital, and there are two more people dead. A little girl named Olivia and…”

“Rebecca,” Josie said, filling in the blanks. “Her name was Rebecca Miller.”

“Rebecca Miller,” Vivian repeated. “Oh, stop crying out for God, Hillary. He can’t help us now. It’s only a two-hour flight from Houston. Take one of the jets and get here.”

In a flourish of silk, Vivian slammed down the phone and marched again to the door. “Let’s go.”

Josie followed, numb and not knowing what else to do. “What about Aiden?”

“He’ll know to follow.”

Vivian swung open her front door and hurried down the steps. “You walked here?”

It had started to rain. A light misting, promising more in moments. “Yes.”

“Well, then, come on.”

They walked in silence. A car honked its horn in appreciation over Vivian’s nightgown, and she kept her head turned away lest someone recognize her.

Rounding the corner, Viv gasped when she saw that Parkland’s gates had been left open and the twelve-foot-tall front door gaping wide, which permitted the lights to spill out onto the front steps.

“Vivian, let me go first.”

She didn’t listen. Hurrying through the front door, Vivian entered in a rush, but stopped short on the slippery marble floors when they heard a soft crying. It was coming from somewhere close, and after a quick search, they narrowed it down to a darkened sitting room off the foyer .

It was Toby. Hidden just beyond a small sofa, he sat on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest.

Vivian didn’t hesitate and kneeled to his level. “Hello, I’m Vivian. What’s your name?”

Toby lifted his head, and instantly, his eyes went wide. He had probably never seen a woman like Vivian before. Beautiful beyond words, she looked picture-perfect even at three in the morning.

Vivian was also slightly taken aback. Toby might not be the spitting image of his father, but Charlie was there in the boy’s features.

“Toby.”

“I like that name.” Delicately, Vivian touched Toby’s shoulder. “And I like your hair too. Does it always curl like this when it’s about to rain?”

Toby nodded earnestly, completely under Vivian’s spell. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Your father’s hair does the same thing. I used to say he was my own personal weather station. We could always tell if it was going to be a rainy day by Charlie’s hair.” She ran her fingers through the tips of his curls. “Why are you crying down here?”

“Samuel’s mean.”

“Hmm, yes. He’s like his father, so that’s no surprise.”

Toby giggled, obviously thinking he’d found a friend.

“Toby,” Josie interrupted. “Go back upstairs. Vivian and I will be along in a minute. We’ll get you some supplies to take a shower, and we need everyone together to make our list.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Toby wiggled up from the ground to stand next to Vivian. “It was nice meeting you,” he said before scampering off for the stairs.

“He’s very polite,” Viv remarked, watching him go. “I’m assuming SiSi had something to do with that.”

“She practically raised them,” Josie replied, wanting to make this easier, but there wasn’t a way. Betrayal and pain were the foundations of tonight. “The youngest is named Cecilia, and we call her CeCe.”

“Is she upstairs?”

“She is.” Josie grabbed Vivian’s arm when she tried to take off again. “Don’t you need a minute to, like, I don’t know, process all this?”

Vivian exhaled a humorless laugh. “Josie, it’s going to take me a lifetime to process all of this, and I don’t think we have time for that tonight.”