Page 96 of Free to Believe
There’s someone else. I brace myself to hear it, but what I hear is far worse.
“She isn’t happy. It’s like she’s dead inside.” Jenna’s voice is a whisper. She’s talking rapidly as if she’s afraid of being overheard. “I think if you told her today her collection was the best in the world in comparison to every other designer, she’d still be wearing the same look she wears every day.”
“What look is that?”
“Like none of it means a damn,” my daughter tells me bluntly.
On the other end of the line, I close my eyes as the pain ripples through my body. My fault. All of it.
“Wait a second, Daddy.” I hear the phone clatter to the bed. In the background, a loud commotion is going on. I hear a male voice drawl, “Did you honestly think we were going to leave you here by yourself? Please. That’s not what we do.”
A female voice chimes in. “That’s not who we are.”
Suddenly there’s music playing, and I can’t hear any voices until Jenna comes back on the line. By then, I’ve worked myself into a frenzy. Em’s exposing my seventeen-year-old to a party? What the fuck?
“Daddy! You’ll never believe this, but Em’s entire family just drove in from Connecticut tonight. All of her sisters, her brother, and their husbands and kids. It’s like a ready-made party. And guess what? Em laughed. I heard Em laugh!” Jenna’s choked up.
Her family who’s always been there for her is there now when they suspect she’s burned out and breaking. I swallow past the lump in my throat. “That’s great, baby. Go have fun with them.”
“Do you have anything you want me to tell Em?” She asked me that before she left. The problem is I have too damn much to tell Em, and I can’t use my daughter to do it. I’m also fairly certain the door would be slammed in my face if I tried to do it on my own.
“I…” I don’t even have a chance to deny the request because I hear Dani call Jenna to join the party.
“I have to go, Daddy. Love you.”
“Love you too, Jenna.”
Jenna hangs up. I drop my phone next to me before I surge to my feet and begin to pace. I owe Em an apology so huge. Underneath that cool exterior beats a heart that feels too much and bruises too easily. And I took a bat to it the last time we saw each other.
I need to see Em one more time, even if it’s for her to tell me to take the express train to hell. Walking back over to my phone, I dial the number of the only person I know who might help me.
One ring.
Two.
Three.
“This better be good, Jake. I’m about to head out onstage,” Brendan warns me.
“I need to know how to get a hold of Corinna Freeman,” I say in a rush.
The silence on the other end of the line tells me I don’t have to explain. Either Dani or Em’s family already have. “If I give you this number and you break her again, I’m going to be losing a close friendship. So will my nephew,” Brendan says angrily.
“I plan on sewing up the wounds I caused. Then, if it takes me the rest of my life, I plan on begging her for another chance to prove I’m not a complete asshole.”
“That might take you the rest of your life,” Brendan snaps, right before he hangs up.
Seconds later, I have an incoming text with a 203 area code and a message that says,Don’t screw up.
I don’t plan on it.
I can’t.
Too many people are depending on me to get it right.
* * *
“I’m sorry,Mr. Madison. After everything you put my sister through, you expect me to hand over her location as if it’s available for public consumption?” Corinna Freeman’s voice could freeze hell over on its hottest day despite its honeyed drawl. “I can’t believe Brendan gave you this number. It’s not as if you don’t have a way to reach your daughter,” she adds bitingly.
