Coming home

chapter 15

When Luke walked into Claire’s room, the first thing he noticed was that the TV was gone along with the chair. Luke pointed toward where the TV sat without saying a word,

“Elizabeth’s room. I had to find something to entertain her, so I could have some time to myself,” Claire said with a bit of anger. Luke felt a twinge of remorse for just taking off and staying gone for so long. He stared down at his feet, searching his thoughts to decide where he was going to start.

Good, Claire thought but said “You should have stayed and made sure Elizabeth was comfortable with me.”

“I know,” Luke admitted, still staring at his feet. Claire sensed Luke had a lot weighing on him and wanted to say more, so she just stood there quietly waiting.

“There is something I have to tell you,” Luke said, looking directly in her eyes. There was only one way to do this, Luke thought. He had to just face it straight on. Get to the point as fast as he could and get it over with. “You remember Wade?”

“Yes. He was your friend through high school, right?” That was a name she hadn’t heard in a long time. When she left, she never thought about the people she had left behind other than her dad.

“I don’t know if you know or not, but he got killed in a car accident 10 years ago,” he said with a clearing of his throat to try to hide the emotions.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know. When I left, the only one I kept in touch with was daddy,” Claire paused, feeling the regret slip into her voice. "When I did come home, the visits were short, and I stayed away from everyone. It was easy since no one really ever seemed like they wanted to keep in touch anyway. You know. Out of sight, out of mind, as they say.”

Luke nodded in acknowledgment, although she had never been completely out of his thoughts. “Well, me and Wade started Wading Brooks together not too long after you left. Things were beginning to come together just like we had planned when the car wreck happened, and then Nancy went away. It had been just me and Elizabeth since then,” Luke paused, clearing his throat again. "Everything just hit me all at once today, and I had to get away. I’m sorry.”

Now Claire felt bad about thinking he had just dumped Elizabeth on her. She also felt bad about not keeping in touch with the people who had once been a very big part of her life. The turmoil that Luke had gone through was evident in every inch of his body. Claire felt a strong urge to embrace him to relive the tension, and then her mind flashed to the scene in the bathroom, making her draw in a deep breath. From there, her mind decided to replay her youth with Luke. Flashes of her, Luke, Wade, and Nancy going to Pete’s to hang out, hanging out at school together, and just spending a lazy Sunday doing nothing in particular.

At first, Claire didn’t like Nancy. It just seemed to Claire that Nancy tried too hard to get male attention and that Nancy didn’t care which male's attention she got. Claire really didn’t think that Nancy was good for Wade, but she had kept her opinion to herself. In hindsight, she should have spoken up and realized that Nancy had a hidden agenda.

Claire had thought that Wade was crazy about Nancy. She thought he would have shunned both of them over the betrayal, but he must have found a way to forgive them. Or maybe he hadn’t really had feelings for Nancy, and it had all been an act to fool Claire. Maybe Wade had known all along. Wade hadn’t seemed the type to be fake, but she was also taken in by Luke, so why wouldn’t Wade have been able to fool her also?

Luke watched the emotions run the gambit on Claire’s face as she took in the information. He wished he knew what she was thinking. He wished he could read her as well as he could when they were younger. Luke came to the realization that Claire wasn’t aware of many things that he had thought she knew. The thought dawned on him. How could he have been so clueless?

Luke stepped forward, taking a hold of Claire’s face, lifting it, and forcing her to look directly at him. “You do know that Elizabeth was Wade’s daughter?” he said, watching the color drain from her face.

“But…but,” Claire stuttered as her thoughts and emotions spun out of control. She knew she had heard them. She knew she hadn’t made it up. Could she have been wrong? No, no, she wasn’t going to second guess herself. She knew what she had heard. “I heard ya’ll. I heard the whole confession. I heard how Nancy said that everything was going to have to be told now that she was pregnant. I heard how you responded that you wanted the test done before it came out, just to be sure. I heard it all. I came to look for you.”

Luke pulled her into his chest as Claire tried fruitlessly to push him away with one arm. “No darling, you didn’t hear it all,” Luke said, squeezing her tighter before sitting her down on the bed. He took a seat next to her. Sitting was going to be the best thing for Claire. Now, he was sure she was still in the dark about many things. “What you heard was that Nancy was pregnant. The question wasn’t who was the baby’s father. The question was who was Nancy’s father” Luke paused, letting it sink in for Claire before he continued. Nancy’s mother had told her that her father wasn’t who she had thought it was. Nancy had played it off, saying it was during one of her mother’s episodes, and had thought it was just to hurt her. She had never told anyone until she noticed that her dad didn’t have much to do with her and would say hurtful things to her just to be hateful. Since I worked for her father back then, she confided in me and asked me if I had seen the same thing she did. She wanted to know if she was just blowing things out of proportion. My opinion was that she wasn’t but that I really didn’t think that was enough to prove that what her mother said was true.” Luke stood up and started pacing, trying to figure out how to put the next part. Claire sat dumbfounded, not really sure how to take it all in. With thoughts gathered, Luke sat back down and took her hand in his. “Claire, Nancy’s mother told her that David Johnson was her real father.”

Claire glared right through Luke. It’s not true, Claire thought. This wasn’t happening. Nancy’s mother was mentally ill. She clearly lived in a fantasy land. “It’s not true,” Claire said, managing to put her thoughts into words. “You yourself told me that Nancy’s mom had mental health issues. She made it up. As a matter of fact, maybe she didn’t even tell Nancy that Nancy made it up,” Claire reasoned.

“I’m afraid not. Nancy felt that since she was having a child, she needed to find out for sure. She had said that she could live with not knowing, but she felt she owed it to her child to find out. She wanted her child to have everything she hadn’t. Nancy confronted David a couple of weeks after you left, and David confirmed her suspension.”

“Well just because…,” Claire started, still trying to reason things out.

“No Claire. Hear me out. It seems Nancy actually thought about what I had advised her to do. David’s confirmation wasn’t good enough for Nancy. She demanded he do a test to make sure. They secretly went to have the test done. It wasn’t until Nancy’s mom and dad moved away that the test came back, and it was confirmed David was Nancy’s true dad." Claire stared off into space, trying to come to terms with all that she was being told. Her head was spinning in so many directions she wasn’t quite sure if she wasn’t dreaming. Luke had seen the struggle of truth and deception she was battling with. “I thought you were told back then and just didn’t care. Not many people knew. It was kept a secret, but I didn’t think it was kept a secret from you.”

Claire stared at her hands and then looked up at Luke blankly, opened her mouth, and then shut it. There were so many questions whirling around that she didn’t know where to start. Luke must have noticed this. He stood, took her hand again, and said “I know it’s a lot to take in. I think you need to let it sink in a bit, and we will continue this tomorrow,” Luke sympathized. Claire’s look of bewilderment made him add, “I promise I won't be going anywhere tomorrow. I’ll be here all day no matter what,” With that, Luke walked out, leaving her alone with her thoughts to find him a place to sleep for tonight.

* * *

Timing is everything they think as they snuck through the woods, catching the headlights coming down the drive. If they had been 5 minutes earlier, they would have been caught in those headlights. Hiding in the shadows, they watched as Luke climbed out of his truck and went inside. They would have thought that everyone would be inside for the night, being Elizabeth had been thrown into the mix. Maybe Luke hadn’t been the best choice for a guardian, after all. Well, that was going to change anyway they thought sneaking up to the house.

If they knew it was this easy to spy on people back in the day, then they would never have been duped. All you have to do is hide in the shadows til the right time, be quiet, and follow the voices once you get close enough to hear where they are coming from. Once close enough, the tricky part was to be calm and breathe shallow enough to hear things clearly. Their first venture at spying was a complete failure. They had been nervous about getting caught and thought holding their breath was the best option. All that they ended up doing was having them hear their own heartbeat in their ears and getting lightheaded to top it off. That was when they figured out that a fight or flight plan would calm their nerves, and shallow breathing was a must.

By the time they made it to the voices, it was clear they were in mid-conversation. “… Not true,” they strained to hear. The voice seemed to whisper. “… child… confronted…" David confirmed,” came Luke 's emphasized words. So everyone seemed to know except them and Claire, Charles thought. How many more people had Amanda told that Nancy wasn’t his? She had fooled him for years and saddled him with a life he didn’t deserve. He could have had more out of life. He had thought Amanda loved him, and that was the only reason he stayed with her all those years ago. She had only wanted his family's money. It was a good thing none of them got it. Not only would they not get the money, but he was going to get back everything they cost him. Now that Claire knew, she would have to be taken care of also.