The O'Connells Box Set

Chapter 31

Marcus sat in his car in his driveway, trying to make sense of everything that had happened, from groveling to Karen and visiting Reine to meeting with the lawyer who was the face of the Hirst family.

He knew his family was inside. He’d seen Jenny and Alison walk into his house, and Owen and Tessa, and even Luke and Chloe, but he’d ignored all of them. Even when Charlotte had stepped out of the house and gestured to him, he’d just looked away. He thought it was Owen who had said something to her, encouraging her to go back inside.

He didn’t have a clue how to find the words to tell a little girl why her mother, whom she’d seen just the day before, couldn’t visit her right now. He leaned back against the headrest and shut his eyes.

There was a sharp tap on his window, and he looked up to see Owen, who pulled open his door. Behind them, Harold pulled up in his Kia with Suzanne and the baby.

“You’ve been sitting out here almost half an hour. Karen filled us in,” Owen said.

Marcus slid out, and Owen stepped back. He took in his big brother just as he heard the screen door to the house, and Luke and his dad stepped outside. He wondered how long it would be before Eva did, too.

“Yeah, well, how do I find the words to tell Eva why her mom is in prison again? And, worse, that it’s my fault?”

Owen made a face, and the grimace said everything. Behind him, Harold passed the baby over to Suzanne, who he thought was likelier to shove a poker in his eye than have a civil conversation, and then Harold was walking his way.

“It’s not all on you,” Owen said. “Heard the woman stole her own mother’s jewelry and tried to throw Reine under the bus.”

Marcus shook his head. “Not entirely. She has power of attorney. As her lawyer argued, everything is going to her, and she needed the money because her mother’s care is so expensive. Wasn’t that what the lawyer said, Harold?”

At least he’d handled one thing right in this mess, letting Harold talk to the lawyer and to Pete, who’d turned out to be not just the manager but the founder of Better Way. Then there was the nurse who’d willingly put Reine in a position she couldn’t defend herself from. He didn’t know, out of all of them, who was more responsible or whether the blame was equal. Owen looked over to Harold.

“I spoke with Eileen, the ADA, who said she’ll reach out to the parole board but told me not to hold my breath,” he said. “She said rarely in this jurisdiction are changes in circumstance and new information heard. The conditions set forth have to do with you, Marcus.”

He leaned his head back and shut his eyes, wishing he’d never gone to Manny. At the same time, the conditions of her parole should have been disclosed to him to begin with. What a mess this was.

“Karen’s working on it?” Harold asked.

Marcus didn’t know what to say. “Karen is almost eight months pregnant, and she’s furious, which isn’t good for her right now. I do know she’s prepared to file every motion she can, not that it’s going to do much good. Unfortunately, it’ll come down to waiting for another opportunity with the parole board. Karen is furious with me, and I’m pretty sure Suzanne is about to take up where Karen left off, not that I can blame either.”

Owen turned and glanced behind him, where Luke and their dad were talking on the porch, leaning on the railing. Maybe they knew he wanted some space.

“Marcus, you know you didn’t have a choice,” Harold said. “I would have done the same thing.”

“Would you, really?” he said, nearly cutting off his deputy, who was his brother-in-law and a good friend.

“Yeah, I would have. You know that of everyone, I’m not going to tell you something because I think you want to hear it. You know damn well how it works. You have a property owner who calls in a theft, an ex-con who was there with the opportunity, and Reine in a desperate situation. She wanted her daughter back, which meant a lawyer, and where was she going to get the money? You had no control over what her parole officer did…”

“He hit her, abused her. God knows how many others he’s done it to.”

“And you can’t prove that. It’s her word against his, and in case you forgot, with his being a state employee, a parole officer with decades on the job, he’s in a position of power and will always be given the benefit of the doubt without rock-solid evidence to prove otherwise. Therese did some digging, and he doesn’t have a history of complaints against him. But the only thing that tells me is that he got away with it and intimidated everyone he did hurt. He must’ve threatened them, and they were smart enough to know they wouldn’t win against him.”

Owen pulled his arms across his chest and listened to the back and forth between Harold and him. When he heard a vehicle, he turned to see two black SUVs with the State of Montana logo. Of course, it was Jack, there because his wife was very pregnant and had been dragged into Marcus’s mess.

“You know what? Give me a minute with Jack,” was all Marcus said, reaching over and pressing his hand to Harold’s arm. He walked around him toward his brother-in-law, who stepped out of the back seat of one black Tahoe, the door held open by a state trooper. He was in a dark suit, impeccably dressed as he always was.

Marcus crossed the grass over to him, nodding to the second approaching trooper. “Didn’t expect you, but can’t say I’m surprised,” he said. “You picking up Karen?”

Jack didn’t button his jacket. He said something to one of the troopers, who hung back as he closed the distance to Marcus. “If I don’t, she’ll camp out at the condo, and she’s too far along. Heard it didn’t go well.”

“Depends,” he said. “We had to watch Reine being brought in by a guard, shackled like a high-risk offender. Apparently, the warden is sending her a message. I was embarrassed for her. She’s back there now because of bureaucracy and a man who has the power to make her life hell. I know Karen is trying to work a miracle, but too much of this is my fault. I need to ask you a favor, Jack.”

Jack said nothing at first as he stood there in front of him. There was something about him. Marcus never knew where he stood. “Well, you’d better ask, or are you just going to stand there?”

Marcus nodded. “I need you to grant Reine a pardon.”

Jack was already shaking his head. “I am well aware of the circumstances, but I can’t, as much as I want to. I have requests all the time on compassionate grounds, like where someone is serving time for something they didn’t do, but because of some bureaucratic policy, they can’t get out. The law isn’t always right or fair.”

Marcus didn’t move, just pulled in a breath. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking of Reine crying tears she hadn’t been able to wipe away. He said, “Reine Colbert, once upon a time, lived in suburbia. She had a husband who was a firefighter, a hero who made a living helping others. They were happy, and they had Eva, but when she was just a baby, he got sick, really sick, with a type of cancer that killed him slowly. He struggled through treatments, but the insurance company came back and denied coverage, so all of a sudden, medical bills and treatments that should have been covered weren’t. They cited a clause in the contract, saying they’d discovered he’d smoked when he was young. That was despite the doctors saying his being a firefighter was what had caused the cancer, breathing in the kinds of carcinogens he did. When he died, the hospital bills took everything else from Reine, her house, her job, her life, and then she and her little six-year-old girl were on the streets…”

“Save it, Marcus,” Jack said. “I know the story of how Eva came to be yours, and I’m sympathetic, and I agree what happened wasn’t fair, and it shouldn’t have happened…”

“Then help me,” he ground out. “I beg you, Jack. I don’t want to go into my house and face my little girl and tell her that her mother is back in prison and I have no idea for how long, another year, two, five… Please, Jack, help me. I’ve never asked you for anything, but I am asking now. I’ll do anything, you know that. You want me to get down on my knees right here in front of everyone? I will.”

“For Christ’s sake, Marcus, stop,” Jack snapped.

Neither said anything for a moment, and Marcus could see the way Jack was struggling.

“You don’t understand, Marcus. If I could grant her parole, I would do it in a second. But you already said it: She’s Eva’s mother, your Eva, who is technically my niece, my family. a***e of authority is something the media will hit me with, and the opposition, and every other group out there…” He glanced away.

Marcus didn’t know how to get through to him, how to convince him. But he knew this would scream a conflict of interest, a***e of his office, and become a nightmare for him.

“I know this is a big ask,” he said.

Then Marcus heard the screen door open and saw Eva step out of the house, his mom behind her. He took in the haunted look in her eyes as she strode down the steps, over to him, and he prayed in that second that she’d forgive him.