The Stranger in the Mirror(35)

??30??

Blythe




The atmosphere in the room bordered on funereal, Blythe thought as she carried in the tray with four coffee mugs. Ted sat at one end of the sofa facing the fireplace, and Gabriel had taken a seat at the other end. Hailey, in sweatpants and an oversize turtleneck sweater, was curled up in an armchair with her bare feet tucked underneath her. She looked like she had just lost her best friend, which in a way she had. Hailey and Addison had grown almost as close as sisters, and that had worried Blythe. But of course the whole situation had worried her. Now that she had been proved right, though, she didn’t find any sense of satisfaction in it, just loss.

Gabriel was the only one who had seen Addison since the scene the night before at the gallery. Blythe understood that Addison needed time to try to come to terms with everything before confronting Gabriel’s whole family, but her main concern right now was her son. He was a wreck, alternating between misery, anger, pessimism, and hope.

“What’s the latest you’ve heard, son?” Ted asked.

Blythe put down the tray and sat, looking from her husband to her son. They’d always been close. From the time Gabriel was small, Ted had played ball with him and taught him tennis, and when he was older, some of their favorite times had been fly-fishing trips to Penns Creek. They’d even learned to tie their own flies. She knew not all father-son relationships were as good, especially when they worked together like Gabriel and Ted did.

“He’s gone back to Boston. Supposedly he’s going to bring back proof for her.”

“Supposedly?” Blythe said.

Gabriel sat with an ankle crossed over his knee, his foot bouncing with agitation. “Who knows if it’s even true, Mom? He could be making it all up.”

“But there were photographs of her with a child,” Blythe said.

“With a child she supposedly had via surrogate? What a load of crap. Besides, photographs can be altered. You know that as well as I do. It doesn’t prove anything.”

“No, it doesn’t prove anything, but it does raise questions. The woman in those photos was definitely Addison. What motive could that man possibly have to lie?” Blythe tried to keep her tone neutral. It was patently clear that Gabriel was unwilling to give one shred of credence to Julian Hunter’s story. When they’d gotten home last night and Blythe had gone online to search for Julian, she found that he was a respected doctor in Boston with an impressive background—an MD from Stanford, after which he’d moved to Boston for his residency. And despite the difficult and painful situation in which Julian had clearly found himself, he’d seemed gentle and understanding with Addison. Blythe had noted his tasteful attire, his polished good looks, his kind demeanor. In fact, she had found him quite likable, and all of this together made her feel that he was telling the truth. The one thing that had struck her as odd was that she could find no news articles about him, nothing mentioning a missing wife. Blythe had always been one to cross every t and dot every i, however. Before she’d gone to bed, she’d texted his name to Jim Fallow on the off chance that there was more to Dr. Julian Hunter than met the eye.

Now, Blythe waited to hear what Gabriel had to say, but he was silent, crossing and uncrossing his legs and drumming his fingers on the arm of the sofa. She had no illusions about how this was going to end up. Gabriel would continue to stay in his world of denial until it was impossible not to confront the truth, and that worried her more than anything. Her son was in pain, and she couldn’t bear the thought that he would hurt for a long time to come.

“I think your mother has a point, Gabriel,” Ted said. “Why would this man lie about Addison? What would he have to gain by doing that?”

“I don’t know. All I know is we shouldn’t jump to conclusions until there is undeniable proof. And so far, we haven’t seen it. And that bullshit about Addy having cosmetic surgery and being thirty-seven. There’s no way.”

Hailey uncurled her legs from under her and sat up straight. “I’ve been thinking about something else. Maybe this guy is telling the truth, and they’re married. But what if she was unhappy? Or afraid of him? Maybe she deliberately ran away. He could even be the reason she tried to kill herself.”

That possibility had occurred to Blythe, too, and the prospect worried her deeply. She knew how quickly Gabriel would take on the role of superhero and protector. If Julian Hunter were violent, her son could be in danger. She knew it was selfish of her to think first of her son, when Addison could also be a target, but she was his mother first.

Gabriel leaned forward, planting both feet firmly on the floor. “Yeah, that makes total sense. We all knew she was running away from something. It had to be him. What other explanation could there be?” He was suddenly animated, as if he’d been thrown a lifeline.

“At this point, all of this is conjecture,” Ted said. “We can create all the scenarios we choose and suppose all we want, but there’s no point in guessing until we have all the facts. And the one who will make the final decision as to what is or isn’t true will be Addison. Perhaps she will regain some memory of exactly what happened or who she was. We just need to wait and see.”

Blythe could have kissed her husband. He had always been the calm voice of reason and common sense, the one who often diffused a family disagreement.