Where the Forest Meets the Stars(87)

“I hope you won’t be angry, but Gabe told me you might be charged with a child endangerment felony. He said the police told you not to travel outside of Illinois when you return home.”
Jo was peeved, and a little surprised, he would talk about her situation with his sister.
“He also said you’re unlikely to become Ursa’s foster parent, even though you’re obviously the one who should get her.”
Maybe Lacey had an identical twin sister Gabe didn’t know about. Another family secret.
“The social workers haven’t said anything to you?” Lacey asked.
“They haven’t, and I take that to be a bad sign. But you saw how Ursa is counting on it.” She looked out the window at slices of blue sky enclosed in buildings. “Sometimes I think I’m doing the wrong thing sticking around here. Maybe I’m making everything worse for her.”
“Then why do you?”
“Because I care about what happens to her. I think I have a stabilizing effect on her, and she’s been to hell and back.”
“I guess you two have that in common.”
Jo wasn’t sure if she meant the cancer and her mother dying, the shooting, or both. If she meant the cancer, she had to have found out from Gabe.
“So the reason I’m here . . . Gabe doesn’t know, by the way.”
“What doesn’t he know?”
“That I’m here. He also doesn’t know I talked to my husband about your situation. Troy is a family law attorney. He mostly handles divorces, but he occasionally does child custody and adoption cases. If you’ll let him, he wants to help you, and he’ll do it free of cost.”
“I have money.”
“We wouldn’t feel right about taking money from Gabe’s girlfriend.”
“I’m his girlfriend now?” Jo said.
Lacey knew the comment was sarcasm, but she smiled. “Didn’t you know?”
“I guess I didn’t get the Nash family memo.”
“Well, the rest of us have.”
An apology. Subtle, but Jo still welcomed it. “I appreciate the thumbs-up.”
“It was Gabe,” she said.
“What was?”
“Before I left for Saint Louis, he called a family meeting. When the time came, George Kinney knocked on the door. He’d been over at his property fixing the broken doors. He was as clueless as me about what was going on. Gabe just told him to be there.”
Jo smiled. Wonder of wonders, Gabe had pulled a Katherine.
Lacey studied her face. “You knew what he was going to do?”
“I didn’t, but I can guess what he did when he got you together.”
“He told us the whole thing! About how George and my mom’s affair began and how they and my father had agreed that Gabe should never know he was George’s son. Obviously, my mom and George knew all that. But they were shocked when he told them he’d seen them make love in the forest and found out he wasn’t Arthur’s son. He said that was why he’d started hating them. And then he said the most amazing thing.”
“What?”
“He told them he forgave them. He said now that he was in love with you, he understood everything they’d done. He said he would rather have died the night the guy pointed the gun at you than watch you die. He said love like that can’t be stopped by anything, and he was happy he was born of that kind of passion.”
Jo didn’t care if Lacey saw her cry.
“I know! All four of us were bawling our eyes out. It was the best fucking thing that ever happened in my family.” She opened her shoulder bag and took out two tissues, handing one to Jo. “George has felt little more than responsibility for his wife since she wrecked her body with booze,” she said, dabbing the remaining tissue under her eyes. “He and my mom are getting married. George asked Gabe and me if that was okay.”
“Are you okay with it?”
“I’m thrilled! We even had an engagement party. I stayed one more night, and we had the best time, grilling ribs and drinking beers. Gabe and I were up late talking, and we vented all the bullshit that’s been between us for years.”
Jo found it difficult to believe they could get over that much so fast.
“I’m sure he told you how I treated him when he was little,” she added, as if she’d read Jo’s thoughts.
Jo wouldn’t betray anything Gabe had told her in confidence.
Lacey understood her silence. “I guess he did,” she said. “I know it’s no excuse, but I got bad depression around the time Gabe was born. I felt fat and ugly, and I knew my writing was shit. And there was Gabe, this perfect, beautiful little boy. So damn smart, too. I was so fucking jealous of him.”
“Did you know he was George’s baby?”
“I’d suspected my mother was having an affair with George. And one night before Gabe was born, my father got really drunk and told me. He was crying—” She choked up and wiped new tears. “I blamed that poor kid for everything. For my mother not loving my father. For how crushed my father was. Even for my depression. And when my father couldn’t help adoring that perfect little kid, I totally lost it. I felt abandoned at a time when I really needed my father, when I gave up on writing.”
Jo put her hand on Lacey’s hand. “I’m sorry. It was a worse situation than I imagined. Do you still suffer from depression?”
She nodded. “But thank god for my husband. He’s always been there for me. Even when he should have dumped me.” Fresh tears arose.
“It’s good that you and Gabe finally talked about all of this.”