Written in 58 minutes.
Thursday, October 4, 2024
Webber House: Jake’s Bedroom
The call connected before even a single ring had been completed, Cameron’s worried voice answering. “What’s wrong?”
Jake stretched out on his bed, staring at the ceiling, leaving the phone laying on the pillow next to him, his brother’s voice filling the room, a pale imitation of what it would be like if Cameron were right here with him.
“Why does something have to be wrong?”
“It’s almost one in the morning, dumbass.”
Jake exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Forgot about that part. Uh—” Unexpectedly, his throat tightened, and the words felt impossible. “First, I’m okay. So’s Mom and Aiden. But there was an accident tonight. Danny’s mom.”
There was silence for a beat, then Cameron replied, “What happened?”
“I don’t really know. Just that Danny’s mom and her sister, Kristina, they were in a car, and then it was in the creek. The one out by their mom’s. Kristina got out, but they haven’t…they haven’t found a body yet.” The ceiling above him blurred. “His mom called him, Cam. She was trapped in the car. Said she couldn’t get out.”
He didn’t have to be looking at his brother or living inside Cameron’s head to know what was running through it — Cameron was likely sitting in his dorm room in Berkeley, cursing himself for getting on the plane nearly twenty-four hours ago. “When are they gonna know?”
“I don’t know. Dad was out there, I think he got home a little while ago, but he hasn’t come up here yet. You don’t have to be a genius to figure he doesn’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say, Cam. Tell me what to say.”
“Jake.”
“I hated her, Cam. You know? We both did. Aiden doesn’t really remember enough to hate her, but we do. And Dad was so angry with her. Danny was picking fights all the time. Anything I say is gonna sound fake and stupid and it’ll make it worse—”
“There’s nothing you can say, man. You know that. Nothing is gonna make this okay. Or hurt less—”
“Tell me what you’d say to me.”
“Jake.” This time when his brother said his name, it was with exasperation. “It’s not comparable—”
“I know—” Jake started to say, but stopped and sat up when the door opened and Danny appeared at the threshold, his eyes rimmed with red. “Just tell me. Tell me what you’d say to me and Aiden,” he said to Cameron, keeping his eyes on Danny. His brother perched on the edge of the bed, staring hard at the ground.
The line was quiet, and Jake thought Cameron would avoid the question again. But then — “There’s nothing I can do or say to make this go away. To stop you from hurting. From feeling like the world is going to end. Because the world ended. The worst thing that could ever happen to us—it’s here. To pretend that your life didn’t just split into two would be stupid. You will always remember before tonight and after. I know you’ve been through it before with your dad, and yeah, that sucked. A lot. But Mom’s different. It’s different. She’s been there every step of our lives, and she’s supposed to be here until we’re men. This isn’t fair, and I’m not doing you any favors pretending it is.”
“What—” Danny began, but had to stop when his voice faltered. He swallowed hard. “What do I do? I have to be there for Scout. How do you…how do you do it? How am I gonna make it okay for her?”
“Danny, man—” There was a long sigh, then Cameron continued. “You’re not. You can’t. You know that. You want to and Jake wants to, and I wish like hell I was there with you. But you can’t. So you’re gonna hug her, and you’re gonna let her cry. You gotta feel it, man. It’s too big, it’s too much to bury. To pretend it’s not happening. And…you know, maybe it’s not. It’s…Jake said…”
“I-I know. But I-I h-heard her—I h-heard her—” Danny’s face crumbled, and he wrapped his arms around his middle, his body trembling.
Jake climbed over the bed, the phone clutched in one hand, his other going around Danny’s shoulder. “Cam—”
“Yeah, call me back later. Danny, I’m—I’m sorry.”
Jake tossed the phone aside, glancing up when he heard another set of footsteps climbing the steps. “Hey, that’s Dad—”
Danny sat up, immediately scrubbing away the evidence of his tears, lifting his chin, getting to his feet just as Jason appeared in the doorway.
Their father just stood there for a long moment, weighed down by an invisible anchor that kept his shoulders slumped the corners of his mouth curved down. Danny’s lower lip began to tremble again. “You don’t have any news, do you?”
“No,” Jason admitted. “We won’t know anything until morning. Danny—”
“I s-should be with Scout—” Danny started towards him, towards the door. “Maybe you can take me—”
“I just talked to Brook Lynn,” Jason said, holding out a hand to stop him. “Scout’s asleep. She doesn’t know anything yet. I think we should leave her that way.”
“Oh.” Danny folded his arms around himself. “I guess that makes sense. I just—” He jerked a shoulder.
“Need something to do,” Jake finished, getting to his feet. “I get it. Do you want to try to get some sleep?” he asked.
“Sleep?” Danny stared at his brother, furrowed his brow. “I can’t sleep. We should be out there looking for her—”
“I would be if there was anything I could do,” Jason told him. He put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Dante is staying out there tonight, and he’ll call us as soon as we can do something to help. But right now, we’d be in the way of people who know what they’re doing and who are going to make finding your mom their top priority.”
“We’ll watch a movie,” Jake said instead. “That’ll make it go faster. Or maybe one of those—” But Danny had already left the room, and the door across the hall closed a beat later. He grimaced, met his father’s eyes. “I don’t know what to say to him. I tried to call Cam. Cam always has the words—”
“There’s nothing you and I or anyone can say,” Jason said with a firmness that felt oddly reassuring. Because of course Jake knew that — you couldn’t talk someone out of grief, especially when it was so fresh. “We just—we have to make sure we’re here when Danny needs us.”
“I tried—” Jake stopped, then continued. “I thought I could get Cam to tell me what he’d tell us if Mom—and he tried, and I kept thinking what if it were Mom, what I would be doing, or thinking. I thought Cam would have the answers. He always knows what to do or to say, and I should know how to fix this—he’s my little brother—”
“It’s not going to happen tonight, tomorrow, or even in the next few weeks,” Jason said. “There’s no timeline on what Danny is feeling. Or what you’re feeling.”
“Me?” Jake shook his head. “You’re—I don’t count. Danny and Scout, and Rocco—”
“You think you don’t know how to help him because you didn’t like his mother,” Jason interrupted, “but even if you had been Sam’s number one fan, Jake, you still wouldn’t know how to help him. Because Danny doesn’t need anything we can give him right now.” He let out a slow breath. “And I’m telling you this because I need to hear it, too. We can’t take this burden from him, no matter how much we want to.”
“Oh.” Jake pressed his lips together, considered his father’s words. “Okay, but there has to be something we can do. Right? Everyone was so angry at the hospital, and I only sort of understood what was happening. Everyone seemed so angry at Kristina. Why?”
“That’s something we can talk about tomorrow,” Jason told him. “You should try to get some sleep. It’s going to be long day.”
Webber House: Living Room
Elizabeth wrapped the ends of her sweater more tightly around her body, pulling the door open to reveal a damp Diane. “It’s the middle of the night, Diane-”
“I saw your light was on, and I—I took the chance. Please.” The normally well-coiffed lawyer was disheveled, her cheeks tear-stained. “Is Jason back?”
“He’s with the boys. Diane—” Elizabeth closed the door after letting Diane inside.
“I’ll talk to him another time. I couldn’t—” Diane bit her lip, turning to face Elizabeth. “I couldn’t go home, and not try to make things right—that’s stupid,” she said even as Elizabeth opened her mouth. “I can’t make things right—”
“I came down on you and Sonny pretty hard—”
“You were right. Partially. Yes, the suspicions I had, that Spinelli had, we probably could have said something to you or Jason sooner. We had nothing we could use in court, not yet. But there was enough—” Diane hesitated. “I don’t know what Sonny knew or when he knew it, and I can’t speak for his intentions, but I always intended to turn Kristina over to the authorities if and when we had the ability—”
“Diane—”
“You and your family have been through so much. You have to know that my number one goal was to end that suffering—”
“Diane.” Elizabeth held up a hand and this time Diane did stop. “I was angry earlier tonight. Overwhelmed. By everything that had happened, everything that I felt like was happening behind our backs, but I’ve had some time to let things sit. To take a deep breath. I know what it’s like to have a friend as close as Alexis is to you. You’ve watched her girls grow up. You know what Jason’s sacrificed to look after Sonny’s children. After Carly’s. Alexis buried that precious angel a month ago. I can put myself in your shoes and understand why you wanted to wait until you had to tell us.”
Diane’s eyes watered and she looked away briefly, swallowed again. “As always, your ability to forgive puts the rest of us to shame.” She gathered herself, then focused on Elizabeth again. “Sonny and Alexis are now aware of what Kristina has likely done, and believe me, Alexis has already begun to focus on the reality of Kristina’s actions. To know that that while Sam was being accused by all of us of sending that email and hurting Danny, Kristina did nothing to exonerate Sam. Whether it was selfishness or arrogance or self-preservation, she left her sister to twist in the wind. For all Sam’s faults, she looked after her sisters. Always. Particularly Kristina.” Diane looked past her, and Elizabeth turned to see Jason stepping from the bottom step. “The PCPD have named her as the suspect, and as far as I know, they’ve sent that information to the FBI.”
“It won’t enough for them,” Jason said with some reluctance. “They want someone’s blood—”
“I know. And you can’t make this your priority. Neither of you can. Danny and his sister — they need to be your focus. So I am, once gain, asking for you to leave this in my hands,” Diane said. “Focus on your family. Because I assure you — I will not let Kristina manipulate her mother into getting away with this. Will you give me your trust, just one more time?”
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