Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

Chapter 68

Monday, 14 March 2022 – 8:45 a.m. MST

Ramesh held Valerie. She was shaking and sobbing. He felt the same, but he had spent years learning to bottle his feelings.

The glass between the driver and the passenger sections of the car descended and Quinn glanced back.

“Is she okay?” he asked.

“Physically? Yes,” Ramesh answered.

“Valerie,” Quinn called back. She buried her face.

“Val, do they know about the earrings?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Val...” he started. “Please tell me... what just happened?”

Valerie’s sobs increased. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she answered between sobs. “Quinn...”

“What do you mean?”

Valerie felt all of the fear and anger of her youth rush back in a flash. She wanted Quinn to understand her. She needed him to understand. The words rushed out in a long unpunctuated stream.

“I was fifteen and I ran away and my stepfather was a terrible person. I ran away and I was scared and alone and hungry. I found some friends. Bad people, but they let me stay and they had food. And I started drinking and being with them and there were parties. Long parties. Days. I was young and scared and alone and they were bad people and I was drunk and they...” She drew a breath. “They found me drunk and took advantage of me and called me sweetheart of the month and Quinn I thought it was behind me but Daniel had pictures and he knew about my pregnancy...” She broke down again, sobbing violently.

Quinn shuddered. “Oh Val. Val. You should have told me.”

Valerie sobbed again. “I was ashamed and embarrassed but I couldn’t live that way. I worked hard and pulled my life together. Then you promoted me and we became friends. I couldn’t tell you then. What if you rejected me? I would lose everything. You were the first man I trusted after that. You are the only man I have ever trusted.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Val. It wasn’t your fault.”

“But there was so much to lose. My baby was in the perfect family and she was loved and she was safe. But they knew enough to take it all away. My reputation, my security, everything.” Valerie stopped again. “Those pictures ... my past ... it would have destroyed me and my daughter and her parents.”

Valerie had promised herself that she would never interfere with her daughter’s life and her adoptive family. She had never expected to tell Quinn about Jordan. She had always respected him and his family.

“Sireesha helped me get the job and for years I thought she was helping me, but she was using me. She and Daniel were using me and I never meant for it be like this...” Valerie trailed off in tears.

Quinn sat in silence for a moment. He could hardly process everything he had just learned. He still struggled to understand. “But Laura?” Quinn begged. “You knew?”

“They were going to kill all of you.”

Silence.

Ramesh sat in complete disbelief. There seemed to be no end to the pit into which he had fallen when Quinn called him. Laura would be lost. Valerie was already lost. For the first time in five days, Ramesh felt pity for Quinn.

“They told me if I helped them get the messenger you would be safe. I saved your life. I saved the kids,” Valerie whispered.

Quinn felt uncertainty in his life for the first time in years. He tried to regain control of the situation, to develop a new strategy. But the uncertainty was overwhelming.

“I would have given up everything else to have prevented this,” he sighed.

“Only when you were sure there were no other options,” Ramesh said.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Valerie whispered. She pulled away from Ramesh and turned to the other window. She felt herself detaching from the world. She was fifteen again, hiding from her stepfather in the dark space under the stairs.