“I carried well with you too. I will be showing soon enough. My fifth month with you I gained like two pounds a week.” She patted her belly which was only slightly rounded.
“Oh my God!” she repeated. “This is fantastic. This is great news. It’s perfect and I couldn’t be happier for you both,” she cried into her mom’s shoulder both relief and joy flooding her. She pulled back and gazed into her mom’s eyes seeing the happiness there. Jay had lost his first child so tragically, and now he and her mom would have a child together. Her mom was thirty-eight, Jay thirty-two. They were still young and they deserved this.
“We are happy, too,” Lou announced. The trio untangled themselves from each other. “That’s why I have been so sick. But, I don’t want you to worry about this. I’ll love you always. No baby replaces my love for you.”
“M-o-m,” Ronnie shook her head. “That thought never crossed my mind.”
She wasn’t twelve. She was thrilled, this family needed good news right now more than anything. Her day had been so dark, and now this. She guessed it was true, every cloud did have its silver lining. But then another thought struck her. What was the bad news her mother alluded to? She didn’t want to voice that concern just yet. She didn’t want to ruin this moment. She wanted to embrace it and hang onto it for just a little bit. It was their time. But, the worry was there. The bad news must be from her lawyer then. She shook her head to clear her thoughts when her mom started to speak again.
“I know. The timing isn’t great. We hadn’t planned it. But, now that this baby is on the way, we have a lot to do. We just don’t want you to think,” she cleared her throat before she continued, “the baby will get in the way of us supporting you in this situation.” When Ronnie was about to interrupt, Lou raised her voice and added, “Don’t worry about this, you hear me. Focus on your case. Understand. I’ll take good care of myself, too.”
“I’ll make sure of that,” Jay added.
“Will do,” she saluted the duo. She had thought she was walking into yet another nightmare. It was about time this family had some good news. “I’ll focus on my case, but,” she stressed, “I want to help with the baby stuff.”
“We will have the baby in our room for the first few months, darling. By then, hopefully, you’ll be cleared and then we’ll worry about everything else. Jay is planning on adding a room onto the house,” she beamed up at her very handy husband.
“Well, I can help with that,” Ronnie nodded. “I’m pretty handy with a hammer, too.”
They all laughed.
“It’s about time we had some great news.” Ronnie voiced her earlier thoughts. “Wait until you tell Ana and Monica. Monica is having twins, Jessica is three. You’ll all be raising your babies together.”
“Um,” Jay interrupted. Lou looked at him, and her smile lessened.
“What?” Ronnie asked.
Lou looked to her. “We did get a bit of bad news today.” And there it was. Gone in a moment. Ronnie waited, nodded at her mom for her to go ahead. “Mr. Stimson called.”
“Okay,” she encouraged her mom to go on.
“The tapes.”
Oh god, they didn’t show what they’d all hoped.
“Yeah, um, they show him walking away quickly, but he ducked into a rest room. So Mr. Stimson doesn’t think they will help much. It just looks like he had to go to the bathroom. And, Mr. Stimson had someone go by to interview Gary in Maine. Get a feel for him, his character. Seems he has disappeared. Your graduation was supposed to be Wednesday. They are hoping he will show up for that. Mr. Stimson hired someone to be there and keep a look out for him. Hopefully, he will show. Even the police in Bangor have been called out to find him and talk to him. But, Mr. Stimson says his apartment has been cleaned out, his parents say they haven’t seen him. That he went away with some friends for a few days.”
“So they say,” Ronnie interjected. The powerful Campbell’s would surely not let the police question their son. They were super protective of their over indulged only son. The heir to the Campbell Timber Empire.
“Well, don’t get too discouraged. Mr. Stimson said he would call back tomorrow and give us an update. Maybe they will track him down before the graduation,” Lou added.
“Yeah maybe. And as for the graduation, that is a big if too,” she mumbled under her breath.
If Ronnie didn’t know him better, she felt in her heart he would hide out until her trial was over. Then another thought began to take hold. If he was hiding out, she did know a few places he would most likely go. What if she could get to him first? She knew all his hiding places. Yes, she most certainly did.