An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [69]
“What do you mean?”
“He moved out. He was packing when I got home.”
“Why didn’t you stop him?”
“How?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jerry said with heavy sarcasm. “Maybe you could’ve told him you believe in him and trust him. You might’ve thanked him for working two long years on the project that’s going to take this company’s profit line right off the page. You could even have told him you love him and didn’t want him to go.”
Julia, who was crying softly by then, sniffled. “Yeah, I guess I could.”
“Do you believe him now?”
“I…don’t know. I think I do, because not trusting him hurts too much.”
Jerry swore under his breath, then sighed loudly. “You’ve got a really bad sense of timing. Did anyone ever tell you that?”
“No,” she said, wiping the tears from her cheek.
“Go to him, Julia,” Jerry advised, “before it’s too late.”
“It’s already too late,” she whispered. “I don’t know where he is and he didn’t want to tell me.”
The following morning, Julia was waiting for her sister-in-law. “Good morning, Anna,” she said when the woman arrived.
Alek’s sister frowned and didn’t respond. She walked over to the broom closet, took out her apron and tied it around her waist, all the while ignoring Julia.
“I guess you heard that Alek moved out?” Julia asked, following her.
Still Anna didn’t acknowledge her. She opened the refrigerator and removed a carton of eggs.
“Do you know where he is?”
“Of course. He is my brother.”
“Would you mind telling me?”
“So you can hurt him more? So you can think terrible things of him? So you can insult his honor? No, I will not tell you anything about my brother.”
“I love him,” Julia whispered. “I’ve just been so afraid. You see, three years ago I loved a man who betrayed my family and me. I believed him when I shouldn’t have. I defended him, and my father and I got into a terrible argument and my father…while we were fighting he suffered a heart attack. He died and I felt so incredibly guilty. I blamed myself.” Anna had turned to face Julia, her face white and emotionless. “Can you understand why it was so difficult for me to believe Alek? Can you see why I’m skeptical after all the things that have happened?” Tears were very close to the surface, but she held them back, crumpling a tissue in her hand until it was a small wad.
“My brother would never betray you.”
“I know that. In a way, I’ve always known that.”
“Alek isn’t this other man.”
“I realize that, too, but…because of my experience with this…other man, I made a mistake and gave Alek reason to believe I doubted him.” She stopped, because arguing her case with Alek’s sister wasn’t going to help.
She dressed for work with no enthusiasm. In another ten days, Phoenix Paints would be on sale to the public. Conrad Industries had developed a whole new kind of paint, several kinds, in fact, thanks to her father’s dream and Alek’s genius. Somehow it all seemed empty now. The purpose that had driven her all these years meant nothing without Alek at her side.
Jerry was waiting in her office. “Did you find out where he’s staying?”
Julia shook her head. “His sister wouldn’t tell me. I don’t blame her. If our positions were reversed, I wouldn’t tell her, either.”
“I’ll get Rich on it right away.”
“No,” she said quietly. “Leave Alek his pride. I’ve robbed him of everything else.” She walked around her desk and sat down. Reaching for her desk calendar, she flipped the pages ahead eight months. “I’m going to need some extensive time off soon.”
“We all need a vacation, Julia.”
“This is going to be more than a two-week vacation, Jerry. I’ll need maternity leave.”
Alek sat at a table in the library, where he came to spend part of every day. He’d moved into another small furnished apartment, near Anna’s, and came here to read—and primarily to escape his own four walls. Books were his comfort, his consolation.
Perhaps that was his problem. He knew more about books than people. He had badly bungled his marriage. It’d been over a week since he’d seen Julia. Two weeks since