Lovers, Losers, and Liars

Scott finished reading the first article. "I don't believe you when you say you never laid a hand on my mom. What other reason would she have to leave like that?"

"I think she had a boyfriend," Derek responded. "The signs were all there. I was getting ready to confront her, but she took off before I had the chance."

After finishing the article, Scott's hand just dropped to his lap. He was finding it hard to hold back the tears. It appeared his mother had lied to him all his life. He wiped his hand across his nose as he sniffled before starting to read the second article. It was even worse. The follow-up story described some of the anguish and trauma his dad went through. He was finding it difficult to look his dad in the eye.

"Can I... ah, can I keep these?" Scott asked, still looking down at the newspaper clippings in his hand.

"Yeah, of course."

"You're, ah... you're telling me you never beat up Mom, never put her in the hospital, never threw her down the stairs?"

Derek looked a little surprised, "Stairs, what stairs; we lived in a small two-bedroom ranch house on a quarter-acre lot. We didn't have any stairs unless you count the two little ones on the back porch, and your mother never saw the inside of a hospital while married to me."

Scott's heart was breaking, his mind was spinning, he didn't know who to believe. His mother raised him. She told him horrible things about the man sitting next to him, things that fostered hate and revolution... were they all lies? He straightened his back and looked Derek in the eye. "Okay, you made your case but I'm not about to just start calling you daddy," he said, still with a hint of malevolence.

"I understand. Can we at least exchange phone numbers? After all this time, I don't want to lose contact again."

"I'm not going to give you mine... not yet anyway. You can give me yours though." Scott thought for a moment, "Is there really a warrant out for my mom?"

"Yeah, as far as I know, it's still out there."

"Can you get it lifted, or rescinded, or whatever you call it?"

"I don't know, I'm not sure."

"You prove to me there's no more warrant and that she won't get arrested and I'll give you my phone number, but not until."

"Okay, I'll see what I can do. Here's my card, my cell number and personal email address are on the back. When can I expect a call?"

"I'm not sure; I've got some questions for Mom, probably a week or two. In the meantime, do something about that warrant. Even if Mom admits to lying to me, you and I will never have any kind of relationship if I have to worry about her going to jail... and I'll need some proof, something that says the warrant has been taken care of."

"Okay, I'll get started on it."

The two men stood; Derek put out his hand, Scott looked at it for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he really wanted to shake it. He had hated this man his whole life, but now it looked as if that hate may have been erroneous. He took Derek's hand in a firm grip and gave it a quick shake before turning and walking back toward the restaurant.

Derek was beside himself with having met his son after so long, but he was also worried... worried the boy's mother might convince him of her lies again, convince him to never call or contact him again.

Amy was anxiously waiting at her desk for her boss' return. She was married with two kids and couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for him. "Did you get to see him?" she asked as soon as he hit the door.

"Yup, he seems like a nice kid, but he's confused. You can't believe the lies Anne told him. She told him I threw her down some stairs; our house didn't have any stairs."

"Why would she say something like that?"

"Who knows; Amy, do you know any good lawyers?"

"No, why; what do you need a lawyer for?"

"Scott's worried about Anne going to jail. He won't even talk to me again until I get the warrant lifted."

"I'll check around and see if I can get some recommendations, Derek." Thirty minutes later, she walked back into his office with a slip of paper and handed it to him. "I have a friend who works in the county sheriff's office. She said all three of these guys are criminal attorneys with good reputations, but the one on top was the best."

He looked at the names. "Amy, I have no idea what I'd ever do without you. Thank you, I'll call this first guy right now."

Derek first had to give a synopsis to a secretary before being connected to the attorney. He fully explained the situation and was told it shouldn't be a problem getting the warrant dismissed. He said both the DA who preferred charges and the judge who signed the warrant had long since retired, and because it had been on the books for so long with virtually no activity, he couldn't picture any judge not simply signing off on it.

He would do the paperwork and present it to the court later in the week. For that, Derek was twelve-hundred dollars poorer, but he didn't care if it meant having a relationship with his son.

Late Friday afternoon, he heard his cell phone ring again. "Hello."

"Mr. Haynes, this is Julie from Mr. Beck's office. He wanted me to tell you he had no problem getting the warrant for your ex-wife dismissed. I have a receipt and documentation of nol prosequi as proof. Would you like that sent to you in the mail or would you like to stop in and pick it up?"

"How long will you be there?"

"I'm here until five."

"I'll see you in half an hour."

Twenty-five minutes later, Derek walked into the attorney's office and picked up the paperwork. Now all he had to do was wait for his son to call again.

*****

"Scott, are you okay? You've been awfully quiet since you came back from your drive the other day. Where did you go, anyway? You were gone a long time."

"I just drove around, Mom. I wanted to get used to the car."

"How is it? Does it drive okay?"

"Yeah, it drives great. Thanks again."

"You're welcome, honey; just drive carefully, that's all I ask."

"I will, Mom... promise."

That night, Scott's mother wasn't the only one who noticed how quiet he'd been. Sandy also felt there was something wrong. "Scott, what's the matter? Did I do something wrong? You've been really quiet for the last couple of days."

Ever since the meeting on the park bench, Scott had tried to act normally, but evidently, was doing a poor job of it. He just couldn't stop thinking about what he'd been told. He didn't want to believe it, but his dad was very convincing and the newspaper articles pretty much backed up his story. A couple of times he almost confronted his mother but then backed down; he just wasn't ready yet.

He wanted to talk it over with Sandy, but she and his mother had become very close over time and he wasn't sure he could trust her not to say something. Finally, he decided to bite the bullet. He had to talk to someone, it was eating him up inside.

"Sandy, if I tell you something, something really important, can I count on you to keep it to yourself? You especially can't tell my mom. I need your solemn promise."

She looked at him with skepticism, "Jesus, Scott, what'd you do? Does it have to do with the car?"

"No, it has nothing to do with the car and I didn't do anything... well, nothing bad anyway. Do you promise? I mean it, Sandy, if I can't trust you not to say anything, then I'm not telling you."

"Scott, we're a couple; couples are not supposed to keep secrets from each other."

"True, but we're also supposed to be able to trust each other. If I tell you and it finds its way to my mother, I'll never trust you again."

She thought that over for only a few seconds. "You're right, yes, I agree to keep it to myself."

Here goes, he thought to himself. "I saw my dad the other day, my real dad."

"I know, you told me that already."

"No, I don't mean when we ran into him in the restaurant; I've seen him since then, just a few days ago."

"What did you do? You didn't beat him up, did you?"

"No, we sat and talked. Sandy, his version of what happened is way different than what Mom has always told me, and... I tend to believe him. I know she lied about his name, it's not Phillips, it's Haynes; he showed me his driver's license. He also gave me some newspaper articles from when Mom left. According to them, she put him through hell; and what Mom always said about him throwing her down the stairs, according to him, that house had no stairs.

"He thinks she had a boyfriend and ran away with him. I wonder if that was Jack? I thought he was my dad when I was small, but when he left, she told me he wasn't. I was only four or five at the time, and Mom said he was just a friend who helped her get away from my real father who beat her up all the time. From that point on, every time I asked a question about my real dad, she'd just say he was a violent man and she didn't want to talk about him.

Sandy wasn't convinced, "So that's it, you meet this guy one time and you're ready to throw your mother under the bus?"

"First of all," he replied with an edge to his voice, "he isn't 'this guy,' he's my dad, and second, I'm not throwing anyone under the bus, but I think I deserve the truth."

She couldn't really argue with that, but she had a good relationship with Anne and didn't want to see it destroyed. "Scott, I'm sure your mother lied about the names to protect you."

"Yeah, okay, I get that, but she could have told me the truth when I got old enough to understand. She didn't have to keep lying about it. I'm just wondering how much of what she told me was a lie. You know there's a warrant out for her arrest."

"What, a warrant... for what?"

"Kidnapping, yeah, he swore out a warrant for kidnapping me when she left. I don't want to see Mom go to jail, so I told him he had to get it canceled if he ever wanted to see me again, but I think it gives more credibility to his story.

"I'll tell you, Sandy, if you'd been there and saw him, I think you'd believe him too. He just doesn't look like the kind of person Mom described, not at all."

"Scott, we're talking about your mother. Whatever she did, she did it because she loves you and wanted to protect you; don't forget that."

"Yeah, I know, it's just... I don't know, if what he says turns out to be true and she's been lying to me all this time... hell, Sandy, he lives an hour and a half from here; we could have had some kind of relationship when I was growing up."

"Well, you need to talk to your mom, Scott. Wondering what's true and isn't true isn't going to do you any good. I know you; you won't rest until you get answers, so talk to her. Tell her what he said and see what she says."

"I'm going to, but not until I know for sure there's no more warrant just in case she flies off the handle and goes after him some way."

Sandy had been hoping to have Scott between her legs by that time, but it didn't look like it was going to happen. Instead, she suggested they go to a show, "Maybe it'll take your mind off of things for a while," she said.

By the time the show let out, it was too late to get a room, but that didn't mean they couldn't find a quiet place to park.

*****

It had been more than a week since Derek was able to get the warrant dismissed, and still no call from his son. He was getting anxious. What if his mother talked him out of ever talking to him again, what then? How would he find them?

Amy knocked on the wall next to the open door to his office and poked her head inside, "Derek, did you give your son our work email address by any chance?"

He had to think, "Yeah, I gave him my business card, why?"

"Go into your email, I think there's a message from him."

Derek's eyes widened with anticipation as he hurriedly clicked into his email and scanned down the list until he found one that didn't look familiar and opened it.

Did you get the warrant canceled?

Yes, I did, I have proof.

Show me, send it to me.

Derek reached into his top drawer and withdrew the legal document. "Amy, would you scan this to him, please."

She had a big smile on her face when she took the paperwork from him. "Sure thing, Derek. Would you mind if I wrote a note with it telling him what a great guy you are?"

"I'm not sure how he'd take it, Amy. I appreciate the thought, but just scan him the paperwork for now."

"DONE!" she yelled from the outer office.

Now all he had to do was wait... that was the hard part. He tried getting back to the sales report he was working on before Amy's announcement, but he had a hard time concentrating. About ten minutes had elapsed...

"Derek, he's back," Amy yelled from her desk.

He almost broke his finger as he clicked on the mouse. "It looks real."

"I can send you the name and number of the attorney that took care of it if you like?"

"No, that's okay, I believe you. I'll get back to you."

"Okay, when?" He waited for an answer but it didn't come. Once again, he had to play the waiting game.

That night Scott swung by Sandy's house to pick her up. It had been a few days and both he and she were horny as hell. Always the gentleman just like his mother taught him, he walked up to her door and rang the bell. Sandy's dad answered and gestured for him to come in. He didn't say anything, but Scott got the impression he knew they were having sex.

"I think they know," he said as soon as they were in the car.

She knew what he was talking about. She had the same impression. "Honey, we're both eighteen, they'd be kind of stupid if they didn't figure we were having sex by now; besides, I think my mom heard me on the phone the other day. I was talking to our family doctor and got a prescription for birth control pills."

"You did?"

"Yup, no more condoms," she said with a big smile.

*****

Scott hated the thought of confronting his mother. All his life she had worked hard to be a great mother as well as fill in for his dad at times. He owed her his gratitude for all she'd done, all the sacrifices she'd made for him, but he had to know the truth, he knew he couldn't put it off any longer.

He wanted her to be relaxed, so he waited till the weekend when she was off work; he gave her Saturday to unwind. It was a Sunday afternoon that he'd never forget...

"Mom, I have something really important I need to talk to you about."

She reached for the remote and turned the TV off with a small sigh. She had anticipated this and was sure she knew the topic of conversation. After all, what could be more important to a young man than wanting to marry the girl of his dreams, but she wasn't ready to give him up yet. She had already rehearsed her speech about waiting and hoped it would convince him to remain a bachelor for a few more years.

What she wasn't prepared for was her son's answer when she asked what he wanted to talk about.

"I need the truth, Mom. Please, don't get mad, but I saw my dad a couple of weeks ago. I talked to him and his story is a whole lot different than yours. He has newspaper articles from back then that say you simply left. One of the articles says how the cops thought he murdered us. He went through hell, his friends deserted him, and he lost his job.

"When the cops finally let him off the hook, they swore a warrant out for your arrest on kidnapping charges."

She gasped, "I... I had no idea there was a warrant for my arrest."

"Don't worry, I got Dad to get it dismissed. He said he thought you left with a boyfriend; was that Jack?"

Anne already had tears in her eyes. She lived every day of the previous eighteen years in constant fear of that moment, praying it would never come, but there it was.

She knew her son was no idiot, trying to continue with the lies was hopeless, it was time to pay for her sins. The truth she was about to disclose was going to be bad, but even at that, she couldn't tell him the whole truth. What she would tell him would be hard enough for him to hear, the whole truth would probably turn her son against her for life. "Yes, Honey, it was Jack."

"Mom, how could you do that? Dad never did hit you, did he... never threw you down the stairs or anything like that."

"No, Honey, I'm sorry, your dad never laid a hand on me."

"Then why?" He was starting to break down in anguish. Tears flooded his eyes and were dripping down his face. "Why would you say those things? You ruined his life for years. He could have been sent to prison for something he never did..."

His mother was not only feeling her own agony, but also that of her son. She was starting to feel a little light-headed and had to take some deep breaths. "I didn't know about that, Honey, I had no idea they would try to blame him like that."

"Then why all the lies about him beating you up."

"I only told that to your grandma and grandpa. I needed an excuse. I couldn't tell them I'd fallen in love with another man, they would've never accepted that. They would have disowned me and I wanted you to know your grandparents. The lie worked so well with them that when you got older and started asking questions, I told you the same thing so you wouldn't hate me. I'm sorry, Honey."

"Sorry! He lives in Arlington Hills, Mom. He works not far from the restaurant where we saw him. Even if you didn't want to be married to him anymore, me and him could have had a relationship. We could have been father and son, gone to ball games together; he could have come to my graduation."

"I know, Honey. I was being selfish but I tried to make up for it. I've tried my hardest to be the best mom anyone could ask for."

While his mother was trying her best to keep the damage at a minimum, Scott thought of something else. "You said you fell in love with Jack, right; which means you were screwing him while you were still married to Dad?"

She needed more excuses... "Honey, I... I don't think your father loved me anymore, he was always working. When he was at home, he was tired all the time. I was feeling lonely, and unloved. Jack was the friend of a friend; he would sometimes come over and keep me company during the day. We... we grew closer and fell in love with each other. I... I left the way I did because I felt guilty; I just couldn't face your father, but honestly, I had no idea anyone would have thought he killed us, that's ridiculous. I figured he'd find someone new and go on with his life."

"I never thought to ask if he was married," Scott replied, "but I know he had to see some shrink."

"I... I had no idea I'd caused him so many problems. Honey, I'm so very, very sorry for all this. All I can do is ask for your forgiveness and hope you'll take my efforts to be a good mom into account."

Scott was devastated. Of course, since talking to his dad, he had suspected a lot of what his mother told him was a lie, but the realization of her cheating on his dad while she was still married was hard to take. "I have to get out of here."

"Honey, I don't think that's a good idea. You're upset, you shouldn't drive like that."

"I'll be fine," he stated.

The anger in his voice was obvious. "Scott, please... please, Honey, don't hate me. I couldn't bear to have my son hate me," she wept.

"I don't hate you, Mom, but I can't believe you've lied to me like this. All my life you made me believe my dad was some kind of monster. I hated him and now I find out it was all based on lies."

He headed for the front door but stopped to look back at his mother, the only parent he ever knew; she was sitting on the couch with her hands covering her face. Her body shook as she bawled like a baby. Briefly, he wondered if he should leave her like that, but knew there was no way he could stay in the same room as her, not just then anyway.

Clear Lake, Indiana, was a small red-neck town with not much to offer other than the lake itself. There was a large parking area adjacent to the public boat launch. Scott wanted to be alone and figured it would offer the best chance for solitude. He pulled in on the back side of a large pickup with a boat trailer. There he was completely hidden from the rest of the world.