“She made sure that those got through.” Apollo looked apologetic. “I’m sorry, but you have a lot of making up to do. She’s going to require some groveling.”
“So who actually went on my honeymoon?” Mable looked at the papers in disgust.
“That would be your stepmother,” Apollo said. “She’s similar enough to you in the hair and eye color, facial features, and body structure that she could pull it off. She’s been using your identity for years. That’s who also bought the car under your name. She did something to affect Birdee’s credit, and Birdee found out. The mother promised to fix it, and got her a car. Birdee was under the impression that it was to pay her back for the damage done to her credit. She was unaware that it was in Mable’s name. Let alone that it wasn’t paid off. Whitney produced some fake title and handed it over to Birdee when she gave her the car.”
“Jesus Christ, this is a freakin’ mess.” Mable scrubbed her hands over her face. “So what you’re telling me is, all this time, I thought that I was the victim. When, in fact, Birdee was a victim, too. I’ve been mean and angry at her for no reason, and she’s just thinking that I’m an asshole to her for no reason.”
“It’s looking that way,” Apollo admitted, sounding apologetic. “A lot of the same stuff that was done to you was done to her, too. Where you saw vacations and preferential treatment, Birdee was seeing suffocation and falsehoods. Let me just say here that I think you got the better end of the stick. I would rather be ignored by that crazy bitch than to be suffocated by her.”
That was the freakin’ truth. She sounded like a goddamn psychopath.
“I think you’re right,” Mable murmured. “I guess I need to call my lawyer and get the proceedings put on hold.”
I gave her shoulder a squeeze and said, “I think that would be good.”
Mable walked off to do that and Apollo came to me where I was holding up the wall in the corner of the room.
“This has been so much fun.” He laughed as he slapped me on the shoulder. “It’s always fun to find a worthy opponent.”
“The mom is really that good with computers?” I wondered as he leaned against the wall beside me.
“She’s better than good,” Vito said as he came up to us. “In the beginning when I met her, she was working an IT job with a startup company out of Baton Rouge. She hated the job she was at, though, and had decided nursing was going to be her next career path.” He grimaced. “We got married quick because Birdee surprised us. We didn’t know each other all that well, and I hadn’t been thinking about anything but making it right when she found out she was pregnant. Had I done even the slightest amount of research, I would’ve realized that she was messed up. But I didn’t. Instead, I was busy as hell at my plowing job and the gym. She was in school to become a nurse—at least I thought.”
“She’s not a nurse?” I frowned in confusion.
“Nope.” He laughed humorlessly. “That was one of my issues. I found out that she was fixing her grades in the gradebooks. Cheating on tests to pass. Saying she was at clinicals and marking herself as there when she most certainly wasn’t. She graduated and started working as a home health nurse, but she only did that so she could get into people’s computers when they weren’t paying attention. She’d steal whatever she wanted. And when they were grieving the death of their loved ones, she’d help herself to valuables.”
“Wow,” I said.
“What a creep,” Apollo muttered.
“I didn’t find any of this out until one day I came home early from work because I was sick. I walked in the door and she was inventorying a pile of cash bigger than my forearm. When I confronted her about it, she let slip a few things, and I lost it. I accused her of stealing. Confronted her about more stuff that I’d found weird over the years—new pieces of décor and jewelry—that had magically shown up. She got pissed and left, leaving Birdee behind with me. But that was just the calm before the storm. Stupidly, I didn’t report what I’d found immediately. I’d been way too damn sick. Birdee was sick, too. And it was just a hectic four days. When I finally got better enough to confront her and call the cops, I found out that I had a restraining order placed against me. ‘Evidence’ came to light that I was abusing her and Birdee, and all of a sudden my life was in shambles.”
“I actually read about that in your background check,” Apollo said, not sounding apologetic in the least that he’d looked into the man. “But all of the accusations leveled against you were baseless. Lucky you had Grace.”
Vito smiled. “Grace was literally my saving grace. Without her, I never would’ve proved that Whitney was falsifying everything. By the time the dust settled a year and a half later, Whitney had moved. I couldn’t find them anywhere. Grace had Cody, and I checked out. I focused on Cody when I should’ve for sure fought harder for Birdee. Maybe if I had, she wouldn’t have been so miserable. If I’d known she wasn’t happy…”
“Man, I don’t want to make you feel worse or anything, but Birdee’s had the shittiest life anyone has ever lived. She’s grown up in a house full of people that hate her. Her mother and stepfather might put on a good mask in public, but she was literally the whipping girl. You should read some of the diaries that she wrote. She started a mental health series on YouTube a few years back and has quite the following. You should check it out sometime.”
“Thought she was bad with computers?” I asked suspiciously.
“She’s not good. She has a good friend who helps her. The douchebag that gave your girl there the lime,” Apollo muttered.
“Guess he won’t be helping much anymore,” I grumbled. “Heard he lost his job and the cops dealt with him.”
“He also became suddenly unemployable here and moved in with his mom in Portland,” Apollo said. “Though, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. He was just sticking up for his best friend. He was stupid with how he did it, but he knew it wouldn’t kill her. Also, from what he knows, Mable played a pretty big part in making Birdee so miserable over the years.”
When he put it like that…
“I still don’t like him,” I muttered.
Vito snorted. “I never got the warmest feelings from him, either. But knowing he was sticking up for my girl when I didn’t definitely puts a different perspective on it.”
Mable entered the living room again, and I saw the exhaustion on her face.
“Time for everyone to leave,” I ordered.
“Heading to your place,” Apollo said as he correctly read the situation. “I’ll take care of the dog.”
