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Standing there, with her back to the studio area, was an older woman with white hair. She was looking at the memorabilia Fitz had hung on the wall: awards, news clippings, photos of him with famous musicians ranging from Stevie Wonder to Tom Petty to U2 and many more. From her dress, she seemed ordinary enough, not like someone who was looking to rob the studio. Lauren relaxed a little.
“May I help you…?”
“You can start by staying away from my son!” Deb Padovano spun to face Lauren, her voice filled with enough righteous indignation and anger that it shocked Lauren into taking a step back. “You are ruining Danny’s marriage! Thanks to you, Heather’s moved out. She’s so hurt, it breaks my heart—and those boys? Richie told me not to come, but you… This isyourfault! Have you no respect? No decency? Do you even care how much pain you’re causing?”
“I—”
Deb didn’t let her finish. “Of course you don’t! How couldyouever have any respect for the sanctity of marriage? Have you had a single, serious, committed relationship? Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a marriage work? If you did, you’d be ashamed of yourself. You don’t have any respect for yourself or for anyone else!”
Deb’s harsh words sank in like a scorpion’s sting and, when Lauren was a teen, would have driven her to tears. But she wasn’t a child anymore, and she wasn’t about to let Deb bully her.
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that!” Lauren was gratified to see a split-second of shock cross Deb’s face. “I didn’t come back here looking to hurt anyone, and certainly not to get in the middle of a breakup. Whatever was going off the rails in Danny’s marriage started long before I came back.”
She took a couple steps forward. Deb had never liked her, and that was fine. Lauren could live with that. “But you don’t care about that,” she continued. “You made your mind up about me a long time ago—I could have joined a convent and you’d still find a way to belittle me for it.”
“You’re nothing but a bad influence on everyone around you.” It was a blanket indictment. Deb held her small purse in front of her like it was a shield.
“Give it a rest, Deb! You spent so much time worrying about what a bad influence I was going to be on Danny—did you ever stop to think what a good influence he might have been on me? You’re so eager to point out what a terrible sinner I am—well, you’re a sinner, too. We all are. Isn’t that what the priests tell us? Don’t you dare call me a sinner and hold a halo up over your own head. Or should I start calling you St. Deborah?”
Deb’s eyes widened. “I’mnothinglike you. Don’t you imply otherwise. You? You’re selfish. It’s always been about you and your music, and never about what happens to other people—”
Selfish.The word cut her as much as it had all those years ago when Danny used it. Lauren pushed the pain down.
“—Well, you’re sure making it my business—”
“—All you’re going to do here is leave wreckage in your wake. Do you even care that you’re breaking my grandsons’ hearts? Or are they just an obstacle in your way?”
Lauren gasped at the accusation. She opened her mouth to respond, but Deb barreled ahead, cutting her off.
“Heather’s devastated. You have everything you ever wanted: fame, money, cars, lovers… she can’t understand why you have to have Danny, too.”
“I love Danny. I—”
“—Love?This isn’t love. You never loved my son.” Deb threw her a withering, disdainful look. “This is greed and lust, plain and simple. You’re taking what you want and throwing the rest away. Adding him to your collection.” Deb went to the door and looked back over her shoulder as she opened it.
“And I’ll tell you something,” she said. “You can go back out on the road with your band and your groupies and your drugs, but you’ll never be able to forget that Danny didn’t love you enough to marry you. He waited and married agoodwoman. He’sstill marriedto a good woman, and the only thing you’ll ever be is hiswhore. Live with that.”
Deb slammed the door behind her.
Danny trudged down the precinct steps. Over the course of the day, he’d been on a pendulum. One moment reliving the highlights of his weekend with Lauren, then swinging back to thinking about his wife, his sons. Everything he had to lose. They were his heart, and all he was doing was hurting them. He couldn’t keep doing that.
He was nearly to his Jeep when his phone vibrated. He pulled it out and held it up to his ear. Everything inside him clenched when Lauren barely managed to say his name before she broke into a sob.
“Lauren? Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, her sobs garbling her words. “I’m at the studio. Your mother was here…”
Danny blinked.What?His mother had gone to Lauren’s studio? He got into the Jeep and shut the door. “My mother? At the studio? Holy Mother of God, what did she say to you?”
Lauren’s tear-filled voice shook. “She told me to stay away from you… that I’m selfish and I’m a home wrecker. She said I’ve ruined your marriage and that I don’t care what happens to your sons. And that’snot true, you know that!”
“Jesus Christ—”
“—and she told me that no matter what, I’d always know you didn’t love me enough to marryme. And the only thing I’ll ever be is yourwhore!”
Danny saw red, but he collected himself before he spoke. “I don’t think that. I wouldneverthink that. Are you okay?”
There was still a tremble in Lauren’s voice. “Yeah. I just… She surprised me. And the things she said…”
