She Never Knew Page 4

  When Michael died, his lawyer had contacted Kat to let her know that she was the new sole owner of their house and that it was ready for her to move in. At the time, Kat was stunned to learn of the lengths Michael went to in order to provide for her. He had had the house restored for her so when they got married, they could move in right away. It was an unexpected yet pleasant surprise. She had no idea what a shrewd businessman he was nor did she realize how financially successful he was before he died. He had taken care of every little detail to ensure Kat had the house of her dreams. Unbeknownst to them, it would be his last gift to her.

  Kat had initially considered selling the house because she didn’t think she would be able to manage the responsibilities that came with home ownership, living in a house that was intended for her and her future husband. She didn’t know if she would be able to cope with the painful reminders of everything Michael had done for her.

  But all of that changed the night of the rape. She knew she couldn’t stay in her apartment after what had happened to her. She didn’t feel safe there. The only place she felt safe was on the coast, where she and Michael discovered their future home together. She had stayed in a hotel for a week while she packed up her apartment. She kept only a few things, such as her clothes, and the dishware set her mother had passed on from her own mother. The rest she either sold or gave away. She resigned from her job and drove out to the house that Michael had lovingly bought for her.

  Shortly after Kat moved in, one of her new neighbors kindly brought over a blueberry pie to welcome her to the neighborhood. Rhonda Burns had a way of making people feel special that Kat had taken an instant liking to her.

  Rhonda was a few years older than Kat, but the two shared much in common. Both had similar interests in books and music, and had parents who were deceased. Rhonda’s parents had died when she was in her early twenties so she understood how much Kat missed her own parents. While Rhonda was happily married, she was compassionate when Kat told her about Michael.

  Both women wanted families and Rhonda excitedly shared with Kat that she and Robert would be bringing a little boy into their lives in the next few months. She explained that since she and her husband were biologically unable to have children, they would adopt. It was God’s plan, they believed.

  A few weeks later when Kat discovered she was pregnant, she was initially repulsed by the fact that she was carrying her rapist’s baby. She seriously considered giving it up for adoption as she didn’t believe in abortion; however, after much soul searching, God had answered her prayers. He had a plan for her, too.

  She believed He wanted her to raise her innocent baby and give it the love it needed and deserved, the love that a mother gives her child, the love that Michael never had from his own mother.

  It all made perfect sense now. God had answered Rhonda and Robert’s prayers of having a family of their own. Wasn’t He essentially providing the same for Kat? Was it possible that Rhonda was an angel sent by God to influence Kat’s final decision when it came to her baby?

  In honor of Michael, Kat decided to raise her child with all of the love she had to give. She believed fate had led her to change her last name to Brennan before her trauma. It was all coming together now. Kat would carry on Michael Brennan’s legacy through her love for Tyler.

  As she studied her portfolio, her mind kept drifting to the memories she had of Michael. She remembered their laughter as they chased each other on the beach. She recalled how he would buy her ice cream with sprinkles. He would tease her by telling her the ice cream shop was out of cherries, when in fact, he had eaten them himself. They were a perfect fit for each other and were inseparable until death parted them.

  A tear slowly trickled down her cheek as she recalled a time when Michael shared his childhood dreams of having a family with her someday. He didn’t seem bitter about the fact that his mother gave him up, nor was he embarrassed to learn that she had been promiscuous and didn’t know who his father was. As far as Michael was concerned, Kat’s parents were his parents too and he loved them as much as they loved him.

  Kat’s parents had also left her money. Upon their death, Kat and her sister each inherited a sizeable inheritance. Before her parents and Michael died, Kat had a savings account with a modest sum tucked away. The income she made from her job was more than enough to cover her monthly expenses. Kat did not believe in credit and paid for her purchases with cash whenever possible.

  Most individuals would love to be in Kat’s shoes as she was debt-free, owned her house, and had substantial savings. Most of all, she had a well-mannered and happy child who was the light of her life. But what most people did not know was that Kat continued to live in the past, clinging to memories that were fading as each day passed.

  As she shut down her computer, her eyes drifted toward the handmade picture frame Tyler had made for her in preschool. The frame sat on her desk next to the reading lamp and the picture was of her and Michael smiling and hugging. They were standing in the front yard of her house the day they had first discovered it six years ago.

  Good night, my love, she whispered to his smiling face in the picture. She always bid him goodnight each evening before going to bed. After a moment, she got up and walked over to the huge bookshelf. She had just finished a murder mystery the night before and wanted a new book to start reading in bed tonight. After she made her selection, she closed the windows, turned off the lights and fan, checked on Tyler, and went downstairs to her bedroom.

  Chapter 5

  The following afternoon, Kat came home from grocery shopping to find several packages stacked against the side of her garage door. When she got out of her car, she was pleased to see that the packages contained the crafts she had ordered for vacation bible school that would begin in a couple of weeks.

  After Kat unloaded her groceries and put them away, she carried the large packages one by one into her house. She wanted to unpack them immediately to ensure she received everything she had ordered. But first she needed to pick up Tyler.

  From across the street, she could hear the sounds of high-pitched shrieks of two little boys, one of whom came from her son. Smiling, she strolled her way to Rhonda’s front door and tapped gently on the frame of the screen door. The porch claimed a ten-foot square space and was decorated with wicker furniture. Seashells clung from a cast net that was strung across one wall. A ceiling fan spun rapidly, its blades blowing air onto the pages of an open magazine on a small table. Curled up in the corner of the porch was Marlowe, a beautiful white and orange tabby cat that shed hair everywhere she went. When she spied Kat, she meowed lazily and went back to sleep.

  From where Kat was standing, she could see Tyler and Eli chasing each other inside the house. When Tyler saw her through the sliding glass door, he shrieked again. He ran over to let himself out and unlocked the screen door to let Kat inside.

  “Mommy!” he squealed, his little arms reaching up to her. Kat bent down and scooped her soon into her arms, smothering his face with kisses. He giggled with delight as she hugged him tightly.

  It was a typical scene she walked in on. The boys had trashed Rhonda’s living room as toys were scattered all over the floor. The volume on the television was turned up and costumes of action figures were in disarray on the couches. It was obvious that the boys had dressed up as action heroes.

  Rhonda came bounding down the stairs and smiled broadly when she saw Kat. “What did you feed your child for breakfast this morning?”

  “Same thing you fed yours, apparently.” Kat retorted. Both women laughed as they marveled over the mess the boys had made.

  “Guess what just arrived?” Kat said, motioning to her house through the window.

  “The crafts?” Rhonda gushed, raising her eyebrows. “Wow, that was fast!”

  Kat nodded in agreement and said, “When do you want to make the models?” Rhonda was the director of vacation bible school and Kat was the designated crafts leader. For their upcoming training session, Rhonda wa
nted to have a display of the crafts all students would be making so the classroom teachers could explain how the crafts related to the assigned bible stories.

  “Soon. You can help me put together everybody’s training folders too.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” Kat agreed.

  “Mommy, can Eli come over to our house?” Tyler interrupted, looking up at his mother with pleading blue eyes.

  “That’s fine with me.” Kat looked at Rhonda, who was bobbing her head vigorously. The boys shouted with glee as they raced around to look for their sandals.

  “Thank you for taking them. I have a ton of paperwork I need to do and I’ve got some errands I need to run.” When Robert traveled on business, Rhonda took over bookkeeping for their private delivery business.

  “Well, in that case, Eli can stay for dinner and I’ll bring him home afterwards.” Kat smiled as she watched Tyler and Eli hurry to put their sandals on. “They can keep each other occupied as I sort through the contents of the packages.”

  As Kat and the boys helped Rhonda clean up, the women made a plan to build craft models and organize training manuals at the end of the week. Training was scheduled for the following week and both women wanted to be prepared.

  After goodbyes were exchanged, Kat and the boys walked back across the street. The boys ran inside Kat’s house as she detoured to her mailbox. When she thumbed through the pile, she saw that she had a new issue of Student Matters, a magazine published quarterly from the University of Millstone. She paused to flip through it and after a few moments, she found what she was looking for. She sighed heavily.

  A year after she moved into her house, Kat was hired as an Associate Faculty to facilitate online courses for the University of Millstone. This meant she could teach from her home computer without ever having to leave her home. She preferred the anonymity online teaching provided and it allowed her to remain at home with Tyler. As a security measure, she used her maiden name and set her online profile to read as Kate Richards.

  Kat taught at Aremid College, one of the nine colleges of University of Millstone. She specifically instructed Critical Thinking and loved helping her students reach their potential. Courses lasted seven weeks in length and she had just finished up a course, having posted final grades the week before. She was solicited to teach two new classes the following month, so Kat was looking forward to the time off. She had several church activities that needed her attention and she wanted to be prepared without the added stress of meeting facilitation obligations.

  It had been a stressful seven weeks for two reasons. She had been publicly recognized for her professional contributions to the University of Millstone. She agreed to an interview but was dismayed to learn that her consultation was chosen for publication in the university’s Student Matters magazine that was mailed to thousands of students across the nation. She was a bit nervous about people knowing what she did yet she never advertised where she lived. Her rapist had never been caught and Kat preferred to keep a low profile.

  Kat also had a problem student throughout the course who had plagiarized both his midterm and final exams. He had begged her to award points after administration upheld her decision to sanction zeroes for both assignments. At first he played the sympathy card, telling her how financially strapped he was, and that his wife spent too much money. He had explained in numerous emails that his job was extremely stressful and a promotion depended on him earning a degree. Therefore, he needed her to reconsider; he needed her to give him a second chance to earn a passing grade so that he could continue to receive financial aid. At the beginning of class, Kat had made it very clear in her syllabus that no resubmissions would be accepted. When she wouldn’t budge, the student’s postings became increasingly belligerent in nature to the point where he was borderline insubordinate. He simply refused to accept responsibility for cheating.

  Finally, she had tendered a copy of the Student Code of Conduct in her final warning to him. If he did not communicate with her in a more respectful tone, she would have no choice but to file a behavioral violation charge. She had closed her message by stating she would no longer correspond with him and encouraged him to discuss his options with his academic counselor.

  Her student never responded but Kat continued to fret over it, wondering why her student couldn’t see that he had only himself to blame for his indiscretions. Kat always provided irrefutable proof so that her students could not deny their actions.

  When Kat checked her faculty mail the evening before, she saw that she had a message from Academic Affairs. It was a copy of an academic violation charge letter addressed to her student, informing him that his actions were in violation of the Student Code of Academic Integrity. The letter made mention of the fact that since the student did not respond within 10 days to the plagiarism charges made against his midterm, in addition to the new charges filed against his final exam results, he was now expelled from the university. Further, the violations would be reflected on his transcript.

  Kat had no tolerance for cheating and she didn’t feel sorry for those who failed because of it. She refused to let cheaters believe they could earn a degree in this manner. She wasn’t about to let anyone undermine her years of hard work earning her own degrees. She wished her student well but was glad he would not get away with cheating.

  Once inside the house, Kat set her mail on the kitchen table. The boys went to Tyler’s room to play so Kat used the opportunity to carry her packages inside the house. She had ordered over 20 different crafts in various quantities and wanted to ensure nothing was missing. She retrieved her checklist and got to work.

  Chapter 6

  How dare she do this to me, he thought. The colossal nerve! So what if he copied a few sentences here and there on his final paper? That was no reason for her to fail him. It was all her fault that he was expelled from the University of Millstone. He eyed the official letter that sat on his kitchen table with contempt.

  A year ago, Darryl Baker enrolled in the Associate Degree online program with a concentration in Business Management. He needed formal training to advance in his line of work in telemarketing. He wanted to manage the department he was in, not talk to idiotic people on the phone who constantly hung up on him. He was tired of being rejected, tired of busting his butt to meet sales quotas for meager pay, and most of all, tired of his wife incessantly nagging him about not having enough money to pay the bills.

  He knew the assistant manager would be leaving his department permanently once she had delivered her baby. He knew this because he had inadvertently overheard a private conversation at work one day in the break room that she didn’t want to enroll her baby in daycare and instead wanted to be a stay-at-home mother.

  After learning this valuable piece of information, Darryl had kept the news to himself. He knew that if word leaked within the department, everyone would apply for Vivian’s position. Everyone in Darryl’s department hated their jobs. No, it was better to keep quiet and in his best interest to be prepared.

  Feigning ignorance, he went to see his boss one evening after his shift was over. He knew Matthew liked him and used this to his advantage. He had told Matthew how much he admired and respected Vivian’s dedication to the department. Privately, he knew she was as lazy as they came. In his opinion, all she did was file her nails, gab on the phone, and complain about morning sickness.

  Darryl praised Vivian in such a manner that would boost anyone’s ego. He could tell his boss was truly impressed with the way he complimented her work ethic. In Matthew’s eyes, Darryl looked for the positive traits in people and brought out the best in them, which made him an asset to the company. To him, Darryl was a team player.

  One week later, Darryl’s boss called him into his office. He asked Darryl where he saw himself in the next five years and what he thought he could do to improve the department.

  Secretly pleased with himself, Darryl provided answers that he felt Matthew wanted to hear. He knew Matthew favored Vivian and he didn�
�t want to mess up any chance he had of taking over her position one day.

  Matthew revealed that a position would be available in six months and that Darryl would be a perfect candidate. However, there was one simple condition. Darryl needed a college degree, one in the field of Business with a concentration in Marketing.

  He explained to Darryl that he would need to show evidence of enrollment in a business program as a condition of his promotion. In addition, the company would be willing to pay for half the cost of his education. All Darryl had to do was submit an updated copy of his transcript each time he completed a course.

  Darryl considered this stipulation as only a slight setback. Getting a degree meant studying after work hours. That meant having less time for himself and his family. However, he liked the idea of the company writing him checks toward tuition.

  Darryl was smart. He had researched his options before his initial meeting with his boss. He knew he would need some kind of certification and had heard the University of Millstone’s online program did not require a specific grade point average to be accepted. While he was an average student in high school, had lots of friends, and played on the football team, Darryl wasn’t anybody special.

  Yet.

  He had talked with an admissions counselor over the phone and when the counselor directed him to a financial advisor, Darryl learned he would pre-qualify for a student loan. In other words, he wouldn’t have to worry about repaying his loans until one year after graduation. The way he looked at it, he would be going to school for free, getting checks from his employer, and earning a degree. If he played his cards right, he would find a way to get out of having to pay off his student loans. And he would get his wife off his back.