Her Beautiful Mind Read online

  He nods, smiling, and we spend a few minutes talking about Dreamer and Allday. They’re still in Neels Gap sharing a cabin with Ghost and M&M. Allday is recovering from a bad sinus infection, and M&M is still resting his ankle.

  “You should see Dreamer.” He grins. “She’s mothering all of them, and they’re happily enjoying it. She taught Emma how to make her secret recipe for chocolate chip cookies, and they’ve been handing them out to all the hikers. I managed to save you some for dessert,” he adds before handing me a full baggie. “I’m thinking about offering her a job as a greeter,” he adds laughing.

  I know Liam wants more answers, but I manage to put him off until we finish eating, and I feel brave enough to share what happened at Hudson’s condo. Finally, after devouring a handful of Dreamer’s cookies, I turn to him and begin.

  “So, when I got back to my apartment, I changed clothes, made a cup of tea, and managed to calm down. I was pacing, thinking of everything that was said, everything that happened, and I realized Susan was right. There must have been some kind of misunderstanding. Maybe Vincent meant Hudson and our company would be working with them rather than for them as they installed our new programs. Maybe we would all be going to Italy to help set up and arrange their new security division.

  “As I walked through the apartment, I saw his belongings everywhere. His shaving kit in the bathroom where we prepared for the day, his coffee cup and half-eaten piece of toast in the kitchen. He brought an overnight bag with him, and his clothes and shoes from the day before were neatly folded inside it. Hanging in the closet was the garment bag, which contained the suit, tie, and dress shirt he wore to the meeting. There was a clear pattern here, I realized. Hudson knew he was going to spend the night. He knew when he came with Chinese take-out and champagne he wasn’t leaving.

  “What I couldn’t figure out, Liam, was if this was the pattern of a man in love who wanted to celebrate with the woman who loved him in return, or the pattern of a man who needed to distract a naïve, clueless woman in order to steal her business. I couldn’t solve the equation. There were too many variables missing.”

  My cousin and I sit facing each other as we both think about what I’ve told him. He frowns slightly, and I know he must feel as confused as I felt that night. I reach for my water bottle, downing half of it while he watches me.

  “So, you decided to go to his condo and confront him?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you found Gia living there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, so this is what I don’t understand.” Liam shifts slightly, leaning across the table to get closer to me. “How could you not know she was living there for two whole years? Did she hide or something when you were there?”

  “I didn’t go to Hudson’s condo very often, and it was always with the rest of our staff. It’s been at least three years or more since I was there.”

  “What? Didn’t you find that odd?” Liam questions, frowning.

  “Not really, I mean … Crap, Liam. I didn’t know how rich people lived. I thought maybe he was trying to keep his personal life separate from his business life, or maybe he didn’t want to flaunt his wealth. I never thought about it or questioned it.”

  “But you knew where he lived?”

  “Yes. His condo is in one of those beautiful old buildings overlooking Central Park and has an amazing view from the terrace. The inside looks like something from a magazine—designer furniture, real art, beautiful fabrics and colors. The four of us—Susan, Oliver, David, and I—were there for a couple of short meetings a few times when something unexpected came up and it was too late to go back to the office. I was never there by myself.”

  My cousin shakes his head, muttering to himself as he tries to rub the frown lines from his forehead. With a huge sigh, he leans back, staring at me from across the table. “None of this makes any sense,” he finally says.

  “It gets worse,” I admit, thinking about what happened after I arrived at Hudson’s home.

  “Maybe you should just tell me what she said,” Liam states. “Everything, please.”

  With a resigned sigh and a nod, I begin. “I took a cab to his place. I was mad, angry, and ready to demand some answers from him. Calvin, the same doorman, was still working there, and he recognized me. He helped me from the cab and asked if there was something he could do for me. I told him I needed to speak to Hudson about something business-related, and I was wondering if he was here.

  “He frowned and said, ‘Mr. Calder isn’t here. However, I believe Miss Cattaneo is home. Perhaps you’d like to speak to her?’ His answer confused me, and I wondered which Cattaneo he was referring to. So, I asked him if he meant Gia Cattaneo, and he told me, yes.

  “I followed him into the lobby and he used his pass key to bring the elevator down. There are only two condos on each floor of Hudson’s building. When I exited the elevator, I turned toward his door, only to find Gia standing in his open entryway. She asked me what I was doing here, and I told her I wanted to speak to Hudson about what had happened at the meeting earlier in the afternoon. She told me he wasn’t home yet, and perhaps I should speak to him tomorrow.”

  “She didn’t invite you in?” Liam asks.

  “No. She just stood there with the door open.”

  “Could you see inside? Did it look any different from when you had been there before?”

  Glancing at my cousin, I wonder why he would ask but shrug and continue. “She took a step backward, pushing slightly on the door behind her, and I could see more of the interior. It was just as I remembered. Tastefully decorated with beautiful furniture and warm, inviting colors. There were some new additions—a different painting over the fireplace, different throw pillows on the sofas. Multiple photos in silver frames were arranged on top of the piano. Some were famous landmarks from Italy. I recognized Gia’s family in a couple of them, but most were of her and Hudson. There were pictures from skiing trips, beach vacations, and charity functions. But the one that captured my attention, the one I couldn’t tear my eyes from, was a close-up of two overlapping hands, a male hand and a female hand with a large diamond engagement ring prominently displayed on the woman’s finger.

  “I was staring at the photo when she said something about Hudson being late because he was working out the remaining details of their move to Italy. ‘Are you moving, too?’ I asked her.

  “She laughed at me and said of course she was moving with her fiancé. Then she added that while Hudson was establishing the new security division, she was being promoted to head of their Human Resources Division. I was so shocked I just stood there staring at her. That’s when she lifted her left hand and flashed the diamond ring at me.”

  My voice is dry and scratchy, my emotions making it hard to continue. Picking up my water bottle, I sip it slowly, trying to quell the bile rising in my throat as I remember the other things she said that night. Things I’m not going to share with my cousin.

  “Then what happened? Did she say anything else?”

  I turn to him and shrug. “Some personal stuff and a warning about ruining Hudson financially if I tried to stop him leaving.”

  “So, you never saw or spoke to him that night?”

  “I did see him, but I didn’t speak to him. When I got off the elevator, Calvin offered to call a cab, but I told him no, I wanted to walk a bit because something was bothering me. Before I left, I asked him how long Gia had been living there. He told me she moved in a little over two years before.

  “I went to the corner and crossed the street. I’d just stepped beneath a large tree when I heard brakes squeal and a door slam. When I looked back at the building, I saw him getting out of a cab. He and Calvin were talking, and Hudson was looking around frantically. It was pretty dark by then, and I edged over into the shadows where he couldn’t see me. Then I watched him run into the building and enter the elevator. I stayed
long enough to see his and Gia’s shadows as they moved around the condo. Then I went home and called Susan.”

  “Had she been able to talk to Hudson?” Liam asks.

  “No. She said he was in Vincent’s office, and the receptionist wouldn’t let her in to see him. I told her what I found out from Gia and asked her not to fight Hudson over his leaving. He owned the company, and he deserved to be happy.”

  “Did she—” Liam begins, but I interrupt him.

  “Please, no more. I can’t take any more, Liam. Just let it go. I feel like I’ve been through a police interrogation.”

  My cousin takes pity on me and stops asking questions. Throwing his arm around my shoulders, he leads me to his truck where I fill my food bag with enough meals and snacks to get me through the next four days.

  “Call me when you get to Franklin?” he asks when I shoulder my pack and start to leave. “Please.”

  With a thumbs up, I turn my back on him and start across the highway.

  Chapter 17

  Find a Penny and Pick It Up

  Date: Tuesday, March 18

  Starting Location: Deep Gap Shelter

  Destination: Plumorchard Shelter

  Total Trip Miles: 71.1

  Granny Cora always picked up money she found lying on the ground. Most often, they were pennies, but sometimes, she would find other coins, and occasionally, a one- or maybe a five-dollar bill. Paper money, she called them. Once, she even found a folded one-hundred-dollar bill. “Find a penny and pick it up, and all the day, you’ll have good luck,” she would say before slipping the money into her pocket.

  We kept a jar at home where we collected this “found money.” When it was full, Granny would dump the jar onto the kitchen table, letting me play with the coins, sorting them by size and color before counting them, and deciding what we would buy. Since it was “found money,” it had to be used for treats. Usually, it was an ice cream cone on a hot summer day, maybe a trip to the donut shop early on a Saturday morning for a fresh, chocolate-frosted, cream-filled long john. We used the hundred-dollar bill for hamburgers and a frosted mug at the old A&W root beer drive-in before we went to the local theater to watch a movie, and then played putt-putt golf.

  It was her one rule about the money—it had to be used for something special, something fun. It couldn’t be used for essentials or things we needed to survive.

  I never considered we might be poor. We were never hungry. There were vegetables from the garden, fruit from the old orchard, and fresh venison in the fall after Uncle Billy went to deer camp. The woods supplied us with mushrooms, berries, and nuts. We gathered poke sallet, watercress, and dandelion greens in the early spring along with wild ramps to season them. It never felt like work either. Granny told me stories and made up I Spy games while we tramped through the woods or worked in the garden.

  I don’t remember being cold or uncomfortable. Liam and his father kept us supplied with split wood for the central wood-burning stove, which heated the cabin in the wintertime. I had new shoes when I wore out my old ones and new clothes or a new coat when I went through a “growing spurt.”

  Granny was “careful” with her money, and we had everything we needed, but she still picked up every penny she ever found. Over the years, it became a habit, a game we played, and a fond memory of the only mother figure in my life.

  I’m halfway across the road when I hear Liam calling my name. Desperate to escape his questions and the painful memories they invoke, I ignore him, speeding up in an attempt to reach the other side. When I hear his pounding footsteps behind me, I stop and turn, glaring at him in hopes he will let me leave.

  Holding up his hands in defense, he grins at me. “One more question. I promise, just one more.”

  Sighing in defeat, I wave my hand, giving him permission to ask.

  He hesitates, shifting from foot to foot, and it occurs to me something is definitely going on with my cousin, something he hasn’t told me yet. The thought is immediately forgotten when he blurts out his question.

  “What do you want me to tell Hudson when he comes looking for you?”

  “Are you crazy? Did you not listen to anything I told you? He’s engaged to Gia, he owns the company, and he’s taking it with him when they move to Italy. He won’t be coming here looking for me.”

  “But what if everything Gia said was a lie? What if she was trying to set you up to leave?”

  “Did Calvin lie when he said she’d been living there for two years? Did Vincent Cattaneo, the respected CEO of one of the largest banking corporations in the world, lie when he announced Hudson was joining them? I’m sorry, Liam. I know you want to think the best of him, but he’s gone. He won’t be coming here to look for me.”

  Seeing the unhappiness on Liam’s face, I move closer to him and put my hand on his shoulder to reassure him. “I’m going to be fine. This hike? It’s good for me, and when I decide to leave the trail, there’s a position on the faculty at MIT waiting for me. Or I might find someplace down here, closer to you and Emma. Stop worrying.”

  Liam nods, then gives me a crooked grin. “But if …”

  Rolling my eyes so hard they almost hurt, I laugh at my persistent cousin. “Okay, fine. If Hudson shows up looking for me, you know what I’m doing and where I am. If I’m that important to him, he can come find me.”

  Then, because my cousin still wears a worried expression, I step closer, wrapping my arms around his waist. “I love you, big gohusdi. Thank you for caring about me.”

  Liam hugs me back. “I love you, too, my little cousin,” he whispers into my hair. “Please be careful and call me when you reach Franklin.”

  Nodding, I turn, and then with a final wave, set off down the dirt pathway in front of me.

  For once, the AT doesn’t immediately start climbing the steep mountain on the other side of the road. Instead, it stays on the side of the hill following Dicks Creek, the stream that cuts its way through the mountains into the gap bearing its name. The trail is on the left and above it, giving the hiker a great view of the rocks and rushing water below. A narrow dirt road borders the creek on the opposite side. Several access points have been built along the creek bank to allow fishermen or swimmers to reach the water.

  As I walk, I let my eyes wander along the road until it ends in a small turnaround just before an elevated footbridge crosses the creek and connects to the trail on the left side. It looks like the AT takes a sharp left turn away from the creek at the bridge and begins a steep climb up the mountain. I can barely make out an old pickup parked on one side of the turnaround.

  A large boulder juts out into the trail obstructing my forward view. As I start to take a step around it, I notice the bright, shiny penny in the dirt. When I see the copper penny laying in the dirt in the middle of the trail, I stop to pick it up, and because I stopped, and because I bent over and picked it up, and because I held it in my hand wondering how and why it had been dropped here in the middle of the trail, because I did all that … it might have saved my life.

  I’m smiling to myself, thinking of Gran and her theory of “found money,” when I hear their voices.

  “Is she coming?”

  “Yeah, she’s on the other side of the bend where the boulder is.”

  “You sure she’s alone?”

  “I told you she was. Wearin’ a brand-new pack and clothes. I bet there’s some money in there, too.”

  The voices are male. The first one sounds older, gravelly, like it’s been soaked in nicotine and whiskey too long. The other voice is younger, impatient, and more menacing.

  Staying bent over and out of sight, I crawl closer to the boulder, wedging myself between the rock and the mountainside. It’s obvious they’re talking about me and are somewhere on the trail ahead. I’m surprised I can hear them though. The narrow valley must be funneling or magnifying their voices somehow, or perh
aps the large boulder is cutting off the sounds of the creek, making them easier to hear.

  “Remember, you promised not to hurt this one. Not like you did the last time.” It’s the gravelly voice again.

  I can feel my heart rate speed up.

  “Oh, shut your yap, you old coot. I ain’t gonna hurt her. Might have a little fun first before sendin’ her on her way though. Besides, I don’t remember you complaining about getting your dick wet the last time.”

  Now I’m gasping for breath, my heart pounding in my chest, the sick bile of fear rising in my throat. I’m scared, petrified. A sudden sting makes me look down at my hand. I’ve been rubbing the penny so hard and furiously between my fingers I’ve broken the skin. “Granny, oh, Granny,” I whisper to myself. “What am I going to do?”

  Tell me, child, what’s the first rule about being a’scared in the woods? Suddenly, I’m back in the forest with Gran. We’re picking spring mushrooms, and I’ve wandered off and lost sight of her. I panic, my screams bringing her quickly to my side.

  Ariella, what is the first rule? I can hear her voice so clearly, demanding I answer her.

  “Don’t panic,” I whisper to myself and to her. “Panic kills. Relax, look around, and think logically.” So, I do.

  Taking a long, deep breath, I will my heart to slow, my brain to think. I can see back to the road crossing and the parking area. It’s completely deserted. I could take a chance by going back, but I can’t count on anyone being there to help me.

  I could try to run down the road toward town, but the pickup I saw probably belongs to the men waiting for me. A vehicle makes it easy for them to catch me if I try to escape that way. Memories of No Filter’s story about Rock Dancer make me shudder at the thought of trying to evade a speeding vehicle. Going forward is completely out of the question, so it leaves only one direction—up.

  The mountain face beside me is almost straight up. It’s a challenging tumble of rocks and boulders, trees, vines, and bushes. It’s easy to understand why the trail builders followed the streambed instead of trying to carve a trail out of the cliff-like jumble above me. As I study it intently, I can hear Granny’s voice urging me to start moving. You don’t have long, child. They’re gonna figure out something has happened real soon. Get up, Ariella. Go up. No one ever looks up. They stare at the ground or look off into the distance, but they never look up. Move!