Anya chased Dan to his car, refusing to be left behind. She had to make him see reason before he did something foolish so she climbed in the passenger seat. Despite all her efforts he didn’t speak on the way. There could only be one place they were headed.
Outside the white 1920s Art-deco home, Anya grabbed Dan by the arm. “Think what you’re doing. If you launch in there and do something stupid, you’ll lose everything. He’ll make sure you never practice law again. You’ll be arrested. And for what?”
Dan pulled his arm free, left the car and strode up the pathway to the front door.
“Hurting him isn’t going to bring your mother back, or change what he did to her. Instead, it’ll just destroy your father.”
The lawyer stopped but didn’t turn around. “I need to face him and tell him that I know he raped Mum.”
Two more steps and he was on the doorstep, ringing the bell.
Anya caught up, short of breath, as a woman wearing dark glasses opened the door. “Can I help you?” she said.
“Mrs. Pascoe, my name is Brody. I work with your husband.”
“He’s in the study, please come in.”
She was dressed in a matching blue knit top and pencil skirt, and camel heels, but didn’t appear to be blind, despite the glasses. “I’ll get Philip, please make yourself comfortable.”
Dan paced the room, which overlooked the harbor. Glass from ceiling to floor highlighted one of the most expensive views in the city. Anya moved between him and the foyer, from where she assumed the judge would enter.
He appeared a few minutes later, wearing a business shirt and cardigan with suit pants.
“I don’t need to tell you, Brody, that this visit is totally inappropriate. I could report you to the Law Society and Bar Association for this. And your little doctor friend will be in trouble as well.”
“It has nothing to do with the trial, this is personal,” Dan announced. “It’s about you and my mother.”
Pascoe scoffed. “I barely knew the girl.”
“Then you wouldn’t object to a DNA test.”
The judge smiled. “You’re deluded if you think I’m your father. That’s just wishful thinking. For a while I thought you were different, but you’re a lot like your old man. He never had the guts to make it on his own. So he spent his life sheltering behind legal aid.”
Mrs. Pascoe returned with a tray of canapés and wineglasses and placed them on a side table. “There’s red and white wine or, if you prefer, spirits are in the cabinet.”
Dan seemed unperturbed by the comment about his father. “She had a baby, a little girl, in 1962. The child had a tumor at the back of the eye.”
“Philip, what’s he talking about?” The woman’s voice rose in pitch.
The judge remained standing, but by the way he swayed it was as though the bones in his one good leg were beginning to melt.
Anya explained, hoping to keep Brody calm in the process. “The child had a rare type of inherited tumor called a retinoblastoma.”
Mrs. Pascoe lowered herself into a chair.
“Philip had one as a child, it was a miracle he survived.” She leaned over and touched a faded color photo of a baby propped up against pillows. “Our Erin wasn’t so lucky. The first tumor was diagnosed at three months. Within two weeks there was one in her other eye. The day she turned four months we lost her.” She tugged on her skirt and smoothed it over her lap. “You don’t need to tell me how rare retinoblastomas are. Erin inherited the gene,” her tone turned from sad to bitter, “from her father.”
Pascoe responded, matter-of-fact. “Woman, stop carrying on. I was unaware of the inheritance until after you had the child.” Up close and without his glasses on, the artificial eye was more obvious. When he spoke, it lagged behind, out of sync with the left eye.
Anya turned to his wife. The dark glasses obviously didn’t obscure her vision, and her foundation was thicker than she’d expect, even though the judge’s wife was clearly used to entertaining at a moment’s notice, judging by the way she automatically presented canapés and drinks.
“We didn’t have any more children. I couldn’t go through that again, or put another poor baby through the suffering.”
Dan seemed almost deflated, as if his anger had dissolved into compassion for Pascoe’s wife. He moved to the lounge chair beside her.
“We believe that your husband fathered a baby with my mother. She was stillborn, from the same tumor.”
“That is pure nonsense,” the judge declared, as if he were in control of everyone present. “This is a malignant effort to extort me during a trial. I’ll have your balls on a platter before this night ends.” He pulled a mobile phone from his pocket and dialed.
“Then just agree to the DNA test and it’ll be settled,” his wife snipped.
He abruptly ended the call.
Mrs. Pascoe turned to Dan. “Who was your mother?”
“Therese Brody, well, she was Therese Robilliard back then.”
“We used to play tennis when we were in our teens. Then she went away and when she came back she was married to William, her mixed doubles partner. There were rumors, of course, about her being ‘in trouble,’ as we used to say, but they didn’t have a child for a few more years. I remember because she was lovely. Unlike the others in the Catholic club, Therese never had a bad word about anyone.”
“What do you want, Brody? Let’s lay it on the table, then you can get out.”
Anya couldn’t believe he could be so dismissive of a child he had just found out was his. He assumed Dan wanted money and that would make him go away, and he could pretend that none of this had happened.
She couldn’t hold her tongue. “Judge, we came here to-”
“Anya, wait. Let’s see what he has to say.”
The judge hobbled over to a desk bureau and removed a checkbook. “How much do you want?”
“How much are you offering?” Dan asked.
Anya felt nauseated. How could Dan accept money from a man who had raped his mother? At this moment she realized how little she knew him. She stood to leave.
“Sit, Anya.” He sounded like the judge. “We’re not finished yet.”
“You may not be-”
“So your little man-hating friend wants to be paid off as well.”
“Before you sign anything,” Dan said, “how did you come to get my mother pregnant?”
“How the hell do you think? It was years ago, and before contraception. We were young. I barely even remember. In our day we all sowed our oats. From what I hear, you’re rather an expert at that yourself. Do you remember every detail of every woman you’ve ever slept with? At least I recall your mother’s name.”
It sounded as if Therese was privileged to have him remember that much. The arrogance of the man was overwhelming.
“Plenty of girls back then would have given their all to catch someone with money from a good family. And many did.”
The man spoke with no deference to his wife, whom he seemed to forget was in the room. She kept unnervingly silent.
“Did you go out often? I gather your family knew my grandfather, Judge Eugene Robilliard.”
“That’s right. My parents thought it could help my career if I got in with the judge, so I agreed to take your mother out. She used to have your no-hoper father salivating after her, and your grandfather wanted me to break them up.”
“Seems you failed.”
Anya tried to read Dan. One minute she thought he would take a bribe, now she wasn’t so sure.
“You claim I got her pregnant, but we only went out once. The odds aren’t too convincing. And retinoblastoma can occur sporadically.”
“With respect, Mr. Pascoe, may I ask what my mother was like? I always thought she was shy and reserved.”
Pascoe scoffed. “The quiet Catholic ones were always the biggest surprise.”
Dan sat still. Anya suspected he would launch at the judge at any second.
“Go on, I mean, did she make the first move?” Dan smirked. “I must have got my roving eye from somewhere.”
Mrs. Pascoe shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable.
Pascoe’s glass eye wandered as he seemed to be remembering. “If you want to know, we had sex in the car and she wanted to go straight home afterward.”
The judge’s wife closed her eyes and covered her face with one hand. “Oh my God, Philip, what did you do?”
The veins in Dan’s neck and forehead were bulging.
Seemingly oblivious, the self-absorbed judge shrugged. “She was dull so I didn’t bother calling her again. The first I’ve heard since is you turning up alleging I fathered her bastard child.”
“You son of a bitch, you raped my mother.” Before Anya could stop him, Dan crossed the floor and punched Pascoe to the floor.
The older man lay moaning, holding his jaw. “That’s assault with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. And you were fool enough to do it in front of a witness.”
Anya bent down to help the judge up, who pushed her hand away. What she saw on his face was sheer hatred. She couldn’t help Brody now, he’d gone too far. God, why did he have to hit the judge?
Anya looked up to see Dan panting, as though he were waiting for Pascoe to get up so he could hit him again.
“Get off the floor, Philip, you’re making a fool of yourself.”
“Penny? You saw him come at me. Unprovoked. A man with one eye, he could have blinded me with one hit. Call the police. Right now!”
“Philip, I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I saw was you topple over. That prosthesis can be tricky to balance on.”
“Don’t do this, Penny. You’ll regret it.”
The mouse-like woman stood over her husband. “No more than I regret marrying you. You are a bully, no more, no less. Be man enough to admit that you raped Therese.”
Anya stared at Dan in disbelief.
“I’m not admitting anything. His mother didn’t complain at the time.”
Mrs. Pascoe held Dan’s wrist.
“This is the final straw. I’m leaving you.”
“I forbid you to go anywhere!” he bellowed. “They can’t prove anything. It’s a bluff. Get back here now and help me get up.”
She walked, with a new air of confidence, over to the bureau drawer and removed a notepad. “This is my number, Mr. Brody, should you need me to give a statement. I’m sorry about your mother, I really am.”
Anya moved over and had to know. “Why are you doing this?”
“I can’t live like this any more.” Mrs. Pascoe removed the sunglasses and the reason became obvious. She had a blackened eye.
“It’s no consolation, but your mother wasn’t the only one he’s hurt over the years.”
The judge struggled to his feet and Anya stood between him and his wife in case he lashed out. From the way Mrs. Pascoe positioned herself next to Dan, she feared the same.
“You are all going to regret this,” he yelled.
Without warning, a barrage of explosions shattered the large window and sent glass and bodies flying.