Changing Fate (Book 3) (Piper Anderson Series) Read online

  Changing Fate

  Book Three of the

  Piper Anderson Series

  Danielle Stewart

  Copyright Page

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictionally. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locals, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  An Original work of Danielle Stewart.

  Changing Fate Copyright 2013 by Danielle Stewart

  Cover art created by Calista Taylor

  http://www.calistataylor.com

  Piper Anderson Series:

  Book 1: Chasing Justice

  Book 2: Cutting Ties

  Book 3: Changing Fate

  Novella - Choosing Christmas (available Nov 2013)

  Betty's Journal (available Jan 2014)

  Author Contact:

  Website: AuthorDanielleStewart.com

  Email: [email protected]

  Facebook: Author Danielle Stewart

  Twitter: @DStewartAuthor

  Dedication

  Jen, I'm so lucky to have your talent and skill in my corner. I’m so glad to be working with you, my wonderful sister. Nichole and Mom, I couldn’t spread the word without you. Very grateful for your support.

  Ruthie, Melanie, Ginny, Karen and Marion what a team you all are. How lucky I am to get your time and attention, your love and encouragement. You are all women I admire and who inspire me.

  Becky, thank you for helping me take these characters on this amazing journey. You are the sounding board that makes all this possible. The hours you’ve spent shaping this book mean the world to me. You are my ‘Rock’.

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Piper

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty- Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  Would you like to read more about Piper Anderson and her friends?

  Piper

  He’s dead. There has never been anything in my life more liberating than knowing the man I believed to be my father no longer walks this earth. He terrorized my dreams and did everything he could to destroy me as a child. This pales in comparison to how he planned to kill me as an adult. If not for the people who surrounded me with love and protection, I would be dead right now. I’d be nothing without Betty’s reminders of my worth. I’d be lost without Jules’s loyalty to me. How differently that night in the cabin would have been if Bobby and Chris hadn’t found me.

  The problem is, now I’m forced to figure out who I am when no one is chasing me. I’ve always known how to survive, but can I learn how to really live? It’s not as easy as you might think to switch off those little protective mechanisms that I’ve embedded in my heart. More than that, I’ve realized other people have them, too.

  I never really understood how much experiences truly shape a person. I’ve been too busy looking at my own past. For Jules, losing her dad made her want to protect her heart from ever loving someone who’d put his life on the line every day. For Betty, growing up in a household of intolerance made her one of the most accommodating and accepting people I’ve ever met.

  Bobby kept a secret once and, in his eyes, keeping that secret destroyed his family. I asked him to repeat history. I tried to put my heart between him and his convictions and had it sorrowfully handed back to me. I don’t regret what I’ve done, but I do wish it hadn’t hurt Bobby so deeply.

  I look at the people around me now and see they are all the product of the things they’ve been exposed to. The same thing that has always propelled me—self-preservation—drives them, too. When Jules jumped in my car, ready to face New York with me, I knew I could take control of my own life, because I wouldn’t have to do it alone. Fate is not just some unavoidable circumstance that befalls a person. It can be shaped, it can be chosen, it can be changed. And that’s exactly what I plan to do.

  Chapter One

  “How mad are they?” Piper asked before Jules had even hung up her cell phone. Their impulsive road trip wasn’t likely to be received well by everyone they were leaving behind.

  “They’re not mad-mad, they’re just mad. They didn’t realize we were heading for New York City. I think they assumed we were hanging out at your house or something. Now that they know, Ma is feeling a bit left out, and she’s worried we’ll miss Christmas in a few weeks. She still hasn’t forgiven us for forgetting about Thanksgiving. Michael just seems blindsided. Bobby had already taken off I guess, so I didn’t really get an update on him. Who cares though? They’ll all get over it.” Jules reached her hand into the bag of junk food they’d loaded up on from the last gas station and pulled out a jerky sausage stick that, to Piper, smelled like smoked socks.

  “How can you eat that? It’s like your fifth one.” Piper scrunched her nose in disgust.

  “I’m starving,” Jules said defensively. “It’s not like we stopped at a gourmet restaurant, this is the only source of protein they have at gas stations.”

  “You could have gotten something to eat at the mall when we stopped for clothes and toothbrushes,” Piper groaned. Jules responded by playfully waving the jerky stick under Piper’s nose.

  “Get that out of here.” As Piper swatted Jules’s hand away, Bruno lifted his big head up from his nap in the backseat to snap the treat up.

  “Hey,” Jules shouted as the dog gobbled it down. “Boy you really did ruin that dog. It’s hard to believe he was almost on the police force before you got your hands on him.”

  Piper ignored the comment about the dog and steered the conversation in a more serious direction. “I know this trip is kind of crazy. Are you having second thoughts? Because we can go back, it isn’t too late. We’re only a few hours into this. We didn’t really think it through very well. I feel like maybe you felt sorry for me and that’s why you decided to come.”

  “I don’t feel sorry for you, I feel sorry for me. That was my last snack,” Jules pouted, as she reached into a paper bag and pulled out a bottle of water. “Seriously though, I’m not just coming along for you. I need this right now. Michael and I are in this weird spot. I’m hoping, just like with you and Bobby, some space will do us good.”

  Piper felt the knot in her stomach pull tighter. “I owe you the truth, Jules. You’ve made this big commitment to me. For God’s sake, you have a number carved into your leg. I don’t think you can get more bonded than that. So you should know Bobby and I aren’t having a simple argument. He’s upset about what happened that day in the cabin.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “My father . . .” Piper hesitated. “The man I always thought to be my father,” she corrected, “didn�
�t kill himself. I knew if he were arrested I’d spend the next few years going through trials and appeals. I’d have to face the families of his victims, and he’d be out there somewhere, even if he were locked up. I’d always be worried about the first letter I got from him. He’d find a way to haunt me. I wanted him dead.”

  Jules turned in the passenger seat and fixed wide eyes on Piper. “Piper, did you kill him?”

  “No, I had the gun in my hand, but I hesitated, and Lindsay took it from me.”

  “Bobby killed him?” Jules asked with a small gasp, covering her mouth with her delicate hand.

  “No, Chris killed him, but Bobby allowed him to.” Piper’s hands gripped the steering wheel tightly as she recalled the events of that day. “He stepped back and let it happen. Bobby’s job at that moment would have been to point his gun at Chris, and shoot him if he didn’t stand down. He was supposed to make an arrest, not sanction a murder. I know this might change how you feel about me, about this trip even—”

  Jules cut in, “Are you kidding me? That psycho had me next on his to-do list. I don’t care what prison he would have been locked in, it wouldn’t have been good enough for me. I’m glad he’s dead, and I don’t care who had to do it, or how.”

  “But you can understand why Bobby’s struggling so much. He completely doubts himself. He’s a mess. He’s afraid of what will happen if it comes out, he can’t look at himself in the mirror, and he certainly can’t look at me. He sees this as something I wanted, or caused, and he can’t get right with it.”

  “I don’t get it. Doesn’t he see what you went through, what you would have had to go through if he had lived?”

  “Bobby has his own history, one I didn’t know about until he recently told me. I’m sure he’ll share it with you, too, someday, but I get where he’s coming from. I know the reason that being this person, the kind who looks the other way, frightens him. I just thought you should know the truth.”

  “Well I’m glad you told me, but it doesn’t change anything in my eyes. I’m only sorry things are so complicated for you and Bobby right now. Let’s make a pact. Promise that no matter what this trip brings—no matter what you find out—we will have fun. We’re heading to the most incredible city on the planet, we’re twenty-five, sort of single, and we have great asses. If we can’t have a good time, then there’s something wrong with us.”

  “Promise. But how are you sort of single?” Piper asked with a puzzled look. She was so glad she wasn’t on this journey alone. The silence in the car would have surely driven her mad by now. She would have had to face her thoughts of what might happen; now she could avoid them. She couldn’t help but wonder why Jules was so quick to run off with her.

  “I guess I owe you the same thing. Some honesty. Things are upside-down with Michael and me right now. I can’t believe I’m telling you this, but I guess it will make the beef jerky sticks make more sense. I’m pregnant.” Jules fixed her attention on the zipper of her sweatshirt, running it up and down nervously.

  Piper didn’t want to react the way her insides were telling her to, with some expletives and maybe swerving the car to the side of the road to take a mental break. She settled on an innocuous, yet loaded, question. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I found out when I was in the hospital in Edenville after I was attacked. They did routine blood work and a nurse came in and told me I was pregnant. Michael and I had just fought about where our relationship was headed. He clearly wasn’t ready to commit to me, and boom—I’m pregnant. I didn’t tell anyone because I wasn’t ready to accept it myself. We went off to Illinois and things seemed good between us. I thought maybe we could make things work. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost told him. But when you left, Bobby broke down. It hit me that if the two of you, as in love with each other as you were, couldn’t make it work, then Michael and I didn’t stand a chance. I got in the car with you, and here we are. Michael is a wonderful guy, but to make this work I really need more from him. Even without him saying it, I know he’s not ready. I’m hoping if we get some space he might miss me and realize what we have. Or maybe I’ll find a way to do this on my own.”

  Every pregnant person Piper had ever known before had gotten that way under troubling circumstances and were never in a place in their lives to raise a child. Jules, on the other hand, would be a wonderful mother and have a great support system. That meant Piper had no idea what to say to her right now, so she left it vague. “It will all work out, Jules,” was all she could manage.

  Jules shook her head and sniffled slightly. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. We have a long trip ahead of us tonight. So let’s talk logistics.” She straightened in her seat and cleared her throat. “I’m thinking since we don’t know how long all this is going to take, we should sublet an apartment short term rather than stay at a hotel that probably won’t take that hairy garbage-disposal dog in the backseat anyway.”

  “Do you know how expensive city apartments are? We can’t afford something like that,” Piper shot back.

  “Sure we can, listen to this one,” Jules said, starting to read an advertisement off her phone. “‘Seeking two roommates in the city for short term lease. Must be female and meet minimum physical requirements. Alternate forms of payment encouraged. Three-way is required for deposit.’ I’m going to call this girl.”

  “Jules, put your phone down,” Piper said with an exasperated chuckle.

  “Why? I think this could work really well for us, if she doesn’t mind a dog.”

  “First of all, she is most likely a he. Let me translate for you. The physical requirements mean we have to be hot. What do you think they are saying by suggesting alternative forms of payment?”

  “Discover card?” Jules murmured, realizing she might be slightly out of touch with life in the big city.

  “Not even close. And the three-way deposit? They mean an actual three-way, two girls and this dude. I swear, people head to the city dreaming about ice skating at Rockefeller Center and going to the top of the Empire State Building, but that’s not what it’s really about. It’s cutthroat there.”

  “Boy, you know how to suck the magic out of anything. I’d hate to hear your take on Disneyland.”

  “You need to watch your back when we get there. That thing you do where you give everyone the benefit of the doubt? Do exactly the opposite of that, okay?”

  “Fine, but I’m still excited to see New York, you know, walk the streets.”

  “The city isn’t exactly like downtown Edenville. New York City is made up of five boroughs, and each one is very different. There’s Queens, they have the Mets and a couple airports. Not much else. Staten Island is pretty laid back, I never spent much time there. There’s the Bronx, the home of the Yankees and some of the best hip hop music ever created. It used to be a notoriously low-income area but they’ve started cleaning it up. A lot of people don’t realize there is quite a bit of open land there, with lots of parks and gardens.

  “I grew up in Brooklyn. It’s all about groups there. People tend to stick with their own ethnic neighborhoods -- Russian, Ukrainian, African American, Italian—everyone has their own space, and for the most part, if you respect those lines, there isn’t much trouble between groups. I lived in an area mostly for poor white people with Irish roots, though I couldn’t really tell you my mother’s ethnicity.

  “Now, the New York City you’re dreaming about is Manhattan. It’s the smallest of all five boroughs, but it easily feels like the biggest. It has everything: Wall Street, Columbia University, Chinatown, Central Park—the list goes on and on. That’s the part of the city most people come to see, and unfortunately it’s what fools them into thinking New York has some kind of magic.”

  “I didn’t realize that. So we won’t be staying in some high-rise apartment overlooking Times Square?” Jules asked, pouting a little. “Okay, fine, next topic.” Jules pulled her phone out again and began typing in some information. “So the name of the facility yo
ur mother was in is Charter Health Center. I pulled up their website and I can see all their current employees, but none of them look old enough to have been there twenty-five years ago.”

  “I have no idea where we should even start with this.” Piper sighed. “It’s not like we can just waltz in there and start asking for personal information about patients and employees.”

  “Why not? I mean, if we explain everything to them and ask nicely, I’m sure they’ll understand.”

  “Your southern charm won’t be a currency in New York—it won’t buy you anything except a target on your back. And we don’t have enough money to bribe someone into getting us the information. I don’t know anyone capable of hacking their system.” Once again, Piper realized she was trying to get things done and still had no actual skill that might help her. This was always so much easier in the movies.

  “Well we don’t have many choices but to start at the facility. Maybe my down-home magnetism might be more effective than you think. You’ll just have to wait and see. Now as far as where we’re going to stay, you lived there most of your life so you must know someone who can help us. Maybe someone from your old neighborhood?”

  “Anyone I used to live near wouldn’t be someone I’d want to stay with now.” Piper bit at her lip, reluctant to consider the one option she did have. “There’s a business card in my wallet. Can you take it out?” Piper passed Jules her purse. “I might know one person who could help us. It’ll probably take a little work to track him down. I’m going to start giving you information to look up. With any luck, by morning we’ll have found him.”

  Chapter Two

  They had stopped only once for a nap at a rest stop. Jules had joked this was how horror movies started out. But luckily their stay was uneventful and it gave Piper the boost she needed to make the last leg of the trip. However, the benefit of the rest she’d gotten was quickly eaten up by their research and phone calls, which were turning up nothing. The person on the business card had been elusive, harder to track down than Piper had hoped.