No Matter What

Chapter 29

After kissing the babies goodbye, as well as hugging Maggie and Stacey goodbye, Mike drove Meryl and Don to the warehouse. He had made sure that there was security at the warehouse. Mike of course knew that the people who did this to Don were in jail, but he sure wasn't going to take any chances. Don, ever the gentleman, told Meryl to sit up front with Mike; but she, of course, refused. Not only did Don have longer legs than she did, but she wanted him to be up there with Mike, and she felt that he would be more comfortable. Meryl was sitting in the back keeping her hand on Don's shoulder as they talked to Mike. All of a sudden, Meryl was aware of where they were. She looked around and realized that they were at the turnoff at the lake, where Don's parents lived, and noticed that Mike pulled into a parking lot. "Where are we?"

"Honey, this is the warehouse." Mike said gently. "We can go in whenever you two are ready, or we can leave."

Don patted Mike's shoulder. "Mikey, I need to do this; and Meryl needs to be with me."

"Wait, this is it?" Meryl asked surprised. "This is the turnoff to go to Brad and Jane's house. So, you are telling me that he was a few blocks away when I was begging her to tell me where he was? That Stacey and I drove past this place TWICE that night? My god, I could have gone to get him had I known."

Don turned around the best he could and took her hand in his. "Thank God you didn't. Baby, they could have killed you."

"Or they could have retaliated by killing him." Mike pointed out. "Meryl, you handled everything perfectly. That's why we have our boy back."

Meryl looked at Don as she saw the intense worry for HER on his face. "I'm fine, baby, I'm just fucking pissed off."

"And you have every right to be." Don said kissing her hand. He felt like this trip to the warehouse was as much for her healing as it was for his own. "Pops, this is really it?"

Mike knew what this place was, he was hoping Don wouldn't know, but he could tell that Don did know. Once Mike had found out the address of this place, he checked his own records to make sure it was what he thought, actually he hoped it wasn't what he thought, but it was. "Yeah, son. You know don't you?"

"Yeah." Don sighed as she shook his head in disbelief. "I do."

Meryl shook her head as she was rubbing Don's back. "I don't. Baby, if you don't want to tell me..."

"Of course I do." Don said looking at Mike. He knew that this would break his wife. "But it is going to upset you. I just want to warn you."

Meryl sighed loudly. "I don't care. If it has to do with what happened to you I want to know."

"James owned this building." Don said. "Mom still owns it."

Meryl's eyes got huge. "Are you fucking serious?"

"I should have thought of it." Mike said shaking his head as he turned off the car. "I should have pulled up the register of deeds and checked all the buildings she still owns. We should have checked that before I let you go through that farce of a divorce."

Meryl felt bad, the last thing she wanted was for Mike to think that he didn't handle things right or do enough. "Mikey, you did EVERYTHING to help find him. Everything happened so quickly."

"She's right, Pops." Don said calling Mike the nickname he called him growing up. "My wife saved my life, but I know she didn't do it alone. You are why I was reunited with MY family so quickly."

Meryl smiled tearfully at Mike. "There is NO way we could have saved him as quickly as we did without you; and there is NO way in hell I would have been able to get through that nightmare with you, Maggie, Lizzie, Stacey, and of course Larry."