by Lauren Runow
After the accident, Austin went home and has been rehabilitating. Today was his first day back, and we celebrated the release of his exclusive interview with Sergeant Miller. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since I left the hospital. Austin was adamant that Tanner stay in New York to wrap up his finals and insisted he didn’t want visitors. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see he is happy to have Jalynn play nurse.
“This place is a fortress,” Charlie says in awe as he looks up into the marble entryway.
We walk past security and into the elevator. The kid is short for his age, but he looks especially tiny in the grand lobby of marble and granite.
“You come here every day?” he asks.
“I do.”
“And you work for a newspaper,” he adds.
“I own many newspapers.”
He bobs his head. “You really are like Clark Kent.”
I smile and ruffle his hair. He starts to count each number as we climb. It starts off pretty mundane … one … two. As we near the eleventh floor, his voice escalates a bit, and his eyes widen with each number. When he says twenty, his body starts to dance, and his smile widens. I start to count with him … twenty-one, twenty-two. By the time we get to the twenty-second floor, we’re practically screaming the numbers and shaking like we just yelled, Blast off! Who knew an elevator ride would be so exciting for a kid?
We’re laughing as the doors open to the floor, and I realize it’s the first time in years I haven’t dreaded those thirty-three seconds in the elevator. Maybe I should bring Charlie to work every day.
“I’ll show you my office, and you can sit in the big desk chair while I have my meeting.”
We pass Jalynn’s desk, where her chair is empty. She said she’s staying late with Austin so I know she’s in the building.
Charlie and I enter my office. He runs to the executive desk chair and hops in, making it skid back a little toward the floor-to-ceiling windows behind him.
“Are you gonna be okay in here? I’ll be back in five minutes. Don’t go anywhere.” I’m motioning to him with my hands like he’s a dog I’m telling to sit and lie down.
“I’m good. I’m gonna pretend I’m Lex Luthor getting ready to plot my revenge on the world.” He puts his hands in a triangle, very fitting for villain pretend play.
“As long as you don’t leave. And don’t touch the computer. Or the phone.”
He tilts his head. “What can I touch?”
I look around the room and remember I have booze in my bottom desk drawer. I walk over, open it, take the bottle of Johnnie Walker out, and then say, “Everything else.”
I close my office door and place the bottle of booze in the trash by Jalynn’s desk. I head down to the conference room. There are employees in the newsroom, but many of the offices back here are empty, as they are senior positions that usually don’t hold late-night hours.
When I turn into the conference room, I halt on the carpet and do a double take. Missy is here, as I expected. Also at the table are two women.
One I know for certain shouldn’t be here.
The other I’ve never met before and I was hoping to soon … except not at this particular venue.
“Christine. What are you doing here?” I ask her in confusion.
She gives no response other than to pinch her lips and scowl.
The entire time she worked here, I never saw her with Missy, so this screams of something I don’t want anything to do with. Especially since they’re sitting at a table with none other than America’s crusader for women’s rights—Kathleen Clarke.
Otherwise known as Tessa’s mom.
The way her eyes glare back at me under her dark-framed glasses makes me question if she even knows who I am or if she knows her grandson is sitting in my office down the hall.
“Mr. Sexton.” Kathleen nods her head but doesn’t extend her hand, seeming like she’s disgusted to touch the skin of a man like me.
She’s looking at me in a way that makes me believe she has no clue I’m dating her daughter. Tessa and I have discussed her mom many times. I know she knows about me. At least, I thought she did. Tessa said she wanted me to go to breakfast with them this weekend. An offer I accepted, yet I have been oddly nervous about.
Kathleen opens a thick folder she has on the conference table.
“Ms. Clarke, it’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say.
“You know who I am. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. Usually, men of your stature are intimidated by me.” Her tone is neither condescending nor kind. “If you aren’t now, I promise, you will be by the end of this meeting.”
“What is this about?” I try to act calm and not like I’m about to get my balls ripped off by the woman who birthed my girlfriend.
“Mr. Sexton, it has been brought to my attention by my client, Christine Mummert, that she was fired after failing to perform oral sex on the night of—”
“Absolutely not!” I declare.
She seems to be unaffected by my outburst. “You’d be advised to control your temper, Mr. Sexton,” Kathleen states. “Male privilege and entitlement do not make you above the law. You took advantage of my client—a faithful assistant who you used as a sexual pawn.”
“Sexual pawn?” I question with an outward show of frustration and then stop.
My heart is pumping out of my chest. I’ve covered this type of scenario many times in the news, but I have never been the subject of one. I want to yell and go ballistic on Christine for accusing me of such a thing, but I know well enough to rein it in. Men have buried themselves in hotter water over smaller accusations.
“I believe I need my counsel present.”
Missy takes a seat and crosses her legs. There’s a Martha Stewart–like smile on her face. “Now, now, Bryce, no need to be so defensive. This is just a pretty little meeting of the minds. No one’s called the cops … yet.”
Her threat is laced in her picture-perfect appearance, so prim and proper, but really, she’s a vindictive—
Don’t go there, Bryce.
“Then, what do you want?” I ask.
“For you to pay!” Christine calls out from her seat.
I haven’t seen her in a while, but she looks different to me. It’s in her face. She looks thinner. Sadder.
“For what?” I keep my voice level.
She raises her chin and says, “For forcing me to give you a blow job in your office.”
I have no words. No words. Just anger.
I run my hands over my temples and then pinch the bridge of my nose.
Rein it in, Sexton. This is not the place.
Kathleen looks pleased by my silence. “In my twenty-five-year career, this is the most common sexual assault case. They have the same beginning—young assistant who wants to climb the ranks and a high-powered boss who uses sex as a means of promotion. While this might not seem like a big deal to you, Mr. Sexton, my client has been severely traumatized by what she was forced to suffer. This case will not end well for you. I’ll be proud to have my picture splayed across your precious papers as the person who took you down. No man should get away with firing their assistant because they wouldn’t sleep with him.”
Her words are cruel, but her face is stoic. She’s done this many times before, and she knows the art of posture. Calm and steady wins the race. I, on the other hand, can’t help the fury that is building inside me.
“Is this about money?” I turn to Christine. I take a step closer to the table and place my hands on the oak. “You’ll slander my good name just to get a few dollars?”
Christine opens her mouth, but Kathleen silences her with the touch of her forearm.
Kathleen looks back at me. “If it were up to me, this would be public. Due to the anxiety my client has experienced over this, she has requested to settle this privately. If we cannot do so, we’ll have to go public.” Kathleen leans back with her shoulders stiff and chin raised—her power posture. It’s a sign that any word I s
ay won’t faze her. “You think, just because a woman is nice to you, it’s an open invitation to try to get in her pants?”
“That is not what happened. I was never inappropriate with her. She’s the one who came into my office, wearing nothing but lingerie.”
“So, you didn’t kiss her in your office, and you didn’t allow her to give you oral sex behind your desk and then kick her out and fire her the next day?”
“No.” My teeth grind so hard; I think I might break a tooth. “There were still people in the newsroom, so I closed the door so that no one would see there was a half-naked woman in my office.”
“What happened after you locked her inside the office?” Kathleen asks, taking notes.
“I didn’t lock her in. I was protecting her from anyone else seeing her,” I say.
Missy laughs like the idea is ludicrous.
“She came on to me, touched me. She had her hands on my thighs, and I pushed them away when she tried to undo my zipper. I walked out of the office and went home to change for the gala.”
Kathleen is shaking her head. Her pen is working overtime on the notepad. “Mr. Sexton, you expect us to believe you walked into your office to a woman wearing lingerie and closed the door behind you, so you could tell her you were simply not interested?”
I look up at Missy, who is snickering in her seat. “Can I venture to guess what your involvement is in all this?”
“I’m just here as a mediator, trying to help bring justice to this poor victim.” She gives a fake sincere smile to Christine.
“Let me guess. The terms are for me to hand over my stake in the company or else you’ll go to the cops.” My chest puffs out with the sharp intake of air.
“You forgot about compensating the victim.” Missy grins.
I can’t believe Kathleen Clarke took on this case. I can’t believe Christine is part of this. I’ve tried to stay poised, tried to be calm, but this bullshit is starting to wear at me. “You think you have a case against me. Fine. Bring it up with my attorneys.”
“We will,” Missy adds. “And you’ll most certainly go to jail. We have tapes. Tapes of Christine entering your office. Tapes of you going in, you leaving, and then she leaves in a disheveled mess. She even has the panties you tore off of her.”
“Nothing happened,” I reiterate.
Missy continues, “Really? Then, why did you force her to attend the gala that night? You were inappropriate with her on the roof as well. She slapped you for being so offensive.”
I slam my finger on the table. “She slapped me because I told her I didn’t want to be with her. It’s the same thing I said when she tried to seduce me in my office.”
“Yet you ran off to the roof with that whore,” Christine adds.
“Don’t you dare speak of Tessa like that!” I raise my voice.
“Who’s Tessa?” Missy asks. “Oh,” she says as if she’s remembered something dreadful. “You mean, Tessa Clarke, Austin’s whore? The one who ruined my Dior?”
“Austin’s what?” Kathleen asks in astonishment.
“She’s not Austin’s, and I swear, Christine, you can fuck with me, but don’t you dare go after the woman I love,” I threaten.
“Or what?” Christine asks.
Missy quickly sits up and motions her hands in confusion. “Did you just say you love that woman?”
“What the hell is going on here?” Kathleen shouts.
We all look her way. From the way she’s staring at me, I know she has no idea about me and Tessa.
“I’m in love with your daughter,” I say.
Christine lets out a loud huff.
“How do you know Tessa? Oh, my Lord.” She falls back into her seat with her hands to her mouth, digesting the information. She closes her eyes and processes this. “Bryce Jones. Makes sense. I knew she wouldn’t date a model from Fresno or a Texans cornerback.”
I raise a brow. Tessa had damn well better not be interested in either of those men. Who they are is beyond me.
“Does she know this?” Kathleen looks up at me, surprised. “Does Tessa know you’re in love with her?”
“Yes. And she loves me,” I state with every bit of conviction.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Missy rises from her seat.
“She’s a gold digger,” Christine yells toward me.
“This needs to stop right now.” Kathleen stands as she gathers her folder.
Christine rises with her, but Kathleen puts her hand on her shoulder and forces her back down on the seat. She grabs her voice recorder and places it in her briefcase.
“Unfortunately, under the circumstances of this man supposedly dating my daughter, I am now unable to serve as your counsel.”
Christine turns her seat and pleads, “You have to take my case. He forced me to go down on him.”
“No matter how much I want to take down any man who demands such things from a woman, it is now a conflict of interest, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
As she walks past me, she lowers her forehead and snarls, “I suggest you lawyer up … big time … and fast.”
“Ms. Clarke, if you’d just—”
“You’re a scoundrel and a user. I might not be able to represent Ms. Mummert, but that doesn’t mean this case is over. I know other lawyers, and you can bet yourself that I will be helping her find the best one to take you down. There is no way a man like you deserves to be with my daughter, and if I have to help put you behind bars to prove it to her, I’ll do so.”
“I know. I don’t deserve her or Charlie, but I’ll spend my life doing everything right by them. They’re my family,” I say.
Kathleen looks back toward Missy and the scene she is about to leave. “If this is what family is to you, then I don’t want it anywhere near mine.” She shuffles past me and into the hallway.
I look back at Missy, who is standing there with her hand on her hip and a pissed-off expression on her face.
“When does this end?” I ask. “Do you want to sell this company so bad that you’ll destroy the lives of everyone around you? First, you try with Austin, and now, me. Why is the destruction of this company and our family so important to you?”
She says nothing. Her chest is heaving as her chin rises higher. Her fake lashes flutter as she fights back whatever emotion she’s suppressing.
“Fuck you, Bryce,” she says and then turns toward the window. “You, get out!” she says to Christine, who jumps up from her seat and runs out of the room, nearly knocking into me.
I stand there, waiting for Missy to further explain. To say something that will let me know her intention for the future.
Her back is to me as she looks out onto the dark sky of San Francisco. Sensing she’s not going to say anything, I start to leave.
“We’re going to New York.” Her words stop me in my tracks.
“Why would you do that when Tanner’s coming home in a few weeks?”
She tilts her head and speaks over her shoulder, “We told him to stay. There’s nothing here for him right now. Your father and I have a surprise for him.”
Anything that has Missy and my father’s names attached is never a good thing.
“Leave the kid alone. I’d rather sit in prison for eternity than you do anything to get him in trouble.”
Missy’s shoulder rises. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
The stakes in this game keep rising, yet I keep playing. Knowing I can’t stay in this room any longer and that there’s a little boy waiting for me down the hall, I storm out of the room, away from my evil stepmom. Away from the awful trick she tried to play with my wicked ex-assistant and the woman I hope one day to actually be my mother-in-law.
Maybe Kathleen’s right. I’m crazy to think this is a life for Tessa and Charlie. This world of Sexton drama is far beneath their goodness. If I were a stronger man, I’d leave them alone. Problem is, I’m weak and too far gone in my love for Tessa to ever leave.
Trying
my best to calm my nerves, I head toward my office.
“You ready, Charlie?” I say as I turn the corner, only to see an empty office.
The chair he was sitting in is empty, as is the conference table and every corner in the space. Hoping he’s playing a game of hide-and-seek, I search under every table and behind everything in the room.
“Charlie?” I call out, walking into my en suite bathroom.
I run out to the hallway, hoping Jalynn is back, but she’s still not there. I run through the newsroom, asking anyone who’s there if they’ve seen Charlie. I check the break room, the restrooms, the hallways.
Nothing.
He’s gone.
I check the other offices next to mine before picking up my phone to call Austin, knowing Jalynn has got to be with him, but I need her right now.
Austin’s phone rings five agonizing times until I hear, “What can I do for you, sweetheart?”
“Austin!” I say in a panic. “Where’s Jalynn? I need her help. You, too. Have you seen a little boy? I can’t find him.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down. What boy?”
“Charlie. He was sitting in my office, and now, he’s gone. I can’t find him. Where are you guys? Have you seen him?” I’ve been running from room to room and nothing. I run my hands through my hair. “He’s gone. I can’t find him anywhere.”
“Don’t worry; we’ll come help you look. He couldn’t have gone far,” Austin says into the phone before the line goes dead.
I continue to look under every desk I can until Austin and Jalynn come rushing in.
“Who is this kid?” Austin asks.
“It’s my girlfriend’s son. I’m supposed to be taking him to a Boy Scout event.”
My stomach turns, and the fear of throwing up starts to take over. I’ve never felt this feeling, this hopelessness running through me.
“You lost Tessa’s son?” Jalynn asks incredulously.
“You knew he had a girlfriend and didn’t say anything to me?” Austin turns to Jalynn with a what the fuck expression.
She tilts her head at him. “You have a big mouth when it comes to your brother’s love life. He didn’t need you getting in his face about ‘getting laid’.” She makes air quotes as she says the last words getting laid.