by Holly Rayner
“Don’t be sorry. It’s been a long time since a fat old bald man such as myself received such an affectionate hug from a pretty young lady.” He took two business cards and an ink pen out of his breast pocket and handed it to me. “My numbers are on there. Write yours down for me on the other one.”
I did as he asked and he said, “I will be in touch. If you need to get ahold of me before that, A—Erin,” he said with a smile. Calling me that let me know that he was willing to keep my secret safe. “Feel free to call me anytime.”
“Thank you so much. I will always be grateful.”
“I hope I can help you,” he said. “I will do my best.” I stood rooted to the spot while he left. I felt like the stars were finally lining up on my side.
~
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
~
I stood there looking around the room I was in for a full five minutes after Phillip left. It was definitely a library. It was filled with classic and out of print titles that were probably worth more than all of James’s executives yearly salaries put together. I had to look at all of this excess that he seemed to flaunt and wonder how much of it came from illegal or immoral gains. I hardly doubt that his taking advantage of me was the first or the last time he took advantage of someone. Shaking my head in disgust, I moved on. No one was in the hall so I headed in the direction I had been going in to begin with and slipped into the next room I came to. It was some kind of office, or study. There was an oversized cherry wood desk in front of a plush looking leather chair. Behind it was a set of shelves that contained gold framed photographs of James Hunter with various public figures and even a few celebrities. I didn’t see any of him with his own son… imagine that. To the left of the shelves was a large wooden filing cabinet.
I went back over to the door and looked out into the hall once more. It still appeared that I was alone. I closed the door and went over to the filing cabinet. Sliding the top drawer open I saw neatly organized files with dates written across the top of each of them. It appeared that they were in chronological order. The drawer I was in appeared to be recent files from this year. I knew that I didn’t have time to stand here and go through all of them right now, although I would have liked to… for no other reason than to see what other evil things this man had been up to. I closed that drawer and opened the one on the bottom. I found the year I was looking for and pulled out the first file. It had documents in it… original documents for the purchase of an apartment building on Park Avenue. I put it back and pulled out the next one. This one was a court document and I saw the name I was hoping for: Morgan Corp.
It listed my father’s company as the “Plaintiff” and the “Respondent” was listed as the one and only James Hunter. My father was suing James? I turned the first page and began reading. It looked like my father was suing him for a breach of confidentiality. It also said that James Hunter was filing a countersuit against my father for slander. James was a lawyer during that time. Was he my father’s lawyer before the civil suit? I began to turn to the next page when I heard the sound of footsteps on the smooth wood floor in the hall. Damn it! I’d left my bag up front with my coat. I didn’t have anywhere to put the papers in the slinky dress I was wearing. I shoved the file back in the drawer and closed it. I would have to figure out another way to get back in here. I stood up just as I heard the doorknob turn and acted like I was looking at the photos on the shelf.
“Erin?” I turned around. It was Seth poking his head in the door. Thank God he hadn’t found me on my knees in front of his father’s private filing cabinet.
“Yeah,” I said. He pushed the door open further and came inside.
“Hey, what are you doing in here? I’ve been looking all over for you.”
“I just needed some time to myself,” I told him.
“Are you okay? I’m sorry if your feelings were hurt. My father can be a real ass sometimes.”
“Your father’s behavior was not what upset me,” I told him.
He knew that I was talking about him. I saw a guilty expression cross his face and then he said, “I’m not sure what you expected me to do. I didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the guests.”
I looked at him for a long time. Did he really not know that I expected him to stick up for me no matter who was there? We were seeing each other… we were sleeping together… of course I expected him to stick up for me. I wanted to be more important than his asshole father and stuffy guests. I thought it so strange that he didn’t see that, but this was neither the time nor the place for that discussion. I had a headache and no desire to have another run in with the senior Hunter. I was finished for tonight.
“I’d like to go home, Seth. I’m not feeling very well.”
“Okay, I’m sorry. I’ll take you.” He said that because that’s what I expected, but I could see the anxiety in his eyes. I’m sure him leaving in the middle of the party would be the source of a fight between him and his father. As angry as I was with him, I didn’t want him to have to go through that.
“No. You stay here, finish the party. I’ll be fine if you can just have your driver take me, please.”
“Erin…”
“We don’t have to talk about this tonight Seth. Please.”
He nodded and said, “I’ll have Trevor bring the car around. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?” I didn’t answer him. In spite of how angry I wanted to be at him, the hurt in his eyes made me feel bad. I tamped it down, like I told Seth… not tonight.
***
Seth tucked me into the back of the limousine and I went home. When I got there, Grant was just coming in as well.
“Well, hello gorgeous!”
“Hi Grant. How was your evening?”
He made a boo-boo face at me and said, “Mine was good, but you look like you need to talk about yours.”
“Maybe,” I said. “I’m going to change out of this dress.”
“You look stunning,” he said. “You look much too beautiful to come home so sad. I’m going to open us up a bottle of wine and you can tell me whose ass I need to kick.”
That made me smile. While he went into the kitchen to get the wine, I went in to change out of the dress. I stopped to look in the full-length mirror before I did and I marveled at the fact I could leave the house a few hours earlier in love and feeling like a princess and return confused, hurt and frustrated. I unzipped the dress and stepped out of it. Then I stripped off my tights and shoes and went into the bathroom. I took my hair into both of my hands and twisted it up on top of my head, securing it with an elastic band and then I washed the make-up from my face. I slipped into a pair of flannel pajamas with ducks on them and I went back out to the living room. Grant was sitting on the couch with the bottle of wine and two glasses sitting on the table in front of him. When he looked up and saw me he said, “Wow, even without all the fancy schmancy stuff, you’re gorgeous.”
“Shut up,” I said. Grant laughed.
“Testy,” he said as he poured us a glass of wine. Handing me one he said, “Tell me.”
“Nope, I’ve been a terrible friend lately. You tell me about your night first.”
He grinned a mischievous little grin and said, “Okay sure. Juniper and I had sex tonight for the first time…”
“I met James Hunter face to face tonight,” I jumped in. He had done that on purpose. He knew I wasn’t going to want the details of that.
He laughed at my quick change and then he said, “Did the old thief recognize you?”
“No… I don’t know. He was mean, so maybe. But everyone who knows him says that’s just his normal, sunny personality, so maybe not.”
“What did he say?”
“He made some rude insinuations that I was sleeping my way to the top. He didn’t say that in so many words, but he may as well have. He said it right out in front of people. It was so embarrassing.”
“Oh no, you poor thing. Did Seth hear him?”
This was the part I didn’t really want to admi
t to Grant. I already knew how he was going to respond. I tried to skip over that and I said, “I met a man who might be able to help me though…”
“Wait! Back up! You completely ignored my question. Why don’t you want to tell me if Seth heard what his father said?”
“Because it’s embarrassing,” I said. “His father so obviously scares him to death… he’s completely intimidated by him.”
“So what did he say?”
“Nothing, really.”
Grant slammed his glass down on the table in front of him and stood up. “Are you freaking kidding me? That cowardly bastard just stood there and let you be insulted by his father? Please tell me you’re joking!”
“Sit down, Grant… please.”
He sat down and said, “You know I just care about you. I can’t stand the thought of anyone being rude to you… but for that man you have such strong feelings for to not even stick up for you…”
“I know. I was as angry as you are.”
“Was? What happened to make you less angry, because I think I’ll need a couple more bottles of wine before I can even consider that prospect.”
“I’m still a little angry with him. But think about it, Grant. Think about what it must have been like for him to grow up with that tyrant. He was programmed to do things the way James wanted him to do and only that way… or I am sure there would have been consequences. Seth has a good heart. His father has a black heart. They had to clash… a lot.”
“Or maybe they didn’t. Maybe Seth just lets his father be the bad guy and he sits back and gets the girls because they feel sorry for him. Maybe he’s got a good racket going. Or maybe you’re just making excuses for him.”
With a sigh I said, “Okay, for now we’ll let that part of the evening lie. Let me tell you about the man that I met.” I told him about Phillip and our conversation.
“Are you sure you can trust him?”
“No, but he’s really the best shot I have so far. He gives me a good feeling and he had some really nice things to say about my family.”
“Well that’s good. I hope he can help. Maybe you won’t need to hang around with that Seth guy any longer then.”
I laughed, “I thought we were going to leave the Seth issue alone for now.”
“I’m just really mad at that guy,” he said.
“Well, I am too, a little. But, while I was hiding out in the study I found some papers that I think might be important. I found out that my father was suing James for a breach of confidentiality, and James was suing him back for slander. I need to get more details, but I won’t ever get back into that study if I break up with Seth.”
“You plan on going back to that place?”
“First chance I get,” I told him. He made a face at me and poured himself another glass of wine.
~
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
SETH
The night after the ball ended, I didn’t sleep a wink. It was after midnight before the guests began leaving and I was exhausted. I told my father he could go on back to the city and I would just stay at the Hampton house for the night. It was my favorite house of them all, because it had been my mother’s favorite. I rarely stayed there any more however because my father was there a lot and I avoided him as often as I could for obvious reasons. After everyone had finally gone I lay down and tried to close my eyes. When I did, all I could see was Erin’s face. It was a beautiful face and I loved looking at it, but tonight she had looked so hurt and so betrayed. I had completely failed her. I stood there like a coward and let my father say ugly things to her and about her and I did nothing. She had every right to be angry with me. She had every right to never want to see me again. She had seen my true colors. She’d seen how spineless I was when it came to my father.
I had been terrified of him my entire life. When my mother was alive, she was a buffer between us. She was our go-between and I rarely had to deal with him. The problem with that was once she’d passed away I had no idea how to talk to him or how to stand up to him. He doled out the orders and I did what he said to do. I wasn’t physically afraid of him… he’d never hurt me in that way. I wasn’t even afraid when he made threats to take away my inheritance. I had a good education. I knew how competent I was, I could make a good living with or without him. I wasn’t going to pretend I didn’t like the wealth and all that came with it… but I didn’t depend on it. In spite of all of that, and in spite of the fact that he never told me I’d done anything good or right, I still had this twisted sense of wanting to please him. Maybe I needed therapy.
I tossed and turned until the sun came up and finally admitting that sleep had eluded me, I got up and dressed for a jog. It was a cool morning and I took off down the path behind the house that led towards the bay. The garden my mother had planted and tended so lovingly was in bloom and the air was perfumed with fresh aromas. I hit the stone path and my feet began to pound out a rhythm. With each stride my thoughts became clearer and I realized that this was exactly what I needed. I also realized that I needed to stop letting my father set up camp in my head. I was twenty-six years old. I couldn’t remain under his thumb forever. I thought about Erin. I wanted her in my life, not just today or tomorrow… I realized that I wanted her in my life forever. She was the path to my future but she was also a strong, confident, independent woman and if I didn’t take control of my own life out of my father’s hands, I was going to lose her. I looked around at the acres of land and the houses and the cars and the boats as I ran and I realized that I would rather lose all of this and my position at Hunter Corp. than her. Now all I had to do was convince her of that.
By the time I got back up to the house I was determined to do whatever I had to in order to convince Erin she was more important to me than anything else. I showered and dressed and headed to her apartment unannounced. That in and of itself might annoy her, but I was afraid if I called ahead, she would tell me not to come.
It was just after nine when I knocked on her door. I knocked a few times before the door was finally pulled open by a man wearing nothing but a long pair of basketball shorts. His face was unshaven and his hair uncombed and the first thought I had when I saw him was that I was already too late, she was already moving on.
“Can I help you?”
He was squinting at me, like it hurt to open his eyes. My best guess was he had a hangover. I hope she didn’t leave the party and go to a bar and end up with this loser because of me. “I’m looking for Erin.”
He ran his hand through his hair and squinted at me again. Then he scratched his chin and said, “Seth, I presume?”
The fact that he knew my name was encouraging. I didn’t think she’d be discussing me with a man she’d only just met.
“Yes. Is Erin here?”
“No. But she’ll be right back. Come on in. I’m Grant.”
“Oh! The roommate.”
He smiled, “Yeah, the roommate. Have a seat,” he said, after I followed him into a neat little living room. I sat down on the sofa and he said, “You want some coffee?”
“Um… I really need to talk to Erin…”
“Yes you do,” he said. I suddenly realized by the way he was looking at me that she must have told him what happened at the party.
“Sure, I’ll take some coffee,” I said. “Black, please.”
He disappeared into the kitchen. While he was gone I looked around the little room. The photos on the walls were all of Erin and Grant. They were in various places and they were dressed in everything from formal attire to beachwear. This Grant was a good-looking guy. I suddenly wondered why they weren’t more than just roommates.
“Here you go.” He came back into the room and handed me a steaming mug.
“Thank you,” I said. He sat his cup down on the table.
“Sure, I’ll be right back.” He was only gone about a minute. He came back with a t-shirt on and it looked like he might have splashed some water on his face.
“So wher
e is Erin?” I asked him.
“She went for a run in the park. She’s usually gone an hour or two. I think she left around eight.”
“Oh, I could come back,” I said.
“Listen.” Grant sat his coffee down again. “You might sit there when I tell you this and think “who the hell is this guy and why does he think this is his business?” I don’t doubt that this is going to piss you off, but just so we’re clear; I don’t care. First, I’m going to tell you who I am. I’m her best friend. I love her more than anyone else in my life. I want only the best for her, and I will do anything to help her accomplish her goals. With that being said, Erin cares a great deal for you. She spent an entire week getting ready for that party last night. I don’t know what your father’s problem is and I don’t care but dude, it is not cool for you to stand there and let her be insulted by anyone. I don’t care if it’s the Queen of freaking England. She deserves so much more respect than that.”