by Hayes, S. I.
“I just don’t want to go through it all over again. I knew what I was getting into when I went up there. When I stayed. They could paint it a million different ways.”
“But you know the truth of it. The tape proves the truth of it all we gotta do is get the original. And you said it yourself that your father will get it.” Matthew rubbed her back gently.
“Who could I possibly trust to tell at the police station that wouldn’t tip the press?”
“What about that cop? The one from the night I got arrested?”
“You got arrested?” Janet questioned. “When was this?”
“Just before Christmas… Focus, please.”
“You mean Ben? O’Riley? Maybe. I can call and see if Harold still has his card.”
“Then that’s what you do. We’ll tell Ben, you’ll report what happened then call your own little press conference and get the truth out before anyone can spin it or leak it. I promise you I won’t let anyone hurt you anymore.”
Donnella wrapped her arms around him, her sigh settling into his whole body as she cried.
***
“What are you doing!” Donnella screamed seeing Samuel Sinclair strapped to a chair in the now cleared out living room of the penthouse apartment of the Stone Tower. Matthew held her back, from the scene as it unfolded in front of them. The room was covered in clear plastic and Anthony was wearing a black apron, and surgical gloves. Next to him a table with various surgical instruments. A pole with I.V. fluids was hanging and appeared to be attached to Samuel.
“I told you that no one was untouchable. If I can’t get to Kelly, I’ll take the next in line.” Harmon answered calmly standing just behind Anthony, his eyes narrowed staring at their captive.
“Now how would you like us to proceed? Mister Sinclair. We’ve already taken care of your filthy fingers... Which held down my precious little girl.” He looked to Donnella who covered her mouth, in horror. She knew that her father could be ruthless. That he had taken care of the men who had raped her when she was young, but she had not seen the damage that had been inflicted.
“Please, Donnella… I- I’m sorry.”
Matthew couldn’t stop himself, suddenly he was standing over Samuel, punching him. He tossed the man from the chair and it broke from the force, and he was on top of the naked man, thrashing his face, his chest. His genitals. The fury of what he had seen this piece of shit do to Donnella filled him. Anthony stood back, and Donnella screamed his name.
“Matthew we need to know who filmed it!” Her voice broke through his outburst, and he sat back on his knees, his fists covered in blood and gore. The man rolled to one side, twitching and convulsing in pain.
Anthony raised an eyebrow and nodded in approval. “If he ever wants a job.” He walked over to the bleeding and crying Samuel. “Now before your mouth swells shut. Who has the master file? And where can we find them?”
“A reporter named Willard Holtz.” He mumbled through broken lips and chipped teeth.
“I know the shit bag.” Donnella cut in, wrapping her arms around Matthew as he stood up still looking at his hands in shock. “It’s the same fuck who found us at the OBGYN.”
Matthew nodded though she wasn’t sure if he heard her or was just reacting to the sounds.
“We’ll be dealing with him next. Anthony clean this up, and deposit Mister Sinclair to the nearest Emergency Room with a full house.” Harmon turned to his daughter and Matthew. “While seeing you home is a blessing I’m confused, as I thought you said you were staying with him tonight? So what is this about?”
***
NINE A.M. THE STONE TOWER LOBBY THE NEXT DAY:
Donnella stood alongside her father and Matthew, frozen. “I can’t do this.” She tried to turn back to the elevator. To retreat. “There are too many of them out there. What if they start bombarding me with questions?” She pleaded.
“You stick to the script. You tell them the truth of it. They can only do so much with that. Some will turn away from you, but others will get over it.”
“So you lose a few GOP types. The ones who stay will take better care of you anyway.” Raj smiled dressed in his best women’s wear daily pantsuit. “Besides… Don’t I look stunning?”
“Like Jackie ‘O.” Donnella smiled taking a deep breath. “Okay. I’m going to do it. I can do this.” She nodded to Xavier and Harold who opened the Lobby Doors to the throng of reporters who were set up in front of a podium that had been placed for her to give her statement to the press.
The lights flashed in her eyes and it took all of her resolve not to block their assaults.
“As you know there has been a large amount of rumor and speculation revolving my personal life as of late. A certain tape having surfaced said to show me in more than one compromising situation with a pair of high society individuals. I am here to lay those rumors to rest.”
Murmurs and chatter filled the crowd.
“Please let me continue.” She tried to hold her temper. She only had this one shot in her. She couldn’t do this more than once and could feel her knees as they shook. Matthew came to stand beside her, and took her hand. As did her father. More chatter from the reporters as Harmon leaned in to the mic.
“Shut up all of you and let her speak.”
They went silent.
“Thank you Daddy.” She smiled softly, gaining her resolve. He nodded for her to go on. “The fact is that these rumors are completely and utterly… Set in Stone.”
The reporters began to clamor trying to get to her, asking questions she could not understand as the mic gave feedback.
“I’m not finished!” She called out silencing them herself. “They are true. All of the allegations of my sexual deeds. I am a woman who enjoys sex. I will not apologize for that. Have I had men in my life whose careers I furthered in exchange for having my needs met? Yes. I am a woman of means and I have never had any illusions of what people want from me, and I know what I want from them. My arrangements have always been fair, and beneficial to both parties involved. As for the phots that surfaced. I was young, I was in college. Take that as you will. Again I will not apologize for the sins of my youth. As I have already paid for them in spades. I did have a sexual encounter at the Surry Hotel in the Penthouse Suit with two men on New Year’s Eve. I did not however give my consent to have that encounter videotaped. Nor did I consent to its distribution for monetary gain. Therefore I have here in my hand an order to cease and desist its distribution, and an order for the immediate arrest of one Willard Holtz, to be carried out today by New York’s finest. Along with the arrest of the two men involved in the original video for Criminal Battery.” As the crowd swelled Donnella was led from the podium and back into the Tower. She collapsed into Matthew and her father’s arms. Xavier and Harold with Raj’s help held the doors closed. “Get her upstairs you fools.” Harold called out. “We can only hold out so long.”
“Did I do good?” She asked as they helped her into the elevator.
“You did great honey.” Harmon kissed her forehead. Taking out his inhaler, shaking it and taking a puff. “Just perfect.”
Anxiety filled her eyes as she watched him. “You’re really sick this time aren’t you? That’s why you’re still here? That’s why you’ve done all of this for me.”
Harmon looked at her with sad eyes. “Come upstairs. We have some things to discuss.”
“Just tell me. Daddy.”
He reached out to her. “Just come upstairs. And you join us later for dinner Okay. I’ll have Anthony make a nice crown roast. You’ll like that.”
Donnella straightened out. As the elevator doors opened to Mathew’s floor. “So yes or no?”
“Yes, of course. I’ll come up.” Matthew answered. She looked up at him and conceded with a nod, letting him off the elevator with a short but needing kiss.
***
“I’m worried about him.” She whispered as the doors closed. “He’s… I don’t know. There’s just something…”
/> “He loves you, more than anything. Look what he’s done to protect you.” Harmon was thankful for the sudden subject change.
“I’m afraid I’ve destroyed him from the outside in.”
The exited the elevator, “He loves you, that much is for certain. No man goes through all the trouble this one has if he isn’t completely and totally in love. That much I am sure of. Baby. I think you and he-” Harmon began to cough violently. He put his hand out trying to steady himself. Donnella tried to catch him, but he was too much weight for her. Anthony and Cordell who had been standing silent sentry in the elevator came to life suddenly. They took Harmon by the arms, helping him to a chair. He continued to gasp. Anthony went for his inhaler, he puffed. It didn’t help. They rushed him on to the elevator as Cordell ordered Donnella to call nine one, one.
Her hands shaking she pulled out her cellphone calling the EMS. “Yes this is Donnella Stone, I’m at the Stone Tower, It’s my-my father. He c- can’t breathe.”
***
Calling nine one, one and all of the medical response units that it summoned was enough to disperse the reporters from the front doors. By the time they arrived Harmon was sitting upright, but still could not completely regulate his breathing. Matthew held Donnella who was no longer hysterical, but simply staring, numbly crying.
The EMS cleared everyone away and went to work getting him into the stretcher. Donnella climbed into the back of the ambulance.
“I’ll follow with security.” Matthew assured her as they pulled away the sirens blaring. They hooked Harmon up to an oxygen tank, cranking it up to six liters, and he started to breathe at a more normal level. But his heart was racing, his blood pressure through the ceiling. As Donnella watched helplessly he grabbed her by the arm.
“Baby. You... Need… To… Get… She… Has…”
“Daddy don’t talk, it’s not good.”
“Sir we need you to lay back. You’re having a heart attack.” The EMS worker tried to assist Harmon but he refused to budge.
“Let me be, woman!” He shouted, waving at her as she tried to get an I.V. in his arm. “Ella, she has A-.”
“What are you talking about daddy?” Donnella watched as he fell back on the stretcher. The EMS worker knocking her out of the way, trying to use the defibrillator.
“Daddy...?” Donnella cried. “Daddy?”
***
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.” Donnella stared into the foam of her cappuccino. “I’m all alone now. I’m the last Stone.”
Matthew sat beside her his hands between his knees. He’d never lost anyone. Not that he could remember. He was seven when his aunt died, and at that age it was just something he had to get dressed up to do. He wasn’t sure what to say to her. How to console her. If the roles were reversed and it was his mother, he knew that he would be inconsolable. So he just sat there, if she needed a shoulder to cry on her would give her that, if she needed an ear to listen he was going to be there. But what if she needed to be left alone? He wondered at that. But pushed it back. She had not asked him to leave, if it came to that, then he would do what she wanted, but he wouldn’t like it.
“Miss Stone?” An orderly asked coming from one of the hallways.
“Yes.” She sniffed. Running her hand under her nose. “What is it? Some more paperwork?”
“No, nothing like that. He had these on him. We though you would want them, before we transfer him.”
Donnella nodded her head toward Matthew and the orderly handed the wallet and money with the clip to him before walking away.
Matthew couldn’t help but open the wallet. He lifted the photo section. And a long line of them folded out from its confines. Pictures of Donnella from infant to high school. The early ones showed her with a beaming smile and those cinnamon freckles he loved so much. Then she started with the makeup and they began to fade until the last image showed them completely and expertly covered. “Why do you hide them?”
“What?” She turned around startled, his question breaking the quiet.
“Your freckles. Why do you hide them?” He turned the photos to her.
She walked over surprised to see that her father still carried them around. “I got a lot of teasing over them. It was easier to hide them then put up with hearing them call me names.” She took the wallet, turning it over in her hand. “I don’t know how to plan a funeral. I’ve never had to. When my mother died. He…”
“With all due respect. Miss Stone, but those arrangements have been taken care of.” Anthony spoke up pulling away from his place at the wall. “Mister Stone saw to it quite some time ago. That upon his passing he would have a small private service, and be interred with your mother.”
Donnella nodded. “That’s how he would want it.” She sniffed. “It’s how I would want it, if it were me.”
19
“I need you. Now.” Donnella’s voice was heavy in his ear. The funeral had not been as small as planned. When one of New York’s elite passes, nothing can be small. The old partners, the Mayor, even the Governor sent flowers and his condolences. Donnella took it in stride, putting on the face for the reporters who slithered around. Anthony and Jacob along with the rest of her father’s detail carried the casket from the church. Not once since the hospital had Matthew seen or heard her cry.
She’d grabbed him as he’d walked by, dragging him into the nearby bathroom. “Ella, everyone is waiting on you.” He smiled gently. “They expect you out there.”
“I’m numb.” She shifted against the marble countertop wiggling out of her panties. “I need you to make me feel something before I can’t feel anything anymore.” She hopped up on the counter, grabbing him by the shoulders. “Please…” She begged kissing him urgently, her need causing a swell in him. She reached for the buckle on his pants and he pulled back letting her slide down the counter to take him into her quivering mouth.
“Ugh, Ella, easy…” He moaned as she worked him swiftly, getting him solid. She stood up wiping at her mouth, wrapping her arms around him, he lifted her up, he didn’t need any more direction. He knew what she wanted, and she was more than ready for it as she wrapped her legs over his hips and he entered her. She let out a ravenous moan, and he covered her mouth. She bit his hand as he moved, her back against the mirror, her face buried in his shoulder, his face buried in her falling hair. She came quickly, and he was glad for it. She settled against him, her heart racing, her breath erratic as she stood on wobbly legs.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he helped her to clean up.
“I wish everyone would stop asking that. Do I look okay?” She barked, as she walked out the door letting it slam shut behind her.
“That’s it! Party’s over!” Donnella announced as she straightened her dress. The chatter of the guests began to die down. “See I just fucked my boyfriend in the other room and it didn’t go on so good. That means we’re having an issue. Which means I’m having issues. And I’m looking at over a dozen of them right now!”
People began to slowly make way for the exits.
“Yeah that’s right, run along!” She shouted. “You come make your excuses. Make your sad eyes at the lost little girl! The depraved skank, right cuz that’s what you all think of me.”
Matthew came rushing out of the bathroom, not sure if he should stop her or let her have her rant. He decided she deserved to have her say. Stopping her security, who had planned to intervene.
“She needs to do this.”
“You come here, eat the food, drink the booze all so you can get a look at the, the famous Stone Penthouse. Well you’ve had your lookie look. Now my question is who’s going to still have my back on Monday morning?”
Faces turned downward. The room went silent.
“Yeah, see. Like I said. Get the fuck out of my house!”
More murmurs as the people tried to leave. Matthew now came to her side, she flinched as he touched her shoulders.
“How did that feel?” He half laughed.
“That? Sorta incredible…”
***
Donnella had cried herself to sleep in Matthew’s arms. When they returned to his quiet apartment, even Pepper seemed to feel that there was something changing in the air. He loved Donnella, God did he love her, but he knew that she still worried about her work. Her outburst made that loud and clear, and this was partly his fault. There had to be something he could do to fix it. He slipped from the bed, got dressed and went downstairs. Taking his phone he went out on to the terrace to make a few calls.
***
Gerald Mcloughlin was not an unreasonable man. Nor was he unkind. He simply did not have time in his world to waste with riff raff and deviants. Donnella Stone was obviously a little of both. She may have had a strong head for business but if her personal life could spill so openly out into the public eye so easily, then she had no business in Big Business. It was why he preferred to work with men. Men like Donovan Kelly who did not mince words and who kept their promises. Men who were brought up right and did not fall so low. Donavan wanted control of Mcloughlin Financial, but Gerald held out hope that his eldest son, would eventually come around. He was after all only twenty six years old. There was still time. At least that was what he had thought until his health had begun to decline. Now the doctors had begun to tell him that he needed more rest. That he should pull back. He was beginning to suffer the early effects of the Alzheimer’s disease. Things like daily planning, and even buttoning his own shirts were becoming a problem. In the boardroom he was still sharp. Yet it was only a matter of time. Donavan knew something was wrong, but not quite what, Gerald planned to keep it that way. Then out of the blue, or perhaps out of some form of desperation the phone rang and Matthew, was on the other side of the line. Demanding to see him. To speak with him. Who was he to deny his flesh and blood son?
“Yes, come. Come!” He had said. “No Constance is at a bridge game until who knows when. The maid will know to let you in.” That had been the extent of it. Now he waited for his boy, who any moment now would come through the door.