by K. A. Berg
I bury my face in my pillow as my body flops back down in the bed. I could sleep for the next two days. Mixing that much wine and emotion yesterday wasn’t my brightest idea. Closing my eyes, I try to block out the voices wading in from the living room through the slightly ajar bedroom door.
Just as the blackness is about to suck me back in, Alex returns bringing bad news.
“Angel, your mom is here.”
That can’t be right, I must have heard him wrong, “My mother?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure what you wanted me to do. We haven’t spoken much about everything from yesterday,” he says, linking his fingers behind his neck drawing my attention to the way his abs become more defined with the motion.
My eyes blink rapidly as I try to get my muddled brain to focus. “I’ll talk to her. I’ve got to start getting this mess wrapped up. The sooner, the better.”
“You sure?” Alex confirms.
“Yes,” I reiterate pushing myself up, successfully this time. “Just let me brush my teeth and wake up a little bit before I talk to her.”
“Okay…” he says hesitantly. “I’ll go get your mom some coffee.”
Alex’s confusion is justified. I didn’t want to talk to him last night, but today I’m willing to speak to my mother who is high up on the list of people I really don’t like. But I have to know why yesterday of all days she decided to speak up.
By the time I drag my stiff, sore body into the bathroom, I’m feeling a little more human. The woman staring back at me from the mirror looks exhausted and sad. I’m over being this shell.
Turning on the hot water, I bend down and splash some on my face. It’s an instant pick me up. My mouth has the most terrible taste in it. I reach for my toothbrush and get to work brushing the grime from it.
The shower is screaming my name and I’m very tempted to say fuck it and jump in, but I can’t leave Alex out there alone with my mother for that long. I know the minute I climb in, I won’t want to get out.
Finished in the bathroom, I head to my closet and grab a hoodie before joining the party.
“Feeling better, angel?” Alex checks as I emerge from the hallway.
A small smile forms on my lips and I give him a quick nod. “For now.”
“Okay,” he says handing me a cup of coffee and two white tablets. “I’m going to run home and grab some stuff. I’ll pick up some greasy diner food on the way back. Sound okay?”
“Perfect.”
With a kiss to the temple, Alex grabs his coat and heads out the door.
“That man loves you,” my mother says. Her icy, weathered voice coming from the living room behind me.
“I know,” I reply turning to face her. “Alex said you wanted to speak to me. I have to say this is something new. Must be important.”
“I wasn’t lying yesterday,” she begins. As usual her blonde hair is tied into a tight knot at the nape of her neck. Her makeup camera ready. The only difference today is the velour track suit she’s wearing. I’ve never seen my mother ever wear anything that could be classified as casual. “I had no idea what your father was actually doing to you. Honestly, I thought he wanted you to marry Jordan because he’s a good man who’d take care of you.”
I cock an eyebrow at her, silently asking “You really want me to believe that” and turn back into the kitchen.
Mom follows me, pleading her case. “I didn’t, Quinn. He told me we should push you to marry Jordan because it would be best for you in the long run. Jordan could give you everything you could ever need and keep you in the lifestyle you’re comfortable living.”
“The lifestyle I’m comfortable in, huh?” I huff, slamming the cabinet closed after pulling out the loaf of bread. “The lifestyle I’m comfortable in is the one where my own parents don’t set me up for embezzlement. Or tell me how they have no use for me because I wasn’t a boy or whatever stupid reason he said. Because I unwillingly walked in on him having an affair and told my mother about it. A life where my family actually gives a fuck about me is the lifestyle I wanted. And in case you didn’t notice, I’m more than capable of providing myself with everything I could ever want or need. I never needed a man for that.”
How could she possibly believe I’d think she didn’t know what he was doing? That she didn’t play a part in it. I’m not entirely convinced she’s not playing a game.
“I do care about you. Why do you think I’m here?”
“I think you’re here because the timing is right, mother. You barged in yesterday just before the FBI stormed through your front door. Coincidence? I don’t think so. If you want me to believe this is an act of kindness and love, you’re going to have to work to prove it to me,” I tell her, stepping away to put a slice of bread in the toaster. I can’t wait for Alex to come back with food, my stomach is ready to revolt at any second and my mother isn’t helping with her fake sadness.
“Well, I came here straight from my lawyers’ office,” she offers up. “I’m divorcing your father.”
“Good for you,” I nod. “It’s long overdue.”
“He won’t be able to hurt you,” she says, her voice remorseful. “Between all the different fraud charges and the embezzlement, your father is looking at twenty to thirty if they run all the charges concurrently. I’m not bailing him out, and he has no access to funds to do it himself because they’ve all been frozen. I’ll get all the assets in the divorce after his fines are deducted. He’ll have no access to come after you from here on out. And the company is yours.”
A gush of something I can only describe as relief flows through my body, down my arms and legs, and bursts. It’s finally over. I’ll wait to hear from Hailey before I let myself fully believe what my mother is claiming, but it still comforts me. “Thank you.”
“I want to be the mom you deserve, Quinn,” she says, her hazel eyes glistening with moisture. “I know I checked out on you a long time ago. I’m going to work on being there for you.”
“If you want a relationship with me, Mom, that’s great,” I tell her. “But like I said, you’re going to have to earn it.”
Her head nods in understanding and she retreats from the kitchen. I watch as she grabs her coat off the back of the couch and heads to the front door. “I’ll see you soon, Quinn. Please call me if you need anything. Anything at all. Give me the chance to prove I want to change.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Alex
Mrs. Taylor nearly runs me over on her way out of Quinn’s building.
I reach out, grabbing her arm just before she fully goes down on the icy ground.
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes as soon as she has her footing. “Oh, it’s you, Alex.”
The tone of her voice reminds me so much of her husband’s. Cold. Stuck up. Uninviting. I wonder if she’s always sounded this way or it’s just something that’s rubbed off on her after many years with the asshole.
“Please do me a favor,” she asks. I can see the emotion in her eyes and it makes me want to run upstairs and check on Quinn. “Take care of my daughter. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I do really care for Quinn. I wish I had been a stronger person to prevent all of this, but I wasn’t.”
There’s no time for me to say anything about the fact she said “care,” not “love,” before she scurries away down the busy sidewalk. I loop the bag I picked up from the diner around my wrist and make a dash for the elevator. I’m worried about Quinn. This is all too much too fast for her, or at least I’m worried it is.
Last night she drank like a fish and didn’t utter more than five words before I carried her to bed after she passed out. Her less than pleasant awakening this morning wasn’t too big of a surprise for me.
The ride up to Quinn’s floor is quick and as soon as the door opens, I sprint down the hallway to the last door on the left.
“Angel?” I call out as I breeze through her front door.
“In the kitchen,” she replies, her tone even and normal. Doesn’t sound like a
ny kind of meltdown going on.
“I ran into your mom downstairs,” I explain, placing the bag containing breakfast on the counter. “Looked like she was crying. Everything okay?”
Quinn’s body turns to mine and I take in her face. Nothing alarming. No tears. No redness. No sadness or anger. Interesting.
“Yup,” she answers with a shrug. “She wanted to come over here to tell me she’s sorry and leaving my dad. I don’t buy it for a second, but we’ll see.”
“Well, we never got a chance to talk about how you felt about all of this yesterday….”
“I know you’re dying to get inside my head,” she lets out a little chuckle. “I want to move past all this shit. You have today to ask me all your questions, and by New Year’s, I don’t want to hear about any of this again, except with the team of lawyers who will be cleaning up this mess.”
This is the most unconventional way of dealing with an issue I’ve seen, but then again, it’s not every day you see a mess such as this one.
“I don’t want to interrogate you, angel,” I laugh lightly. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”
Quinn sets her coffee down and tears open the bag I came in with. “I thought you were heading home then coming back?”
Stepping behind her, I cage her against the coolness of the granite and take the containers from the bag. “I wanted you to have something to eat and I didn’t want to make you wait. Turns out my plan worked just fine.”
I turn away from Quinn and grab some plates from the cabinet at the other end while I hear Quinn rustling through the silverware.
“So why don’t you buy what your mom said?”
“The timing of it all seems too perfect,” she answers quickly. Her voice is calm and steady. “My mom had to know Hailey was on her way in. I’m guessing as soon as Hailey heard what they needed, they moved. Mom would’ve seen them coming. There’s no way she just decided to stand up to my dad without knowing she has some security. She wouldn’t go against him for anyone, not even for herself, let alone for me.”
Her logic makes sense. I can understand what she sees and how she sees it. Her mother’s timing was convenient. I was listening. There was only about a two-minute window from when Mrs. Taylor went into the office and when Hailey did.
“What are you going to do?”
“I told her if she really means what she says then she needs to prove it,” Quinn says handing me a fork in exchange for a plate. “After that, she told me she was divorcing him and would be getting everything. He won’t have the means to come after me. She also said the company is mine.”
I’m ecstatic to hear she’s finally getting everything she’s worked for. There’s not much I’d put past Quinn’s dad, but I doubt he’d be able to pull something like this off again with no money. “Your dad is going to prison for a long time. How do you feel about that?”
Her beautiful blue eyes never waver from mine as she speaks. “It was me or him, Alex. He was not going to take my life away from me. It’s not my fault he’s insane. It’s not my fault I was born a girl. It’s not my fault my father feels nothing for me. I’m happy he’s going to jail. I hope some huge lumberjack makes him his bitch in there. I’m not losing a wink of sleep about him. Because he would’ve done the same to me.”
The strength and conviction in her voice make me extremely proud of her. She’s not having any second thoughts about sending him away. I know it’s still early and this could catch up with her eventually, but for now I’m taking this as a win.
“I’m happy to hear you say that,” I praise, wrapping my arms around her, trapping her plate between our chests.
“Don’t get me wrong,” she says when I finally release her. “It was scary as hell…”
“Tell me about it…” I mutter the words low, but Quinn still hears them and throws me a pointed look.
“I’d do it again though,” she adds. “There was a point there where I didn’t think it was going to work. My heart felt like it was going to explode inside my chest and I was sweating like a farm animal heading toward the slaughterhouse. But it was all worth it to see the look on his face when he figured out what was happening. He thought he was tough and indestructible sitting there, telling me all about how much smarter he was than me. Joke’s on him now.”
I’m extremely curious to hear the answer to my next question. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to live my life without waiting for the other shoe to drop,” she smiles. “I’m going to build a kick-ass company with an awesome business partner. I’m going to work on me and start my new life with you.”
A large part of me doesn’t see things going so smoothly, but Quinn’s positivity is refreshing. It’s been a long time since she’s had an ounce of light in her eyes and I see it today. How long it stays there is yet to be determined. We still have to wait to hear from Agent Carter and wrap this whole thing up. But who am I to tell her things probably won’t be quite so easy? Hopefully I’ll be wrong.
“Sounds perfect, angel.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Quinn
I stare at Hailey in disbelief, afraid if I take my eyes off of her for even a second, she’ll disappear, and this will all wind up being a dream.
I could’ve just sworn I heard her say my father took the deal—twenty-five years—offered to him by the District Attorney. A deal which means no trial.
The idea of a trial has had my stomach in knots for the last few days. I didn’t want to have to go through that. Having someone questioning me and my life, looking for ways to show how much of a degenerate my father is. Then having another someone do the same thing but look for things to use against me. And after all that, another group of people would be responsible for deciding whether or not my father is guilty. My future resting on their decision.
Hailey, Jordan, and Alex all reassured me countless times it couldn’t end up that way. The taped confession to multiple crimes was enough and the last thing my father would want was a trial, all the details broadcast to the public. He would cop to some of the crimes in exchange for not being charged with all of them. But I couldn’t let myself believe. Nothing is ever what it seems with my dad. I’m still having trouble digesting what she just told me.
“Twenty-five years?” I ask making sure I heard her right. “And no trial?”
“Yep, twenty-five,” Hailey nods with a huge smile. “And no trial. The deal was too sweet to pass up. With the embezzlement and various kinds of fraud he committed he could’ve been looking at a whole different number…”
Everything around me goes silent. I see Hailey’s lips moving, but I can’t hear anything over the blood whooshing through my ears. My heartbeat is through the roof and I can’t feel any part of my body. My father is going to jail. This whole mess is finally over. We actually did it. I get to have my life back.
We fucking did it.
Feeling starts to return to my limbs and my lips begin to curl up into an elated grin. Calm washes over me, something I haven’t felt in a long time. God, I miss this feeling.
“Holy shit!” Alex gasps.
It seems too good to be true, but I know it isn’t. My eyes dart back and forth between the two of them and say the words out loud. “It’s finally over!”
“It is,” Alex smiles brightly.
“And the company transfers directly to you since you’ve been cleared of all charges,” Hailey adds. I already knew this part. Once they had my father in custody and it became clear I didn’t personally wire the funds to the offshore bank account, charges against me were dropped as soon as I signed the paperwork allowing the money to be returned to the people and places my father took it from.
Everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve got it. It’s mine. I am the president of Taylor Ventures.
“Holy fuck!”
“You can start the New Year off with the weight completely gone from your life,” Hailey says with a very sincere smile.
She’s right.
/> This is the best way to ring in the New Year. I look from Hailey to Alex and can’t deny this is going to be the year of good things for me.
“Cheers,” Alex says raising his glass to mine. The smile on his face is breathtaking. He’s been so concerned about me through this whole thing and it’s nice to see the old carefree Alex coming back.
After leaving Hailey’s office downtown, Alex insisted we stop for a celebratory shot. We dipped into the first place we saw and sauntered up to the bar.
“Cheers,” I salute my glass back and we down the contents.
With the clink of the glasses, it feels like we are putting this whole fucked up mess behind us. My shoulders feel lighter and my world brighter. I’ve finally reached the elusive light at the end of my tunnel of misery.
There’s no more being under my father’s thumb or his constant scrutiny. It’s time for me to forge my own path with my own visions. I can finally start being the woman I’d always hoped to grow up to be.
This feeling is a rush. Better than any drug I ever tried in college. But just as addictive.
“What has you all dreamy eyed over there?” Alex’s husky voice breaks through my haze.
My eyes can’t help but stare at the male perfection sitting across from me. The journey I’m about to take with him has me excited as well.
His sandy light brown hair is pulled up into a bun, the thin blonde highlights underneath shining through pissing me off because I have to pay to get those same highlights every six weeks and they don’t look nearly as good as his natural ones. It’s just not fair.
The white button-down shirt he’s wearing looks like a second skin. I can see every contour of the muscles in his arms and chest. His sleeves are rolled up midway up his forearms showing the exact right amount of arm porn. There’s just something about a man’s forearms that’s hot.
His mostly green, hazel eyes twinkle with laughter as I drag my attention back to his chiseled face.