Mary got up and gave her a hug. “No, of course we don’t.” Then Mary turned to Trent and said, “You better take good care of this young lady.” She turned back to Elaine. “It was wonderful meeting you, Elaine. Don’t be a stranger. We hope to see you both more often now.”
“Sure, Mom,” Trent said.
Victor said, “I’ll walk you to the car.”
As they made their way down the walkway, Elaine said, “I don’t want to take you away from your breakfast. It will get cold.”
“That’s what they made microwaves for.” He laughed. Then he became serious and added, “Mary didn’t mean anything by all the questions. She only wanted you to feel welcomed, part of the family.”
Was her excuse that obvious to everyone? “She is a wonderful person, and I do feel welcomed. I have been burning the candle at both ends this week and it caught up to me. That’s all.” She wasn’t sure he believed it. Like father like son. Both with the gift of reading others.
“Please, don’t be a stranger. We would love for you to come visit again soon.”
As she got into the car, she replied, “I will, I promise.” Elaine couldn’t believe the words when she said them. She had absolutely no intention of coming back. This was a onetime stop intended to make sure the birthday party had gone on as planned. How did it turn into a family event? This was not her world. She needed to get back to her apartment, back to normal.
***
On the way back to the hotel Trent asked, “Are you okay? You were not looking too good there for a while.”
She continued to look out the car window. “Just tired.”
He knew she was tired, but that was not the issue. She had that same look earlier when she was looking at the photos. There was something more going on. Something she wasn’t saying. He understood not talking to his family about it. She didn’t know them, but why not talk to him?
“Elaine, what’s really bothering you? You seemed to be enjoying yourself. Did someone say something to upset you? My family jokes around, but for the most part, they are harmless.” Unlike me.
“Your family didn’t say anything wrong.”
That left him confused. “Are you still upset I told my father about us? I should’ve told you about that before, but I didn’t realize he was going to tell my sisters and brothers.”
“You’re right, you should have told me about breaking your promise. At least I would have been prepared.”
He watched her. Her expression didn’t change; he knew whatever was bothering her was caused by something else. “Talk to me, Elaine. Why the sudden change?”
“Trent, I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
“No. It’s not okay.”
“Well, it’s going to have to be okay. You can’t control everything. I knew coming here was going to be a mistake.”
“And why was it a mistake?”
“You know why. I told you before; I can’t go there. What we have was supposed to be private, and these last few days was not something you do with someone who is just a lover. You do this with some who is . . . well, someone else. Not me.”
Damn she was one stubborn woman. He knew she had shut down. The more he looked for answers the more distant she became. Since he didn’t like the thought of the silent treatment all the way back to New York, he decided to drop the subject for now. She may have won the battle, but she was not going to win the war. Whatever was hurting her, he would find out and fix it.
Chapter Twenty-one
Trent had tried getting Elaine to open up to him again last night before dropping her off at her apartment. When he struck out again he knew he had to get his answers elsewhere. He hated doing it, but if she wasn’t going to talk to him about her childhood, maybe he could get the information out of Lizette. The phone rang for the third time before she answered. “Hello Lizette, this is Trent, how are you?”
“Hi, Trent. I’m great. How are you and Elaine? How was the party for your mother? Did everything go well?”
“That’s what I’m calling about. Would you be willing to meet me for coffee?”
There was a pause on the other end, and then Lizette answered him. “Did you have a fight with Elaine?”
“No. It’s nothing like that.”
“Oh, that’s good to hear. I’m in the office today. How about we meet at the café on the first floor of my building in an hour? Does that work for you?”
“I will see you there.”
He buzzed the intercom. “Wendy, please have my driver ready in ten minutes. Also can you cancel my meeting this afternoon?”
Then he sat back in his chair, arms folded behind his head. All he could do now was hope Lizette would be willing to talk to him concerning Elaine.
When he entered the café, Lizette waved him down to a table she’d reserved off to one side. “Hi, thank you for meeting me.”
“No problem. You said there was something you wanted to talk to me about. What is it?”
The waitress interrupted to take their coffee orders before he responded. “Yes, I wanted to ask you about Elaine.”
“Shouldn’t you ask her?”
“I’ve tried but she won’t talk to me. So I was hoping I could ask you a few questions and maybe you could fill in the blanks.”
“Trent, if Elaine won’t talk to you about something, I’m sure I shouldn’t either.”
“Hear me out first and then if you decide not to tell me, I’ll understand.”
The waitress delivered their coffee, then she answered him. “I’ll listen, but I won’t make any guarantees beyond that.”
“What do you know about Elaine’s childhood?”
“Why?”
Trent normally didn’t discuss his personal life but if he wanted Lizette’s help he was going to need to share something or he wasn’t going to get anything from her. “Saturday morning we went to my parents’ house for brunch. Everything was going extremely well. Then all of a sudden things changed. She clammed up and couldn’t get back to the city fast enough.”
“That’s unusual. What were you talking about when you noticed the change?”
“She’d been talking with my mother. No one said anything out of the ordinary. I believe they were talking about me, which I hated, but its par for the course when you bring someone home.”
“Were you that bad of a kid?”
Trent chuckled at Lizette’s witty comeback. Yes she is a good match for Jon. “I may have been difficult, but nothing that would have caused that reaction.”
“What else were they talking about?
“My mother asked about her childhood, her parents, where she was from and such. Something changed. She said a headache came on all of a sudden, but I don’t buy it. Her eyes were filled with sadness.” He wanted to shake Elaine and make her tell him what was wrong. How could he fix what he didn’t know or understand?
“What did she say when you asked her about it?”
“She didn’t want to talk about it.”
“Trent, maybe you need to give her some time and then ask her again.”
That was not something he would do. “What do you know about her family?”
“Nothing. Now that you bring it up, I don’t know anything about her family. She’s never mentioned anyone to me.”
That was the same for him. He had shared some of his past with her, even brought her home to meet his family, but at no point could he recall her mentioning anyone to him. “Do you even know where she grew up?”
“No. All I know is she graduated from Bryant University.”
He knew that from her background check for employment. “Anything else?”
Shaking her head, Lizette said, “Trent, can I give you some advice?”
He’s never taken anyone’s advice before, but at least he would listen to it. “Go for it.”
“Give her time, and she will tell you when she’s ready. You guys like to control everything. Other people’s feelings are not something you can control. She cares about
you very much. All she needs is patience and understanding. Elaine will tell you when she is ready.”
That was sound advice, but he knew he wasn’t going to take it. He never waited for anything he wanted, and this wasn’t going to be the first. “Thank you, Lizette. Please don’t mention our meeting to Elaine.”
“Trent, I won’t lie to her if she asks, but I don’t see any reason why it would come up.”
He respected Lizette’s honesty and loyalty. “Thank you for meeting me, but I better let you get back to the office.” I have more digging to do.
“Don’t forget, Jon and I are still looking forward to getting together with you both for dinner again.”
“We’ll be in touch soon.”
When he did the research on her for the job at Takes One he only did the basics: education, work history, and criminal background check. He was going to need someone who could dig a lot deeper. As he left the café, he pulled out his cell phone. The head of his security, Mack, answered. “I need a full background on someone, and this must be kept totally confidential. Understand?”
“Yes, sir. What’s the name?”
“Elaine Manning, age thirty-four from Rhode Island.”
“Your new employee?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll have it to you this week.”
“I want everything you can find by the end of the day.”
Mack was a former Secret Service agent, protecting the President. He had contacts that never ceased to amaze Trent. When he applied for the job three years ago, Trent hired him on the spot. There was no one he trusted more to find what he was looking for.
Trent decided not to go back to the office. Instead he went to his penthouse where there were fewer distractions. Mack was thorough; he would find whatever there was to find.
Around seven o’clock he dialed Elaine’s number. “Hi, I’m just checking in on you. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, how about you? I didn’t see you in the office today.”
“No. I had an offsite meeting and decided to work from home the rest of the day. A lot to catch up with after this weekend.”
“I agree. Somehow I have been put on the party planner’s list. Between helping Lizette with the wedding plans and your mother with the fundraiser for the wounded, I think my nights are going to fill as well.”
“Sounds painful, but that’s a guy’s point of view. Promise me you won’t torture me with all the details at night.”
“I make no such promises. Remember half of this is your doing. If you hadn’t recommended me to your family, they would never have known.” She laughed.
I’ve missed that sound. “Point taken. But there are better ways for us to spend our time together.”
“That’s not fair making me choose, because if I do, nothing would ever get done.”
There was a knock on the door. He knew exactly who it was. “Elaine, I’ve got to go. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Have a good night.”
“Goodnight, Trent.”
He let Mack in and asked, “What did you find?”
“It’s more like what I didn’t find.”
“What does that mean?”
“Why don’t we sit down, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Mack, just get to the point,” Trent said as they walked to the living room.
“She has no parents.”
“Everyone has parents. Did they die or put her up for adoption?”
“What I mean is, there is no record of her parents. Let me start from the beginning.”
“Okay, let’s do it your way, for now.”
“When I Googled her name she came up on Facebook. Obviously that’s not unusual, however what she was doing there was. She was trying to use social media to locate her parents. So I took that information and used my contacts to see what I could find. A child’s records are sealed till they are eighteen, but this is different. My contacts were able to pull her original birth certificate. I brought a copy.”
Trent took the copy, name Baby Doe, date of birth unknown. Place of birth, unknown. “What is this?”
“That is her original birth certificate. When she arrived in the United States, she was given the name Elaine Manning with a date of birth, but they left place of birth and parents as unknown.”
“What do you mean, arrived in the United States? Where was she born?”
“I’ve heard of a lot of things but this was a first for me.”
“Mack!” he voiced a warning.
“It appears she was born on a cruise ship that traveled from New York to Spain. It was a repositioning ship so all passengers had a one-way ticket.”
“Okay, she was born on a ship. That happens. What is so unusual about that?”
“The baby, Elaine Manning, was found on the ship after all passengers had disembarked. She was abandoned only days old.”
Trent couldn’t believe what Mack was saying. Who could do such a thing? And it angered him even more knowing it was done to Elaine. “Are you fucking kidding me? You’re telling me someone had a baby on a cruise ship and left her there on purpose?”
“Yes. They did an investigation, but since she didn’t belong to a member of the crew, it had to be one of the passengers.”
“Did you pull the roster of passengers?”
“I tried, but they didn’t keep records thirty-four years ago like we do now.”
Trent was quiet, trying to process everything Mack had told him. No wonder she didn’t want to talk about her family. She had none. “What else did you find out?”
“She had a really hard childhood. In eighteen years, she moved seven times with five different foster parents. She never got into any major trouble, but I’m sure you understand all that moving around would take its toll on a person.”
Everything Mack told him felt like a punch to the gut. Even though he had not always seen eye to eye with his family, he always knew he was loved. Trent couldn’t imagine the pain and loneliness she’d experienced. No wonder she’d needed to bolt when his mother started questioning about family. If he had known beforehand, he could have prepared his family. “What does she know about her past? I mean the cruise and everything?”
“From what I could tell, she doesn’t know. Even my connections had a difficult time getting this information. Because she was born in international waters, there was a battle over who would get the baby. It was a US cruise ship, so the US finally won custody. But during the legalities she spent her first year in an orphanage in Spain until she was flown to the United States.”
“And there is no way to track her parents?”
“Estimates show there were about seven hundred women on the ship. They were from all nationalities, so we cannot even begin to guess if she was from Spain, the United States, or someplace else altogether.”
Trent sat looking at both birth certificates. This was not at all what he thought he would find.
“Are you going to tell her?” Mack asked.
“I don’t know yet. Like I said before, this stays confidential.”
“As always. Have good night.”
“Good work, Mack.” I need to give that man a raise and a vacation. How he pulls this stuff off under my deadlines is beyond me. Maybe he should send him and his wife and kids to Disney, all expenses paid. It wouldn’t be the place he would go, but then again, he didn’t have any children.
Once alone, he downed a beer and lay on the couch still holding the papers Mack had given him. How could finding the answers to his questions only bring more issues and further concerns for Elaine? It certainly explained Elaine’s reticence to talk about her family at the brunch. She was truly alone. No roots. No home. No connections. How has she survived without that? The one thing he knew—she wasn’t alone any longer. He would be there for her. For now he had to decide what to do with the information.
Chapter Twenty-two
There was no way she was going to make it the rest of the morning without another coffee. Oh, how she mis
sed Jill at times like this. Now she had no choice but to make her way to the lounge and get it herself.
As expected, the room was filled with many other employees. Some she had seen in meetings and some she’d only passed in the hall. Get your coffee and get out.
Pouring the creamer, she felt someone close behind her. Too close. Turning she found herself face to face with another staff member, Tony, who she recognized from the Monday morning meetings. He was tall, blond, and about forty. There were a few times she thought he had been watching her, but she decided it had been her imagination. Today however, it was not her imagination. He wasn’t that close accidentally. She could see it in his eyes, and she couldn’t be more uncomfortable.
“Excuse me,” she said as she tried to slip past him.
Tony reached out a hand to touch hers and said, “Elaine, I was hoping you would stay and have a cup of coffee with me.”
She pulled her hand away sharply. “I have a call shortly. Maybe another time.” Like never!
Not letting her pass, he continued, “A beautiful woman like you shouldn’t work all the time. How about dinner tonight? I know a nice place where we could get to know each other better.”
Elaine looked around the crowded lounge, noticing they were being watched. “Tony, I’m flattered but that wouldn’t be a good idea.” Looking at her watch she said, “Oh no, I’ve got to run, I’m already late.” She could feel her skin crawl with the slight touch as she brushed passed him.
What a creep! She couldn’t get out of there fast enough and would have to make a point to avoid further contact with him as much as possible. And if she never saw him again that would still be too soon. How could Trent have someone like that working for him? He must be really good at this job because Trent only surrounded himself with the best of everything. For this reason alone, she decided to shrug it off and not mention this encounter to anyone.
Elaine only relaxed once she was back in the confines of her office with the door closed.
There she found a card on her desk. She never received mail. It was from Trent’s mother. It was a beautiful thank-you note for attending the party as well as the brunch the next day. What tore at her heart was the added piece. “P.S. We would love to have you and Trent down for another weekend very soon.”
The Billionaire's Masquerade: Betting On You Series: Book Two Page 14