“You’re welcome. I just hope we can get everything settled before too long,” he said.
“By the way, what is going to happen to my mother?” she asked.
“I don’t rightly know,” he answered. “As soon as she is deemed able, she will stand trial for the assault on your housekeeper and for hostage-taking.”
“What if she isn’t able? At least not for several weeks or months?” Victoria persisted.
“I’m not sure. She will probably be moved to a state institution in just a few days and will await trial there. I’m sorry, Victoria. I truly am sorry.”
After polite goodbyes, the lieutenant went back inside, and Victoria got back in her car and left. She headed for a shopping district that she remembered from her teen years. Feeling fortunate to find a parking spot, she locked her car, set the car alarm, and headed for the closest clothing store. After wandering through several clothing stores spread over three or four blocks, she finally found a dress that tickled her fancy.
It was a white dress, low cut in front, cap sleeves, slim at the waist and an A-line skirt that stopped about three inches above her knees. It buttoned all the way down the front. The small buttons had cubic zirconia insets. Around the neckline was a random smattering of tiny sparkles that glittered in the right light. It looked marvelous on her, hugging her body in all the right places. It was classy, yet sexy; dressy, yet appropriate for future wear. Even Marian would approve of it.
Chapter Eight
It was time to head back to the office building and meet Rafael for lunch. She’d have to shop for shoes this afternoon. She paid for the dress, and headed back for her car. Fortunately, she’d worked herself around to where she ended up just half a block and across the street from her car. She put the sack with the dress in it in the trunk. Rafael would not see it until their wedding day. It may not be a formal church wedding, but she would wear white, and she would not show the dress until the last moment.
Just as she was parking the Chrysler in the rear parking lot of the Thornton Building, Rafael called her.
“Are you ready for lunch,” she asked by way of greeting.
“I sure am,” he replied. “Where are you?”
“In the back parking lot. I just pulled in,” she said.
“Good. Sit tight and I’ll come out.”
In just a minute or so, Rafael walked around the corner of the building and over to Victoria’s car. He got in on the passenger’s side and asked her where she wanted to go eat.
“Subway sounds good to me,” she said. “Is that OK with you?”
“Sure, that’s fine, if that’s what you want.”
“It is. Hey, let’s walk. It’s only a couple of blocks. It’s a gorgeous day. What do you say?”
“Oh, OK. It is a nice day. I’ve been sitting at my desk all morning. I could use the exercise.”
They got out, locked the car, and began walking up the street holding hands. During lunch, Victoria gave Rafael a rundown of her morning.
“At least it wasn’t quite as mind-numbing as yesterday. In fact, it was mostly very pleasant. I found the perfect dress for our wedding. No, don’t even ask.”
She held up her hand in a halt signal when she sensed that he was going to ask to see the dress.
“You’re not going to see it until our wedding day,” she added. “This afternoon I have to find shoes to go with it. After I see Lena, that is. And Mother. I wonder if she will be more alert today, or if she will still be sedated.”
“No telling,” Rafael said between bites of his sandwich. “If you want to, you could wait until I’m off work and I could go with you to the hospital.”
“Sure, I could wait,” Victoria said. “You should go see Lena, too. She likes you. And it would be nice to have you along when I go see Mother.”
“Well, maybe I should wait out in the hallway when you go in to see your mother. She hates me, remember?”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point there. Still, I think I’ll wait until you’re off. What time will that be today?”
“I think I can be ready to leave by four-thirty,” he said.
“OK, that works,” Victoria said.
After a nice lunch, they walked back to the office building. On the way back down the street, just before they got there, Victoria stopped and looked up at the building.
“You know, it really hasn’t sunk in yet that that building now belongs to me,” she said. “I mean, I always thought of it as ‘ours,’ Daddy’s and mine. But it was his building—it belonged to him, and I belonged to him. Now it is mine because he is gone. And I don’t have a clue. I guess that’s why he trained you to take over.”
“It is your building and company, Vic,” Rafael said. “I’m just the CEO, or whatever you want to call me.”
“You know, now that I think about it, Daddy was awfully sure of himself,” Victoria said as she resumed walking.
“How’s that?”
“By being so sure that you and I would hit it off and want to get married, thereby ensuring that the building and the company would end up in my name with you to pick up where he left off and be able to run it. If he were here, I think I’d give him a piece of my mind,” she said indignantly.
She stopped again, pulling Rafael to a stop beside her.
“Why is that? Isn’t this a good arrangement?” Rafael asked innocently.
“It’s a great arrangement,” she answered. “But what if it had turned out badly? Then what? Would everything have been mine with you grandfathered in as CEO, no matter how much we hated each other?”
“Pretty much, from the way I understood it,” Rafael admitted. “But it didn’t turn out badly, did it? We don’t hate each other. I think your dad had extremely good insight. He seemed to know us both very well, and knew if he could just get us together that we would click—just like we have.”
“You’re right,” Victoria said. “I shouldn’t worry about how it could have turned out, because it didn’t turn out that way. It turned out just as Daddy hoped. And I’m glad. Because I love you, Rafael, I love you.”
“I love you, too, Victoria,” Rafael said.
If they hadn’t been standing on a busy sidewalk with people going to and fro, he would have kissed her soundly. But he restrained himself, determined to act like the classy gentleman that David Thornton had taught him to be.
“I’d better go in and get back to work,” he said instead. “And you have some more serious shopping to do. I understand that a woman shopping for shoes is not to be messed with.”
“That’s right, and don’t you forget it,” she said in warning.
With that, he dropped a light kiss on her cheek before turning away and going inside. She walked around the back of the building to where her car was parked. Driving away, she headed back for the shopping district to look for shoes. Several stores, and dozens of pairs of shoes later, she finally found the perfect ones.
They were a pearlescent white leather, open toed, sling-backed, with a two-and-a-half-inch spike heel. Victoria had never liked the really high heels. They reminded her too much of her mother’s snobbish friends. Besides, the one time she’d tried on a pair, she was far too wobbly in them, and she had heard that they were unhealthy for one’s insides.
But this pair, they were high enough to be sexy, and low enough to suit her. They had tiny rhinestones around the toe openings and on the heel strap. They were classy, sexy, and she loved them. She would go have a pedicure and choose a soft color of polish, and then add a couple of tiny rhinestones to the nails on her big toes. Maybe even a tiny heart, too. The sales assistant showed her a purse that matched the shoes in the same white pearlescent leather. It was large enough for her essentials, and small enough to be easy to carry.
She paid for them and left the store. She had a couple of hours to kill before Rafael got off work, so she walked into the next store just to browse around. She was inside before she realized that it happened to be a men’s wear store. But that gave her an idea.
She should buy Rafael a gift. Something nice. Something he could wear to the wedding maybe? Or maybe something special for their wedding trip.
Victoria began browsing the store, not knowing what she was looking for, but hoping she would recognize it when she saw it. Two or three sales assistants asked her if she needed help, but she turned down each one. She just wanted to look until something jumped out at her and said, “Buy me. Buy me.”
She looked as shirts, at slacks, at jackets, at accessories, at jewelry, at watches. She looked at pocketknives, money clips, and chess sets made of exotic materials. There was a row of books, DVDs, and CDs. She finally left the store and walked on down the street. Nothing in that one had really captured her imagination.
The next store that she ventured into was a world import store that had an endless array of things from all over the world. She wandered up one aisle and down the next, looking at everything, and still coming up empty. She saw a lot of cool stuff, but nothing that spoke to her.
The next store was an office supply store. She nearly passed it by, but a thought struck her just as she was walking by, so she turned and went inside. She approached the customer service counter and waited to be acknowledged. As soon as the woman behind the counter finished with a customer on the phone, she came over to Victoria.
“How may I help you?” she asked in a pleasant voice.
“Do you engrave name plates?” Victoria asked.
“Certainly,” the woman replied. “Would you like to look at the different styles we have?”
“Yes, thank you, I would,” Victoria said.
The woman directed her to a display case in which were arranged about a dozen different sample name plates. Then she handed her a sheet of paper with two columns of the words “Your Name” printed in forty different typefaces.
“You can choose the name plate and then the typefaces.”
“OK, thanks.”
Victoria looked all the nameplates over and decided on one. Then she looked at the sheet of typefaces, eventually choosing one. Now to decide what to have engraved on the name plate. Obviously it would say, “Rafael Rivera.” But what else should she put on there? President? CEO? King? Well, maybe not king! And technically, she was the president of the company now, which would make Rafael the vice-president.
How about emperor? Prime minister? High ruler? Head Elf? Now she was getting silly. She needed to focus on a serious title, one that would showcase his position. Just what was his position? She had no idea. Her dad’s nameplate had merely had his name on it. But that was all he ever needed. Rafael would need something more. Vice-president implied he was second in command. But Chief Executive Officer sounded more elevated to her. On the other hand, what did the articles of incorporation require? Maybe she would have to come back after figuring this out.
She told the sales assistant that she would have to come back because she didn’t know what she wanted on the nameplate. She felt embarrassed at not knowing. But the way her week had gone so far, she was lucky to know her own name, much less Rafael’s new title.
She checked the time as she left the store. Four o’clock. Not that much longer until Rafael would be free to go. Maybe he would know what his new title should be. She would try to ask him without giving away her surprise.
She put her new shoes into the trunk with the dress, then got in and drove back to the office building. She parked next to Rafael’s Ferrari and went inside. She lingered outside his open door until he saw her and waved her in. He was on the phone at the moment, but it wasn’t long until he hung up.
“Hi, honey,” he said. “I’ll be through here pretty soon. Make yourself comfortable.”
Rather than sit, Victoria wandered around the room looking at the various plaques that hung on the walls. Many of them were awards or acknowledgements in her father’s name for his achievements or contributions to the city. Then there was one that caught her attention. It was the city business license. She studied it, noting that the license was issued in the name of Thornton Enterprise. She also noted that rather than “Inc.” behind the name, the letters were “LLC.” Limited Liability Corporation.
Victoria didn’t know exactly what the difference was, but she knew there was one. Boy! After growing up in the shadow of her father’s company, she sure didn’t know much about business. She would have to remedy that. She determined right then that as soon as the dust settled, she would get Rafael to teach her some things.
Moving on, she noticed that her father’s nameplate was now over on a small table over on the right side of the room. Beside it was an 8x10 photo of her dad sitting behind his desk. He looked very young, and very proud to be sitting in the seat of power. She didn’t recall having ever seen that picture before. She picked it up and traced her finger over his face. When tears threatened to spill, she put the picture down and turned away.
On another framed award, she saw her dad’s name with the title “President” after his name. She supposed that would be her title now. Then Rafael could be the CEO. That was what he had suggested earlier that day. So now the issue was decided. And without having to quiz him about it. Tomorrow she’d run back over to the office supply store and order the nameplate. And she just may go back into the men’s store and buy a gold pocketknife she had looked at. Maybe she could get his name engraved on it, too.
“All done,” Rafael said, standing up and moving from behind his desk. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah. Oh, no!” Victoria exclaimed as she slapped her forehead.
“What? Did you forget something?”
“I sure did! What an airhead I am. I meant to go to the grocery store this afternoon, and I got so involved shopping for shoes that I completely forgot. It was so nice to just relax and shop that I forgot what I was supposed to be doing. Nuts! I was going to cook us a nice supper tonight, but I needed a few things. Now, by the time we go to the hospital and visit Lena and Mother, it will take too long to get groceries and cook, too. Oh, boy. We’re not even married yet, and I’m already a failure.”
Rafael chuckled as he took Victoria in his arms.
“You’re not a failure, honey,” he said sympathetically. “You’re on overload. You deserved to have a fun, relaxing afternoon. Listen, we’ll just grab something on the way home from the hospital and you can cook your special dinner tomorrow. How’s that? Besides, it can double as a welcome home dinner for Lena.”
Victoria looked up into the dearest eyes she’d ever seen, other than her daddy’s. She was loving this man more and more every minute of every day.
“Thanks, babe,” she said. “You’re so sweet. That’s a great idea about having a special dinner for Lena’s first day back home. I’ll do the grocery shopping in the morning before I go get Lena from the hospital.”
“That’s just fine. Now, whose car do you want to take to the hospital? No use in taking both of them.”
“Yours. You drive,” she said.
“Hi, Lena,” they both said as they walked into her hospital room.
“Hi, kids,” she responded.
“How’re you feeling today?” Rafael asked.
“A lot better,” Lena answered.
Her voice was much stronger than it had been just the day before.
“I’m so glad,” Victoria said, patting her arm.
“How are you two? I hope you had a better day today than yesterday was.”
“Oh, yeah, much better,” Victoria said with a smile. “I went shopping today for a wedding dress. Well, not an actual wedding dress, but a dress to wear to our wedding. I found an absolutely fabulous dress and some awesome shoes to go with it.”
“Cool! I can’t wait to see them,” Lena said, her eyes shining. “I’ll be glad to go home tomorrow. This really isn’t the kind of vacation that I would like to have.”
“What has the doctor said today?” Rafael asked.
“He still says I can go home tomorrow,” Lena said. “No complications.”
“Do you know what time you’ll b
e discharged so I can be here to pick you up?” Victoria wanted to know.
“No, I don’t know. But I can call you, can’t I? When I find out, I’ll let you know. OK?”
“Sure, that works,” Victoria said.
They visited for about thirty minutes, until Lena’s supper tray arrived. That was a good time to leave, so they said their goodbyes, and left. They took the elevator up to the fifth floor where Marian’s room was located. After getting permission to visit her from the nurse at the nurses’ station, they walked on down to her room. Rafael stayed outside of the room and chatted with Officer Adams, the police officer who was guarding the room.
Victoria entered the room with trepidation. She didn’t know what her mother’s condition would be today. Marian opened her eyes when Victoria approached her bedside.
“Hello, Mother,” she said.
“Victoria,” Marian said.
She sounded groggy, but not as much as she had the day previous.
Beyond that, Victoria couldn’t think of a thing to say. Marian had trouble keeping her eyes open. Victoria picked up her mother’s hand and held it for a moment. She felt the slightest pressure from her mother’s hand, which rather surprised her.
“Home,” Marian murmured.
“You are fine here,” Victoria said. “You are safe.”
Despite everything, she didn’t want her mother to feel frightened or abandoned. She felt nothing but pity for this woman who had everything and threw it all away for greed. She couldn’t understand why people did such things.
“Lena?” Marian managed to say.
“She is in the hospital, Mother,” Victoria said. “You hurt her, but she will be all right. She will go home tomorrow.”
“Sorry. Lena.”
That was all she could muster through the heavy sedation. On impulse, Victoria risked asking her mother a question. She had no idea what kind of answer or reaction she’d get, but she was going to ask anyway.
“Mother, did you kill Daddy?”
Silence. Marian’s face twisted into a bit of a scowl.
The Perfect Revenge: The Couplete Series Page 23