Carter was already feeling more grounded than he had in a long time. He was frustrated and angry over everything that was going on in his family and had been holding it all inside because he knew that Avery was the only person that could make him feel better.
“Anger and fear are very common emotions my family evokes in others,” he said.
“They’ll be angry with you,” Avery said. “You know how your parents are about the way things look and there is no way this won’t get out.”
“Do you care?” Carter asked.
Avery smiled as she shook her head. “I don’t think I could make your parents angrier at me than they already are.”
“No,” Carter said. “I mean at all. Do you care at all? Not just my parents. We’re going to upset other people.”
Avery looked away as thoughts of Anthony tugged at her heart. “I do care about Anthony. I have to find the strength to tell him it’s over. I owe him that. I owe him much more than that, but at least that.”
“You could just come with me now,” Carter said. He felt her separating from him and didn’t want to let her go. “Just come, and leave everything. I’ll take care of you and . . .”
“I can’t,” Avery said. “I can’t run away anymore. I’ve been doing it for so long. Running from you, your family, the way I feel. I’ve hurt him enough. I’ve got to do this.”
“I’ll wait for you,” Carter said.
“No.” Avery pulled away from him reluctantly. Now that he’d held her, she’d gotten her second wind. She could handle this. “Go back home and be with Connor. I’ll deal with Anthony and come home tomorrow.”
“Avery,” he protested.
She pleaded with him. “Carter, I’ve done so much wrong with this marriage. Let me at least end it with some dignity for me and Anthony.”
“You do what you feel you have to do.” Carter didn’t want to leave at all, but he wasn’t going to fight her. He could see the light at the end of the tunnel and would have to be happy with that for now. “But come home as soon as you can. Connor and I will be waiting for you at . . .”
“Julia still lives with you.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Carter said. Julia would have to leave, but it might take more than a day to make that happen. He couldn’t expect Avery to come live there until it was all done. “Your house?”
“No,” Avery said. “That’s not right. We have to be somewhere else. Not in a hotel.”
“No more hotels.” Carter smiled. “Look, Connor is at Chase Mansion. I’ll go there and you come there as soon as you can. We’ll find somewhere to be alone and we’ll talk.”
“Sounds good.” Avery couldn’t wait.
Carter kissed her softly on her lips and smiled. It wasn’t a passionate kiss like all their others, but it was pure and sweet. It was a kiss that said everything would finally, after what seemed forever, be all right.
“I love you,” he whispered in her ear.
“I love you too,” she whispered back, feeling a sense of peace she hadn’t thought she’d ever get back.
They embraced for a long time, but it was still painful for both of them when they had to separate. As Avery watched Carter walk out of the hotel, she knew that the pain wasn’t over. There was a lot to do and deal with and it would all be painful. But it would all end with her and Carter and Connor being together. Her family, the one she’d always wanted but had given up hope of having, was going to be real.
Steven wasn’t happy if his wife wasn’t happy, and Janet was very unhappy. As he stood in the doorway of the bathroom, looking into their master bedroom, he observed her beauty. In her mid-fifties, Janet looked ten years younger, and flawless. He appreciated the care she took with her appearance and body. She still turned him on after all these years with her magical smile, silky skin and generous curves. She had been a patient wife, accepting that he would not be home as much as he should, for the sake of Chase Beauty. When he had fallen short as a father because of his quest for an empire, Janet had been mother and father to their four children. He would be grateful to her forever for that.
He tried to show that gratitude as often as he could. Even when he was out of the country, he called her every day, reminded her that he loved her, complimented her appearance and taste. She could have anything she wanted, and he saw to it that she had everything she didn’t even know she wanted. While being executive director of the Chase Family Foundation was her day job, Janet’s life was the family, and when the family wasn’t working, she was miserable.
Steven watched her, sitting up in bed, slowly turning the pages of an art magazine without really looking at any of them. It had been like this ever since the Museum Ball. There was no comforting her, despite his several attempts. No one seemed happy these days, and that was what this was all about.
Janet looked up and managed a smile as she saw Steven come toward her. “You’re looking very handsome in your new nighties.”
“I have asked you several times not to call my pajamas nighties.” Steven slid into the bed of their massive suite, next to her. “I was hoping you’d get a little frisky.”
He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head. He pecked her on her cheek before pulling the covers up to his waist. “Janet, please talk to me.”
Janet closed the covers of her magazine and laid it flat on her lap. “Have you handled the situation with Haley’s boyfriend?”
Steven didn’t want to bother his wife any more than she already was. “I was told the boy never showed. My man waited for an hour. He called him, went to his apartment. Nothing.”
“That can’t be good,” Janet said. Great, another thing to be worried about.
Steven agreed. “Where is she now?”
“In her bedroom,” Janet said. “I want her to have protection.”
“I’ll take care of it tomorrow.” Steven reached over and placed his hand gently over hers and squeezed. “Baby, I know you’re upset. The ball was . . .”
“I don’t care about the Museum Ball,” Janet exclaimed. “It was a disaster, but I can ease my way out of it. The only thing that matters is Michael.”
“I don’t want to talk about him.” Steven turned away. “He hasn’t shown up to work at all.”
“Can you blame him?” Janet regretted having to send the twins back home into that madness, but both Kimberly and Michael were demanding their return. “Steven, we have to do something.”
Steven reached for the remote, but Janet snatched it away before he could get it.
“Our son.” Janet took hold of Steven’s chin and turned him to her. “My baby is broken. No matter what he’s done or caused, we have to let it go. He is lost and we have to save him.”
Steven knew she was right, but facing the reality of who was really to blame for all this was hard. “Everything he’s done ultimately leads to trying to please me. I’ve been too hard on him since David’s death, but I thought after the plane accident, he understood that I still love him.”
“He was already spiraling before that,” Janet said. “The accident probably made it worse. Whatever the case, if we don’t save him, we’ll lose him forever. And the twins.”
Steven wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. She was right, but he wasn’t good at this. Janet was the heart of this family and although it had been an unspoken agreement that he would guide his boys and she would take care of the girls, Steven didn’t believe he could reach Michael alone.
“That marriage is poisoning him,” Janet said. “We have to end it for him.”
“That will only make him hate us more.” Steven had objected to Janet’s earlier request to intervene in Michael’s marriage, which she’d been repeating for more than a year now.
“For now,” Janet said. “But he worships you, Steven. He’ll do what you want and he’ll only stay mad at you for so long. Until then, we’ll deal with it. What’s important is that he and the boys get a new start.”
Steven nodded. “I’ll call a lawyer.”
>
“Don’t ask Carter,” Janet said. “I don’t want him to interfere.”
“Why are he and Connor here?” Steven asked.
“Just let that go,” Janet said, reaching for the phone on the nightstand. “I know how to get this done quickly.”
Kimberly was in the media room setting up another movie for her boys when her cell phone rang. She usually turned it off or put it on vibrate when she was home, but had forgotten. She had no idea where Michael was, so she wasn’t worried about him overhearing a phone conversation she wasn’t supposed to have. She hadn’t seen him since he stormed out yesterday after yelling at Janet over the phone to bring his kids home.
She didn’t recognize the number, so she answered with caution. “Hello?”
“Mrs. Chase.” Neil’s deep, scratchy voice was immediately recognizable. “Do you have a moment?”
“Hold on.” Kimberly pressed the DVD button and turned down the lights before rushing out of the media room. “Go ahead.”
“I found out more about Mr. Chase’s brother.”
Kimberly started upstairs. “Well, the whole plan is squashed, so it doesn’t matter much, but go ahead.”
“Does it have something to do with what I read in the papers last week?”
“My little melee at the ball?” Kimberly felt her stomach turning just at the thought. “Not how I planned it all, but it worked out in the end.”
“You actually saved your husband from a big disaster,” Neil said. “I have a contact at the FBI who snooped around. It took him a long time, but he found out that Luxury Life Publishing was involved in several double-subscription billing schemes. They also violated several privacy laws by selling off its subscriber lists’ personal information. There is an unusually high number of people who were victims of identity theft within three months of subscribing to a Luxury Life publication. This has been going on for about two decades.”
“Two decades?” Kimberly heard noises in the foyer. Marisol was talking to someone and she thought it might be Michael.
“Keenan Chase’s department had been investigating the publisher for three years. They were ready to pounce as soon as they found out he was selling. They wanted to get him before he could get rid of the company. Then Mr. Chase found out that the publisher was in negotiations with his brother, Steven.”
“So this was revenge.” Kimberly stopped at the edge of the foyer as she saw who Marisol had let in and shuffled into the living room. Her in-laws.
“Yes. He must have contacted Elisha and convinced her to help him.”
“No,” Kimberly said. “They were lovers. That’s how he found out about the negotiations, because I’m sure it wasn’t public at the beginning.”
“Whatever the case,” Neil said, “he was going to go after the company, and although Steven wouldn’t be criminally liable, he could have been fined tens of millions.”
Kimberly didn’t speak as Janet and Steven turned to see her. They had very serious looks on their faces and she was worried. She hated them both and they hated her more. So why were they here?
“I have to go,” she said. “I have company.”
“Just one more thing,” Neil said. “I imagine that Keenan was going to get Elisha to testify that Steven knew all about the fraud or create some documents to support the idea. Either way, Chase Beauty would have been fined millions and then would have been sued by thousands of customers for hundreds of millions. It would have destroyed the entire company.”
“Thanks,” Kimberly said before hanging up. Someone hated King and Queen Chase more than her.
Kimberly placed the phone back in her pocket and walked casually into the living room. “What are you two doing here? And if you think you’ve come here for the boys, I will . . .”
“No,” Steven said. “We’ve come here because of Michael.”
Kimberly felt a slight panic in her chest. “What happened to him?”
“You happened to him,” Janet replied.
Steven placed a hand on Janet’s shoulder. She had promised to keep this civilized and quick. “He’s not here, right?”
“You know he’s not,” Kimberly said. “What do you want?”
“We want you to leave.” Steven took a few steps toward her and offered her the manila envelope in his hand. “You can offer that to any lawyer. He or she will look it over for you and verify everything.”
“And everything would be what?” Kimberly reached into the folder and pulled out what looked like a contract because of the blue backing. On the cover of the first page, it read Dissolution of Marriage ...
“You’ve been wanting to divorce Michael for a long time,” Janet said. “Well, we’re going to make that happen.”
“The contract is very generous,” Steven said. “You file for divorce and we will not let Michael stop you.”
Kimberly couldn’t believe this. “You can’t make him give me a divorce.”
“Kimberly,” Steve said in an admonishing tone. “You’ve been a part of this family for too long to doubt what I can make happen.”
“We covered up a murder you committed,” Janet reminded her.
“I didn’t murder him,” Kimberly retorted. “It was an accident.”
“The point is,” Steven interrupted, “this time the divorce will happen. The contract offers you a one-time settlement of twenty million dollars.”
Kimberly knew something was up. “If I do what?”
“Leave the state of California,” Steven said. “Go anywhere you want, but never come back here.”
Kimberly tossed the contract on the table. “You expect me to believe that you would be fine not seeing the twins at all?”
“No,” Janet said. “We expect you to be fine never seeing the twins at all.”
Kimberly wanted to lunge at her and slap that superior expression off her face. “You still expect me to give up custody of my children.”
“Yes we do,” Steven said.
“My babies that I carried inside of me and gave birth to.”
“They’re Chases,” Janet said, “and they belong with Michael and with us.”
Kimberly laughed bitterly. “How can you possibly ask . . .”
“We aren’t asking,” Steven interrupted. “We’re giving you a choice. Stay this way and ruin those boys’ lives or go away and be rich for the rest of your life.”
Kimberly was so enraged, she felt near tears. “I am not ruining their lives! Your son is the one that is ruining everyone’s life. I won’t leave them with him.”
“We will take care of Michael,” Janet said. “And we’ll make sure that he gets it together for the children. But you have to go. That’s the first step to saving those boys.”
Kimberly swallowed hard, feeling the insistent stares of both of them on her like a magnifying glass reflecting the sun onto an ant. “This isn’t really a choice at all, is it?”
“We’d like to think it is,” Steven said. “If this doesn’t work, then we’ll have to do what is necessary to protect Michael and the boys.”
“From me?” Kimberly asked. “I’m the villain here?”
“We have compassion for your situation,” Steven said, hoping that Janet would stay quiet. “Michael’s obsession with you, his need to do . . . whatever this is supposed to be, is wrong. It’s hurting you and the boys.”
“And separating them from me would make everything better?”
“This is a painful situation,” Janet said. “But we will make sure the boys deal with not having you around anymore.”
“Can I at least call them on the phone?” Kimberly asked.
“You will be out of their lives for good,” Steven said. “There is no in-between here. If it is ever possible that things change, we’ll contact you.”
“Because you’ll always know where I am, right?” Kimberly asked. “You want me gone, but you’ll track me everywhere.”
“You’ve both left us no choice,” Janet said.
“You still have the choice of
minding your own fucking business,” Kimberly said. “But you think everything is your business, don’t you?”
“Everything that affects our family is our business.” Steven stepped aside as a gesture to Janet that it was time to leave. “Think about it, Kimberly. There really is no other choice. You will not get these children, and this situation you have here cannot continue.”
Kimberly took a moment to make sure she could maintain her composure. “How can I know the lawyer I show this to isn’t going to lie to me for you.”
“Because we want this,” Janet said. “And twenty million dollars is nothing compared to the sanity of our son and the emotions of our grandchildren.”
“You have twenty-four hours.” Steven was already guiding Janet out of the room.
“Or else?” Kimberly asked.
“Twenty-four hours, Kimberly.”
Kimberly stood in the living room for a while after they were gone, letting her rage build up. They were paying her off—thinking that twenty million dollars was worth never seeing the two people in the world that she would kill and die for.
Kimberly reached down and picked up the contract. She was all set to rip it up when a thought came to her. Steven was right. Michael was obsessed with her. It was twisted and hateful, but it was obsession. All wasn’t lost yet.
15
Her television blaring a celebrity dance show, Haley was sitting at the vanity in her bedroom, trying to see if she could make her hair look like the girl on the cover of In Style magazine when her cell phone, settled in between brushes and hair clips, alerted her to a text.
She leaned over to see who it was and tossed her brush on the table to grab it.
We can’t use it
She knew Sean was talking about the USB stick.
Y not?
2 much 2 text. Call me
Haley dialed his number and he picked up immediately. “Why can’t you use it?”
A Price to Pay Page 25