by ANDREA SMITH
Ms. Denniston looked at me and smiled. It was the first time that I saw compassion cross her face. I understood that she wanted justice served and it was her duty to ascertain the merit of existing criminal charges and to explore the possibility that Charlie had not acted alone. There was a human element involved. I was a key witness to the facts. She had to press me just as a defense attorney would if this went to trial.
“I understand that you’re going to be a mother,” she said.
“Yes, in early May.”
“I wish you the best, Ms. Preston. I've a feeling that your child will be blessed with a mother who will give him or her love and nurturing every child deserves, but that you were denied.”
“Thank you,” I replied.
“We will be in contact with you should we have any further questions as the investigation continues. Thank you for making the trip here, Ms. Preston. Going forward we will take care not to inconvenience you unless absolutely necessary. We can do video conferencing if any further interviews are required prior to filing the charges. We will let you know the outcome prior to filing any additional or reassessing the current charges to upgrade them to more serious felonies.”
That was it, I was done. I texted Trey as instructed. A limo was dispatched for me and I arrived at the airport well in advance of my flight. I was able to get my flight changed to an earlier departure. Once on the plane, I felt better than I had all day. I was going home.
CHAPTER 35
My second trimester had started and I was feeling great. The nausea and fatigue were gone and I'd gained five pounds. I was ecstatic and I could hardly wait to get my baby bump.
I was eager to secure a job so that I'd have an income until the baby arrived. I registered with a temp agency the week after I arrived back in Radcliff and was delighted to hear from them when I returned from Virginia. I was being offered a 20-week assignment filling in at a law firm that would take me up to just a few weeks before my due date. I happily accepted. The job was right in Radcliff. They wanted me there for a week before the administrative assistant, Kara, who was leaving on maternity leave, was due to go out so that she could train me. I'd be handling the debt collections. My hours were ideal: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kara explained the process from the initial complaint filing to garnishment or lien attachment. It was a straightforward process that she clearly outlined for me. The two weeks of training passed quickly.
I'd been there for three weeks and was coming back from lunch with a stack of files in my arms when Jill the receptionist at the front desk caught my attention, waving me over to her desk. She looked semi-frantic and I was wondering what could have possibly changed her usual, laid back demeanor.
“Tylar,” she said in a loud whisper, “there’s an attorney in your office waiting to see you.”
“An attorney in my office?”
“Yes,” she stammered, “he’s like really, really gorgeous.”
Oh God!
“His name is Mr. Sinclair. Do you know him?”
“Yes I do,” I answered, puzzled as to why Trey would show up here unannounced like this. “I used to work for him.”
“He seems a bit—distraught,” Jill said, reluctantly.
“Distraught?”
She nodded.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said very nonchalantly although my hands trembled. I hurried down the hall to my office, clutching the thick file folders. As I opened the door with one hand, balancing the stack of folders in the other, I was keenly aware that Trey stood next to my desk. Holding my files with both hands, I kicked my door shut with my foot. He was right there beside me.
“Here,” he said, taking the stack of file folders from my hands, “allow me, Tylar.”
“Trey?” I said, genuinely surprised to see him.
He set the files on my desk, and then turned to me. “Please sit down, Tylar,” he said, taking my hand and moving me around to the nearest chair. He was acting very strange; it was as if I'd suddenly turned into a delicate China doll that could break at any minute. The suspense was killing me.
“Trey, what's going on? Why are you here? The last I knew we weren’t on speaking terms?”
He sat on the edge of my desk and I swiveled my chair around to face him. His nearness to me was distracting. His tailored linen shirt couldn't hide the muscular arms and chest beneath. His chin dimple drove me to distraction, along with his dark brown mass of tousled hair. His gaze was serious, penetrating as he leaned forward, putting each of his hands on the arms of my chair so that I couldn't turn away from him.
“Tylar,” it was almost a whisper as the words were spoken, “is there something that you need to tell me?”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” I hedged.
“Don’t play with me,” he said his voice on edge.
I shrunk back from him, trying to increase the distance between our bodies and his piercing gaze, which didn’t falter in its intensity. “Say what you’re here to say Trey. I’m on the clock.”
“You're having my baby,” he declared, daring me to deny it, blue eyes flashing.
“No,” I replied obstinately, “I'm having my baby.”
He wasn't deterred one bit by my response. He eyed me warily. I knew he wanted more information and he wanted it now.
“I’m not leaving Radcliff until you and I've had the opportunity to discuss this, do you understand?” I nodded, somewhat intimidated by his intensity.
“What time does your shift end?”
“At four,” I replied.
“I'll be at your house waiting,” he said.
I nodded again. He left without another word. My mind instantly filled with questions: what was I going to tell him and how had he figured this out? I was distractedly sorting through the file folders on my desk when Jill poked her head into my office. I waved her in.
“Okay, spill,” she said, “who was the hottie?”
I was reluctant to share too much. “He’s someone that I used to go out with,” I told her, which was true.
“Why did you stop?” she asked.
“It’s complicated,” I said with a sigh. Jill smiled knowingly and shut my office door.
I had to keep busy or the day would move all that much slower. I input the new cases into the database and printed out the customary letters requesting payment prior to commencement of further legal action.
Finally, it was 4 p.m. and I closed down my desk for the day. I told Jill I'd see her tomorrow and left. True to his word, Trey was waiting in his rental car when I pulled into the driveway at home. He came up to the porch a puzzled look on his face.
“Tylar, where is your Mercedes?” he asked.
I swallowed nervously as I fumbled to fit my house key into the lock. He brushed me aside, quickly turning the key, releasing the lock. As I put my hand on the door handle, he stopped me.
“I’m waiting for an answer,” he demanded.
“I traded it in,” I answered, “it wasn’t practical with the baby coming and all.” He said no more on the matter, hopefully realizing that I'd taken the practical approach. “I got money back from the trade,” I said, not wanting him to think that I'd taken advantage or profited in some way as a result of my practicality. “I’d be happy to give it back to you,” I offered.
He gave me a look that said, ‘oh, puleeze,’ as he opened the front door, holding it open for me so that I could enter before him. Once inside, he gazed around the sparsely furnished house. I felt sort of embarrassed as I tried to figure out where our conversation was going to take place. In the living room, there was just the love seat. The kitchen table might be better.
“Would you like something to drink, Trey? I have iced tea, or I could make coffee?” I offered.
“Nothing for me, thanks. You go ahead though,” he replied as he made himself comfortable on one-half of the loveseat. I guess the decision had been made as to where we were going to have our discussion. I poured myself a glass of iced tea and joined him in the l
iving room. I sat down on the love seat at an angle, sipping my iced tea then setting it on the end table.
“So, you wanted this discussion,” I stated flatly.
“Tylar,” he began, carefully choosing his words to mask his irritation, “why didn’t you tell me that I'm to be a father?” His eyes were intense. It was clear to me that Trey believed that he was the injured party in all of this. How very typical of what a spoiled, arrogant man might feel. I felt my response begged a question of its own.
“Trey,” I asked tersely, “why is it that you didn’t remember the occasion, and how is it that you remembering it now?”
Trey leaned forward on the loveseat, resting his forearms on his thighs, clasping and unclasping his well-manicured hands, occasionally picking at the band on his Rolex watch. Trey spoke gently and humbly, looking into my eyes.
“Tylar, I realize that it’s despicable that I’d have the occasion to be with you and not recall it. I apologize for that. For me to sit here at this moment and tell you that I thought I’d dreamed the incident in the stable sounds ‘convenient,’ I know. You of all people could agree that sometimes, given the right frame of mind and circumstances, it can be difficult to distinguish the reality from the fantasy. Please know that I'm not comparing this with what you endured in your past. My situation was self-imposed.”
He stopped, raking his fingers through his gorgeous hair. He turned then, and took one of my hands into his, brushing my fingers with his thumb.
“Go on, Trey,” I said, my heart racing with anticipation as to how this was going to play out.
“I hadn’t seen you in awhile. It was driving me nuts. It seemed like when I'd spot you even from a distance, you were always with Mark. You were working with Mark, going somewhere with Mark in his truck. One day, I saw you and Mark pass by going out the driveway by the manor. You two were laughing about something. It made me fucking crazy.”
Trey paused to collect his thoughts. “As my 31st birthday approached, I decided to throw myself a pity party. I only invited one guest, Jack Daniel’s. I don’t usually drink like that, ever. I started the day before, drinking well into the morning hours of my birthday. I remember being in the stable, talking to Derringer. I thought I'd passed out and dreamt of you. When I awoke, I was still in the stable, dressed and lying on a pile of straw. Actually, Charlie is the one who woke me that morning.” His eyes clouded with anger.
“Okay,” I said, “that doesn’t explain how you found out.”
“A week or so after you were ordered to come back to Washington County to meet with the C.A. on the case with Charlie; I was called in by the C.A. to be interviewed.” A hint of a sardonic smile crossed his lips. “I got the distinct impression that Ms. Denniston suspected I was somehow involved. To what degree, I wasn’t sure. She volleyed between making me feel like a co-conspirator to possibly a co-victim, it was a very strange interview.”
Trey frowned; obviously irked that he'd been considered a potential candidate for either. “During this meeting, I was given an opportunity to review the evidence, and I was questioned as to what, if any, pertinent information I could offer. Ms. Denniston wanted information pertaining to how you obtained your job at Sinclair Stables, noting that most of the others were from local or semi-local colleges. She delved into our personal relationship as well.”
That part about getting my job at Sinclair Stables struck a chord with me. The fact was, my mom had told me a friend or relative of someone she worked with at the law firm had connections with someone at Sinclair Stables. She went so far as to promise me that whoever this connection was would use their clout to help me get the summer position. I filed this information away for future reference.
Trey continued with his explanation, “Ms. Denniston allowed me to read through the transcribed interview that she'd conducted with you the previous week. I read what Charlie said to you during his assault. It was about...” Trey stammered. I'd never seen him struggle for words. “…about apparently what he saw.” Trey shifted a bit, letting go of my hand. He stood up, and turned to face me on the love seat, nervously raking his right hand through his hair. “There was another interview with Charlie after you left, Tylar. The C.A. wanted to determine what he knew about your mom and the trust, to establish whether he co-conspired with her to defraud you. The C.A. offered him a reduction on one of the charges currently pending in exchange for his cooperation in revealing everyone involved as well as your mother’s whereabouts.”
Trey stood up and paced nervously in front of me. I could tell that whatever he was about to share with me was distasteful to him. He crouched on his haunches so that we were face to face. He once again took both my hands into his, massaging my fingers. This has to be bad, I thought. His dark blue eyes were stormy as they locked with mine.
“That early morning, Tylar, when I was in the stable and the horses were making a ruckus, Charlie heard it too. He saw you leave your cottage and go down to the stable. He followed you down there. I’m not sure of his initial intention but I can surmise that he was going to try to seriously hurt you.” Trey was looking down at my hands now, struggling to tell me the rest. Finally, he raised his eyes to mine. He charged ahead.
“When he realized that I was in the stables, he stuck around. He went around to the other side of the building and entered quietly through that door. Unfortunately, it offered him an un-obscured view of us. He observed you trying to get me out of Derringer’s stall, my getting angry, and ultimately, our lovemaking. He used his smart phone to video record everything.”
I gasped, jerking my hand from his and covering my mouth to stifle my scream of horror. “No! Oh my God!”
“Relax, Tylar,” Trey soothed, “He hasn’t done anything with it; I now have it in my possession. It appears he planned to use it as blackmail. Your mother was to handle the blackmail in order to keep the suspicion off of him. He apparently had more to carry out in his mission.”
I buried my face in my hands, shaking my head in shame.
“By the way, she's living in Indiana now. The plan was to download the video and send it to me with a warning that it'd go viral if I didn’t pay the demand. They planned to send copies to your school and my firm. Charlie and your mom hadn’t decided how the payment was to be handled, which is why it hadn’t gone any further. Then Charlie was caught.”
Trey shifted again, clearly uncomfortable. Was there more? “Tylar, this is still an on-going investigation and it involves not only Charlie, but your mother, too. There could be others. For now, that's all you need to know. Statements that Charlie provided need to be verified before any more action is taken. Do you understand?”
I nodded numbly. I couldn’t think about possibilities at the moment, I had to focus on the facts as I knew them. I felt nauseated just knowing that Charlie had stood there watching us, probably videoing with one hand, and jerking himself off with the other. I needed to ask Trey something but felt embarrassed.
“Trey,” my voice faltered as I searched for the right words. I had his full attention, blue eyes probing mine for some sign of forgiveness.
“Did you watch it all?”
“Yes,” he said gently.
“How much did he record, I mean, where does it stop?”
Trey looked extremely distressed, almost pained as he struggled to answer my question. “It ended right after I said, ‘What a fuck’ and then rolled over and passed out.” He was ashamed; I read that loud and clear. He took my hands once again into his own, raising them up, one at a time, to his mouth, softly brushing his lips against my knuckles.
Though I hated to admit it, I was relieved that this scheme had been thwarted; I was glad that Trey knew the truth about the baby; I was thankful that he seemed to care about it. I looked at Trey, misery apparent on his face. His sapphire eyes were full of remorse and shame and it didn’t please me to see him distressed about the situation. Clearly, he'd not known, just like I'd not known certain things that had occurred with me. I needed to lighten the moo
d.
“Trey,” I said, smiling, “how hot is the video?”
His head snapped up immediately, searching my face to clearly understand whether or not he'd heard me correctly. A slow smile spread across his beautiful face, his dimple apparent. I hadn’t seen that for a long time. I smiled back, shyly, waiting for his response.
“Oh yeah, baby, it's hot.”
“Let’s watch it together some time.”
He sat down beside me again on the loveseat, pulling me into his lap, nuzzling his face into my neck. I felt his lips on my neck, kissing me softly, his hand reaching up gently, pulling my face toward his. His lips found mine instantly, drawing me to him in a kiss so passionate it left me breathless. I wrapped my arms around him, desperately wanting to feel him close. His lips moved down my cheeks, brushed across my throat, lowering further to my breasts. His hand unbuttoned the top three buttons of my blouse, sliding his hand inside, freeing one of my breasts from my bra. He lightly massaged my nipple, capturing it gently between his thumb and forefinger.
I moaned softly, wanting more from him, “I need you, Trey,” I said.
He needed no further encouragement. He lifted me from the love seat, carrying me in his strong arms as he climbed the staircase. He located my sparsely furnished bedroom with no problem, carefully laying me on top of my bed. He gently slipped my clothes off my body, noticing that body had changed subtly and drinking in the full ripeness of my breasts after removing my bra. My stomach was showing just a hint of a baby bump. I lay fully naked on the bed, hungrily watching as he removed his shirt, belt, shoes, and trousers. His erection sprang forth and I held my arms out to him as he stretched out beside me on my bed.