by Peggy Jaeger
Then I turned, and without another word or a glance at anyone else in the room, I walked out.
Chapter Twelve
“I gotta tell ya, babe,” Dan said after he took a huge sip of soda from his bottle, “for a second there, I thought you were gonna fly across the table and punch Culverson’s lights out.”
“I thought about it,” I said. “But he wasn’t worth the jail time.”
“El, why didn’t you tell us the Evil Bitch had contacted you?” Nell asked.
I swallowed. “I meant to, but everything just happened so fast. One minute, I was meeting with Eliana Delores, the next, well, I was summoned.”
I had to admit, I had a momentary traitorous twang about not telling them what had happened with Buddy in between and after those two events. I’d decided to keep it to myself after discovering that entire time we were together, he’d been using me. Nell had been right in her supposition about him all along. Admitting it was beyond mortifying, so I kept it to myself.
Nell rubbed a hand down my back. “What was it like after not seeing them for all this time? I mean, it’s been, what? Nine? Ten years?”
“It wasn’t pretty.”
I told them about Dolly’s accident and how I hadn’t been notified until they needed something from me.
“Jesus, what a bitch.” This from Dan.
“Hence the name,” Nell quipped.
“Think they would have ever called you to tell you if she died?” he asked.
“Doubtful. Not unless they needed money for the funeral.” I shook my head, surprised they still had the ability to hurt me. You’d think after everything that happened, refusing to pay my schooling, not inviting me to Daisy’s wedding or their own college graduations, I’d finally be over the need to feel like a part of their family. They certainly didn’t consider me as such. Why, then, did some small part deep inside me want that?
“I can’t help but feel bad for Dolly,” I told them. “She’s the innocent in all this. It doesn’t seem right that she can’t get the care she needs.”
“And whose fault is that?” Nell asked. “Not yours, that’s for sure. You owe them absolutely nothing, El. Nothing.”
I nodded. “Still stinks for Dolly, though.”
“Well.” Dan tossed his deli wrapper across the room and rimmed the wastebasket. “You made your position clear to Culverson. Let’s hope he gives it a rest now and forgets about buying the two of you out.”
“From your mouth to God’s ears,” Nell said. “Did you see how pissed off his lawyer got when he started talking about my mom and your stepsister? I thought at one point, she was going to reach out a hand and muzzle him.”
“That’s his youngest daughter,” Dan said. “Caitlin Marie. She’s his chief financial counsel. Manages all the legal stuff related to his corporations.”
“His chief? She looks like she’s still in high school,” I said.
“She’s twenty-four. Graduated from NYU law school at twenty-two. Some kind of legal savant.”
“How do you know this?” Nell’s eyes narrowed.
Dan lifted his hands, palms up, and shrugged. “I’ve got my ways. You two know I do my homework since I like to know all the players in the game.”
Nell and I glanced at one another then grinned for the first time all afternoon. At the same time, we both said, “Pillow talk.”
“I’m going to take a guess,” Nell said, zeroing in on him, her head cocked to one side, “and bet your homework,” she put air quotes around the word, “came from the girl who works in Culverson’s office. The one who tipped you about him in the first place, right?”
He shrugged. “What can I say? Chicks—”
“Trust you,” I finished. “Yeah, we know. I agree with Nell that she didn’t look happy when he trailed off into personal territory,” I said.
“Probably because she was the one to find out the dirt on our lives.”
I looked over at Nell and hoped my fair skin wouldn’t betray me. While Nell’s family life was an open, public book, courtesy of her crooked father, mine was not. I knew the source of Culverson’s intel, and again, it was in the biblical sense.
“None of it matters now,” she said, standing and gathering up her takeout container. “He knows we won’t be doing business with him. We couldn’t have been clearer on that point. Listen, I’ve got schedules to finish.” She leaned over and kissed Dan on the top of the head. “Thanks for being in our corner.”
He grabbed her hand and held it. “Always.”
I mimicked her movements and went back to my own office, sure in the knowledge I’d been able to keep my secret from my two best friends and hating myself that I needed to.
At the end of the day, I waved to the security guard as I exited through the building’s revolving door. I had my phone in my hand and was about to call an Uber home when my arm was grabbed. I stopped short and raised my free hand, prepared to strike a two-fingered stab to someone’s eyes.
“Ella?”
Buddy.
“Jesus. You scared the hell out of me. Don’t you know you’re not supposed to grab a woman in this city? Let go of me.”
When he did, I started to walk away.
“Ella, wait. Please. I need to talk to you.”
“You have nothing to say that I want to hear,” I tossed over my shoulder, never breaking stride.
From living in this city since birth, I knew how to navigate through a throng of people all moving with, and against, the flow. The best way was to keep a steady pace, weave, and bob around anyone not moving as fast as you were or wanted to go.
Buddy knew how to do this as well and kept up with me.
“Ella, please. Please. Stop.”
I did. Not because I wanted to hear what he had to say, but to make it clear I didn’t.
He pulled me out of the way of the walking hoard.
“You’re angry, I know, but—”
“Save it. You’ve done enough talking, and like I said, you have nothing I want to hear.” I turned to move away, stopped, and turned back. “And angry doesn’t even come close to what I feel right now.”
“I know you think I—”
“Told Culverson about Dolly? Of course I do.”
“I didn’t—”
“Don’t lie. Don’t deny it. You were the only one, the only one, who knew about her. Nell and Dan didn’t even know, so don’t lie to me.”
“I’m many things, Ella, but I’m not a liar.”
I waited a beat so I could get a handle on the pain and fury running through me. I couldn’t let him see how hurt I was, wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. But fury I could use and deal with.
“I don’t know what your game here is, Prince, but it backfired. Big time. If you thought for some warped reason that either Nell or I would be swayed or cajoled into doing business with your boss because he knew about our family problems, you miscalculated. We don’t do business with people who play dirty.”
“I don’t work that way, either, Ella. I never have. And for the record, Tony’s not my boss. He’s just a friend of my father’s.”
“Don’t. Just…don’t.” I put up my hand. “You’re like every other man in the business world. Calculating, resourceful, and not afraid to use information to your advantage. They don’t call you the wizard of Wall street for nothing, that’s for sure.”
His spine stiffened. Looking down his nose at me, I watched anger grow in his eyes. Something pushed up against it, and if I didn’t know better, I would have thought it was pain.
But I did know better.
“Now I’m done here. With you and everything else.”
Before I could stalk away, he grabbed my arm again.
“Let go of me,” I ground out.
He did but not before saying, “You’re wrong about me, Ella. So wrong. I had nothing to do with Culverson finding out about your stepsister. Nothing.”
“And yet I still know you did.”
“You don’t know anything a
bout me. Especially if you can think that.”
This time, he was the one to walk away from me. I stood rooted to my little slice of the sidewalk and watched him thunder away from me until his wide shoulders disappeared.
***
“Is there any update on her condition?” I asked the nurse who came out of Dolly’s cubicle.
Why would I go back to the hospital after being banished by Daisy and Vivi?
It’s not because I’m not a masochist, that’s for sure. I went back to find out how she was doing because I couldn’t call her mother or sister for an update. I felt bad that I hadn’t known from the beginning when she was first injured. Even though my supposed family had put me through hell and wanted nothing from me but money, I still felt for this girl. After all, it wasn’t like she’d asked to be injured.
“And you are?” The nurse was shrouded in patient-protection suspicion.
“Family.”
“I haven’t seen you here before.”
“I know. I didn’t find out about her injury until recently. I came as soon as I heard.”
She didn’t look like she believed me.
“Name?”
“Ella Jones. I’m Dolly’s stepsister.”
She typed something into the computer then looked back up at me, doubt paramount in her stare. “You’re not listed as family.”
Surprise, surprise.
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything about her. Privacy laws.”
I nodded.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Daisy had never learned the concept of inside voices.
“Lower your voice, please, Mrs. Gerard,” the nurse said.
It took me a moment to process the name. I’d forgotten Daisy had gotten married last year. A wedding, like everything else monumental in her life since my father’s death, I hadn’t been included in.
Daisy threw her a nasty look then grabbed my arm and yanked me toward the elevators.
“I told you last time not to come here. We don’t want you.”
I jerked my arm out of her grip and stopped. “I get that,” I said. “You just want money, and since I don’t have any, I’m not worth anything to you.”
“Who are you kidding? You’re loaded. You’re just a selfish bitch who won’t help the family who took you in. Clothed you. Fed you.”
“First of all, it was my father who took you, your sister, and your mother in, Daisy, not the other way around. And the moment he was gone, your mother threw me out of the only home I’d ever known, so stop speaking like an asshole and get your facts straight.”
Her eyes went to half-mast, and for a second, I thought she would strike me. Since I was a good four inches taller than her, I wasn’t too worried.
“I don’t know who told you I was loaded, but it isn’t true. I don’t have a million bucks in the bank or access to cash at any time—”
“Liar. Yes, you do. I know you do.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t have any cash.”
“You could get it, though. Quickly, too. You just won’t. You’re being your usual stubborn, selfish bitch self.”
“That’s the last time you get to call me selfish. You invented the word. Now, again, what are you talking about?”
This was the first time in my life I could describe someone as seething if I was asked to. Her entire face turned as red as a boiled lobster, still in the pot, and she fisted her hands at the sides of her designer blouse and trousers.
“I happen to know for a fact you’ve been made a very nice buyout offer on your stupid business, only you won’t accept it. What are you trying to do? Hold out for more cash? While Dolly lays here, in a coma and in need of specialized care, you’re playing financial chicken with Anthony Culverson?”
Shock didn’t do justice to the emotion whooshing through me.
“How?” I swallowed. “How do you know that? How do you know about Culverson?”
“His daughter, Caitlin. She’s my best friend. She told me how you pitched a fit this afternoon and threw them all out of your office, refusing his offer to help.”
“That’s not what he was doing, Daisy. There was no offer to help made from him. Not at all.”
“Well, I don’t believe a word you say. I believe my friend over you any day.”
A little thought wormed its way forward.
“How long has Caitlin Culverson known about Dolly?”
Her shrug had a nasty lift to it. “Since it happened. She was with me when I found out.”
“Your best friend knew, but not the stepsister you were raised with? The one who used to braid your hair and clean your room?”
“Why would I tell you? I haven’t seen or spoken to you in a decade. Besides, you never liked Dolly and me. You only tolerated us. You were so jealous of us, of the fact we had our mother still alive. That she loved us.”
I didn’t bother mentioning that I’d been spoken to when the thought that I could be a bankroll took hold.
“And she knows that your mother has no money for Dolly’s continued care? You’ve been honest about that?”
“Of course. She’s my best friend. She knows everything about me.”
I nodded. “I’m sure she does. You two deserve one another.”
I turned on my heel and walked, unaided this time, toward the elevator.
“Don’t come back here again,” she yelled after me. “I’m going to tell the nursing staff to bar you.”
Knowing how much she loved the last word, I waited until the elevator arrived. I got in, turned, and with her staring straight at me called back, “Don’t worry. You’ll never see me again,” just as the doors closed.
Petty? Yeah. But sometimes petty felt good.
What didn’t feel good was knowing how I’d accused Buddy of being the one to tell Culverson about Dolly. He’d tried to tell me—multiple times—he hadn’t been the one to divulge the truth, but I’d cut him off every time, not believing a word he’d said in his defense. Jesus. How he must hate me. It had been pain I’d seen floating in eyes, mixed with the anger. And I’d put it there.
Even though it was getting late, I needed to fix this. I needed him to know how sorry I was for thinking he’d betrayed me, had only slept with me for some kind of leverage. And I needed to tell him right away.
I cabbed it to Cal’s building. The doorman in the lobby, luckily, recognized me from the times I’d cleaned the condo.
“I need to speak with Mrs. Burton’s guest. Can you let him know I’m here?”
“Sorry, Miss Jones, but he left about an hour ago. Said he was done with his business and was heading home tonight.”
“Oh. Oh, okay, then. Thanks.”
I wracked my brain, trying to remember where he’d said home was. He’d told me he was based in Washington D.C., but that could just be for business. He could live anywhere.
Dejected and depressed, I went home. Maybe it was for the best. I couldn’t imagine he would accept my apology anyway. I wouldn’t, if the roles were reversed.
I shed my clothes on the way to the bed, not even bothering to fold them, and crawled under the covers in my underwear. When the tears fell, I let them come freely.
Chapter Thirteen
Friday, I was sitting in my office organizing the cleaning schedule for my girls and clients for the next month when my intercom buzzed.
“A lady’s here to see you, El,” the receptionist I shared with Nell told me. “Doesn’t have an appointment, but she’s demanding that you see her.” Her voice muffled, and I imagined she was holding her hand over the mouthpiece when she added, “She’s very insistent.”
Who could this be?
“Okay, show her in.”
I stood and walked toward the door. When it opened, I got the shock of my life.
“Vivienne? What are you doing here?”
Her lips pursed as she looked down her nose at me.
“You were raised with better manners than that, Cynderella.” She sa
untered by me, her gaze taking in the room, missing nothing.
I shook my head, surprised when I didn’t hear rattling, closed the door, and turned to her.
“Please, Vivienne, have a seat.” I gestured toward the chair in front of my desk. She sat and placed her bag on her lap, holding it in a death grip.
Was she scared I’d rip it from her hands? With Vivi, I never knew.
“This is a huge surprise. I didn’t think you knew where I was located.”
“I didn’t. Not until last night. Sit down, Cynderella. Don’t make me crane my neck to look up at you.”
With that one sentence and tone of voice, I was propelled back to a shy, gawky, sixteen-year-old girl looking for love and acceptance.
Because I was no longer that awkward teenager, I took my time crossing behind my desk to my chair. Once seated, I folded my hands in my lap.
“I’ll ask again. What’s brought you here today, Vivienne?”
I was fully expecting her to beg for money.
“I’m here to thank you.”
Okay, this time I knew I was hallucinating. No way on this little island of Manhattan was Vivienne Delatuer Cadence Jones Fairfield Bouford ever going to thank me for anything.
“I’m sorry? I don’t believe I heard you correctly.”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Her spine went stiff, and the lines around her mouth deepened. “And to think I came here out of gratitude.”
“Gratitude? Vivienne, I’m sorry, truly, but I’m confused. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Gratitude for what?”
She dropped her chin and regarded me from under hooded eyes. “I understand you stopped by the hospital Tuesday evening and that you and Daisy had a very loud…argument.”
“Daisy had the loud argument,” I said before I could think not to. “I tried to keep my temper in check even after all the hurtful things she hurled at me.”
Vivi pulled a handkerchief from her purse, pressed it against her eyes. “This entire situation with her sister has been…difficult, at best, for Daisy. You may not know it, but her husband has recently…left her.”
Why did that not surprise me in the least?