by Goda, Julia
“It better be. I pay him enough.”
“You have any idea what he meant? What he could have found?”
“I have no clue, baby, but we’ll know soon and then we can deal with her.” Silence on the other end. “Liz?” I called her name. “Something wrong?”
“No. I don’t know. I don’t have a good feeling about this, Cole. She’s always hated me. I thought it was because she was jealous of our friendship and felt threatened, but if it’s not about that…”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this, baby. I promise.”
She sighed. “I know.”
“So I’ll see you here at noon?”
“I’ll bring lunch.”
“You don’t have to. I can tell Sam—”
“No, I want to. I have a craving for Chinese and the place just down the street makes the best Lemon Chicken in Boston. I’ll bring enough for a hulking P.I. and a nerdy computer geek as well.”
I chuckled. “What makes you think Derrick is a nerdy computer geek?”
“Gut feeling.” I chuckled again.
“All right, baby. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
“See you then.”
“And Liz?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” she whispered and I hung up, smiling to myself as I walked toward my office.
“Glad to see you’re in a better mood today,” I heard Sam call to me and looked up. I grinned. She smiled at me. “I assume that everything worked itself out?”
“It did. Well, most of it. The important parts. Other parts are still a mystery, but they’ll be resolved soon.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“Got a job for you.” Her eyebrows went up.
“I thought I already had one?”
“Funny. Very funny.” I had stopped at her desk when I announced, “Need you to help Liz plan our wedding.” Saying those words brought an instant grin back to my face.
“Ah, that explains the shit-eating grin. Tell me the specifics.”
I did.
Then I watched, amused, as Sam grumbled under her breath while she picked up the phone and started making phone calls, presumably getting prices and ideas on sunny and tropical destination weddings.
Chapter 19
Lizzy
Loaded with bags of Chinese food, I stumbled off the elevator en route to Cole’s office. I had clearly gone overboard. Chinese food was my weakness. Well, one of my weaknesses. There were many. I wasn’t sure what the boys liked, so I got a smörgâsbord of Chinese delights that everyone could choose from. The smells wafting off the food made my stomach rumble. I was ravenous today. Due to all the emotional turmoil yesterday I hadn’t really been up to eating anything all day. I rarely ever missed a meal. I loved my food, so I wasn’t surprised that my body was trying to make up for lost nourishment.
I looked up as someone called my name. A tall, blond, gorgeous woman in her late twenties or early thirties, dressed in an immaculate and sexy pant suit got up from her chair behind a desk and came toward me, a bright smile on her face. Since she was sitting behind the desk in front of Cole’s office, I assumed this must be Sam, Cole’s assistant. I hadn’t expected her to look like she did. I thought—or hoped—assistants were all the middle-aged motherly type.
“You must be Lizzy. I’m Sam,” she introduced herself as she relieved me of two of my filled-to-the-brim plastic bags.
“Hi, Sam. Nice to meet you. I’m sorry about all that drama I caused yesterday.” I felt I needed to apologize. Looking at her and knowing she worked in close proximity to my man every day, I also needed to do something else.
“Oh, don’t you worry about it. Cole told me the gist of what happened and let me tell you, that woman sounds pure evil,” she said before I could continue.
“Listen, I don’t want to offend you in any way, and if I do, I apologize in advance. You’re hot. Extremely hot. And you’re working close with whom I consider mine. I’m not really the jealous type of woman, but I need to know what I’m dealing with. I’m sure you know Cole’s history of loving them and leaving them. Now, did he shit where he works and are we going to have a problem, or are you as nice and professional as he made you sound?” I couldn’t help but be blunt. Sam surprised me by bursting out laughing.
“I like you, Lizzy,” she stated after she controlled her amusement. “Nope, I am not one of his conquests. I’m not saying I’ve never experienced the slam bam thank you ma’am, but I try to keep the number of times I’m treated like meat low, which in today’s times is frighteningly hard to do. I’m almost convinced men are all pigs and am this close to swearing off them.” I couldn’t really argue with her there. I had my fair share of experiencing asshole maneuvers myself. “So, I would love to be friends if you don’t mind. Those are hard to come by. Most men are pigs and most women are bitches, as proven by scary crazy bitch number one yesterday.” I giggled. She had no idea. Cole’s office door opened just as Sam reached to open it and a smiling Cole motioned us inside.
“Hey, baby,” he murmured as he brushed a kiss on my lips when I went to walk past him into his office.
“Hey.”
“I see you’ve officially met Sam.”
“Yup. She won’t mistake one of your crazy ex-bitches for me again and she informed me that she isn’t one of your crazy ex-bitches, either. We’ve decided to be new besties, so it’s all good.” Sam giggled as she proceeded to unload all the bags and placed numerous cartons on the table that was sitting in front of the couch. Cole’s eyebrows shot up in question and I shot him a grin. He let it go.
“You think you got enough food?” He asked as he surveyed the scene, smirking.
“What? I’m hungry. You know I like my food.” Cole chuckled and I heard Sam giggle again.
We all turned to the door when we heard someone enter. It was Max and Derrick. Max raised his eyebrows when he discovered the plethora of food spread out on the table, then shook his head on a half-smile, shrugged his shoulders and dug right in. Derrick introduced himself then followed Max’s example and loaded up a plate with food. I shot Cole an I-told-you-so look, seeing as I had been right and Derrick looked exactly like the computer geek you would imagine. Cole chuckled and kissed my temple where he whispered, “All right, baby, you win.”
“What did I win exactly?”
“You’ll see,” he told me in a low voice, making my insides quiver.
He led me to the table where we both loaded our plates before we sat down on the couch and waited for Max to give us the news.
Max looked at me for a minute, his face serious, then started. “Liz, what do you know about your father?” I froze then lowered my eyebrows in confusion. My father? What did he have to do with any of this?
“My father? Why?” I asked. I wasn’t all fired up to share that he had left us because he didn’t want me.
“Just tell me.”
I stared at him for a second then sighed. Judging by the look on his face he needed to know. So I shared, “Next to nothing. He left us before I was born. I saw a picture once but when I asked my mom about it, she got so upset that she locked herself in her bedroom with a bottle of vodka and didn’t come out until the next morning. It was the only time I ever saw her cry. I must have been five or six. After that, I never asked about him again.” Cole squeezed my knee in support. I covered his hand with mine and squeezed back to let him know I was okay.
“That’s it?” Max asked.
“Yes, that’s all I know. Well, and the reason why he left us. He didn’t want me.” Three sets of eyes turned to a mix of anger and sadness, Cole’s being the angriest and Max’s being the saddest, much to my surprise. Derrick’s were somewhere in the middle.
“You don’t know his name?” Max went back to interrogating me.
“No. Why is that important?”
“That’s what I’d like to know. What does Liz’s father have to do with what Courtney’s been doing?”
Max’s jaw clenched. Then he looked at Derrick and gave him a chin lift before his now concerned eyes came back to me. Derrick nodded and started talking.
“The first thing I did after Max called me last night was pull up everyone’s record just to see if I could find anything that was important, that could tell us anything or get us any leads. Not just the criminal records, the public records. All three of you are from the same town. Call it a hunch, but I thought there could be more to that connection. I was right.” His eyes came to me and stayed there. “Liz, your father’s name is Walter Matthews.” He paused.
Walter Matthews.
It felt strange to finally know my faceless absentee father’s name. I nodded for him to go on, too anxious and nervous to form any words.
Derrick looked at me with compassion before he continued.
I braced myself.
“That same name is also listed on Courtney Miller’s birth certificate as her biological father.” My body locked in shock. What? Courtney and I had the same father? She was my sister?
What the fuck?
“Are you saying that Liz’s father is also Courtney’s father? That they are sisters?” Cole asked in bewilderment, echoing my thoughts.
“Yes,” Derrick said.
“That’s not possible. The records must be wrong. I’ve met Courtney’s father numerous times. Our parents are members of the same social circle, so we would run into them during functions and such.”
“According to your records, you moved to Ashford, Massachusetts, when you were ten years old.”
“That’s correct,” Cole confirmed.
“Then you wouldn’t know that Ann Matthews married George Miller when Courtney was three years old after her husband had died in a car accident the year before. George Miller adopted Courtney and she took his last name.”
Cole muttered under his breath.
I still sat quietly, shocked, my brain trying to take in and process the information.
And failing.
I didn’t know what to feel. So many emotions and thoughts were swirling inside me I couldn’t hold on to any one thing. I tried to do the math in my head. Courtney was three when her mother remarried, her biological father—our father —died a year before that in a car accident. Courtney was two years older than me. Which meant my father died when I was a baby. Or maybe even before I was born. He never left me willingly.
He died.
“So my father died? He didn’t leave because of me?” I whispered.
Cole’s head whipped around at my words. He turned his hand that was still holding my knee and grabbed mine tightly.
“Baby—” he started, but Max interrupted him.
“There is more.”
I closed my eyes, not sure I could take any more revelations that would turn my life as I’d known it upside down. Derrick kept speaking.
“I found divorce papers that were filed by Walter Matthews three months before the car accident. He was leaving his wife. I can only speculate as to the reason why, but I think we all have a pretty good idea.”
“When?” I still had my eyes closed, needing the privacy that gave me to control my emotions.
“When what?” Derrick asked.
“When did he file for divorce? And when was the car accident? What month?” Cole tightened his hand in mine. He knew where I was going with this.
“He filed for divorce in April. The car accident was on July 16th.”
“I was born on July 17th.” I whispered as I hung my head.
This changed everything.
Everything my mother had made me believe all my life. My father died the day before I was born. I had been a preemie, born six weeks early. My mother had told me many times that I should have died in that hospital, that she would be better off without having to care for me, that it was my fault she was worth nothing, it was my fault that people looked down on her. I never understood what she meant by that.
But it was crystal clear now.
She had had an affair with Courtney’s father and got pregnant. My father was leaving his wife maybe because of that, because of me. It could have been for other reasons, but the timing would have been too coincidental if he weren’t leaving his wife for my mom and me.
Because he loved us and wanted to be with us.
He didn’t leave us because he didn’t want me.
He wanted me.
He wanted to be my dad.
But he died tragically before he could.
And my mom went into labor six weeks early and had me the day after he died.
I can only imagine what sorrow she must have suffered that would make her go into labor early. Tears started to form in my eyes at feeling compassion for my mother. I understood now. Understood why she was overwhelmed, why she turned to alcohol and drugs, why she couldn’t love me, why she needed to sedate herself to escape reality.
Not that that excused anything she had done to me, had said to me. But understanding the reasoning behind it helped somewhat.
Fingers were brushing at the tears that were rolling down my cheeks. I opened my eyes.
“Liz?” Cole asked, concerned.
“I get it now. It all makes sense,” I said through my silent tears. He looked back at me with sad eyes and nodded. “Yeah, baby. It does.” I closed my eyes again and rested my forehead against his chest. His arms moved to rub my back soothingly.
“Liz,” I heard Max call gently after a few moments. I turned my head on Cole’s chest so I could look at him. “I know this is a lot and I can see what it’s doing to you, but there is more to tell you.” He paused and waited for me to collect myself. I took a deep breath and straightened out of Cole’s embrace, but held on to one of his hands and nodded at Max to go on.
“It’s about your father’s accident. Foul play was suspected. Your father hit a tree at 50 miles an hour, without activating the brakes. He wasn’t drunk or high. Drove a new SUV. There was an investigation, but nothing came of it. It was determined that he must have fallen asleep behind the wheel. Thing is, it wasn’t late at night. Or after a long day at work. It happened on a Sunday afternoon. There is more evidence that could potentially lead to proving that his car was tempered with, but I have nothing certain yet. I promise you I will get to the bottom of this. Derrick and I will keep digging.”
Holy shit! Was he serious?
“You’re telling me that there is a chance that someone wanted my father dead? That something was done to his car to kill him?”
I couldn’t believe this!
“Yes. Now, Liz, I’m not sure you’ve made that connection yet, but there’s a good possibility that Courtney knows that you two are sisters and that her father was going to leave her and her mother for you. She was only two years old when everything went down, but the hate she has for you must come from somewhere. I suspect her mother has been feeding her with her own venom. That could be why she wants to hurt you, why she’s been trying to make your life hell since you can remember. I’m sure I don’t know all that happened between you two, since I only know what Cole knows.” He stopped there and gave me a searching look. I nodded, slowly, confirming his suspicion that there was more than Cole—and inadvertently he—knew about how Courtney had tortured me all my life, to what lengths she had gone. Max returned my nod. “It makes sense then. First, her father chose you and was going to leave her behind, and now the man she has been in love with for years also chose you over her. That’s the two most important men in her life tossing her aside for you. A woman like her would seek revenge.”
I had felt Cole’s body tense at the confirmation of there being more to the story between Courtney and I, but he didn’t push me for details. We could talk about that later.
“Fucking hell,” Cole growled under his breath. “This is a fucking nightmare.”
Max’s eyes moved to Cole.
“It is. At least we now know her motive and can act accordingly. We know her focus is on Liz, not on you, and we know why. That helps a lot. We’
ve put the pressure on. She’ll soon feel it and hopefully retreat, but a woman scorned like that? I’m not holding my breath. We need to prepare for the eventuality that she’ll keep coming after Liz, and to protect her from it.”
“Okay. That sounds like a plan,” Cole agreed.
“We also found out who Courtney’s partner in crime is.”
“Who?” Cole asked when Max paused for long moments.
“It’s your mother.” Cole jumped up from the couch and started pacing, his hands grabbing his hair.
“You are fucking shitting me! My mother? Why?”
“I don’t know why. That’s something you’re going to have to ask her. My guess? She wants you married to someone from your own social class, not someone from the wrong side of the tracks. No offence,” he added, sliding his eyes to me.
“None taken,” I replied. He tipped up his chin and swung his head back to Cole who was still pacing by the window.
“There’s nothing that leads us to believe she is in any deeper than that. She might even believe that you are really in love with Courtney. I don’t know. Courtney probably told her about the baby being yours, but that’s just me guessing at this point. You need to confront your mother if you want to know the whys. Derrick and I are gonna focus on cutting Courtney off from messing with Liz.”
Cole had stopped pacing and stood next to where I was sitting, a hand on my shoulder.
“You’re right. Priority number one right now is keeping her away from Liz. She is not hurting her ever again.”
“Hurting you means hurting Liz. You gotta keep that in mind. I figure the only thing she can really do to Liz after failing to drive her away from you is make her lose her job. We’ll check if she has any connections that could help her with that. Liz is clean so she doesn’t have much to go on. Her big plan hasn’t worked. I have a feeling she won’t back off, though. If she hasn’t already, she is gonna find out soon that you two are engaged. That will fuel the fire and she’ll be more determined than ever to get her revenge. Women can be crazy bitches, and something tells me this one is crazier than most. Derrick couldn’t find anything that could compromise you professionally, Liz, but that bitch has got money, and we all know money can buy you pretty much anything.”