by Laurie Lewis
20
Susan sat on the sofa, biting her fingernail as Olivia lowered herself into a chair and dialed Larry Brewster’s number. She set the call on speaker.
“Larry Brewster here.”
“Mr. Brewster, this is Olivia McAllister.”
His groan echoed in her ear. “Geez, lady, you’ve got no beef with me. The way I figure it, you owe me.”
“How do you figure that?”
“I gave up investigating your Mr. Bauer. He’s so clean he probably squeaks when he walks. But you already knew that, so tell me why you led me on a wild goose chase with those claims that he stole that company out from under you? I saw those transfer-of-ownership papers. Your name and your husband’s were all over that document.”
“How could you possibly have seen those papers? I just found out about them.”
“It’s what I do. I slipped one of Hudson Bauer’s employees a hundred spot, and she gave me a peek.”
“But I never saw or signed any papers about Arena Corp.”
“Did your husband ever ask you to sign a proxy doc? Seven or eight years ago?”
She thought back to a night near their anniversary when Jeff took her out to a restaurant. Before dessert, he slid papers and a pen her way for her to sign. Humiliation hit her like a spray of ice water over the memory. She had been such a weak, spineless fool, so grateful for his attention that she asked few questions. “Yes,” she replied in defeat. “He said he was opening an account.”
“That’s an understatement. You never read the document?”
“No.”
Susan stood up and walked to a window. Olivia’s heart broke for her.
“I take it you never saw any revenue from the company either.”
She grasped at a final straw. “Maybe there wasn’t any. I heard the company failed.”
“But it was worth over two million dollars when Bauer signed it over at the end of its first year. A Japanese program took over the market, so the management company sold the stock and invested it in other tech industries. Your husband had to have been making the final decisions. There’s money. Somewhere.”
Olivia’s eyes began to sting.
“So you’re telling me you have absolutely no knowledge of Arena Corp?”
“I might have something. Jeff opened a Swiss bank account. It might be attached to the business, but my name isn’t on it. Can you get access to that account?”
“It’ll take some doing, but unless some other person or entity is attached to that account, the money should legally go to you. But once the case goes international, my price goes way up.”
“I’m sure we can agree on something fair. You run a sleazy operation, Mr. Brewster. I didn’t know that when I hired you. In truth, though, I was on your level at the time. I’m giving us both a chance to step up and redeem ourselves. And maybe we can redeem my husband too.”
“I’m not running any charity, lady.”
Charity. That was it! Olivia thought about the photos of the Syrian refugees and of the nuns and orphans whose faces filled her dreams. “I’ll send the bank account information to you, and you get me everything you can on that account. I want to know how it operated, how involved my husband was, and what he did with the funds. Maybe we can do a little good in the world with that money. And don’t let a word of this leak to the press, because as much as I’d hate to play lowball again, if Hudson Bauer’s name is compromised in any way, I’ll tell the FBI about that hundred spot you used to bribe one of his employees. I imagine that information could place your license in jeopardy. So be a hero, Mr. Brewster. You’ll have my email in the hour.”
Olivia ended the call, but Susan’s pained reaction to it continued. She stared out the basement walkout’s sliding doors, looking much as she had that day in Olivia’s hospital room.
“None of that sounded like the Jeff I knew.”
Olivia was reeling herself and had little comfort to offer. “Maybe we’re missing something.”
Susan turned and brightened. “Of course. We must be.”
Prickles rose on Olivia’s arms. She could think of no good explanation that wouldn’t build up what could be false hope.
Susan grabbed her coat and headed for the door. “A few of Jeff’s college friends came to the funeral or sent cards. I’m going to contact them. Maybe they know something that will explain all this.”
“Okay.” Olivia heard the doubt in her own voice. She didn’t believe Susan would find a happy explanation for Jeff’s behavior, but neither could she abide any further discussion of the topic today.
“I’ll be in touch,” said Susan, as she slipped past the door. Olivia wondered if she’d ever see her again.
21
Clouds and rain filled most Portland forecasts from October to the year’s end. It seemed a fitting prelude to Olivia’s feeling about the upcoming holidays. Thanksgiving in Maryland with her mother and Peter Thibodeaux proved to be an unexpected delight. Peter’s endless stories about his Cajun boyhood and misspent youth flimflamming tourists in New Orleans left Olivia in stitches. She completely understood why her mother adored the now successful plumbing contractor, and to her surprise, she teared up when it was time to leave them both.
Christmas was spent at Laurel’s playing with little Joey. Olivia’s thoughts frequently drifted to the baby she had carried so briefly and her January due date. She could no longer picture herself with Jeff and a child, but an ache and emptiness remained.
Hudson sent a package from Africa, where he and his parents were spending the holidays. Inside was a delicate, hand-loomed tablecloth and a beautiful woven basket adorned with a hand-painted elephant. The cover of the card was a sketched Nativity, and inside was a note.
The nuns at the Mother Thomasine’s convent make and sell items like these to support themselves and the orphans they teach at their school. Their business is doing well, thanks in great part to your beautiful work on the microbusiness projects. I hope you get to see some of these places and the people you’ve helped. Thanks also for your support on Sweet Water. You’re making a difference.
I hope your Christmas was merry and bright.
Hudson
She debated whether or not Hudson sent gifts to every employee, or if this was his way of reaching out to her, of keeping the door of hope ajar in case they tried again to get it right. She had been so wrong on every point with this good man. She had even picked up the phone a dozen times to admit that very truth, that she now understood her marriage was based on a trick, and that Hudson had given them Arena Corp. But how could she excuse her lack of faith in Hudson?
That question haunted her as she boarded a plane for three days of meetings with Ethan in New York. And, it continued to distract her as she and Ethan designed the brochure to calm the Sweet Water investors—the global committee nervously awaited the most recent set of test results of the revolutionary, but underperforming, solar-powered micro-pump required to make Hudson’s dream of Sweet Water possible.
“You seem stuck,” said Ethan, as he clicked to open a folder of photos on his desktop. “Maybe these new photos will ignite that McAllister magic.”
She didn’t feel like a McAllister anymore.
Especially once images of Hudson appeared on the screen—kneeling by a mud-cracked riverbed, splashing dark-skinned children with water gushing from a hand pump, or sitting cross-legged in a circle with men dressed in tribal colors. She noticed something disturbing.
“He looks—”
“Thin? Sad? Terrible? He hardly spends a week a month in the office anymore. He’s practically based in Africa. He’s there now. Sweet Water has become his obsession.”
“What happened?”
“I thought you might know.”
Olivia’s heart stopped beating for a moment. “Me? Why me?”
“I thought he might have said something to you. You’re clearly important to him. I’ve watched Hudson’s reaction whenever your name is mentioned in a meeting, and I’ve seen ho
w your eyes keep drifting to his office door. You seem worried about him, too.”
“I am … I …” Her phone buzzed with a call from Susan, the women’s first contact since October. Olivia excused herself and slipped into the hall to answer.
“Susan, I’m glad you called.”
“I’m sorry I haven’t been in touch. Are you in your apartment? I have something I need to show you.”
There was a tremble in her voice that set Olivia’s nerves on edge. “I’m on a business trip. I’ll be home on the fifth.”
“All right. I’ll meet you at your place at ten on Friday. Okay?”
“What’s going on, Susan? Just tell me.”
“I can’t explain it properly. You need to see this. I think you’ll feel better about things when you do.”
* * *
The woman Olivia found standing in her doorway barely resembled Susan. Her jeans and T-shirt were rumpled and grease-spotted, and her hair and eyes looked as if she had just come straight from her bed. She had an iPad in her hands.
“Are you all right?” She hurriedly drew Susan inside and to a kitchen chair.
“I’m fine. I haven’t really slept or gone to work since I called you.”
“You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”
“I told you I was going to reach out to Jeff’s college teammates to see if he ever told them anything about Arena Corp.”
“I remember.”
“Well, I’ve been keeping in touch with one of them. A guy named Walt. He was actually at your wedding ceremony and reception.”
Olivia’s face blushed hot at the mention of that day. “And?”
“He mentioned something about Jeff’s YouTube channel, so I searched for it, and I found it. It was password protected, but I figured it out, and I’ve been sitting in front of it ever since, just watching clip after stupid clip of Jeff.” She started to cry. “But amongst all the juvenile college stuff, he also kept a video journal where he recorded personal messages. Three of them were directly to you … clips he planned to send you, but, for one reason or another, never did. You’re going to want to hear these.” She booted up the tablet as Olivia held her breath and slipped down into the chair beside her.
“He was drunk when he recorded the first one. The picture is grainy, but you can make out the words. As hard as it’s going to be to hear, I think it will help us all understand Jeff.”
Susan typed in the search bar, bringing up a YouTube page. The header displayed several captured images of Jeff and friends, but a bleary-eyed image of Jeff filled the rest of the screen. He was wet, as if he’d just taken a shower. A white terry robe hung loose and open, revealing Jeff’s damp, bare chest. Wet hair framed his distressed face in brown ringlets, giving him a lost, childlike essence. Olivia saw him as she remembered him before their marriage. Before the deceit. She reached a hand toward the screen, wishing they could connect.
She began to tremble as she read the logo on the robe and viewed the elegant amenities in the bathroom. She recognized the location as the hotel room where they spent their wedding night. Her mind flashed back to the morning after their marriage, when Jeff exited the bathroom with a haunted expression on his face. He had been crying, but when she went to comfort him, he refused her kindness and told her to pack.
She clicked the play button, and Jeff’s slurred voice filled the silence.
“Olivia.” His head dropped into his hands. “I’m so sorry.” She heard muffled moans and then his head lifted again. “If you’re seeing this, it means I left. I didn’t mean for this to get so far.” His face twisted as he fought to control his emotions. “I didn’t want Hudson’s handout. I just wanted him to admit that what I contributed mattered.” He grew more animated. “I thought he took off without me, as if I was nothing to him or the company. Just extra baggage.” His finger pointed forward as if punctuating the next statement. “So I headed to the bar and turned off my phone. I swear I didn’t get any of his messages.”
“Stop,” said Olivia. “I don’t understand.”
Susan paused the clip. “You have to listen to all of the clips to understand. Jeff lied when he told you the Arena Corp meeting had been postponed. Hudson must have taken off early in the morning for some reason, and Jeff assumed he had left for the meeting without him. He felt neglected and angry, so he started drinking and turned off his phone. That’s why he missed Hudson’s calls and texts and the real departure time, and why Hudson ended up pitching the Arena Corp deal himself. Sit back down. It will all make sense in a minute.”
As Olivia sat, Susan resumed the video.
“I told you Hudson was pulling away from us. That he was tossing us aside. I was afraid for me, but I knew he would never bail on you. He was going to propose to you. He was going to have it all—success, wealth, the beautiful wife who supported him.” Jeff groaned. “Hudson was always smart, Olivia, but you … you made him believe in himself. That’s why you’re special.” Tears rolled down his face. “So different from the girls I dated. I thought if you could do that for Hudson, maybe you could do that for me too. I needed someone in my corner so badly. I needed you. But I had a very short window to win you over, so I borrowed from Hudson’s playbook, and I managed to make you believe you loved me the way I was falling in love with you.”
A soft gasp escaped on Olivia’s next breath. “Stop the clip.” She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself like a shield. “He did love me?”
Susan placed her hand on Olivia’s back. “Yes. That’s what I wanted you to hear. What he did was wrong, terribly wrong, but he did love you, Olivia.”
She hit “play,” and the video continued. “I should never have agreed to a round of drinks at that bar. Our wedding celebration turned into a victory party about me taking what Hudson loved most. I expected you to turn and run any minute, but you didn’t.” Confusion filled his face. “You stayed. I thought maybe you really did love me.” He hung his head and shook it. “But I got so drunk that I forgot the exit strategy.” He quieted as his hands covered his head like a helmet.
His head shook as he said, “I swear I was going to tell you the truth. All of it. I was going to tell you that two men loved you—me and Hudson—and let you choose. I thought if I had time alone with you, you might see what I could be, and you might love me the way you loved him. If you chose Hudson, I’d take you home, and we’d annul it all the next day. But I got so messed up.”
Jeff bent over and wrapped his arms around his head again, rocking and groaning. When he stood, his eyes glanced down, avoiding the camera. Olivia could barely pull her eyes from the tortured face before her, but neither could she sit. Her body felt like gelatin.
“You were just too kind, Olivia. Too protective. You got us to that hotel, and there you were. So beautiful. So innocent. So loving.” He closed his eyes. “I got lost in you.”
“Please,” cried Olivia, “no more.” Her hands came up, shielding her face.
Susan stood beside her. “I can only imagine what you’re feeling. I’m just his sister, but the biggest hurt these past six months has come from thinking I never really knew my own brother. That he was Jekyll and Hyde. Now I know that he was a good man who made an unspeakable mistake, and who spent the rest of his life trying to fix it. Please, Olivia. Sit back down and at least finish this clip. I promise, you’ll feel your own guilt wash away.”
Olivia wondered if she were having a heart attack. Somehow, in that moment, the thought of dying right then didn’t frighten her, at least not as much as the regret of knowing what she and Jeff had squandered.
The clip began again, but Jeff was subdued in body and mind.
“When I woke up and saw you there, I remembered everything, and I wanted to die. I’ve been hiding here in the bathroom, but no matter how many times I’ve showered, I still feel like dirt. Like a monster. I took everything from you, and I have nothing to offer.” He sniffed and rubbed a sleeve across his nose.
“You should be with Hudson.” He looke
d into the camera, straight into her eyes. “I know what I need to do. I’m going to make this as right as I can. I promise. After I rush you back to Hudson, I’ll send you this link, and then I’ll slip away. I don’t know where, but I won’t interfere in your life again.” His head bent forward, and Olivia killed the feed.
“No more. I know the rest.” She slumped into her chair. “Jeff took me back to the apartment, but Hudson had already heard about the wedding, and he was gone.”
“That’s why Jeff decided to stay and try to be the husband you deserved, but his guilt prevented him from being that man. He made other videos when he thought he’d found the strength to leave. He knew you’d be all right. In one of the clips he says, ‘Hudson made sure of that.’ I figured it was a reference to Arena Corp.”
The words were just white noise to Olivia.
Susan closed the cover on the iPad, but neither woman spoke for several moments.
“He was more resolute in the message made last June, weeks before the accident. Please listen to that clip some time. He thanked you for trying so hard to love a man whose choices left him unable to love himself.” Susan touched Olivia’s arm. “He also apologized for denying you a family. The thought of that responsibility crushed him, so he pushed you away, hoping you’d leave and find a good man, but you wouldn’t go.”
Olivia wiped at her eyes. “If I had just known that he cared about me, maybe we could have been happy.”
“I think the scars were too deep for both of you at that point. My brother was a proud man. He hated failure of any kind. He knew how much our family loved him, but he chose to avoid us rather than risk having us think he failed.”
“He owned a small business. Why couldn’t that be enough?”
“We both know he was chasing Hudson’s success. I think he hid that money in Switzerland so he wouldn’t be tempted to use it. He said he only used it once, and he knew you’d approve of his decision. That’s really the essence of Jeff’s legacy. He wanted so much to make you proud of him, to succeed on his own, and to leave a positive mark on the world. In the end, he decided that the best thing to do was to leave and end the emotional hemorrhage between you two. The last video explains his plan to take off the day after the picnic.”