by Lexy Timms
“Well, I think you look sexy.” She reached down to unbutton the top button of his shirt. “You’ve still got a tan from our trip to Florida, and your hair looks amazing.”
He had almost never given a damn about what he looked like, but Heather’s approval made him feel ten feet tall. Nobody else on earth could have gotten him to sign up to do this.
“Thanks,” he finally said.
She whipped out her phone and said, “I’m going to call the reporter to make sure he’s on his way.”
“Okay, what do I do now?”
“All you have to do is sit tight until the reporter and the photographer get here.”
Less than an hour later, Heather led the magazine reporter and the photographer into the living room. They all made their introductions, but none of the formalities eased the mounting tension in his shoulders. As grateful as he was to have Heather’s efficiency on his side, he couldn’t wait for this ordeal to be over.
“How about we take them on a tour of your building?” Heather suggested.
Neil, the reporter, smiled and nodded. “Sounds great. We’ll be able to really get a feel for who Simon is.”
Barely suppressing a sigh, Simon led them all out of his apartment and started to show them around his apartment building.
When they entered the apartment across from the photographer went crazy, taking photos of the servers that were lined up along one of the apartment’s walls.
“So these are the servers that were photographed during the break-in?” the reporter asked.
Simon frowned. “I wouldn’t quite call it a break-in, but photos of my servers were leaked without my permission.”
Neil scribbled some notes into the notepad he was holding. “So, how exactly did Everett Eastman pull off his spying on your computer system?”
“That’s confidential,” Simon said flatly. “I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation.”
“I get it,” the reporter said. “You’ve got reputations to protect.”
“It’s not just that,” Simon said. “What happened to Dover was absolutely heartbreaking. It’s been tough on the staff to know that one of our own was trying to harm the company that we all worked so hard to build.”
“I’m guessing it’s been tough on you, too” Neil said.
Simon nodded, his gut twisting painfully. He had never thought of Everett Eastman as a friend, but he had at least believed that they were on the same side. Had the same goal of making Dover a better company with each passing year. Finding out that Everett had spied on the company, stolen his ideas, and tried to frame Heather on top of it all had been more devastating than he’d realized. The truth was he hadn’t fully come to terms with it, and this interview was forcing him to take a good hard look at what Everett had put them all through.
“It has been,” he conceded. “But it’s been tough on all of us. Dover really is a family. Even when some members of the staff move on to other companies, we make sure we stay in touch with them. We’re all still reeling from this, but as the CEO it’s my job to do what needs to be done to protect the staff. They’re my number one concern. Dover’s workers. They’ve worked too hard for me to give up on them.”
“I really appreciate your candor, Simon,” Neil said. “It’s something our readers are going to get a lot of inspiration from. A leader who genuinely cares about the human capital of their company is someone to be admired.”
With a curt nod of acknowledgement, Simon stepped away from the servers to continue with the tour. The photographer took scores of photos as he showed them the many unoccupied apartments in the luxury building while answering more of the reporter’s questions. Finally, they ended up at the heated underground swimming pool.
“How about you get your feet wet,” Heather suggested eagerly.
He raised an eyebrow at her, already dreading where this new idea was going. “What?”
“Why don’t you take your shoes off, roll up your jeans, and put your feet in the water,” she pressed.
“Yeah, how about it, Simon?” the photographer asked, holding up his camera.
Simon sighed. Might as well get this madness over with.
Before he started to take his shoes off, Heather leaned towards him to undo another one of his shirt buttons.
“Take my shirt off, why don’t you,” he said to her with a growl.
“Sure, let’s go for it,” the photographer said enthusiastically.
“That’s not going to happen,” Simon muttered as he took his shoes off.
Heather let out a trembling giggle, but she quickly composed herself as she watched him roll up his jeans.
He sank down to sit at the edge of the swimming pool, putting his feet in the water.
“You look great, Simon,” the photographer said, snapping photos. “You’re starting to look more relaxed. How about we undo one more button?”
For the rest of the tedious photo shoot, Simon forced himself to grit his teeth and bear the whole ridiculous exercise. If Heather hadn’t been around, he probably would have reverted to his old ways and tossed the reporter and the photographer out of the building.
But he didn’t, and by the time late afternoon rolled around he let the reporter and the photographer out and headed into the kitchen in his apartment with Heather.
“You did great,” she said.
“Really?” He grimaced at the memory of the poolside photos. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” she said. “Your answers about Everett were so real. I knew you could do it.”
“The photos weren’t over the top?” he asked.
“Not at all. I told you that you looked sexy,” she said with a grin. “The magazine says they’re going to release the photos they took in your apartment on their website with some choice quotes later this week. Social media is going to love that. The pool photos will make it to the print version of the magazine in a month or so. That way, we’ll be able to keep the buzz around you going. We’ll be keeping up all this momentum.”
He headed over to his freezer and dug out a frozen pizza. “How about some pizza before we head down to the law firm?”
“I’d like that, thanks,” she said. “You did a good job today.”
“So did you,” he said. “Organizing a photo shoot at the last minute couldn’t have been easy.” He paused. “Dealing with me probably wasn’t easy either.”
She smiled. “You billionaires really are a handful.”
“I’m just glad it’s over,” he said.
“Don’t forget, you still have to do a podcast this week,” she reminded him.
He groaned and started to tear open the package. “Don’t remind me.”
Her phone started ringing before she could respond, and she answered it quickly. “Oh, hello, Aaron. No, it’s no trouble. I’m free at the moment.”
While she talked with her lawyer, Simon turned on the oven.
“What?” Heather’s panicked voice dragged his attention from the oven. “Are you sure?” She paused, her face turning pale. Apprehension flashed in her eyes as she turned her attention to him. “Is it okay if Aaron comes over? Something has come up.”
“Of course he can come over.” Simon frowned, not liking the tremble in her voice one bit. Something was clearly wrong.
“Yes, Aaron, you can come over. Okay, see you in twenty minutes.” She hung up and stared at him, her face growing even paler.
“Heather, what is it?” he asked.
“Aaron wants to talk about what he’s managed to get on Gary,” she said.
“That’s good news, isn’t it?”
She bit her lip. “That’s just it. I don’t think they’ve found enough to help with my case, and the next hearing is in three days.”
His chest tightened. That was bad. Simon had been certain the law firm’s investigators would have found dirt on Gary. He had been certain that Gary was shady. But if there wasn’t enough evidence against him, she could lose the court case. Lose Finn for good.
He looked at her, and already he could see a crack in the brave veneer she had put up for the past several days. She was shaking, her eyes glassy.
“You need to eat something,” he said firmly. “I’ll get this pizza into the oven and then we can wait for Aaron to arrive, so that we can get the full story.”
Chapter 17
“What do you mean you haven’t found anything?” she asked desperately.
“I mean we haven’t found enough,” her lawyer replied in an apologetic tone.
She was sitting next to Simon in the living room, holding his hand tightly as she processed what Aaron was telling her. “What did your investigator find?”
“We discovered that Gary has been unemployed for quite some time,” Aaron explained. “He hasn’t had a steady job in months.”
“But isn’t that good news for us?” she pressed. “We can tell the judge that Gary doesn’t have a stable job, and therefore can’t have sole custody of Finn.”
“The problem with that strategy is, you were unemployed until relatively recently,” Aaron replied. “Using this information could backfire on us. It might actually make things worse for our case against Gary.”
Panic gripped her heart so tightly she could barely breathe. Images of Finn being dragged away from her flashed in her mind. “Why he was fired? Couldn’t we use something like that against him?”
“We haven’t been able to establish the exact reason why he was fired, but right now it looks like a layoff,” Aaron said.
A layoff was exactly the scenario she had dealt with months before she started working at Dover. If she went after Gary for getting laid off the same way she had, she’d look like a hypocrite. “So, you’re saying we’ve got dirt, it’s just not the right kind.”
“It would have been useful under different circumstances, but given your own work history it would be dangerous to use this new information,” Aaron said. “I’m sorry, Heather.”
Hot, blinding tears started to roll down her cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak, but her words were drowned out by choking sobs. Simon wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. As the reality of the situation really began to hit home, not even Simon could soothe her ache. Soothe the pain of losing her son.
“There has to be something we can do,” Simon said.
“If we don’t have anything new to bring up at the next hearing, the judge could easily make his ruling this Friday,” Aaron said. “The truth is, we’re running out of options.”
“So, I should just give up my son?” she cried. “Just let Gary take him from me forever?”
“I’m not saying give up,” her lawyer said gently. “We might have to retreat for now. Accept Gary having Finn and then maybe revisit this in a year or two.”
“No.” Air squeezed out of her lungs. “I’m not accepting this. I’m not giving up my son for a single day. No. I have to fix this.” Almost delirious with fear and grief, she got to her feet. She had no idea where she was going to go, or what she was going to do, but she wasn’t going to let anyone take Finn from her. “We can run away. Me and Finn.”
“What?” Simon got up and curled his fingers around her shoulders. “You can’t do that. Heather, that’s kidnapping.”
“I have to fix this.” Another sob wrenched from her and she collapsed against Simon, too shaken to stand on her own now.
“Aaron, there has to be a way,” Simon said as he held her tightly. “I don’t care what underhanded tactics you have to use now. Stop Gary.”
“There might be dirt at his residence,” Aaron said. “It’s the one place the investigator didn’t have access to because Gary rarely leaves long enough.”
“So, that’s it?” Simon demanded. “We can’t get into his house, so we let him win?”
“The truth is, Simon, there might not be any dirt to get,” Aaron said. “I believe there is something, because we can’t explain how he makes child support payments without a job. But if we’re wrong, risking breaking into his house might not solve anything. How would we even get him out of the house long enough?”
“The court hearing,” Simon said. “He’ll be out of his house for hours during Friday’s hearing.”
“You want us to break into Gary’s house while the court hearing is going on?” Aaron sounded taken aback. “That’s crazy. Do you have any idea what kind of risk we’d be taking?”
“Then let me take the risk with you,” Simon said. “Send your investigator to Gary’s house and I can go with him. Act as a lookout. Let me incur the risk along with your law firm.”
She pulled away from him, no longer able to listen to their insane conversation in silence. “Simon, you could get arrested. Dover couldn’t withstand bad news like that. Not after a board member’s arrest.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take for you,” he said in a dark tone that made her tremble. The expression on his face hardened, and she knew in her heart that there was nothing she could say that would sway him.
Heather had done everything she could to make sure Simon didn’t get tangled up in her family drama, but now he was about to pay the ultimate price. Dover would be destroyed if word got out that its CEO had broken into his girlfriend’s ex-husband’s house. There was no spinning that kind of scandal.
“I won’t ask you to do that,” she said.
He cupped her face in his hands, his intense gaze piercing right through her down to her very soul. “I’m doing it. For you and for Finn. I don’t care what happens to me. You’re all that matters.”
She took a step back from him, too overwhelmed by his barely-contained fury to withstand his touch. His anger was so palpable she could actually feel it. Gary had managed to push them all so far over the edge that Simon was really going to go through with this. Risk his life’s work to save her son. It should have comforted her, but she was terrified. Terrified that Simon would do anything to protect her and Finn. The way any father would protect his family.
Simon focused his attention on her lawyer. “Let your investigator know that I’ll be ready to go with him this Friday.”
“In that case, I’ll have no choice but to try to stall proceedings during the hearing,” Aaron said grimly. “I hope the judge doesn’t realize I’m slowing things down on purpose, because if he does he’ll hold us all in contempt of court.”
“What if this doesn’t work?” Heather asked in a shaky voice.
“It has to,” Simon said. “Because if it doesn’t, I’ll have to help you and Finn get out of the city before Gary can get to him.”
SHE LET HER LAWYER open the door to the courtroom for her. As her eyes darted around the room she saw Gary was already sitting up front with his lawyer. His girlfriend Tiffany was sitting in the back again.
Her stomach tightened painfully at seeing that someone had shown up to support Gary. Right now, instead of waiting in the back for her like he had at the first hearing, Simon was more than likely headed to Gary’s house with the investigator.
That thought didn’t do anything to ease her panic. Simon was putting himself in so much danger for her, and the guilt was mounting with each step she took towards her seat.
Heather sank into her seat beside her lawyer, her body shaking with anxiety while she waited for the proceedings to begin.
Within minutes, the judged stepped into the courtroom and took his seat to begin.
Aaron started cross-examining some of Gary’s witnesses. Ordinarily she would have breathed a sigh of relief that Gary hadn’t managed to get anyone from Dover to testify against her, but she was so focused on Finn that relief was an utterly foreign concept to her.
She hadn’t slept well at all the night before, her mind preoccupied with panic over what would happen to Finn. For the past three days she had kept her fears from her son. It wouldn’t be right to burden a child with her terror of losing him. So, instead, she had pretended everything was fine while she numbed her pain when she was around him. Meanwhile work had been a daze, and while Simon had done ever
ything to support her nothing could erase her sadness and dread.
Finally, Aaron was finished with the last witness and he resumed his seat beside her.
“I think I’ll only have one last chance to stall,” he said to her in a low voice.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” she asked.
Aaron shook his head. “Not at the moment. After Gary’s lawyer has her turn, I’ll have one last chance to lob some softball questions at our witnesses. It’s tougher to stall with our own witnesses, because the more questions I ask the more likely they are to make a mistake.”
She bit her lip. What if Simon had been caught breaking into Gary’s house? What if that was the reason he seemed to be taking so long? She didn’t dare ask her lawyer that question because she didn’t want to throw him off his game, but whatever hope she had clung to was beginning to fade.
Suddenly the sound of the courtroom doors flinging open made her turn around, and she spied Simon and a man she didn’t recognize walking in.
The judge narrowed his eyes in annoyance as the man she assumed was the investigator approached them, handed over a pile of documents to Aaron, and started whispering to him.
She gave Simon a questioning look but he said nothing, his face unreadable.
“Your Honor, we’d like to share some new evidence with the court,” Aaron said as he surged to his feet.
The judge frowned. “What new evidence?”
“May I approach?” Aaron asked.
The judge sighed, but then nodded. “Proceed.”
Aaron walked quickly over to the judge, Gary’s lawyer following quickly after him.
Heather bit her lip. Surely this flurry of activity meant that Simon and the investigator had found something.
“With this new evidence coming to light, we’ll adjourn for a five-minute recess,” the judge said before banging his gavel.
Aaron raced back to her. “The judge said we can meet in his chambers to talk strategy.”
Five minutes hardly seemed like enough time to talk strategy, but Simon reached for her hand and together they followed her lawyer to the judge’s chambers.