Kenya left another few messages on Sidney’s cell, and then headed to the boutique. It seemed like days since she’d actually sat down and worked. As soon as she walked in Shelly looked up, half smiling with hope. “Did everything work out?” she asked, knowing that Kenya had gone to see Trey that morning. Kenya shook her head. “That bad, huh?” she asked.
“Worse,” Kenya said.
“I’m so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?” Shelly asked.
Kenya nodded as she sat down at her desk. “Yes, positive. I’ll be fine, I promise.”
“Listen, why don’t you just go home? Take the day off. There’s nothing really pressing happening today anyway. Your client already picked up the christening gown, and I’ll do the fitting at the theater this afternoon.”
“No, it’s my turn to do that.”
“Actually, I really want to. I don’t want to be here this afternoon.”
“Why not?” Kenya asked.
“You’ll be doing me a favor. I’m still working on the mother-of-the-bride dress. She has more changes. I don’t want to be here when she drops it off. I swear if I see that woman one more time, I’ll strangle her.”
Kenya smiled. “Okay, just to save the woman’s life, I’ll trade you assignments. Besides, you’d look horrible in an orange prison jumpsuit.”
“Thanks,” Shelly said.
“No, thank you. Now before she gets here, I think I need to get some work done. Maybe it’ll take my mind off things.” Just as she pulled out her sketch pad someone knocked on the front door.
Shelly looked at her watch. “That can’t be her already.” She walked over and peeked out the door. “It’s her.” She looked at Kenya.
“I got it.”
Kenya went to the front area and opened the door. She greeted Shelly’s client, took down her changes and then promised to have Shelly give her as call as soon as she could. Ten minutes later she went back to the workroom.
“Thank you,” Shelly said.
“No problem, although if I’m not mistaken, I think she wants it the same way you had it the first time.”
“Figures. Oh, Asia just called. She wants you to call her back. She’s at your parents’ house.”
“My parents’ house? Why?”
“I’m sure I don’t know. We chatted a bit but she never said.”
“Funny,” Kenya said, half smiling.
“I still say you should take the day off.”
Kenya looked around her space. Shelly was right. There was no way she’d be able to focus on work anyway. She helped Shelly gather the supplies for the theater and put everything in her car. “I’m headed over to my parents’ house.”
“Good idea,” Shelly said. “See you tomorrow.”
Forty-five minutes later, through early rush-hour traffic, Kenya finally pulled up to her parents’ home. She let herself in then called out, hoping Sidney was home. “Hello.”
“In here,” Asia answered.
“What are you doing here?”
“I got a call from Sidney suggesting that I come down this evening. Since I was already in Philly, I just headed farther south. What’s going on?”
“Everything,” Kenya said.
“What does everything mean?”
“It means that I messed up and Sidney’s about to make it worse.”
“Sidney’s about to what?” Sidney said as she walked into the kitchen and saw her sisters at the counter.
“There you are—didn’t you get my messages?”
“Hello, I was busy, I have a life. Believe it or not I have classes and assignments to take care of. This is my final semester.”
“Fine. We need to talk about Trey.”
“Trey Evans?” Asia asked. “The guy you’re seeing.”
“Not the guy I’m seeing, at least not anymore.”
“Kenya wants me to back off but I’m not.”
“Sidney, who are you feeding information to at TE?”
“Cal,” Asia said. Sidney nodded.
Kenya turned to Asia. “Cal, Dad’s old partner—how did you know, Asia?”
“Sidney told me.”
“Tell her, Sidney,” Asia prompted.
“He sold his shares in Dad’s company to go to work for TE. That’s where he works now.”
“How do you know that?”
“Remember when I had a job as a bike messenger?”
“What? No. You had a job as a bike messenger? When? Never mind. You know, I don’t even know you anymore.”
“That’s ’cause you’re always so wrapped up in your own drama, first with Craig and now with the boutique. Wake up, Kenya.”
“Would y’all stick to one thing, please,” Asia said.
“Never mind,” Sidney said. “Anyway, I worked as a bike messenger for about three weeks a while back. That’s what gave me the idea. After I found out about what Trey did to Dad I wanted to get back at him. Coincidentally, I delivered this package to Calvin Potter at TE Acquisitions. It was from Caine Enterprises. I was still working at Caine at the time.”
“Didn’t Cal recognize you when you delivered the package? If I remember correctly you had a crush on him.”
“Remember when I said that temps are invisible? Well, bike messengers are even more invisible.”
“You made the connection,” Kenya said.
“I delivered my own packages to Cal after that.”
Kenya shook her head. “I don’t know if you’re a genius or just plain nuts.”
“Both, if that helps any,” Asia said. Sidney rolled her eyes.
“Okay, all this aside, we need to stop this now.”
“It’s no secret that you’re seeing Trey. The question is, where are your loyalties these days, Kenya?” Sidney asked.
“They’re exactly where they always are—in doing the right thing. But in this case, this isn’t it. Trey didn’t do anything wrong.”
“How can you say that?” Sidney asked.
“Are you saying that Dad lied?” Asia asked.
“I’m saying that there’s more to this than we know.” Both sisters looked skeptical. “It’s the truth, Mom told me. She has the money. Trey took it and put it in an account for her.”
“He’s got you brainwashed, just like Craig did.”
“No, he’s nothing like Craig. I made that mistake, too. I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. But I’m not wrong about this.”
“Uh-uh, I’m not stopping anything,” Sidney said.
“No, Sidney, we have to fix this,” Asia said, switching sides. “If Trey isn’t to blame, then we can’t do him harm. That would be wrong.”
“And if Dad gambled on the market and lost, then that’s it. It’s as simple as that. Blaming others is wrong.”
“But what about his company?” Sidney asked.
“It’ll be fine.”
“Trey still owns it.”
“Not all of it. He has the same percent he always had.”
“So who owns the other part?”
“Mom,” Kenya said.
“What?” Asia and Sidney said.
“I’ll tell you about it later. Come on, get all your stuff. We’re going back to Trey’s office.”
It was late and mostly everyone in the office had gone home. The three sisters stopped at the front desk and asked the guard to speak with Trey. He wasn’t available. Kenya asked if Regina was in. She was. The guard put Kenya on the phone with her.
“Hi, Regina, this is Kenya Whitaker, Trey’s friend. Trey’s not available and I have some important information for him. It’s about the Caine merger.”
“Come on up. I’ll meet you at his office.”
The sisters got visitor passes and took the elevator up. They looked at each other silently. It was time to come clean.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Sidney said.
“I don’t have a clue,” Kenya told her honestly.
As soon as the e
levator doors opened Regina was standing waiting there with Joshua. Introductions were made. They went into Joshua’s office. “Okay, you got my attention. Tell me about Caine,” Regina said. Thirty minutes later, the Whitaker sisters laid out Sidney’s plan and her part in Cal’s unwitting cooperation.
Regina shook her head. “I knew there was something not right about this deal. It was just too perfect. Now to find out that our dad was pulling strings makes all the sense in the world.”
“What are you going to do?” Asia asked.
“We’ll back out.”
“I mean about your dad.”
“Nothing,” Regina said. “But I guess I could ask you the same question.”
The sisters looked at each other. “Nothing.”
“It seems we all have father issues.”
“What about your brother?” Sidney asked, knowing that Kenya wanted to ask, but she wouldn’t.
“We’ll show him all this tonight. We’ll cut ties with Caine Enterprises first thing tomorrow morning.”
“How legal is this?” Kenya asked.
“Perfectly legal,” Joshua said.
“Thank you, I know this was hard for all of you, given the delicate situation. But we’re really grateful. This could have been serious,” Regina said.
“Well, maybe you could show your gratitude by—”
“Sidney,” Kenya said. “We need to go now.”
Kenya stood, as did the others. Asia, Sidney and Joshua walked to the elevator together. Kenya and Regina followed. “And what are you going to do about my brother?”
“Nothing,” Kenya answered.
“You know he loves you and I suspect you love him.”
“I do. But we have a lot of drama between us.”
“Water under the bridge.”
“No, not this particular bridge,” she said. “I gave Trey a folder of copied documents I took when I stayed at his house. I stole them and I lied to him.”
“I saw it.”
“Then you know what I intended to do to him.” Regina nodded. “And I know there’s no way he can forgive me for what I did, and now for what my sister almost did. I can’t forgive myself. I—we—had every intention of ruining him.”
“But you didn’t and given the sensitive nature of the documents, you certainly could have. So as I say, water under the bridge.”
By the time they joined the others at the elevators, Asia was telling Joshua about her role on the soap opera.
“I thought you looked familiar,” Joshua said.
“You watch soaps?” Sidney asked.
“Let’s just say I’m well-rounded,” he confessed.
“Now I know why I thought I recognized you,” Regina said to Kenya. “Your sister.”
Sidney nodded. “I work here. I’m a temp.”
“She’s a professional temp,” Asia joked.
“No, I know you from GWU. Wasn’t I your student advisor about four years ago?”
Sidney opened her mouth. “That was you?” she asked.
“I knew you looked familiar.”
“Well, we’d better get going. Thanks again for seeing us so late.”
“No, thank you,” Joshua said. Regina nodded.
The sisters took the elevator down to the lobby. “Now what?” Sidney asked.
“Dinner’s on me,” Kenya said.
“Count me out,” Asia said. “I have to catch a train back to New York tonight.”
“Count me out, too,” Sidney said. “I have a few hundred pages to read tonight. Finals are in a few weeks.”
“Okay, change of plans. How about we grab a pizza and take it back to the house.”
“That’ll work,” Sidney said. Asia nodded in agreement. “We can go to either the pizza place I waitressed at, or the pizza place I made deliveries for, or the pizza place I—”
“I can’t believe I missed so much,” Kenya said sadly.
Asia and Sidney looked at each other, then at her. “Missed so much? What do you mean?” they asked.
“With you two. I was so busy with school. Then being hung up on Craig. Then after that I dove headfirst into my work. I never took the time to just chill with my sisters. I’m sorry. I missed everything you were doing. Great things you were doing. Asia, you have one foot in superstardom and Sidney, you have had the most incredible college temp career ever. You’ve temped and done just about everything under the sun. Some kind of big sister I am.”
Sidney hugged her. Asia hugged them both. “You’re a great big sister,” Asia said. “You stepped up, found out the truth and then helped us to do the right thing. You took responsibility for everything and even got Regina to keep Sidney on. She even promised Sidney a position after graduation. You did that. Can you imagine what might have happened if you decided not to step up? We’d all probably be in jail by next week.”
“Wow, you make me sound like some kind of saint,” Kenya said, then looked at Sidney, who rolled her eyes.
“You a’ight, I guess,” she said.
“Yeah, you a’ight, too.” She hugged her. They laughed.
After much debate over the menu, they picked up a pizza and took it to their parents’ home. The lights were all on as they drove up. “Did you leave all the lights on like that again, Sidney?” Kenya asked, exasperated.
“No,” she said firmly, hoping she hadn’t.
“Well, somebody did,” Asia said. Sidney glared at her. “I’m just saying.”
“Come on,” Kenya said as she turned off the ignition and got out of the car.
They all walked up the path as the front door opened. They screamed. “Mom!” Bumping elbows, the three sisters rushed to her. They all talked at once, then walked into the house. A smiling James stood inside, his arms wide and welcoming. “Dad!” they screamed again. The conversation was endlessly confusing.
“Okay, okay, I can’t understand a word anyone’s saying,” Lynette said.
“I don’t get it, what are you doing home so early?” Kenya asked.
“Yeah, you’re supposed to be in Africa another three weeks,” Asia added.
“Are you okay?” Sidney said.
“We’re fine. South Africa is wonderful, incredible. But I missed home too much. I guess I’m not the world traveler I always dreamed I was. Having my three favorites—Kenya, Asia and Sidney—right here is good enough for me,” Lynette said.
“How’s everything here?” James asked.
The three looked at each other guiltily.
“What is it? What happened?” Lynette asked. “Sidney?”
“Me? Why are you looking at me? Well, I guess maybe…”
“Maybe you’d better go in and have a seat,” Asia said. They all went into the living room, sat down and Kenya began telling the story. Asia added her part then Sidney added her part. Neither parent interrupted until close to the very end.
“I can’t believe this,” James said, standing and pacing. “No, no, no, please tell me you didn’t. None of this was supposed to happen. You weren’t supposed to get involved. This is all my fault.”
“But we took care of it,” Asia said.
“I exaggerated,” James blurted out. “Trey wasn’t solely responsible. I had my part, as well. I got mad, I went after him. I started it, everything. But we have to stop this now. It’s already gone too far.”
“Dad, we know. That’s what we’re saying—we did stop it,” Kenya said.
“Yes, just now, we went to see Regina and Joshua.”
James sat down, still holding his head.
“We talked to them and they’re gonna take care of it.”
“I think this family has a lot of communicating to do in the very near future,” Lynette said. She went to stand beside her dejected husband. “We’ve all done some questionable things. Keeping secrets from the ones you love is not the family way. Whatever happens, love will always be here. We’re a family, that means we celebrate the good, the bad and the in-between.
“I’m glad you made it right. The t
hree of you worked together and I’m proud of you. We’re proud of you. And we’ll definitely talk about this some more, but right now—” she paused and looked at her watch “—it’s late and I think we need to call it a night.” Everyone nodded.
“I need to read and study,” Sidney said.
“Kenya, can I get a ride to Union Station?”
Ten minutes later the family stood in the large foyer saying goodbye and making plans to get together that weekend. Kenya dropped her sister at the train station then headed home. It was an impossible day that had ended as it started.
Regina, Trey and Joshua sat in Trey’s home office going over the paperwork from James and Sidney Whitaker. “I can’t believe they did all this.”
“We should seriously think about giving James a position in our research division. He dug up dad’s name in connection with Caine Enterprises almost eight months ago. That’s where Sidney got the idea.”
Trey shook his head. “It was pretty ingenious. I was too preoccupied with Kenya to see what her other sister was doing.”
“Kenya and Sidney acted independently,” Regina said.
Trey frowned. “You mean they were each plotting to bring me down.”
“Apparently so,” Joshua said, smiling.
Trey looked at Regina and Joshua and shook his head. “I guess I’m losing my charm with the ladies.”
“You know if they hadn’t decided to come to us, you would have signed the merger papers and that would have been the end of TE Acquisitions,” Regina added.
“True,” Joshua said.
“What do you want to do about Cal?”
“Sidney played him totally. I’m sure he still has no clue that she was pulling his strings. He never considered that he was being set up. He just accepted the information he was given and went with it.”
“It shows a serious lack of character and business sense.”
“I agree.”
Regina stood. “Well, I need to go. I have a date.”
“Again,” Trey and Joshua said in unison.
Regina looked at them hard. “Yes, again. And before either one of you says anything, good night.”
Trey and Joshua looked at each other and shook their heads. “Well, that’s it for me, too,” Joshua said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Take care,” Trey said.
“Listen, don’t concern yourself with Cal and Caine Enterprises. I’ll take care of all that. It will be my pleasure.”
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