Claiming Amelia

by Jessica Blake

  I decided the décor of the condo had to be completely and utterly me; feminine and without the least bow to male habitation. I needed to recover the injured me inside before I could become an addendum to someone else’s life. I knew it wasn’t right, but I couldn’t seem to help it. I felt as though I was possessed.

  We were taking measurements when there was a knock at the door. Bernie opened it and welcomed the guest. While he looked familiar to me, Bernie introduced him as Jeremy, Worth’s friend. He was an interior designer and Worth had sent him with instructions of carte blanche; to give me absolutely anything and everything I wanted. Still a bit shaky from my recovery, the idea of having someone else handle this for me, particularly someone who had connections and could oversee it in a rapid manor, appealed to me greatly.

  Jeremy invited Bernie and me to lunch at a nearby restaurant and he brought out his iPad to begin giving me interior design tours to determine my taste and color preferences. I ordered everything to be French Country; lots of color and feminine touches. He seemed sort of excited at the challenge. I suspected he did altogether too many Danish moderns to really let loose his creative spirit.

  Jeremy’s staff didn’t waste an hour’s time. They descended on the condo with workmen of every description. Out went carpets and flooring completely, and the modern, glass fireplace was ripped out, disappearing in a huge dumpster parked below. In came stained glass, Queen Anne and furnishings in white with splashes of coral, purple, navy and citrine. Luckily, Worth and I owned the entire building so there was no committee to get permission from. The sleek glass tiles in the bathrooms were removed, replaced by hand-painted white with elaborate murals painted on ceilings and behind the bed in what would be my bedroom. Bleached hardwood was put down throughout and then covered with Aubusson rugs that reached beneath the floral, ruffled and overstuffed furnishings. Sounds systems were embedded in the walls and a flag screen television was installed in most rooms as the back of a revolving 18th century oil painting. The kitchen was outfitted with a massive sink and a La Cornue Grand Palais range with six burners. Copper pots sparkled from their overhead rack and wine bottles filled the temperature-controlled section of the walk-in cooler with wooden door. A center island of specially-fitted butcher block gave an authentic French feel. Bay windows were installed and filled with plants while black wrought iron decorated street side windows and balconies with window boxes filled with ivy and vivid flowers.

  My king-sized bed was placed on a dais and canopied with side curtains that could be drawn against the bright sunlight when I wanted to rest throughout the day. I converted one of the bedrooms into a walk-in closet and asked for upholstered benches and shelving to hold my many pairs of shoes and boots. While I wasn’t much for jewelry, I did have a wall safe installed to hold what little I had, as well as the cash I would keep on hand.

  One wall in the living room was fitted with sandwich glass and a constant veil of water fell between the panes, landing in a pool with koi fish at the base. There were aviaries cut into the walls and tropical birds flitted within while huge potted palms, birds of paradise and other tropical plants filled in the open spaces.

  My favorite was an overstuffed, vintage tufted sofa covered in floral silk and its matching tufted ottoman that was nearly five feet in diameter.

  Heavy drapes pooled on the carpets, their linings matching the pillows scattered about. Jeremy had discovered a stuffed peacock which took a place of honor before the fireplace, its irons of polished brass gleaming in the firelight.

  I was utterly delighted with the outcome and didn’t want to leave. Jeremy was even quite pleased with himself, I could tell. Bernie asked if he could live with me permanently. There could be no higher praise.

  I moved in and found that everything made me feel so comfortable and so familiar. It was an excellent tonic. Bernie stayed a couple of weeks to check up on me and then disappeared to an on-call basis. I knew Worth was watching out for me, albeit through the help of other people.

  ***

  It was then that I received quite the unexpected visitor.

  Margaret LaViere Langford had become my mother-in-law when I married Worth and later my step-mother when she married my father. She had asked me to call her Margaret, and I obliged.

  The doorbell rang and I peeped through the security camera lens to see her standing on my porch. I opened the door and hugged her, waving her in. I remembered her and how kind she had always been to me.

  “Please, make yourself at home while I make us some tea,” I invited.

  “Thank you, dear,” she nodded but hugged me again before she sat down.

  Once we were settled with a hand-painted teacup each of raspberry tea and a plate of small cookies between us, she asked after me.

  “How are you doing, dear?” Her voice was sincerely interested and I didn’t feel that she was there to spy for Worth.

  “I’m very happy to be here at the moment,” I began. “I miss Ford, but then he’s away at school, so it really doesn’t matter where I’m living. He’ll still be out of reach.”

  “You’ve done a beautiful job with the re-decorating. I loved it here, too, when you and Worth let me live here, after his father…” she trailed off the remainder of that sentence.

  “Margaret, part of my recovery is that I’ve decided to allow nothing but the blunt truth in my life. I feel as though we are all throttled by politely overlooking realities. It builds up and it’s not healthy.”

  “Yes, dear, I quite agree with you.” She set her cup down and patted her lips with a coral and white striped cloth napkin. “That’s one of the reasons I’m here. I think it’s time that you and I talked. I know Worth fills in the gaps for you as best as he can, but he has a bit of bias. I thought you might appreciate a woman’s point of view.”

  “I couldn’t ask for anything better. No holds barred?” I suggested.

  “Go for it,” she agreed.

  I hoped I wouldn’t cross any lines that would hurt her, but there was a great deal at stake. “Why did you stay with Worth’s father after the way he cheated on you?”

  “Right on target, I like that,” she smiled. “Worth, and now I’m referring to your husband’s father, was a powerful man with an even more powerful vision of himself. He was born into money and felt entitled to everything and anything the world could provide. He didn’t care if it was legal or moral; if he wanted it, he got it. He simply took it. Apparently, he saw me at the Fillies Ball one Derby and decided I would make good breeding stock, as he called it. He set his mind to win me and he was an awesome force to be reckoned with if he truly wanted his way.”

  She circled a finger around the rim of her cup, seeming to be lost in her memories.

  “My father didn’t like Worth,” she continued, lines creasing her forehead. “He thought he was spoiled, willful and unprincipled; a lethal combination. As it turned out, that’s exactly what he was. He was lethal, on more than one occasion, but had the strings and contacts that got him out of mess after mess. Once I agreed to marry him, I was done for. There was no way I could be free of him. So, I did what all wives in that position must do. I made the best of things.”

  “That must have been very difficult,” I said

  She sighed. “When he left for long periods and was with other women, I considered it a relief. He was out of my hair and I, when out from beneath his supervision, could do as I pleased. Then he would return and the world became his again. I smiled at the right times, submitted as I needed to for children and otherwise stayed out of the way without him realizing how invisible I’d made myself. It was survival, Auggie, nothing more.”

  “How did you stand it?”

  “You see, being Mrs. Worthington LaViere afforded me a certain lifestyle. It wasn’t just the money; it was the fear of God that he put into others. No one crossed me. I was always invited to the best events, always recognized for the events I hosted and always mentioned first in the guest list. No one dared to do otherwise. That’s the pri
vileges of being married to the devil, dear. No one, absolutely no one, crosses you.”

  “Wasn’t that frightening?”

  “Of course it was! I had problems with him. He drank too much and wasn’t above backhanding me or throwing me to the floor. When he wanted sex, he had sex, whether I was in the mood or not. There was no romancing, no consideration for my sensibilities. I was his possession. Nothing more than the livestock in the barn, and in many cases, probably worth even less in his opinion.”

  “So, he had no enemies?”

  “Oh, I won’t say that. He got tangled up in some nasty business out on the coast and some gentlemen in the Midwest wanted to see his headstone. But he got out of it — he always did. Then there was Linc.”

  “Linc?”

  “My dear… have you not gotten around to remembering that yet?”

  I searched my mind, willing a face to appear in connection. “No, I have no idea who you’re talking about.”

  “Well, then we need to straighten this out. You see, my Worth had an affair, dear, with your mother.”

  My hand went to my throat. “My mother?”

  “Yes, dear. I sorry if that pains you, but it’s the truth you’re seeking so you need to hear it all.”

  “Go ahead.” I gave her permission.

  “Your mother was beautiful. You resemble her when she was young, as a matter of fact. She had a thing for Worth Sr. and he returned it once or twice. She ended up pregnant and when your father learned of this, he married her and took her south to stay with her aunt until the birth of the child. Your father had always held a soft spot for her and saw this as the only way he’d ever be in her life. Well, the child was born and taken from her before she saw it. Worth had arranged for the baby to come and live with us, telling me he’d adopted a deceased friend’s baby.”

  I gasped and she paused, reaching over to pat my knee. “How did you discover the truth?”

  She sighed. “I knew it was a lie from the beginning, but what choice did I have? Well, the men from the Midwest switched babies and kept Linc as a precaution to keep Worth in line. He brought home the switched baby and we raised him as though he was ours, when in truth, he had not one drop of blood from either one of us. Our baby, your Worth, was born then but was contentious from the very beginning. He had a lot of his father in him, but Linc was the golden child. He was wonderful in sports, good looking, smart, charming — everything Worth wanted his father to think he was, but there was no pleasing him.”

  “Why haven’t I met him?”

  Margaret looked down at her cup, pain striking her features for the briefest moment. “Linc was killed in an auto accident at the age of sixteen and Worth became the heir. He and his father battled constantly and there wasn’t any relief until Worth went off to college. Even then, when he was home on vacations, they were at one another’s throats. There was nothing I could do but stand back and watch.”

  My mouth was open as I listened to her story. There were tiny tidbits of what she said that I could remember, but for the most part, it was all new to me. “Go on,” I encouraged her.

  “Well, after you and your Worth married, there was a confrontation at the farm. After you both left, taking me with you, his father shot himself in the head.”

  “Oh!” How could he not have told me? Then I realized he had no idea what I did and did not remember.

  “That’s when I came to live here in this very condo. I never set foot back on the farm. Then, one day a man showed up and said his name was Linc LaViere and had the papers to prove it. It seemed he was here to get what he believed was his inheritance and needless to say, he and Worth did not get along. Linc accused a great many people of bad things and that didn’t endear him to anyone. He was blackmailing Worth to cooperate in a race-fixing scheme, or he would blow the lid off everything.”

  I shook my head. This was like the plot of an action movie. “What happened next?”

  Margaret sighed. “Well, one thing led to another and eventually Worth used his power of persuasion to set up a liaison between Linc and Worth’s clinic director, Jessie Klinger. They both thought they were thwarting Worth, and putting one over on him. You and he had a falling out over it and finally put that behind you. Linc left with Jessie and the two of them went to the east coast. We believe that Linc’s past finally caught up with him and the men from the Midwest saw to it that their car turned over. Jessie was collateral damage.”

  “My god!”

  “That’s putting it mildly, Auggie. You and Worth were both in very real danger and he protected you. You and Ford. He faced his career being ruined and being killed himself in order to protect you.”

  “I had no idea,” I began.

  “No, I didn’t think so.”

  “So, this Linc was my half-brother and Worth’s as well?”

  “Yes, although he had your eyes, he looked almost identical to Worth. In fact, he masqueraded as Worth on several occasions and caused Worth a great deal of money and embarrassment. I made the mistake of giving him the family farm and your mother moved in with him.”

  “Do you have a picture of him, Margaret?” I asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I do. It was from the Derby party you threw and to which he was invited.” She drew her wallet out of her purse and leafed through the inserts until she came to it. She handed it to me.

  I felt my heart stop when I saw the picture. It triggered flashbacks and memories flooded in on their own river of poison. The revulsion I’d been feeling was toward Linc — not Worth! “May I keep this for a day or two, Margaret?” I begged. “I’ll get a copy made and have the original returned to you.”

  “Don’t bother,” she said. “Not really sure why I carried it. He was no blood to me and I never look at it with any kind of fondness. Keep it.”

  I pressed my fingers against my temples, trying to steady myself as new thoughts and memories continued to swirl through my mind. It was like a physical assault. “I can’t thank you enough for coming today, Margaret,” I managed to say through the emotion clogging my throat. “You’ve opened the floodgates and I remember what I couldn’t figure out before. You may have just saved my marriage.”

  Joy and relief combined on Margaret’s face. “Good! Then it was worth the risk. Your father didn’t want me to come. He thought it was too soon and that it might harm you to think of those days. They weren’t pretty, that’s for sure.”

  “Tell Dad I love him for protecting me, but that you coming to see me has just saved a family. I want to think about this a few days, get back all the pieces, and then I’ll go and see Worth. I’ll fix this. I promise you.”

  Margaret nodded, satisfied. She stood up and came over to hug me. It felt good to be held in a mother’s embrace. I vowed to do this for Ford a thousand times a year. “Thank you for coming,” I said as I opened the door for her. “That was a very unselfish thing to do; to relive all of that for my sake. I appreciate it very much.”

  “Take care, Auggie,” she warned me. “Worth is a valuable prize, even if I am his mother. Don’t wait too long and let him go.”

  I nodded and closed the door behind her. I had so much to think about.

  CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

  Auggie

  Margaret had opened a great many hidden doors for me. I knew now why Worth felt threatening. It wasn’t him; it was the memory of Linc. I laid in bed that night and tried to summon back anything I could think of about Linc. It worked. It fell into my conscious like shattered glass and each shard cut me. It wasn’t just Linc. It was the betrayal of my mother and the threat the two of them had posed against Ford. I realized they had also threatened Worth, even though at the time, I thought Worth was betraying me too. Actually, he was at work with his own scheme which worked far better than mine.

  I still had another problem. While I was separating Worth from Linc, I still hadn’t rediscovered the feelings of love for Worth. It wasn’t his fault. It was simply a reality of whatever was controlling my brain.

&n
bsp; Now, however, I had time and space and hopefully, the feelings would return. I fell asleep with a sense of being enclosed in warm, strong arms and being told I was loved. That was powerful medicine.

  ***

  I watched the days of fall drop into winter from my perch above the streets. One by one, the buildings put out their Christmas finery, lighting the night sky like so many colored bead necklaces. As a rule, I didn’t like winter, but this one had been warmer than normal and I was still able to get around with nothing more than a light jacket.

  By day, I visited with old friends, spent hours in the library reading and by night I crocheted hats and scarves from yarn I picked out in the craft stores. I signed up for some crafting classes and invited some of the people I’d met to the condo for a ladies’ night get together. Some of my girlfriends from school played poker or bunco at one another’s houses. I did my part and learned to laugh again.

  One day, I got the wild notion that I needed a makeover and settled myself into the city’s top salon. I didn’t want short hair but settled for a long angled cut that made me look far more sophisticated. Of course this called for a new wardrobe and I indulged myself even further.

  Through all these weeks, I never saw Worth. Margaret brought Ford over every two weeks when he had a weekend off. We spent this time having fun, taking in movies, playing video games and, one night, we had a pajama party on the floor with sleeping bags and horror movies. We laughed in a way I’d never laughed before and the bond between mother and son strengthened. This time on my own was restoring my inner confidence and teaching me that there was always joy if you looked for it.

  I found a car dealership and bought myself a sleek, black convertible with white leather interior trimmed in red. I knew it was a lousy time of year for a convertible, but it didn’t seem to matter. I was doing away with the rules and embracing the options of being an adult female with a nice income and my health. There were so many blessings to be counted.