The Perfect Storm: A Thrilling Romantic Suspense (The Perfect Revenge Book 3)

by Madyson Grey

  “I, we, really want you to come with us,” Victoria assured her. “Rafael and I both want you very much.”

  “If you’re sure, I would be thrilled to come with you,” Lena said.

  This was a big load off of her mind, even though she had never mentioned it to Victoria. She loved this girl whom she had helped to raise from birth.

  Rafael came to tell her that he wanted to get down to the office and see how things were going down there, and asked if she would be all right the rest of the day. Victoria assured him that she’d be fine. She’d be going through her boxes, unpacking what had to be put away and repacking what could wait until later.

  He told her that he would take the rental truck to the nearest drop-off place and asked her if she’d come pick him up later whenever he wanted to come home. Of course, she was more than willing to do that. Even though it was Saturday, Rafael was anxious to go to the office and just see how things were. No one else would be there, so he could work undisturbed.

  After he left, Victoria set about to go through her boxes and get out the important things. Like her clothes. She found the boxes with her clothes in them and set about hanging them in her closet or putting them in her dresser drawers. It would be nice to have more that four or five changes of clothes again.

  Then she carried several boxes of food items down to the kitchen and asked Lena to put them away there in the kitchen. The boxes of kitchen utensils, pans, and dishes, she left packed for now. She wasn’t sure what she would do with them. Maybe just take them to the Goodwill or whatever. She’d deal with them another day.

  She put her photo albums, books, and DVDs back on shelves in her room from whence they had come when she moved out so long ago. Not all of them fit, because she had collected more in the interim. So she took some of the movies downstairs to the family room and put them in the entertainment center there.

  When everything had been either put away, or left packed to deal with later, Victoria was hungry for some lunch, so she went to the kitchen to see what she could scrounge up. But Lena was there ahead of her, stirring a pot of homemade stew that was nearly done.

  “Hungry?” Lena asked.

  “Sure am,” Victoria answered. “Unpacking is hard work.”

  She chuckled and Lena did, too.

  “It’s almost ready,” Lena said. “Do you want a sandwich to go with the soup?”

  “Yeah, well, just a couple of peanut butter and honey breads,” Victoria said. “Do you want some, too?”

  “That sounds good to me,” Lena said.

  “I’ll fix the bread while you finish up the soup,” Victoria said.

  She got the bread out of the breadbox, the butter out of the fridge, and the peanut butter and honey from the cupboard. She spread everything on four slices of bread, swirling the peanut butter and honey together to mix them up somewhat. She put the bread on a plate and set it on the counter next to where they would sit.

  Lena dished up the stew into two soup bowls, got out spoons, and set them on the counter, too.

  “Do you want a glass of milk?” she asked Victoria.

  “Please,” Victoria replied.

  She got out the chocolate milk powder and an iced teaspoon so she could make chocolate milk.

  “Do you want chocolate milk, too?” she asked Lena.

  “Sure,” Lena said. “Please.”

  They sat down to eat their lunch. While they ate, Victoria told her all about their trip, sights they had seen, taking Rafael to the Space Needle, and how it felt to leave her job and apartment in Seattle.

  “It almost feels as if those seven years just fell away now that I’m back here,” she said. “It almost seemed weird to go into my place up there. Like I was a completely different person in a different life up there. But I don’t regret one minute of it. Well, with the exception that I wasn’t here with Daddy.

  “It’s been six months or more since I’ve seen him. He came up to see me in Seattle last January. He was there on business, but came to see me, too. We had a nice couple of days together. That was the last time I ever saw him in person. The video chats are wonderful, but they’re not like being able to touch the person you’re talking to. But I am so glad I had those, anyway.”

  Tears threatened to spill again, so Victoria turned her attention to the food in front of her. Lena understood and focused on eating her lunch, too. After lunch, Victoria went outside and looked around the yard to see what, if anything, needed doing out there. The grass definitely needed to be mowed since it had already been a week since she did it the first time.

  She went to the toolshed, much more confident this time in her ability to use the lawn mower. She got it out, fired it up, and began mowing. She finished the back yard quickly, and then went around to do the front yard. She really did enjoy mowing the grass. It was physically invigorating and mentally relaxing. Out here it was just her and the mower and the grass.

  After she finished, this time she cleaned the mower and refilled the gas tank before putting it away. Then she went indoors and up to her room to put on her swimsuit. On her way back through the kitchen to go out to the pool, she asked Lena if she’d like to come out and go swimming, too.

  Lena had never had so much free time when David and Marian were there. She was afraid she might get spoiled. But, as long as Victoria was good with it, she was going to enjoy herself for once. So she went up to her apartment and changed into her swimsuit, too, and soon joined Victoria in the pool. They splashed around, swam, and sunbathed all afternoon until Rafael called for Victoria to come and get him.

  She quickly dried off, went upstairs and slipped on a sundress over her swimsuit. She decided to take her car, rather than her dad’s, to go pick him up. Rafael was waiting in the parking lot when she pulled in.

  “How is everything here?” she asked.

  “All right,” he said. “I had some emails to answer and phone messages to listen to. I did some other stuff that needed doing, but everything is in order.”

  “That’s good,” she said. “Next week, if it’s all right with you, I’d like to come in with you and start learning just what it is that I am owner of.”

  “Sure, that’s a good idea,” Rafael said. “I’ll show you around and explain it as best I can.”

  On the way home, Rafael told Victoria that they needed to go visit his mother and take her the small gift they had bought her on the Queen Mary. So they went home to get it and the gift for Mateo, and drove over to his mother’s home in Montebello.

  She was delighted to see them and pleased that they had thought of her on their honeymoon. They had a pleasant visit with her. Mateo wasn’t there, but they left his small gift with her to give to him. Mateo had recently moved in with their mother after his latest girlfriend had tossed him out because he refused to get a job and not mooch off of her.

  “I think you should cut him off,” Manuela told Rafael. “He doesn’t need to have you support him. It’s not good for him. He needs to grow up and be a man and get a job like everyone else.”

  “I know, Mama,” Rafael said. “I know I should. I just dread his reaction if and when I do, though. You know how demanding he can be. I don’t know why he turned out the way he has. Papa died years and years ago. He needs to get past it, give up the anger and hatred, and like you say, be a man.”

  “After you learned the truth about your papa and Mr. Thornton, and told it to me, I have been able to move on, too,” she told Rafael. “I just wish that Mateo would. We have both told him what really happened, but he just refuses to accept it. He nurses that grudge constantly. Everything bad that happens to him, like his girlfriend breaking up with him, he blames on Mr. Thornton.

  “‘If Old Man Thornton hadn’t driven Papa to kill himself, he would still be alive and this wouldn’t have happened to me,’ he says. It makes no sense, and I have told him so over and over again. And when he drinks, he’s even worse. Sometimes I am afraid of him, Rafael. I don’t really want him living here, yet I can’t just t
hrow him out onto the street. He’s my son and I love him. But I don’t like what he’s become.”

  “I know, Mama,” Rafael said sympathetically. “I will see what I can do. Maybe I can find him a job. Or give him one. I’m not sure it would be a good idea to have him working for me, though. He resents me having the position that I have, and now he will resent it even more that the business is mine … and Victoria’s. It was bad enough when I was just an employee there.”

  “If you can do something with him, it will be a miracle,” Manuela said. “I will appreciate it if you just try.”

  Manuela insisted that they eat supper with her, so after a simple meal of beans, rice, and tortillas, they took their leave and went home.

  Chapter Three

  Sunday morning Rafael insisted that they take a day off and just get away from the house and relax somewhere. After some considerable discussion, they opted to drive over to Knott’s Berry Farm and just have fun there for the day. There was plenty to see and do there to just have fun and leave all their problems behind for the day. It was so good to do something that had nothing whatsoever to do with any of the issues that they had both been dealing with for the past two weeks.

  When they finally left late that afternoon, Victoria felt more refreshed and ready to get back to dealing with reality than she had ever since getting the news that her father was dead. She also was becoming more aware with each passing day that her dad had known both her and Rafael so well that he knew they would be compatible and would make a great couple.

  As they spent more and more time together, they discovered that they had most things in common. They liked most of the same foods, enjoyed the same types of entertainment, liked the same movies and TV shows, even had the same sleep and wake cycles. Of course, no two people are one hundred percent the same, so they weren’t either. One obvious area where they differed was the yardwork. Victoria was discovering that she loved it, while Rafael loathed it. He liked a beautiful yard, but he didn’t want to have to keep it looking that way.

  That evening, they spent some more time discussing what their future might look like. Victoria reiterated her desire to sell the place and buy someplace that would be uniquely their own. In many ways, she loved this place where she had been born and raised, but in many other ways, it held many unpleasant memories, not the least of which was her dear daddy being murdered right there in his own office.

  “Do you think we have enough money to go and buy a new place before this one can sell? Or at least begin looking?” she asked Rafael.

  “Well, I think we could do that, especially if it doesn’t take too long to sell this one. If we can sell this place within a year, we’d be all right,” he said. “Do you have any idea where you’d want to even start looking for a new home?”

  “Not really,” she said. “I know we need to probably stay reasonably close to the office building. You don’t need a long commute every day. Otherwise, I’d say that I would like to move someplace where we could have a couple of acres or so around us. Whenever we decide to have kids, it would be nice for them to grow up in a little more rural atmosphere, I think.

  “I used to dream of living on a farm with animals when I was a kid,” she told him. “I read every horse story I could get my hands on, along with books like the Little House series, and other books where kids grew up in the country. Not that I don’t like the amenities of the big cities, and I like to be close to good shopping, but there’s something about the country that tugs at my inner being.”

  “I guess I’ve never really thought about it,” Rafael said. “I don’t know how I would like country living. I just know I don’t like to mow the lawn.”

  They chuckled a bit at that.

  “I guess we could look around. At least we don’t have to be in a hurry about moving,” he said. “We can take all the time we want to. Something I have been thinking about though, is arranging my work schedule and the way I handle my work responsibilities so that I can do more work remotely and have time to do some traveling. I have always dreamed of traveling all over the United States, and even to some other countries. That’s my big dream.”

  “I think that’s a marvelous dream, babe,” Victoria said. “I would enjoy doing that, too. With the fact that nearly everything can be done online nowadays, I don’t know why you can’t set things up to where you can do stuff remotely and we can travel a lot. Now that’s exciting to me! Just think of all the places we could go and see and do all over the place.”

  She got so excited just at the thought that she got up and went in search of the atlas that she knew her dad kept. When she found it, she brought it back into the family room and curled up beside of Rafael on the sofa and opened it up. They spent the next hour fantasizing about all the places they would like to go. They also mapped out the route they would like to take on their upcoming wedding trip, which they hoped could be taken soon.

  The next morning, Rafael got ready to go to the office. He asked Victoria if she wanted to go along.

  “I do, but I also need to call Mr. Hall and Dr. Stevens. Is there a place down there where I can make those calls?” she asked.

  “Oh, sure,” he told her. “You know your dad’s office, well, my office now, has a small lounge and restroom off of it. You can go in there to make your calls.”

  “OK, I’ll do that,” she said.

  And so after breakfast, they rode together in the Ferrari to the Thornton Building. When they got there, Victoria put a call through to her father’s attorney the first thing to discuss the possibility of her selling the house. He told her that just as soon as her mother was formally declared mentally incompetent, that she would be free to do as she pleased with the assets that were held jointly between her and her mother.

  “How long with that take?” Victoria wanted to know.

  “That’s up to your mother’s doctors and the police and district attorney,” Mr. Hall told her. “However, I don’t think it will take much more than a few days. The police have already charged your mother with the assault on the housekeeper, and armed hostage-taking, so in order to move forward on those charges, a decision will have to be made soon regarding her fitness to stand trial. And if she is charged with your dad’s murder, that will negate all of her inheritance. However, you will want to hold back her financial assets in trust for her, because she will need them to pay for her legal fees.

  “I can set you up with a power of attorney form that will allow you to handle all of your mother’s affairs from here on out if she is found to be mentally incompetent. I think we can reasonably expect for you to be free to dispose of your jointly-held assets within a month or less.”

  “Oh, that sounds good,” Victoria said with a sigh of relief. “I do think I will sell this house and get away from the bad memories held here. At least that’s how I feel right now. I may change my mind later on, but for now, that’s what I’m thinking.”

  “I don’t blame you, Victoria,” Mr. Hall said. “I will be in touch and let you know just as soon as this thing is settled. Or you can call me if you hear anything before I do.”

  After that phone call was finished, she called Dr. Stevens to see if he had seen her mother and to find out what her condition was. He told her that Marian’s condition had deteriorated to the point that he would be meeting with the hospital physician later that morning to sign papers to the effect that Marian Thornton had experienced a complete mental breakdown and that she should be committed to a permanent state psychiatric facility. When or if she would recover enough to stand trial, he couldn’t say at this point.

  After she had hung up, Victoria sat and cried until she had no more tears to cry. Even though Marian hadn’t been a good mother to her daughter, not in the true sense of the word, Victoria still felt nothing but pity and sadness for her mother. Of course, she had been well fed, well dressed, well educated, and she knew that in her own way, Marian had wanted only what she felt was best for her daughter, however, Victoria had longed for a more ordina
ry, kind, caring, loving mother. A mama like Lena had always been to her. Well, she still had Lena, who had always been the mama that Marian should have been. And for that, she was eternally grateful.

  At last, she dried her tears and took a compact out of her purse. She patted powder on her face hoping to obliterate the signs that she had been crying. While she waited for the redness and puffiness to subside, she called Mr. Hall again to tell him what Dr. Stevens had just told her.

  “If you want to come to my office, I can get you set up with the power of attorney papers today,” he told her.

  “I’m in the building, down here in Daddy’s office,” she said. “I can come up to your office whenever it’s convenient for you.”

  “I’m not busy right now,” he said. “My next appointment isn’t for another hour, so why don’t you come up right now.”

  “I’ll be there in just a few minutes,” she said.

  She went out into the office and told Rafael where she was going. She also told him what Dr. Stevens had just told her.

  “I’m so sorry, honey,” he said, holding her close for a moment.

  Victoria went up to Dennis Hall’s office where he had papers all ready for her to sign that gave her complete control over her mother’s assets, and over her future health care, and over any other decisions that she would otherwise make for herself. After they were signed, he made copies for her to take home with her.

  Victoria and Rafael spent the rest of the morning together, with him teaching her about the business. He explained that Thornton Enterprise had extensive real estate holdings. Not only this building, but also many others like it, both in LA and in other big cities across the country.

  “So that’s why Daddy had to make trips to different places occasionally,” Victoria commented.

  “Yeah, that’s the reason,” Rafael explained. “Sometimes there were issues that he needed to take care of in person, such as courting a prospective new tenant, or maybe some serious structural issues with a building. There are a number of reasons, but those are usually the most common ones. Now, this is your job.”