Quickly Clarice explained the whole situation to Roxy, starting with the accidental wedding and botched divorce and ending with her and Rudy’s agreement to remain married. “Don’t worry about Winthrop. I’ll send him packing.”
Roxy bit her lip. “I don’t know Clarice, maybe we should call Rudy or Gordon or someone. He hasn’t been a very pleasant person.”
“Well after today he shouldn’t be a problem.”
Clarice smiled and then walked into her office. “Winthrop, I thought we agreed that you were going to stay away and let me work this out.”
The man she thought she was going to marry frowned as he stood. “Well things have changed, Clare. I think you need to come home now.”
“You’re right, things have changed and I was going to call you today anyway, so you saved me a phone call. I’m not returning to New York, because I’m home. I’m in love with Rudy and we’ve agreed to stay married. So, you wasted your time flying out here. Let me arrange a helicopter to take you back to the airport.”
Winthrop walked over to her and smirked down at her. “Isn’t that sweet. I don’t think you want to dump me, Clare. See while you’ve been here playing happy housewife, I’ve been in Las Vegas and you wouldn’t believe what I found there.” He pushed a few buttons on his phone and then turned it so she could see the screen. What started playing was a surprisingly clear video of her and Rudy’s wedding.
“Imagine what will happen to TLC and TLC.net should this video leak online and all yours and your dear mother’s rich clients find out that the owner of this high end matchmaking company got blackout drunk and married a reality tv star. Oh and that’s not the only video that would leak.”
He took the phone and swiped to another video that showed Clarice running away from Rudy’s suite the next morning, clearly distraught. “No, I think you should pack your bags and come home with me. You sign the prenup I’ve had drawn up and marry me as planned, or I destroy you and your mother’s livelihood. Is that understood?”
“How do I know you won’t release those anyway?”
“I’ll delete them as a wedding present to you after we’re married. Why would I want to hurt my wife’s company?”
“But I don’t love you, Winthrop. I love Rudy. Why would you want to marry me when I don’t love you?”
Winthrop laughed. “Love, that doesn’t exist Clare. You should know that, it’s all just chemical responses to stimuli. You will make a great trophy wife and produce the heir I need. That’s all I care about. Now let’s go.”
Clarice considered saying no for one second but how could she when it wasn’t just her that would be ruined? Her mom and all their employees would too. “Let me go pack. I’ll meet you at the heliport in twenty minutes.”
“That’s smart but until we get home let me have your phone, please. Don’t want to have to deal with your ex or his family.”
Clarice pulled the phone out of her pocket and slipped the Sat Sleeve off and laid it on her desk before handing Winthrop the phone. “I hate you for this, you know.”
“Honestly, I don’t care.”
Then he walked out and Clarice quickly wrote a simple dear Rudy letter and put it in an envelope. On the way out she gave it to Roxy who tried to talk her out of leaving. Half an hour later she was sitting in the airport in Anchorage waiting for their flight back to New York. Her heart was shattered but she didn’t let a single tear fall. She wouldn’t give Winthrop the satisfaction of watching her cry.
Rudy was surprised when his phone rang to see that it was Roxy. They’d just talked an hour before. “Roxy, what’s up?”
“Boss you need to come home right now; it’s Clarice.”
His heart froze at those words. “What’s wrong, is she okay?”
“I don’t know. There was some guy here to see her and when he left she went with him. Rudy, she’s on her way to New York with him.”
“What was his name?”
“Winthrop something, I don’t remember. I just know he wasn’t very nice. She looked upset when she left and she gave me a letter for you.”
“Read it to me.”
“Boss, I don’t think I should open a letter from your wife to you.”
Rudy wanted to scream. “Roxy, I’m on a plane flying to Australia. Open the letter and read it to me!”
He heard her tearing the envelope and unfolding the letter. Then she gasped. “Oh Rudy, please don’t make me do this.”
“Read it.”
She took a big breath. “Rudy, I want you to know I will always love you and no-one else. However, I realize now that I can’t stay married to you. While my heart belongs to you; I need to do what’s best for everyone and marry Winthrop as planned. Please don’t come after me or try to change my mind. There’s nothing you can say that will do so. I would appreciate it if you would see to our divorce as quickly as possible as I don’t want to lose my deposits on my venue or pay any penalties for changing my wedding date.
I wish things could be different, but this is for the best.
Clarice.
“I’m sorry Rudy.”
He took a deep breath. “Not your fault. Can you have my lawyer start the process in Nevada to grant her the divorce. Have him call me if he has any questions.”
“Rudy don’t. Please fight for her. Something’s wrong I just know it. Before she went into that office with him, she told me everything. She wasn’t planning to go back with him.”
“Just do as I asked, Roxy.” Then he hung up and turned his phone off. He got up and walked to the bar and grabbed a bottle of Macallan 25 and walked back to the bedroom. As he passed Sara, he looked at her. “I don’t care what happens, I don’t want to be disturbed until we land in Sidney.”
“Yes sir, Mister Holliday.”
The young flight attendant’s heart went out to her boss as the closed door did nothing to quiet the scream of anguish that came from the other side.
Chapter Ten
A month had passed since Clarice had returned to New York. Her heart was broken and her spirit was low. She went through the motions of her everyday life but everyone around her knew she was miserable. Sitting on her desk awaiting her signature was the huge prenuptial agreement that Winthrop had delivered to her. There was a yellow flag at each place that needed her signature, but she hadn’t even had her lawyer look at it yet. She refused to sign it until she received her divorce decree from Rudy. She hadn’t heard from him either.
Her phone buzzed and she answered knowing it was Star. “Yeah?”
“There’s a Roxanne Kowalski here to see you. She says she has paperwork from Mister Holliday for you.”
“Send her in.”
Just a few seconds later the door opened and the pretty blonde who was probably helping Rudy get over his heartache came through her door. “Hello Roxy.”
“Good morning, Ms. Reese. My boss asked me to make sure you received this legal paperwork.”
There was no smile or friendly banter, Roxy was all business as she handed Clarice a folder. Clarice took it and opened it to see the bold heading on the official looking document from Clark County Nevada. The title was Disillusion of Marriage. In black had been stamped ‘filed’ and in red was stamped ‘granted’ with the signature of a judge and the date a week earlier as the date of their divorce.
A tear escaped from her eye and rolled down her cheek. She was no longer married to Rudy Holliday. She was free to proceed with becoming Mrs. Winthrop Alastair Rothschild the fourth. She closed the file and looked up. “Thank you for bringing these to me and tell Rudy I’m truly sorry.”
“I’m not telling Rudy anything. Oh here, he told me to give you this too.” Roxy held out a business sized envelope. Clarice took it. “What is this?”
“How would I know; it’s addressed to you.”
“Is he okay?”
Roxy’s face turned red with anger. “What do you care? You’re the one who ripped his heart out. What do you think? No, he isn’t okay. If his Dad hadn’t gone
to Australia and physically dragged him back home, he’d be dead drunk in an alley somewhere. At least now he is dead drunk in his own bed.”
While the woman had been ranting at her Clarice had opened the envelope. She’d pulled out the letter inside and read.
Clarice,
This is your settlement payment. I hope it brings you some security and the means to grow your company as you want. I did as you asked and granted you a divorce. Just know in my heart we will always be married. You are it for me, Clarice. You always will be.
Love, Rudy
Clarice reached into the envelope again and pulled out a cashiers check. She sobbed as she saw the amount. She looked up at Roxy. “Why would he do this? I never asked for this?”
“Why? Because he loves you, that’s why. I hope you’re happy with your blood money because you killed everything good inside Rudy Holliday. Was it worth it?”
“You don’t understand. I didn’t have a choice.”
“Balderdash! You did have a choice; you just chose wrong.”
Without another word Rudy’s personal assistant stormed out of her office. Clarice crumpled onto the floor, her hand still clutching the check Rudy had sent her for two million, five hundred thousand dollars.
When she finally could get herself under control, she picked up the phone and called the one person she knew would be there for her.
“Hello.”
She sobbed. “Oh Mom, I think I really messed up this time.”
“Clarice honey? What’s wrong?”
The whole story poured out of Clarice between the sobs of her broken heart.
“Oh honey. Don’t worry about any of that. Why don’t you come here to Gordon’s mansion and spend Christmas with me? Will figure out how to fix all this before you have to marry Winthrop.”
“I can’t, Mom. I can’t see Rudy, not now after I destroyed our life.”
“You won’t have to see Rudy. We won’t even tell him you’re here. Just come see me. Let me hold you and figure this out.”
“Okay. If you think we can.”
“Clarice, we can. Even if we have to sell TLC, we can fix this. Now pack a bag and I’ll have a ticket waiting for you tomorrow at LaGuardia. It won’t be a private plane but we’ll get you in my arms soon.”
“Thank you, Mom. I don’t know what to do, I love him.”
“I know, honey. Just come; things will look better when we’re together.”
“Okay.”
Clarice hung up and headed home to pack for her return to Alaska and her mother’s comforting arms. She just wished it was Rudy’s instead.
Rudy groaned at the voice yelling at him. “Get your butt out of that bed and in the shower, boy.”
He cracked open one eye to see his father standing beside the bed scowling at him. “Go away. I’m sick.”
“Well, a bottle of hundred-year-old scotch will do that to you. What’s wrong with you anyway? I thought you told me this woman was your Lorelei.”
“I don’t want to talk about her, go away.”
The covers were yanked away from him and he was pulled out of the bed. “I don’t think you actually love this woman at all. I know this, if Lorelei had left me for another man I wouldn’t have been drowning my sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. I’d be doing whatever it took to win her back.”
“Well I guess you’re just a better man than me then aren’t you, Dad?”
“You’re a Holliday, Rudy, start acting like it.”
Rudy jumped to his feet. “She left me, Dad. She made her choice, there’s nothing I can do about that.”
“Really? Do you know why she made the choice she made? Did you try to find out, or did you just give up?”
Rudy stopped ranting and looked at his father. “What are you talking about?”
“Your woman called her mother today. Seems her fiancé threatened to ruin their business unless she married him. He had copies of your wedding video and your wife running from your hotel the next morning. He threatened to leak them to the media with the story of how she got drunk and married a stranger only to run away later. Not what people want in their matchmaker, is it? She did what she did to save Evelyn’s company and all her employee’s jobs.”
“I’ll kill him.”
Gordon reached out and put his hand on Rudy’s arm.
“Nah, that’s too good for him. If you’d come to me for help instead of sinking into a bottle of scotch, we could have dealt with this before you got divorced. Now we can still make sure that your woman’s livelihood is safe because right now it’s not.”
“What do you mean.”
“Shower and get dressed then meet me on the Cookie Cutter. I got the report from my investigators. You might be surprised by what he found.”
With those words his father turned and walked out of the room.
Rudy stood outside the shabby rundown apartment and waited for the man inside to answer the door. When the door opened Rudy shoved his way inside. “Hello Winnie, I bet you never thought you’d see me again, did you.”
“I have nothing to say to you. Get out of my house.”
“Oh, I think you want to listen to me very closely, Mister Rothschild, or should I say Freddy Jones?”
The slimy man standing in front of him started. “That’s right, Freddy. I know everything. I know that you aren’t really Winthrop Alastair Rothschild the fourth but Freddy Jones. I know that you are wanted in Texas, California, Illinois, and Georgia for identity theft, extortion and corporate espionage. Trying to add New York to your resume there, Freddy?”
“I assure you, Mister Holliday, you are mistaken. I’m Winthrop Alastair Rothschild the fourth. My father was the third.”
“I know you’re legally Winthrop Alastair Rothschild the fourth. I have the application to change your name right here in this folder along with your birth certificate under the name of Fred Jones and I have the DNA test that proves you aren’t related to the Rothschilds at all. You really should be more careful about where you throw away your coffee cups, Freddy.”
The man who had blackmailed Clarice started to open his mouth when Rudy raised a hand to stop him. “Save it, Freddy. I also have here copies of all the outstanding warrants for you in those other states. Why with one simple phone call you could be sitting in a jail cell in half an hour.”
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want. I want you to disappear from Clarice’s life. Leave her company alone, destroy every copy of those videos you have and just go away.”
“I can’t do that. I’ve got a contract with Matchme.com to acquire the TLC.net algorithm. I’ve already deposited the money.”
“Actually, your services for Matchme.com are no longer needed. See that’s the funny thing about a publicly traded company. If you’re willing to spend the money anyone can buy controlling interest. You work for me now and I say we don’t need your services. You’re fired, Freddy.”
The man laughed. “I’m just supposed to take your word for the fact that you own Matchme?”
“Nope, I believe if you check your email, you’ll see that they’ve terminated the contract with you. Go ahead, I’ll wait.”
In a few moments the blackmailer had opened his email and Rudy knew he’d won. “Now I can see the wheels turning Freddy, so let me tell you why you’re going to disappear from Clarice’s life and leave TLC alone. Turns out I remembered something. I’m not just rich and handsome, I’m also famous. People want to talk to me all the time. Why as a matter of fact I have an interview in just a few minutes over at NBC. Imagine what would happen if I told them all about how the love of my life was blackmailed into divorcing me by a criminal who stole the identity of one of the most beloved founding families of New York. I wonder where you would hide when I shared in that interview all your mug shots as well as the dapper photo you placed in the New York Times when you announced your engagement to Clarice?
“Where do you think you’d be safe then, Freddy? Come to think of it, I’m the
son of one of the richest men in America. Where do you think you could run that I don’t have the resources to reach out and find you? And let me make this clear, if you persist in hurting my loved ones I will devote every last cent to bringing you to justice.”
Rudy watched as the man walked over to a safe and opened it, handing Rudy a jump drive and then erased a file on his computer and smart phone. “There! Happy?”
Rudy smiled. “I think you made the right choice there, Freddy. I suggest you find yourself someplace to hide until I forget about you.” He looked at his watch. “Look at that, I need to run. Got to meet with Barbara Walters in half an hour.”
Rudy turned and walked out of the apartment and listened as the door closed behind him. He waited a moment until he was sure Freddy Jones wasn’t running and then exited the apartment building and walked up to the unmarked police car sitting at the curb. “He’s in apartment 113, Detective.”
The man shook Rudy’s hand. “Thanks for the tip, Mister Holliday. We’ll take it from here.”
“He’s all yours. Myself, I have a plane to catch. Family Christmas, can’t miss that.”
“Well happy holidays, sir.
“You too, Detective.”
Clarice lay on the bed reading a book. Tonight was the Holliday family Christmas celebration and the whole family was downstairs. Her mom had tried to get her to come saying no one was upset with her and she should come celebrate with them. But she couldn’t. She couldn’t be in the same room as Rudy. She’d fall apart all over again.
Yesterday, Star had phoned her to tell her that Winthrop had been arrested. It was on the news. He was a conman and wanted in four states. His real name wasn’t even Winthrop but Freddy Jones of all things. Her ordeal was over. She’d called everyone she’d hired for the wedding and canceled this morning with a glad heart.
Still her freedom had come at a heavy price; she’d lost the love of her life. No one would ever hold her heart like Rudolph Holliday and she’d burned that bridge so badly there wasn’t even ashes left to rebuild from.
Rudolph's Runaway Bride (Holliday Islands Resort Book 9) Page 10
