by Aubree Lane
Through a doorway a little further off to the right, he saw Annie standing in front of a large drafting table. Her back was towards him. Hoping to remain unobserved, he decreased the space between the door and the frame as Annie bopped to the music. She wore black slacks and low heeled shoes. Her blouse was made of an airy material in tones of deep red and purple. His breath caught when he saw the black camisole she wore beneath it. He remembered that camisole and the way Annie’s breasts responded to his caress.
With a pencil poised in each hand, she pounded on imaginary air drums perched above her head and ended with a slam on the air symbols. She was hot. Terence imagined himself walking up behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist, then he imagined her excited response to seeing him. He felt a jerking in his groin and reluctantly closed the door before he was discovered.
With the image of his hands slinking across that silky black camisole racing through his brain, he quickened his steps and forced himself to keep his appointment with Marissa.
He never understood the Attorney Crandall’s rules concerning his relationship with Annie. He thought they were ridiculously outdated and way over the top. Even at his wildest, Hannah had him beat hands down. Morally, he had always been the parent of choice.
Terence sank deeper into Annie’s recliner and rubbed his brow. None of that mattered now. As luck would have it, the same circumstances that allowed Annie back into his life were going to relieve him of Erika.
With an effort he didn’t feel like exerting, he looked around for an empty place to set up his laptop. Something was bound to go his way eventually. Now that he was staying here, he and Annie would have a chance to get acquainted in a much more physical level than before. Foolishly, he believed they would be spending the afternoon together, naked and alone. Then the phone rang, and Annie was off, leaving him to make do on his own.
• • •
Annie was left cooling her heels outside Marissa’s office. Marissa was late. Marissa was never late, not a good sign. And Annie had never before been denied access inside Marissa’s office whether she was there or not, another bad sign. The only reason to keep Annie out was if there was something in there that Marissa didn’t want her to see.
A few moments later, Marissa’s secretary, who assured Annie she had fully recovered from Hannah’s abuse the previous day, walked away with an arm full of files, leaving Marissa’s door unguarded and Annie able to sneak inside and snoop around.
Vowing to work on her impulse control sometime in the near future, Annie nonchalantly walked over and turned the door handle. It was unlocked. She chanced a guilty glance over her shoulder before she hastily slipped inside.
One look at Marissa’s desktop confirmed Annie’s worst fear. It was spotless. Not a single document was in sight. Despite all her inner bravado, she didn’t have the gall to rifle through the drawers of Marissa’s desk.
Footsteps echoed in the hallway and Annie hustled over to an array of art work hanging on the far wall. She grabbed a small pen and ink of the Golden Gate Bridge. She stepped back and pretended to be reconsidering its placement. It was a ploy she was fairly certain she’d be able to pull off, since she was the one who hung it there in the first place.
Marissa and David stepped inside and closed the door, thankfully ignoring the fact that Annie was inside, opposed to outside the office, as per their instructions.
“Thanks for coming in.” Marissa set the folder she carried down upon her desk. Her tone was curt and professional. “I know you have a million questions, and we are going to answer as many of them as we can.”
Annie placed the illustration back on its hook and nudged it level before facing her friend. “Isn’t that information privileged?”
Marissa sat down and covered the contents of the folder with her hands. “Erika’s father asked us to speak with you.”
Annie frowned. “So you are representing Erika’s biological father as well?”
Marissa handed Annie an aged five by seven, black and white photograph. “You’ll understand in a minute.”
The picture was of Erika. She was perched on the shoulders of a man in his late twenties. “Is this Erika’s father?”
“Look at it again, Annie,” David pressed sternly.
Annie scowled and took another look. The little girl was unquestionably Erika, so she focused on the man. His eyes and smile were familiar. Annie gasped when she realized who the man in the photograph was, and knew that the child in the picture couldn’t possibly be Erika. “It can’t be.” She looked at Marissa, hoping she was wrong, but the expression on Marissa’s face confirmed Annie’s conclusion.
“That’s right,” Marissa said, propping her elbows on her desk and resting her chin in her hands. “That’s a picture of me and my loving father. Erika is my sister.”
The headache Annie had earlier made a dramatic comeback. She rubbed her forehead. “Everything is suddenly making way too much sense. It wasn’t David you were upset with at your dad’s birthday party, it was your father.”
Marissa’s lips curled into a sarcastic grin. “David and I had the pleasure of walking in on dad and Hannah when we showed up earlier than expected.”
“They were, uh...” Annie stammered, unsure how to continue.
Marissa saved her the trouble. “Naked as jay birds and all over each other.”
The image of Larry with Hannah flashed through her mind and made her head throb even more. Her whole body shook trying to block out the hideous scene from her mind. A horrified moan slipped from her lips and was followed by a pained, “Yuck!”
“Exactly,” Marissa agreed.
As the enormity of the information sank in, Annie looked at David, who up to this point had remained relatively silent. The movie running through her head flashed to a nervous college kid going home to meet his girlfriend’s father for the first time, never imagining what he was about to encounter.
Annie pointed at him, and a chuckle slipped out. “I can’t believe you stuck around after that. You must love Marissa a lot. How did you and Larry ever get past that first meeting?”
David smirked. “There’s only one thing any self-respecting male could do.” He glanced at Marissa who had openly begun to snicker. “We pretended it never happened.”
When Marissa’s laughter turned to tears, Annie quickly sobered up and went to her.
Marissa turned away. “Enough of this. I’m done crying. It’s time to get down to business.”
Annie didn’t understand. “What business?”
David took hold of Annie’s arm and escorted her to the chair facing Marissa’s desk. “We need a favor.”
Annie knew what was coming and shook her head. “Oh no,” she said firmly, “there is no way I’m going to be the one to tell Terence. That’s your job!”
“But Annie,” Marissa whined. “He’s staying with you. You are the most logical choice.”
Annie turned her head and glared accusingly at David. “He has been at my apartment for about a minute. How could you possibly know he was staying with me?”
He shrugged. “I’m an investigator, it’s my job.”
“You set me up.” Annie jumped up genuinely angry and ready for a fight. She pointed at Marissa. “You sent me to him last night. You know how I feel about hotels. You knew I would take one look at that dump and take him home with me. You planned this!”
“Annie, calm down,” Marissa said coolly. “Terence was hurting, and it was no longer necessary for the two of you to be apart. I was only thinking of him.”
Annie plopped down in the chair and crossed her arms over her chest. Nothing about this rang true. She was absolutely certain Marissa was lying. “Your nose is flaring. Mama always said that was a sure sign of a liar. She should know, she caught me doing it enough.”
A door slammed behind her. Annie looked over her shoulder, and there stood Marissa’s father. The man looked as if he had aged ten years overnight. His clothes looked as rumpled as Annie’s had earlier in the d
ay, and his eyes were full of worry and fatigue. The healthy robust man she’d always known had vanished in a heartbeat.
“With all the yelling going on in here,” he stated calmly. “I assume everything is out in the open.” He took Annie’s hand and led her to a small sofa in the corner of the room and drew her down beside him.
Annie was speechless. What could she say? How could this man, who she thought she knew so well, have a child without his knowledge, and how in blazes could Hannah be that child’s mother?
He patted her hand sympathetically. “This must be a shock for you. Let me try to explain.”
Shock didn’t come close to describing what Annie was feeling, but she kept her mouth shut and let him talk.
“Marissa’s mother died when she was only ten years old. I raised her alone. It was a lot of work. I took her to school every day, and every day I picked her up. I was the one who sat up all night with her when she was ill. I tried my best to make sure she felt loved and that she was well cared for.
“When you came into our lives, I tried to do the same for you. Then before I knew it, both of you were gone, and I was alone for the first time in over twenty years. You girls were my life. I found myself wondering around that big old house feeling lost and terribly old. Work had never been enough for me. I desperately needed to build a life of my own.”
His eyes pleaded for her to understand, but Annie didn’t feel inclined to give him an inch of compassion, just yet.
“I’m not sure exactly how I wound up with Hannah,” he continued. “It would be easy to blame everything on her. I knew she was using me, but I was a willing participant. When I found out Hannah was pregnant, I asked Alexander who the baby’s father was. He told me a hired hand on the dive boat they rented the previous summer had taken advantage of her hoping to cash in on the family’s wealth, and I believed him.”
Larry stopped and cleared his throat. He shifted uneasily in his chair. “Now comes the hard part. I have another confession to make, and I hope you will understand and forgive me.”
Marissa waved her hand and interrupted. “Daddy, you don’t have to say anything else. We all know Hannah and how she operates. You did not take advantage of her. You were a victim.”
Larry shook his head. “Thanks honey, but if we are going to get through this, the truth has to come out. All of it.”
Annie got up to leave. If Marissa was trying to keep something under wraps, it had to be really bad, and she didn’t want any part of it. Larry Wright’s fatherly image had been tarnished enough for one day.
Larry grabbed her hand. “Please stay, you need to hear this.”
She looked into the pleading eyes of the man who had shown her more love and kindness than either her own father or stepfather. For years he had given her both emotional and financial support, and he rarely asked for anything in return. Annie felt her armor crack and couldn’t deny him the courtesy of hearing him out. She bit her lip and eased back down onto the sofa.
A weak smile formed on Larry’s lips and he continued, “I ran into Hannah and Erika about a year ago at a shopping mall. We exchanged a brief conversation, and as they were leaving, Hannah turned to me and said, ‘You know, I believe she has your eyes’. I was shocked, but before I recovered enough to ask for an explanation, they were gone. I regretted not going after her and soon the possibility of having another daughter began to haunt me. I had to know the truth.
“I hired an outside investigator to find the deck hand Alexander had referred to. As soon as I heard the name Terence Javier, I became suspicious.”
“Wait a minute,” Annie interjected. “We never told you about Terence. How did you know about him?”
An amused twinkle formed in Larry’s eyes. “Annie dear,” he said cautiously. “You and Marissa talked nonstop about him. Maybe not directly to me, but for a while, every time I walked into a room all I heard was Terence this, or Terence that. I couldn’t have missed it if I’d tried, which I didn’t. A good father knows what’s going on in his daughter’s life.”
Marissa cringed. “We weren’t that bad.”
“Yes, we were,” Annie countered before she saw how uncomfortable all this talk about Terence was affecting her friend.
Marissa looked apologetically at her husband. “No, we weren’t.”
David shot Marissa a look of disbelief. “Your nose is flaring.” Then said compassionately, “Stop worrying about it. You were a couple of kids doing what kids do. I am not jealous of Terence Javier, and I never will be.” Then he motioned for Larry to continue.
Larry took Annie’s hand again and stroked it. “I don’t want to hurt Terence. Everything I know suggests he’s been an excellent father, and that he loves Erika very much. I don’t want to take that away from him.” He stopped abruptly. “But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s more.” He hesitated and sucked in a deep breath. “I was the one who prompted Marissa and David to vacation in Hawaii. I made all of their travel arrangements, and I booked their excursion on the Erika Rose.”
The pounding in Annie’s head rocketed into migraine proportions. “You did this!” she spat at him. “You planned it all, then sat back like a puppet master and pulled our strings.”
“I put the wheels in motion,” he agreed, “but all the decisions you and Marissa have made since then have been your own.”
This whole day was turning into a catastrophe. The man she thought of as a father, and the woman she thought of as a sister had used her. She bolted for the door. “I have to get out of here.”
Larry grabbed her arm. “Annie, don’t go, you’re too upset. Please don’t drive until you’ve calmed down.”
Annie looked at the stranger holding her arm and wrenched it away. “Fine, I’ll go downstairs, but I need to get away from all of you!”
Once in her office, she flew past Nathan, yelled that she was not to be disturbed, and locked herself inside her private work space. A few seconds later, she heard Marissa outside begging her to open the door.
Annie couldn’t take it. She pushed the power button on her sound system, cranked up the volume, and drowned Marissa out.
• • •
About an hour later, when most of her anger ran out of steam, Annie decided it was about time to stop indulging in her grownup temper tantrum. She started by turning off the music. No matter how upset she was with Larry and Marissa, they were important to her. She was not going to let this, or anything else, ruin their relationship. Annie sat on the floor and hoped a little yoga would help center her and calm her ragged nerves. She stretched her arms over her head and took in a deep breath through her nose. A few poses later, the tension in her body began to subside.
A soft knock at the door broke her concentration. She ignored it and shifted into Mermaid. A click in the lock made Annie reluctantly sit crossed legged on the floor and wait for whoever had used their key to enter.
“Can I come in?” Marissa asked tentatively through the cracked doorway.
“Shouldn’t you have asked that before you used your key?” Annie replied sarcastically, but without any real anger behind it.
Marissa must have taken her response for a yes, because she came in and joined Annie on the floor. “Rough day?”
Annie scooted away, needing a little more distance between them. “The worst. How did you react when Larry laid it out for you?”
Marissa scratched her neck. “I got a little hysterical, but he’s my father and I love him. I even understand why he did it. He wanted to know the truth, but he was scared. So he passively discovered it at our expense. I didn’t think my father was capable of being that conniving, but I didn’t think he’d ever sleep with Hannah either.”
“He’s just full of surprises today.” Annie stretched out on the floor and looked up at the ceiling. “Don’t worry, I’ve already forgiven him and I guess I’ll tell Terence all this wonderful news, too.”
Marissa dropped down on the floor next to her. “I don’t envy you that task.”
Annie did not appreciate Marissa’s nearness. She needed a little space, but Marissa kept moving in, wanting Annie’s forgiveness, but Annie couldn’t give it. As benevolent as Larry had been to her all these years, a part of her had always been waiting for the big letdown. It was her experience that parents of that generation had a problem with consistency. One minute they would shower you with love and affection, the next minute you would be shunned and tossed away like yesterday’s newspaper. Annie was used to that, but to be spied upon and manipulated by a trusted friend was a different matter altogether. Forgiving Marissa was going to take more time. Despite Marissa’s dubious credibility at the moment Annie asked, “Did Larry mean it when he said he didn’t want to take Erika away from Terence?”
Marissa nodded. “It would be too traumatic for Erika if he were to suddenly disappear. Daddy envisions it more like adding people to Erika’s life rather than taking them away, except where Hannah is concerned. I don’t think he’s made up his mind about her yet.”
Annie stood up and stepped back. “Can he legally keep Hannah out?”
Marissa matched Annie’s movements and stayed well inside her personal space. “We have a pretty strong case against Hannah. Alexander was the main force keeping that family together. Now that he’s gone, it’s hard to know what will happen. Hannah isn’t exactly the motherly type. We hope she will gracefully step out of the picture. If she decides to fight for Erika, we’ll have our work cut out for us. Daddy’s age will work against him.”
The pain Annie saw in Marissa’s eyes compelled her to feel a bit more sympathetic, and once again, she felt her armor crack. She reached out and touched Marissa’s shoulder. “You know I’ll testify for Larry if it comes to that. He would be an excellent father for Erika.”
Marissa looked uncertain. “The last I heard, Terence was going to fight for custody. Would you side with us, against him?”
That was a tough question. One Annie didn’t want to think about.
Marissa continued, “He is the only father Erika has ever known, he’ll be taken into consideration, but he won’t win. Daddy is hoping he’ll join forces with us. If it becomes a three-way battle for Erika, the court will undoubtedly lean toward the biological parents. Once they discount Terence’s case and take daddy’s age into account, Hannah would end up with a decent chance of winning.”
