The boy she used to know prided himself on his knowledge, and the man she knew now intimidated her further with that sharp, intellectual look that came from a serious academic background.
The outside of his house was impressive, but as he opened the door and she stepped inside her mouth dropped. It was like walking onto the set of some futuristic program.
The lights came on and a mellow female voice said, “Welcome home Wes, how was your day?”
“Agnes, this is Taylor, make her feel welcome,” Wes replied with a smile.
Taylor looked back to him. “Your house…it talks.”
“Sorry, I’m a glorified geek.” He chuckled.
“No. It’s cool.” She found herself smiling.
“I’m glad you think so. Your drink’s here.” He smiled, pointing behind her.
To her surprise a little robot that looked like R2D2 from Star Wars came gliding across the wooden floor towards her. Chloe loved that robot and was obsessed with it for years as a child. It figured that Wes would like it too because the two of them were always into the same things.
Taylor watched it, truly impressed, as it carried a glass of juice on top of its head and stopped before her so she could take it.
She picked the glass up and the robot scuttled away.
“Make yourself at home,” Wes said.
“Thanks.” She pressed her lips together to keep from crying again and walked into the living room.
There she sat on the sofa and watched him shrug out of his navy blue blazer. She could see his T-shirt properly now. It had the big yellow Batman logo across his chest. With the blazer he carried it off well and made it look fashionable. Without it he looked early-twenties young, like he was in college at one of those super hero conventions. She liked it.
He pulled up a chair and turned it around so he could sit on it with the back facing her.
“Can I get you anything else?” A lock of his dark hair fell across his eyes.
She shook her head. “No, I’m okay. Thanks for bringing me here.”
“Seriously, don’t mention it.” His smile was boyishly affectionate.
She took a sip from her juice and looked about the room at the design. At the corner of the high celling near the skylight she watched in delight as the petals from the yellow flowers running along the wall on a vine started closing as it grew a fraction darker outside. It looked beautiful, like some sort of enchantment you’d see in a fairytale.
Wes did all the special effects for the fashion shows at Runway. She remembered Chloe saying something about him doing it for a number of films, too, before he joined Runway. She’d always been impressed to see what he could do, but this felt a little more magical. She was inside his house where he had free reign of what he did. She wished she was here under different circumstances. It would have been nice to look around and see the place. See what else he’d designed.
“Your house is really cool. You did all this?”
“I did.”
“I love the flowers.” She was trying for casual conversation, as if he didn’t just rescue her from a hungry-for-gossip mob of reporters and paparazzi.
He got up, walked over to the wall, and picked one of the flowers from the vine. When he walked back over he handed it to her.
She set her drink down on the coffee table and took it. She was impressed before, but now she was truly mesmerized. As she touched the flower it opened up and the shade of yellow brightened.
“How is it doing that?” she asked.
“Nano bots, they do what I program them to do. It’s sensitive to temperature. Your hands must be cold from the drink.”
She smiled up at him and watched the flower close up again.
A soft breath escaped her lips and she returned her gaze to him. “I’m not a homewrecker, Wes.” A tear ran down her cheek. “And I’m not some rich snob who goes around hurting people. I’m a good person.”
He smiled wide and lowered to sit next to her. “Taylor Vanderville, you act like I just met you yesterday. You don’t have to tell me who you are. I already know.”
She felt grateful for his comment. She’d definitely feel a whole lot worse if he thought badly of her. She tried to wipe her face but it was useless, more tears came. It seemed like that was all she did these days. Cry.
“That means so much to me. Everything’s such a mess.”
“I know, but it will get better.”
“I don’t think so, Wes.” She didn’t think it would. There was too much going on and it felt like different things were surfacing with each day. “I don’t even know what’s going on.”
“It’s best you don’t.”
She could only imagine how bad it was for him to say that, but she felt like she needed to know what she was up against. “I should know. I should know what people are saying about me.”
“Does it really matter?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Yes, because I’ll just worry even more.” She knew how anxious it would make her, and that would be worse for her.
He grabbed the remote and flicked on the super-thin flat screen TV embedded on the wall before them that nearly ran from the floor to the ceiling. It was like being at the movies.
He switched through the channels until he found an image of her. It was on one of those gossip celeb entertainment channels. There were a few pictures of her and Richard together and the caption Homewrecker going across the screen. Then she saw footage of her kissing Richard and Janine coming in, catching them.
She felt so ashamed of herself. So very ashamed. Then to make matters worse, Janine appeared on the screen. She was in the TV studio talking to the host.
“I think it’s disgusting,” she said to the host. “People like that have no concept of marriage. My husband and I have been married for ten years, and in comes this slut to ruin our lives.”
Wes turned the TV off as Taylor sucked in a sharp breath. She looked at him and felt the deep shame of what she’d seen burn her face. How could she protest and say she wasn’t a homewrecker when it was all there in plain sight for all to see? Her kissing Richard, his wife, everything. She stood up, deciding she couldn’t stay here.
“Where are you going?” Wes asked. He stood too.
“I can’t… I can’t stay here, I can’t stay anywhere. I don’t know what to do to fix this and clear my name. I didn’t know he was married. He bought a ring to propose to me and everything. What kind of person does that?” She hated Richard for this. She hated him for putting her through such a scandal, and at a time when she should be at home recovering.
“The kind that’s not good. Now there’s no reason why you should feel like you can’t stay here.”
“I don’t want you to think badly of me,” she confessed.
He widened his eyes on hearing that and blinked several times. “I don’t. Anyway, now’s not the time to be worrying about what people think. You were in the hospital just last week and in a coma. To be honest, I definitely didn’t think you’d come back from that. You looked so weak.”
She looked at him and held his gaze. “You came to see me?” The thought gripped her.
“Yeah, of course.” He nodded and smiled.
She was so grateful that he would take the time to come and see her.
“Hey, you even held my hand and said my name.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Really? I did?” She had no memory of that, or anything, but it was fascinating to hear.
“Yes. Was kind of cool, must have been my new cologne.” He chuckled, looking proud of himself. “Which I’m wearing now, by the way.”
Humor. She couldn’t believe she was laughing. Through her tears and devastation she was laughing. She forgot how funny he was.
“You are?”
“Yeah, and heck, look at me with Taylor Vanderville standing in my house, in my living room. Talking to me. I’ll be sure to leave a good review on their website.”
“Oh Wes, you make me sound like I’m something special.”
She shook her head at him.
“You are,” he said with conviction, staring deeply into her eyes.
It was the way he looked at her. No one had ever looked at her like that before. She couldn’t describe the look, other than to say that it was one of admiration and adoration, but there was more. Something more she found herself lost in.
“So, forget those people.” His cheeks warmed and a soft hint of pink tickled the skin there. “Do you like Chinese? Food, I mean Chinese food.” He smiled.
She nodded. “I love it.”
“Cool, I’ll order some. Sit back here and try to forget about everything and everyone else.”
She sat back down feeling a little better. Being here helped. She wished she could forget. She really wished she could. It really had become too much to handle and felt like years ago when Wade left, but this was worse. From what she knew so far about this psycho tracking them she knew that they were using the security systems to spy on everyone. This thing with Richard was too much of a bizarre occurrence to just have happened. Richard lived on the fourteenth floor of his apartment complex and the next apartment building was a good hundred meters or so away. Both buildings had that special patented glass so that you couldn’t see what was going on inside. To get a recording of them that was as clear as what she saw you’d have to have superhuman abilities and be able to fly around outside with one of those x-ray vision cameras the military used.
Or, you could just be a psycho who had it in for the Vandervilles, with access to the city’s security systems.
Everything wasn’t getting better, it was getting worse. They’d all been on edge about what would happen next. She got the feeling that phase two of whatever plans they had in mind was about to be unleashed, and it worried her to no end.
Regina
Regina slammed down the subpoena on the desk in front of Flack Morrison, chief executive of Entertainment TV.
“Mr. Morrison, you are being sued,” Ben stated, straightening up next her.
She didn’t like to call on his help but this was necessary. They had to put up a united front. Even if they weren’t.
Taylor had been through enough and this was unnecessary. The minute Regina saw the news and saw all that had happened, she knew it was all linked to the bigger problem. The big picture as it filled out to form the fate that awaited them.
This was just one more thing to rattle them and she was done with the games, done with the waiting, done with everything. It was time to up their game and fight back.
When she called Ben that was all she was thinking of, and she was so glad that he agreed.
Flack immediately sat up and looked pale. He’d looked shocked when they burst into his office, and now the look was amplified tenfold.
“I’m sure we can talk about this,” Flack stuttered.
“Talk?” Regina raised her brows and folded her arms tightly across her chest. “The time for talking is past. If you wanted to talk you would never have aired that story about our daughter,” she snarled.
His mouth twitched below his bushy moustache. “The tape came to us anonymously. We weren’t breeching any civil rights.”
“You aired footage from a private residence where you had no rights to.” Ben talked at him like he did when he used to go to court. Regina had seen him in action and knew he knew his stuff. “Anonymous or not, it was a private matter and you used it with malicious intent to defame my daughter.”
“We can issue a public statement of apology,” Flack offered, looking flustered and terrified.
“Yes, you will do that,” Ben said pointedly. “You’re still being sued, though.”
“See you in court.” Regina gave him a menacing smile. Then they both turned around and walked out of the office, leaving Flack looking very disturbed.
They didn’t speak until they reached outside.
“Tell Taylor to stay away from that Richard,” Ben demanded. They stopped just outside the car park.
“Scared she’ll do something else to ruin your campaign for governor?” She couldn’t help it. This was all happening because of him. Everything, it all came back to Ben.
“Love can make you do crazy things.”
“You say that as if you know what love is,” she snapped back. Such a statement coming from him sounded like a joke.
“I love my children, Regina. You know I do.”
She looked into his steely eyes and found it difficult to refute him. That was true, what he said was true. She did know that he loved Taylor and Wade.
“And, before you throw it in my face that Taylor isn’t mine to love, I’ll tell you that I have loved her as if she were mine.”
“Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you tell me you knew she wasn’t yours?” It was curiosity. She wanted to know why he kept his knowledge of Taylor a secret for so many years. She’d guessed it was to make them suffer, but she just wanted to hear it from him.
“I didn’t want to lose my family.”
Ben with his lies and manipulative ways. Did he seriously expect her to believe that?
“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that.” She inclined her head and looked him over. He looked terrible. She didn’t have the chance to get a good look at him before they went up to Flack’s office, but seeing him now in the remains of daylight showed how haggard he looked.
She wondered if he was still getting messages and what had transpired over the last few weeks for him. She had Cora working on things for her and Detective Fray. Who did Ben have?
“It’s the truth. You can think whatever you want about it, but it’s the truth. Besides, why ruin you when you could ruin yourselves with worry?” He smiled and chuckled a little.
“The divorce papers will be with you by the end of next week.”
“I won’t be signing them.”
She straightened up. “You had better sign them, Ben, I’m serious.”
Now he laughed. “I know you are, my love. I don’t doubt that one bit, but it seems you’ve forgotten our last conversation about this. I will make Brian disappear.”
“Ben…” She walked closer to him. Right up to his face and stared him down. “You can try. You can try, in fact please do. I am not scared of you anymore. No one is, so make all the threats you want. You come for me or Brian, my kids or my company, and it will be me who destroys you.”
His eyes darkened with fury, and probably surprise. “You are powerless,” he snapped.
Over the years she’d just followed orders, but things were different now. She was different now.
She smirked. “No, do you know who was powerless? The men on the oilrig you allowed to die years ago. They were powerless, because they trusted you.”
His face fell. “What are you talking about?”
“You know exactly what I’m referring to,” she snapped, appalled that he had the audacity to act like he didn’t remember. “The South Americans who worked for you in Texas. You falsified documents. You—”
He grabbed her arm and dragged her over to the corner. “Shut up, keep your damn voice down,” he hissed.
She wrenched her arm free of his grasp and stared at the bewildered expression on his face with deep satisfaction.
Good, she had him where she wanted. Finally. She had the upper hand.
“Don’t order me around, Ben.”
“How the fuck did you find out about that?” He was panicking.
“It doesn’t matter; the point is I know things about you.” She didn’t have any proof because she found out from eavesdropping on a conversation he had with one of his business colleagues. However, the fact that she knew was enough. Probably enough for him to want her to disappear. “I’m guessing you thought our psycho friend was powerless, too, and look how that turned out.”
“That was different,” he hissed.
Her eyes widened. This was the first time that he’d revealed any trace of information that told her he definitely knew who was behind their situation. “How diffe
rent was it?”
His eyes turned cold, colder, and the ashen look on his face worried her because she’d never seen him look so worried. “Not here.” He looked about them and she thought of the cameras that could be watching them.
“Then where?”
He shook his head. “Nowhere.”
“Bastard, you hurt someone and we’re suffering for it, and you won’t even share information. You talk of love for your children and you won’t even help me to protect them.”
“I would if I could,” he snarled. “But I can’t.” It was the first time that she’d ever seen him look so helpless, but she’d show him no sympathy.
“What did you do, Ben? Who did you hurt?” She’d been asking the question over and over again for weeks, but he never answered, and he didn’t seem like he was going to answer the damn question today, either.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You asshole,” she sneered. “Okay, that’s fine.” She’d just continue on as she had been, and leave him to himself. “Just sign the damn papers when you get them or you’ll have me to deal with. No one could hate you more than me.”
She cut her eyes at him and walked away in the opposite direction, towards her car. She couldn’t believe he’d withhold information that could help them, but it was typical of him to put himself first. At least they managed to sort out today’s mess with Flack.
Time to move on to the next task at hand.
Telling Taylor about Brian.
It was a bright Sunday afternoon. Bright and cheerful, with that soft breeze that rustled through the trees and had that calming effect.
Secrets and Lies (Vandervilles Book 2) Page 15
