Pulling Joy into my chests, I hold her face in my hands, placing a lingering kiss on her pouting lips. "I love you … you know that.”
"I know. Go, and hurry back," she says sadly, surprising me by gently pushing me toward the door. "The sooner you go, the sooner you’ll come back." I swiftly kiss her again and turn, running toward my car.
Pulling into the packed parking garage, I finally find a space on the twenty-fourth floor. Hurrying to keep my appointment, Brenda greets me at the elevator.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Davis. You’re looking dapper as always," she says, taking my coat.
"Happy New Year, Brenda. I trust you had a pleasant holiday?" I reply, bending to kiss her cheek.
"I did, and thank you for the lovely antique water pitcher. I didn't have that in my collection." I smile at her as I follow her into Timothy' office.
"Matthew, it’s good to see you again. It's been a while since we've had to have a meeting. Please, have a seat." He motions toward the sitting area in the corner of his office that overlooks the Sound.
"What do you have?" I ask, wanting to get to the crux of this meeting.
"Well, Dr. Ford has been very busy," he begins. "First, and foremost, she's broke. I believe this has placed her in a desperate state of mind. It seems she's willing to try almost anything to climb out of the hole she's dug for herself."
"Broke? How can she be broke? Her family is one of the wealthiest in the country!" I say, shocked.
"Apparently they heard about her escapades. From what I could gather, her father issued a few warnings early on that she was to straighten up or he was cutting her off. Evidently, she didn't believe that he would follow through with his threat. I found that she covered up the split between the two of you with her parents by implying that you were the one that cheated on her," Timothy discloses while he continues to review the file in front of him.
"Yes, I recall that they were extremely angry with me. After I left Emma, I never spoke to her parents again." The memory haunts me to this day. It's always bothered me that her parents thought I would do something like that to their daughter.
"Anyway, they found out the truth somehow, and when they learned of her destruction at Johns Hopkins, along with a few more minor infractions, her father followed through on his promise by cutting her off and cutting up her credit cards."
"So, she actually has to work for a living?” Timothy chuckles and goes back to the file.
"Additionally," he begins again, "there's a question about her performing illegal abortions across the south. In the Bible belt, no less! She did it under an assumed name, and once word got out that this Dr. Joan Smith was coming through town, she performed bargain-basement abortions and made quite a bit of money doing it. Of course, those funds didn't last long, knowing that she has no clue how to budget. Anyway, some parents got wind of her performing these abortions on their daughters, and all hell broke loose for her again. The authorities have been looking for Dr. Smith ever since." Timothy and I shake our heads in astonishment.
"There's more," he points out, raising his eyebrows and looking at me over his reading glasses.
"Why am I not surprised?" I shift in my seat and wait for the rest of the story.
"She's been putting the word out that you stole the idea for your stem cell replacement procedure from her. She's not saying it outright — but in social circles."
I frown, curious as to what he means.
"Let's say she's at a cocktail party,” he explains. “She’ll say that she invented a procedure and that someone else is using her research; and also that her discovery will be coming out this year. She's not accusing you of stealing or naming you outright, but everyone in the medical field knows about you, Matthew. They know it's you she's talking about."
I feel the blood drain from my face. For the life of me, I can’t understand why she would want to do this. I know she’ll never get away with it because I can prove that I am the developer and creator of this procedure. I can, also, back up my research, but the fact that she would try, leaves me utterly speechless.
"Now I know why she pulled that stunt with the cameraman outside of my hospital."
"I’ve drafted this cease and desist letter for your review. Once you approve it, I’ll courier it to her this afternoon."
Taking the letter from him, I read it thoroughly. It instructs her to cease from making false, unsubstantiated claims immediately. Additionally, her refusal to adhere to the restraining order will result in my immediate action with the authorities. I lightly chuckle at that statement because she's been breaking the order all along and has been successfully eluding the authorities. It comes to an end … today. I hand the letter back to Timothy and tell him to send it.
"I also contacted the Center for Education and Global Research in New York and spoke to Dr. Robert Fisher," he begins. "I advised him that I was your legal counsel and asked him about Dr. Lawrence. I also informed him what Emma has been up to with spreading her false information around about you. He said that Lawrence is up for a hearing concerning his activity with her. I'm sure Fisher doesn’t need Emma's bad name sullying their good one. I also reminded him of the sensitive and confidential information that Lawrence leaked, namely details of your connection with the Center, and I may have hinted that I know that Dr. Lawrence released Joy's name to Emma during one of their sexual encounters. He's was most concerned to learn of the deliberate fire at Joy's apartment. I'm afraid it may not bode well for Lawrence during this meeting. I ended the call suggesting that we hope, in light of the recent activity between Lawrence and Ford that it will not deter their decision to move forward with your project."
"Are you hinting at blackmail, Timothy?"
"No. I'm just saying that the Center should think twice if you have gotten this far in the approval process and then suddenly are denied because they don't want to have anything to do with it because of Emma."
"Good. Good," I mutter, taking in all the information. "Is there anything else I should be concerned about?"
"We need to get this woman off your back. I'm going to draft a complaint for defamation and file a copy of the complaint on your behalf with the AMA. Let's see if she backs off."
"I want to tell you — I have a meeting with her this afternoon." I look at the shock and alarm on his face.
"What in god's name for?" His eyes widen to the point of nearly fall out of his head.
"I've spoken with Detective Berkley. With a recording of a conversation a friend of mine made, along with other investigative information, he has enough to bring her in for suspicion."
"Don't do anything stupid, Matthew. I don't want to have to bail you out of jail," he admonishes.
"You won't have to. She called Joy's phone, as you know. She camped out in front of Joy's apartment, harassed her at the ball, and now set fire to her apartment. This has to stop … now. When I spoke with Berkley, I knew then what I had to do. I won't allow her to harm Joy, and if she was home during that fire, God knows what would have happened to her." That thought turns my stomach. "Are we done here?" I ask as I rise from the conference table.
"Yes. I'll get this letter delivered to Emma right away."
"Make it later on this afternoon. I am meeting with her shortly."
"Be careful, Matthew. She's off balance right now," Timothy says nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"That's an understatement." Timothy walks me to the door, and we shake hands before he opens it. Brenda is ready and waiting with my coat.
"See you around, beautiful," I say, taking it from her before kissing her cheek again.
"You too, handsome."
"Brenda, if you weren't married to my attorney, I'd snatch you up for myself," I say, sneaking in a wink loving the easy way she blushes.
"You flirting with my secretary again, Davis?" Timothy chuckles, as he stands leaning on the doorframe of his office.
"You better take care of her, or I'll steal her away from you and know I could do it, too," I
say just before the doors to the elevator begin to close. I blow a kiss to a giggling and blushing Brenda before they do.
Focusing on my next task, I take my cell out of my pocket and see that Emma has been trying to reach me. It shows four blocked incoming calls. They are all from her. Once I reach my car, I sit behind the wheel, take a deep breath, and dial the number.
"About fucking time, Matthew! Are we doing this or not?" she demands.
"Calm down, Emma. I know it's all about you in your world, but I do have a practice I need to take care of. I told you I would meet you, and I will. Where?"
"I want to fuck you in style, baby. I've booked us a room at the Four Seasons. I have a key under the name Dr. Doolittle waiting for you at the front desk. Meet me here in an hour and don't be late. I've waited for this long enough. I want you to take me in every way that only you can." The way she's talking repulses me and I cringe at even the thought of her touching me.
"Dr. Doolittle? Seriously?" I roll my eyes at having to say that name when I ask for the key. "I'll be there," I mutter. Closing my phone in anger, I throw it on the passenger seat and grip the steering wheel. After I regroup, I pick up my phone and start dialing.
"Berkley."
"Hello, Detective, it's Dr. Davis."
"You have your meeting place?"
"Yes, at the Four Seasons in an hour. She's reserved me a key under the name Dr. Doolittle." I smirk when he chuckles.
"Yeah, real funny," I grumble.
"Okay, get over here right away, I want to get you wired up."
~.~
Feeling sick at being in the same room with her, I swallow the bile and rap on the door twice. It swings open almost immediately.
"It's about time, lover," she coos, her hands reaching for my chest.
"Slow down, Emma," I say almost too sharply, grabbing her wrists and push her away. "We have a few things to discuss first. Then you can have your way with me, because, woman, you are looking fine." I look at her from head to toe in that ridiculously cheap Fredrick's of Hollywood get-up. She turns around to give me a view of her bare ass. I gross myself out having to pretend that she is turning me on.
"First off, what's with the hair? You changed it up a little bit."
She flips her long brown extensions, twisting a fake tendril around her finger.
"Like it? I just wanted something different. I've been a bottle blonde for so long, and I noticed that you were going for the long-haired, brunette types now. I did it for you." She sashays toward me again, in her fake leather pumps.
"Oh, yeah. It works on you for sure but if you want me, you need to tell me why you’re doing all this?"
"What? I don't know what you are talking about, baby," she lies, her hands coming for me again.
I see how it is. She's playing games. Well, I can play too.
"All right. I'm out of here if you want to play this way. You don't need me around." I call her bluff and walk toward the door. I was a little concerned, because she waited until I was nearly out into the hall before she called me back.
"Okay, already. I'll tell you. Just get that ass back in here."
"Tell me what?” I ask, feigning ignorance. “That you're letting everyone believe you are the one that invented the stem cell procedure, and that you had to fuck me to be a part of it? Is that what you want to tell me?" I stand away from her, crossing my arms, looking at her breasts, licking my lips. She notices the action and sways her hips as she walks over to me. I hold my hand up to stop her. "Tell me first."
I take a few steps back, spread my legs, adjust myself, and cross my arms again. I almost have her where I want her. She’s losing her control, and her desire is taking over. She wants me, and she's an easy target at this point.
"I was pissed, baby," she whines. "You were once mine and I want you again. I know I screwed it up, but I need you to give me another chance. We were so good together, right?"
"You thought to win my affection by claiming what's not yours?" I ask trying to get to the heart of the matter.
"Why don't you open your own practice here? You could open on one of the floors in my building," I suggest. That's all it takes to send her over the edge.
"You'd let me do that? Could you help me? I mean, I'm so broke right now, I can't even afford to reinstate my license."
"You didn't keep your licensing up? How could you not do that?" I say with false sympathy.
"It's such a long story, Mattie. I've been a mess since you left. I've tried everything to survive."
"Like what? What have you done?" I ask, digging for more.
"Oh, I went to New York when I heard you were there. Then I went down south for a little while, practicing in gynecology, but that didn't work out. After I heard you were here, I knew I had to be here too. It made me sick to see you with that other woman, Matthew," she pouts, swaying her body back and forth while running her finger over the back of the couch.
"Well, I'm not with her anymore. It turned out she's too much responsibility," I say, turning around to look out the window to hide the obvious lie on my face. "Hey," I snap around and look at her, "is that why you torched her place? Good job on that by the way, it's a crispy critter right now."
"Well, I got a little drunk and … she's blind, for god's sake, Matthew. That was just too weird for me, and I guess I took my bottle of vodka and stuffed my panties in it and made my own Molotov cocktail. I have to admit, I did feel bad after seeing it go up so fast. I'd hate to be tried for murder, so I guess it's good that she wasn't there." I nearly blow my game face when I hear the word “murder”. Clenching my jaw, I listen to how easy it is for her to tell me what she did and I have to turn back around to hide my anger and disgust. Unfortunately, she makes a move and is behind me in a flash, putting her arms around my chest, but I grab them and spin out of her grasp.
"I love you, baby," she whines.
"I'm not so sure about that. You said I was your pawn. What the hell was that supposed to mean, Emma?"
"I'm broke, Matthew. My parents cut me off and took all my credit cards. They won't even talk to me. I needed cash fast, and when I saw you with that blind bimbo, I went a little crazy. I sort of came up with a plan, but that's all over. It's just us now. You aren't with her anymore, so it doesn't matter. We can be together again, just like the old days. Remember all the fun we used to have? All the parties and dinners we went to?"
"Emma, if you love me like you say you do, why would you try to destroy me? You are trying to steal my life's work. You know I have the patent on it, don't you? How do you think you could have gotten away with it? Why would you try to ruin me? That doesn't sound like love to me." I watch her as she paces the room.
"I … I don't know. I'm sorry, baby. It's just that I need money." Her head snaps in my direction, and her eyes are huge with surprise. "Will you marry me, Matthew? That will solve all my problems, if you married me."
I literally choke on air. To say I'm in shock is an understatement. My mouth falls open, and I watch her slip into panic mode.
"Emma, I am not going to marry you," I say, putting space between us. As much as I'm faking this whole conversation, I will not even pretend that I want to marry her. I will not do that to Joy.
"Why the fuck not? You wanted to before," she shouts. "I would be good to you, baby," she coos.
I frown at her sudden change in demeanor. Talk about Dr. Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde.
"Seriously, Emma, you think I would marry you? You had me once and then you fucked the board of one of the biggest hospitals in the country. You wanted the position they were grooming me for and fucked your way into the seat. My seat! That isn’t love … that's a whore." I turn around and walk to the window. She comes up behind me and before I can move, she wraps her arms around me.
"But I love you, ba …" I try to grab her arms, but I'm too late, and she feels the wire wrapped around my chest.
"What the hell!" she shouts. Fisting my shirt, she rips it open, causing the buttons to fly everywhere. "You're
fucking bugged?" she screams and I smile down at her and that’s when her hand rises and slaps me hard across my face. I can do nothing but laugh at the myriad of emotions that crosses her face: first shock, anger, surprise, then shock again.
"How can you do this to me, Matthew?" she whines.
"Jigs up, Emma," I say, laughing in her face. I watch as she runs, grabbing her purse on the way out, making a mad dash for the door.
"Emma, don't go," I beg through a laugh. I laugh at the distorted look on her face before she opens the door with such force it hits the wall then snaps back, literally hitting her on the ass before she scurries down the hall.
"She's all yours, Detective," I say into the wire. Gathering my shirt closed, I tuck the tails into my jeans, hoping to cover my chest on the ride down to the lobby. As I walk briskly to my car, I pray I won't run into her on the way out. All I can think about now is getting home to Joy.
Just as I pull out of the parking garage, I see police cars parked in front of the hotel and grimace at how it sucks to be Emma. All I can think about is how she intentionally set fire to Joy's apartment and shudder at the thought that she could have killed my girl. I thank God every day that she was with me and not at home.
On my way back to Laura’s, I’m caught up in traffic and can see it's not moving at all so I slip down the side streets. It will take me a bit longer to get home, but at least I'm not sitting there going nowhere.
The buzzing of my cell phone breaks my concentration. I look at it and see that it's Jessie.
"Jessie?"
"I got him on the phone!" Jessie yells, hurting my ear. My family’s talking over each other in the background.
"Is Joy all right?" I ask in a near panic.
"Yes, she's fine, but we're all worried about you. Mom and Leland showed up here a few minutes ago after hearing on the radio that there was a police chase with Dr. Emma Ford. Then Maddie and Brian showed up because Mom called them to come over right away. Now Joy's near frantic. What's taking you so long to get here?"
"You mean Emma’s running from the cops? Good Lord, that woman is psychotic. I wasn't listening to the radio and had no idea this was going on. So, that's why I ran into a roadblock on E. Madison. I'll be there as soon as I can. I'm only about ten minutes away," I say before hanging up and putting my foot on the gas.
I See You (Seeing You #2) Page 15
