Fall Into Me (Heart of Stone)

by K. M. Scott

  I couldn't tell if the tone in his voice was condemnation or insecurity. Either way, it made me uneasy to see Cal like this. As if I had to come up with an excuse why I'd want to eat in a nice restaurant, I said, "This place has gotten great reviews. I just thought I'd try it and see if it lives up to all the hype."

  The truth was that I enjoyed restaurants like this now. I could afford them and I'd learned quickly from Tristan that I deserved to enjoy myself. I wasn't hurting anyone, so why shouldn't I have a nice meal in a trendy restaurant? As I sat there silently defending myself and my desire to eat good food, no matter how expensive it seemed to Cal, he shifted in his chair and seemed to not know where to put his hands as he moved them from the table to his lap and back again.

  "Cal, you seem uncomfortable. Is something wrong? Is there something you didn't tell me the other day that I should know?"

  He hung his head and quietly answered, "No, there's nothing more to tell. I was an ass and deserve anything you say to me."

  Reaching over, I gently touched his sleeve. "It's okay, Cal. Things happen when you're young. That's why they say people are young and stupid. Nobody ever says someone's young and wise."

  He frowned at my attempt to make him feel better. "It's just that I have no right to ask you for anything."

  His voice strained as he spoke the words, and I could have sworn I saw him tear up. This wasn't the person I remembered at all. He was suffering right there in front of me, and I couldn't just let that happen.

  "What's wrong, Cal? What's happened to you?"

  He blew the air out of his cheeks and shook his head. "I've had a bad run of things, Nina. My mother was sick for a long time and passed away just a few months ago. She always liked you, I think because you were a lot like her."

  "Oh, Cal. I'm so sorry. Your mother was a terrific lady. I had no idea."

  "It's just been one thing after another, and tonight I found out that my girlfriend has been seeing someone else and is moving in with him. I just don't know how I'm going to afford our apartment since I signed the lease thinking we'd both be paying toward the rent."

  My heart broke at the sight of this sad man sitting in front of me. The boy who'd broken my heart was now feeling what I'd felt, but it didn't give me any pleasure. I'd been blessed with a great man in Tristan, and I wanted everyone I knew to have the same wonderful luck I'd had. I couldn't help Cal out in the girlfriend department, but I could give him some money to help with his rent. I had it, and it would be a crime not to pay it forward.

  I reached into my purse and pulled out all the money I had left after paying for dinner, leaving just enough to pay for my last martinis. Handing him the cash, I pressed it into his palm. "Take this."

  "No, I couldn't," he weakly protested.

  I understood. He didn't want to be emasculated by an ex-girlfriend he'd recently asked forgiveness from. "Then consider it a loan. You were right when you said life has treated me well. It has, but it means nothing if you can't help out a friend in need. I know it's only a few hundred, but I can give you more tomorrow."

  "Nina, no. It's okay. This is more than enough. Thank you."

  I squeezed his hand before he moved to pocket the money. "You know how to contact me if you need more."

  He began to say thank you again, but we were interrupted by Jensen, who suddenly appeared behind Cal. "Miss, I'm sorry I'm late. The car is waiting just outside."

  For a moment, Jensen's words confused me, but I realized as he stood there looking down at my purse as it sat on the table in front of me that he believed he was safeguarding me. Before I could set his mind at ease, Cal stood and thanked me again as he quickly headed toward the door.

  Tristan's driver nodded silently at me, and I slipped into my coat to return to the house. I considered asking him if he planned to mention any of this to Tristan, but I knew the answer already. Jensen worked for Tristan Stone, not Nina Edwards, and his employer likely knew all about my friendly loan to my ex.

  I followed Jensen to the car and got into the back, half expecting Tristan to be sitting there waiting for me. A stab of disappointment hit me when I saw the car was empty, and as it pulled away from The Channel, I knew I'd have to explain what I'd just done, but I wasn't worried.

  I hadn't done anything wrong, and once Tristan heard about the hard times that had befallen Cal, I knew he'd understand. No matter what the rest of the world saw, in my heart I knew Tristan was a kind soul like me.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Tristan

  I'd driven halfway back to the house, but I couldn't wait any longer to read Joseph Edwards' notes. Pulling over at a diner on the side of the road, I bought a cup of coffee and opened up Nina's father's notebook on the table in front of me. I took a sip of the drink that tasted like a cross between dishwater and mud and pushed the cup and saucer away from me. Pressing my phone on again, I brought up Nina's message telling me she loved me and stared at it, silently promising to show her how much she meant to me when I returned home.

  As I'd driven here, the need to see what was written in the notebook had been overwhelming, but now that it sat there in front of me with nothing stopping me, I hesitated, unsure I could see the truth he'd uncovered about my father that had gotten him killed. My hand hovered over the tablet, shaking at the thought of what could be contained in those pages.

  I was no fool. There was no way I'd be able to read the proof of my father's crime and not tell Nina the entire truth of her father's death, but the memory of how she'd reacted the last time was like a fresh wound still nearly splitting my heart in two. I couldn't lose her again, this time possibly forever.

  But I couldn't live in ignorance not knowing what had happened between Victor Stone and Joseph Edwards.

  Taking a deep breath in, I swallowed hard and opened the notebook. My eyes flowed over the page, taking in each word and its meaning.

  Stone Worldwide—Victor Stone—Taylor Stone

  I was surprised to see my brother's name mentioned so prominently at the top of the first page. Taylor had worked closely with my father in Stone Worldwide's business, being groomed to take over when he retired, but he was more an office mate than anything else. At least it had seemed that way.

  Atlanta—October 2008

  -civil suit—sexual harassment/judge?? Why a problem? Name of judge?

  Joseph Edwards' notes made no sense. A sexual harassment case wasn't particularly noteworthy in Stone Worldwide. Thousands of employees across the globe meant at any time someone may feel they had a case, especially considering my father's proclivity for young women who happened to work for him. Sexual harassment cases had become commonplace by the time I was old enough to understand much of anything my father did at work each day.

  Had Taylor been involved in one of those cases? I had a hard time believing that. If anything, he was the good son, never getting into trouble with drugs, women, or anything else. He'd graduated with honors from college and gone on to earn an M.B.A. He was the one who rose everyday before dawn to be ready to leave for work at six and stayed until late at night, often putting in fifteen hour workdays.

  I'd been the one who'd been arrested twice for drugs, only getting off when the Stone family money had conveniently found its way to that local police chief in northern Jersey. It had been me who'd been carted out of apartments and clubs by Rogers more times than either he or I wanted to remember, usually costing my father money to keep the press quiet and women I liked to call girlfriends pacified so they wouldn't talk about the sex and my all-day coke binges.

  As I remembered those days of my past, I shook my head in disbelief that it could be Taylor who had some part in anything unsavory. That was my role in the family—I was the black sheep. He'd always been the golden child, at least as far as my father was concerned.

  October 2008. Taylor and I had been twenty-four then. He was still in graduate school being the exemplary student he'd always been.

  Edwards' note indicated that something about the judge in t
he case had been a problem. What had he meant by that? I continued to read down the page, hoping to understand any of this.

  -Amanda Cashen—July 1992-May 2008

  My mind raced as I tried to find a memory of anyone with that name, but it didn't ring a bell. I'd never heard that name. 1992? Had my father had a child with another woman then and Amanda was the name of the baby? There had always been rumors that my father had other children. More than once I'd walked in on my parents fighting and heard my mother accuse him of fathering children with other women. His response was always the same—a sneer thrown in her direction as he belittled her claims as the rantings of a pathetic woman who didn't understand the way of the world for men like him. He never outright denied her accusations, which I was sure hurt even more than the painful doubts she had about her husband's love for her.

  If a child named Amanda did exist and Edwards had found out, perhaps making that public would be reason enough for my father to want him out of the picture. As I sat there staring down at this mystery female's name, I couldn't imagine that could be the case, though. The note about a sexual harassment case made an illegitimate child a non-issue, unless the child was the product of my father doing something illegal.

  I turned the page after unsuccessfully trying to read a number of notes that appeared to be simply scribblings and illegible symbols and saw a sentence that stopped me cold.

  Atlanta 2008—gas explosion cafe—end of Stone's problems

  -sexual harassment case ruled in his favor November 2008

  What did some gas explosion have to do with a sexual harassment case that ended up going in Stone Worldwide's favor shortly after? Edwards' notes were too vague for me to understand what he was referring to. I flipped to the next page and saw one word over and over and in all caps at the top of the page.

  TAYLOR

  What had Joseph Edwards meant by writing my brother's name all over the page? None of this made any sense. I kept going, baffled by what the connection was between my father's illegitimate child, a sexual harassment case against him, and some explosion at an Atlanta cafe.

  Folded in half between the next two pages was a newspaper article from the front page of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution dated October 23, 2008. I laid the paper out flat on the table. In the center of the article was a picture of a cafe that looked like it was in the middle of a war zone. The front of the coffee shop was blown out, leaving a gaping hole in the building. Chunks of concrete lay everywhere, exposed wires hung low, and remnants of the store that had once served people their morning coffee lay in pieces inside the building.

  Under the picture read the caption 50 Dead In Rush Hour Explosion.

  My hands began to shake as I leaned forward to read the report of the bombing. The words swam in front of my eyes as I struggled to comprehend the horror of what had happened.

  50 men, women and children killed at coffee shop blast. Gas explosion thought to be the reason.

  Investigators still looking for clues.

  Witnesses report the scene was "pure carnage."

  7:38 am the explosion rocked the Corner Cafe one block from the courthouse.

  Children on their way to school killed. Hundreds injured.

  Reports of people smelling gas just before the blast.

  Judge Albert Cashen one of the victims.

  I flipped back through the pages to where the illegitimate child's name was written. Amanda Cashen.

  There was no way it was a coincidence that a judge with the same last name as a child who could be my father's was killed in a gas explosion at a coffee shop near where he worked. And that he was a judge was likely no coincidence either.

  My mouth tasted like bile as my insides churned at the idea that would explain this all. My father had the judge in a civil suit murdered. My father had been a monster, no doubt. Victor Stone was a man who got what he wanted, and if that required the sacrifice of someone, he wasn't above that. There was a long line of damage trailing behind him for most of his adult life. I didn't want to believe any of this, but it was all too easy. My father was like many powerful men. Any obstacle in his way to what he wanted was overcome or eliminated. If he hadn't been able to overcome Judge Cashen, then he would have eliminated him.

  I leaned back against the booth and closed my eyes. The room felt like it was spinning around me. Taking a deep breath, I tried to push out the images of all those people lying dead and maimed because of my own father's actions. Children suffering, their parents devastated, all so Victor Stone could once again slip out of being held responsible for his behavior.

  "Are you okay? Can I get you more coffee?" I heard someone ask and I opened my eyes to see the middle-aged waitress standing over me with a look of concern on her plain face.

  I shook my head and mumbled, "Just a water, please."

  She left me sitting there, my stomach sick as I turned the idea of my father's crime over and over in my mind. I didn't want to know any more. Not only had he killed the judge and Nina's father, but he'd killed innocent men, women, and children who'd never heard of him just going about their daily lives on their way to work and school.

  My phone vibrated in my coat pocket, and I reached in to see a text from Daryl. I read it, feeling like the Universe had suddenly decided it was time to pile on. Need to meet. Got some interesting pics of loverboy you want to see.

  A hollow feeling took over my insides as my mind raced with thoughts of Nina with her ex again. I didn't want to think about that now. Meet tomorrow at noon in my office.

  The waitress returned with my water, placing it down and patting my shoulder as she walked away. I had to continue reading Joseph Edwards' notes, no matter how sick what he'd found out made me. After downing a big gulp of water that tasted faintly of chlorine, I flipped to the next page of his tablet.

  Jessica Cashen—3:30 pm 1/6/09 832 Sturges Way Alpharetta

  The rest of that page was filled with my father's and Taylor's names, along with Albert and Amanda Cashen's names linked with arrows showing how Edwards had attempted to figure out the connection between these four people. In the center of this drawing was one word followed by a question mark.

  Child?

  Was it a simple case of an illegitimate child that had led to the death of so many?

  I read over the note about Jessica Cashen again and guessed Edwards had arranged to meet with her. Those were the details that would tell me what I needed to know.

  Two empty pages later, I found his notes from his meeting with Jessica. I read the words, but they didn't sink in. I couldn't comprehend them, my mind unwilling to accept the truth of them.

  Doubts it was a coincidence

  Taylor and Amanda—together for months, according to Jessica

  Found out she was pregnant March 2008—told Taylor soon after

  Refused to see her or answer her calls—begged to see him but nothing—devastated became depressed

  I knew what was coming next. Even so, when I turned the page, the words hit me like I'd crashed into a brick wall at a hundred miles an hour.

  Hanged herself May 12, 2008—3 months pregnant

  -father found her in the basement

  Jessica Cashen's story of how her sister died and how her father blamed Taylor for her suicide went on and on for lines down the page, but I couldn't read anymore. I pushed the tablet away in disgust, my heart sick from what I'd read.

  The person described in these pages wasn't someone I knew. Taylor had always been the good son. He'd never even really dated many women, sticking with one shy, rather nondescript girl he met freshman year in college. My mother had always said he'd marry her, have children, and live happily ever after, unlike me, who had no stability in his life and refused to even consider any kind of happily ever after that didn't involve late nights and a different female for each one.

  Taylor and I had never been as close as twins were supposed to be, but I thought I had known him, at least. Never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined he was
this person. Amanda Cashen had been a girl—fifteen years old. What the fuck had he been doing with her?

  For the first time a horrifying thought settled into my mind. Had Taylor raped her? Jesus Christ! Even if she had agreed to sleeping with him, she was just a child, a minor he had no business touching.

  I had to get out of there. The dingy yellow diner walls felt like they were closing in on me, suffocating me. Scooping up the notebook and newspaper article, I threw a twenty on the table and got the hell out. By the time I reached my car, it was all I could do to toss it all onto the front passenger seat before I bent over behind the rear bumper and puked up coffee, water, and whatever the fuck I'd had for lunch. I stood there hunched over in the cold night air until there was nothing left in my stomach and all I had left was dry heaves that made my ribs ache in pain.

  Finally, I stood up and wiped my mouth, thankful for the bracing December air against my face. Swallowing hard, I tried to push every terrible word I'd read from my thoughts, but I couldn't. All I saw over and over was the image of my brother on top of some helpless girl and my father standing behind them coldly ordering the death of Albert Cashen.

  I floored it, hitting over a hundred and twenty at times as I raced home. I wanted to be as far away from that storage unit and that diner, but it was no use. Everything I'd found out stayed with me, and I feared it would never leave me.

  As I drove up to the house I shared with Nina, the realization of what I'd learned hit me. How could I face her after everything I now knew about why her father had died? It was worse than I'd ever imagined. Joseph Edwards hadn't just uncovered some shady land deal or my father's philandering ways. He'd pulled back the protective cover shielding my father and my brother and their unspeakable actions. Nina's father had been murdered to protect Taylor's despicable acts with a teenage girl and my father's callous desire to have the world bend to his orders, no matter how terrible or depraved they were.