“How do you even know her?” Taylor asked.
“We took down the license plate of the car she got in on the campus lot.” Graves began shaking his head as if he was genuinely regretting what he was about to say. “Your friend tried to lie for you, but she couldn’t stick it out. She broke down and told us that you had mentioned you knew Garrett Collins and had recently spent time with him.”
“I was ly . . .”
“Taylor!” Sean held up his hand to stop her. He turned to the detectives. “We’re going to call a lawyer and get back to you.”
“There’s also the issue of Haley Chase,” Graves added. He seemed amused by the widening eyes of both Sean and Taylor.
“What does she have to do with anything?” Sean asked.
“She says you blabbed to her about your relationship with Garrett too. That you admitted to being with him, to make her jealous.”
“Why would she be jealous?” Taylor asked, thoroughly confused.
“Garrett Collins is her boyfriend.”
Taylor’s knees gave out on her as she fell back on the sofa. This couldn’t be real.
“And Ms. Huffington told us that you and Ms. Chase hate each other.” Graves said. “Is that true?”
Sean was shaking his head in disbelief. When he looked at the expression on his sister’s face, he could tell that she’d had no idea. How could their paths cross again? Was this family cursed?
“She’s lying,” Taylor said. “I didn’t even know she was . . .”
“Enough,” Sean said abruptly.
“Out of respect for your father,” Falger said, “we’ll end this here and let you take the next step.”
“Thank you.” Sean motioned toward the door in a hint for them to leave.
They quickly followed suit after the younger detective gave Taylor a suspicious glare.
“I’m screwed,” was all Taylor could say after Sean closed the door behind the detectives. “Haley ?”
Sean suddenly felt a lot older than twenty-six as he turned to his sister and said, “From the beginning and don’t leave anything out.”
Avery could see through her husband’s façade. It started in the morning, when Anthony got up and went running. He only did this when he was completely frustrated. This usually happened after an encounter with Carter, but that wasn’t the case this time.
When he came down from a shower and joined her as she made lunch in the kitchen, he shared the good news. A possible research position in the statistics department of UCLA. It was the first good bite in a while, and Avery put on her best supportive-wife face despite knowing that the position was too junior for someone of his tenure, and Anthony wouldn’t be happy doing anything other than teaching.
“There might be some possible speaking engagements.” Anthony reached for the plates and handed them to Avery.
Avery placed the carrots on the plate and added the dip. “That sounds great, baby. You love speaking about stats.”
“I know it bores you to death,” he said.
Avery turned to him with a smile, showing the love she truly felt for him. “That’s not true. I love it. I don’t understand one word, but I can hear the pep in your tone. You’re happy.”
Anthony attempted a wide smile, but never quite made it. He sighed and leaned his head against the cabinet. “So why don’t I want it, baby?”
Avery put her knife down and came over to wrap her arms around him. She nestled her head on his chest. “You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to.”
“But that isn’t true, is it?” He let her go and went over to the table in the middle of the modest white kitchen. Grabbing the opened envelopes on top of it, he said, “Because these bills keep coming and they’re being paid by Carter Chase.”
“Don’t start that,” Avery warned. “What should we do? Put all the money away and live on the street? The Chases would certainly try to take Connor away then.”
“Why do I get the distinct feeling that losing Connor isn’t the real reason why you don’t want to make waves with Carter?”
Hearing Connor making loud noises in the living room was a welcomed distraction. “Anthony, we were having a good day. Don’t ruin it, please.”
Anthony shrugged like a sullen teenager as he made his way to the ringing phone on the counter top.
When Avery entered the living room, she saw that Connor had used her Cheerios to decorate rather than eat. She knelt down to pick as much of them up as she could. When she stood back up, she thought she heard the name “Chase,” but assumed she just had Carter on the brain. Only when she turned to the television, pictures of both Carter and Michael were prominently displayed next to the head of a talking news reporter.
Avery rushed to the television and turned up the volume.
“The private jet was returning to Los Angeles from New York when it experienced mechanical problems and crashed in a town about two hours from Denver.”
The Cheerios fell out of Avery’s hand as she fell to her knees. Hysteria teased at the edge of all her nerves as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing.
“There are not a lot of details,” the reporter continued, “but aviation officials confirmed that at least one person is dead.”
Avery’s mouth opened and she whispered his name. “Carter.”
She grabbed her stomach and leaned over, feeling everything inside of her rip apart. In that second, she was faced with her complete and utter love for him, unable and unwilling to fool even herself.
Avery’s breathing picked up pace as the reality set in. The reporter was talking about Carter! Her Carter! She felt her body shaking all over as a wickedly cold chill rushed through her.
The reporter continued. “The Chase family has been compared to the famous Kennedys countless times because of their wealth, power, celebrity, and philanthropy, as well as their various scandals. Unfortunately, it appears that they might also be resembling the famous Kennedys when it comes to tragedy. Both Chase brothers have children.”
Avery gasped and swung around to look at her baby—Carter’s baby. She couldn’t stop the tears caused by her fear of the pain that this loss would mean to her child. To her.
Anthony came into the living room with the phone held up and a confused expression on his face. “Hey, it’s Leigh and she’s really upset. What’s going on?”
When Sean turned the corner in View Park where the Chase Mansion spanned almost half the entire block, he hadn’t expected to see what he saw. There was press everywhere, and a few police cars trying to control the reporters, cameramen and various onlookers from the neighborhood. The press was always interested in the Chases, but this was mayhem.
He drove up to the spot where the police were trying to keep back the onlookers, and got out of his car. He saw all his old buddies at the View Park Police Department and gestured for Stewart Tillman, a beat cop who spent most of his time doing nothing but keeping up with the locals.
“What in the heck is going on?” he asked.
“You don’t know?” Stewart asked, his hands stuck in the pockets of a uniform that was at least one size too small. “What are you doing here?”
“I have business,” he answered. He didn’t like discussing the Chase family with his former coworkers, because they all had temporarily lost respect for him when he’d let his obsession with Haley wreak havoc in his professional life.
“Carter and Michael Chase were in a plane accident. Their jet crashed in Colorado and somebody is dead. They haven’t said who yet, but it’s getting crazy over here.”
Sean was speechless at first. The Chase family had been nothing but a nightmare for him, but he knew what this family meant to the black community. Not just the black community in California or the upper class—black people all over had an unexplainable admiration for the Chases. What would happen if both sons were dead? It seemed impossible, as if they were somehow exempt from this kind of stuff.
“I gotta get in,” he said.
After makin
g it through the press, Sean went through the black iron gates that kept the world at bay while offering a glimpse of the front of the massive red-brick, colonial-style house with its columned portico. When he got to the front door, he knocked, but no one came. He waited for a while, but reached for the knob and opened the door himself.
Once inside the expansive foyer, he called out again and this time Maya turned up from around the corner. Her face was haggard and her eyes bloodshot. She didn’t ask him why he was there or how he got in. She simply said, “Haley is out by the pool.”
When he reached the pool, the sun glared in his eyes. It took him a while to find her, but she was sitting in a lawn chair in a pair of cotton shorts and a T-shirt, with sunglasses covering her eyes. She was staring at the phone in her hand and didn’t see him approach. She was in another world until he said her name.
Haley looked up, trying to come out of her haze. She thought she was seeing things when the image of Sean stood before her. She took her glasses off for a second to make sure he was really there. Yes, it was Sean and she, Haley, never thought she’d say it again, but she was glad he was there.
“Have you heard anything?” he asked as he grabbed another chair and slid it toward hers. She had only had her glasses off for a second, but he could swear she had been crying. Haley crying.
Haley shook her head as she held her phone up. “They won’t say anything. They wouldn’t let me come.”
“Your Mom and Dad?”
She nodded. “They were already on their way to a jet someone let them borrow, before I found out. Then the press knew and all hell broke loose. But I’m supposed to just wait.”
“Not just wait,” Sean said. “Hope. You can hope, too.”
She looked at him as if he was a fool, but she found comfort in his words anyway. There was a part of her that still cared about Sean. She hated that part, the weak part of her that had allowed her to fall in love that one time. But she hated Sean even more for dumping her. She would never forgive him for letting her mother convince him to let her go.
“Have you talked to what’s-her-name?” Haley asked.
Sean looked confused for only a second before catching up. “Her name is Avery and no, I haven’t. I just found out five seconds ago. I haven’t been listening to the news. I’ve been busy, but I do need to call Avery. As a matter of fact, I’m going to do that right now if you don’t mind.”
“Wait a second.” Haley sat up straight. “If you just found out about it, then why did you come here?”
“I needed to talk to you about something else. Taylor and this mess with Garrett Collins.”
Haley’s mouth dropped. She thought he was here to comfort her, but he was only here to bother her about his little skank sister? “Are you kidding me? Do you know what I’m going through right now?”
“I just told you that I didn’t.” Sean knew Haley enough to know a firestorm was coming. “I know now is not the time.”
“But you still came, right?” Haley asked. “Fuck you and your little sister.”
He was so used to her immature name-calling that it didn’t even phase him. “Haley, whatever game you were trying to play, its getting serious and you . . .”
“Get out!” Haley reached for the first thing she could find, a half-empty bottle of water and threw it at him.
The bottle hit him in the chest and water splashed all over his face. “Dammit, Haley.”
“How dare you!” she screamed. “My brothers could be dead and you’re harassing me? How did you get in here anyway? No one is supposed to get in!”
She was getting louder and louder with each word. “I didn’t mean to . . .”
“What are you doing?”
Sean turned around and stood up at the same time. Leigh had joined them and she was clearly distressed over the situation her sister was in.
“What are you doing to her?” Leigh rushed to Haley’s side. “Calm down, Haley.”
“He’s harassing me over his stupid sister!”
“I’m leaving,” Sean said, backing away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know until . . . I’m sorry. I’m leaving.”
“Please do that,” Leigh said.
Regretting that he even mentioned his sister, Sean rushed back through the house and out the front. He could breathe again. There was something about that house that cut off his oxygen whenever he was there.
Having borrowed the private jet of a close friend, Janet and Steven were able to arrive at The Medical Center of Aurora, in Colorado, within two hours of leaving California. Both had been on the phone the entire time. There was chaos at the hospital as the press got wind that the Chase men were there. Steven and Janet appreciated their status in America, but knew that the price was that there was no privacy in their lives, whether good things happened, or bad.
The only thing that kept Janet sane was the knowledge that both her boys were still alive. The hospital confirmed that the pilot had died due to internal bleeding and the flight attendant was in serious condition, but was expected to recover nicely. Both Carter and Michael had survived. They would not say more until the family arrived and Carter and Michael gave permission to release their information.
They were greeted by the president and CEO of the hospital, an attractive woman named Gloria Salves. She didn’t hesitate to lead them toward the One North building where all the special suites for high-profile patients were.
“Your sons are being taken care of by our best staff,” she reassured as she sprinted to keep up with them. “These are large, well-appointed rooms with upscale décor and treatments. The menu is gourmet and there are family accommodations as well.”
She stopped outside a treated-pinewood door. “Here we are.”
As Janet rushed past the two of them, Steven asked Gloria, “They’re in the same room?”
Gloria nodded. “They were in separate rooms, but wanted to be here. This is our biggest room.”
“Please get the doctor,” he requested.
Janet paid no attention to the size and décor of the room. These were her babies. The first thing she saw was Carter, lying back in a bed, looking very tired. Already crying, she ran to him, but just before she wrapped her arms around him, she stopped.
“Can I hug you?” she asked. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I’m fine, Mom.” Carter winced in slight pain as his mother hugged him tightly. He didn’t care. It felt great. Just hours ago, he thought he’d never see her again.
Janet turned around and grabbed the divider curtain and flung it away, revealing Michael in a bed on the other side.
“Hey, Mom.” Michael spoke in a low, slow voice.
“He’s drugged up,” Carter said.
Michael wasn’t too drugged up to scream out when his mother hugged him.
Janet gasped and stepped back. “What did I do? What did I do?”
“Bruised . . . ribs,” he answered. He lifted his weak arm and pointed to the glass of water on the tray next to the bed. “Thirsty.”
As Janet rushed around the bed to retrieve the glass and straw and help Michael, Steven approached Carter’s bed. Carter had rarely seen his father in a moment of weakness. To show emotions, for males at least, was considered a weakness in this family.
But Carter could see the emotion in his father’s eyes and it triggered the little boy inside of him. King Chase was what all the children had named him; a dictator with a soft spot only for his own wife. But every now and then, Steven let the love they all knew he had for them, even though he didn’t show it often, come through.
Carter reached his hand out and Steven placed his own on top. He leaned in and planted a very quick kiss on Carter’s forehead like he always did when Carter was a child. The last time he’d gotten this much affection from Steven was the day he found out he was accepted at Harvard Law School.
“You okay?” Steven asked. “You had me scared there.”
Carter smiled. “Sorry about that.”
“You don’t look
so good.” Steven could feel emotion welling in his throat. These were his sons and he’d almost lost them. How would he have gone on?
Carter slid the bedsheet down, looking at himself. “I have some cuts from the broken glass that was flying around. Michael got the worst of it.”
Steven made his way to Michael’s bed only a few feet away. Janet was trying to give him the drink, but the straw kept falling out of his mouth and water was spilling all over. He looked like a child and it reached deep inside of Steven.
Michael had a glassy-eyed look as he smiled for his father. He could feel Steven’s strong hand on his shoulders and the squeeze. “I’m all right. I really am.”
Janet handed the glass of water to Steven and buried her face in her hands. She was sobbing uncontrollably now. Michael tried to reach out to comfort her, but he didn’t have the strength.
Steven wrapped his arms around his wife comfortingly. “It’s okay, dear. Look at them. They’re fine.”
“I know,” Janet said. “It’s just that . . .”
“I know,” Steven said. The news that they were alive had sent a wave of joy over them, but the reality that it could’ve been the opposite still blew them both away.
There was a quick knock on the door followed by the entrance of a man in a doctor’s white coat. He headed straight for Steven and held his hand out for a shake. “Mr. Chase, I’m Dr. Edwards. I’m glad you could get here so soon.”
“Thank you for your help, doctor.”
“I didn’t do much,” Dr. Edwards said. “Your sons were very lucky. Carter here has some cuts and bruises and a little whiplash that will go away in a few days. The concussion is a little more serious.”
“Concussion?” Steven turned to Carter. “You didn’t mention that.”
Carter shrugged. “I guess I forgot.”
“He’s doing fine now, but was a little disoriented earlier.” Dr. Edwards looked at the chart in his hand. “He might suffer some short-term memory loss until the swelling goes down, but the only real thing I think he’ll have problems with are the headaches.”
A Price to Pay Page 10
