“What do you two want?”
Carter reached down and snatched the margarita out of her hands. “This will do.”
“Hey!” Haley tossed her magazine at him. “Why are you two always here? You don’t live here anymore.”
“Did you forget what tonight is?” Michael asked, leaning on his crutches. “Leigh’s birthday dinner.”
“Mom canceled that,” Haley said. “We were forced to go to that funeral instead. Remember?”
“It was just postponed,” Michael said. “And you’re joining us. This is a family thing, Haley. And we weren’t forced to go to that funeral.”
“By the way,” Carter said, “thanks for not visiting us at all at the hospital or anywhere else for that matter.”
Haley rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t get around to it. Besides, you two have gotten more than enough attention as a result of your accident. How much longer do you plan on milking that?”
Carter and Michael looked at each other and smiled.
“This is for Mom,” Michael said. “So get up and try to act like a human being for one evening.”
“You can party without me,” she said. “I have a date.”
“With Garrett?” Carter asked.
“This would be your business how?” she asked.
“Look, kid, I’m going to give you some advice.” Carter’s eyes narrowed intently as he looked down at her. “Stay away from Garrett. Whatever is the worst possible scenario going on at that firm, is probably the case. Everyone connected to that place is dangerous.”
Haley stood up and placed her hands on her hips. “Carter, if I need advice on how to pretend like I’m happy while the person I love is married to, and having nightly sex with, someone else and that someone else is spending more time with my kid than I am, I’ll come to you. Otherwise, stay out of my business.”
“Whoa! Ouch.” Michael laughed, holding up his hand for a high five. Haley slapped it hard with a satisfied smile on her face. “The kid is harsh, but good.”
“Are you two finished having a good laugh?” Carter asked.
“Sorry bro,” Michael sighed, still smiling wide. “But even you have to admit that was a good burn.”
“You’ve been warned,” Carter said as he pointed to his baby sister.
“Whatevs.” Haley turned and walked away.
“She read you well,” Michael said.
Carter smirked. “She was wrong. Things are going to change and I have a feeling it will happen sooner than anyone expects.”
“So I think I’m going to take it,” Anthony said as he slid into bed next to his wife.
Avery was on her side with her back to Anthony. It was this time, right before bed, that was the hardest. It was supposed to be an intimate moment for them; especially now that Connor was officially in her nursery and no longer sleeping in a bassinet next to their bed.
But Avery couldn’t look at him. She had hoped to feign sleep, as she had the last few nights, but Anthony was intent on talking.
“Avery, are you listening?” he asked.
“Of course.” Avery took a deep breath and sat up in bed. “The job. You’re thinking of taking the research job.”
Anthony frowned as he observed her. “You don’t want me to take it, do you?”
“I want you to be happy,” Avery said plainly.
“What does that mean?” Anthony asked. “Avery, what has gotten into you lately? You’re acting very weird.”
“How?” She smiled at him as if he was being silly.
“I don’t know.” He grabbed the remote that was between them on the bed and turned the TV off. “Just, very quiet.”
“I’m just tired,” she lied. “Connor has been crying all day. Her teeth are coming.”
“That can’t be fun.” Anthony placed the remote on the nightstand and turned off the dim lamp. “I’m sorry to bother you with my job stuff.”
“You aren’t bothering me.” She turned to him, feeling horrible that she had made him believe he was annoying her. “I want to hear what you have to say.”
“I’m more interested in what you have to say,” he said. “About the job.”
“Anthony, you don’t want the job.” She was going to reach out and touch his arm, but couldn’t bring herself to touch him. This whole job situation only reminded her of how much Anthony had sacrificed for her. His career was in a shambles.
“It’s not that simple,” he said.
“We aren’t hurting for money,” Avery said. “Wouldn’t you like to wait until a professor’s position comes up?”
“Baby, I’ve been looking almost every day for six months. It’s not happening.” His hands rested on his lap. “I think maybe if I just get into the university system, I can work my way back.”
“Didn’t you say it doesn’t work like that?” she asked. “You said that it’s very rare for a tenured professor to come back after taking a researcher’s job unless it’s groundbreaking scientific or medical research.”
Anthony sighed, throwing his hands in the air. “Well, what do you want me to do, Avery? I just have to believe that I’ll be the exception. Look, baby, I can’t be like this anymore. I’m doing nothing.”
“You’re helping me work at the gallery by watching Connor. You’re . . .” Avery couldn’t believe it but she couldn’t think of anything to say. What was wrong with her?
“Exactly,” Anthony said with a disappointed look on his face.
“Listen to me.” Avery placed her hand over his. “I need you. I . . . I love you, Anthony. What you’ve done for me and Connor since the moment I met you can’t be measured. The kindness, understanding, and God, all the sacrifices can’t ever be repaid.”
“I never wanted you to repay me,” he said. “Your love is reason enough for me to do anything.”
Avery felt his hand turn and grip hers. She thought to pull away, but couldn’t find it in herself to do so. She should have just shut up, but she hadn’t, and now she felt worse than ever. Or so she thought until she realized that Anthony was moving toward her. He wanted to kiss her.
Avery held a hand against his chest to stop him. The pained look in his eyes was hard to take.
Anthony took the hand she had against his chest in his own. “It’s been awhile, baby.”
Avery tried to remember the last time they had had sex. To her recollection it had been about a week before the plane accident. It seemed ages ago and probably felt so to Anthony.
They averaged sex twice a week and Avery enjoyed it. She had a healthy sex appetite and Anthony was attractive and fit. He never “took her” in the way she dreamed, but he was tender and patient. It was never as it had been with Carter, but there had been no reason for her to think of that. Anthony would be the only man she would make love to for the rest of her life. She was determined to please him and let him know what would make her feel satisfied, and forget everything that had come before.
But there was no doing that now. She had let Carter back into her bed, and not only did she know the comparisons were unavoidable, Avery had never in her life had sex with more than one man at a time. Men did it all the time and she knew a few women who had more than one lover, but she couldn’t possibly. She never thought she’d have to deal with it, but then again, she never thought she’d be here.
“I know,” she whispered as if speaking quietly would lessen the rejection. “But I really am tired. Tomorrow, okay?”
Avery asked herself why she had just said that. She would just have to come up with another excuse tomorrow.
Anthony slowly let her hand go and leaned forward. He kissed her gently on the forehead before turning and reaching for the remote again.
“I have to change my mind about that damn Museum Ball,” he said, his voice unable to conceal his hurt feelings. “The head of the research and development department at UCLA has invited me. Apparently, the university purchased a few tables and he wants you and me to come.”
“If you want to go,” Avery said, �
�then we can go.” Avery already had her back to him when she heard the television come back on.
“No matter what I do,” Anthony said, “I can’t escape that damn Chase family. Promise me you’ll stay away from him?”
“Him?” Avery asked.
“Carter,” he answered. “He’ll use something about Connor as an excuse to talk to you, but can you just say no to him for one night?”
Avery bit her lower lip to control the tears that wanted to flow. Could she stay away from him for just one night? She didn’t think so.
“Of course,” she answered. “I’ll pretend as if he isn’t even there.”
10
“Lion King!” Daniel yelled.
“Prince of Egypt!” Evan countered.
Kimberly stood in the doorway to the newly renovated media room in the basement of their Hollywood Hills home. It now had eight luxury, plush seats, each with a drink container and pull-out tabletop for placing food. The one-hundred-and-six-inch screen was enormous and the 7.2 surround sound system could be heard on the second floor as if it was turned up all the way.
It was just as Michael and the boys wanted it. Of course it was nothing like what she wanted because Michael never once asked her opinion. Kimberly didn’t give a damn. This house that was supposed to be her dream was now her prison. She only hoped that she was on her way to a release without probation.
“Pick one,” she said, holding up both DVDs. “You’re only watching one.”
“We saw his movie yesterday,” Daniel said.
“You wanted to watch it too.” Evan ran over to the wall near the control booth and began pulling on the dimmers making the room go from dark to only slightly dark. “Lion King! Lion King! Lion King!”
“Stop that.” Kimberly came over and gently smacked his hand. She pulled him away from the controls. “You’ll break it.”
“Lion King or I’m protesting.” Evan stood with his arms crossed over his chest and a pout that would win a contest if there was one.
“I told you about threatening me with protests didn’t I?” Kimberly walked over to the player and opened the glass door. “Prince of Egypt it is.”
“Daddy!” Daniel, apparently not interested in leaving his plush front-row seat, waved at his father standing in the doorway.
“Hey little man!” Michael waved back, taking a second to make eye contact with Kimberly to receive the usual daily contempt. “You guys are gonna get sick of this room. You’re in here every day.”
“Never!” Evan said. “Daddy, can you make Mommy play Lion King?”
“Excuse me?” Kimberly asked. “My decision was made. It’s The Prince of Egypt and that’s that.”
To get a break from his crutches, Michael leaned against the wall. “You can watch them both.”
“No, they can’t.” Kimberly turned to him with a determined look on her face. She eyed him intently. Because of the way he treated her, she was losing control over the boys and it stopped today.
Michael was ready to stare her down, but this wasn’t worth it. He had something much, much better for her.
“Help me out, Daddy,” Evan said in anticipation of an unexpected victory.
“Daddy can’t do anything,” Daniel said. “He’s broken.”
“I’m not broken,” Michael said. “It’s just one leg. I’m still the man of the house. Which reminds me, Kimberly, can I have a word?”
“The movie is starting,” Kimberly said. “Sit down and don’t get up and play with these controls while I’m gone.”
Michael stepped aside as she approached the door and closed it behind her. He’d expected her to stop, but she kept going and it pissed him off.
“I said I need to talk to you!”
Kimberly stopped just as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “I’ve had enough conversations with kids today.”
“Hey, I backed you up in there.”
Kimberly had to laugh. “You call that backing me up? You’re pitiful.”
Michael waited until she started up the stairs to drop his bomb. “I won’t take long. I wouldn’t want to keep you from the art gallery.”
Kimberly froze and it took her a second to compose herself before turning around. She looked him in the eyes with all the hate she could muster, but he only smiled.
Michael nodded to the pool table, which was at the center of the game room.
Kimberly rolled her eyes and walked briskly over to the table. She grabbed the manila folder that was lying on top of the green felt and opened it. There were six pictures of her entering and leaving the gallery through the back door, two for each of three days. The time was written in black marker on the bottom of each picture.
“I had no idea you loved art that much.” Michael moved closer to her. He needed to get into the light so he could see the look on her face. “I mean hours and hours a day. And I assume you were parking out back and entering through the alley because you wanted to avoid the press that would surely be in front of the store after hearing that a Chase was a daily visitor.”
“What do you want?” Kimberly tossed the folder and the pictures back on the pool table.
“Nothing,” he said innocently. “Why would I want anything? I respect that you love art. It’s a sign of class. It tells me you’ve learned something since I took you out of the gutter seven years ago.”
“If you insist on playing a game with that idiotic smirk on your face, I’m going to take one those crutches and shove it up your ass.” God, how she wanted to do that.
“Threats of violence show you haven’t traveled that far from the gutter after all. I guess you’re a failed project on my part.”
“Your entire life is one failed project after another,” Kimberly said. “If you don’t know what I’m talking about, ask your father.”
Michael wanted to strangle her right there, but waited until she started to leave again before asking, “What is it you love so much about the art there?”
Kimberly kept her back to him. “Fuck you, Michael.”
“That is why you’re there, right? I mean the private investigator I had tailing you said that he thought you were working there.”
She took another step. “Well, I guess he’s just as much an idiot as you are.”
“Must be,” Michael said. “It’s a good thing he’s wrong because I wouldn’t want Avery or her mother to go to jail or anything.”
This got Kimberly to turn around.
“If you were working there,” Michael said, making certain to keep his voice as unassuming as possible, “then she would have to be paying you in cash. Because I have access to every account you have, and my P.I. would have told me if he saw you at one of those check cashing places. But you wouldn’t go to one of those places because you’re Kimberly Chase. It would get in the news.”
“Avery and Nikki have nothing to do with your sick little vendetta against me.”
Michael’s expression turned cruel. “That’s why it will be so satisfying when I turn them in to the IRS. I’m only the CFO of a billion-dollar corporation, but my money sense tells me they’re breaking the law.”
Kimberly swallowed hard. “What do you think Carter would do to you when he found out?”
Michael brought his hand to his chin and rubbed it repeatedly. “Let me think. Well, if Nikki goes to jail, he’ll buy me a Lamborghini. He hates her. Now, Avery will be a more complicated issue, but Chase blood is thicker than anything else. We’d work it out.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
“It would be tough times, but I think it might be worth it to see you lose the only friend you have. She’ll hate you. Also, her baby will not be happy you sent her mother to jail. She’ll probably try to kill you when she grows up.”
Kimberly knew if she stayed in this situation she would be dead well before Connor could ever grow up. She was dying a bit every day. “Are you having fun?”
Michael nodded with a gleeful smile. “The most I’ve had in a while and that include
s fucking you.”
When he realized she was coming over to him, Michael braced himself, dropping one of his crutches to free his arm. He wasn’t fast enough and she slapped him hard across the cheek before he could stop her.
“You are a sick son of a bitch,” Kimberly said.
“I know,” he answered. “I really am, but I do have some heart. I mean, I’ll forget about the IRS if . . . I don’t know . . . maybe you stopped loving art so much and didn’t go there anymore.”
That gallery was her only link to feeling some form of independence and dignity. But she couldn’t put Avery and Nikki at risk. She’d seen what happened to anyone in the path of an angry Chase.
“I hate you! I curse God every night for not killing you in that plane accident. When I thought you were dead, I felt so peaceful and free. I knew you were in hell where you belonged. But I’m not gonna stop praying he’ll strike you down one way or another.”
Michael tried to hide the sting of her words. If she was just saying them to hurt him it would be fine, but she was telling the truth. “Peaceful? Free? Sorry, baby, but dead or alive, you’re never getting away from me.”
Michael watched her as she walked away. When would she understand who she was dealing with? He had to teach her that there was nothing she could have that he couldn’t find out about and take away from her.
When he turned around to pick up his crutch, what he saw struck him in every bit of what was left of his heart. Daniel and Evan were both standing in the doorway to the media room with a look of devastation on their faces. How much had they heard? What had they seen?
“You’re so mean,” Daniel said with venom in his tiny voice. “I hate you too.”
He disappeared inside the room, leaving Evan standing alone. He didn’t seem to know what to do, but when Michael took a step toward him, he turned and slammed the door shut.
Michael stood at the door for probably five or ten minutes staring at the shiny, fresh black paint. He would make it up to them some way. There had to be something he could buy them. Maybe take them to Universal Studios in San Diego. No, Disneyland would make them forget all about this.
A Price to Pay Page 17
