“I need you.” Anthony tried to lift himself.
“Don’t,” Avery said. “Be still. I’m here.”
“You won’t leave me?”
Avery couldn’t bring herself to say the words because it was too painful. She just shook her head and squeezed his hand tighter.
16
“Haley! Haley!”
Lying out by the pool at home, Haley couldn’t hear her sister Leigh call her name, but she could see her, standing in the doorway to the Florida room, waving her over. She assumed it was a waste of her time, but since she wasn’t doing anything, Haley removed the iPod earphones and placed her laptop on the table next to her drink.
She took her time walking from the pool, through the Florida room and into the kitchen, where Leigh was looking at the television mounted against the wall, right next to the door that led to Maya’s room.
“This better be good,” Haley said. “Neiman Marcus is having a Gucci handbag sale.”
Leigh’s brows narrowed. “Since when did you shop sales?”
Haley made a smacking sound with her lips. “Since Mom and Dad took back the credit card they gave me. I’m stuck with my own card, which, disgusting as it sounds, has a limit.”
Leigh feigned her pity. “Poor baby. But look, your boyfriend is on the news.”
Haley proudly looked up at the television where a reporter was discussing the latest in the Cool, Bitton & Klein scandal.
“Based on information revealed by our own Channel Four news team, which we received from an anonymous source, Beverly Hills police and the FBI arrested several partners at the firm earlier today.”
“Did you know about this?” Leigh asked. “Garrett works there, right?”
“I had no idea,” she lied. “He used to work there, but I don’t think anyone’s going to be working there anymore.”
The reporter’s voice continued as the screen offered pictures of men in expensive suits being led out of a business building, the same building Haley had run out of just days ago. Only they were in handcuffs.
“While the murder of Justin Ursh has been the primary focus of law enforcement, a spokesperson for the police department said that the arrests were made as a result of this station’s release of several documents showing a pattern of obstruction of justice, which is not protected by the client-lawyer confidentiality rule.”
“Mom and Dad aren’t going to be happy about this.” Leigh grabbed an apple from the fruit basket in the middle of the kitchen table. “I have to go to the clinic.”
“Have fun with the hookers and drug addicts,” Haley called after her before returning her attention to the screen.
“The Beverly Hills Police Department has scheduled a press conference an hour from now, but sources tell Channel Four that a witness has come forward with new information about Justin Ursh’s murder.”
“So Garrett did come forward,” Haley said. “I thought he’d be dead by now.”
Haley jumped three feet into the air as, unexpectedly, a very large Hispanic man walked into the kitchen. He was dressed in a tight black T-shirt that revealed muscles that were so bulging they seemed ready to bust out, and black jeans. He was looking directly at her.
“Who in the hell are you?” Haley asked.
The man didn’t respond and Haley was ready to hightail it out of there screaming at the top of her lungs. The law firm had sent someone to kill her!
“Do you know who I am?” she asked. “Do you know who my father is?”
“Yes, he does.”
Steven Chase, a man of substantial size himself, was completely hidden until he came out from behind the mammoth creature, his wife right behind him.
“What is this?” Haley asked. “You scared me to death. Who is that?”
“This is Tony,” Janet said, and gestured for him to sit down, but he shook his head. “He doesn’t talk much.”
“But he’s a skilled bodyguard.” Steven reached up and turned the television off. “And he’s your bodyguard until I decide he’s not.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Haley looked Tony up and down. “I don’t need this walking steroid cautionary tale following me around. If you haven’t noticed, the whole thing with Garrett’s firm is over.”
“It isn’t over yet,” Steven said. “And the fact that you were scared as hell just a moment ago is all the proof we need to know putting him on you is the right decision.”
“Putting him on me?” Haley laughed. “How dirty of you, Daddy. Matchmaking for your little girl.”
“Stop it.” Steven had no patience for Haley’s foolishness, but he was trying to fulfill his promise to Janet. He needed to put up with it to reach his children, but he didn’t think anyone could reach Haley.
“Don’t be disgusting,” Janet said, as she stepped forward as if to tell Steven she would take over from there. “The news is encouraging, of course, but it’s far from over, and until we’re confident it is, Tony is your new best friend.”
Haley leaned back against the kitchen island with a sarcastic smirk on her face. “Remember the last time you tried to put bodyguards on me? I recall I eluded them quite easily and one of them was drugged while sitting outside my bedroom door. Oh yeah, and they played no role at all in saving me from the attempts on my life.”
“Garrett is missing,” Janet said. She watched as her words reached her daughter. Haley was crazy and mostly a fool, but she wasn’t stupid. “Your father tried to pay him to get him out of your life. He offered him five million dollars to disappear completely, and Garrett accepted.”
Haley glared at her dad. “Great. You give him $5 million and I have to beg for five cents. Sounds fair.”
“The point is,” Steven said, “he never showed up. No one can find him, not even the FBI, and I checked.”
“But the news said that a witness . . .”
“Garrett called the FBI, told them what he knew, and agreed to come right to the police station if they could guarantee his safety.”
“Well that was his first mistake,” Haley said. “Thinking the local FBI could do their job.”
“He never showed,” Steven said.
Haley shrugged. “Well, what do you want me to do? It’s not my fault.”
It probably was, Haley thought, but there was no going back now. “Are you going to try to lock me in the house again as well?”
“No,” Janet answered. “That never worked before, but Tony will go with you everywhere, including class.”
“Fantastic.” Haley said.
“Excuse me.”
Everyone turned to see Maya standing in the archway with a perplexed look on her face.
“There’s a young man here to see you, Haley.”
Haley’s eyes widened. “Is it Garrett?”
“No,” Maya answered. “He said his name is Peter.”
“Peter?” Haley was drawing a blank.
“Peter,” Maya repeated. “He also says he’s your husband.”
“Peter!” Haley’s memory was immediately jogged and she was stunned. What in the hell was he doing at her house—or in the country, for that matter? “Oh yeah, Peter.”
“What is going on?” Janet asked.
Steven walked over to Maya. “What did you say?”
“Let him in,” Haley said, trying not to show her shock, as both of her parents turned to her. This certainly wasn’t how she wanted this to happen.
“Haley?” Janet’s stomach was already hurting.
“I forgot to tell you,” Haley said with an innocent tilt of her head and a sweet smile. “When I was in Sydney earlier this year, I kind of got married.”
Carter was standing at the top of the mansion’s massive staircase that set off in two directions. He was expecting Avery, and with every visitor to the Chase Mansion that wasn’t her, he was getting more and more concerned. He had been trying to call her all day, but was unable to reach her.
Returning to the baby’s room, he looked down at Connor as she slept peacefu
lly in her bassinet. It was then that his cell phone rang. Hoping it wouldn’t wake the baby, Carter grabbed it off the changing table quickly. When he saw who it was, he rushed over to the window, the farthest spot from Connor, and spoke in a quiet voice.
“Avery, where are you?”
“Carter.” Avery almost wept his name. “How is Connor? Where is she?”
“She’s fine,” he said. “She’s with me, but she’s only got one bottle left.”
Avery didn’t need to be told that. Her breasts were killing her. “You know how to make formula.”
“Yes,” he answered. “At home, but I’m not at home. Remember? I’m at Chase Mansion, where you’re supposed to be, and I don’t even think Mom keeps a supply of formula.”
“Ask Maya. She can . . .”
“Avery, forget about the formula. What in the hell is going on?”
“I’m in Miami, Carter.”
Carter paused to let the words, and what they might mean, sink in. But they couldn’t mean that. “When are you coming home?”
“I . . . I’m not sure. Anthony was in an accident.”
“Oh.” Carter assumed he should care. “I’m sorry. Is he gonna be okay?”
“No,” she answered. “He’s alive, but he had a spinal injury and he can’t walk. Carter, he can’t feel anything from his waist down and it’s all my fault.”
Carter took it all in. “Jesus, Avery. I’m sorry. I . . . What happened?”
Avery repeated everything she knew from the doctor and waited to hear Carter’s response.
“This isn’t your fault,” he said. “He was driving drunk.”
“But he was doing that because I left him. He begged me to stay, but I left him.”
“You didn’t have a choice,” Carter said. “I wish I could be there for you, hold you. I think I should come.”
“No,” she said. “You can’t be here for me or hold me. Carter, I am so sorry. You know that I love you.”
Carter ignored what the voice in his head was telling him she was trying to say. It wasn’t possible. “I know what you need. Connor. I’ll bring her with me. Just holding her will make you feel better.”
Avery wanted to hold her baby more than ever before, but she would have to wait a little longer. “I’m so sorry, baby. I know I promised you, but . . .”
“Avery, don’t.” Carter’s voice caught in his throat. “You’re upset and scared and confused. You aren’t thinking clearly.”
“He’s paralyzed, Carter. Do you understand that? He can’t take care of himself anymore.”
“Then you’ll find someone to take care of him,” Carter said. “It won’t be you.”
“I can’t leave him!”
“I’ll pay for everything,” Carter said. “He’ll have the best care.”
“No, I . . .”
“Avery.” Carter’s tone was tinged with a warning. “You can’t do this. You can’t do it to me or us or Connor.”
“We’ll work something out,” she said, even though she knew that wasn’t going to happen. “It will take awhile, but . . .”
“No,” Carter said bluntly, doing all he could to keep his emotions in check. “No more working anything out. I’m sorry, Avery, but I won’t do this. Not anymore.”
“Please, baby.”
“When that plane was going down, I only saw you. I only saw you and Connor and I will not wait anymore. I will not!”
Avery cringed at the sound of his voice. “I just need more time.”
“No more time.” Carter’s voice was suddenly cold, the way it went when he refused to invest any more in the conversation. “Choose right now, Avery. Anthony or me.”
“Of course I choose you,” Avery cried. “But I can’t be with you right now. Look at what we’ve caused!”
“Him or me.” Carter waited for a few seconds but it seemed like more than an hour of silence. “Then it’s him.”
“It’s not him,” Avery said. “It’s this situation. He can’t . . .”
“I don’t want to hear anymore,” Carter interrupted. “This is it, Avery. There is no going back. It’s over.”
He tossed the phone across the room and it fell apart when it hit the wall. Sitting down on the window sill, Carter didn’t try to fight the rage that was building inside of him. How could this happen? Didn’t things always work out for him? If nothing else, Avery was the one thing that he knew would be his. The one thing he wanted more than anything, and once again, she turned him away.
Carter sat there for a long time feeling nothing but anger and resentment. In one instant, the life he thought was about to really begin had disappeared and he was back in the life he’d had before. Waiting and wanting something he couldn’t have.
Not anymore.
Carter stood up and walked over to a chair near the door, taking a second to look down at Connor, who was still sleeping peacefully. He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out the tiny, blue velvet box.
He was flooded with emotion the second he opened the box and looked at the ring inside. He remembered the way he felt, the way Avery reacted when he had proposed to her on the balcony in Hawaii. He was so hopeful, and even though he was holding the secret of what he had done to make her leave Alex, the man she was engaged to when he fell in love with her, he had believed that it would be the first day of them planning their life together forever.
Before she left him, she’d given the brilliant-style, high-cut Lucida diamond with a center rectangular stone of about five karats and two bezel-set side stones, back to him. He held on to it because he knew that they would work their way back to it. He thought they had.
How could she do this to him? Again.
Carter clenched his fist around the stone, finding comfort in the pain it caused him. He wanted it, and he wanted more. He’d thought at first he would throw the ring in the garbage, but then again . . .
Opening his hand, Carter looked down at the ring and in an instant, he knew what he was going to do.
Kimberly waited as the lawyer sitting on the other side of the desk read the last page of Michael’s divorce contract. The woman, one of the best divorce lawyers in California, hadn’t said a word since she started reading an hour ago. This was the same woman who initially refused to take her case because, like most of the other top divorce lawyers, Michael had contacted her first and placed her on retainer. Kimberly wondered how many hundreds of thousands of dollars he had spent on this ploy alone.
The lawyer, Sarah Bunting, removed her glasses as she placed the contract on the desk. She looked up for the first time in an hour, but her face was undecipherable.
“Well?” Kimberly asked.
“What did you do?” Sarah asked.
Kimberly frowned, confused.
“Do you have pictures of him naked with a horse or something?”
Kimberly smiled. “So it’s good. The settlement, the custody is good?”
“Good?” Sarah laughed. “That damn thing is great. Hell, there are rich men all over California that would kill your husband if they saw this.”
“I just want to know that it includes everything Michael promised.” Kimberly reached forward to take the contract back.
“It does,” Sarah said. “You can sign it, Kimberly. You’re a multimillionaire. You got the money, the house, a few cars, guaranteed alimony until you marry again, and primary custody of your sons in a joint custody deal. Hell, all Michael retains is his investment in Chase Beauty, his trust fund and control of the twins’ trust funds.”
“You make him sound destitute,” Kimberly said. “He’s got many more millions than I’ll ever see. His trust fund alone has more than twenty million and his interest in Chase Beauty is almost a hundred million.”
Sarah nodded. “But all your other accounts were split in half. Do you think you can manage on ten million dollars with an additional hundred and fifty thousand every year in alimony and two hundred thousand a year in child support? Considering you don’t have a mortgage
, and Michael has taken responsibility for the boys’ expenses, including forty thousand a year in private school tuition, I think you might be okay.”
“I’ll be free,” Kimberly said. “I’ll be free and I’ll have my boys. That’s all that matters. I would have done that for nothing.”
Sarah appeared skeptical. “Well, good thing for you and the boys, you don’t have to. What’s next on your agenda?”
“As soon as I leave here, I’m calling a travel agent. I’ve got some business to handle.”
Avery sat in her rented car in the parking lot of the hospital in a haze. She hadn’t eaten or slept in what seemed like forever. All her tears had dried up and she felt as if she was dying without the sound of her baby’s voice. All she could think of was Carter’s angry last words.
She understood he was angry and he had a right to be. Hell, she was angry too. She’d made a promise to Carter and herself to embrace their love and make a family with Connor. Avery wanted nothing more than to keep that promise, but right now she simply couldn’t. After spending the day with the doctor, who explained to her all Anthony would need, she felt overwhelmed, like she was drowning.
She would just have to make Carter understand. He was mad, but he loved her as much as she loved him. She would figure something out, something that allowed them to be together without deserting Anthony at the lowest point in his life, a point that she had led him to.
Having sat in silence for almost an hour, Avery jumped at the sound of her cell phone ringing. Anthony was in surgery again and the nurses promised to call her when it was over. But when she retrieved the phone, Avery noticed it was her sister, Taylor, and not the hospital.
“Taylor, what’s going on?”
“Are you in front of a television?” Taylor asked.
Avery could hear the apprehension laced throughout her words. “No. I’m at the hospital. Why?”
“It wouldn’t matter,” Taylor said. “It’s an L.A. station anyway. You wouldn’t get this in Miami.”
“Get what? Taylor, don’t play with me.”
“Well, you’re going to find out, so I’ll tell you. I’m sorry, sis.”
A Price to Pay Page 27
