“What do you mean both have me?” I huff, appalled that they would treat me that way. “Despite what my job is, I am NOT a whore to be passed around! And I have made it very clear that I’m not committing to anyone.”
“Ugh. I am not explaining this right,” he closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. “What I mean is that we both want to spend time with you in whatever way you will have us. No expectations, no jealousy, no guilt for doing whatever you want to do, or not do, with either one of us. We aren’t treating you like a whore, but giving you the option to do what you want with both of us supporting your decisions. There is no shame in giving in to your sexual desires. We want you to be happy, and you make us happy.”
I calm down with his explanation, but still a bit flabbergasted. “What if I wanted someone else?”
“Then we would deal with it. You’ve given us so much, the least we can do is support you in whatever decisions you make. You don’t have to decide anything now. Just promise me you will think about it and do what feels right in your heart.”
“I will, though I don’t have much of a heart left.” I give him a peck on the cheek, “I need to get ready for my next client. If I don’t talk to you before then, I’ll see you at the meeting with Rich.”
“Call Jake, please,” he shouts to my retreating back. I give him a halfhearted backwards salute.
∞∞∞
I walk into Stuart’s office, briefcase in my hand. I had forgotten how expensive they can be. The last one I bought was for Rich when he took the job that brought us here to Georgia. Funny how the first and last briefcases I bought were for both the beginning and the end of our marriage.
Michaela shows me to the conference room where Rich, his lawyer, and Stuart are waiting for me. Stuart coughs to hide the chuckle that escapes as he takes in the briefcase. I warned him that I was going to do it, but he thought I was joking.
“Ms. Sharpe, we were told you have a check to give Mr. Sharpe.” God that man’s nasally voice is annoying. Did Rich have to hire the most annoying sounding lawyer in all of Atlanta?
“No.” I say simply, setting my briefcase on the table.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to come up with the money,” Rich says with that same smug look he gave me in the courtroom.
His attorney looks at him sharply in warning, “Then you are here to sign the house over to Mr. Sharpe, as per the court orders.” It comes out as a statement rather than a question.
I look at Stuart and he nods for me to go ahead, amusement in his eyes. “No, I’m here to give your payment in cash. And my name is no longer Ms. Sharpe. It’s Forester now.” I dial the combination on the lock and open the top, revealing neat stacks of cash. I feel like a mob boss right now. Best money I’ve ever spent was on that case.
Both Rich and his attorney gape at the contents.
“You will have to count it all,” I rub it in. “I’m sure Mr. Hughes’ assistant can write up a proper legal receipt for both of us. I wouldn’t want you to think I cheated you out of anything.” Fuck yeah this feels good!
Stuart speaks up, “Yes, I will have Michaela come in and assist with that. Ms. Forester, we can take it from here. Why don’t you go make yourself comfortable in my office until we need you for your signature?” His grey eyes meet mine and I feel a tingle in my core as I picture his naked body against mine. I don’t trust myself to speak, so I just nod and leave.
An hour later, the money has been counted and the paperwork signed. I may have put a few extra hundreds in there out of spite. And made sure there were stacks of small bills underneath the hundreds on top. It meant that not only would it take a long time to count, but also that they would have to count it all over again when their numbers were off.
Stuart and I are sitting in his office laughing about the events. He enjoys telling me that Rich was swearing up a storm when I left, his attorney trying to shush him. “I think you want these back,” he hands me three crisp one hundred-dollar bills. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
“There was something so cathartic about that little bit of revenge,” I tell Stuart. “I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can’t wait to tell Elena and Jake about it.”
He leans in and lightly brushes his lips against mine. “You have the most beautiful smile,” he whispers, “I’m glad you’re finally talking to Jake again.”
I shrug, “I’ve missed my friendship with him. I just needed time to get my life in order without him complicating things more. I enjoy the time we share, but he needs to figure out his own complicated marriage, too.”
Sadness crosses his face, “I wish I could explain to you how complicated it is with Victoria. But that is not my secret to tell. Maybe he will when he’s ready. Maybe Rachel will be able to uncomplicate things for all of our sakes.”
“I wish someone would tell me. I hate being in the dark about as much as I hate having to hide everyone’s secrets, including my own, from my best friend.”
He cups my face with his hands, “Look at me, Samantha,” his penetrating gaze making me want to look away. “Elena is the most understanding and caring person I know, aside from you. She will understand if you tell her what you really do for a living. She will even understand everything between you, Jake, and I.”
“But,” I protest, “I can’t tell her about Rachel and Victoria. That’s not mine to tell. And I can’t make her understand without telling her everything.” My voice breaks, “I’m stuck.”
He pulls me close, his hand rubbing circles on my back, “I will do everything I can to convince Rachel to confess to her.” He kisses the top of my head, “Now you better get going because I know Jake will be stopping by your house tonight.”
I look up at him, “What? How would you know that before I do?”
He winks, “I decided that Rachel needed a girl’s trip. I sent her and Victoria to a spa in Arizona for a few days. She texted me that they arrived at the resort this afternoon.”
I pull him to me, brushing my lips against his. “I’m not sure if I should thank you or tell you to fuck off.”
He pulls me back in for a panty soaking kiss. When we stop to catch our breath, his voice is husky, “You’re making it hard not to beg you to play out another fantasy I’ve had about you.”
“Do tell my kinky Stu.”
For once he answers without blushing, “At every meeting we’ve had in here, I’ve had thoughts of nothing but ripping your clothes of and fucking you on top of my desk. You have no idea how much restraint I used to not do that when you commented on the lucky woman in the photograph.”
It takes a minute for me to remember what he is talking about. “Oh, that one! Maybe we can make both of those fantasies happen.”
He groans, “You’re killing me, Samantha. You better get out of here before I get stuck sitting behind my desk all day, hiding my hard dick.” He gives me a quick peck and shoves me out the door.
Chapter 27
We are in post-climax bliss and I hope it will soften the blow for what I need to say. I meant to say it as soon as he walked in the door, but when he embraced me in an earth-shattering kiss, all my good intentions left. Call me selfish, but I wanted one last time with my sweet, sensual Jake.
“Listen Jake,” I need to get this out no matter how hard it is. “What we had was amazing. We were there for each other when we needed release. But I don’t think I can do this again until you and Victoria are done. It makes us no better than the people who hurt us.” He hangs his head in resignation. “But I do value the friendship we’ve built. I want to keep that.”
“You’re giving me the ‘let’s be friends’ line? After we made love?” anger mars his face.
“Jake, I-,” trying to find the right words to ease the blow, “We- we both know that this can’t continue.”
His angry expression turns into one of amusement, “That will never get old, Samantha.”
I punch his arm, “You asshole!”
He c
huckles, “You should have seen your face! You looked like you wanted to disappear into the floor. Classic!” His laughter dies off as he becomes serious, “I told you before that I want you to be happy, even if that means it’s not with me. I care about you so much that I want to be in your life no matter what role I play in it.”
That gives me the warm fuzzies, “I’d like that. For you to be in my life.” Handing him the remote, I change the subject, “If I remember correctly, it’s your turn to pick the movie.”
The movie is halfway through, my head leaning against his shoulder, when his phone rings. He looks at his phone screen and pauses the movie, “I’m sorry, I have to take this. It’s my mom.”
“Michael!” I can hear the loud feminine voice excitedly yelling his name on the other end. Michael?
“Hey mom,” Jake replies without correcting the name, as he gets up and moves into the kitchen. “What’s up?”
My mind races as he’s off in the other room. There’s that nagging intuition, but I can’t put my finger on what it is. There’s a memory that is just out of reach. “Think Sam, think,” I chastise myself. But the harder I try, the further away it gets.
Jake comes back in and my thoughts are pushed away, “Sorry about that. I forgot to do my weekly phone call with my mom, and she was worried. Mom’s, right?” he rolls his eyes.
“Why did she call you Michael?” I ask. “Sorry, I wasn’t spying or anything, I just couldn’t help but hear her voice.”
“She is a bit loud. She’s losing her hearing and you know how that goes,” he shrugs. “Jake is my middle name. I feel more like a Jake than a Mike.” The conversation is over as he switches the movie back on.
I try to concentrate on the movie, but my mind keeps trying to fit the pieces together. Michael. Jake. Taylor. Jake Taylor. Michael J. “Oh my fucking god!” I startle him with my shouting. “You!”
He looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind. Maybe I have, but it fits. The complicated reasons that no one will tell me why he’s stuck with Victoria. The house in the name of Victoria Johnson. Elena telling me they had issues a couple of years ago right before they moved to this neighborhood. The high price of in vitro fertilization. His career. It all comes together in one tidy little package.
“You are Michael J. Johnson, the man who disappeared two years ago, leaving behind a string of creditors. You are the one my company has been searching for, the one I have been searching for. You’ve been right under my nose the whole time.” My eyes widen as the implications of what we had been doing just hours before hits me.
I want him to deny it. I don’t want it to be real, but the evidence of it being the truth is all over his face. Anger burns inside me. That was the one case that would have given me enough of a bonus to have paid off Rich. Don’t get me wrong, I like being an escort, but not being able to tell my best friend has been killing me inside.
He finally speaks, but it isn’t what I want to hear. I want him to deny it. “Samantha, I want to explain, but I think I need Stu here for this.”
“Stuart knows?” I know he does, but hearing it confirmed hits me hard.
“He helped me. It’s what Victoria is holding over me,” a sob escapes his lips, “It’s why I am doing my penance by staying with her. She threatened to turn me in if I ever left her.” He looks at me pleadingly, “I can’t go to jail. I can’t do that to my parents. Please, just let me call Stuart over and we will explain it together.”
I can’t find my voice, another betrayal ripping my heart out, so I just nod in agreement as a lone tear trickles down my cheek.
∞∞∞
Once Stuart arrives and we are settled in the living room, Jake starts his tale. “I landed a huge account, a large office building downtown. It was the account that was going to make me a multi-millionaire. I was a small construction company back then, doing mostly office renovations. I made good money, but I wanted more. I had the skill and knowledge to grow my business into the big leagues.”
“Victoria had been complaining about me not being as successful as Stu, and that our future children needed more than what I could provide. I knew that I was taking a risk, having to get investors to buy the equipment that I needed and hire more skilled workers. But it was a solid account. It was supposed to be a sure thing.”
“And for a year, it was all fantastic. I had used money from investors to pay for everything and planned to take most of the down payment for myself. That’s when Victoria and I went through the fertility treatments, which I already told you about.”
“Then the housing market crashed. The company that hired me went out of business and filed bankruptcy. I couldn’t collect on any of the money for the work we had done. I tried to file a claim to recover enough to pay off my investors, but the company didn’t have enough assets to pay back everyone they owed after the auction.”
“I tried to find a new buyer for the building, but all the companies were holding on to their assets. With the market so unstable, no one wanted to invest in anything new. With my investors on my ass about their money, threatening to sue me, I had no choice but to sell it at a loss to a larger construction company. After paying my workers’ wages with most of the down payment, I paid back as much as I could, but it wasn’t enough.”
“On top of that, the fertility clinic bill came in. I know I should have been more involved with the financial aspect of it, but I trusted Victoria to make sure we could cover it. I had been so busy with the project that I left it up to her, stupidly assuming she had paid upfront. I guess that’s why I didn’t know how she was purposely sabotaging it. Hell, I still don’t know exactly what she did. Anyway, the bill was hundreds of thousands and we no longer had the money I was fronted for the project to fall back on.” His shoulders shake as sobs wracked his body.
Stuart takes over, “Jake came to me for help. I didn’t have anywhere near the money to pay off his investors. I looked at every legal avenue, including bankruptcy for his company, but his company was a sole proprietorship, making him personally responsible for the losses. He was taken to court and a judgement ordered that he could never pay off. So, in the end, I did the only thing I could think of. I helped him to disappear. I set him up with forged documents, giving him a new identity. I set him up with my clients, who are now his partners, so that he could make a living. We all moved to this neighborhood and I had the house put in Victoria’s name.”
“Please understand,” Stuart reaches for my hand, but I pull away, “I couldn’t let my best friend’s life be ruined over something he had no control over. Sure, he had some errors in judgement, but he is a good man that doesn’t deserve to be ruined over it.”
“What about the people that he left unpaid?” I’m angry at the lack of disregard for them, “Don’t you think they were good people that could have lost everything, also?”
He sighs, “Samantha, they knew the risks. And none of them went without due to their loss. They all had plenty of money to cover their losses.”
I want so badly to agree with him, but I can’t. It’s wrong no matter how they spin it. It’s just too far from what I believe is right. I’ve spent too many years going after people like him. I need some time to digest this information and decide what I’m going to do about it. “Stuart, you are an attorney. I don’t have to tell you that what you’ve done is grounds for disbarment.” He hangs his head in shame and I move on to Jake.
“Jake, there is a warrant out for your arrest. I could call up my buddy on the force and have you arrested right now.” Satisfied with the panic on his face, I continue, “But I don’t know what to do with this yet.”
My voice shakes, “Before I wouldn’t have hesitated to turn you both in. But now,” I hold back a sob, “now I care about you both so much that I don’t know what to do. I’m so angry at you both. I can’t think with you here.”
I take a deep breath, pushing back the tears that threaten to erupt, “I want you both to leave.”
“Please,” they both say at
the same time.
Jake allows Stuart to continue, “Samantha, you know that we are good men. We never meant to hurt you or anyone else for that matter. I’ll take my punishment, but I don’t want to lose you. I also want you to know that Rachel called me. She told Elena the truth this morning before she left. I’m not telling you this to beg for leniency. I planned on telling you tomorrow, but knowing you may never talk to me again, I need you to know. I think Elena is going to need you.”
“You mean the world to me,” Jake whispers, “Please don’t throw me away for the mistakes I’ve made in the past. You know me,” he puts his hand on his heart, “You know the real me.”
They let themselves out and as soon as I hear the back door close, tears pour down my cheeks and sobs escape as I realize what I’ve been trying to deny for so long. I love them deeply. Both of them. I don’t know if I could live with myself if I destroyed their lives, but I also don’t know if I could live with myself if I ignored the crimes I now know about.
Chapter 28
In the morning, I pull myself together. I need to go see Elena. I don’t know if I’m going to tell her my secrets just yet. With her being pregnant, and Rachel already telling her a life shattering truth, I don’t want to add to her stress. It’s not good for the baby growing inside of her.
“Sam!” she answers the door in her usual cheery voice. She certainly doesn’t look like a woman who has just been told that she left her family for a lie.
“Elena! Look at how big you’ve gotten!” I wince at my rudeness. “That was terrible of me to say. You just have doubled in size since I saw you a few days ago. Pregnancy looks good on you.” I realize that she must be around five months by now, but she looks about ready to pop. Where has the time gone?
Secrets in Suburbia Page 15
