by Wendy Silk
Amanda watched as her parents finally put into words all the secrets they had all been keeping from each other. It was terrifying to see the effect that the truth had on them. Yet it was, at the same time, freeing. Nothing else would hang over them if they simply told it all now.
Before Nathan could answer his wife’s question, Amanda spoke. “Mom, it wasn’t quite like that. Nathan set us up, that part is true. But I take responsibility for what I did to get us all here. I knew about the blackmail and I agreed to it. We wanted to protect you. I don’t mean to say it was your fault, or Nathan’s--please don’t think that. It was my decision to accept Michael’s proposal, for whatever reasons I thought made sense to me. Nathan wasn’t the one who did that. I’m an adult and I have to own up to my mistakes.”
As Jennifer struggled to find words in the face of their revelations, Amanda and Nathan had become unlikely allies. Yet Amanda felt more alone than ever. She saw clearly now what it would be like for them if Michael fulfilled his threat. If Nathan went to prison, their family life would be devastated. She was the only one who could stop this. She needed to find Michael, to beg him to continue protecting Nathan. She’d do anything he asked.
Chapter 23: Caught
Amanda’s chilled fingers fumbled with her phone as she wondered if she should text Michael. Would it hinder her plan if he knew she was coming? She had grabbed her coat and left the apartment by the back stairs without another word to her parents. They had their own concerns right now. By the time they realized where she had gone, she would already be there. As she left, she had pushed past the doorman and headed outside without stopping to think. Now she stood on the street a block away, hailing her own cab and wondering where she could find Michael.
His office. He wouldn’t go home to his utilitarian apartment, not while he was in the gloating mood she had just witnessed. He’d be back at the office for the rest of the evening, going over papers and planning his next move. If Nathan was correct, Michael’s next move would be becoming a very rich man in his own right, and then betraying his mentor.
Amanda raised her hand high in the air. She was acutely aware of the heavy diamond that now resided on her left hand. If she was going to play the part tonight, she’d play it to the hilt. As she stepped into her taxi, she directed the driver south to the office building that she had visited for years with Nathan. Long before anyone in her family had known Michael, it had been a place where she could count on a warm reception. Now she would always think of it as the place where she finally capitulated to her new life. She returned her phone to her pocket, deciding against texting him. She wouldn’t warn him that she was on her way.
When Amanda’s cab pulled up to the shining high rise building that housed Nathan’s law firm, she stepped out, shaking with trepidation. She used the universal key code that Nathan had shared with her, overriding all the security of the building. The lobby was so quiet that her footsteps clicked loudly as she stepped beyond the guard’s desk and entered the elevator. Her legs shook so much that she leaned sideways, gripping the handrail to keep from fainting.
When she reached the floor where Michael’s office was, her first thought was to check the coat rack in the corner. Just as she had thought, he was here. His Brooks Brothers wool overcoat was a warning flag that she was about to have to deal with the person she liked the least in the world. He was also the person she was about to join her life with forever.
“Michael?” Amanda called out, as she rounded the corner to his office. The lights were all on, but there was no sign of anybody else up here. She stepped into the room and found him sitting comfortably at his desk, watching expectantly for her.
“Amanda.” He was the most relaxed she had ever seen him. Gone was the tension that had always crackled from him. No longer did he exude an overwhelming desire to control those around him. He looked like a satiated spider at the center of his web. And that made her some sort of housefly.
“You’ve come to me, Amanda, just as I knew you would. I’ve been waiting for you to figure it out.”
“Figure what out?” She realized that her plan might not have been her own.
“That we should be married right away, of course.” Michael spoke clearly, as if she was a little slow. “You thought you just had that idea, right? Or perhaps I set it up for you when I made Nathan so nervous today. He really believes that I would turn him in.”
Amanda nodded wordlessly.
“The problem with his understanding of the situation though, is that I would never marry you after that. Your name would be synonymous with scandal. Why would I be involved with you while Nathan was in the middle of a court case and a prison sentence? And the thing is, I still want you, Amanda. So what I think we should do is marry right now.”
“Here?” Amanda squeaked, like a fool.
“No, my dim little bride. Not here in this office.” Michael stood and gathered some papers from his desk. “I have a plane chartered and waiting for us. We’ll be popping out to Vegas for a quickie wedding. Eloping is so romantic, don’t you think?”
“Michael, what’s come over you?” Amanda had to ask. “ You’ve never been so...happy. So confident. Is this really what makes you feel good? Ruining all of us?”
He brushed her hair back from her face in a gesture that made her feel sick. “Don’t be silly, Amanda. I’m not ruining anybody. I’m creating a fulfilling new life for both of us.”
He stepped so close to her that she could feel his breath tickling her forehead. He smelled like clean mint and expensive cotton. The warmth of his chest so close to hers was making her uncomfortable, but not aroused as it had last spring.
“Michael, I’ll do anything you want. I’ll marry you tonight in Vegas. Whatever.” She lifted her chin with a tiny remnant of pride. “You know I’ll never love you, though. I’m already in love with somebody else.”
He smirked. “Ah yes, the gardener. A manual laborer. Amanda, couldn’t you think of anything less ordinary to do with your time while you were away? You thought you were finding yourself, didn’t you? It made me laugh to hear the reports of what that meant to you. Finding yourself in the arms of a sweaty workman.”
“It wasn’t like that, Michael,” she whispered. “He’s the kindest person I’ve ever met.” Even to her ears, she sounded foolish.
“Well, I know everything you got up to with him. Don’t think you kept any secrets from me. I saw photos of you together. I bribed that drunken idiot to separate the two of you, and that worked just as I had planned. You came back to New York with your tail between your legs. Better that between your legs than some young buck who thought he could plough my future wife.” He laughed out loud. He was victorious in every way, and he would take all the pleasure that he could from this moment.
He gripped her hand and led her from his office. “We’ll go straight to the plane. No need to pick up any clothes. I’ll choose all new things for you there.”
As they exited the elevator into the lobby, Amanda reeled backwards at the sight awaiting them. A small but utterly unexpected throng of people waited for them.
Nathan and Jennifer stood in front of the crowd, just stepping forward in search of her. Jennifer exclaimed at the sight of Amanda and gathered her daughter against her. Amanda had thought that Michael would pull on her hand, refusing to let her go. However, he was distracted by the three police officers that also waited for them.
“Michael Shipton?” The tallest officer stepped forward to confirm his name. “We have an order for your arrest on numerous charges of embezzlement and obstruction of justice. Please do not attempt to leave this room.”
Chapter 24: Repercussions
Amanda and her parents returned home, speaking very little. The evening had been filled with enough turmoil. All any of them wanted to think of was sleep.
The next morning, after what had turned out to be a wakeful night for all of them, Nathan asked Amanda and her mom to sit down with him.
“I’m so sorry I’ve pu
t you all through this,” he began. “I never meant for it to go this far.” He looked sadly at Amanda. “Most of all, I need to apologize to you, Amanda. I confess that I did not realize Michael’s true nature. I should have, but I let my own interests blind me. When I tried to convince you to marry him, I believed that it could be a good match for you. I was very wrong.”
He gently patted Jennifer’s hand. “Your mother and I have discussed this at length. She knows every part of it, and she is aware of my shortcomings. She has always been aware of them, but it may be that there are more of them than I knew.”
Jennifer broke in, “Nathan, I am willing to forgive you for your poor choices. But that doesn’t mean that Amanda has to do the same.” She nodded at her daughter. “You can make your own decision about that.”
Nathan dipped his head in somber agreement. “I need to tell you this, Amanda, and I don’t know how it will make you feel. Michael is facing a very serious charge of embezzlement. The insider trading was a drop in the bucket compared to the crime he’s really been committing. I don’t know how long he’s been under observation, or why it all came to a head last night. All I’ve been able to find out so far is that while he had me convinced that the SEC was watching our trading activity, he was shuttling millions out of the companies we’ve worked with. He was stealing directly from them and storing his gains in his own offshore accounts. That’s why his fortune was growing so quickly.”
Amanda held her breath, waiting for the last piece of news she needed.
“He’ll serve time in prison,” Nathan said. “I think he’ll be there for quite a while.”
Amanda let herself relax. As she took in the news, her life began to look very different than it had yesterday.
Nathan watched her and went on. “I’m sorry that I pushed you to marry him. I believed he was a man with a good future. I didn’t expect him to threaten me. By then I found that I had backed into a corner with no way out.”
Jennifer, always practical, raised the question that had been troubling her. “But why didn’t he turn you in when they questioned him last night? He had the proof that you’d been trading the market under proxy accounts, you know he did. Why would he miss the opportunity to bring you down with him?”
Nathan looked even more desolate than he had a moment ago. “I know, I can’t figure that out either. Maybe he had a conscience in some way after all. Maybe he really didn’t want to hurt Amanda.”
Jennifer answered unequivocally, “No, that’s not the kind of man he is.” She tightened her jaw as she studied her husband’s face. “Nathan, we need to know that nothing like this will ever happen again. None of it. The skirting of the law, the manipulation of your own family. Nathan, how could you? What are you going to do to prove that our future will be better than this?”
Nathan smiled sorrowfully at them both. His eyes included Amanda with an acceptance that she felt she’d never seen before from him.
“I can tell you that this will never happen again, because I’m going to retire. I’ve worked too much for years now. We don’t need money; we never have. I promise I won’t be tempted to put my own greed ahead of family again.” He looked at Jennifer and he knew, without her saying it, that she had guessed that the other partners were encouraging him to retire. From now on, every financial move he made would be under scrutiny, no matter how careful he tried to be.
The sound of Amanda’s phone broke the silence that had fallen in the room. Amanda checked it and her face broke into a broad smile. “It’s Hailey! She actually here; she’ll be downstairs in a minute. Is it ok if I tell her to come up?”
Jennifer nodded easily. Hailey had always been a member of the family. Moreover, she would be a welcome distraction for Amanda from the worried stillness of their home.
As the elevator doors opened into the entry hall, Amanda stood ready to fall on her friend in a bear hug. “I am so glad to see you!” Amands almost shouted her words of greeting. “Come in and tell me everything you’ve been doing. How are your classes? How’s Sam? How did you know that I needed you here?”
Hailey came in, comfortably plopping her bag on the floor. She hugged Jennifer tightly, smiled with real affection at Nathan, and followed Amanda into her room so they could talk privately.
As she settled herself into an overstuffed armchair, Hailey started with the most important information. “First, although I know you are trying not to ask, I haven’t seen Billy at all.”
Amanda wasn’t sure whether that should surprise her. “No, I didn’t think you’d see him anywhere. He said he was going to try to get his job back with the landscaping company, but I didn’t really think he would be able to make that happen. He was too arrogant when he talked to Ron, not at all like somebody should talk to their boss.”
Hailey smiled at the idea of Amanda having opinions on a topic so far out of her own experience. “I’m not sure if it’s that, though. I think he could talk his way out of any situation--or into any situation--on Earth. I think that Billy just couldn’t see the point of sticking around after you were gone.”
Amanda’s grief at losing Billy had been buried under her New York worries, but now it resurfaced. “Hailey, tell me again what he said when you say him outside my dorm that day. Do you think he still has feelings for me?”
Hailey hesitated, afraid she might inflate Amanda’s hopes unrealistically. “I don’t know how to answer that. He looked pretty upset, for a guy. But I have to say, he told me that you two were through. That you couldn’t work it out.” She remember how she had gone up to Amanda’s dorm rooms that day to find her friend a limp mess of teary resignation. “That’s what you told me that day as well.”
“I know,” sighed Amanda. “I know, I really thought we couldn’t get past some things. But maybe I was wrong. I might have underestimated our compatibility. If I could just talk to him again, I’d tell him I made so many mistakes.”
Amanda stopped herself from treading such worn ground again. Hailey had spent too much time listening to her on the subject of Billy already. She tried to reciprocate, turning the focus on Hailey’s own budding romance.
“So how’s it going with Sam?” Amanda ventured. “Are you still spending as much time together, or maybe more now that I’m gone?”
Hailey winced. “Nope. That turned out to be a disaster.”
Surprised, Amanda reached over from the edge of the bed where she sat, brushing her friend’s arm lightly with her hand. “What do you mean?” she queried. You guys were friends for a long time before you got together, and I know you really liked him.”
“Sure, I liked him,” Hailey answered. “But it turned out that I liked him less when I found out that he was the one who tipped off that photographer of Michael’s.”
Amanda frowned. She had tried to let go of the memory of that night, never fully convinced that it wasn’t Hailey who had somehow let Michael know where they’d be. Now it was so obvious that she couldn’t understand how she had missed it.
“Of course; Sam knew where we were going that night too. I remember how he slipped into the pub after we did. You told him the place in advance, right?”
Hailey nodded. “And I felt like a real idiot when I finally thought to ask him about it. Once he saw that I knew, he gave up any pretense of caring about me. He was only interested in dating me after you came to town, because Michael had hired him to report back with information about you. It was pretty smart of Michael to think of finding a student who needed money and who would have an easy way to get to know you.”
“You mean it was an ongoing arrangement?” Amanda couldn’t believe that she had been so oblivious to the fact that Michael would have her watched. “Wait,” she continued. “I remember the first time I met Sam, he recognized me from a photo. But it wasn’t the photo at your apartment. He knew who I was because Michael had made arrangements with him. That’s so creepy.”
“Creepy doesn’t even begin to cover it, does it?” Hailey responded. “He was only pretending to
like me to try to spy on you.” She relaxed and smiled. “I’m sure I’ll get over it, though. Wait until you hear about the guy I met when I was pulling a long night at the lab a few weeks ago. I think he’ll be able to distract me very well from the reprehensible Sam.” She leaned forward, ready to tell Amanda all about her new crush.
Chapter 25: Pleading
After staying overnight, Hailey left the apartment early in the morning. She needed to catch a morning flight back so she could be back at her work that afternoon. As they said goodbye, Amanda pressed a sealed envelope into her hand. The plain, cream-colored paper had only one word on it: “Billy.” Amanda leaned toward Hailey, trying to sound calmer than she felt.
“Can you take this back to school and see that it gets to him?” Amanda pleaded. “It needs to go to his boss at the landscaping company--he’ll know where to forward it if Billy is really gone for good. But I can’t be the one to ask. Ron will remember me, and I...well, I wasn’t very nice to him.”
Hailey nodded, pocketing the envelope. “I hope you can work it out with Billy, I really do. You two did have a special connection, didn’t you?” She somehow managed to smile sympathetically while at the same time winking slightly to let Amanda know that she might always have known more than she let on about the speed at which the two had connected. She left in a flurry of hugs and promises to talk soon.
In her best friend’s coat pocket, Amanda’s sealed note waited, with its simple message for the man she could not forget:
“Dear Billy, I know you think I behaved very badly. I did. I was wrong to think we couldn’t be together because we come from different backgrounds. All I can say is that I believe in us. I love you, and I always will. I’m not engaged anymore. Please come back to me. I love you.”
