The One of Many

by M. Jane Early

  Every bad thing that happened to David, I wanted to take it away. Allison wasn’t the only one protective over him. I wanted to be that for him too. She didn’t understand, she and I were a lot alike concerning her twin brother.

  Allison cleared her throat, and we both looked over at her.

  “If you two are done. Can we go?” she asked, annoyed.

  “What’s your problem?” David asked, also irritated.

  She closed her eyes and took a breath in through her nose. “Nothing. We just need to go.” She got up from the table and started towards the door.

  David looked at me. All I could do was give him a half-hearted smile. “We’d better go,” I whispered.

  THE APARTMENT WHERE MR. Powers lived was an assisted living facility for dementia patients. The brick building was only five floors and surrounded by giant trees and greenery. The front door was manned by a security guard and check-in person who did everything but take blood samples and fingerprints to let us in.

  The interior was well decorated and homey. The oddly relaxing soft-peach-painted walls made it seem more like a hotel than a medical facility. The technology that surrounded us, from the touch screen elevator panel to the iPads that hung on the outside of every resident’s door, told me this was all costing David a pretty penny to keep his dad here. This must have been why Allison wasn’t thrilled about me being there to see it. She figured I was a money-grubbing whore after David’s bank account. In her eyes, showing me the state-of-the-art facility would only double down on my lust for what David could give me.

  Allison knocked, then entered their dad’s apartment door, calling out for him. A deep voice responded from the bedroom.

  I was the last to enter and hung back. David turned and looked at me. “I’m gonna wait here,” I said.

  David approached me. “Why?”

  “So you can have some time with your dad,” I said, taking his hand.

  He stared at me for a moment, then pulled me to him. His eyes told me he needed the support, clutching my hand in his.

  I relaxed my shoulders and nodded in resignation.

  The walls held the same color paint as the hallways. The furniture was absent of dust, and the room was in order, as if no one had been in there for days. The carpet showed recent vacuum marks, and air freshener lingered around us. There were no personal pictures in the living room nor in the hallway. Just paintings you’d find hanging on any hotel room wall across the US. Pastel flowers and farmhouses encased in the same demure gold frames.

  I heard Allison talking to her dad before we entered the room. She asked how he was and if he had eaten lunch. He told her the cafeteria was crowded, and he only got soup. She told him she’d get him something more soon.

  David took a breath, then walked into the small bedroom, letting my hand go. I peeked around the corner and saw the profile of a gray-haired Samuel Powers. He sat in a lazy boy chair facing a window by his bed with his daughter kneeling by his side. I had only seen Samuel Powers a handful of times while working at Imperium. He was handsome and intimidating. He commanded any room he entered with his stern face and demeanor. Just like David.

  At first glance, he didn’t look any different. But when Allison said, “Guess who’s here?” The confusion on his face was immediate. Then, when he looked at David, Mr. Powers concentrated on his son for more than a minute, trying to pull a memory from his brain to the tip of his tongue. When he finally did, his face went from confusion to anger. He stood and slammed down the newspaper in his hand.

  David crept towards him. “Hey, Dad.”

  “Why are you here?” Mr. Powers snapped.

  David kept his stance relaxed, his hands in his pockets. “I wanted to make sure you got moved in okay.”

  Mr. Powers scoffed. “You wanted to see if the jail you placed me in was up to your standards?”

  “It’s not a jail, Dad.” Allison walked to his bed and pulled the comforter over the pillows.

  Mr. Powers and David continued to stare at each other. David was the first to break eye contact as he turned to me. “Dad, this is—”

  “Elizabeth?” Mr. Powers’s anger ceased. He looked at me with bewilderment.

  David came beside me. “No, Dad. This is Farren.”

  Mr. Powers moved in front of David and took my hand. “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I was going to tell you, I swear. I was lonely—”

  “Dad, this isn’t mom.” David stood to the side of his father and tried to get his attention.

  After a moment or two, Mr. Powers flickered a realization that I wasn’t Elizabeth and let go of my hand abruptly. “I’m-I’m sorry.” He moved back.

  “It’s okay,” I whispered and smiled. “I’m Farren Hallston.”

  He nodded but wouldn’t look at me. I glanced at Allison, who was still standing by the bed. I backpedaled and resumed my place by the door.

  Mr. Powers rested his hand on the back of his recliner. “So, why is everyone here?”

  “We’re just checking on you, Pop. David wanted you to meet Farren and make sure you’re settled in,” Allison said as she smoothed out the comforter to remove wrinkles and lumps.

  “I also need to give you these.” David pulled folded papers from his jacket pocket. We all stopped moving and looked at him. The tension in the room became suffocating.

  “This is the last of the paperwork from the courts, giving conservatorship over to me for Imperium.” He walked to the newly made bed and let the papers drop.

  “David, this isn’t the time for that.” Allison moved to her father’s side. Mr. Powers clenched his jaw, and anger settled into his green eyes.

  “When is a good time, Allison?” David’s tone was curt. “I need to move forward so that Imperium can make a profit again. The only way I can do so is to solidify that it’s my company. I have enough to deal with without having to worry about his lawyers dragging me to court.”

  “It’s my company!” Mr. Powers stiffened. “You stole it out from under me when I was away.”

  “Yes. When we were figuring out how bad you had gotten, Dad.” David’s tone rose to match his father’s. “When you neglected to tell us, you couldn’t remember your name or where you lived or where you were born. You may not like what I’m doing or how I’m doing it, but I’m doing it for you.”

  “For me?” Mr. Powers walked over to David. They were only a few feet apart.

  David didn’t back down. “Yes! For your legacy. To make sure you’re not remembered as the failure that fucked around on his wife and stole company money, driving Imperium into the ground,” David yelled.

  I came forward and grabbed his arm. “David.”

  “How dare you,” Mr. Powers seethed.

  Allison pulled Mr. Powers back and stood between her father and her brother. “Go into the living room, David,” she directed, staring him down.

  David removed his arm from my hand and turned to walk out of the room. I followed behind him as Allison tried to bring her father down from his heightened emotional state. David heaved the door to the balcony open and leaned against the railing. I came out with him and closed the sliding glass door behind me.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, moving towards him.

  The pain on his face was readable. “I shouldn’t have brought you here,” he breathed.

  I paused. “Why did you?”

  His head snapped up in surprise. “What?”

  I kept my voice soft. “David, I’ve been trying to get you to tell me about your father and your family for weeks. Instead of telling me, you brought me here expecting me to just understand the strain between you?”

  His eyes went wild, and he swallowed hard.

  “I’m just trying to figure out what all of this is about.” I moved closer to him. “I want to help, but I can’t if I don’t know everything.”

  He glanced away. “I don’t trust many people, Farren.”

  “I get that. But you obviously trust me enough to meet your sister
and your father.” He met my eyes. “Did you really think I wouldn’t ask questions?”

  David had been so secretive about his past and his family. I didn’t want to drag the story out of him by pestering him, but if we were going to grow together, I needed the truth.

  “You’re right,” he whispered. He reached over and took my hand in his. He concentrated on my fingers. Moments passed as he grappled with how to start whatever story he wanted me to hear.

  “My dad and I were close when I was younger. He told me I would take over for him when I grew up. That I would be his successor.” He stopped, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “Since I was a kid, he’d taken me to his office and showed me how everything ran. Even at ten years old, I was excited. This company would be mine one day.” David smiled and looked away from me.

  “As I got older, he brought me into the loop about how the business worked and what he did on a day-to-day basis. I went to UC Berkeley for business administration on a full-ride scholarship. During the summers and on breaks, I would intern at Imperium under my dad. I saw my future, all plotted out and planned. All I needed to do was graduate, and I’d have a middle management job in a company that I would one day be mine.” He stared out into the courtyard.

  “What happened?” I asked when it seemed like he wouldn’t continue.

  “My dad refused to give us an allowance, and I mean never, not even when we were younger. If we wanted something, we had to work for it. I got a job on campus in the computer lab to make some extra money. During my junior year, I made enough to save up for a car. Albeit a shitty car, but a car I’d earned, nonetheless. After I bought it, I went to my dad’s office to show him. He was working late, as usual.” He paused.

  “His office lights were off, but the door was cracked.” David stopped and walked to the other side of the balcony. I watched the pain return on his gorgeous face. “I looked in and saw a woman on top of him.”

  “Oh my god,” I said and exhaled.

  “I knew my parent’s marriage wasn’t perfect…but I never thought he’d do that,” he whispered, shaking his head.

  I walked over to David and stood in front of him. I put my hands on his chest. “I’m so sorry.”

  He glanced at me, then looked away, as if ashamed. “I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I was a twenty-one-year-old kid who just saw his father with another woman.” He swallowed hard.

  The sadness he held was too overwhelming for me not to feel it too. “What did you do?”

  “I went home and told my mom,” he whispered.

  I closed my eyes for a moment.

  A single tear fell down his face. He watched me as I wiped it away with my fingers. “I couldn’t keep something like that from her. I was my father’s son, but my mom didn’t deserve that. She didn’t deserve to be lied to. But I was wrong for telling her. That should have been his choice.”

  “He put you in a position impossible for you to make a fair decision. You did what you felt was right.” I wouldn’t allow him to place all the blame on himself.

  “I destroyed my family, Farren. I tore them apart like they were paper,” he said, his voice thick. “It broke me. And then…” He hesitated and exhaled. “Then the floodgates opened. Before my mom divorced him, she found out it was more than one woman. There were dozens.”

  I hugged myself to him, bringing him closer, and lingered there until his arms wrapped around me. He leaned his head into mine.

  From what I knew, he had never shared this with anyone else in his life besides his family. He had unloaded years of his pent-up frustration and sadness onto me because he needed to. I was overwhelmed with sympathy for him having to endure that pain alone for so long.

  When his breathing became steady, I pulled back and looked at his tear-stained face. “Is that why you moved to Puerto Vallarta?” I asked.

  He nodded and sniffed. “I needed to get away from everything. I got a job at the hotel. I was the night manager. The owner took a liking to me and moved me up in the ranks. Before I left, I was right below him, running the day-to-day. I liked it.”

  I sighed. “Why did you come back to the States if you were happy in Mexico?”

  He placed his hand on the side of my face. “My mother told me about Imperium’s issues. She thought I could help. At that point, I was looking for any in with him. I came back to a cold shoulder.” He looked down in remembrance. “So, I started a new company with a friend from college. It was doing really well… Then he,” David nodded at the door, “got sick.”

  “You gave all of that up for him?” I whispered.

  David’s eyes moved away from me as he shook his head. I could see how foolish he thought he was by the clench of his jaw. I hugged him again.

  The sliding glass door opened.

  “David, what the hell were you thinking? Dad’s fuming.” Allison came out onto the balcony. I tried to move back from David, but he kept me in place with his hands on my waist.

  David’s irritation returned. “I have to get this resolved, Allison. I know it’s not good timing, but I’m on a time crunch here. If he doesn’t drop this lawsuit, the lawyers will drag this out, and I won’t be able to move the money back. Someone has already noticed.” He glanced at me. “I can’t afford for someone else to catch on too.”

  “He said he’d call the lawyers.” Allison’s voice tightened.

  “But he hasn’t, has he?” David angled towards his sister, slightly pushing me away. “He doesn’t want me to have Imperium, and he’s willing to let it go down just so I don’t get it. You know what’s at stake here. This has to get resolved now.”

  Considering what we knew about the missing money and getting it back, David’s determination to put this issue to rest was valid. But I also understood Allison not wanting to push her father too far. I had only been privy to David’s family for the afternoon, and already, so much damage had occurred.

  Allison looked at me tersely. “Farren, would you mind leaving me alone with my pig-headed brother for a moment?”

  “Course.” I glanced at David and went inside.

  I didn’t want to look like I was watching the two of them fight, so I went to the bathroom for a few minutes to make myself scarce.

  A small crash came from the master bedroom. I opened the door and dashed into the room. Mr. Powers was on his knees, picking up a water glass that had fallen on the floor. I went back to the bathroom and grabbed a towel off the rack, taking it with me to Mr. Powers’s bedroom.

  He was trying to use the napkins that had come with his lunch on the carpet where the water had spilled.

  “I got it,” I said as I kneeled next to him and placed the towel over the wet spot.

  His eyes were on me. “You always take care of me,” he said.

  I smiled and dabbed the towel, soaking up the water.

  “I was a selfish prick, Elizabeth. I should have never done what I did.”

  I looked into his green eyes, seeing the remorse. “Everyone makes mistakes.”

  He took my hand. “Do you hate me?”

  I shook my head. “No,” I whispered.

  Mr. Powers looked down at our hands, tears surging in his eyes. I placed my other hand over his.

  The door slid open in the other room, and footsteps moved closer to the bedroom as Mr. Powers and I smiled at each other. There was a quiet understanding between him and who he perceived to be Elizabeth. Relief flooded his expression.

  Allison rushed over to her dad. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  He looked up at her. “I just dropped the glass, Ally. I’m fine.”

  She helped him to his feet, watching me. I picked up the towel and stood. She nodded in the door’s direction. “David’s waiting for you.”

  I walked to the doorway, then looked back at Mr. Powers, who continued to smile at me.

  Twenty Six

  “What did you want to do for dinner?” I looked at David while we walked into the lobby of our hotel. He hadn’t said a word since
we’d left his father’s apartment.

  “Whatever you want.” He stared straight ahead.

  I watched his profile. “Did you want to get room service?”

  “That’s fine.” His answers were brief and monotone.

  “David.” I touched his arm, and he turned to me. “Do you need to be alone for a while?”

  He paused, then looked down. “Is that okay?” I could barely hear him.

  I grabbed his hands. “Of course it is. I understand.”

  He let out a long sigh. His eyes locked with mine. “You’re making this so difficult.”

  I stared at him, confused. “How? I just said—”

  “That’s not what I meant.” He came closer. “If you keep being this understanding, you’re going to make it exceedingly difficult for me not to fall in love with you.”

  I took a quick breath, feeling the pit of my stomach bottom out. He moved his hand to my face and pulled me into a kiss. He lingered on my lips, making me wish I hadn’t suggested he be alone.

  He pulled back. “I’m just gonna be at the bar, okay?”

  I nodded. “Don’t be too long.”

  He gave me a half-hearted smile and winked. “Be back before you know it.”

  He let go of my hand and walked in the opposite direction. I watched him disappear around the corner before I walked to the elevators.

  I LAID ON THE bed in the hotel room watching Family Feud, and multitasking on my phone. I texted Yvette to let her know where I was, negating the real reason I was in Baltimore. David had trusted me with the knowledge of his family and what was going on with Mr. Powers. I wasn’t about to break that trust. I told her we were on a quick business getaway and said we’d be back Monday.

  David came upstairs around ten.

  “What were you doing?” I asked, crawling over to him on my hands and knees, wearing one of his button-down white shirts and my panties.

  He sat on the edge of the bed. “There’s a pool table down there.”

  I crawled on his lap. “Play alone, did you?” I raised my eyebrow.

  He smiled. “No, but don’t worry, it was a guy and his girlfriend.”