Grounded

by A. E. Radley

  “This…” she started.

  “It’s a receipt! Someone paid off your credit card. All of it.” Lucy spun around and started picking up other letters from the table.

  “Why would…who would…pay my six-thousand-dollar credit card bill?” Emily examined the letter in shock. “This must be a joke. Or a mistake…”

  Lucy held out the other, unopened letters. “I’ve been dying to know what’s in these.”

  Emily plucked one from the stack and handed Lucy back the credit card receipt. She knew the font and logo on the envelope; this was a statement from a loan company she had seen advertised on television years ago. With a shaky hand, she tore open the envelope and pulled out the statement. Her eyes scanned the letter, and she shook her head in astonishment. The balance was zero. Her heart sank. Who would pay off her debts and why?

  “Help me open all of these,” Emily said, her voice wavering. She should be ecstatic to see the cleared balance, but her heart was pounding and her palms were sweaty. This wasn’t the kind of thing that just happened. This wasn’t normal. She worried that it was just the next piece of the puzzle in her day from hell.

  Lucy immediately started ripping open the envelopes and handing Emily statement after statement. All of her balances had been cleared. She held on to the counter as her legs started to wobble from the shock. Had her debts been bought up by someone else? She’d heard stories about companies selling debt portfolios they couldn’t recover to loan sharks.

  “What’s happening?” Emily whispered. Suddenly she wondered if Seb was behind it. Was this some warped way of attempting to get Henry? Was he going to use this as extra leverage? It seemed unlikely, even for him, but the thought lingered since there were no other reasonable explanations on offer.

  “I have no idea.” Lucy looked at all of the letters, even holding them up to the light.

  “It’s not the first of April, is it?” Emily questioned.

  “You should call one of them, ask who paid the balance,” Lucy suggested.

  “You’re right.” Emily turned and looked around in confusion before Lucy picked up the cordless telephone and placed it into her hand.

  She looked at the phone and took a deep breath to try to calm her racing heart. Something was wrong—very wrong. She knew she had to make the call, but she also dreaded it with every fibre of her being.

  Her life was falling apart, and she felt like a puppet being forced to perform for someone else’s perverse entertainment. Debts didn’t just vanish. Who was she indebted to now?

  * * *

  Emily walked at a quick pace. She saw Simon at his desk outside Olivia’s office, and, through the glass wall, Olivia herself on the telephone.

  “Emily?” Simon stood up as he realised she intended to walk straight into Olivia’s office without stopping.

  She passed him wordlessly and pushed the door open.

  “What the hell, Olivia?” she demanded.

  Olivia looked up but didn’t seem at all surprised by her presence.

  “I’ll call you back.” Olivia hung up the call. “Simon, please close the door.”

  “You can’t do this. You can’t just take over like this. You need to talk to me before you do things like this.” Emily waved the papers around. She turned to see Simon close the door but remain in the office.

  Olivia looked up and gave a tired shrug. “You wouldn’t have accepted it, and this is the only way you can retain custody.”

  Emily rubbed her eyes with frustration. “Tens of thousands of dollars, Olivia. How am I ever going to repay you?”

  “You don’t.” Olivia looked down at a piece of paper on her desk. Emily’s temper flared and she took a step forward.

  “What’s happened?” Simon asked.

  Emily spun to look at him. “She’s paid off all of my debts.” She turned back to Olivia. “I asked you to look at my paperwork to advise me. Advise. Not to fix everything. Why didn’t you speak to me?”

  “Could you lower your voice a little, please? I have a throbbing headache,” Olivia said as she rested her head in her hands.

  “You have a headache? How do you think I feel? When did you do this? It must have been a few days ago, because I got the statements in the mail. Olivia…I…I’m grateful, of course I am, but this…you invaded my privacy, you didn’t tell me what you were doing, you—”

  “As I said, you wouldn’t have accepted it, and I have neither the time nor the energy to argue with you,” Olivia explained with exasperation. “I wanted to avoid this.”

  Emily shook her head and turned to Simon. “Am I crazy? You see the problem with this, right?”

  Simon nodded. “Olivia, you can’t pay off someone’s debts without telling them or speaking to them about it first.”

  Olivia angrily slammed her fist to her desk and stood up. “I will not be spoken to like some kind of child! I knew exactly what I was doing and I’d do it again. The Brennans’ only leverage against Emily was the debt. With those gone, their case collapses. It’s only a matter of time before Marcus realises that Emily has a connection to me, and then he’ll fire her, and that’s my fault.” She jabbed herself in the chest with her finger to emphasise the point.

  Simon took a step forward and put his hands up to calm her, but she refused to be pacified.

  “Let’s face it; it was only a matter of time before I ruined everything anyway. At least this way I have protected the family unit. Henry will remain with Emily, and any leverage that awful man had is now lost. I fully expected this fallout. I assumed I would never see you again.”

  Emily balked at Olivia’s explanation. In some ways, she was furious and wanted to shout at Olivia for not speaking to her before acting. In another way, the self-sacrificing act let Emily understand just how far Olivia was willing to go to put Henry’s needs before her own.

  “But, as I said before,” Olivia continued, “I’d do it again. I don’t expect you to pay me back. I’m in full control of my faculties, and I wanted to do this. It was the right thing to do. It…”

  Olivia took a deep breath and started to sway.

  “Olivia?” Simon questioned, concern clear in his tone.

  “I think I need some time alone,” she murmured as she started to slip away from the desk. Simon sprinted around and caught her as she fell.

  “Olivia? Olivia?” he called to her, but she was unconscious, a dead weight in his arms. He lowered her to the floor, and Emily rushed to his side.

  Emily immediately drew upon her first aid knowledge and started to check Olivia’s airways and for a heartbeat. For a second she could only hear her own heart pounding loudly in her ears. Then she heard Olivia’s and let out a sigh of relief before looking up to Simon.

  “She’s breathing; I think she’s fainted. Call an ambulance.”

  Simon stumbled to his feet and reached across Olivia’s desk. He pulled the phone towards himself and lifted the receiver. His fingers hovered over the keys.

  “Shit, I’ve gone blank. Help a Brit. What’s the damn number here?”

  “Nine, one, one,” Emily told him calmly.

  “Of course. I knew that,” he berated himself as he made the call, running a hand nervously through his hair as he looked down at Olivia.

  Simon’s voice faded into background noise as Emily knelt beside Olivia, grasping her hand in an attempt to offer some support. It was strange and alarming to see the usually powerful woman so pale and unmoving.

  Emily regretted bursting into the office and acting the way she had. If she’d taken a second to look at Olivia rather than shouting at her, she would have noticed that something was wrong.

  She gently squeezed Olivia’s hand, hoping she was aware of a soothing presence.

  CHAPTER 27

  Seb heard the doorbell echo throughout the house. He lowered his newspaper to the desk, walked out of the sitting room and across the marble hallway. He opened the door and folded his arms across his chest, levelling a wilting stare at Marcus.

 
“Yes?” he asked bitterly.

  “Can we speak?”

  Seb made a show of considering the request for a moment before nodding his head and gesturing for Marcus to step inside. He closed the front door and watched as Marcus politely wiped his shoes. When he was done, Seb guided him towards the sitting room.

  “Can I get you a drink?” he offered.

  “No, no. I won’t be here long. I just wanted to tell you that you might’ve been right about Emily,” Marcus explained as he sat down.

  Seb sat down and raised his eyebrow. “Oh?”

  “We found suspicious activity on her computer. And a contract ended up in Applewood’s hands.”

  Seb fought to keep a smile off of his face. He casually shrugged his shoulders. “Well, I wouldn’t want to say that I told you so. But the girl simply cannot be trusted. This actually makes a lot of sense considering what we just heard from our lawyer.”

  “What was that?” Marcus asked.

  “It seems that all of Emily’s debts have suddenly been paid off. Our lawyer was looking into her financial records, and, as of this week, she is completely debt-free. Our case has effectively collapsed; we’re being advised not to continue seeking custody.”

  Marcus blinked, clearly shocked. “What will you do? Will you drop the case?”

  “No.” Seb shook his head. “We’ll go ahead. There’s still a chance we can win, however remote. I don’t back down from a fight. And it will be expensive. If Olivia Lewis is bankrolling her, then I want it to cost her as much as possible.”

  Seb’s plan with Michael Underwood had yielded the desired result. Marcus was back, apologetically at that. As much as Seb hated the way Marcus had spoken to him, he knew the man could prove useful in the future. Carrying a grudge wasn’t as useful as collecting favours to be cashed in at a later date.

  “So, you’ve fired Emily?” Seb queried.

  “No, not yet. Evidence is scant, but it’s enough for me to have severe doubts about her. She’s been suspended without pay. I need to do this by the book. We don’t want to both be in court with the damn girl.”

  “Suspension is even better.” Seb chuckled. “That won’t look good for her in court. We need all the help we can get at this stage. Ideally I’d like to stop Olivia from funding her, or being able to fund her, but that’s doesn’t seem likely. I don’t know what the connection with those two is, but it’s clearly of mutual benefit.”

  “You’re sure Olivia is involved in this?” Marcus asked.

  “Absolutely, my private detective has told me as much,” Seb lied.

  Marcus shook his head. “I never thought Olivia would play such a dirty campaign. Of course she’s bound to be upset by what’s happened, but she’s always been professional. Ridiculously so.”

  “Anger can make women do funny things. She’s paid off Emily’s debts. What sane person would do that?”

  Marcus leaned back and let out a sigh. “How about cutting off the banker?”

  Seb looked at him with interest. “What do you mean?”

  “As you say, Olivia Lewis is bankrolling her,” Marcus explained. “Cutting off the funds would be beneficial to you.”

  “And what would you get out of it?” Seb asked.

  “The joy of seeing Applewood finally sink. It’s been floundering for a while now. It’s time to put it out of its misery. Olivia won’t give in easily. Seems that she needs a little push.”

  As Seb had always suspected, it hadn’t taken long for Marcus to turn and resort to underhanded tactics to get his way. And Seb would be happy to go ahead with whatever Marcus suggested at this point. Olivia’s wrench in the works was no small matter—between the physical threat and the interference with the court case, he wanted her taken down a peg or two.

  “What kind of push are we talking about?” Seb asked.

  “An anonymous complaint about financial irregularities at Applewood. Or, should I say, two complaints. I know just the cases to question. Without key members of staff, they’ll have to comb through the archives to find the information. They’ll have to respond to the authorities, and it’ll take them weeks to comply with court demands.” Marcus smirked and chuckled to himself. “It’s quite simple, really. A well-worded complaint or two will tie them up in paperwork and red tape for weeks. During that time, they won’t be able to maintain the business. We may be using some inside knowledge, but it’s no worse than what they have done.”

  Seb grinned. He’d known Marcus’s desire to remove Olivia from the picture would eventually work to his advantage. Marcus had hated Olivia from day one—not a luncheon or golfing day went by without him complaining about the woman. The second the connection between Emily and Olivia was discovered, Seb knew that leveraging Marcus’s insecurities would be the key. Driving a solid wedge between the two women was going to help them both.

  “That sounds perfect, what do I have to do?”

  * * *

  An hour later, just after Marcus left, Irene approached Seb with apprehension. After she’d realised it was Marcus at the door, she had sat on the bottom step of the staircase and listened to what was being said.

  “I overheard every word. Are you sure you want to go down this route, Seb?”

  “Of course.” He turned and walked towards his study. Irene followed him, not about to let him off that easily. She wanted the truth.

  “Did Emily really transfer files to Applewood?” Irene asked as they entered the office.

  “No.” Seb sat at his desk and looked up at her. “Emily White doesn’t have the business acumen to even think of something so enterprising.”

  “Enterprising? Spying?”

  Seb leaned back in his chair and interlaced his hands behind his head. “She’s in a unique position. It’s very easy to believe that she would and could do such a thing. Just as Marcus believes.”

  Irene sighed. “You bribed someone?”

  “I wouldn’t be so careless.” He sat forward and turned on his laptop.

  This was exactly what she had feared. Seb was consumed with winning—and often his lack of morals meant that he did. That didn’t mean that Irene approved of his tactics, or didn’t live in constant fear that they would one day turn on them both.

  He looked at her with a fixed stare, obviously not wanting to give anything away. Unfortunately for him, Irene knew him well enough.

  “Seb…” She sighed again. “What did you do?”

  “Does it matter what the specifics were? It worked, didn’t it? It brought up questions, Marcus has suspended her, and now I have a way to exact my revenge on that…that violent…woman.”

  “What kind of example would this set for Henry?” she tried to appeal to him.

  Seb rubbed his brow and let out a deep breath. “You’ll never be able to set any example for Henry unless we act. Henry won’t have anything to do with us if Emily has her way. Trust me, I’m doing this for us. For Henry. Sometimes you have to bend a few rules.”

  Irene closed her eyes and let out yet another sigh. They had discussed time and time again that they wouldn’t resort to any unscrupulous behaviour. They would do everything by the book to ensure there could be no comeback in the future.

  But the very second they’d agreed to try to reconnect with Emily, Seb had turned his back on any notion of trying to take the high road. He’d told her that hiring a private detective and going down the legal route was the only chance they had. He’d explained that Emily would never let them have a relationship with Henry unless she was pressured into it.

  “We agreed—” Irene began.

  “Things have changed,” Seb said with finality.

  He opened up his desk drawer and rummaged around for something. He wasn’t going to see reason, she knew that. Too many times, they had been in a similar situation, and Irene had attempted to speak to him with no success. She shook her head, turned, and left the room. Nothing good was going to come of this.

  CHAPTER 28

  Simon opened the door and watched with an
amused smile as Nicole finished the enormous yawn she was in the middle of.

  “Sorry,” she said as she walked in.

  “No problem. I know it’s a long trip. Thanks for coming.” Simon took her suitcase from her hand and carried it in.

  “How is she?”

  “Exhausted, embarrassed, and on strict bedrest.” Simon closed the front door behind them.

  “So, what happened exactly?” Nicole placed her handbag on the sofa and shrugged out of her coat.

  Simon placed the suitcase by the sofa and hung up her coat. “She’d been working all hours, not eating, not sleeping.”

  “Ah,” Nicole said. “Usual Olivia, then?”

  “Usual Olivia times ten,” Simon explained. “Then she was arguing with Emily and I, and she just collapsed. She was in hospital overnight, and her blood pressure was through the roof. It took me forever to convince them that she’d relax more away from the hospital and to let her finish her recovery here.” Simon rolled his eyes. “Not an easy task.”

  “Is she behaving?” Nicole asked, smothering another yawn.

  “Not really, which is why I’m glad you’re here.” Simon grinned. “I’m technically her employee, so I can’t say what I’d like to say to her.”

  Nicole laughed. “When has that ever stopped you?”

  “True. I wanted to play good cop for a while, and that means I need a bad cop,” he joked.

  “Are you sure you want to call me bad cop after the flight I just had?”

  Simon jutted his thumb towards the kitchen. “Can I get you a coffee?”

  “Oh, yes, please,” Nicole said. “And don’t think I didn’t notice the change of subject there, Captain Smooth. Is she awake now?”

  “She was fifteen minutes ago,” he replied as he walked towards the kitchen. “But this has really knocked her out. She drifts in and out easily.”

  Nicole yawned again. “I know the feeling after that flight. Get me that coffee and we’ll go in and gang up on her.”

  * * *

  Simon knocked on the bedroom door. Nicole stood beside him with her hands wrapped around her coffee mug as if her life depended on it.