by Piper Knox
I returned to the party. It was like any other fundraiser. The idea of wasting my time with them was no longer palatable. I had seen what I wanted to see. “Caiden,” Rachel called out as I was about to leave. “You must give a speech!”
I grimaced. I don’t know why I ever insisted on being on a first name basis with her. An excuse formed on my tongue, but she grabbed my hand and was already dragging me in the direction of the podium before I could say anything.
“We were looking for you until someone mentioned you were with your wife.” She nudged me playfully, “I saw you with Hailey,” her eyes gleamed, “first years of a marriage can be filled with so much passion,” she said wistfully. She spoke as if she was some old wizened woman, but she didn’t look that old. I thought she was in her thirties, now I was doubting her age. She drew me to a young woman in a blue silk gown who was speaking to a Chinese diplomat. I recognized her. Hailey’s friend.
“Alicia,” Rachel said, “please show Caiden to the stage and bring that special gift we had planned.”
I almost rolled my eyes. Alicia, on the other hand, tolerated me even less. Her tone was icy, and she glared at me the entire time. She dragged me to my seat at one of the best tables in the room and almost knocked me down when she pulled out the chair had I not jumped in time. She gave me a small apology that didn’t even try to sound sincere. Team Hailey, it seems. I wondered what lies Hailey told her. I took my seat and thanked her. A few moments later, I saw Hailey coming over. Of course. The name plate next to me said Hailey Lyndell. She glided like an angel. When she met Alicia, Alicia whispered something to her. Alicia pointed in my direction. Her face changed. Then Alicia hugged her. I couldn’t help wondering what they were talking about. She came and took her seat. The Chinese diplomat and her wife were the other people who we sat with.
The dinner began and we most ate in silence, letting the other couple do most of the talking.
In the middle of the main course I heard, “There’s something I need to tell you,” beside me. It was Hailey. She was in the middle of eating her main course. Not eating, rather, her fork was playing with the asparagus. It struck me as odd. This was the first time I had seen her deliberately not eating. However, she pressed her hand to her belly as though thinking twice and took a forkful of the food.
“Speak,” I said. With the way our heads were leaning into each other, a bystander would have thought we were talking sweet nothings to each other.
Rachel, who was giving a speech on the stage, chose this moment to call me on to the stage. She had Alicia present me with a gift. It was a surprise award for philanthropy. I had to admit I wasn’t expecting it. I made a small speech. My gaze wandered to her a lot throughout the time I was speaking. I couldn’t stop not looking for her in the crowd. She was enigmatic. When I came down, she said, “Not here, of course.”
“Where?” my phone vibrated in my pocket, “one minute.” I took it out. It was Fred. Seems like everyone was determined to distract us. He had sent a text.
Fred: There’s something else I’ve found out about your wife. It doesn’t cover the scope of the investigation, but I’m not sure if you want to know.
Fred again with his cryptic messages. I got up and went out of the room and called him. “What is it?”
“There’s a new development regarding your wife. Or you as well, I’m not sure.”
“You’re not making sense.”
“One of my guys who was tailing her saw her going to a doctor.” Tailing her? He shouldn’t be doing that. It didn’t sound like something that covered investigating her past.
“A doctor?” had she been hurt, “was she okay?”
“She went in looking fine and came out looking fine.”
“You’re teasing me out here. What’s the issue?”
“It was an OBGYN.”
I still didn’t get what he meant. Most women saw an OBGYN. Why was this necessary? When I was silent for too long, Fred said, “She’s pregnant. Or could be pregnant. She came out holding pregnancy pamphlets. Then she was seen going into a bookstore and bought a few books on pregnancy and motherhood. ”
I was stumped. Hailey pregnant? Was this what she wanted to talk to be about?
“Are you still there?”
“Is that all you know?”
“At the moment, yes. Do you want us to find out more?”
“No. I’ll do the rest myself. And Fred,”
“Yes.”
“Stop tailing her.”
I stared back at the ballroom. I rushed back in. Only she was no longer there.
41
After Caiden left, I thought about what I was doing. Telling him I’m about to have his child wouldn’t probably go down well. He could deny it. That was the best outcome. Worse, he could try to take the baby away from me. Claim full custody. He had more than enough on me to accomplish it. He had more money too. I would be dumb to give him that much ammunition to hurt me. I looked down at the empty seat that he had occupied, then up at the ceremony. It was about to end. There was not much that was required of me now. I decided to leave before he came back. If he asked me what I wanted to tell him and I failed to give him a convincing lie, he could think that there was something up.
That left only one option. Run. I glanced in the direction he had gone. I could see him through the sliver of the semi closed doors. He was standing outside the door talking on the phone. I got up, bade farewell to my table mates and rushed out through the opposite exit.
I only felt relief when I reached my apartment. I got out of my dress and went into the shower. It was cold, but I didn’t care. It was when I was changing into my comfy home clothes that I heard a banging on the door. No one came to my apartment except the landlord and she had a small soft knock. This was a different person. The knock came again. This time it was so harsh I thought it would break down the door.
“Open up, Hailey.”
Fuck. How did he get my address? I could have chosen any other option, but I went to the door. I opened it. It was him. He was standing with his bow tie hanging over his neck and a few buttons of his shirt untied. Except for the harsh scowl on his face, he looked the way he had the night we had stolen the deed.
“You’re waking up my neighbors.”
He looked around at the corridor with all the doors closed, “They don’t seem to mind,” he said, striding past me.
“I didn’t give you permission to come in. And how did you get my address?”
“Technically, I had it the day you moved in?”
What in the hell did that mean? “Are you following me?”
He strolled around, taking stock of the apartment. Of the wide open suitcase on the floor, the unmade bed, and the one couch in the middle of the room. “I’m not following you, Hailey, I’m investigating you.”
“I hope you don’t have people following me. That’s stalking. I can file a restraining order.”
“Don’t bother,” he took a seat on the couch and stared up at me. I was standing right in front of him, “you won’t be followed anymore.”
“Unbelievable! You’re just like my father.”
“If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have found out what you were hiding from me,” his gaze lowered to my belly. My hand instinctively went to it, simultaneously betraying me.
“Ah. So it’s true.” His voice was like a deep rumble that reverberated through the small apartment. “Were you going to tell me?”
I went for the truth, “I wanted to.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know, Caiden. Why would I want to tell the person who hates me most in this world who is also intent on destroying me, that I have his child? What would you do if you were in my place?”
Guilt flickered over his face before it disappeared. He rose. “Are you going to keep it?”
I nodded.
“Then I should be involved.”
“I don’t think that’s necessary. You don’t have to take responsibility or whatever you fe
el you have to do. I’ll do fine on my own.”
“Will you?” he glanced around, “you don’t seem to be doing great at the moment.” Fuck This. I had had enough of him. I went over to the door and opened it. “Get out.”
“Oh, come on! I have a right to a say on how I want my child to be raised. Your father cut you off. Your job pays you peanuts. I, on the other hand, happen to have lots of money. What have you been doing with my allowance, by the way? Because I’m pretty sure that much is enough to rent rooms at the Ritz.”
“I have been giving it away,” I muttered.
“What?” he frowned.
“I have been giving it away in your name okay. I didn’t want to be beholden to you whenever I wanted my freedom. Like now. When I want you out of my apartment.” He walked over to where I was standing. I thought I had gotten through to him, eventually. Instead, he removed my hand from the handle of the door and closed it.
“That award is making sense now.” He folded his hands. It made his biceps bulge and reminded me of the strength they held. I was in the middle of trying to get him out, and yet here I was fantasizing about his muscles. I turned my attention to his face. He had a puzzled expression on his face, “No wonder you were hungry. You would rather go hungry than spend my money?”
“It’s not like that.”
“I guess the hate is mutual.”
I don’t hate you as much as you hate me. “Yes. I guess it is.”
He smiled. “Then we have something in common. That should be enough for both of us to raise this child, wouldn’t it?”
42
“If you want to be part of the child’s life, fine. But don’t you dare use him or her as your tool against me,” Hailey said. Her voice was firm with conviction. She looked so formidable defending her baby. I would never do such a thing as she was suggesting. I was more afraid of her doing the same against me. But so far she has proved me wrong. All this time when she had taken my allowance, she had funneled it away. I couldn’t help but look at her in a different light. The money, this god-forsaken place she was living in (the press would have a field day if they found out), then there was the baby. She was pregnant.
“Why would I use the child? It’s mine as well. I assume it is mine?”
She glared at me as if I had said that she was Satan himself.
“Good to know. That means we should come to some sort of arrangement.”
“What do you mean, an arrangement? I’m perfectly fine as it is now. I’ll call you later when I have an appointment if you want to attend those sorts of things.”
“I don’t mean that. Of course I want to be involved. I mean on a broader scale. I assume you’re going to continue to refuse my money?”
She nodded slightly.
“Well, I’m not good with that. What about your health-care? How do you intend on paying it? I doubt your organization gives good health coverage. At least not to the level I’ll be able to provide. Then there’s your current living arrangements, for example.”
“What’s wrong with them?”
“Can you cook?”
She blushed.
“I thought as much,” I said, looking at the box of frozen pizza on top of the microwave.
“So, what’s your solution?”
“Let’s go back to my place.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“Why not? It’s closer to your workplace than here. You won’t have to pay rent and you don’t have to cook.”
“Sure, you won’t poison me?”
“I won’t poison my child if that’s what you're asking.”
She bit her lip. She looked like she was in deep thought. “Why are you doing this? You don’t care about me. You’d rather see me dead.”
“Trust me, I’d rather have it any other way, but I care about my child, that’s it. You won’t be living with me. Trust me, I want to see you as much as you want to see me. I have an apartment downstairs. I can even hire a cook for you. You only have to be where I can see you.”
“Why?”
“Because you could run away? Isn’t that what you were planning?” The guilty look on her face was all I needed as confirmation.
“You would have to make sure you call off your goons,” she said.
“I called them off the minute I learned they were tailing you.”
She sighed. “Fine. I’ll come with you.”
I couldn’t help but feel elated.
43
For the second time, I was back in the same building. This time it was a different apartment. He was right. It was a floor below the penthouse and was smaller, but no less grand. Its style was the polar opposite of Caiden’s. Instead of the black, gray, and charcoal that had dominated his penthouse. This was mostly white and gray. The apartment had a rectangular shape and all the windows of all the rooms faced one side, West. The kitchen and the dining room were one big room, and there was an extensive area that was divided into two living rooms. One big with a fire pit in the middle and a smaller one with a swing chair and an ottoman. It was cute. The kind of apartment I would have lived in back when I was living on my father’s money.
“What do you think?” Caiden asked after I came back from inspecting the bedroom. He was standing next to the two suitcases I had brought.
“Aren’t you afraid that the neighbors will talk?”
“No. The Chaselworths who live in the two apartments next to yours have the same arrangement and they’ve been married for twenty-five years.”
“Good to know.” I had seen them coming in and out of the building, and I would never have guessed they weren’t living together. I had guessed the opposite, in fact, considering that I had seen them attending functions as a couple.
“Julia will come tomorrow morning. You can tell her what you want.”
I nodded. He bade me goodnight and left me alone in the enormous apartment. Julia did come the next day.
“Mrs. Scott,” she had a beaming smile when I opened the door, “I had missed you so much.”
“Same here.” I invited in.
“I never thought I would have to clean this place while someone was in.”
“There’s never been anyone who lived here.”
She shook her head. I had assumed that he had reserved it for one of his mistresses. A part of me was happy to learn that wasn’t the case.
“And I was told that you would also want me to cook for you?”
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”
She chuckled, “It’s part of my job, I even get paid for it. Only Mr. Scott doesn’t like it when people cook his food.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“What more do you want me to do for you?”
“That’s it.”
She went to work. I made a cup of coffee and was on my way out when I opened the door and was greeted by Bailey.
“Good morning, ma’am.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be with your boss?”
“He sent me to drive you.”
I sighed and took my phone out of my purse.
Me: I don’t need a driver
He responded in a second.
Caiden: Part of the arrangement.
I groaned. Bailey was unfazed, “Ready, ma’am?”
◆◆◆
When I came back to my new apartment, I would not call it home, there was a note saying there’s food in the fridge. It was late, and I was so hungry that I was happy to see a plate of neatly wrapped pasta Alfredo, scallops and Waldorf salad staring back at me. I took it out, warmed it, and ate it like a madman. It didn’t help that it tasted good too. While I was eating, my doorbell rang.
Surprise surprise it was him.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to see me all the time. Why are you here?” The jeans and a polo shirt he had on said he had finished work much earlier than I, who was barely out of her work clothes and still feeling the pinch of my discarded pumps.
“I don’t. But we haven’t d
iscussed something important.” His mood was serious.
“What?” I folded my hands and leaned on the door frame.
“Are you going to let me in?”
I rolled my eyes and stepped aside. He strolled in and took a seat on one of the chairs. So it was going to be one of those long discussions. Might as well finish my plate in the meantime. I went to the kitchen and came back with it. Caiden’s gaze followed me the moment I entered the room, making me feel even more uncomfortable.
