Mark ran his hand through his hair and looked out the window of his office. It was a small firm with four full-time attorneys and four paralegals, plus a dozen secretaries and clerks that were continually running back and forth from the courthouse to the office. They were located in a quaint little three-story brick building. For a second, Mark contemplated just jumping out the window but changed his mind. The grass below looked soft and lush. The chances of him being put out of his misery were slim. He’d probably just break a lot of bones and run up an insanely expensive hospital bill.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this Mr. Lupinski, but if you keep this up, your company is going to turn right around and sue you for harassment. Unfortunately, based on everything you’re telling me, it sounds like they’d have grounds.”
“Well, I may just have to take my surveillance footage to another law firm and see what they have to say.”
“You are completely within your rights to do that, Mr. Lupinski. However, if you are looking to extort more money based on illegal surveillance photos, you might want to reconsider. Another attorney, not bound by the attorney-client privilege, may turn everything over to the police, and you and your previous employer could be in trouble.”
Everything he said was pure conjecture. In fact, as soon as the words left Mark’s mouth he wasn’t even sure what he had said. He just rambled out some nonsense and waited to see what would stick. Silence on the other end of the phone.
“Well, I’m just letting you know. I can hold on to all of this indefinitely in case the need for it ever comes up.”
“From the sound of it, you’ve got plenty. You do that. Just hold onto it. If we need anything, we’ll contact you. Meanwhile, enjoy your early retirement.”
Mr. Lupinski grumbled something Mark couldn’t make out and then hung up the phone.
He wanted to let the old geezer really have it. Other people had problems, too. Some people couldn’t pay their bills, had hungry kids, maybe couldn’t walk or see. And some suffered from a broken heart, the only known cure being the slow, painful ticking of time. After Mark sternly advised Mr. Lupinski of what could possibly happen to him in make-believe-law-land, he had an inkling to go outside, give dirty looks to couples holding hands or kissing, get to his apartment and crawl underneath the covers to wait for his heart to mend.
But it was no use. He couldn’t get Julie out of his mind and all those things that James had said. He didn’t believe them. Deep down in his heart he didn’t trust a word that man said. But where was Julie? Why hadn’t she reached out to him? These same thoughts kept rolling over and over in his mind.
Every time he looked at the clock, only five minutes had passed. It seemed the day would pass by one slow, painful minute at a time. All Mark wanted was the solitude of his apartment, but everything seemed to go against him.
Finally, at four forty-five, he got up from his desk. Perhaps he would see if Meagan still wanted to get some food. He didn’t really feel hungry, but a change of scenery might do him good. But then again, he knew she had a little bit of a crush on him. It wouldn’t really be right to ask her to accompany him when he needed his ego boosted. No. The best thing would be to just go home. Maybe some exercise would help him feel better. That was it. He talked himself into a grueling workout and would hit the gym right after work. But now he needed to talk to the secretaries about tomorrow’s docket before everyone left for the day.
Happy he had a plan, Mark walked to the door and yanked it open, only to be shocked and startled out of his skin.
“Hi,” she said, her voice low and almost scared, but her eyes bright and twinkling.
“Julie.” Mark could have been knocked over with a feather. Just as he had decided to push Julie out of his mind with excruciating crunches and a couple hundred laps around the gym, here she was in front of him. He stepped forward and gently wrapped her in his arms, to which she squeezed him back.
“I’m sorry to bother you here,” she said into his shoulder. “But I couldn’t wait to see you at your apartment. I missed you this morning. It seems like I’ve been playing a game of hurry up and wait.”
Mark pulled back and stepped aside from the door, motioning for Julie to come in. His heart was racing. All he wanted to do was scoop her up in his arms and kiss her lovely face, but he didn’t dare. Instead, he closed the door just a little behind her, stuck his hands in his pockets and stared at her as if she were a priceless painting.
“You were at my apartment this morning?”
“Yeah, around nine o’clock. You must have already left for work. But, I found you now. Mark, there is so much I need to tell you. I don’t really even know where to start.”
“How about telling me where you’ve been? I couldn’t wait to see you either so I went to your home and ...”
“I know,” Julie interrupted, rubbing her hands together. “Mrs. Carter told me. She told me what James and my mother said. Mark, I couldn’t remember you after the accident. I still don’t have a clear account of what exactly happened on that boat.” She looked out the window as if trying to catch some glimpse of that fateful day out there. Instead, all she saw was sunlight and the green grass Mark had contemplated jumping to.
“But one thing I have known through it all is that you stayed with me. I couldn’t see your face or remember your name, but you were with me.” She tapped her chest while looking at Mark. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life, Mark. And then, when I was with Brenda at the bridal salon, I heard that song. Then everything came into focus. Like I had been walking around in the fog for so long and finally I could see things clearly.”
“Bridal salon?” Mark asked nervously. “You were getting ready for your wedding to James Turner?”
Julie blinked and recoiled a little as if the words were offensive. To her they were. So much about James had lost its shine and become decayed and useless.
“Yes. He and my mother kept telling me I was happy about it. They said that I had never been so elated in my life. But I didn’t feel it. Every time I looked at James, I thought I kept seeing the shadow of something bad, but could never quite catch a glimpse of it. And when he grabbed me at the salon when I tried to leave ...”
“He grabbed you?”
Julie nodded her head, instinctively rubbing her right wrist with her left hand.
Just as she was about to tell Mark what had happened, there was a knock on his office door. It was Meagan, and she had someone with her.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but a Mr. James Turner is here to see you? He said it was important,” she whispered before letting James into the office. Julie’s eyes widened, and she stepped to the side of Mark’s desk to put it between her and James.
“Oh, thank God, you’re here,” James said softly, letting his arms fall loosely to his sides. He was an impressive looking man in jeans and a dress shirt with a blazer over it. His shoulders seemed so broad he might have to squeeze through the door sideways. He smiled innocently. There were no clenched teeth, no balled up fists. “Julie, please. Come with me back home. We’ll work this out together.”
Julie’s body shook slightly.
“Hello, Mark. Look, I’m sorry about how I acted when we met the other day. I was hurt. But everything I said was true. Julie has a problem figuring out what is fact and what she has made up in her head. The doctor called it hysterical amnesia, didn’t he Julie?”
“You’re twisting everything around to make me look like a fool. But it isn’t going to work. I’m not going anywhere with you, James. Not today. Not ever.”
“But, isn’t that what the doctor said? He said you had hysterical amnesia. That’s how you’re able to be with me, Mark, and the other fellow, what was his name? Aaron, that’s right.” James might have been able to come across sympathetic and concerned to an outside observer, but Julie saw the glint in his eyes and the slight curve at the corners of his mouth. He was enjoying this.
Meanwhile, Mark looked back and forth betwee
n the two and couldn’t believe such a dramatic scene was taking place in his office. Who was telling the truth? His heart wanted desperately to believe Julie, but his head kept saying he was being used like he had been with Kimberly so long ago. That wound seemed to spring open again and sting with a vengeance.
“I washed up on a beach, James. Aaron and his sisters rescued me. You were with my parents when they came to pick me up, and I didn’t know who any of you were.”
James shook his head and looked sadly at Mark. He was trying to work him the same way he did Julie’s mother, Margaret. But Mark wasn’t so mesmerized by James’s charm. In fact, he was slowly starting to see a hint of desperation. Having watched attorneys question witnesses on the stand for several years, it wasn’t hard to pick up a few things. He decided to ask James a couple questions.
“James, how did you know Julie would be here? I mean, how did you even know where my work was?” Mark asked innocently.
James smiled a very sugary sweet smile at Mark.
“I will admit, Mark, I’ve got the means to find things out about people. It wasn’t hard to find out where you worked. And I know Julie better than she knows herself. This was the next logical place for her to run to.”
Mark nodded. James had an interesting answer, basically making it Julie’s fault he was there.
“But I never told you about Mark, James,” Julie spoke defiantly. “I never told you I was in love with another man. How would you even know who Mark is unless you met him before? Right?” she said, knowing James had dragged her name through the mud with Mark just a few short hours ago. Mrs. Carter told her everything he said.
Chuckling as if he were dealing with a toddler, James ignored Julie completely.
“I’m sorry about all this, Mark. But we’ve wasted enough of your time. Julie, it’s time for us to go back home.” He reached out his hand to her. She did nothing but take another step backward.
“Julie, I’m not going to ask you twice. If I have to carry you out of here, I will.”
Julie looked at Mark, tears filling her eyes.
“Look! I’ve come all this way, and I’m willing to forgive you, but you have to meet me halfway Julie.” He rubbed his hands together. Mark and a desk were in his way, preventing him from just grabbing her wrist and pulling her out of the office.
“I’m not going with you. You’re a liar.”
James was losing patience and looked to Mark for male support to dismiss the silliness of this female.
“You wouldn’t believe what I’ve done for this girl, Mark. The ring I proposed to her with was the size of a golf ball. She had access to all the best clubs and shows and an arsenal of politicians and police at her fingertips. She’d never want for anything. She’s even wearing the necklace I bought her, see? The girl won’t give it up. The excitement and attention she gets from all this drama has become her addiction.” He clicked his tongue behind his teeth. “But even with all this, I still love her.”
Mark looked at the necklace around her neck and nearly choked.
“That’s beautiful,” he said, pursing his eyebrows together. That was it. The lie was so blatant that Mark almost enjoyed feeding into it, but, at the same time, it made him sick. Sick that he had ever let this man worm his way into his mind, and worse yet, his heart. “Where did you get it?”
James brushed Mark off with a wave of his hand, oblivious Mark was onto him.
“I picked it up from one of my jeweler friends.”
Julie, on the other hand, was smiling broadly. She knew where the necklace really came from. And as she looked outside, the bright clear day was becoming gloomier by the second. It was going to rain. Dark clouds were on the horizon. And a slew of memories rushed up to Julie, transporting her to the boat that horrible day with James. Her face went pale and her hands tingled. For a moment, she thought she was going to pass out.
“You liar,” she said, steadying herself against the desk. “You took me out on that boat that day. You were waiting for me at Mrs. Carter’s house because you had my phone number being watched by one of your toadies,” she said through grinding teeth. No longer afraid, Julie let the fury race through her veins, and it kept her standing tall.
“I called my dad, you said. I was so stupid you said. And then.” She put her hand to her face and rubbed it, remembering what James had done to get her aboard that boat without any trouble.
“And when the storm came in, I chose to drown rather than stay with you. That was how I got away. That was how I ended up on the beach and those two wonderful girls and their brave brother found me and let me stay with them.”
James’s face became like stone, and the glare Mark had seen at the fancy home in San Francisco returned.
“You are broken, Julie. There’s something wrong with you. But,” he chuckled sadistically, “I still want to marry you. Can you believe that?” He looked at Mark. “Even though she’s calling me names and making up stories. I’m still going to make her my wife ...”
“I don’t think so, James,” Mark said, stepping directly in between Julie and James. Even though the ex-fiancé was a good six inches taller than Mark, there was no way he was going to get to Julie without a fight.
“Don’t tell me you believe what she’s saying? Are you kidding me?” He slapped his head with his hand. “Mark, everything that comes out of her mouth is a lie. You’re being played. I really thought you were smarter than that.”
“I bought her that necklace. I did. And I know about when you grabbed her in your car out in the parking lot of the country club you belong to. And I know how you won’t let her talk to her friend Danielle. I don’t need you to admit it. I can see it in those bugged eyes of yours.”
James said nothing, his mouth hanging open slightly. He squinted at Mark and took a bold step up to him, to stare directly down his broad chest into Mark’s eyes.
“So you think you’re a big shot for figuring that out?” he breathed heavily into Mark’s face, his muscles tightening underneath the button-down shirt he was wearing. The muscles of his jaw bulged underneath his skin as if he were chewing gum.
“She’s crazy. And I’m the only one who knows how to deal with a girl like her. So you need to just step aside and let me take my fiancé out of here and back home where she belongs.”
“I’m not your fiancé, James. I gave your ring back. You know that,” Julie said, almost sadly as if she were tired and still had to repeat herself over and over again.
Mark looked into James’s face and for a second felt very sorry for him. This man was losing probably the best thing he would ever know, the best person, the kindest heart and it had to be killing him. This was the one thing that he couldn’t buy or influence with his money. Suddenly, in Mark’s mind, James became a small playground bully who didn’t know how to tell the little girl with the blonde ponytail how much he liked her, so instead, he pushed her down and called her ugly.
“I don’t love you, James. I love someone else. It happens. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. No one will think anything other than well ... it didn’t work out. But I don’t love you, and that is it. You can’t force me to.” Julie was trying to be sensitive. She didn’t know if he would respond to kindness or not, but it was worth a try.
“You’re so stupid,” he spat. “We are meant to be together. And just because you’ve got this wanna-be superhero here standing in my way doesn’t mean you and I won’t end up together. This isn’t over,” he looked down at Mark with hatred in his eyes.
“You hear me? This isn’t over at all. I know people who will make your life miserable. I took you away once, I’ll...”
Mark was still standing firm as he slowly reached his hand over to the phone on his desk, lifted the receiver and dialed the number three for the reception desk.
“If you don’t leave now, I will have you physically removed from the premises. If you make another threat, I’ll have the cops here in two minutes. And then you can call your friends from the country club to
come bail you out. Take your pick.”
Mark remained calm but saw the sweat breaking out on James’s face.
With one final glance at Julie, James turned and walked slowly toward the door. He turned around, and without consideration for Julie, pointed his finger at Mark.
“I know your face. You should have stayed out of it. You should have forgotten you ever met her after she didn’t come back. You’re going to wish you did.”
With that last threat, James turned and stomped out of the office.
Mark was about to call the police and make good on his promise to get him arrested, but Julie stepped up and placed her delicate hand on his.
“Don’t call the police.”
“Are you sure? I don’t know about you, but that’s what I thought you’re supposed to do when someone threatens you. I don’t know. My folks may have been a bit old-fashioned that way.”
Julie chuckled. Stepping from around the desk, she tilted her head to the left and peeked up at Mark.
“I’m so sorry. I had so much to tell you, and now all I can say is I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Mark looked out the window and saw a gentle rain had begun to fall.
“I don’t know what you think you have to be sorry about.”
Raising her hand and pointing at the door where James had left, Julie let her arm fall and slap against her thigh.
“Are you kidding me? What kind of way is this to start a relationship? People tell horror stories about ex-boyfriends, and sometimes there is even an episode on America’s Most Wanted. How can you say that? You should have never gotten mixed up with me.”
She looked into Mark’s eyes and felt a rush of warmth spread over her body as his familiar blue eyes gazed into hers.
“Well, if I never got mixed up with you, how would we ever get married?”
Unforgettable Love Page 12
