Something was wrong. Michael knew Kimberly too well, and as he waited for her to turn around, he studied her composure. Ever since the incident, she had gone through short bouts of depression and he sensed another one was coming on. He would have his assistant get two tickets for a weekend at that resort she loved so much in Playa Del Carmen.
“Honey, what’s . . .” Michael was stopped midsentence when Kimberly dropped the coffee cup just as it reached her mouth. He jumped up from his seat and rushed over to her.
“Dios Mio!” Marisol was rushing around as both boys just stared at Kimberly, who was focused on the radio.
When Michael reached out to her, she pushed away. He turned to the television and his body stiffened in shock at what he saw.
A mug shot of David Harris filled half the screen as the reporter told the story.
“The victim, David Harris, has a long rap sheet in Detroit, Michigan, for drugs and has spent time in prison for running a prostitution ring. Why he was in Los Angeles, police don’t know. He was registered at the hotel under the name Roger Willis and paid in cash.”
“Jesus!” Michael’s hands went to his head as his heart beat so hard it felt as if it would break through his chest bone.
“This murder is unusual for the Biltmore.” The television showed the outside of the high-end hotel. “Police can only say they believe they’re looking for a woman.”
“Marisol,” Michael said calmly.
“I’m cleaning it up.” Marisol pushed Kimberly away from the broken pieces as she placed a towel on the floor.
“Mommy wants apple juice too!” Evan screamed victoriously.
“Marisol!” Michael yelled loud enough to make both boys jump. “Take the kids out now.”
“But I—”
“Now!”
As the news moved on to another story, Michael turned to his wife and was confused by the still, grim expression on her face. He waited until Marisol and the kids were out of the kitchen before speaking.
“Kimberly, did you . . .” He grabbed her by the arms and turned her to him. Her eyes were blank and she felt as cold as ice. “What’s going on? Did you know about this?”
Kimberly was struck by a sudden urge to reach out and touch his face. She loved him so much. She loved her life so much. “You taught me how to really love, you know.”
Michael leaned back. “Kimberly, you’re scaring me.”
“I did it.”
Michael blinked, certain he had heard her wrong. “What?”
“You were supposed to handle this, Michael. You said we would never hear from him again.”
“We weren’t supposed to.” Michael let her go and rushed to the table where his phone was. “I was supposed to be told if he ever left, died, or—”
“You trusted someone who works at a Mexican prison?” Kimberly asked.
“How did you know he was . . .” He suddenly realized what she had said and the phone dropped out of his hand onto the table. “What did you do?”
“What I had to,” she answered. “I got the pictures and the money back. I took it. The money was in the closet and I—”
“Kimberly!” Michael was completely freaked out at this moment. “Concentrate, baby. Tell me what you did!”
“He was threatening to destroy everything—our life, our family. I couldn’t let that happen after what I’d already done to Janet. He had pictures. He . . . he wanted money.”
Without thinking, she turned and headed out of the kitchen, but Michael grabbed her and turned her around. “I want my boys.”
“The boys are fine.” Michael took her face in his hands to make her focus. “Are you listening to me?”
Kimberly nodded.
He spoke slowly. “Tell me what happened.”
Kimberly began telling him everything, but couldn’t bring herself to divulge the whole truth. The more she told him, the more he freaked out. By the time she got to the point just before when he demanded she sleep with him, Michael was hunched over the kitchen table. She couldn’t go any further.
Michael was livid and still in half disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me? Kimberly, I could have handled this.”
“Like you did before?” she asked, even though she was aware her attitude would only make things worse. Could things get any worse?
“I would have taken care of him for good this time.” Michael began pacing all over the kitchen in no direction. “Okay, tell me what happened at the hotel.”
“I went there to give him the money and he told me there weren’t any more pictures.”
“So he lied?” Michael thought that was good. “So the cops won’t find any pictures of you there?”
Kimberly shook her head. “But he wanted more money and I refused. We struggled and . . . I swear, baby, it was an accident. I just wanted to get away.”
Michael wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed uncontrollably. His mind was racing a mile a minute. “I’ll fix this, baby. If there isn’t any trace of you in that room, I can fix this. Think. Did you leave anything that could be traced back to the family?”
Kimberly tried to remember everything she had done when she returned to the room, but she had been practically catatonic and her memory was a haze. “I took the money and there was a towel in the bathroom where I washed my hands.”
“Please tell me you took that.”
“I tossed it in a garbage can ten miles away. They won’t find it.”
“No, they won’t. Anything else?”
“My fingerprints, Michael. They’re all over that place.”
Michael knew what this meant and it wasn’t good. Her fingerprints were in the system from when she was arrested in Detroit. The cops knew David was from there.
“You were fifteen when you were arrested, right?”
“Sixteen.”
When Michael tried to get Kimberly’s file erased from the Detroit Police Department, he was only successful in getting the hard copy. He couldn’t erase it from the computer. The hacker he hired said it was impossible for him to get to juvenile records.
“Your file is probably sealed. I don’t know. I’ll have to ask Carter.” Michael felt sick to his stomach at the thought of what he had to do next. “I have to call Dad.”
Kimberly began crying again. “No. No. No. No.”
“He’s the only one who can fix something like this,” Michael told her.
“What can he do?” Kimberly saw from the expression on Michael’s face that he didn’t really know, but that didn’t matter.
Steven Chase had contacts at the highest levels of every arena. He was a billionaire, but it wasn’t just his money. Steven was a very powerful man who had done favors for other powerful people. They owed him and he always used his IOUs cautiously. He could impose his will on anyone.
But he wasn’t a magician, Kimberly thought. He could erase fingerprints, but not DNA. How would she tell him that her DNA was all over that bed?
“Dad can do anything,” Michael said quietly as he reached for the phone.
As a child and basically his entire life he’d believed his father was Superman, God of the Universe, and as perfect as a person could be. But it wasn’t until now, at the age of thirty, that he needed desperately for that to be true.
All hell was about to break loose in the Chase family . . . again.
Janet could only stand one Haley. If Leigh intended on turning into another version of her younger sister, Janet didn’t think she could take it. It was so unlike Leigh to be unreliable, and the fact that she hadn’t even come to her with the bad news made Janet even angrier.
Janet’s full-time job was as head of the Chase Foundation, and she had an office both in downtown Los Angeles and in Chase Mansion. She spent about half of her time in either, but preferred her home office, which was just across the hallway from Steven’s home office. She’d expected to spend a relaxing day at home before leaving for lunch with the wife of L.A. General Hospital’s first black chief surgeon when she got a cal
l from Jeannine, her assistant, asking her if she had found a replacement for Leigh’s now-canceled piano performance at the musical benefit only one week away. Janet had thought she was kidding at first and was furious to find out she wasn’t.
Immediately calling the clinic, she found out Leigh had called in sick that day and Janet was worried. Leigh had to be dragging on the floor before she wouldn’t go into the clinic. Janet’s maternal instincts shifted into high gear.
Walking through the house in search of her daughter for an explanation, Janet’s suspicions were further raised by what she saw at the front door when she entered the foyer. She watched in silence as Maya refused Lyndon Prior entry into the house, repeating over and over again that Leigh wasn’t in. He was pleading with Maya to take the flowers he had brought, but she refused. Janet smirked at the cheap display of affection. Flowers. This boy was way beneath her daughter.
Janet waited until Maya shut the door to ask what was going on. “Leigh’s car is right in the driveway. I know she’s here somewhere.”
Maya shrugged. “She said if he came by to say she wasn’t here. I don’t have to explain anything to him. If he comes back I’m not even going to answer the door.”
“Did she say why?” Janet asked.
“You won’ know,” Maya said with a slip of her Caribbean accent, “then ask her.”
“Where is she?”
“Working out like a maniac.”
It took her a few minutes to reach the exercise room in the basement of the house. The room, housing more than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars of exercise equipment and weights, had recently been updated with a mirror wall, a water rower, and a new elliptical machine. When Janet finally arrived, she stood in the doorway for a minute watching Leigh run on the treadmill at a fierce, almost dangerous pace with her back to her. Yes, her mother’s intuition said something was definitely wrong.
Leigh jumped, almost falling over herself when, out of nowhere, her mother appeared in front of the treadmill. She extended her legs to the edge of the machine and took the iPod headphones out of her ears. “What is it?”
Janet noticed right away that Leigh had been crying. Her eyes were red and swollen. “Why didn’t you see fit to tell me you were canceling your performance at the benefit?”
“Why do you think?” Leigh asked. She just couldn’t deal with her mother today.
“That’s a very mature response.” Janet eyed Leigh’s hand as she seemed tempted to put the headphones back in. “Answer me.”
Leigh sighed. “Mom, I can’t do it, okay? I’m just too busy and too tired.”
“You made a commitment and people are spending a lot of money to—”
“They spend the money so they can dress up and be seen by other rich people.” Leigh stopped the machine. “No one will give a damn whether I’m there or not.”
“I will.”
“Well, that’s too bad, then.” Leigh stepped down and reached for her towel.
Janet wasn’t sure how to respond to that reaction. Her perfect angel never spoke like this. “What has gotten into you?”
“I’m not doing it, okay? And stop trying to guilt me. I’m sick of you trying to impose your life on me. Everyone thinks they can push me around and I’m not taking it anymore. Not from you or anyone.”
“Or Lyndon?” Janet noticed the expression on Leigh’s face went from frustration to pure anger. “He tried to get in just now but Maya ran defense as you instructed her to. What did he do?”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” Just the mention of Lyndon’s name made her angry. She was just so damn angry.
After she had left Lyndon’s house, Leigh drove around for hours. She hated herself for being such a gullible idiot. How had she been such a fool as to believe Lyndon could really care for her? Hollywood stars don’t care about anything other than their image. They don’t have relationships; they have opportunities. How had she allowed herself to ignore all the warning signs and be seduced by his lifestyle? She had red flags the second she saw Nick, yet she tried to be positive because she wanted to be with Lyndon. She wanted his friends to like her. This was what her positive, weak-willed thinking had gotten her, and she was sick of being taken advantage of and deceived.
She couldn’t close her eyes because all she saw was Nick coming at her. She knew she wouldn’t call the police because Lyndon and Nick would deny everything. She didn’t even want to think of the racial implications. No, her family had been through enough. What had happened was over. There was no use in making it worse.
“Leigh.” Janet reached out to her baby, seeing pain that she hadn’t seen since that day in the hospital when Richard died and Leigh blamed her for it. “I don’t care about the benefit. Just tell me what’s upsetting you.”
Leigh slapped her mother’s hand away. “Just leave me alone!”
Janet was too shocked to respond as Leigh ran out of the room. Yes, she wanted her to leave her alone, but she was genetically incapable of doing so.
Janet reached in her pocket for her cell phone, intending to call her husband, but thought twice about it. Whatever was going on was very serious and she needed to know more before Stephen was involved. She didn’t want a repeat of Richard. She would have to handle this one by herself for now.
Although he tried to hide it, Carter’s eyes squinted when Avery squeezed his hand. She was killing him, but there wasn’t anywhere he’d rather be than with her right now in this hospital room.
“Why don’t you get some drugs?” Carter asked, standing on the left side of the hospital bed. Avery was sweating and breathing hard. She looked as if she was in terrible pain and he didn’t like seeing it.
“Not yet.” Avery tried to concentrate on her breathing exercises, but it was hard to concentrate with Carter right next to her.
She knew she should have made him leave, but she didn’t want to. Not just because she didn’t want to be alone, but because in her heart she knew she wanted him here. She just didn’t have the time to feel ashamed about it because of the pain. With every growing contraction, she cared less and less about what was right.
“It’s too soon.” Avery’s head fell back on the pillow. “I need more water.”
“Give me that thing.” He grabbed the call button and pressed hard. “Where is that damn nurse? I’m gonna go—”
“Carter!” She snatched the button away from him. “Do not have one of your elitist tantrums with the people delivering my baby.”
“Me?” Carter asked. “You’ve yelled at everyone since we showed up at this hospital.”
“I’m having a baby! I get a free pass to scream at everyone. They’re already pissed at you for insulting the room.”
“Screw them,” Carter said. “This hospital has a whole wing of suites two floors up. I can get you a room in five—”
“Enough!” Avery leaned forward as soon as she heard the front door opening. She needed her mother, but it was Dr. Channing.
“Mrs. Harper, how are we doing?” The young Dr. Channing was five-eleven with blond hair and a perky disposition. She stood at the end of the bed looking as if she was having the best day of her life.
Avery wanted to lunge across the bed and strangle her. “What do you think?”
“Sounds about right.” She looked down at the chart in her hand. “Your water broke?”
“As soon as I got to the emergency room.” Avery was glad that happened when Carter had gone to park the car. It wasn’t pretty.
“Thank God,” Carter added.
“And you’re five minutes apart still?” she asked.
Avery nodded. “How much longer?”
“This is your first.” Dr. Channing leaned forward with an excited smile. “On average, about six hours.”
“Six hours?” Avery felt like crying. “I can’t go through this for another six hours.”
“Shouldn’t she be in a special room getting special attention or something?” Carter asked.
Dr. Channing look
ed Carter up and down. “You must be the one who called our maternity wing a dump.”
“Not because of that,” Carter said. “She’s preterm. Isn’t that dangerous?”
When Dr. Channing looked from Carter to Avery, Avery’s panicked expression must have given the right message. She turned back to Carter. “And you are?”
“He’s no one.” Nikki tossed her purse in the chair and rushed to the side of the bed, taking Avery’s hand away from Carter’s and into her own. She kissed it. “Baby, are you okay?”
“Oh my God, Mom.” Avery couldn’t remember ever being so happy to see someone. “She said it could be another six hours.”
Nikki kissed Avery on the forehead and smiled. “You took ten, sweety. Hello, Dr. Channing.”
“It’s nice to see you again, Mrs. Jackson. How is your husband?”
“He’s doing much better,” Nikki said. “He was so happy to hear Avery had gone into labor. He would be here if he could.”
“Did you call Anthony?” Avery asked.
“He should already be in the air, hon. But don’t worry.” She pushed against Carter with her body, moving him farther out of the way. “I’m here and I’ll take care of you.”
“If you had let me send my father’s jet,” Carter offered, “he would be here in a couple of hours.”
“You’re not helping, Carter,” Avery warned.
“Hello, Nikki.” Carter smiled even though he knew any gesture with Nikki was fruitless at this point.
“He’s not family.” Nikki ignored him, talking to Dr. Channing. “He should leave.”
“I agree,” Dr. Channing said.
Carter looked at the doctor with disdain. Who did these women think they were? “If Avery wants me to—”
“Actually,” Dr. Channing interrupted, “it really doesn’t matter what she wants. She can only have one person in here at a time. It’s either you or Mama. I vote for Mom.”
Carter turned to Avery, but her eyes were shut. Another contraction was coming and when it set in, Avery leaned into her mother, calling out to her. He knew he was doomed, but he didn’t want to leave.
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