by T V Hartwell
“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Mike. You fucking lied. You lied!” Jake said in a raised voice and pointing his finger at Mike for emphasis.
At that point, Tom stepped in to cool things down. He reached over and squeezed Jake on the arm. “Okay, okay. Settle down, and let’s keep our voices down,” he said calmly.
Mike was incredulous. “What’s wrong with you? I didn’t lie to you.”
Jake snickered and shook his head mockingly.
“Mike, we know,” Tom said.
“Know what?”
“We know the truth. Jamie’s admitted everything—the affair with Rick, keeping it covered up for all of these years. We took a paternity test, and Jake’s my son, not Rick’s.”
Mike looked at Tom with befuddlement. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Come on, man, cut the bullshit,” Tom sneered, becoming impatient.
“Tom, I swear on my life. I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re telling me Jamie had an affair with Rick Climent?”
Tom looked at Mike sideways. “So you don’t know that? What did Rick tell you when he hired you to get Jake to break up with Amanda?”
“I’m sorry…one moment, please,” Mike struggled to say as he choked and then coughed hard a few times. He seemed caught off guard and a bit overwhelmed. He took a sip of his Scotch to help clear his throat before attempting to speak again. “Everything Rick told me is what I told Jake. That Amanda had and apparently still has dissociative identity disorder and that she was a danger to herself and potentially to others, specifically to you, leading up to your wedding,” Mike said, turning to Jake. “He asked me to help explain that to you, and that’s what I did. Rick felt if he’d told you this himself, you might not have believed him.”
“Of course I wouldn’t’ve believed him,” Jake said. “I believed you. I took your word for it because I’ve known you since I was, like, five years old. You’re like family. I never would’ve believed that you of all people would lie to me. I trusted you…like an uncle.”
“Jake, I didn’t lie to you. All I told you is what I knew.”
“But Mike, you know it’s all a lie. Don’t you? Rick made the whole thing up because he thought Jake might be his son.”
“So you’re telling me Jamie had an affair with Rick at some point and they thought Jake might be his son and not yours?”
“Yes!” Tom and Jake both said in unison.
Mike turned white as he chuckled uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, but this is news to me. I swear to God, I knew nothing about this. When did all of this come to light?”
“Mike, Jamie had been keeping this secret all to herself for years. The affair with Rick occurred a long time ago. I guess a little more than a year into our marriage. It only lasted for about a month, she claims, but all this time she believed there was a strong possibility that Jake might be a by-product of the affair. At least, that’s what she believed up until now.”
“You said Jamie had kept this to herself for a number of years. So at some point she told Rick?”
“Yes, but she didn’t tell him until about a couple of months before the wedding. She panicked after having waited for so long to tell the truth, and with the wedding being around the corner, she finally fessed up, but instead of coming clean and telling me and Jake, she went to Rick, and they decided to devise a plan to break Jake and Amanda up without revealing anything about the affair. They wanted to keep that a secret, obviously.”
The astonishment on Mike’s face said it all, but he articulated what he was feeling nevertheless. “This is fucking insane.”
“Jamie left everything up to Rick. He told her that he’d handle everything. She didn’t know what he’d done to convince Jake to call off the wedding. All she knew is that whatever he did or said had worked. Now we know a big part of the reason why—because you were involved. It was clever of Rick to enlist you to do his dirty work.”
“So when did you find out about all of this…about the affair and everything?”
“Well, there’s one other person Jamie spoke to.”
“Who?”
“Our minister.”
“He’s the one who told me,” Jake said. “Remember when you advised me to seek counseling or professional help after I’d become upset about seeing Amanda with this guy Adam Weinstock? Well, I decided to go see him. He thought I knew about the affair and the whole paternity issue, but I didn’t, and he ended up telling me by accident.”
“When was this?” Mike asked.
“Toward the end of last month.”
“I’m speechless right now. I don’t know what to say.”
“So Rick told you Amanda had a mental disorder and you didn’t substantiate it by reviewing any medical records or consulting with her physician?” Tom asked.
“Tom, you know I can’t have access to her medical records. She’s an adult. I’d need her consent.”
“But you didn’t think you needed her consent to go around telling people, namely her fiancé, that she had a mental illness? That’s a pretty scandalous thing to say about someone without any hard evidence. Plus, she’s not under the legal guardianship of her parents, is she? One would reasonably assume that if Amanda was as sick as Rick claimed and posed a serious risk to her own well-being, Rick and Camilla would’ve petitioned a court for full if not limited legal guardianship at a minimum.”
“I did ask him about that. He said that since her alter ego appeared sporadically depending on the life event and not on a daily basis, he didn’t feel guardianship was necessary at the moment. She could still function for the most part. He said they were keeping the option open but didn’t feel the need to put her through the stress of a court hearing, especially when she was in denial about her condition.”
Jake and Tom both shook their heads and chuckled derisively. “He didn’t want to pursue a hearing because there’s no basis to his claims. He would’ve been laughed right out of court,” Jake said.
Mike seemed humiliated and embarrassed. “Look, I guess Rick had me fooled, I’m sorry to admit. I took him at his word. I was trying to help out a friend and a longtime client who appeared to be genuinely in need of my help.”
“Looks more to me like you were trying to keep a lucrative business relationship intact at the expense of a twenty-plus-year relationship with me and my family,” Tom said.
“Tom, come on. That’s not the case at all.”
“But what about Jake? Where was your concern for him in all of this?”
“I did my best make sure Jake would get taken care of and would be made whole to the greatest degree possible. In fact, I told Rick that I wouldn’t even take the matter on unless he made Jake a minimum offer that I felt was acceptable in light of the circumstances.”
“The five million?”
“Right. In fact, Rick had offered to pay more. You know that,” Mike said, turning to Jake.
“It’s not about the money. It never was. I was just trying to do what was best for Amanda based on what you and Rick told me.”
“I still don’t understand why you didn’t come to me. You could’ve gotten me involved,” Tom told Mike. “I would’ve dug deeper. That’s for damn sure. I would’ve demanded medical records, some sort of written proof. Fuck this shit about Amanda being an adult and all. If she’d been sick with this ailment for as long as Rick claimed, since she was a small child, then they would have something in writing about it—a written diagnosis, prescriptions, treatment plans, something.”
“Tom, if I could’ve spoken to you and gotten you involved, I would have, but Rick was adamant about keeping everything quiet. That’s why he wanted Jake to sign a confidentiality agreement and offered to pay him millions of dollars.”
“Well, for obvious reasons. The whole thing was nefarious. That son of a bitch should be criminally prosecuted. At a minimum, we have enough to bring a civil case for fraud.”
Mike looked at Tom forebodingly. “Do yo
u really want to go there? What about Jamie? She could be viewed as a coconspirator.”
Tom glared at Mike, clearly agitated. “So what did you get out of this? What did Rick offer you?”
“I didn’t get anything. Not a single dime. Rick offered to pay me a fee, but I declined.”
“I see. As long as he and his companies continue to give you their business—”
“God damn it, Tom, don’t try to impugn my character. Come on. You know me better than that. My motivation in all of this was to help Jake. I acknowledge that I might not have gone about it in the best way. I should’ve done more due diligence—seeking medical records and asking to speak with their family doctor—but at the end of the day, Jake has to take some responsibility for his role in this, too. We didn’t hold a gun to his head. He walked away willingly.” Mike turned to look at Jake. “It was your decision and your decision alone whether to break up with Amanda. When you think about it, Rick was basically at your mercy. You held all of the cards. You, too, could’ve pressed for more information, demanded to see medical records, requested to speak to a doctor, but you didn’t. I know you had faith in my integrity and you trusted me, but Amanda was your fiancée, for Christ’s sake. You could’ve put up more of a fight.”
Jake sighed and sat back in his chair and listened. What could he say? Mike had a point. “You’re right. I could’ve done more, but I didn’t,” Jake conceded before pausing for a moment to think back. “From the moment I uttered those words to Amanda…when I broke up with her…that I wasn’t in love with her anymore, and that I couldn’t marry her, I knew what I was doing was wrong.”
“Then why’d you do it?” Tom asked.
Jake couldn’t come up with an answer.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next day, Jake arrived to work early and immediately buried himself in the details of the case he was working on involving the SEC investigation of his client. Taking the lead in handling such an important case with a new client to the firm helped him to focus on his work with a renewed sense of energy and dedication. He remained confined to his office from the time he’d arrived at seven thirty that morning until well past noon.
Jake’s assistant, Patti, pushed the partially closed door open and poked her head through. “Peekaboo!”
Jake stopped what he was doing, looked up at her, and smiled. “Come on in,” he said, waving his arm.
“Your door’s been pulled closed for so long, I thought maybe you’d left without me noticing,” Patti said as she stepped toward the front of Jake’s desk.
“Oh, I was just trying to keep from being distracted. How are you?”
“I’m fine. How are you? You’ve seemed so on edge this week. Has this new case got you in a tizzy?”
Jake chuckled. “No. I’m excited about this case, actually.”
“Well, and I know you had a family matter to deal with earlier this week. I hope everything’s okay.”
“Thanks. Things are a little better,” Jake said, keeping it vague.
“I hope nobody’s sick or anything. That’s always so stressful, dealing with a sick parent. When my mother was battling breast cancer before she passed away—this was before you started working here—I had to take so much time off to care for her with the chemotherapy treatments and all, and then she got sick from that and had to be admitted to the hospital because she had such a violent reaction to it. It made her condition worse.”
Jake sensed that Patti was fishing, but he tried to be sympathetic. “Fortunately, nobody’s sick. Just some unexpected family drama. So sorry to hear about your mom, though. I didn’t know.”
“Oh, thanks. She’s been gone now for more than eight years. Anyway, did you have lunch?”
“No, I’ve been glued to my desk all day.”
“Jake, you haven’t even gone to lunch yet? What time is it?” Patti said as she lifted her arm to look at her watch. “Two thirty! It’s two thirty, Jake. Aren’t you hungry?”
“I am, actually.”
“Jake, get out of here and go get you something to eat already.”
“I know, I know. I’ll go shortly.”
“No. Right now, Jake. Come on,” she said, motioning with her hand for Jake to rise from his seat. “Let’s go, sweetie. I’m going to play your mama now. I’ll play your assistant again when you get back. Let’s go.”
Amused at Patti’s insistence, Jake laughed. “Oh, all right. I’ll go. I could use a little walk, anyway. My legs feel a bit cramped,” he said as he stood to his feet and walked around from behind his desk, wobbly.
Jake went downstairs to the food court in the basement of his building and bought a Chinese chicken salad along with a bottle of water. He then rode back up the escalator to sit and eat outside in the warm sun. Although it was midwinter, it was a cozy seventy-two degrees in LA. Jake put on his sunglasses and took a seat at a table without an umbrella in the massive courtyard that graced the front of his office tower complex.
Jake devoured his salad quickly, barely looking up to notice what was going on around him. He was hungrier than he’d realized, not stopping to take a drink of his water until he’d finished eating first. He took a long gulp of his water, nearly finishing it before setting the bottle back down on the table. He stretched out and crossed his legs, leaned back in his chair with his hands folded behind his head, and soaked in the warm, hypnotic feel of the sun splashing across his face. This feels so good, Jake thought as he closed his eyes and slowly drifted off to a light sleep—just enough to lose a degree of consciousness while still having marginal sensory awareness of the sound of moving traffic in the street and the faint voices of passersby. Jake heard himself as he began to snore. He popped his head up and opened his eyes briefly. He adjusted himself in his seat and folded his arms across his chest before he closed his eyes again and drifted off back to wonderland.
He probably would’ve ended up there longer than he’d planned had he not been awakened by the ring of his cell phone. Jake’s eyes popped open at the sound. He picked up his phone off the table and saw a number appear across his caller ID that he didn’t recognize. The area code read 212. Who could be calling me from New York?
“Hello, this is Jake.”
“Hello, Jake. I guess you’ve been expecting my call.”
“Who is this?” Jake asked, not recognizing the male voice at first.
“It’s Rick. Rick Climent.”
Stunned into silence, Jake didn’t answer back. He actually wasn’t expecting a call from Rick, certainly not at that moment.
“I’m sorry that I haven’t gotten back to you. I’ve been traveling, but anyway, I think we need to talk.”
“I know, Rick. I know everything. And in case you haven’t heard yet, we took a paternity test, and I’m not your son.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a moment before Rick decided to speak again. “Listen, I’ll be back in LA tomorrow. Would you be available to meet with me? I’d be happy to meet you wherever you’d like. Just name a time and place that works for you.”
“Meet about what? I have nothing to say to you.”
“I want to make a deal with you…to see if we could come to some sort of compromise.”
“Compromise? What is there to compromise? Unless you have some magical powers enabling you to turn back time to August of last year when Amanda and I were about to walk down the aisle and get married, I don’t see the point.”
“Jake, there’s a lot at stake.”
“A lot at stake for whom? I’ve already lost in this whole situation. My ex-fiancée is now with another dude. My family’s broken up or close to it. I mean…the bomb has already gone off.”
“Jake, I don’t expect you to have any sympathy for me, but let’s be fair here. Your mother sprang this whole damn thing on me at the last minute. Right before your wedding. I had no idea she had believed all these years that you might be my son. She begged me to help her keep the whole thing a secret. And obviously, I didn’t want my
daughter marrying a guy she might be related to—”
“But you should’ve had the balls to own up to what you did. There’s no excuse. None. We could’ve taken a paternity test back then, before the wedding. It could’ve been done in a low-key way. Nobody would’ve known. And, look, the test results proved that I’m not your son anyway. So everything would’ve worked out fine. You and Mom could’ve kept your dirty little secret to yourselves to some degree, and Amanda and I could’ve moved on with our lives. But you were so fucking selfish, you and my mom both. You guys really fucked up. Big time!”
“In hindsight, persuading Jamie to let us do a paternity test would’ve been the right thing to do, but—”
“But you had to go and make up this bullshit story instead. What do you think Amanda would have to say about that? And by the way, has your wife heard about all of this? Because as you probably know by now, I spoke to her earlier this week and she didn’t seem to have a clue.”
“Jake, I will give you what you want. Name your price. You know I’m good for it. I can help you write your ticket…to do whatever you want.”
“So you want to pay for my silence, like before?”
“Yes. Let’s just make this whole thing go away. You continue to stay away from Amanda and keep everything that’s happened—the story I told you about Amanda’s health, the affair I had with your mother, the paternity test—all to yourself in exchange for the offer of a lifetime…complete and total financial freedom.”
“But why should I protect you?”
“Because if you care anything about your long-term financial security—”
“We’ve got money, Rick,” Jake said testily.
“That’s fair. Your family has modest wealth. Tom has done very well for himself climbing the corporate ladder, and he no doubt stands to inherit a moderate sum from his parents when the time comes. But if he stopped working today, I suspect that it would alter your family’s lifestyle and future prospects for significant, uninterrupted wealth accumulation. You see, you and your dad have careers. You still have to work in order to make your wealth grow. You come from a family of distinguished lawyers and you’ve continued in that the tradition. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s the path you’ve chosen and it’s an honorable one. But the difference between my wealth and your family’s is that you and your dad are either employed by multibillion-dollar companies or you represent them as counsel. I buy, sell, and own billion-dollar companies all day long. I have people on my payroll who make what your father makes and much more. I can see to it that you never have to work again a day in your life, Jake. You’d be free to pursue whatever dreams or aspirations you might have. Or you could be sitting pretty traveling the world, playing the best golf courses, and surfing the most beautiful beaches all day long. Whatever suits your fancy.”
