Bedeviled Read online

  “Second, no one wanted Jeffrey with complete control of anything, not with the selfish greed he displayed. They feared he might be too busy taking cash upfront to consider the long-term health of the company. Third, when Zack died, his will would return the voting rights of those shares to me anyway, opening the door for yet another fight with Jeffrey. No one wants to see that happen. Another fight would be toxic.”

  “I agree with everything you just said, Alex, but it doesn’t get us closer to a solution.”

  “Finally,” Alex continued as if Tyler had not spoken, “if the press gets wind of this it will be very bad for business, which helps solidify the support of the entire Maverix board of directors behind me. Their unified front is supposed to keep the suit from ever coming forward, keeping the press from ever knowing of a potential fight for control.”

  “Of course, you need to avoid the press for personal reasons as well,” Tyler reminded his friend. “A team of corporate lawyers has been pouring over documents both in L.A. and at the bank in Chicago trying to prevent Jeffrey from gaining power of attorney or bringing forward his suit. It’s unlikely he would win, but keeping the suit from even being litigated is the primary goal. It’s obvious that Zack is CEO in name only at this point.”

  Tyler shot Alex a sympathetic look and indicated the sandwich sitting untouched before him. “Eat something. Not sure why, but it will help. Anyway, the bank, and by extension you, have the power to vote his shares and make his business decisions. You have Zack’s personal power of attorney as well, right?”

  “Yep,” Alex agreed between bites. “All that would have stopped someone less determined than Jeffrey.”

  “Why would someone do all this if they know they are going to lose?” Tyler mused under his breath. “That is what I don’t understand. He can’t really want to ruin the company. It’s the source of his income and frankly, his prestige. So what is he after?” Tyler let the thought trail off, staring at his empty plate, his mind far away.

  Shaking his head, Tyler looked straight into Alex’s face. “That is the key to all of this. Jeffrey has a very weak case, Any lawyer worth his fees is telling him to drop this suit, AJ. Or they should be. He will lose in court.”

  “But I really need it to stay out of court, and the press,” Alex reminded his friend. “Jeffrey understands that there are secrets here. I believe his is counting on my aversion to this going public, that he is betting I will settle to keep the family issues private.”

  “An intrepid reporter might be able to find and publicize the lawsuit if it was filed,” Tyler conceded, “but it would likely be a business reporter less interested in the family back story.”

  “This is the age of 24 hour news, everything is about digging up the dirt now. Privacy, decency and personal consideration are things of the past. It would only be a matter of hours before it moved from the business press to “TMZ” and every talk show from there. I just want to keep my family background and my role in the company quiet for my mother’s sake.”

  The scenario Alex laid out was all too possible and would undoubtedly be damaging to his mother and Charles, and to Aubrey as well. Tyler understood listening now that Jeffrey was using the threat of this exact scenario to manipulate Alex. Nursing his drink, Tyler was suddenly as sullen as Alex. He had no solution.

  So far they had all avoided getting Laurel involved. Many on Alex’s side believed she might be able to help to calm Jeffrey. By taking the fall for keeping Alex’s existence a secret, she might diffuse his anger at Zack and Alex. If she could do that, perhaps Jeffrey could abandon his need for revenge. But prior to the wedding she was reluctant to step up, and Alex remained adamant about keeping her out of it, fearing a scandal that might jeopardize Aubrey’s future.

  “What about your mom, AJ? Maybe we should involve her after all?”

  “Don’t you recall my argument with her about this very topic? I told you that when Jeffrey first threatened me I confronted my mom. ‘What about my future?”’ I asked her. I reminded her that I am just as much her kid as Aubrey is. I pointed out that I have worked years beside Zack to make this business the success it is.”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “I told her she reaped financial benefits from all that work, and so did Aubrey. All that time I was unable to acknowledge my real father, my real heritage, even my real job.” Alex was getting angry just remembering the conversation. “Haven’t I done enough? Don’t you think I deserve this?”

  “What did she say?”

  “’You will be rich either way.’ What kind of answer is that?” Alex didn’t wait for Tyler to respond.

  “My father’s will assures that there will be plenty of money even if my cousin wins the case, and that seemed to be all my mother cared about. She reminded me that Charles has provided for me too. To my mother it is about money. To me it is about my father’s legacy but she doesn’t get that.” Alex took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

  “I exploded at her, telling her it is not about the money. After all these years tamping down my emotions, feeling like a football passed between families, and avoiding the conversation, she boiled it down to money.” Tyler was watching the frustrations of a child and a teen move across the face of an adult who felt he was losing his father all over again.

  “I reminded her that the controlling interest is at stake. I was so exasperated with her, trying to remind her that Jeffrey is a greedy bastard.”

  “Does she really want you to just hand everything over to that bastard?”

  “That bastard, as you so indelicately put it, is my family. Doesn’t he deserve a share of the prize? My mother thinks he does.”

  “He has his mother’s share. He has almost half.” Tyler reminded Alex. “She can’t expect you to give all this up without even a whimper?”

  “She begged me to consider what I might be doing to Aubrey. She knew that would get to me.”

  “You are just claiming what is rightfully yours, AJ. Nothing more.”

  “My mother is concerned that I am claiming it publicly. ‘You understand the scandal that will bring upon us? Upon your stepfather, on your sister, who is an innocent in all of this? Is that fair to her?’ I hate when she uses Aubrey against me.”

  Alex could not fight his mother when she brought Aubrey into the equation, and she knew it. She had played that card repeatedly though out his life, every time Alex had asked about calling his father, or visiting him. He cared about Aubrey too much. It always worked. Alex would stop arguing with his mother after that, just as he did this time. But the hurt and the secrets remained.

  “AJ?” Tyler brought Alex’s focus back to the present. “I think the answer still lies in getting Jeffrey to think he has already won. That he has enough. You would think half of a company this size would be enough.”

  “You would think so, Tyler, but you would be wrong. He wants to be in charge.”

  “So let him be,” Tyler answered after a full minute of silence. “We are so stupid. We are all so stupid. Let him be in charge.”

  Alex looked at Tyler like he was insane. “What are you talking about? The whole point of this is not to let that jealous, sniveling fox into my father’s hen house.”

  “Just hear me out,” Tyler said, leaning forward and lowering his voice as he proposed his idea. Alex leaned in, nodding his head, a slow grin lifting the anxiety and exhaustion from his features.

  “You, my friend, are a genius. I think you have something, Tyler. I think you have something that just might work.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The next morning, Alex took his father out to breakfast and told him Tyler’s idea. Zack was all for it and suggested they have the board, and not Alex, suggest it to Jeffrey.

  “That would remove any personal animosity,” Zack explained. He was sharp today, firing on all cylinders and Alex could see the brilliant mind that had propelled his father to such success. “If all goes well, the threat of Jeffrey could be neutralized as early as lat
er this week.”

  “That would be fantastic, Zack.”

  “Anything to protect your mother, Alex. I did her a great disservice all those years ago and she did the only thing she could that would allow her to keep her reputation and her family’s dignity intact. She has landed on her feet certainly, and I believe she and Charles have been very happy together. Still, I owe her this much. We need to allow her to keep her secrets.”

  Alex had heard this argument from his father numerous times over the years, but now, with Zack’s memory fading, Alex pressed for more answers. “Do you still love her after all these years? You never did marry, after all.”

  “Now? I am not sure I would call it love anymore, or at least not the traditional definition of love. But I hold your mother in my affections. She gave me my only son, for one thing,“ Zack smiled and reached over to stroke Alex’s cheek, “and my memories of our short time together are very special. I will hate losing those most of all.”

  “Have you considered a video journal, Zack?”

  “A video journal? After all the books written about me, all the newspaper articles, what is left for me to tell?”

  “Well, your side of things, perhaps?”

  “I granted a lot of interviews, Alex. I told my side of things.”

  “Not the personal things, Zack. Not the stuff I would want to know. No pressure, but you could think about it.”

  “I will, Son, and I promise not to take too long to decide. Time is no friend anymore. Speaking of which, when will you bring your girlfriend to meet me? I am sorry, I can’t remember her name. I promise not to scare her away.”

  “Charlotte. I will bring her soon, Zack. As soon as I can.”

  Will there still be a lovely Charlotte in my life once she knows about Zack? How will I manage if she leaves me? I simply cannot allow that to happen. I just have to handle things perfectly. If only I knew how to do that.

  Alex enjoyed spending time with Zack. Today he was alone, but he had brought Tyler by several times to meet his father. Tyler had commented on the simple beach house that Zack owned and shared now with around the clock caregivers.

  “You can turn me into a corporate giant,” Zack had explained, with a laugh, “but the beach bum is never very far away.”

  In his lucid moments, Zack made Tyler tell him his versions of Alex’s childhood stories, pointing out to Alex everywhere he had exaggerated with a wag of his finger. “So, you weren’t the big shot of the game, huh?” he would challenge with a smile until Alex would confess he might have built himself up a bit more than was true. He would apologize for the fibs and hyperbole but Zack would just shake his head, “I would love you if you came in last, you know. I would love you no matter what.”

  Alex relished his time with his father. “If I had known twenty years ago that his memory would go like this, I never would have stayed away. Then it had been all about resentment and teen angst, but now, I want more time, Tyler. I want to do more work side by side as colleagues. I guess now we are friends, but I never got to be a kid with him. I will always regret that.”

  “I know, AJ, but you have still had a chance to know him well, and you still have a lot of years ahead, God willing. His mind may be going but a lot of the time he is obviously all there.”

  “True, and by getting to know him as an adult I have been able to respect Zack for what he has built and for his anti-establishment lifestyle. I might have had a hard time balancing one or the other years ago,” Alex admitted. “Of course it sure helps that I know he loves me, that he wanted me.”

  “True, but Charles loves and wants you too. You were always wanted, my friend. Even we want you,” Tyler joked, breaking the serious tone.

  Taking advantage of this time earlier in the day, when he knew his father was more likely to be lucid, Alex ignored the legal threats, the problems, and spent hours sitting with him, speaking about life in general. Zack told him how much he enjoyed meeting Tyler. Alex told Zack about Aubrey’s wedding, then he told him about Charlotte and his suspicions that she was hiding a big and dangerous secret.

  “You cannot build a relationship on dishonesty, Alex. Just look at Jeffrey. Just look at the two of you. Look at the two of us.”

  “I know, Zack. I used to try pressuring Charlotte to spill her story, but now I just let her live her life, show her how I feel and hope that she will open up to me. What else can I do? Here’s the thing though. If she is frightened, I want to protect her and keep her safe, or help her keep herself safe. How do I do that when I have no idea what she is fighting?”

  “I have faith in you, Son. You have never failed at anything you put your mind to. I can see that Charlotte means a great deal to you. I must admit, that pleases me. She sounds like a wonderful woman and I look forward to meeting her. Don’t wait too long to bring her out here.”

  “I promise, Zack,” Alex offered yet again, wondering if his father remembered that they had discussed this earlier. It saddened him to realize they were running out of meaningful time together, despite Zack’s good physical health.

  “Can you try to get the emotion out of the way and let logic prevail? You might see things with Charlotte more clearly then, be better able to interpret the little signs and slipups. I imagine even Charlotte is not that good a liar. It would take KGB skills to fool you, Alex, if you were paying attention.”

  Alex pondered his father’s words and realized that he was right. Alex was known in business and with his friends for being the logical one, the puzzle solver and clear thinker. With Charlotte, he had not been able to think clearly from the very beginning.

  “I love you, Dad,” Alex said with emotion.

  “Dad. You haven’t called me that in years,” Zack observed.

  “It feels disloyal to Charles somehow,” Alex admitted.

  “I don’t want that, for either of you. But sometimes, when you slip, it feels good.”

  “To me too, Dad, to me too.”

  “Now,” Zack continued, dropping all sentimentality, “give me a pencil and paper, and let’s deal with Jeffrey so we can move on to Charlotte and solve this mystery once and for all.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Charlotte knew Alex was disappointed when she failed to extend him an invitation to spend Thanksgiving with her family, but she could not take him home until she told him everything. How could she fly him into Providence and introduce him to the Rochas from Fox Point when he expected to fly into Boston and meet the Roches of posh and wealthy Beacon Hill? She wanted to stop lying, but Regan deserved the first explanation and Charlotte still believed it was too early in her job to have that conversation.

  “I will be back before you know it,” she told him as she waited in the chill November weather for the limousine he had called to take her to the airport. They had argued all week about this trip. They had argued about everything since Alex had returned from California. A weekend apart would do them both some good. They had been apart just two weeks ago though, when she was supposedly in Newport.

  More apart time was not helping.

  “The blue line would be so much more efficient. It’s Thanksgiving at the world’s busiest airport. It’s crazy to drive there.”

  “We aren’t driving there,” he had responded in exasperation. “I am hiring someone to drive you there. Think of it as creating jobs over the holidays.”

  “That just semantics,” she had argued but she had smiled at his logic and here she was waiting for the limo. Eventually she had given in because of his logic and because they were struggling with so many bigger problems.

  Alex had hinted broadly that he wanted an invitation to her home, but she was still hiding her background. There was no way he would have been comfortable with Chorizo stuffing, a lot of swearing in Portuguese and too many bodies crowding around a family table. She could just imagine his surprise when she brought him to the federal-style two-flat where her parents lived on the bottom floor, and Jake on the top. It would be a far cry from the elegant Beacon
Hill row house she had allowed him to think she was heading to, where servants would serve an sumptuous dinner to a historic and powerful family in a high-ceilinged, elegant dining room.

  “I hate being away from you again so soon,” she told him, resting her forehead against his suit coat. He was not even wearing a jacket as he stood waiting with her in the chill air.

  “Then don’t go,” he responded. “Call your parents and tell them you saw them two weeks ago and you are staying here.”

  “I can’t Alex. Not my first Thanksgiving away.”

  “You and your Mayflower ancestors. Thanksgiving must be a pretty big deal for you guys, I guess.”

  “We have a lot to be thankful for this year. Me especially. I found you.”

  “Go ahead. Sweet talk me.” He laughed before kissing her gently. “I am just going to miss you, that’s all.”