Insufferable Proximity (61 page)

“I will.”

“And dad, I’m sorry for all this mess.” he apologized, then turned and left the room, leaving Ayden stunned beyond belief that his son had actually apologized.

When Julian entered his office, he saw that Heaven was gone. He grabbed his things and then walked to her office. He saw her briefcase and her car keys, but no Heaven. He called her cell phone.

“Hello?” Heaven answered her phone and Julian could hear the traffic around her.

“Where are you?” he demanded.

“I have to go for a little while.” she whispered and the sorrow in her voice was worrying Julian.

“Just tell me where you are, baby.”

“I can’t.” she cried, “I’ll call you back.”

“No! Heaven!” he yelled into the phone but she hung up. He grabbed her things and then left the office.

***

Ayden decided to call each employee into his office individually and question them, it was a mandatory meeting and anyone not willing to help would be suspiciously frowned upon. He watched the employees walk in, one by one, each of them having a different theory, different ideas and diverse opinions, but all eager to pin it on the next. Some of them did it to get in good with the firm and be the office hero. Some of them did it for the sheer enjoyment, but most of them did it for the reward money. Fritz had painstakingly observed then documented each and every employee, regardless of their position.

Julian watched Sampson’s Secretary Reese Bradley walk out of the room and then take a deep breath. They were almost done and didn’t have any more information than they did before they started.

Reese walked down the hallway and into the cafeteria, going over to the large round table towards the back of the room where she usually sat. It was the most discreet table in the room, separated from the other small tables and far from the rest of what they considered unimportant employees. All of the employees had been instructed to wait in the cafeteria until every interview was completed and Reese sat down at the table with Adele and Gloria.

“Well there’s no denying that anymore.” Reese said with a slight frown as she plopped down in the chair.

“Mr. Julian King, the original sex god and Ms. Deville the anti-sexual, earthbound demon are definitely having sex.” Adele sighed in sadness.

“I told you.” Gloria beamed although her emotions were conflicted. Part of her was elated that she had been proven right, but the other part of her felt bad for both Julian and Heaven. Despite the fact that Heaven could be a cold-hearted bitch and Julian was the biggest womanizer that she knew, neither of them deserved that.

“So who do you think is behind all of this?” Adele ignored Gloria.

“I think it was Lila Strain,” Reese said, “she’s jealous and vindictive enough to do this.”

“No way, it’s definitely Juliette,” Adele sneered, “she’s obsessive enough to do this and don’t forget how entirely crazy she has been acting lately.”

“True.” Reese agreed, ready to change her opinion, “she not acting like herself at all and her denial seems fishy.”

“And overly-dramatic” Adele added.

“Half of the people working in this building are cat-piss-crazy and I don’t put it past any of you.” Gloria pointed an accusing finger at both of them, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Oh really?” Adele asked with her brows raised in defiance.

“Are you implying it was one of us?” Reese also raised her brows.

“Yes I am, Adele you’re as big of a suspect as Juliette is, you’ve been just as obsessed about King. Not to mention that your such a good liar you could convince anyone it wasn‘t you with that simpleton act.”

“I am not obsessed with King!” Adele protested indignantly.

“Yes you are and everyone knows it. You should see the way you get all dumb around him, like some mumble-mouthed moron with no short term memory, just stuttering and drooling through your fragmented bouts of belligerence.” Gloria ridiculed her.

“She’s right, you do get all star-struck around him.” Reese agreed with Gloria.

“Shut up you identity-less bottom feeder. Reese your brain would shut down from overload if it had an original thought.” Adele said, tired of Reese Bradley’s holier than thou personality.

“Like you should even talk.” Gloria turned to look at Reese, “everyone knows you had sex with King in the closet three Christmas parties ago.”

“I did not!” Reese objected, slapping her hand on the table.

“Keep it down jack ass or do you want everyone to hear your guilt?” Gloria spat.

“I heard the same story.” Adele raised her chin, “For all we know you’re still angry because he wouldn’t be with you again, so you waited all this time to exact your revenge.”

“You are so dramatic,” Gloria rolled her eyes at Adele before taking a sip of her soda, “but you do make sense.”

“No what makes sense to me is Adele being furious at King for continually rejecting her. I think she’s paying him back. Let’s be honest, he has shot down her advances more than once.” Reese finished.

“He has not!” Adele hissed at her.

“That makes sense too.” Gloria nodded holding her straw as she took another sip, once again amused by her co-workers outrageous antics. “I don’t trust either of you bitches.” Suddenly the women grew silent as they watched Juliette walk into the cafeteria then come over to sit next to them.

“Let me guess, I was the topic of your conversation?” Juliette smiled self-righteously, raising her chin a notch.

“What makes you say that?” Reese asked with feigned innocence.

“Your silence.” Juliette answered.

“We were just debating who the saboteur may be.” Adele said.

“Really and what was your conclusion?” she asked and everyone grew silent for a moment as Gloria smiled.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? But what I want to know is
your
reaction to that video.” Gloria said with a smirk so smug, it sparked Juliette’s anger.

“I don’t care about that video, it proves nothing.”

“It proves they are having sex.”

“So what, she’s no different than the thousands of other women that Julian has had sex with.” she looked knowingly at Reese for a moment, “It doesn’t mean anything, I mean do you really think Julian King would get serious with someone like Ms. Deville? After all the women he has been with and tossed to the side, you think Ms. Deville is really the one?” she chuckled as she stood up, “now if you will excuse me.” she finished before she walked away from the table and out of the cafeteria.

“She is getting stranger by the minute.” Adele said.

“Tell me about it.” Gloria agreed with her.

***

Heaven drove straight to the one place she felt safe, despite the on-call prostitutes that lived there too. More than anything right now, she needed to go home, she needed to see her family and the people she knew would not judge her for her actions. She ran inside the house and was surprised to see that the house looked half empty, sure there was the occasional half-naked girl strewn over various household items, but nothing like the cesspool that usually greeted her from the door.

She walked through the house to the backyard then straight over to her mother’s elaborate seating area next to the pool. She stood there reveling in the silence and taking deep breaths of the fresh air. The strong smell of strawberry shortcake brought back childhood memories and she was immediately consuming her with emotion.

“Sevigne, my darling!” Sybille’s voice shattered the silence, but for once, it couldn’t be more comforting to Heaven. She watched as her mother sashayed over to her, wearing her long white robe with the thick leopard print ostrich feather collar. She accessorized with matching leopard print slippers and a headband as well as thick platinum jewelry.

“Good morning mother.” she said attempting to smile. Sybille knew her daughter better than anyone and she knew immediately that something was not right.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, instantly worried. Sybille could count on one hand how many times that she had seen Heaven sad.

“Nothing, I’m just a little tired.” she lied with a slight smile. Sybille didn’t buy it for a second, Heaven was never ill, even as a child she never got sick.

“And what else?” she asked.

“Nothing else.”

“Something’s wrong Sevigne and I know it, tell mother what it is.” she said so dramatically, the corner of Heaven’s mouth almost twitched up.

“I’m going away on a vacation for work.” She lied and her mother looked at her quizzically.

“For how long?”

“Just for the rest of the week.”

“Something is wrong!” Sybille objected.

“Nothing’s wrong, I need to go, besides it will be good to get away for a little while and clear my head.”

“Since when have you ever needed to clear your head?” Sybille asked, her daughter always knew what she wanted and never hesitated, she went by her gut instinct.

“I don’t know.” she answered, shrugging her shoulders.

“Does it have something to do with a certain lawyer?” she asked, expecting a full rebuttal from her daughter.

“Yes.” she answered instead, shocking Sybille.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know.” she answered honestly.

“Did the two of you break up?” she asked putting her hands on Heaven’s shoulders.

“We were never together.” Heaven admitted.

“You could have fooled me. Whatever it is you can work it out.”

“There’s nothing to work out.”

“But the two of you looked very happy together.”

“We weren’t together!” she cried, turning to face her mother “I was under contract.”

“Excuse me? Did you just say-?”

“Yes, remember that position that Julian and I were fighting so hard for?”

“Of course.” she said remembering her daughter’s vivid anger.

“Well, his proposal was better, so I broke into his office and destroyed it, as well every file on his computer.”

“Heaven no! Why would you do that?” her mother asked in total shock.

“I got scared.” she said as tears formed in her eyes. “I wanted to be partner so bad, I couldn’t even think straight. In my heart I knew Julian was going to win, and I panicked.” she cried, plopping down on the ivory-colored settee. Sybille sat down next to her, her comforting arm wrapped around her daughters slumped shoulders. “He busted me, he had a camera set up in his office and he filmed every step I made from the moment I broke in his office.”

“Oh no.” Sybille gasped.

“Oh yes and that’s when he proposed the contract. In exchange for his silence, I was enslaved to him for thirty days.” she admitted, the tears rolling down her face.

“What do you mean by enslaved?”

“You know exactly what I mean.” Heaven refused to get into the fine details of their contract.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Sybille was aghast.

“No I’m not kidding, I prostituted myself to save my career!” she sobbed, her head slumping on her mother’s shoulder. Sybille pushed the stray tendrils back from her face.

“No you didn’t, you did what you thought you had to do to maintain the life you fought so hard to obtain. Trust me Sevigne, I, more than anyone, know how hard you worked to get to where you are. You fought the odds and succeeded where you could have easily given up and failed.”

“I’m a bad person, I sold sex for silence,” she sat up looking at her mother. “And I’m mean.”

“No you’re not mean darling, you’re just,” she thought for the perfect word, “driven, very driven and sometimes that drive forces you to do things you wouldn’t normally do.”

“I’m mean and you know it.”

“You can be,” she smiled sliding her hand lovingly down her daughter’s cheek, “but you don’t have to be.”

“Everything is so different now, mom.” Heaven whispered and Sybille was marveled by the significant change in her only child.

“It doesn’t have to be different, it can be whatever you want it to be, Sevigne.”

“But what if what I want makes me the most uncomfortable?”

“You love him don’t you?” Sybille asked, seeing it in her eyes.

“I do, but I hate him as well.”

They both heard the footsteps and turned to see Coco run towards them.

“What is going on Sevigne? Jade just called, she said you’re not answering her phone calls.” Coco looked very worried.

“Why would you not answer for Jade?” Sybille asked.

“I don’t know but I’ll call her later.” Heaven looked down feeling bad for not answering Jade’s call.

 “She just told me about what happened at the firm.” Coco shook her head.

“How does she know?” Heaven asked.

“She said someone sent her a text.”

“Who?” Heaven asked, wondering if it was Julian trying to find her, he still had her old address book that she left at his house and could have easily contacted Jade. Her mind was plagued with confusion, she would just have to figure it out later.

“She didn’t say.”