Love Me Now (29 page)

K
enya left another few messages on Sidney's cell, and then headed to the boutique. It seemed like days since she'd actually sat down and worked. As soon as she walked in Shelly looked up, half smiling with hope. “Did everything work out?” she asked, knowing that Kenya had gone to see Trey that morning. Kenya shook her head. “That bad, huh?” she asked.

“Worse,” Kenya said.

“I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?” Shelly asked.

Kenya nodded as she sat down at her desk. “Yes, positive. I'll be fine, I promise.”

“Listen, why don't you just go home? Take the day off. There's nothing really pressing happening today anyway. Your client already picked up the christening gown, and I'll do the fitting at the theater this afternoon.”

“No, it's my turn to do that.”

“Actually, I really want to. I don't want to be here this afternoon.”

“Why not?” Kenya asked.

“You'll be doing me a favor. I'm still working on the mother-of-the-bride dress. She has more changes. I don't want to be here when she drops it off. I swear if I see that woman one more time, I'll strangle her.”

Kenya smiled. “Okay, just to save the woman's life, I'll trade you assignments. Besides, you'd look horrible in an orange prison jumpsuit.”

“Thanks,” Shelly said.

“No, thank you. Now before she gets here, I think I need to get some work done. Maybe it'll take my mind off things.” Just as she pulled out her sketch pad someone knocked on the front door.

Shelly looked at her watch. “That can't be her already.” She walked over and peeked out the door. “It's her.” She looked at Kenya.

“I got it.”

Kenya went to the front area and opened the door. She greeted Shelly's client, took down her changes and then promised to have Shelly give her as call as soon as she could. Ten minutes later she went back to the workroom.

“Thank you,” Shelly said.

“No problem, although if I'm not mistaken, I think she wants it the same way you had it the first time.”

“Figures. Oh, Asia just called. She wants you to call her back. She's at your parents' house.”

“My parents' house? Why?”

“I'm sure I don't know. We chatted a bit but she never said.”

“Funny,” Kenya said, half smiling.

“I still say you should take the day off.”

Kenya looked around her space. Shelly was right. There was no way she'd be able to focus on work anyway. She helped Shelly gather the supplies for the theater and put everything in her car. “I'm headed over to my parents' house.”

“Good idea,” Shelly said. “See you tomorrow.”

Forty-five minutes later, through early rush-hour traffic, Kenya finally pulled up to her parents' home. She let herself in then called out, hoping Sidney was home. “Hello.”

“In here,” Asia answered.

“What are you doing here?”

“I got a call from Sidney suggesting that I come down this evening. Since I was already in Philly, I just headed farther south. What's going on?”

“Everything,” Kenya said.

“What does everything mean?”

“It means that I messed up and Sidney's about to make it worse.”

“Sidney's about to what?” Sidney said as she walked into the kitchen and saw her sisters at the counter.

“There you are—didn't you get my messages?”

“Hello, I was busy, I have a life. Believe it or not I have classes and assignments to take care of. This is my final semester.”

“Fine. We need to talk about Trey.”

“Trey Evans?” Asia asked. “The guy you're seeing.”

“Not the guy I'm seeing, at least not anymore.”

“Kenya wants me to back off but I'm not.”

“Sidney, who are you feeding information to at TE?”

“Cal,” Asia said. Sidney nodded.

Kenya turned to Asia. “Cal, Dad's old partner—how did you know, Asia?”

“Sidney told me.”

“Tell her, Sidney,” Asia prompted.

“He sold his shares in Dad's company to go to work for TE. That's where he works now.”

“How do you know that?”

“Remember when I had a job as a bike messenger?”

“What? No. You had a job as a bike messenger? When? Never mind. You know, I don't even know you anymore.”

“That's 'cause you're always so wrapped up in your own drama, first with Craig and now with the boutique. Wake up, Kenya.”

“Would y'all stick to one thing, please,” Asia said.

“Never mind,” Sidney said. “Anyway, I worked as a bike messenger for about three weeks a while back. That's what gave me the idea. After I found out about what Trey did to Dad I wanted to get back at him. Coincidentally, I delivered this package to Calvin Potter at TE Acquisitions. It was from Caine Enterprises. I was still working at Caine at the time.”

“Didn't Cal recognize you when you delivered the package? If I remember correctly you had a crush on him.”

“Remember when I said that temps are invisible? Well, bike messengers are even more invisible.”

“You made the connection,” Kenya said.

“I delivered my own packages to Cal after that.”

Kenya shook her head. “I don't know if you're a genius or just plain nuts.”

“Both, if that helps any,” Asia said. Sidney rolled her eyes.

“Okay, all this aside, we need to stop this now.”

“It's no secret that you're seeing Trey. The question is, where are your loyalties these days, Kenya?” Sidney asked.

“They're exactly where they always are—in doing the
right thing. But in this case, this isn't it. Trey didn't do anything wrong.”

“How can you say that?” Sidney asked.

“Are you saying that Dad lied?” Asia asked.

“I'm saying that there's more to this than we know.” Both sisters looked skeptical. “It's the truth, Mom told me. She has the money. Trey took it and put it in an account for her.”

“He's got you brainwashed, just like Craig did.”

“No, he's nothing like Craig. I made that mistake, too. I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things. But I'm not wrong about this.”

“Uh-uh, I'm not stopping anything,” Sidney said.

“No, Sidney, we have to fix this,” Asia said, switching sides. “If Trey isn't to blame, then we can't do him harm. That would be wrong.”

“And if Dad gambled on the market and lost, then that's it. It's as simple as that. Blaming others is wrong.”

“But what about his company?” Sidney asked.

“It'll be fine.”

“Trey still owns it.”

“Not all of it. He has the same percent he always had.”

“So who owns the other part?”

“Mom,” Kenya said.

“What?” Asia and Sidney said.

“I'll tell you about it later. Come on, get all your stuff. We're going back to Trey's office.”

 

It was late and mostly everyone in the office had gone home. The three sisters stopped at the front desk and asked the guard to speak with Trey. He wasn't available. Kenya asked if Regina was in. She was. The guard put Kenya on the phone with her.

“Hi, Regina, this is Kenya Whitaker, Trey's friend. Trey's
not available and I have some important information for him. It's about the Caine merger.”

“Come on up. I'll meet you at his office.”

The sisters got visitor passes and took the elevator up. They looked at each other silently. It was time to come clean.

“I hope you know what you're doing,” Sidney said.

“I don't have a clue,” Kenya told her honestly.

As soon as the elevator doors opened Regina was standing waiting there with Joshua. Introductions were made. They went into Joshua's office. “Okay, you got my attention. Tell me about Caine,” Regina said. Thirty minutes later, the Whitaker sisters laid out Sidney's plan and her part in Cal's unwitting cooperation.

Regina shook her head. “I knew there was something not right about this deal. It was just too perfect. Now to find out that our dad was pulling strings makes all the sense in the world.”

“What are you going to do?” Asia asked.

“We'll back out.”

“I mean about your dad.”

“Nothing,” Regina said. “But I guess I could ask you the same question.”

The sisters looked at each other. “Nothing.”

“It seems we all have father issues.”

“What about your brother?” Sidney asked, knowing that Kenya wanted to ask, but she wouldn't.

“We'll show him all this tonight. We'll cut ties with Caine Enterprises first thing tomorrow morning.”

“How legal is this?” Kenya asked.

“Perfectly legal,” Joshua said.

“Thank you, I know this was hard for all of you, given the delicate situation. But we're really grateful. This could have been serious,” Regina said.

“Well, maybe you could show your gratitude by—”

“Sidney,” Kenya said. “We need to go now.”

Kenya stood, as did the others. Asia, Sidney and Joshua walked to the elevator together. Kenya and Regina followed. “And what are you going to do about my brother?”

“Nothing,” Kenya answered.

“You know he loves you and I suspect you love him.”

“I do. But we have a lot of drama between us.”

“Water under the bridge.”

“No, not this particular bridge,” she said. “I gave Trey a folder of copied documents I took when I stayed at his house. I stole them and I lied to him.”

“I saw it.”

“Then you know what I intended to do to him.” Regina nodded. “And I know there's no way he can forgive me for what I did, and now for what my sister almost did. I can't forgive myself. I—we—had every intention of ruining him.”

“But you didn't and given the sensitive nature of the documents, you certainly could have. So as I say, water under the bridge.”

By the time they joined the others at the elevators, Asia was telling Joshua about her role on the soap opera.

“I thought you looked familiar,” Joshua said.

“You watch soaps?” Sidney asked.

“Let's just say I'm well-rounded,” he confessed.

“Now I know why I thought I recognized you,” Regina said to Kenya. “Your sister.”

Sidney nodded. “I work here. I'm a temp.”

“She's a professional temp,” Asia joked.

“No, I know you from GWU. Wasn't I your student advisor about four years ago?”

Sidney opened her mouth. “That was you?” she asked.

“I knew you looked familiar.”

“Well, we'd better get going. Thanks again for seeing us so late.”

“No, thank you,” Joshua said. Regina nodded.

The sisters took the elevator down to the lobby. “Now what?” Sidney asked.

“Dinner's on me,” Kenya said.

“Count me out,” Asia said. “I have to catch a train back to New York tonight.”

“Count me out, too,” Sidney said. “I have a few hundred pages to read tonight. Finals are in a few weeks.”

“Okay, change of plans. How about we grab a pizza and take it back to the house.”

“That'll work,” Sidney said. Asia nodded in agreement. “We can go to either the pizza place I waitressed at, or the pizza place I made deliveries for, or the pizza place I—”

“I can't believe I missed so much,” Kenya said sadly.

Asia and Sidney looked at each other, then at her. “Missed so much? What do you mean?” they asked.

“With you two. I was so busy with school. Then being hung up on Craig. Then after that I dove headfirst into my work. I never took the time to just chill with my sisters. I'm sorry. I missed everything you were doing. Great things you were doing. Asia, you have one foot in superstardom and Sidney, you have had the most incredible college temp career ever. You've temped and done just about everything under the sun. Some kind of big sister I am.”

Sidney hugged her. Asia hugged them both. “You're a great big sister,” Asia said. “You stepped up, found out the truth and then helped us to do the right thing. You took responsibility for everything and even got Regina to keep Sidney on. She even promised Sidney a position after graduation. You did that. Can you imagine what might have happened if you decided not to step up? We'd all probably be in jail by next week.”