Authors: Elizabeth Powers
Winston
headed directly for the bedroom as Lena turned out lights and checked the
locks. And despite the fact that her world was in a bit of a mess, Lena fell
asleep almost immediately. Her last thought before she went to sleep was that
her little Winston had one hell of a snore.
When
the doorbell rang at 9:00 the next morning, Lena was still in her pajamas and
standing in the kitchen, waiting for the coffee pot to spit out enough French
Roast to fill her University of Minnesota coffee mug. Winston was outside in her
small yard, taking care of business and investigating the fence.
Praying
fervently that Chase was not on the other side of the door, she padded over to
the peephole and peeked through it. Sighing, she unlocked the deadbolt and
pulled open the door.
“Dad?
What are you doing here? Is everything OK?”
“No.
Everything is not OK. And I’d rather not stand out here in the hallway,
Charlene,” he grumbled.
Standing
back, she waved her father into her apartment, rolling her eyes as he looked
around in distaste. “Coffee?” she asked.
“Espresso,
if you have it.”
“I
don’t,” Lena admitted. “How about a nice French roast with some delicious hazelnut
creamer?” she offered instead.
But
William waved her off, moving over to her couch and carefully brushing the
cushion before he sat down. Lena shook her head in amusement, then filled her
mug with coffee, added a healthy splash of creamer, and walked over to the
sliding glass door to let Winston back inside. The dog took one suspicious look
at William, bared his teeth in a quasi-threat, and retreated to the back room. William
didn’t even notice, but it amused Lena.
Moving
over to one of her comfortable side chairs, she settled in, her feet tucked up
under her as she took a comforting sip of warm heaven.
“So
what’s up? What brings you over to this part of town at 9:00 on a Sunday
morning?”
Her
father speared her with a glare. “I heard about you and Chase.”
“That’s
old news, Dad. We split up weeks ago.”
Her
father continued as if Lena hadn’t spoken. “And that you were with a different
man at the Hertzfield Leukemia Benefit last night. A man I do not know and have
not met,” he added.
“Well,
that’s true at least,” Lena said, taking a swallow of her coffee.
Her
father looked over at her sternly, and when he spoke, his voice was the same
old domineering voice that Lena had grown used to over the years. “I’m not
going to say this again, Charlene. You are going to tell this other man that
you’re no longer available. And you are going to marry Chase Hamilton.”
Lena
shrugged. “I’m not going to say
this
again, Dad. You can’t tell me who
to marry. I’m fond of Jeanette, but I’m not marrying Chase to get you to do the
right thing for her.”
“This
has nothing to do with Jeanette,” her father sputtered.
“Then
what
?” Lena asked in frustration. “What has you so damned fired up that
you are so anxious to sell me off?”
“I
need
him,” William roared with a combination of fury and resentment.
But
Lena just looked puzzled. “Need who?”
“Chase.”
“Well
then,
you
marry him,” Lena suggested as she took another sip of coffee.
“Charlene.”
She
sighed, then leaned forward and set her coffee mug on the table in front of
her. “OK, Dad. You’d better tell me what’s going on. And I mean what’s really
going on, not some pitiful rendition of some half-baked story.”
Her
father leaned back into Lena’s couch. For a moment, he looked tired. Small. Defeated.
Lena looked over at him in concern.
“I’m
about to lose everything.”
“What
do you mean, lose everything?”
He
sighed then, an angry sigh of frustration. “I mean, I made a mistake. A bad
one.”
“OK.
So tell me about it.”
It
was bad. And it was not, in Lena’s opinion, a mistake. It was a willful
disregard for the rules. And because of that, her father could probably be
charged with embezzlement from his own company. In an effort to increase his
own earnings, he had made company decisions without informing the board and he
had lost over a million dollars. Not hundreds, not thousands, not even tens or
hundreds of thousands. Over. One. Million. Dollars. And he was very close to
being found out. He needed money, and he needed it quickly. If he didn’t come
up with the cash, he stood to lose everything.
Lena
just shook her head, her patience for her father at a serious low. “You have
that kind of cash, Dad. Or at least, you would if you downsized a bit.”
“Downsizing
will affect my reputation, Charlene. It will send investors the wrong message.”
“The
message that you’re willing to make restitution for something you did? That’s
not a bad message to send.”
“I
cannot let them know that I made a mistake at all. It will be monumentally bad
for business.”
“Not
to mention exposing your criminal offense,” Lena pointed out sardonically.
Her
father shook his head. “You’d lose your inheritance. Your brother would lose
his as well.”
But
Lena just shrugged. “I don’t care about the money. I never have. And I don’t
think Ned needs it any longer.”
Her
father groaned. “I will lose everything, Charlene. The business. The house. The
cars.”
Still
feeling less than sympathetic, she shrugged. “Ask Ned for a loan. He’s family.”
“He’s
doing well,” William admitted. “But he doesn’t have the kind of money I need.”
“And
Chase does,” Lena said quietly.
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
“Fix
it with Chase. Marry him. He’s a good man. He will not let his father-in-law go
under.”
Lena
just shook her head. “So let me get this straight. Since you did something
stupid, out of monumental greed, you now expect me to marry a man who doesn't
love me – a man I’m no longer even dating, for God’s sake. And you want me to
do this so that you can keep living your own rich and sheltered life. A life,
I’d point out, that I gave up voluntarily years ago. You would sacrifice me and
my future for your ability to have servants.”
“Sacrifice
your future?” her father sputtered. "I’d be ensuring your future, you
ungrateful girl!”
Lena
blinked. “I need to think about this, Dad,” she said seriously. “And no, I’m
not going to consider marrying the man – that’s out of the question. But I’ll think
about other possibilities.”
Her
father looked at her with scorn. “What could you possibly come up with that I
haven’t?” he asked.
“And
again. Wow. You ask me for help, and then insult me in the next breath.” Lena
stood up, and carried her coffee mug to the kitchen, then returned and stood in
the doorway to the small living room. “Go home, Dad,” she said quietly. “I’m
still groggy and I’m not ready to deal with this right now. But know this. If I
ever marry, it will be because I love the man, not because you tell me that you
need me to collect some damn wedding dowry.”
“Charlene.”
Again, Charlene noted how old her father looked. She sighed and took a deep
breath.
“I’ll
do what I can to help. But not this. Now go away.”
Her
father nodded, then stood up, walked to the door, and opened it. Standing in
the doorway, he said to her, “Think about it, Charlene. Chase would be a good
husband to you.”
“Dad,”
she said gently but firmly. “Stop this. He doesn’t love me.”
“Who
the hell cares about love?” William demanded. “Do you think I ever married for
love? You need to set aside your own selfish desires and think about your
family. His money can save us.”
Lena
just shook her head. Softly, she asked, “Why did you marry my mother?”
William
shrugged. “She was beautiful. And young. And willing to have my children.”
“Why
did she marry you?”
He
looked away, uncomfortable with Lena’s questions.
“She
loved you, didn’t she? But you didn’t care. You would have destroyed her if
she’d lived.”
“Charlene,
get your damn head out of the clouds. Love doesn’t exist. It’s a Hallmark emotion
to sell greeting cards. Now stop with all the romantic crap and marry that man.
I mean it. Do what you need to do, say what you need to say, but you make that
man marry you. Do you understand me?”
Lena
looked at her father and nodded solemnly. “I understand you,” she said. Because,
at last, she did.
As
Lena watched her father walk away, she felt a twinge of sadness for what he had
become. He had seemed invincible to her for years. And now? He was broken. And
all because he wanted way more money than he needed. Still, Lena felt guilty. She
sighed, and was about to close the door to her apartment when she caught
movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head quickly, she realized
that she wasn’t at all surprised to see Chase standing a few feet away in the
hall, leaning against the wall in the hallway with his arms crossed.
“We
keep coming back to money, don’t we?” he asked mildly.
“Chase.”
She sagged against the doorframe, lifting her hand to rub her forehead. “I
suppose it’s too much to ask that you didn’t hear any of that.”
“Only
the last part,” he admitted as he pushed himself off the wall and started
toward her.
She
gave him a half smile. “That’s damning enough,” she said softly. “I’m very
sorry, Chase.”
He
shrugged. “Can I come in?” he asked.
For
a moment, Lena just let her own eyes take him in. He looked so good, standing
in front of her. Blue jeans, a grey sweater, black scuffed boots. God, she’d
missed this man. And God, she loved him.
“Lena.”
His voice was husky, at odds with the ice in his eyes.
She
startled back to reality. “Oh. Yes, of course. I’m sorry. Come in. Winston is
probably wondering what the hell is going on. His quiet Sunday routine has
definitely been interrupted.”
Standing
back, she let Chase into the apartment. Feeling vaguely uneasy in her pajamas,
she motioned toward the kitchen. “Coffee is in there. Excuse me for a moment.”
Not
waiting for an answer, Lena headed back to her bedroom and closed the door. Sitting
down on the floor for a moment, she reached out to gently rub Winston’s head to
settle him down a bit. He was definitely acting more skittish than normal – her
father must have freaked him out.
Pulling
her most comfortable pair of jeans from her closet, she slipped out of her
pajamas and into the denim, topping it off with a clean t-shirt. Leaving her
feet barefoot, she pulled her hair back into a ponytail, went into the bathroom
and scrubbed her face clean. With one last look in the mirror, she headed back
out to face Chase.
He
was in her living room, comfortably lounging on her couch with a full mug of
coffee in his hand. When she walked into the room, he leaned forward, setting
the coffee on the table in front of the couch. Lena went into the kitchen to
refill her mug, then moved back into the living room and sat back down in the
chair she had been in when her father was there.
“I’m
not even sure how to explain any of this,” she said quietly, curling her hands
around her mug and protectively bringing her knees up in front of her. “Or what
you must think of me after overhearing the end of that conversation. Especially
given what you already think of me,” she added.
But
Chase shook his head. “You’re not your father, Lena.”
She
looked up at him with surprise. “Then you don’t think...”
“I
don’t think I have the whole story, Lena. So I’m going to ask you for it,
rather than storming away like I did the last time I overheard one of your
conversations.”
Lena
nodded slowly and took a sip of coffee before she started to explain.
“My
father has gotten himself into a mess. His solution is, once again, for me to
marry you. For your money, of course.”
“Ah.
Yes. The need for a rich husband.”
“According
to my father, yes.” Lena wanted to add more, to somehow convince Chase once and
for all that she wasn’t like that, and money didn’t matter, but she didn’t. If
he couldn’t see her for who she really was, no words could change his mind.
“Tell
me about it. All of it.”
So
Lena told him. Everything. Including her father’s solution. “It’s been quite a
morning,” she admitted. “All of this chaos around me. All of it focused
squarely on my father. None of it directly affects me, and yet it all does.”
“So
you agreed to do whatever it takes to get me to marry you.”
“What?
Of course not.”
“You
told him that you understood what he was asking of you,” Chase pointed out.
“Accepted
and agreed with it, no. But understood, yes. Things make a little more sense to
me now.”
“Go
on,” Chase encouraged her, his eyes never leaving her face.