Harrison Towers, Memoirs of a Mogul (Glass Towers Trilogy) (11 page)

“But I didn’t, you grabbed my head and were forcing yourself on me!” I turn to Bessie, “You saw the whole thing, and I didn’t lay a hand on her until I tried to break myself free of her grip on my head.”

“Yes I sure did see the whole thing Missy. Don’t you go making up stories now!”

“Well, if I didn’t know any better I would say you are turning against me. What has that Adelaide done to you? She has made you hate me. Do you realize if it weren’t for her, we would have been married a long time ago? Yes, I can see by the look on your face that you didn’t realize that I know she is the one who encouraged you to dump me just months before my wedding. Oh I mean
our
wedding.”

I can see that she is shaking and so are her words. I had better tread lightly as I think she is having another one of her episodes. I had forgotten that she has these episodes of lunacy.

“That is so long ago; I thought that you had moved on. We were never meant for each other. I thought you agreed. Why are you pulling out old skeletons now?  You know as well as I do that nothing good can come of it.” Then it occurs to me, of course! She has gotten wind that I am marrying Adelaide next week and she is finding a way to cause interference. Well it won’t work, I won’t allow it.

“You sound like a broken record. Someday maybe you will come to the realization that we belong together. I just wish you would come to your senses sooner than later and save all of this heartache and hassle.”

“What would save us this heartache and hassle is you coming to terms with the fact that I will never love you. Accepting that and moving on would be your best bet.”

“Wow, think much of yourself? I’m growing bored of this conversation anyway. I need to check on some things before the end of the day. I’ll just leave you with this, when you broke off the engagement I told you we weren’t done yet and we’re still not….not by a long shot.” With that she whirls around and storms out of the house with a slam of the heavy imported Spanish door.

“I’m sorry you had to witness that Bessie. I’m afraid I have lost my appetite but go ahead and dish me up, I can’t pass up something that smells so good.”

“Don’t you worry, people like that don’t realize Karma is a raging bitch who will come back around and bite them, when she least expects it, she’ll get what’s due her, a big bite in the ass!”

I look at her sweet aging face and am shocked, “Bessie, I am surprised at you! I never knew you had it in you!”

“That’s what happens when you work in a high school cafeteria for twenty-five years.” She cackles and dishes me up a delicious plate of her Thai cuisine.

I try to get Marion out of my mind. I cannot allow her to get under my skin, which is exactly what she was trying to do. Instead, I think of my sweet little Adelaide, anxiously awaiting her call to tell me they arrived safely.

An hour later my phone finally rings, “Addy?”

“Yes it’s me Harry.
We finally made it to Hannah’s. We ran into some traffic but we are here safe and sound.”

“Oh thank God, I’m so glad you are safe! You still seemed to have made good time despite the traffic. I am handling things here at the winery. As it turns out, Marion was just being difficult and I didn’t really need to be here. I’m going to wrap things up tomorrow and then catch a red eye tomorrow night so I can get up there by Friday afternoon. You only have to make it two more days my love.”

I hear her sigh. “I’m so glad Harry. You know what? Seven days until we are married. I can hardly believe it. My mom called me today asking if we had a preference for where we are going to dinner afterward. I’m so exhausted, I forgot all about making a reservation. Do you have a preference?”

“Wherever you want to go, nothing too fussy though. I’d prefer to keep this intimate. How are you feeling anyway, aside from feeling exhausted?”

“I’m good. It’s just the exhaustion that is getting to me. In fact, let’s talk in the morning. I’m going to bed.”

“Of course you should get to bed, it’s nearly 11:00 there. I’ll call you before I head back to Portland tomorrow. I can’t wait to seeing you and I am looking so forward to marrying you next week. It is all I can think about, nothing else matters to me right now.”

“Oh Harry, I love you so much!”

“And, I love you too, goodnight
mi amore
.”

Just as I hang up the phone, I hear a slight noise outside my office door. I stand up just in time to see a shadow move in the hallway but by the time I make it out there, no one is there. I head outside and look around but I still see not a soul. It is puzzling as most of the staff would be gone by now. Only Stuart, Marion, and I should be here. I go back to my desk and log out of my computer. After locking up my office I head back to my master bedroom to spend the rest of my evening with the door locked. If Marion is prowling the house, I’ll be damned if she has access to my room.

Less than two days later I am pulling into the driveway of Adelaide’s quaint home. She is driving back from her sister’s and should be arriving soon. I was glad to have a little time before her arrival. I have a few little surprises for her. I quickly make work of setting up my welcome home for her. I am putting the final touches on things when I hear her car pull into the driveway. I stand in the entryway waiting for her to come up the walk. I hear her footsteps on the front porch and throw open the door. She lets out a loud squeal, “Oh Harry! Look at you!!”

I am standing there in the tuxedo I wore to Marion’s wedding reception. Hiding behind my back is a bouquet of flowers. I present them to her once the door is closed behind her and she is heading toward me with a brilliant smile on her beautiful glowing face. “Surprise my love.”

“Oh! Those are lovely. What have I done to deserve this?” She buries her face in the flowers taking in the fragrant scent.

“You have done everything to deserve all the flowers in the world, and in a few days, you will be my bride. You deserve nothing but the best Adelaide.” I cup her chin with my hand and kiss her lightly at first then I feel her arms wrap around me flowers in her hand. The longer we kiss the more I cannot control my desire for her. I want to make love to her like no other man has made love to a woman. We haven’t had sex since she was poisoned and since we found out she is pregnant. I hope she is ready to resume our intimacy.

“Harry, put these in some water for me while I freshen up then meet me in the bedroom love.” She smiles at me demurely which makes me want her all the more. I quickly go into the kitchen and put the flowers in a glass found in the cupboard. I figure she can get out a vase later. The kitchen is still a bit empty after we disposed of all the food in the house. We had no way of knowing for sure where the poisoning had originated so the police had us throw it all out after they took samples of literally almost everything that something like rat poison could be disguised. I shake myself of the morbid thoughts and think of my bride in the other room getting ready for me. I set the flowers on counter, check the front door and then go in search of my beauty.

When I enter the bedroom, I am taken aback. Lying across the bed is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Her golden hair is spread out on the pillow in almost a fan shape, while her body is clad in a black lacey bra and panties set and a sheer short robe that is loosely tied around her hips. As I enter the room further, a spicy floral scent fills the room and I hear soft music playing in the background. Yes, she is ready for me. I walk over to her taking in the sight of her, etching it into my memory. She sits up as I join her on the bed. I begin undressing myself as she kneels on the bed helping to hasten the process. I feel my arousal begging to be released of the confines of my garments. She deftly removes my shirt and begins work on my pants. I step out of them kicking them aside and then bend down to  remove my socks. I stand before her naked and ready to feel her silky soft skin on mine. I climb onto the bed next to her and untie the satin bow around her hips. As the silky chemise falls to the bed beside her, I feel my breath catch in my throat. She is already starting to get a small roundness to her tummy. It’s not something someone else would notice at this point, but I can tell. I rub my hand over her firm tummy and then lean down to kiss it. She moans and it’s obvious to me that she is ready for me to do more than pay attention to her baby bump.

I start my seduction by softly kissing her lips. She responds with tenderness that only fuels my fire. I kiss her more passionately and she returns my kiss by slipping her tongue into my mouth, searching out my tongue. As we continue to kiss I reach down and feel that her body is ready for mine. I push her back into the bed, and insert myself into her waiting hot wetness. She softly moans and sighs. I watch her as I gently move in and out of her, being careful so I don’t hurt her in any way. She looks at me with her hooded sex eyes and she is positively glowing. I have never seen a more beautiful creature and she is mine. I get to claim her as my wife in just a few short days, and in the near future, she will become the mother of my child. My God, I am so filled with love for this woman. All I ever want to do is continue to make her happy. Nothing else exists in this world but her and me.

We are one right now as I push myself in her further I feel her legs part to accommodate my body. She is grabbing onto my butt pulling me into her deeper. She is thrashing her head around on her pillow and I watch her mouth for an ‘O’ as I feel her sex muscles contract and she begins her descent into her orgasm. I finish pumping myself into her until my own body cums in unison with her. With my body still entwined with hers, we lay together in a steamy embrace. We both fall into a deep sleep and when I awaken, it is morning and she is gone.

I look around the room and see evidence of a night filled with sex. My clothes are strewn about, there are candles that burned to the end with wax now pooling on the dresser and nightstand. I see she must have changed already as a pile of black lace is lying on the floor next to my tuxedo shirt. I bend over to uncover my boxers and in she walks, the most beautiful pregnant woman who ever lived. I stand up and expose to her my erection. She looks down at my morning salute and then back up to my face.

“Well, that answers that. Let’s wait on breakfast, it looks like we are to start our honeymoon early.”

I grab her and spin her around and onto the bed. We spend the rest of our weekend quite literally in bed. We barely knew what time of day is it but for the light outside. We ordered take out for delivery and literally had sex until we couldn’t take it anymore. It was like we were teenagers. We talked for hours discussing baby names, hedging bets on whether it is a boy or a girl, what color of hair he or she will have and deciding on what preschool is the best choice.

“Oh Harry, we are getting ahead of ourselves but I did hear that we have to get on a waiting list early.” Her tinkling laugh filling our bedroom puts a smile on my face and a permanent etch on my heart. I place my hand on her stomach thinking of the future she holds in there.

Late Monday morning, I stand on the steps kissing her goodbye before I head into the office to wrap up some last minute work. We are getting married on Wednesday and  I want to get everything at a good stopping point so we can take our honeymoon in Barbados without being bothered. I want to give her my undivided attention.  As luck would have it,  I don’t have anything needing my attention for a few weeks. Besides, I have my father to oversee everything anyway. Once I return from the honeymoon though, I will have plenty of work demanding me.

As I pull out of the driveway, I am almost tempted to turn around as I watch the sway of her hips leave the steps and head into the house. I would love to continue our weekend, but alas, I need to pick up our rings from the family jeweler. Once I am at the office I call to make sure they will be ready.

“Yes Mr. Towers,
they are ready for you. Please feel free to pick them up any time after we open tomorrow.”

“Great! Thank you. I appreciate that you got them done so quickly.”

“I am happy to for such a momentous occasion.”

“See you tomorrow.”

I never made it to pick up the rings.

After
I hang up the phone I find myself staring out the window. I am finding it hard to concentrate on work. I keep replaying the past forty-eight hours in my head. We had the whole weekend to ourselves. No outside influences and no disturbances. She gave herself to me in ways I wouldn’t have expected of her.

At the end of one of our lovemaking sessions, she broke down in tears. When I asked her what I had done to make her cry, she told me they were tears of sheer joy. I never in a million years have had a woman cry from making love with me. Honest tears of joy. It almost brought me to my knees. It was that moment that I knew without a doubt that I had made the right decision and that Adelaide is indeed my forever.

With that thought running through my mind, I don’t notice my phone vibrating. I get up from my desk leaving my phone behind and head downstairs to the lobby and outside in the late day sun. I walk from the building to the coffee shop around the corner. I order myself a house coffee and visit with the owner who is filling in for his sick employee. After I wasted about forty-five minutes there I casually head back to my office. I have lost complete track of time. Looking at my watch I notice its already past six and I was due to have a quick meeting at 6:30 to discuss distribution options. I hurry back to the building and head up to our suites just in time to get into the conference room just as the board members have assembled. It is still light out but is rapidly getting darker as the meeting is about to adjourn, my father’s secretary peaks her head in the door and looks straight at me.

“I’m sorry to interrupt but there is an urgent call for you.”

“Excuse me gentlemen, I must take this.” My stomach is flopping as I suddenly have a sense of foreboding.

“Here, you can take it here.” She thrusts the phone in my hand and then pushes a button. I look at her and see that she too knows something bad has happened.

“Towers speaking.”

“Is this Harrison Towers?” An unfamiliar male voice asks.

“Yes it is. Who is this?” I feel my stomach flip again.

“This is Alex Gainer, I am a physician’s assistant at Mercy General. There has been an accident and you need to get to the ER as soon as you can. Your fiancée Adelaide has been mortally injured. She was brought here by medic flight and her prognosis is grim.”

I drop the phone.

The secretary picks up the phone and talks to the caller. She hangs up and turns to me with her face ashen. “Mr. Towers, you need to go…but you can’t drive, not under these conditions.”

“I’ll drive.” A voice behind me says. I know instantly it’s my father. Without turning around I run the rest of the way to my office and grab my phone then join my father who is waiting for me by the elevators.

Helen yells out to me, “I will be praying for her.”

I look down at the phone in my hands while my father speeds us to the hospital. I notice I missed over a dozen phone calls and it appears I have several messages. I can’t bring myself to look at who called or listen to the messages. I feel numb and I keep replaying in my head the words,
mortally injured
…
mortally injured
…just what the fuck does that mean. Is she near dead and they’ve had to revive her?
Mortally injured
…is she….

“Were here. Jump out I’ll park and then find you.”

I snap back into the present and am surprised that we are pulling up to the doors of the ER. What would normally take twenty minutes took us ten minutes to get here. My father must have floored it and I hardly noticed. As my father said to do, I jump out of the car and head straight in. I walk up to the nurses’ station and ask for Adelaide.

“Are you immediate family or next of kin?”

“I’m her fiancée!”

“Well I will have to get you approved before I can release any information.”

My blood is now boiling over. “Listen, uh Mary,” reading her name tag, “My fiancée is laying behind that door somewhere and I am going back there to find her whether you fucking approve me or not! Now, I suggest…”

“It’s okay Mary, I called Mr. Towers. I’ll take care of this.”

I whirl around, “You’ll take care of this? I got a phone call that my fiancée has been in an accident, can somebody please tell me what has happened to her? I need to see her now!”

“NOW!!” I hardly realize I am shouting. The room is starting to spin and then I hear my father’s voice.

“Harrison, calm down. Let the man answer you.” He is speaking in a low voice.

I stand staring at the PA, Alex. He has a grim look on his face and I just know…I just know this is bad.

He takes me by the arm by my elbow and shows me to an exam room with a sliding curtain while my father trails behind giving us some space. My heart is beating out of my chest. I can hardly breathe.

“Mr. Towers. As you know, your fiancée Adelaide has been in a serious car accident. She has sustained injuries that cannot be fixed. She received a blunt force trauma to the head that is so severe that there isn’t any brain activity.”

I begin to collapse but an orderly who materialized out of thin air braced me and helped me to the exam bed. I stand here with my hands on the table bracing myself. Is this a fucking nightmare that I am going to wake up from? I try to speak but my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth. My head is pulsating and I am having trouble forming my thoughts. I take a couple breaths and then find my voice.

“Sir, are you telling me Adelaide is brain dead? Is that what you meant when you said mortal injuries? Can I see her? Where is she? I NEED TO SEE HER!” I am panting like an animal after shouting again. The orderly has his hand on my arm. I stick out my hand out. “Please take me to see her. I need to see my Adelaide!”

“Yes, we can take you to see her but I warn you. We have her on life support but what you are going to see there is only her body. It’s not really your fiancée anymore.”

I feel weak and my spine is having a hard time supporting my weight. We pass through white double doors into a blinding white sterile hall. It is so impersonal and glaring. We enter through another single door and I am led over to her bed.

Nothing could ever prepare me for what I was about to see. I stand by her bedside and her face is almost unrecognizable. Though her fragile body is bandaged, I can see it is horribly maimed. Her head is wrapped in several layers of gauze with sprigs of her golden blonde hair sticking out. I reach down to take her hand and notice even her fingers are cold, damaged, and bloody. I caress her silky fingers with my own. I hold her hand up to my lips and kiss the back of her hand and then I collapse on the hard floor right beside her bed. I cannot bear the site of my sweet, sweet Adelaide broken like this.

“Oh God why her? Why not me? She doesn’t deserve this!” Then the even worse thought strikes me.

“What about the baby? My God, she’s pregnant, what about the baby?” I am still on the floor on my knees as he lowers the final blow.

“I’m afraid the impact was too great. The fetus did not survive either.”

That was it. I fall the rest of the way to floor…I feel my whole body wracked with pain. I could not stop the uncontrollable sobs radiate my entire being. I am destroyed. My one true love has been destroyed. She is all I have to make me happy and now she and my child have been stripped away from me.

I feel hands helping me up into a chair that has been brought over. Off in the distance I hear a collection of sobs. Through tear-blurred eyes, I see Adelaide’s family with the Physician’s Assistant, Alex. I struggle to hear what is being said between their sobs and my own. Before long all I can do is focus on her sweet, bandaged, angelic face. I hear her family sobbing behind me as I continue to hold her hand. Someone touches my shoulder and I look up to see my father looking as stoic as he can with tears trickling down his face.

“Son, it is time to let her slip away. You and her family need to say your goodbyes and then they will turn the machine off.”

I don’t move. I’m frozen. I watch as one by one, each of her family members say their goodbyes to her broken body. It’s not her, I think to myself. She’s not here anymore. Her body is here hooked up to this machine but I know…Adelaide is not here.

After they have all had their say and the tears continue to flow. I stand up…onto legs that feel like they might collapse at any moment. I hear from the other side of the curtain the PA telling one of the family members that she probably died on impact and that most likely there was no pain or suffering. I wonder though, if the same can be said for me. The minute she dies, marks the moment where my pain and suffering begins.

I lean down to kiss her and can’t bring myself to do it. I stare at her and wonder what I will do without her. Is this really happening? Just a few hours ago we discussed her dinner plans with her girlfriends. Now, no more than a few hours later I am here saying goodbye to her. What kind of sick twist is this? Why is my sweet angel being taken away from me?

The next thing I hear is the flat line of the monitoring machine and the nurse announcing the time of death. That’s when a piece of me died too.