Legal Action - Box Set (29 page)

              Charlotte kissed Atticus goodbye and left him and Georgina at Jude’s townhouse in Hampstead Heath. She drove to Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair to meet Alexander Bly then Jude and Georgina would bring the baby to meet them in an hour. She wanted some time alone with Bly first, to smooth things over, she needed him on her side if she was ever going to have any chance at true happiness again.

              Bly watched her walk through the lobby searching for him and as was his habit, he sat in a far corner so he could bask in her long legged loveliness as she moved toward him. His heart pounded erratically in his chest as he looked at her, she would be his, he knew she’d never let him leave with her baby. Of course that was the purpose of his trip to London, to run the DNA tests and know for sure whose child Atticus was. He’d never been much of a praying man, but he’d talked to God in the last months, asking him to let him be the father of Charlotte’s son.

              She sat down on the far end of the tufted sofa and they leaned politely toward each other and exchanged pecks on the cheek. He took her hand and held it to his cheek and she let him because she needed him on her side. Finally he kissed her palm then released her hand and sat back studying her beautiful face. He’d made sure to wear a jacket, aware of the effect her presence had on him and they were there on serious business, the most serious of his life so far.

              “Bly I need you to help me and you’re not going get the results you want from the paternity test, you should understand and prepare yourself for that. Wait, let me finish, my husband has been missing for three weeks and I’m going to find him one way or another. He left suddenly to find JP and now they’re both missing. You have power and influence, the government agencies have turned a blind eye to the matter. They say Finn and JP don’t officially work for anyone, so they won’t get involved. I need you to pull some strings to see what you can find out or at least you could have West go with me and I’ll need the use of your jet, I’m going to find him.” She was leaning close to him, her eyes more frightened than he could ever have imagined and it hurt him to know she so deeply loved another man, but
he loved her
and like it or not, he would do anything for her.

              “There’s your mum, see she didn’t stray too far from her darling,” Georgina stood at the end of the sofa holding Atticus who was four months old and thrilled to see his mother. He reached for her, smiling happily, and Charlotte hugged and kissed him over and over then held him on her lap and looked up at Bly.

              Bly stood and shook hands with Georgina and Jude and although he thought they would hate him they didn’t seem the least bit bothered to meet him. Bly looked at the baby and drew in his breath, he was a beautiful child with Charlotte’s large sapphire eyes, and even at just four months it was obvious who his father was. Atticus was the exact image of Finn, and Bly’s heart had broken the minute he looked at the adorable baby.

              “He’s amazing Charlotte, I feel… awkward seeing him. It’s obvious who he belongs with and I’m sorry to have caused you any upset, all of you. I don’t know what else to say really…” Bly fumbled for words and his face was bereft.

              “Jude is a physician, he’s Finn’s brother and he thinks we should go ahead with the test, just so there won’t ever be any doubt. What do you think, Bly? We can drive over to Universal Genetics, it’s only a few blocks away and they’ll put a rush on it and we can have the results in twenty four hours,” Charlotte said, she felt sorry for Bly, of course there’d never been any doubt in her own mind, but she knew he’d hoped against hope that this child was his future.

*

              After the test was done, Jude took Georgina and the baby home with him and Charlotte drove Bly back to Claridge’s. They went in the bar for a drink and it was Charlotte’s turn to be visibly agitated.

              “Bly even if I have to hire a band of mercenaries I’m going to find Finn, and I’ll go with them and I’ll probably be killed or worse. I suppose I could make you my son’s legal guardian, you’d be happy then I guess.”

              “Ah, Charlotte.” He sighed and she began to cry then, thinking of Finn saying those very words and now feeling completely helpless.

              “I’ll do anything you want; I’ll leave him and come back to you, if that’s what it takes to save his life,” she wiped her tears on a napkin he offered and then she put her purse strap on her shoulder and started to leave.

              “Don’t leave I’ll help you, of course I’ll fucking help you, I can’t stand to see you in this much pain, and don’t say such things. It’s so fucking obvious how you feel about him; I’d rather not be your consolation prize. Now tell me what you know, wait, let me call West, we’ll need him, too,” Bly said, running his hand through his hair, he wondered if there was anything he wouldn’t do for this woman and if he would ever stop loving her.

*

              They met West in Bly’s suite, he was sitting with an attractive auburn haired young woman and he stood and said a curt ‘hello’.

              The young woman stood up and gave Charlotte a genuine hug, “I wish he had been my nephew,” she said and led Charlotte to the sofa to sit.

              “This is my sister Amanda,” Bly said, “Amanda, you know all about Charlotte already.”

              “Ouch,” Charlotte said, “that didn’t sound very good for me.”

              Amanda laughed, “Well, good for Charlotte, bad for Alex! He’s a big boy; he’ll get over you someday. He said your baby is very beautiful, by the way.”

              “Alright, let’s get to this,” Bly said, “West, have you found anything to tell us where they might be?”

              “Nothing, no one’s talking, it’s like they fell off the edge of the world. I don’t think it’s anything any of the governments are involved in, it has to be personal,” West said and the look he gave Bly chilled Charlotte’s heart.

              “Huang?” Bly asked and West nodded his head.

              “Oh my God, oh they’ll kill him and torture him first! You know they will,” she looked from Bly to West, “there was a girl in Monte Carlo when we were on our honeymoon, an Asian girl, she was probably twenty one or twenty two, she spoke to me and Finn knew we had to be careful. He stayed a few days after I flew back to London, she was with Jamey Huang’s father, his mistress, I think. Finn said it was all taken care of when he came home, but she blamed me I know, she asked me if I knew Jamey was dead,” the words spilled out of Charlotte in a rush.

              Amanda handed her a glass of vodka and she took a drink and choked and coughed for a minute, then wiped her mouth and said, “This is all my fault, I had to make Huang Worldwide suffer just to prove I could. To make sure the great Alexander Bly and the entire legal world knew what an amazing attorney I was. I wanted to prove I was more than the naked girl on the cover of a magazine. Funny isn’t it, how life works? So many ‘ifs’ and ‘what ifs’, what if I hadn’t gone with Jorgen to the photo shoot that first day then I wouldn’t have met you and had the money to go law school and I wouldn’t have known Finn and JP, and if Finn had stopped doing his job when I begged him to…”

              Bly pulled her against him and she rested her head against his chest, “Charlotte, you can’t think like that. Listen to all the variables you listed, it wasn’t just one single thing, let’s concentrate on finding them and bringing them both home.”

              West said he had just talked to a former SEAL who’d worked with Finn and JP and he’d run into JP a couple of months before and something was mentioned about a private compound off the coast of China. “We may need entry and exit visas to travel in communist areas, how well do you know the American ambassador to Great Britain?”

              Bly’s sister said she wished they had met under better circumstances and that Alex had nothing but good things to say about Charlotte, that perhaps in the future they could get to know one another.

              “I live in New York mainly, but I come to Paris to stay with Mother at least one week each month and I always pop over to London for a day, so let’s have tea and go shopping,” Amanda told Charlotte as she left the suite with Bly.

              “My sister doesn’t understand how upset you are Charlotte, you’ll have to excuse her, but she really would like to have you as a friend, I can tell.”

              “That’s nice,” Charlotte said as the valet brought the Range Rover and before she got in Bly held her wrist lightly and she turned to face him.

              “I’m not letting you drive Charlotte; you’re in bad shape right now. Stay here in the suite, or I’ll get you a room, please.”

              “I have to get home to my son, he’s just getting used to taking a bottle and he’ll want to cuddle up,” she said and tears flowed down her cheeks.

              Bly held her against him and she put her arms around him and cried into his shoulder as if it were the end of the world, “Shhh, it’s going to be fine. We’ll find his father; we’ll find Finn and bring him home.” He put her in the passenger side of her car then he got behind the wheel and drove her to the house in Hampstead Heath and to her son.

*             

              Bly drove back to Jude’s townhouse to pick Charlotte up the next morning. He rang the bell and she answered holding Atticus on her hip. She invited Bly in and handed him the baby while she went to get her purse and a light coat, she was wearing a new dress and heels. They were going to ask the American ambassador for help and she wanted to make a good impression.

              “Oh, I don’t know, I’m not very good at this… in fact I’ve never held a baby,” Bly protested, but Atticus just reached for his face and smiled.

              “What, you think I’d ever held a baby before he was born? You’re doing fine, look, he likes you and he’s a very good judge of character!” Charlotte said, then she smiled for the first time since he’d seen her and Georgina appeared and took the baby from his arms.

              “I met the American ambassador when I arrived in London, we only spoke briefly but he’s a nice enough guy. We need these visas and any other help we can get, he’s from Louisiana I believe, maybe your southern charm will sway him in our favor,” Bly said, hoping to get a smile out of Charlotte.

              “Surely he knows something and he must know Finn, we were married at the embassy,” Charlotte said and her voice had a desperate edge to it.

              They were greeted by the ambassador’s personal assistant and ushered in to his office. They all shook hands and Bly explained the trouble they were having and that they required travel visas to China and any information as to JP or Finn’s last known location.

              “I wish I could help you Alex, I really do, but my hands are tied with red tape, if you know what I mean. I’m more of a figurehead than anything, they don’t give me missile launch codes or anything important,” he laughed at that and so did Bly and Charlotte turned her face away from both of them. “Mrs. Hunter, Charlotte, is it? I understand your predicament more than you know, I lost a son in Iraq, if I could help I would.”

              Charlotte turned to look at the ambassador and she wanted to reach across the desk and slap him for what he’d said. She couldn’t believe he assumed Finn was dead. “I’m sorry for your loss ambassador, truly and from my heart, I
am
sorry. My husband might still be alive; if there had been a chance for you to bring your son home alive, wouldn’t you have moved heaven and earth to do so?” Charlotte’s eyes were filled with tears as she looked at him and his were as well. She felt an odd tug of familiarity, his accent was Southern, maybe that was it, he reminded her of home. His hair was going grey mainly at the temples but she could see that it had once been dark, almost black, most likely. His eyes were his most striking feature, they were wide and merry and sapphire blue, goose bumps rose on her arms as she looked at the name plaque on his desk. ‘Charles Tremont, Rep. Louisiana’ was embossed in black letters across the brass name plate.

                “Is this your son? He looks just like you,” Charlotte said, picking up a framed photograph of a young man who looked enough like her to be her brother.

              “I hear that a lot,” the ambassador said, dabbing his eyes with a tissue and smiling a small smile.

              “Your only child?” she asked.

              “I’m afraid so, we wanted more but it just didn’t happen. He’d be about your age.”

              “I feel like I’ve seen him before, did he go to Ole Miss?” she asked.

              “No, his mother wanted him close to home so he went to Tulane, then he was a pilot. A Naval Aviator, one of the best of the best.”

              The ambassador walked Charlotte and Bly to her car and just before she put the Range Rover in gear she rolled down the window and he leaned in. She looked deep into his sapphire eyes and said, “So you’re from New Orleans then? Did you know a girl named Sally McCall?”

              He was very quiet as he met her eyes, then she saw the realization begin to grow in them.

              “I’m Sally’s daughter,” she said, and she drove away.

*

              “So what now?” Charlotte asked as they walked in to the hotel and Bly’s phone rang.

              “Yes, alright. I’m in the Davies Penthouse Suite, see you soon, thank you,” Bly said and ended the call. “The ambassador’s on his way with visas and information, it seems you made an impression.”

              “Imagine that,” Charlotte said.

              In the living room of Bly’s suite, Amanda was talking nonstop, showing off treasures she’d bought while shopping that morning, and having tea and finger sandwiches. “Really Charlotte, you are a stunning beauty, I mean Alex went on and on about you last Christmas, but who knew? Here, why don’t eat something, you look awfully pale.”

              “She’s always pale,” Bly said, “but you really should eat, Charlotte. You’re getting thin again; you don’t want to get sick.”