Perfect Harmony (24 page)

“But I’m here,” I say.  “I’m here right now.”

His eyes lose focus and dart around, searching for
something.  “Where are you?”

“I’m here.”

“It’s dark.  Where are you?”

“It’s okay.”

“...Everything’s getting so dark.... Where...where...”

“Shhhh,” I say to him in a soothing tone.  I kiss his
forehead.

I start to sing.

“
Hush little baby, don’t say a word.  Momma’s gonna buy
you a mocking bird.  And when that mocking bird doesn’t sing, Momma’s gonna buy
you a diamond ring.
”

He’s silent, staring into the sky.

His mouth opens slightly, his breathing slow and shallow.

His hand drops from my cheek and hits the bed with a thud.

“Dad?” I say.

There’s no response.

“Dad?”

Nothing.

“...Daddy?”

The world falls away.  I stumble back, hand to my mouth,
weeping.  I want to breathe, I want scream.  I want something.  Anything.

The pain.  I don’t want to feel this pain.  Somebody stop
it.  Please.

Oh god, please stop this hurt.

There’s a sensation behind me.  Something stops me, holds
me.  There’s a hand on my shoulder.

A smell.  A scent.  I don’t know what it is.

Something soft, against my cheek.

It’s Chase.  He’s holding me.  I’m crying into his chest and
he holds me tight.

The moment seems to last forever.  At least, I think it
does.

He guides me down to the chair and we sit, and he’s still
holding me and I cry and I cry.

His hands strokes my hair and he hushes me in a soft voice.

“Melody,” he says.  “I...”

“Stop.  Just hold me.”

I lay my head on his lap and he continues to stroke my hair.

“Can everything be still for a moment?” I ask.  “Can’t
everything just be still?”

The tears stream down my eyes.

But I feel safe and protected.  In a cocoon.  A bubble.

And then, before I realise it, everything turns to black.

***

M
y eyes open, my head a groggy mess.

I must have fallen asleep.

Chase.  Where’s Chase?

I look around the hospital room in a desperate attempt to
see someone.  Anyone.  But it’s empty.

Chase isn’t here holding my head and soothing me with his
touch.

The bed is empty.

My father - he’s gone.  The memory returns and burns me like
a fresh wound.  My stomach lurches as it all comes flooding back and I long for
the second or so earlier when I’d lived in ignorance.

But my father is dead.  There’s nothing else to say.  He’s
gone.  Forever.

But Chase was here.  He comforted me in my time of need with
those loving strokes I remember so fondly.  Unless he wasn’t here.  Maybe I
dreamt it.  Maybe my mind yearned for some solace when I was wrapped up in my
pain.

No, he felt real.  That connection we share, it cannot be
faked.  It cannot be imaged in a weak mental moment.  We shared something
special.

Divorce papers.  He brought them here.

My chest tightens as that memory comes searing back.

But there’s no papers here.  No sound in the hallways, no
beep of the heart monitor.  Nothing.

Just white hospital walls and the stench of disinfectant.

I’ve never felt so alone.

––––––––

––––––––

“T
his is a fucking disaster!”

Duncan slams his fist against the desk, spilling coffee on
the rug.

“Look what you’ve done,” I say.

“I don’t care.  It’s just fucking coffee, Mel.  This is our
business we’re talking about.  Our livelihoods.  And those bastards in that
boardroom over there are going to rip it out from under us.”

I stroke his shoulder.

“It’s alright,” I say.  “I miss him too.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Dad, you idiot.  He’s been gone for over a week now and you
need to get the hell over it.”

Duncan paces.  “What does it matter?  Those bastards in
there-“

“
Those bastards
are the shareholders in our company. 
In Dad’s company.  Don’t forget it.  If you go in there like this, full cocked
and ready to punch them in the face, things’ll turn to shit pretty quickly.”

Duncan sits in the chair.  “I don’t know what to do,
Melody.  I just don’t know what to do.”

He looks to me as if asking for a solution, but I have none.

To say the situation is a disaster is the understatement of
the century.  After my dad died, I discovered the true lengths to which
Wrenwick had been screwing with the company.  He hadn’t just been selling
information, he’d embezzled over fifty million dollars and fled the country. 
The shareholders were in a mess, ready to pull the plug at any second.  They
just needed a reason.  Then my father got ill and control of the company fell to
my brother, a man they’d always thought of as a loose cannon, the stories of
his rivalry with Chase being the napalm on the forest fire.

They didn’t trust him with their money.

When they called a meeting, we knew what was coming.  They
were going to sell their shares and our company - everything my father had
worked for - would be snuffed out in an instant.

“I’m going to step down,” he says.

“What? Don’t be silly.”

“Silly?  What’s silly is expecting to go in there and not
get met with a firing squad.  If I step down, maybe their faith in the company
will be restored and they’ll stick around.”

“And if you leave, who’s going to take charge with Dad
gone?”

“You could,” he says, not realising the insanity of what
he’s suggesting.

“Me?  Yeah, I’m sure a bunch of octogenarian millionaires
won’t have a problem handing the reigns to a nineteen year old pregnant woman.”

“Then we’re screwed.”

The large wooden door creeks open and a spindly woman in
glasses pops her head out.

“They’re ready for you,” she says, and disappears back
inside the boardroom.

My brother pushes himself up off his chair and sighs. 
“Don’t suppose they’ll offer me a cigarette first?”

I rub his shoulder and we march inside, heads held high and
all business.

The shareholders line the long wooden table and stare at us
in eerie silence.

“Ah, yes,” says Ned Campbell, the least stuffiest of the
board.  He arches his bristly eyebrows and raises his head from the papers in
front of him.  “The other shareholders and I have asked you here because we
feel there is a matter that needs to be addressed.  It’s come to our attention
that over the previous year, revenue has fallen by over forty percent.  In
addition, due to the rather tragic situation involving the CEO-“

“Oh god, would you just say it already,” says Duncan.

“Duncan!” I admonish.

“This is ridiculous, Melody.  We know what he’s going to
say, he knows that we know.  This is all pointless rhetoric meant to  disguise
the truth.”

“And what is that truth, Mr. Callaghan?” asks Ned.

“You guys want out.  You want to sell everything, even if
that means this business dies with it.  Am I wrong?”

There’s an ominous silence.

“I thought so,” says Duncan.

“Mr. Callaghan, I can assure you this decision was not made
lightly.”

“Please, it all just comes down to the money for you,
doesn’t it?  You don’t care that our father slaved away for decades to create
this company.  You don’t care that you’ll be leaving my pregnant sister and I
with nothing.  This is our life.  And you’re just throwing it away like it’s
nothing.”

“Duncan,” I say.  “That’s enough.”

“We do wish things were different,” says Ned.  “If there was
a way to save Magnum Records-“

“What if I step down?” says Duncan.

“I’m sorry?”

“Me.  What if I’m gone?  Will that be enough to restore you
faith?  Will it be enough to at least buy us some time?  I know you, all of
you, don’t trust me or even like me.  But if I’m gone-”

“I’m sorry, but it’s irrelevant.  Our minds are made up.”

“That’s it?  Do you bastards have no feelings at all, for
god’s sake!  You’re all sick.”

“Duncan!” I say.  “Stop it.  This isn’t helping.”

“Why aren’t you helping me fight, Mel?  Why aren’t you
standing up for yourself?”

“Because, I’m tired, Duncan.  I’m tired of fighting all the
time.  I tired of wanting so much and getting nothing no matter how hard I
try.  Let’s just get this over with.  Nothing can save us.”

There’s a commotion outside in the waiting room.  A baritone
voice, angry, and a woman’s voice trying to placate.

Suddenly, the door thunders open and Chase marches inside.

“Melody?” he says, his eyes wide with wonder.  “Thank god. 
I’m just in time.”

“Chase? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

Duncan grinds his teeth and marches towards Chase.  “You
bastard!” he growls.  Duncan raises his fist and in a flash, punches Chase
square in the face.  He topples to the carpet.

“Chase!”  I rush over to him and kneel to check his
injuries.  “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.  Caught me off guard, is all.”

Duncan looms over Chase like a dark statue.  “After
everything you did to my sister, you think you can just waltz in here?”

“It wasn’t a waltz, more of a stride.”

“You bastard, you think what you did was funny?”

“Just stop it!” I shout.  “Stop it, the both of you.  God,
you’re just as bad as each other, you know that?”

They’re both say nothing.

I stroke Chase’s cheek with my thumb.  “It’ll probably just
leave a bruise.  A week from now, no-one will know,” I say with a smile.

“What are you doing, Mel?  This man knocked you up and threw
you away like a piece of yesterday’s garbage!”

“I am aware of my sins,” says Chase.

“Sins?  You ripped out her heart.  You accused her of lying
to you about everything, the baby, that she’s a corporate spy-“

“That’s why I’m here,” says Chase, holding my hand gently in
his powerful palms and staring deep into my eyes with that penetrating gaze. 
“To make amends.  I’m sorry, Melody.  I jumped to conclusions.  I was a fool.”

“You’re not a fool, Chase,” I say.  “With everything that
happened, I’m not surprised you didn’t trust me.”

“But I should have.  After everything we’ve been through, I
should have.  Mercedes, she’s the spy.  After you left, she drunkenly bared
everything to try and get me to take her back.  The vile woman even broke into
my office and stole my files.  She’s been working with your old pal Wrenwick,
both of them trying to bring down both of our businesses.

“That’s preposterous,” spits Duncan.

“How else do you think you received the information about
the Taiwan deal?  Or how I knew you wanted to buy that factory in Mexico?  Or
the vineyard?  All that sensitive information, where do you think it came
from?  They’ve been pitting the two of us against each other.”

Duncan is silent.  He knows it’s the truth, as do I.  Except
the truth to me is far more crushing.

“This is my fault,” I say.  “Both of them, they only did
what they did for revenge.  Because I caused them so much hurt.  If I didn’t-“

“I’m glad you did,” says Chase.  He squeezes my hand. 
“Otherwise, I would never have met you.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying... I’m saying I’ve been a fool.  You were right,
Melody.  All along, you were right, about everything.  My father and how he
treated woman, it weighed so heavily on my mind.  I swore I would never turn
out like him.  I was so scared I would.  I did it to protect myself, but it changed
me.  It made me afraid of letting someone close because I knew I’d end up
hurting them eventually.  So I pushed you away.”

“Oh, Chase.”  My stomach tightens, but I can feel
butterflies alive inside, a glowing warmth building within me and threatening to
break through.

“All the things I did, the obsession with work and my
friends and that whole world, telling you how to act and talk and dress, I did
it because I couldn’t face the truth.”

His fingers brush away a stray lock of my hair and lightly
caress my skin.  I sigh on contact, more alive than I’ve ever felt.

“I love you, Melody Strong.  Dear God, I love you so much it
hurts.”

I smile.  I can’t help it.  I beam and cry and everything
falls away.  “I love you, too.”

His hand holds my cheek in that way he always does, and I
feel like I belong.  Like the world has finally righted itself, and everything
is how it should be.  Complete and safe and so bright it’s blinding.

“Oh God, I love you Chase.  I love you.  I can’t tell you
how much I wanted to say that.  I love you!”  The tears of joy stream from my
eyes.

He kisses my forehead and his lips are so soft that I
shudder in delight.  “I never want to lose you again.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”  I bring his hand to my bump. 
“Neither of us.”

A light shines in Chase’s eyes, so blazing and brilliant
that it overwhelms us both.  “Melody, what your father said, he was right. 
Love is all that matters in this world.”  Chase lets go of me and rises.  Tall
and proud, his attention turns to the board members.  “And that is why,” he
continues, “...that is why I’m giving up my company.”

Everyone is shocked into silence.

All eyes are on Chase as he stands at the end of the table. 
The sunlight breaks through the window behind him and covers him in a head to
foot golden glow, like a Greek god commanding his followers.

“I have a proposal for everyone here: a merger between
Harmony Records and Magnum Records.  With my financial influence along with
Harmony Record’s assets and Magnum Record’s market power, we would be
unstoppable.

The board members look to each other, surprise and interest
alive on the faces.

“Your offer, Mr. Strong, it’s intriguing,” says Ned.  “Very
intriguing.  Not to mention, with the legendary Chase Strong leading the
charge-“