Remember Me (2 page)

Covering Regan with a blanket, he gently rubbed his soft, thick black curls, then quietly left the room.
Making his way to the sitting room, he sat down heavily on the couch, staring at the blank television screen listlessly.
Inevitably, as he knew it would, his mind drifted back to three years earlier, and events began to play in his mind, as if they were part of a movie he just watched yesterday:
“You think I’m that stupid?
I know what’s going on, Granger!” Cassandra screamed at him, her voice hoarse with frustration.” You’re sleeping with that…that BITCH, and your mother is in the middle of the whole thing, as usual!”
Her eyes looked wild, and if he didn’t know her better, he would have thought she was using illegal drugs of some kind.
“I can’t stay here anymore! I’m taking Regan and we are LEAVING! I’ll go somewhere…I’ll go to my mother’s, but we won’t stay here, not a minute longer!”
Sick of the all the arguments they had been having, he glared at her. And to make matters even worse, his mother was constantly interfering. She refused to accept that he had married an African American woman, against her express wishes. “Damn it, Cass!” he growled at her, as he stabbed a finger into his own chest for emphasis. “I have never wanted another woman, never slept with another woman, since meeting you, don‘t you know that??? How can you even think that about me, much less accuse me of such a thing outright!”
She looked at him, her lips puckered in annoyance, and just from her stance he knew she didn’t believe him.
Thoroughly frustrated, he ran his hands through his black hair. “You know Martina comes here to see my mother, NOT ME! This is my mother’s home also, after all, and she can invite whomever she pleases.”
He ended the conversation by turning to leave the room. He had no time or patience for another one of her paranoid tantrums. He had hoped the new doctor she was seeing could help her, but instead it seemed she was becoming more unstable by the day. Recently she
had physically attacked him, claiming he had hidden someone in their room to watch her while he was away.
“Don’t you walk away from me, you…you whoremonger!” she screamed.
He stopped, then turned slowly to face his enraged wife once more. “Cass, I’ve got no time for this, I have to get going. But when I get back, I really think we should see about getting you another doctor. This behavior is getting tiresome, and it’s just…bizarre. I’m doing my best here, but….“ he trailed off as he looked down at the floor, feeling defeated, and unable to express just how badly it made him feel to see their marriage coming apart at the seams. He couldn’t understand why no matter how many times he told her, no matter the expensive gifts he lavished her
with;
she refused to believe that he loved both her and their son dearly. “Look, like I said, I don’t have time for
this;
we’ll talk when I return. I have an international flight to catch in a couple of hours.” he finished quietly.
Her brown eyes blazed as they bore into him, and it appeared as if she was on the verge of crying. “You don’t give a rat’s ass about me, what I have to put up with! Your mother constantly reminding me how I’m not a REAL Mortenson, how I don’t belong! Do you know how many times she’s said the only reason you married me was because of Regan? I promise you, I SWEAR to you, if you get on that plane today, I’ll take my baby and leave this place, and you’ll never see either one of us again!” she shouted, and finally burst into tears.
He had heard enough. Stalking up to her angrily, he grabbed her shoulders, shook her a little, and glared daggers at her. Gritting his teeth, he said, “Listen to me, woman, and you listen very closely! I’ve let you have your way with this childish act of yours, but if you try to take my son, I promise you it will be the worst mistake you’ve ever made in your life, you understand me? Don’t think my love for you will allow you to do whatever the hell you want, any time you want! You‘ll never take him, you hear? Not in the menta….not in the state of mind you‘re
in! “Pushing
her away, he snarled, “You want to leave? FINE, go on then! But you leave BY YOURSELF! Don’t fuck with me, I’m warning you! Or Regan! I’ve tried and tried, but you’re hopeless. JUST GO
! “He
finished, feeling his heart sink to the floor.
She stood there in shock, almost as if frozen in time, looking defeated. Something in the way she looked at him, something so…final, warned him that she was serious about leaving, and that perhaps he should stay and try to work things out, but, still angered by her threats, the inner advice went unheeded.
As he turned and walked away he barely heard her say, “Fine, I’ll leave for
a while
. But when I return we should see a lawyer, not another doctor.”
His stride faltered for a fraction of a second and panic gripped his heart, but foolish pride won out in the end. The sound of her sobbing forlornly as he closed the door behind him spooked him in ways he had never felt before in his life.
After composing himself somewhat, he summoned his right hand man, Malcolm Grant, a short time later.
Looking steadily at the young man, who looked more like a linebacker for the Green bay Packers instead of a very efficient aide he had
come
to rely heavily on, he was silent for a moment. The African American man stood there patiently, his dark eyes seeming to be scanning and searching for problems. He had been a former Special Forces officer, but had left the military after losing his wife overseas. He was not only a top-notch aide, but provided any security he might need.
“Uhmm, everything Ok, C
hief?"the
young man finally asked.
“Oh, right, I was wool gathering, sorry. Listen, I want you to stay behind here, and assign someone else you trust to go to Egypt with me.” he said as he turned and looked out the
window
at his family’s vast estate, and finally leaning against his large body against an antique desk that once had belonged to his father. “I want you to stay here and keep an eye on my wife and son. Under no circumstances is she to take Regan and leave the premises, unless you’re with them. Or with one of your people you trust, if you’re indisposed. There will be no exceptions, you make sure Regan is watched around the clock.”
“Understood, sir. Do you want Mrs. Mortenson‘s comings and goings, by herself, restricted or monitored as well?” he asked, his face an unreadable mask.
Opening his briefcase, he shook his head, his voice thick and unsteady. “No, she may come and go as she pleases. Only when she is with Regan will you or someone else accompany her. That’s all.” he said, gathering his work he needed for the trip…
Snapping out of his melancholy thoughts, Granger knew he had to end the present madness at hand, but on his terms, no one else’s. His mother had been hounding him nonstop to move on, and divorce Cassandra on the grounds of abandonment. She also wanted him to marry Martina, something he refused to even consider.
Martina wasn’t going to get her hooks into him, no way, no how. Out of hurt and loneliness, he had foolishly had a brief sexual relationship with her after Cassandra had walked out on him, but it was never anything more than physical for him, a point he had thought he made abundantly clear from the beginning. In spite of that, after a short period of time she began talking about marriage anyway, and he ended it quickly from there. But it wasn’t as simple as that, deep down, it just didn’t feel right, especially remembering all the times Cassandra had accused him of sleeping with her.
But even that hadn’t stopped his mother from scheming. He had been livid when he found out she had actually been planning a wedding behind his back, a wedding with Martina. He had put a stop to that as well, and told his mother if she tried again, he would take Regan and leave.
His son was growing, and needed a mother figure, and he knew it was time to start thinking about marriage again, but things would be different this time around. This time, he would find a woman simply to help him raise his son, and in trade he would give her a lavish life most women could only dream about. He would stay with her until Regan was an adult,
and then
pay her to leave. The perfect business arrangement. He could never give his heart to another woman, ever again. He had been foolish with Cassandra, he had given her his heart, but she had ripped it out and stomped on it when she left them without a word, never looking back. The bitterness surfaced like it always did when he thought about her, his father had always warned him, when he was alive, to never let his heart rule his head.
I
t’s time to end all this useless hoping and deal with the matter using my head, not my heart...
he thought as he pulled his cell phone out and dialed Malcolm’s number.
The young man answered on the second ring.
“Hi, Malcolm. The private investigator I asked you to contact, have him begin the search for Cassandra. I want this done discreetly, and have him report directly to me, so give him all the contact information.”
“Sure thing chief, right away.” the man answered, then hung up.
“Please tell me you aren’t planning to try to find that
woman;
your lawyers already said you can divorce her without her being present!”
With an audible sigh, he turned to see his mother, Grace, giving him a look of prim disapproval.
“She left you, she left my grandson.
Humph
! I’m surprised she didn’t take your great grandmother’s wedding rings and pawn them, or whatever
they
do with stolen property, instead of leaving them here so you could give them to your next wife. Leave that no good tramp where she is! She’s probably shacking up with some drug dealer, or someone of that ilk!” she said, hoping her words would make him see that it was better not to dig too deeply into Cassandra’s disappearance. She couldn’t afford that…
Silently, he took in the sight of his mother. She was the very image of class and refinement. Her dark hair was done up, not a hair out of place, the evening dress fit her perfectly, no doubt one she had purchased on one of her buying trips to Paris. She had always been the social butterfly, and she had always felt Cassandra had somehow been
blight of
her social standing. “Allow me to run my own personal matters, mother.” he finally said with firm authority, in a tone that brooked no argument, and no compromise. “How I plan to handle my wife is my concern.”
Why couldn’t I do this when Cassandra asked…no…BEGGED me to?
To put my foot down?
He thought, the guilt making him feel squeamish.
Narrowing her cold blue eyes, she said haughtily,
“Well
, you’ve done a rather inept job at that thus far, haven’t you? Your son, he needs a mother. And it would help if you stopped telling him about that…. woman, and allowing him to have pictures of her. He would forget her if you would only allow him to. I want you to divorce her and find a suitable wife
to be a mother to my grandson, someone that I can proudly say is a Mortenson!”
Standing to his full height of six foot four, he spoke in a deceptively calm voice. “Don’t push me, mother. I control this family, and I control every dime that is attached to the family name! I won’t allow you to push anything on me that I don’t want. Maybe if I had put my foot down earlier, she would never have…oh, never mind, what‘s the use? Just mind your own affairs, thank you very much!”
“Well, that’s certainly no way to speak to your…“
She was interrupted as he threw his hands up in disgust and said, “Mother, SHUT UP. I’ve got more important things to do.”
“WELL..” she huffed, but knowing better than to press him any further at the moment, simply turned and stalked out.
*****************************************************
Grace closed the door to the study, assuring she would have privacy, not wanting the
help
to overhear the sensitive conversation.
Hurrying to her desk she dialed a familiar number, her hands shaking so badly she could barely hold the phone. As much as she hated to admit, even to herself, her conversation with her son had shaken her confidence badly, a feat no one had accomplished in years. The way he had spoken to her….
When a woman‘s voice answered, she hissed, “Martina, it’s me. We have a problem. That fool son of mine is looking for
that
woman again. Now isn’t a good time for you to be away. You need to be here, building a relationship with Regan, that’s the only way you can get to Granger, I think.”
Martina sat in her limo, nibbling on her lower lip, trying to think of a way to stop Granger from finding the bitch. She had already tried to get that stubborn brat of Granger’s to like her. She had tried gifts, even cash, and he still had never thawed to her.
“Martina, you there…?”
“Listen, Mother Grace, I have to be out on this business trip, I have little choice. My holdings my not be as vast and profitable as yours, but I have to see to what I do have. This is a very important buying trip for my stores. Since I’ve gotten my store into that development your son has, I want to make him see I can handle business. You just have to stop him, somehow, make him listen.” she whined, then noticed the limo driver watching her in the rear view mirror. Leaning forward, she pushed the button to raise the partition,
covered the phone with her hand and sneered at the driver, “You’re paid to drive, not eavesdrop,
Amigo
.”
Returning the phone to her ear, she continued. “Mother Grace, she won’t be found, believe me. You just have to think of some way to stop him until I get there, that‘s all.” She heard the older woman let out a frustrated sigh.