Alexander and Callie were the talk of the office the next day, until Tony Barretti strode in and went straight into Alexander’s office. Alexander looked up from his desk and set his pen down.
“Good day, Tony, how are you doing?” He asked it pleasantly, knowing that word must have traveled fast to get to him. “Please, have a seat.” He indicated the chairs before his desk.
Tony stood at the edge of the desk instead, staring down hard at Alexander. “I heard that you had a meeting with Janine McCartney yesterday after I left.”
“Yes, Tony, you aren’t the only partner interest we are courting at the moment. You must realize that.” Alexander kept his tone level as he looked up at the man posturing over his desk.
“Is that so?” Tony gritted his teeth a moment and then eased up. “What are you going to do? Who are you going with?”
Alexander leaned back in his chair and sighed, keeping his eyes on the man in front of him. “We’re most likely going to go with Janine.”
Tony narrowed his gaze and leaned over Alexander’s desk, pointing a finger straight at him. “Alex, you better listen to me and listen to me good. This deal is worth a lot of money to me, and I’m not going to give it up. You have a choice. You choose me, and you make some money, or you don’t choose me, and I promise you right now that you’ll regret it. Do you understand me?”
Alexander stood up and straightened his jacket, standing half a foot taller than Tony. He looked down at him and spoke in an even tone. “Tony Barretti, do not come into my office and threaten me. You can leave, now.” With that, Alexander walked toward the door and held it open for Tony, waiting for him to walk out. Tony shook his head and went breezing right past Alexander.
An hour later, Norman Wainwright walked into Alexander’s office and sat with him at his desk. He looked at Alexander with a patient expression on his face.
“I understand that Tony Barretti was in here today.” He began, his eyes staring through his horn rimmed glasses.
“Yes, he was.” Alexander answered.
“I have to tell you, Alexander, from a legal standpoint, and from a solid business portfolio perspective, I have to advise against going with Janine and I must impress upon you the importance of going with Tony. The fact is that’s what’s truly best for this company and the future of your employees.” He leaned back in his chair as if he had just mandated an order and fully expected that it would be followed.
Alexander put his elbows on the desk in front of him and gave Norman a poker face. “I’ve taken your advice under due consideration. Thank you for your time.”
“Well whom are you choosing?” Norman pressed further.
“Janine.” Alexander answered, his eyes steady on Norman’s.
Norman sighed in exasperation. “Alexander, I must appeal to you as your legal counsel on this situation and advise you that it would truly be in your best interest to choose Tony!”
“Thank you Norman, you can see yourself out.” Alexander eyed the door and picked up his pen. Norman pursed his lips into a thin line and rose from his chair with a bitter expression. He left Alexander’s office without another word.
Callie came into Alexander’s office later in the morning and walked around to the back of his desk, leaning on it as she looked down at him. He smiled up at her with a grin. “Finally, someone I really want to see!”
He stood up and took her in his arms, kissing her softly and giving her a big smile. She looked up at him seriously then and spoke in a quiet voice.
“Did you choose Janine because of me?” she asked curiously.
He grew thoughtful for a moment. “Partly; because I trust you,” he told her earnestly.
She reached her arms around his neck and smiled at him. “That’s very sweet of you.” She kissed him softly and rested her face against his chest. “I hope I’m a good influence on you and that my opinions are helpful for you. I don’t want you to make poor choices because of me.”
“That isn’t going to happen. I already know it.” He said quietly in her ear as he held her close. She was relieved to know it.
Callie looked up at him again and gave him a small smile. “I need to know if I can be gone tomorrow afternoon please.”
Alexander blinked in surprise. “Of course, what’s taking you away from here?”
“Oh, Jenny, my adopted daughter. She has been in ballet since she was three. Her mother put her in it before she passed away, and I’ve kept her in it because she loves it. She auditioned for the lead role in The Sleeping Beauty at her ballet academy and she got it. She has rehearsals tomorrow and I need to take her. Would that be okay, please?” She gave him her best winning smile.
“That’s an excellent reason to be gone. Go with my blessing and have a wonderful time. I’m so glad that you’re filling her childhood with fine arts. It’s going to help make her a better person when she’s older. She’ll have an appreciation for more of the world around her.” He kissed her y and then let her go. “Back to work for us. I’m looking forward to more time with you soon.”
Callie nodded and thanked him, leaving him in his office to go back to her own and work.
***
The phone on the desk of a determined reporter at the Seattle Times newspaper rang. The reporter was tapping away at his keyboard like lightning. Pausing for a moment, he reached over and picked up the phone on his desk. “This is Kyle Reeves.”
“Kyle Reeves, reporter for the Seattle Times?” A man’s voice came through the line.
“Yes.” He said flatly, glancing at the clock and mentally giving the caller thirty more seconds to make his point before he ended the call.
“Glad I got you. This is Tony Barretti.” The man sounded almost gleeful in a dark way.
Kyle raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Tony Barretti the CEO of Morian Inc.”
“You’ve heard of me! That’s good. It means you’re going to be interested in the story I’m about to give you.” Tony’s voice grew cold. Kyle looked back up at the clock and mentally reset his phone call to two minutes.
“You have two minutes. Go.” Kyle was short and to the point.
Tony didn’t like being rushed, he had intended to draw the story out and give it the proper dramatic telling that he felt it deserved, but he wanted it published, and if Kyle said two minutes, then he supposed that that was just exactly how much time he had to present his information.
“Alexander Kingston of Summitech Corp found a stripper to go work on his senior level development team, and he’s having an affair with her.” Tony began.
“I have article tips about that same story on eight different politicians and twice that many businessmen.” Kyle intoned evenly.
“But none of them just turned the tech world on its ear. The stripper is Callie Forrester.” Tony’s voice was smug.
There was a pause at the other end of the line. “What proof do you have?” Kyle’s voice had an edge to it. Tony could tell that he had hooked his fish.
“I was with Alexander Kingston the night he met her at the strip club, the night she told us about the app fix, when she went back to the hotel with us. I’m willing to give you an exclusive on the story if you promise me that you’ll go after them and dig up more of the secrets beneath the manure there. There’s a lot more going on, and your readers are going to eat it up. I’m only the tip of the iceberg,” Tony teased him darkly.
“Fine. You’ve got a deal. I want you to sign the exclusive with me, though.”
“I’m all yours, baby. Just blast this all over the city and the world,” Tony replied with a widening grin.
***
Callie, her mother, and Jenny were heading to ballet rehearsal for Jenny when Callie turned off of Interstate 5 at the SeaTac airport exit. Jenny peered outside her window curiously and then looked over at Callie.
“Auntie Callie, what are we doing here? This isn’t how we go to the academy.” She furrowed her brow curiously.
“We’re stopping by the airport on the way.” Callie answered her with a smile. She was driving a new car, and she loved the feel of it. It gave her a great amount of relief and some satisfaction to know that her car wasn’t going to break down on the side of the road and that everything in it worked perfectly.
“Who?” Jenny’s eyes grew wide with excitement. “Who are we picking up?”
“It’s a surprise.” Jenny answered slyly. She smiled at her mother and Noel grinned broadly. A few minutes later, with the little girl’s face plastered to her window as she tried to get a look, they pulled up to the curb and Jenny shrieked with delight as she saw who it was that was waiting for them.
Jackson Forrester’s face resembled that of his twin sister’s, but that was where the resemblance ended. He was much bigger than she was, and he had built up on his own natural size by working out regularly and eating healthy. His head was bald, his eyes were dark, and he had a strong jaw. He knelt down to hug Jenny tightly, and grinned at her.
“Look how tall you are! You’re halfway grown! I haven’t been gone that long!” he laughed, and she hugged him back as hard as she could.
“Uncle Jack! It’s you! I can’t believe you’re here! Did you come to see me dance? Is that why you’re here?” She gasped in elation.
He nodded. “I did! Our little prima ballerina is performing the lead role in The Sleeping Beauty? You bet I came back to see you do that, and to visit with my sister and my mother! Hello Mama,” He paused, hugging and kissing her as well as Callie, “and to take care of some business.”
Callie gave him a secretive look and they shared the same angry thought for a moment before she smiled brightly again and told everyone to pile into the car. “We’ve got ballet rehearsal to get to, so let’s go!”
“Did you fly all the way here from Atlanta?” Jenny asked with fascination as she sat with Jack in the back seat. “How was the airplane? Did you get to sit by the window? Oh tell me everything!”
Callie drove to the academy and Jack talked with Jenny all the way there.
When they were seated at rehearsal, Jack leaned closer to Callie and they got to the adult questions; though he was the one asking all of them.
“So who is this guy Alex that you’re dating now? What’s he like?” Jack asked her seriously.
“He’s a really good man. I think you’re going to like him. He’s the head of a big tech company called Summitech. He’s the one who bought my fix for the app he invented, and he hired me to work with his team. I’m actually already building a new app for them.” She smiled shyly. She hadn’t told many people and she felt a little nervous about it, particularly since she was still in school for the job she already had.
“I’m really proud of you, sis. I know how hard you work at learning all of that and it’s cool that you’re working in the field now. I hope that he’s good to you. I want to meet him while I’m here.” Jack told her seriously.
“Okay. We can figure that out. Thank you, Jack. That means a lot to me.” She smiled at him and reached to his hand, giving it a squeeze.
“So when is Vick getting out?” He asked as his jaw clenched tightly. He kept his eyes on his sister.
“He’s out. He got out yesterday. I haven’t heard anything from him, but I bet we hear something soon. He won’t just fade out of our lives forever,” she grumbled bitterly.
“Well I’m here and he doesn’t know it. Let’s keep it that way. I don’t want him knowing I’m here until I decide to let him know. I’m going to take that son of a bitch down,” Jack murmured with a deep anger in his voice.
“You be careful, Jack. He’s dangerous. You know that. I just don’t know what we’re going to do about him.” Callie sighed in frustration as she rubbed her hand over her forehead.
“We’re going to wait and see what happens.” Noel said quietly as she watched the ballet rehearsal.
Jack and Callie shared a private glance. They were not going to just wait and see, and they both knew it. “I’m going to do a hell of a lot more than that. That bastard has got a lot to answer for. I hate him, and he’s going to find out just how much.”
The rehearsal ended and as they were all getting into the car, with Jenny bubbling on about how excited she was to dance the part, and how she was going to be even better with every rehearsal, Callie felt as if someone was watching them. She turned her head around and saw a blonde headed man with a couple of cameras slung around his neck, and one of them, with a telephoto lens, was pointed right at her and her family. She frowned, wondering who he was and what he might be doing taking pictures of them, but she just gave him a dirty look and got into her car. They weren’t doing anything wrong, and she told herself not to worry about it, and she turned the car for the house.
Callie went into work that afternoon, and NormanWainwright strode into her office not ten minutes after she arrived. His face was cold and his mouth was set firmly into a thin line. In his hand he held a newspaper, and he smacked it down on her desk as he glared at her.
“This is the front cover of the business section of the Seattle Times.” He snarled at her menacingly.
Startled, she looked down at the newspaper to see what it was that he was showing her. There on the front page, looking right back up at her, were two photographs. One of her, and one of Alexander Kingston. The article title was in bold and the words struck her hard. “Stripper Callie Forrester Hired as Lead at Summitech Corp While Having Affair with Owner Alexander Kingston.” Beneath the title, there was an added tagline. “Exclusive Interview with Tony Barretti of Morian Inc Reveals All.”
The article detailed everything that had transpired from the moment Tony and Alexander met her at the strip club, to the day when Alexander chose Janine McCartney over Tony as a partner for the business.
Callie was horrified. Her heart was in her throat as she skimmed over the words and tears sprung to her eyes. She was determined not to cry in front of the company attorney, but she knew that it was going to take everything in her to hold it back.
Tony stated that she had weaseled her way into Alexander’s bed and into the company. He declared that she had stolen the fix technology for the app from a member of his own company when the employee went to the strip club to blow off a little steam and she seduced him and had sex with him. He further stated that after having sex with Tony’s employee, she stole the program fix and then presented it to Alexander and Tony as her own.
Tony said he recognized it, but Alexander wanted to have an affair with her, so he took the technology and hired her at the highest level on his design team to keep her close to him. He said that all of Alexander’s decisions were being made by Callie, and that she was influencing everything that he did, including advising him against a partnership between Morian and Summitech, which cost both companies millions of dollars.
He pointed out to the reporter that Callie was still in school and hadn’t even graduated yet, reasoning that if she was smart enough to come up with the code on her own with no education and no experience, she wouldn’t still be in school.
“You have put this company squarely in the public eye and disgraced it to a level that no one has ever even come close to! How dare you steal the technology of another company, pass it off as your own, and then come here and try to take this company down from the inside! I knew that we should have gone with Tony Barretti, but you insisted that it ought to be Janine, and you convinced Alexander to listen to you!
Now every single person in this company is paying the price for what you’ve done! Every one of them is tied to an organization that you’ve brought nothing but shame and humiliation to!” He leaned down over her desk and brought his face close to hers. “If you had a shred of decency, you would turn in your resignation and leave this company immediately!”
“Wait!” She stood and faced him, burning with horror and anger at the lies that were printed before her. “You believe this crap? None of this is true!” she insisted, shaking her head. “How can you believe any of that?”
Norman leveled his gaze at her and spoke with an even tone. “Where did you meet Tony Barretti and Alexander Kingston?” He asked as if it was the simplest question in the world.
Callie swallowed hard and lifted her chin. There was no way out of it but with the truth. “I met them at a strip club where I was working.”
“As a stripper?” Norman asked, adding on what she hadn’t said.
She gave him a nod and held his gaze with hers. “Yes. As a stripper.”
“Well that’s what it says right here in this newspaper, so I guess it isn’t all lies, is it? I’m far more likely to believe a well respected businessman than a tawdry night club stripper! I insist that you resign!” He turned on his heel then and strode back out of the room, slamming the office door behind him.
Callie’s hand flew to her mouth and she sank back down into her chair, staring at the newspaper. Tears flooded her eyes and she choked on a sob. She couldn’t believe that Tony had gone to the newspaper and told them everything that he had, and more than that, she wished that all of it was lies, but it wasn’t.
The door opened again and she wiped at her eyes and looked up to see Rosa walking in with a serious look on her face. Rosa stopped before her desk and Callie felt her heart begin to pound in her chest.
“Is this article true?” she asked, planting her forefinger down on it while she kept her eyes on Callie.
Callie grimaced. “It’s all lies except for the part about me stripping. It’s true that Tony and Alexander met me in a strip club, but that’s it. The rest of this is all lies!”
She swallowed hard to hold back all the emotion that she could as Rosa gazed at her. “All right then.” Rosa gave her a nod. “That’s all I wanted to know. Now I’m going to tell you this. It doesn’t matter where you came from. What matters is what you do with the time you have.”
Rosa turned and walked toward the door and she paused for a moment and looked back over her shoulder at Callie. “Norman is wrong. Not everyone in the company thinks this is true. Tony’s reputation isn’t that good. Don’t you fret over it. Just keep working hard and stay on task with your new program. I am supporting you, and in this company, that means a lot.”
“Thank you.” Callie managed to mumble as Rosa walked out of the door and closed it behind her.
On the other side of the city, Alexander was sitting in a coffee shop reading the article in a newspaper that someone had left behind for others to pick up and read. Oliver sat down across from him and set his cup of coffee on the table while he reached for a few packets of sugar.
“I can’t believe this.” Alexander stared at the article with wide, horrified eyes. “I can’t believe Tony would do something like this.”
“Tony would do anything for money, and that’s all this is about. I read that this morning and I knew that you were going to be torn up about it.” Oliver told him as he poured white granules of sweetness into the black brew before him.
“Never mind any of it.” Oliver continued. “You know the truth. Lots of people know the truth. Tony is a bloviating liar. He’s doing this for revenge and publicity, but you still win.”
Alexander looked at him doubtfully. “I still win? How do I still win?”
“You still have Callie. She’s the smartest ticket in the industry right now and she is not only in your company, she is also, as this article so blatantly states, in your bed, and that’s a very good thing. You have all the aces and you left Tony with none. That’s why he’s biting back at you, because you have it all and he doesn’t and he’s pissed at you for it.
This is going to blow over. This is going to be yesterday’s news in half an hour. The world moves much too fast for anyone to care about something like this. There’s a lot more going on in the news today than something as trivial as whom you are sleeping with and the fact that she had an undesirable job before you hired her on. No one will even remember this in a week, so don’t let it get at you. Tony’s taking a swing. Let it fall.” Oliver told him sincerely.
Alexander thought carefully about what his best friend was telling him. He didn’t like it, not one bit.
A short while later, Alexander walked into Callie’s office and came around her desk to stop beside her. She stopped tying and with a sigh, she stood up from her chair. Raising her eyes to meet his, she spoke in a quiet voice.
“You saw the article?” She asked sullenly.
He nodded. “Yes, I saw it.”
“It’s being reprinted everywhere.” She told him sorrowfully.
He shrugged. “I don’t care. They’re all fishwrappers and birdcage liners anyway.”
“I feel awful about it!” She tried to stem the tears and the ball of emotion building in her throat.
“Don’t do that.” He reached his hands up to her shoulders and then set his finger beneath her chin and lifted it a little as he looked at her. “Listen, I want to get this off of your mind, and I want to meet your family. What do you say to me taking you, your mother, and Jenny out for a special night. What do you think? Would you let me do that please?” He gave her a hopeful smile.
“My brother is in town as well.” .
“He comes too then.” Alexander smiled wider at her and she began to feel a little bit better.
“If you want to, I know we would all love that. Thank you, that’s very kind.”
“We’ll go tomorrow night. I’ll make arrangements. Cheer up, Callie.” He kissed her softly.