Chapter Thirty-Four
Andrew
I knew I was scaring people at the office the following morning, but I didn't care. I'd had a sleepless night, alone in a hotel bed, and I'd come into the office early, angrily throwing myself into my work and trying to forget about the mess at home.
From everything that Lexi had said the previous night, from how upset she'd been, I wanted to believe that she was telling the truth. But I also knew that if she was conning me, she would likely be a skilled actress.
I didn't know what to believe. And I didn't want to think about it anymore.
My secretary poked her head into my office, looking pale and terrified. I scowled at her. “I have my 'do not disturb' on for a reason,” I snarled. “Get out!”
“Sir, it's your sister,” the woman said, barely audible. “She told me to interrupt you, whatever you were doing. Said it was an emergency.”
I felt my blood run cold at the thought of anything having happened to Katherine. She was the only person who I could ever trust, the only person who had proved time and time again that my love for her wasn't unfounded. I hurriedly clicked off the “do not disturb” on my phone and nodded to my secretary to patch the call through.
When I picked it up, I felt stupid for even thinking that something might have happened to Katherine. No, she was just as all right as ever, but she was angry. It was the first time I thought I'd ever heard her truly angry about something, despite all the times that I'd missed our brunches or forgotten to call her when I'd said that I would.
“Andrew Patrick Goldwright!” she snapped. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself! I know that you have no manners, and I know that you're a misogynistic asshole, but seriously? I never thought that you would be this much of a dick. An absolute dick. What the fuck is your problem? Where the hell do you get off?”
I pulled the receiver away from my ear and stared at it, wondering if this was really my sweet, good-natured sister on the other end of the line. I'd hardly heard her cuss before, let alone cuss like this.
She continued to rant for another minute or so, and I just sat there listening, letting her work it out of her system. It was a tactic that I usually employed with other businessmen when they called irate about some product not being delivered or some other failure in our system. But when it was upset businessmen that I was working with, rants like this tended to bore me. When it was Katherine ranting like this, and ranting at me, I started to get agitated.
“Are you going to tell me what you're so upset about?” I asked when she finally wrapped up what she was saying. I tried to keep my tone mild, but I didn't quite manage to. Instead, I sounded almost embarrassed, and I didn't even know what I had supposedly done wrong. It was something big, though, from the sounds of it.
“I can't believe you,” Katherine said. She sounded disgusted still, but much more like her usual self. “Do you even realize how badly you've upset Lexi?”
I felt a pang of guilt, but I tried to remind myself that none of this was my fault. I had all the evidence. Katherine just didn't know the full story.
I tried to laugh it off. “That's actually a pretty smart move, her coming to you for her next play,” I said, as though I were nonchalantly discussing a chess game rather than the object of my romantic affections, who had turned out to be a con. “I guess she thinks that if she can get you on her side, this whole thing will blow over.”
“I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but you're wrong, whatever it is,” Katherine said succinctly. “I came over to your place to surprise Lexi and Emma with tickets to a show for the afternoon. I found Lexi distraught and packing her bags while Emma sat in the kitchen with Janice. When I asked what was going on, Lexi told me that you wanted them to leave and that you didn't believe that Emma was your daughter. I thought we'd been over that already.”
“Renée cornered me after work yesterday,” I told Katherine.
Katherine groaned. “Don't tell me you've decided to get back together with that bimbo? So you've sent Lexi packing? Do you have no conscience? You've just spent the past few months cozying up to Lexi, and now you're done with her, just like that?”
I tapped a pen against a stack of papers at the side of my desk. “Renée hired a private investigator to dig into Lexi's background,” I told my sister. “Lexi apparently has a criminal record that I didn't know about. For fraud.” I threw the pen across the room. “How could I have been so stupid? I didn't even bother to look into her background. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just went along with everything that she was saying.”
“Did you ask her about the conviction?” Katherine asked, sounding surprised. “Maybe there was a good reason behind it. I mean, not that there's ever a good reason for committing fraud, but if she was trying to, I don't know, help Emma and she thought that that was the only way to do it, then at least it would make sense.”
“This was before Emma came along,” I said grimly. “And that's not the whole story. Renée also got the guy to do a paternity test. Emma isn't mine. Lexi was conning me all along.”
Katherine was silent for a moment, and then she started laughing. “Seriously, Andrew?” she asked, sounding as though she was beside herself.
“Katherine, it's not funny,” I snapped. “I have enough people trying to weasel me out of millions. It was a great scheme, I suppose, but the jig's up now. It's over. And although I didn't tell her to pack her bags, I'm glad that she realizes that it's over and is going to get out of there. I'm staying in a hotel for the meantime.”
“Andy, you idiot,” Katherine said, her voice gone soft. “Forget your feelings for a moment. Think of this as though it were a business deal. If one of Orinoco's competitors showed up at your office and offered you information on a company that you were interested in acquiring, telling you that that company was crap and that you were wasting your time, you'd question their information and their motives, wouldn't you?”
“Of course I would,” I snapped.
“Even if it was legal-looking, all nicely typed-up with tables and graphs,” Katherine said.
“What are you getting at?” I asked.
“That's exactly what Renée did,” Katherine said. “She came to your work with the goal of convincing you that her rival wasn't worth your time. But you're so worried about things not working out with Lexi that you started to wonder if maybe Renée's information was right.”
“Lexi and Renée aren't rivals,” I said firmly. “And Renée knows that. She said that she respects that we aren't in a relationship anymore and that we are never getting back together. She said so, in as many words. Your whole argument is invalid.”
“Of course, Renée was going to say that,” Katherine said gently. “Because she couldn't very well say that she was there to try to win you back, could she? You would never have listened to her if she had put it that way.”
“She said she was just trying to look out for me because we'd been friends long before we started dating one another,” I said. “Friends do that sort of thing, looking out for one another.” I knew saying this out loud, made me sound stupid, but at the time I had believed her.
Katherine laughed again. “I don't know what's funnier, you calling Renée a friend, or your insistence that she was just looking out for you. She managed to destroy your relationship, the thing that made you the happiest that I've ever seen you, all in one night. And the two of you were never friends.”
“We've known each other for a long time,” I maintained stubbornly.
“And Renée has only ever been self-motivated and petty,” Katherine said. She sighed. “Are you really telling me that there's nothing about this that seems weird to you? Like how she managed to get a paternity test at all? Where the hell did she get Emma’s DNA, you moron? And don’t you feel the least bit guilty at how much you’ve upset Lexi?”
The truth was, I did feel guilty. I hated the idea of Lexi packing up her bags, almost as much as I'd hated sleeping on my own the previous night. But I couldn't let my feelings get in the way of what I knew to be a logical decision.
“Even if I throw out the evidence that Renée gave me, doesn't it say something about Lexi's and my relationship that I even considered the evidence to be true?” I asked, putting my head down on the desk.
Katherine was silent for a moment.
“It doesn’t say anything about your relationship with Lexi,” she said. “It says something about you. Your suspicion has always been your biggest flaw. And I understand where that comes from. It's also what makes you such a great businessman. One of the many things that makes you such a great businessman, rather.” She paused. “The thing that you have to remember is that, yes, Renée does know you. I get the feeling that she's been watching you for a lot longer than you think. I think she's had her eyes on you since long before the two of you started dating.”
“She does seem a little obsessed with me,” I admitted. “I actually threatened to get a restraining order if she came near me again.”
“And this is the woman you trust over Lexi?” Katherine asked with a sigh.
I’d never heard her sound so disappointed in me. I had no response.
“A restraining order might be a good idea,” Katherine said. “Although, it'll ruin her family's reputation.”
“I know,” I sighed. “And that's the only reason I haven't had the paperwork drawn up already.”
“Your safety and well-being are more important than her family’s reputation,” Katherine said. “Besides, she had no problem destroying your family. The one you built with Lexi and Emma.”
“We don’t know that they’re my family,” I said.
“Come on, Andrew. If anyone knows how to play you and push your buttons, it’s Renée. She knows what your fears are and how to manipulate you. It doesn't mean that your relationship with Lexi is doomed to fail. You need to learn to trust Lexi more, sure. I don't think you would have let her live in your home for as long as you have if you didn't trust her, though.”
“What am I going to do?” I asked. “She's never going to forgive me, after this.”
“There's still time,” Katherine said confidently. “She hasn't told Emma that they're leaving yet. To be honest, I don't think she knows where they're going to go if they leave. You can still catch them.”
I swallowed hard, a sickening feeling in my gut. “You don't think she's going to hate me, do you?”
“Let her know how bad you feel,” Katherine advised. “And talk things out, explain to her exactly what happened and what you were feeling. Lexi has Emma, and she has to carefully think through every decision that might affect the girl. I'm sure she'll understand your fear and suspicion, better than you might think.”
I nodded my head. “Katherine?” I asked, sensing that she was about to hang up.
“Yeah?” she asked.
“Thanks,” I said quietly. I hung up with her and quickly dialed Janice's number. I needed a favor.