“What do you want now, Monica?” Heath Allan closed the storage closet door as he asked this. Only for the door to open immediately to admit Parker Stephens right behind him, and Parker had the good sense to close the door promptly.
Parker whispered to Heath. ‘Monica again?’ Heath nodded with the phone still to his ear.
Of all the worst timing, his soon-to-be ex-wife called him to complain about something not being to her liking.
“They declined my credit card, again. Why is my credit card no good, Heath?” Monica’s voice held a hint of a whiny tone as she tried to guilt him into giving her more money by pretending to be helpless and clueless.
“Have you paid the bill for it lately?” Heath didn’t want to have this conversation with her again. It was the same conversation they had every time she called. “No, don’t bother answering that question. Of course, you didn’t pay the bill. Listen well, because I’m not repeating myself again, Monica. Your money will start again once you sign the agreement to speed up the separation and divorce. I’m not paying you any more money until that happens. But hey, don’t forget we have a week more of separation to go before you won’t need to sign those documents and I can file to finalize the divorce.”
“You wouldn’t Heath. Think of the scandal. Your parents would never survive the embarrassment when it becomes public knowledge.” Monica went straight for his mother’s favourite guilt trip right out of the gate. Threatening to hurt his parent’s social reputation played on his mother’s insecurities and obsession with what her friends thought of her and the family. Also, his mother wouldn’t listen to anything negative Heath had to say about Monica.
Monica was the horse his mother hitched her wagon to, and she wouldn’t let that horse die no matter how bad things got.
“Monica, I’m not twenty anymore. I’m no longer beholden to my parents. Nor do I work for my father anymore. So, if they suffer any embarrassment from this, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it.” Heath was done with all of this, and Monica needed to understand that, but a mule was more pliable than Monica.
“Come on, honey. Please, just send a payment for a few thousand to my credit card.” It was all Heath could do not to grind his teeth. His neck and jaw hurt already from just the few words Monica had already said.
“No, is a full sentence, Monica. It’s a two-letter word you must know it, even if you’re not familiar with it. Or willing to accept it. But I said it and meant it. I won’t change my mind. Remember that settlement goes away in a week. It’s more than fair, then you are stuck with what’s in the prenuptial agreement.” There was no way to be nice to Monica at this point. Heath had tried everything already. She’d take advantage of his generosity and good manners if he gave her the chance to do that.
Heath moved out of their townhouse almost seven months ago. But she’d moved out of the townhouse, claiming she was travelling over a year ago. He filed for separation almost a month after she left, when it became clear she’d abandoned him.
When they reached a settlement, he stopped paying her bills, and now she was nearing the end of her finances. If she signed the no fault divorce papers, her alimony would start and run for the next five years. But she wouldn’t sign them, which meant she didn’t agree with the separation agreement. Or the divorce agreement, even though she’d verbally agreed to it with the mediator and lawyers present.
“I don’t want a divorce.” Heath listened to her false childlike voice. How he hadn’t seen how she manipulated people into providing for her as if she were a helpless child and not a woman nearing thirty in a year.
“You don’t want to be married either, Monica. Try another lie, sweetheart. You like being married to money and influence. But you clearly don’t want the man that goes with it. I’m sick and tired of it.” He was sick of a lot of other things as well. But if she didn’t sign the document, his lawyer would pursue not only a divorce but a slew of charges against her. She didn’t realize he’d noticed how her stories didn’t line up and his lawyer had many of those stories investigated.
From her education to her name and her family, Monica lied about everything. Sadly, he’d not seen it coming until after they’d married. She’d tricked his parents into paying for their wedding. Her side of the aisle didn’t have many family members, and it hadn’t been a red flag for him at the time, but now he saw it for what it was. Her family had washed their hands of her long before they met.
“Heath, don’t be like that. It’s not true. I’m just in Europe right now, seeing my family. Would you like to speak to Uncle Tito?”
“Monica, I know you’re in town right now. Stop lying. Now I have other responsibilities here that don’t include you.” He sighed. “Just sign the papers, Monica. Goodbye.” He disconnected the call. “I can’t wait until the day I can block her from my life, Parker.”
“I still say you block her on everything now and force her to talk to me. Because I can’t wait to handle her and annoy the hell out of her at the same time.” Parker enjoyed poking holes in Monica’s stories. He was the one that made Heath aware of the cracks that began in the stories as she repeated them and added new ones that contradicted other stories.
“Soon, Parker. Is there anything more from the private investigator for this month’s update?”
“Yes, he’s got evidence that she’s been selling the objects she’s been buying. Or should I say she has someone selling them for her? Her phone records have her calling your mother at least once a day as well, and she’s still seeing that ex-con.” Parker looked pleased with that one. “He’s got new photos, too.”
“Great, what story is she telling my mother this time? I guess it shouldn’t surprise me when my mother calls me later.” Parker shrugged because Heath would have to speak to his mother to find that out.
Years ago, before Ivy left, his mother campaigned for him to not marry Ivy and instead marry Monica. She’d claimed Ivy was a gold digger and Monica would make the perfect daughter-in-law.
Heath tried to prove to his mother not long after he’d married Monica that she had lied to them about several things. Now Heath wondered if his mother made up the story about Ivy having an affair or if it was Monica. Because now Heath questioned these things like he wouldn’t have back then.
Monica’s stories didn’t add up with her reasons and conflicted with each other after every retelling. Where she’d go when she visited her family, but wouldn’t take him along. One story was about her father who lived in Spain. Another he died in England years before. Nothing made sense. He feared she’d caught on to him and left him to hide in the city. Now, he questioned everything because his investigator discovered she had never used her passport.
“Parker, while we’re alone. I want you to get your hands on Dr. Ivy Smythe’s personnel records for me, and I want to see them as soon as possible.”
“I’ll try. Did she do something wrong? Should I contact HR and let them know that she’ll need to be reprimanded and written up?” Parker knew some of Heath’s past, but not everything.
“No, nothing like that.” Heath ran his fingers through his hair. He felt like he had nothing but bad luck with women. “I want to know more about her.”
“How deep do you want to go with it? Wait. Ivy, isn’t she the woman Monica is always cursing and complaining you’re comparing her to?” Heath nodded to Parker. Parker was Heath’s personal assistant in his private and work life. Heath had hired Parker when they planned the wedding. Now Parker was his friend and assistant.
Parker heard too many unfortunate arguments between them. Heath only nodded.
“Something’s different about Ivy, and I want to know what happened. Let’s start with her personnel file and then we’ll see how much further I want to take this.”
“Okay, I’ll get things rolling on that. Anything else?”“Yeah, I need to get out of here and think. Can you think of a viable excuse to get me out of this event?”
“Just go. I’ll give them a suitably vague reason for your leaving.”
“Thanks, and get that file to me as soon as possible.”
“Will do.”
Heath couldn’t get Ivy out of his mind after he saw her. He’d searched for her but didn’t find her. She must have left the building immediately. Clearly, something had happened since she now walked with a cane. It’d been about seven years since he’d last heard anything or tried searching for her. He’d found nothing and believed she must have left the city. Heath remembered the last time he saw her. They’d fought about an affair she had with some unknown idiot. Even when he showed her the photographs he had, she denied knowing who it was or even knowing where those photos were taken. This was the affair he’d come to suspect was a setup to drive Ivy away from him. He hated the thought that Monica and his mother may have conned him. Heath had to admit she stuck to her story well and wondered if she could continue with it after all this time. When he got into work the next morning, Parker was there waiting with a file.“It appears the pe
Heath entered the museum early. He needed to speak with Ivy. What he’d read and saw in about her life after she’d disappeared from his life kept him awake most of the night. He still debated if he should call her into his office or storm into hers. Finally, he decided they would need a neutral ground. Because he feared this would end up badly if one of them lost their temper. With a better grasp of the way things worked in the museum, he stopped in the cafeteria at the front of the museum before he went to his office. While his fate brought Ivy into the cafeteria, and she sat there drinking a coffee with her phone in her hand. Coffee in hand, Heath strolled over and sat down. “We need to talk Ivy.” “I’ll have my department’s budget for next year to you by the end of the week. There won’t be anything outrageous in it.” She didn’t look up from her phone and he finally put his hand over the screen, so it forced her to look
By the time Ivy arrived home and settled tiredly in her chair at the dinner table. Geoff and Kathy were eating their dinner of chicken nuggets, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese.Geoff was halfway through dinner and much of the food was gone. “We saved you some, mom,” Geoff proudly stated. “It’s really good.” Ivy only now relaxed, safe at home with Geoff and Kathy. For once, she was home in time to sit down with them and eat her meal.“So, how was your day?” Kathy asked with a careful tone in her voice. “How was you know who to you today?”“Let’s put a pin in that and come back when we don’t have an audience?”“Oh, right? You still have a job, right?”“I will say yes for now, but I think this weekend I’ll be brushing up my resume and portfolio. Then I’ll quietly put some feelers out for something else. Even though I like it there.”“But that means you’d have to move.” Kathy’s surprise was something Ivy expected.“Let’s talk about it later when someone else is asleep?”“Does that mean
Thankfully, Ivy didn’t have any surprise visits from Heath in her department, and Alice took pity on her by doing the coffee runs. It wasn’t until lunch approached that something tore Ivy’s attention from her struggles to work out the budget perfectly and find a way to present it reasonably.Her phone rang, which happened rarely, so the sound made her pause and wait to ensure she’d not imagined it. When it rang a second time, Ivy picked it up and looked at the screen. Kathy’s number appeared on the screen, and Ivy’s heart sank. She never called during work hours unless something very wrong happened that would directly affect Geoff.“Hello, Kathy, what’s up hon? What’s wrong?” Ivy hated phone calls like this. They always meant inconvenience and plans changing at the last minute. Which was something that was bad as a mother with a picky child. Predictability was something Geoff needed in his life to thrive.“I’m having one of those days, Ivy. I went to do a postal run to ship this week’
Ivy jumped out of her skin and dropped everything in her hands. She couldn’t help it but and cried out in dismay. “Mr. Allan.” It took her a moment to register what he’d said. Of course, he’d appear like this while she was in a hurry to deal with something she didn’t want to speak to him about. “I have a rather sudden personal matter I must deal with, and time is of the essence. So, I must leave early. I’m taking work with me, so you don’t need to worry about my department budget being late.” She silently cursed as her phone landed in one place and her mug skittered off a few feet away in another direction.Before she could bend to pick anything up, Heath was there picking up her phone along with everything else. “I didn’t ask about the budget. I asked where you’re going.”Heath, of course, looked at her phone screen as he straightened. “A cab to Mercy General? Ivy, why are you going to the hospital? Who’s there that needs you now?”Ivy must have looked guilty or something because whe
Heath entered the executive office floor where his new office was and met with Parker in the outer office.“What’s up? You just went for food and a break not even ten minutes ago. Now you’re back without food and you look upset.” Parker did like the look on Heath’s face. He couldn’t decide if Heath was furious or worried. Parker wasn’t sure why either, unless Heath encountered Dr. Smythe and spoke to her. If that happened, it hadn’t gone well.“I need you to cancel my meetings for the rest of today. I have a family emergency and need to leave now.” Parker perked up at the words ‘family emergency’. Heath never had issues with those. When his father had his latest heart attack, Heath hadn’t stopped working, but waited to go to the hospital after his workday was over. Parker knew about Heath’s son Geoffrey before Heath and his mind went instantly to something being wrong with him.“Okay, but I just received a response on that photo analysis you requested, and I sent the report to you. Yo
“When will we know the results of the x-rays?” Ivy asked the nurse, who checked in on them and delivered pain medication for Geoff.“The x-ray technician will read your son’s x-rays and send a report to the doctor. Once the doctor receives the report, he’ll return with a plan on what will happen next. Now if you follow me, I’m afraid there are some documents that must be completed. It’ll help speed things up to get you out of here more quickly once we know how to proceed.” The grey-haired paediatric nurse said with that all-knowing grandmotherly tone that many senior nurses seemed to cultivate when they liked a patient.“Do you think I’ll walk like my mom after this?” Ivy hadn’t expected Geoff to make the connection between her limp and his injury. He sounded like he was eager to limp around like her, and she realized he’d not only made the connection, but he was using it to relate to her.Ivy’s heart broke because of this. The bond he desperately tried to have with her made her heart
Heath took the elevator to the underground parking and found his car. As Heath settled into the driver’s seat, he realized how his life had changed. This car was fine to drive to work. But it wasn’t a family car. He’d need a family car. Geoff and Ivy wouldn’t fit in this car. Especially with Geoff’s injury.With that though, Heath wrote a reminder for himself to purchase a new car for them tomorrow.He knew Ivy didn’t have a parking space, because she took public transit. Heath didn’t feel it was safe for them.He found a parking space at the hospital. Heath called Parker for assistance. “Hey, Parker, I need someone to pick up my car from the hospital. I’ll send you the location.”“Why Heath?”“I can’t get my son and his mother home in this car. So, have a driver on standby with a limo. I’ll call them when we’re ready to leave. They can pick us up from the ER entrance.”“I’ll get that done, Heath, and message you when it’s done. He’s seven, right? He’ll need a car seat. I’ll make sure