Chapter Nine Heart Attack
The rest of Bastian’s week went by quickly. He was up every morning by seven and out of the condo by eight. Not having to work around his office schedule allowed him to be more present and put all his energy into doing what he had been working on in the evenings since John confirmed Kelly was going to be working with them. He filed the divorce paperwork for Marie Tuesday afternoon, and Thursday morning, he got confirmation that his offer on an office space on 47 th Avenue had been accepted. He went into the office early in the morning, well before anyone would be there and pulled all his client's contacts, downloading them to a portable hard drive along with their files.
While he waited for the files to transfer, he looked around and could tell someone had been going through his things. Fortunately, he and Mirabelle had scanned everything into the computer shortly after John told Bastian he was hiring Kelly under the guise of going paperless, something Mirabelle had been pushing for the whole office to adopt. All the hard copies had been shredded, and from then on, the only paperwork that was printed was things that needed a signature. After it was signed, it was scanned and shredded. When he was done, he did the same with Mirabelle’s computer, and then he brought the hard drive to his car and locked it in the glove compartment. He wasn’t technically poaching the clients because he was a partner; they were his, not the firms, but he knew John would deny him access to the computer after he resigned and would demand the passwords. While he waited for John and Kelly to arrive, he wiped both his and Mirabelle’s computers of anything that was remotely personal or not work-related. Even going so far as to delete saved and bookmarked web pages and thoroughly wipe the history and cookies.
John and Kelly arrived shortly after nine, arguing loudly. Bastian walked out to see Kelly sitting resentfully in the receptionist’s chair, with John telling her she was on receptionist duty until he found someone else. When he looked up and saw Bastian, he breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank God. I’m up to my armpits in paperwork, and this one,” He gestured at Kelly in agitation. “Couldn’t find her own ass with a mirror on a stick.”
Bastian pressed his lips together to hold back the smile that was threatening while Killy glared at her father, but just let out an annoyed huff of air without saying anything. It had taken John less than three days of working alone with Kelly to stop defending her. “I’m sorry, John.” He said, following John into his office while pulling out his resignation letter from his inside breast pocket. “I’m not here to work. I’m resigning.” He laid the letter on his desk and slid it across to him.
John stared at the envelope like it was a snake threatening to bite. “You can’t be serious, Bast, I know the lack of support staff is a pain in the ass, but I’m working on it.” He looked up at him pleadingly. “It’ll be fine.”
“I’m not leaving because of that.” Bastian nudged the letter. “I go into more detail in this, but three years ago, you swore up and down that you would keep your daughter away from me so I wouldn’t press charges for fraud when she tried to say I was her baby’s father.”
John’s face went pink, and he ran his hand through his greying brown hair. “I figured you were over that by now.”
“I told you when you said you were going to hire her that I would resign,” Bastian reminded him. “Does your hearing just turn off when someone says something negative about her? Jesus, John, I fucking told you this was going to happen, and you kept insisting things would be fine.” Bastian stood up. “I’m going to go clean out my office.” There was nothing John could say to excuse things anymore.
When Bastian finished packing up his and the few things Mirabelle had left behind, he brought the boxes to his car and grabbed the divorce papers from the passenger side seat. He hesitated; Marie had let him know she had moved back in with John, Kelly and Kade and was refusing to do anything around the house except clean up after herself. She had taken over the basement and moved Kelly and Kade upstairs with John, buying a new lock for the basement door so he couldn’t escape them, basically making his life as miserable as possible.
He was debating waiting until next week or hiring someone to serve John with the paperwork but knew it would be better if it came from him. He walked back in to see John sitting at his desk, typing furiously on his keyboard. “Before I leave, I want you to know I’m really sorry about this.” John glanced up at him and huffed. “Not about leaving; you brought that on yourself.” Bastian clarified. “About this.” He held the large manila envelope out to him. John took it slowly, looking very nervous.
“You’re going to sue me?”
Bastian paused, furrowing his brow as he considered John’s words. He probably could, but what would be the point? “Uh, no. Marie is filing for divorce and has retained me as her lawyer.”
John froze and didn’t say anything, but Bastian noticed he was suddenly sweating profusely, his face was turning red, and his breath was coming in short gasps. “John?” John looked up at him, fear in his eyes and his mouth opening and closing, with no sounds coming out, and his right hand reached up, gripping the left side of his chest tightly. “Fuck.” Bastian pulled out his phone and dialled 9-1-1, telling the dispatcher his friend was potentially having a heart attack. Kelly heard the sudden commotion and came in to see Bastian helping John down to the floor and loosening his tie.
“What’s going on?” Bastian rolled his eyes as she ran over and started waving her hands frantically in her father’s face. “Why can’t he breathe? What’s wrong with him?”
“Give him some room.” He snapped, irritation sparking as she got in her father’s face and tried to look into his eyes. “I think he’s having a heart attack.” Kelly immediately threw herself on her father’s chest and began to wail loudly, begging him not to die; he had to stay alive for her and Kade. “Jesus Christ.” He muttered. “John? Stay with me. Will you get back?” He hissed at Kelly. “I might need to give him chest compressions.” Kelly finally got out of the way but sat nearby, still crying loudly. Luckily, the ambulance showed up within minutes, and EMTs filed into the room and immediately took over. One of them pulled Bastian aside and asked what happened. Bastian explained about resigning and then informing John that his wife wanted a divorce.
“This is all your fault!” Kelly screamed, launching herself at Bastian. “You’re trying to kill him!”
Bastian caught her by the wrists easily and glared at her. “Actually, this is your fault. If you weren’t such a spoiled, entitled brat, his wife wouldn’t be divorcing him, his support staff wouldn’t have quit all at once, and I wouldn’t have resigned.” The EMT was looking between them and didn’t seem to know if he should let them have it out or separate them. Bastian saw the small glance Kelly gave the – admittingly good-looking – man and realized this was all for show. He smirked and decided to really drive home the point with a side of humiliation. He gave her a small, gentle shake to get her to look at him. “And just a small reminder, I still have three years to sue you for fraud and slander for trying to set me up as the father of your baby, so I’d sit down and shut up if I were you.” He let her go with a small shove so she was out of his way and turned to watch as John was hooked up to a heart rate monitor.
“Riigghhtt.” The EMT seemed to decide it wasn’t worth getting involved. Kelly moved away from Bastian, her cheeks the colour of a stop sign, and hovered around the edge of where they were working on her father. “So, we’re going to take him to the hospital. Is there someone we should call or…”
“That’s his daughter.” Bastian nodded toward Kelly dismissively. “I’ll let his wife know. I’m pretty sure she’s still next of kin.” As they wheeled John out, Kelly followed behind, insisting she was going to ride with her father, while a different EMT was trying to explain that John’s heart rate kept going up whenever Kelly got too close. Bastian followed everyone out and locked up the office, then dropped his key into the mail slot. He called Marie and let her know that he had served John, and he was being brought to the hospital, this time with what looked like a genuine heart attack. He advised her that she didn’t have to go to the hospital, but it wouldn’t hurt her divorce case if she decided to do so.
The rest of his week was spent finalizing details on the office space and checking up on the paperwork he’d filed to start a Professional Limited Liability Company, which had been his first step in the process and was the reason it took so long to leave Henderson. They often took several months to get approved, no matter how detailed and correct you were filling them out. He also applied online for an Employee Identification Number, then went to the bank and opened an EIN account and an Interest on Lawyer Trust Account. He planned to have as much ready as he possibly could for when Mirabelle returned so he could prove to her that he was serious about them leaving and starting their own firm.