Chapter 26
noah
My eyes were growing blurry, and my head was starting to pound. I was searching for a needle in the proverbial haystack, and it was probably pointless.
I wasn’t sure when the information would have been published, and I had blocked out so much from that time of my life, I wasn’t even one hundred percent sure of the dates. I hadn’t kept in touch with anyone from my childhood either, so I had no one to ask.
This area of the library was like a ghost town. It was just as well because, when I finally found what I was looking for—if I found it—I would have some sort of reaction.
And I honestly didn’t know what that reaction would be.
I’d learned to control my emotions from a very young age. Even when I was still with my parents. My dad had a terrible temper, and my mother would get so upset when he got angry. I learned that life was much easier if you kept your feelings to yourself—or better yet—just didn’t have them in the first place.
That served me well when they passed. I was numb for probably at least two or three years straight. Then my hormones kicked in, and I did deal with some anger. But I put that energy into my passions: running, reading, and learning.
The microfiche I was scanning was from a small local paper in the town where I grew up about two hours from here. This library was one of the few besides my hometown that had back issues, but they weren’t indexed. So I had to guess at what date to find the article about the accident that claimed my parents’ lives.
I’d seen it once. I remembered my great aunt had a copy. I stayed with her temporarily until I was placed in foster care. She was one of my few relatives, and she didn’t live in the area. She only came to town for the funerals. She stayed in my home with me while everything was sorted out. She had saved the paper for a while and told me I could read it if I wanted to. But one night I remember just tossing it out with the trash.
I didn’t want to read it. I didn’t want any part of what was happening to me. My life was changing forever, and I had zero control over it.
Now, I was feeling the same way. Alexandra Bagby, former patient and best friend of a woman I dated, had come back into my life, and she was trying to take away everything I held dear.
And I had no recourse but the courts.
The courts that had served me oh so well as a minor when my parents passed away, and there was no living relative who wanted to claim me. Then I was shuffled around from home to home, a zombie of a kid who just wanted something of his own. All of it by court order.
Something told me to look up then, as I mindlessly moved the microfiche across the screen. And the headline reached out and grabbed me:
Local Couple Killed by Drunk Driver on State Road 37
I heard blood rushing through my ears as my extremities went weak, my body flooded with all sorts of chemicals at the sight of my parents’ names in black and white. I read through the article, which was brief, and described my parents coming home late on a Friday night from a party, my dad’s coworker’s retirement party, when they were struck by some drunk idiot driving the wrong way on a major highway. He was going sixty miles per hour when he plowed into my parents’ car head-on. They died instantly.
At the very end of the article, it said, “The couple leaves behind a ten-year-old son, Noah.”
That was it.
I was left behind. The newspaper said so.
Years of grief and repressed anger, fear, sadness crashed over me like a tidal wave as I struggled to hold it together in this quiet but very public place. Tears blurred my vision as I closed my eyes and buried my face in my palms because they just refused to stop. It didn’t matter how hard I fought, they just kept coming.
No idea how long I stayed there, sobbing, but eventually I was startled by a hand pressing down on my shoulder. I lifted my chin to see Aris and Danielle standing there.
“Let’s get him outside,” I suggested as I saw Danielle’s eyes cloud with tears. She nodded, and we pulled Noah up from the wooden chair he was sitting on, lifting him to his feet. I caught a glimpse of what was on the computer screen and knew right away what he’d been doing here.
I nudged Danielle to take a look, and she did. When she looked back at me, a tear was streaking down her cheek.
We took the elevator down to the first floor, me pushing Danielle in the wheelchair we’d borrowed for the weekend and not yet returned, and went out the back of the library into the late winter night.
On the west side of the building was the university’s arboretum. There wasn’t much growing there at this time of the year, but the gazebo might offer us a private place to talk and let Noah collect his thoughts.
The crisp air felt cleansing as we made our way around the building, me still pushing Danielle on the sidewalk and Noah walking beside me. Danielle climbed out of the chair when we reached the steps to the gazebo. After I helped her up them, we guided Noah to a stone bench. He hadn’t said a word yet, not from the time I laid a hand on his shoulder in the library till now.
Danielle wrapped her arm around him and snuggled in close. “It’s freezing out here, Noah. Let me warm you up.”
He finally broke his silence. “What would they think of me? If they could see me now?”
“Oh, sweetheart…” My heart broke for him as I contemplated what he had gone through as a young, vulnerable child. “I know they’d be so damn proud of you now. How could they not? Look at all you’ve achieved, Noah.”
Danielle nodded in agreement. “Noah, they would be blown away by what an amazing human you turned out to be, how smart you are, how generous, how gifted. I’m so, so sorry they aren’t here to witness the incredible man they created.”
He was quiet for a moment, then he stood up. I wasn’t expecting to see tears streaking down his face, but there they were, shining in the soft light illuminating the gazebo.
“I just…” He shook his head, tears flying off his cheeks as he paced back and forth, his breath coming out in short white puffs as he spoke. “I never allowed myself to grieve or feel sorry for myself. I simply decided I was going to take care of myself, and I would never have to rely on anyone else ever again. I wanted to be completely independent—never need anyone.”
He shook his head again as he continued pacing. “I hated not having control over where I lived or what I did or where I could go or what I learned. I didn’t want strangers making those decisions. I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone. I didn’t want to be close to anyone…”
He looked at us briefly now, huddled together on the stone bench—which was freezing, by the way—as we attempted to keep each other warm, and Danielle softly sobbed as Noah’s words pierced her soul.
“I never envisioned myself married. Or having kids. I just wanted to have my career, use my gifts to help people, and keep to myself. That is what I pictured.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and drew in a deep breath as the tears seemed to subside. “I definitely didn’t think I’d ever have two incredible people like you walk into my life and want to love me and take care of me.
“I didn’t think I’d be part of a family like we have at Cynda’s and Jason’s, where we care about each other’s problems and we lean on each other. And for me to realize that I actually do need you guys? That I wasn’t going to get through this lawsuit without support? God…”
He leaned against the gazebo railing and actually burst out laughing.
Wasn’t expecting that!
“I didn’t want to admit I needed help. Or support. But you guys did it anyway. You knew I needed you, and you didn’t hesitate to give me what I couldn’t even ask for. And you did it out of pure altruism. Not because I could give you something in return. But because you actually care about me…and….”
“And love you,” I finished for him, rising from the bench to wrap my arms around the man I loved with all my heart and soul.
Danielle worked herself off the bench to standing and limped over to us, her arms outstretched. “Of course we’ll take care of you. All you’ve done since I met you is take care of me. It’s time to return the favor.”
After Noah shared with Aris, myself, and the rest of the polycule the stunt Alexandra had pulled this morning in his office, a plan started to take shape in my mind. I spent the night ruminating about it, and in the morning, it was time to put it into action.
I waited until Noah left for work, and then I sidled up to Aris and laid it on him.
“You want to confront Alexandra, make her call off the suit, and convince her dad not to fire Noah?” Aris asked over morning coffee. Everyone else in the polycule had left for work or whatever else they had on their agendas.
“Yeah. Do you know where we can find her?” I cracked my knuckles like a badass mob boss who was about to go hunt down a rat. I mean, badass in the sense I had come up with this plan and wanted to execute it. The not-so-badass part was that I couldn’t drive or get around very well, so I needed Aris’s help.
Aris looked decidedly unconvinced. “Yeah, I know where she works, but I need to get to work, and I?—”
“You already said your boss is cool,” I cut him off. “I met her. She’s great, and I think she’ll understand if you need to go defend your boyfriend’s honor. As a matter of fact, that’s exactly what you should tell her is your reason for calling out today. Do you want me to talk to her?”
He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “I just…I don’t know if it’s a good idea to get involved like this.”
“You heard Noah last night. It’s hard for him to ask people for help. He would never ask us to confront her or her dad. Which is exactly why we need to do it. Noah is the best doctor I’ve ever seen. And he should not be losing his job. As a matter of fact, Dr. Greene, one of my voice professors, told me a lot of the music school folks see him. I bet you I could get them all to help out too.”
Aris shook his head. “I don’t think this is a good idea, Dani.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, determined to see this through. “Just take me to her workplace. And I’ll do everything else.”
* * *
“So, this is where she works, huh?”
“Yep,” Aris popped the “P” at the end of the word.
I looked at the sprawling complex. “What is it?”
“It’s a spa and ‘wellness’ center.” He actually used air quotes around “wellness.”
“And what does she do here?” I did not particularly want to go in there. I could just tell it wasn’t going to be my vibe.
“They do spa services. Aesthetic procedures—Botox, laser treatments. Liposuction. Other weight-loss stuff.”
“Why did I have a feeling you were going to say that?” I shivered. I knew something about her rubbed me the wrong way.
“Yeah, Noah thinks Alexandra wants the money so bad because Covid nearly wiped out her business. She lost a lot of clients, and, in this economy, with all the inflation, they aren’t coming back. People can’t afford this kind of crap, and it’s not like there are a ton of rich people in Southern Indiana.”
I scoffed. “Good point.”
“I’m sure her daddy financed it for her originally, but I think he’s cut her off.”
“So you think I can just walk in there and ask to speak with her?” I sucked in a breath. I was going to have to dig deep to gather up every bit of confidence and moxie I had to make this happen.
“I’ll come with you. I have a way of…” He laughed. “Well, you know.”
I considered whether or not that would help our cause. “But she doesn’t already know you, right?”
“Nah, I think she knows of me and that Noah is dating me, but not what I look like. I’ve known people from work and from the gym who come here for treatments. When Noah finally admitted who the disgruntled former patient suing him was, I knew the name. It’s a fairly small town. People talk. She doesn’t have the best reputation.”
“You don’t say…” I inflated my lungs again with fortifying air. “Well, let’s do this.”
The inside of the spa was very Zen-like with soothing music and the tranquil sounds of rushing water, thanks to a fountain in the middle of the waiting room. Bonsai trees and orchids decorated the reception area, decorated in soft shades of blue, gray and green.
We approached the counter, where a young blonde receptionist smiled at us. She wore a headset for answering the phones and was clearly speaking to someone else as she held up one finger to ask us to wait. A moment later, she said, “Welcome to the Garden. How may I help you?”
“I have an appointment with Alexandra,” I name-dropped.
“Oh.” The receptionist frowned and looked at her computer screen. Her brows furrowed, and she squinted for a moment before looking back up at us. “I don’t see you on her schedule.”
Aris took the reins. “Are you sure? I told her to pencil us in for nine o’clock, but sometimes she forgets. We go back a long way. Just tell her Aris is here to see her.”
She hesitated, and then Aris continued, “You don’t know who I am, do you?”
She stared at him blankly, but her smile never faltered. Well, he was pretty nice to look at, and she was clearly mesmerized by his dimples and beautiful hazel eyes, not to mention that man bun perched on top of his head.
He whipped out his phone. “I can give her a quick call since you don’t seem to?—”
“No, no, it’s fine. I believe you,” she said with a sheepish smile. “Let me take you back to her office.”
I shot Aris a grin, and he smiled back. Then he pushed me in the wheelchair—I was gonna have to give this thing back to Raine eventually, huh?—down a long hallway lined with Asian-inspired artwork. We headed toward an office with French doors inset with stained glass that featured cherry blossoms.
“She’s right through there. Have a nice day.” She nodded at us and walked away.
“Well, that was easy enough.” I punched him playfully on the shoulder. “Now I’ll do the hard part.”
He opened the door and pushed me through.
Alexandra was busy examining her nails and watching something on her computer that she quickly silenced. “Um…hello?”
“Hello, Alexandra,” I said as Aris rolled me closer to her desk. “I wanted to have a word with you.”
A huge, fake smile spread across her face as she adjusted herself in her plush chair and turned to face me head-on. “What can I do for you, hon?”
“Well, first off, don’t call me ‘hon.’” I cleared my throat. “Let’s start there, shall we?”
“Sorry. You don’t need to be so hostile,” she said in a fake sugary voice.
“Don’t I though?” I let her squirm for a moment as she tried to figure out what I was going to say next. “I heard you don’t believe I’m engaged to Noah Evans.”
“Well, I—I just said that, um?—”
“You know, I think the community would be very interested to know that a small business owner trespassed in a local doctor’s office to extort money from a well-loved surgeon under the threat of losing his job because your daddy is technically his boss. I think they’d also be very interested to know that someone who runs a quote-unquote wellness—” yes, I made the air quotes too! “—spa made a point of disparaging said doctor’s fiancee’s weight more than once. I also find it hard to believe your father would want his name sullied around the community in connection with this scheme.”
“Well, I—” Her face flushed, and her nostrils flared as she scrambled for some sort of rebuttal.
“I’m sure your father has no idea what you’re up to with this suit, and you mistakenly believed Dr. Evans would want to settle this out of court, sweep it under the rug so he didn’t get on your father’s bad side.”
Alexandra’s lips thinned. “My dad hates gay people. He would be happy to fire Noah just for being gay.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, well, pretty sure he can’t do that, not even in Indiana.”
“My malpractice suit gives him a reason to,” she fired back.
“But you’re lying about him making a mistake, aren’t you?” I sneered. “You know he didn’t do anything wrong, did he?”
“Well, no, but I did have to have emergency surgery.” She shrugged.
“Because you didn’t follow the aftercare directions,” Aris entered the chat. “I bet you did something stupid like blow your nose too hard or—oh, I bet I know what it was?—”
“You don’t know jack shit!” she fired back.
“I see women like you in the gym all the time,” he continued. “The kind who are so scared of gaining an ounce, they work out like complete lunatics. You’re not supposed to work out too hard or lift weights after a septoplasty, are you?”
Her features pulled into a pinched scowl. “This isn’t about me! This is about Noah being a shitty doctor and human!”
“So you admit he didn’t fuck up your surgery!” I pressed.
“He cheated on my best friend!” She was so worked up now, she had started to cry. Her face was scarlet red, and her eyes were bloodshot and glassy.
“Cheated how?” Aris demanded.
“He’s gay!” she screamed at me, pointing her finger in my face. “He’s going to cheat on you too!”
“Did he actually cheat on her?” I asked.
“Well, he was watching gay porn…”
“Okay, Alexandra, I don’t have all day.” I straightened up my spine and folded my hands together in my lap. “I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen next: you’re going to get on the phone with your lawyer and call off the suit, and call off your dad. Then, you’re going to call that reporter and retract your statements about Noah. If it’s too late, then you’re going to write a formal apology to him and ask them to print it.
“And if you don’t agree that’s what’s going to happen next, we’re going to go to that reporter and tell them all about your scheme to extort money and how you used your father’s influence to do so. It’s going to put you out of business, and it’s going to make your dad look bad too. And if you’re truly the Daddy’s Girl I think you are, you’re going to want to avoid angering him.”
“It’s too late. Daddy already knows about the lawsuit, and he knows Noah is gay.” Alexandra rose, her hands clenching into fists at her hips. “And he’s already agreed to fire him by the end of the week if he doesn’t offer a settlement of at least two hundred thousand dollars.”
“Your father saw Noah at the charity ball with me!” I reminded her.
“He doesn’t believe you’re engaged to him. And neither do I.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
I went to twist the engagement ring on my finger and suddenly remembered I’d given it back to Noah yesterday morning. “Fine, here’s what’s going to happen, then. We’re all going to drive over to your father’s office right now, and we’re going to straighten this out once and for all, or I’m going to the press, and I will not rest until I ruin your livelihood like you’ve attempted to ruin my fiancé’s!”
Aris’s head whipped toward me as the words spewed out of my mouth. He looked utterly impressed. He reached down and grabbed my hand as Alexandra bowed her head and reluctantly conceded.
I didn’t believe her father knew half of what was going on.
And we were going to prove it.