CHAPTER 17
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Liam tried to keep his concentration to the maximum, because it was now when he needed it the most. The first strike had already been executed and he had to wait for the confirmations.
William was in charge of the closing of the operations. Virtually everyone agreed to the purchase, most were suspicious about Liam's likely management of the company and feared that the shares would lose value.
So the bias towards Liam had worked in those cases.
In others, Liam had to pay an additional percentage to get his hands on the shares, but for him it was all good. He was on his way to becoming the freeholder and it was worth parting with some of his equity to get there.
Despite the good news, he could not be completely happy.
And he didn't clearly understand why the idea of Emma's motherhood affected him so much.
Why was someone he hadn't heard from in a decade now so upsetting?
His fingers stopped tapping on the MAC keyboard as he thought about what he'd been digging into.
He now understood much of what she could be going through. He did some digging and discovered that the Darby family of Cheyenne was still respected in town and that Emma's father held a sendoff office.
On local social media, the man and Faith Darby, Emma's sister, were seen at parties and county society gatherings, where they were well regarded for their position.
He understood that Emma had Tanner and that earned her the loss of his family's support.
That's why she didn't go to college, despite her unquestionable talent.
He was so sorry for her, because the mistake wasn't even serious.
She had a son, a boy who was growing into the great person he was becoming under his mother's guidance. The most striking thing Liam noticed was that the boy didn't seem to resent the father he didn't know.
So whatever this man did to Emma, she didn't pass it on to her son the way other women do to poison him against the father who hurt them.
“She is a great woman...”
It had been four days since that rainy day, and he would fully understand if she forbade Tanner to go to the Hampton's with him.
He had no right, except the ascendancy of being her boss.
But he seriously had a connection with that boy, such as he never felt with other infants before. That was strange, and he thought maybe he saw himself reflected in Tanner, with so many dreams and desires as a child.
Remembering his own childhood was not pleasant, with a father who plagued him with guilt over killing his mother in childbirth.
Of course, unlike him, Tanner was growing up happy with the fervent love of a mother who was capable of throwing herself on the train tracks for him.
Still, various similarities aside, there was something else he didn't know how to explain, and that was a sense of familiarity with the boy, an enthusiastic desire to bond with him.
His cell phone rang again.
It was William with more news of the development of the careful plan that had not yet exploded in the faces of the shareholders, or rather former shareholders, and especially in the face of Michael Foreman.
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Emma was still not sure how to proceed after the rainy day.
Her first impression was not to accept Liam's invitation to Tanner.
But on the other hand, the old guilt dented her spirit.
The two of them fit together so well and the thought of Tanner and Liam together made her so excited.
Her son talked about him all the time: He was the ideal model of the leader he wanted to be.
Even the little boy, with open spontaneity, told her: “I like him”
“Who?” asked Emma, although she knew who it was.
“Mr. Van Dyke,” the boy replied. “I like him for you...and he likes you too”
Emma reddened to the tips of her hair. Tanner was too lively.
"What..., don't say things like that, son, if people hear it, they can misinterpret it".
The boy looked everywhere.
“Mom, there's no one else here,” smiled the little boy with the high-pitched voice, “Why would a man of that class come to our little pigsty?” at Emma's disapproving gesture, he hastened to add, “Lisa says the apartment is a pigsty, so don't blame me”
The alarm on her cell phone saved her from answering. She had to leave to catch the subway to Manhattan, but her son's words gave her a reason to think about the pros and cons of a ride with Liam.
Why deprive him of his momentary companionship?
She already knew it would all be over when Liam married Anna Foreman and gave her his own children. Just thinking about it made her blood boil with jealousy.
Maybe she really should allow her son to spend the weekend with Liam Van Dyke.
“Give me the cream doughnuts and a vanilla latte,” she asked the cart stationed a few feet from the building.
“Right away, that'll be $6”
Emma had gone downstairs to get something to snack on. The cafeteria in the building was quite expensive and she wasn't in a position to throw money at it, despite the fact that only the day before she had cashed the check for the generous bonus Liam had ordered to be prepared for her.
She barely brought her coffee to her lips and almost choked on the hot liquid when someone unexpected materialized in front of her.
Her ex-fiancé Nicholas, that doctor from Colorado.
“But what the...?”
Nicholas, neither slow nor lazy approaches her, as if time has not passed and hugs her as if they were old friends with a lot in common.
Emma can't even push him away as she is taken by surprise.
“Dear Emma, I knew it was you”
Emma took another sip of her coffee, eyeing the brazen man suspiciously.
“You really have a lot of nerve to introduce yourself, after what you did to me, your wretch”
“My dear, it's not polite to be so rude, remember we were engaged until recently”
Emma snorted and started walking, because she wasn't going to make a spectacle of herself in front of the coffee cart.
“Well, to me it feels like a century ago. What the hell are you doing in New York?”
The man hurried to stand next to the young woman and kept the same serene mask that Emma knew him so well.
“Isn't it obvious? I've been looking for you for a long time”
“Have you really...? And where's your daughter, I hope you've sent her to reform school or something”
“Rita was left in Colorado and is still very sorry about the way things turned out”. Nicholas batted his eyelashes in a seductive pose that Emma found ridiculous. “I looked you up in Cheyenne....”
Emma raised her eyebrows.
“But according to the credit card statement, you've been having the time of your life in Colorado....”
Nicholas was quick to change strategy.
“That's exactly what I came for, my dear....”
“Because of the scam you pulled on me?”
“How could it be a scam, that card was a gift from you. I keep it lovingly in remembrance of our relationship”
The woman squinted.
How is it that when they were engaged she wasn't able to notice how the lies came naturally from this scoundrel?
“It took me a while, my dear, but I've come back to you”
“The curious thing here is how you were able to place me.....”
“That's simple, my dear Emma, I have your social security numbers and I still have friends at a branch of the bank that issued the card you gave me. That's how I got your work address...”
“So you took a long trip from Colorado to New York just to say hello to me?”
They came across some benches and Nicholas practically forced her to sit there.
“We have a conversation to have....”
Emma let herself get carried away out of simple curiosity, though she kept her cool because Nicholas wasn't worth the trouble.
“I'm going to stay here and drink my coffee and eat this donut,” she pointed to her food. “Tell me what you really came here for, that I'm not the same na?ve fool I was before”
“I never thought you were, my dear...” Nicholas paused dramatically. “And apparently you're not doing badly in the big city”
“That's because I'm far away from you and your daughter...” Nicholas feigned ignorance of her words.
“Your dream of starting a family could not have disappeared....”
Emma looked at him suspiciously.
She was beginning to realize what he was getting at.
Nicholas took that as permission to keep talking.
"If we resume our engagement, I can get your father to talk to you again, and Tanner would have the family he needs," he began to elaborate, as if he had the cure-all for Emma. "Of course, that would mean our pact would be reinstated and I would get back the credit card privileges you canceled."
Emma began to laugh heartily.
She cancelled that extra card, one full of debt. Nicholas's cheekiness was unbelievable.
No doubt this jerk had serious financial problems, so much to come all the way from Colorado to ask for them back so he could once again benefit from her naiveté. And that Emma had not yet required him for the thousand dollars he stole from her purse.
“How did you come all the way from Colorado? You spent a lot of money on a ticket....”
Nicholas looked embarrassed.
“I came by train, I spent almost three days in a car....”
Emma snorted, she didn't feel like fighting with this bastard, even if he deserved it.
She threw her waste in the basket and wiped the crumbs off her skirt as she stood up.
“Nicholas, I have to get back to work...and your problems don't interest me, I have no money to give you because I'm still paying for what you swindled me out of...you really have a lot of nerve to tell me these things, have you no shame?”
But Nicholas would not let her go.
He ran after her to stop her.
“I won't let you leave me with words in my mouth!”
“You want to bother me, go bother someone else!” The woman broke free from his grip.
“I know where you work...you have a position of trust with the CEO of a company in this city,” he changed his tone of voice. “He's someone who's in magazines and how will he look if I publicize that you ripped me off? Me, the one who was your fiancé. ....”
“What the fuck...?”
“What you heard,” he threatened. “But everything can change if you agree to come back to me and return to your job in Cheyenne and your father can see that your engagement to a renowned surgeon like me still stands. Everything will go back to the way it was”
Emma knew him well enough by now.
Besides suspecting the doctor's serious financial drawbacks, she guessed that the man was looking to take out a major loan and was looking to her as a guarantor or signer on the loan, just for that reason alone he was risking so much by coming to her.
In other times, she would have agreed.
Emma could no longer contain herself, she gave him a stern shove to push him away.
“Hear me well, don't come looking for me again or I swear I'll get a restraining order against you”
Emma hurried away to keep Nicholas from following her into the Stidwell building.
She felt intimately proud of herself that she had bluntly rejected the wretch.
So much so that she didn't even care that she didn't have the money to pay for a lawyer to help her get that order.
What she did get from that walk was the decision to take Liam's invitation to take Tanner to the Hamptons.
She had a suspicion that Nicholas would come back for her at her apartment.
He was crazy and capable of finding out her address. And she didn't want her son to witness the unpleasant moments that would come with Nicholas's return to their lives.
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Liam was hard at work.
Many of the purchases had already been completed. He wondered when the great Michael Foreman would look surprised that all the other investors had sold to companies no one knew about.
No matter, by the time Michael realized it would be too late.
Just then Emma came in with several folders.
It was practically the first time they had met alone since the rainy day, as they were always surrounded by William or his assistants.
She left the folders on the support table, while Liam pretended to be concentrating in front of the computer.
Of course, it was a fallacy and he watched his secretary out of the corner of his eye.
He thought about shutting his mouth and not pressing the Tanner issue any further, but he couldn't resist.
“I don't want you to feel obliged to accept the invitation,” he saw her turn and look at him. “So change that face, I won't insist”
“Still standing...?”
Liam was surprised by Emma's sudden question because he thought she didn't want to.
And he completely understood her for that.
"I never make invitations as a joke, is that clear?" he cleared his throat a bit before continuing. "Your son is a special boy and I realize that, he's not like other kids."
It didn't escape his notice that she was almost losing color in her face.
He imagined she might be misunderstanding the comment in a bad way.
“A child like that, so different from me when I was his age...it could only have been the work of a great mother, a wonderful mother,” and he said it without filters, as if it came from his soul. He instantly regretted being so open, but he was telling the truth.
The woman stared at him for a few moments, as if weighing the words. She didn't seem to know whether to thank him or rebuke him for his boldness.
"Tanner speaks well of the times they saw each other. It would be unfair to deprive him of a ride that I may never be able to afford".
There were no more words to say, they were no longer necessary.
It was a moment of compassionate companionship that Liam didn't know he needed.
So long treating each other as if she was not part of his memories of that youth that was never lost in his memory.
“I'll pick Tanner up tomorrow at eight”
“He'll have his bag and lunch box ready,” promised the woman, who took back the folders she had left on the end table moments before and hurried out.
Neither of them had noticed that Liam hadn't signed those documents, which was what she had come in for.
They had too many distractions.
Ones they didn't know they had.
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Liam promptly dropped by to pick up Tanner the next day.
The prince of Manhattan wasn't in his habitat, but he didn't look out of place.
It was Sunday, and Emma herself was in charge of delivering the boy, who was very excited, both for the trip, as well as to get into Liam's big car.
Emma barely shared a couple of words, more directed to her son to whom she gave a cell phone, one that Lisa lent her.
Already on the way to the Hampton's, the boy was too happy.
“Do you have a lot of stuff in the trunk,” asked Tanner, while Liam drove happily, with a pair of aviator style Ray Bans protecting his eyes.
“Just what I'm wearing, because I have everything I need at my house”
"So it's your house, or are you renting it? it must be costing you a fortune".
Liam smiled.
“No rentals, it's totally mine,” the man commented. “I had the boat set up for you to take a ride on the lake when you arrive”
That almost made Tanner jump, as he loved boat rides, but he only got to do it once when he went fishing with Mr. Bennett's family when they lived in Cheyenne.
Liam watched the little boy enjoy the view. He wasn't used to riding in cars, in fact he wasn't used to traveling at all, and a simple trip to the Hamptons sounded exciting to him.
Surely Emma couldn't afford it.
All this recent discovery of her motherhood and her living conditions made him ponder, but he still couldn't find an answer to the growing curiosity he felt and Tanner...it was a coincidence, but he felt totally magnetized towards this spry boy.
The happiness of the arrival at the Hampton's, in the incredible mansion with the Van Dyke's own dock was cut short, at least for Liam, when he realized that they were not alone.
The housekeeper alerted him that Miss Anna Foreman was in the residence, waiting for him and there was no way to get her out, as she was supposed to be the fiancée of the owner of the house.
The gorgeous daughter of the other senior partner of Harlock Investment Group showed up with a huge smile on her face, which didn't change even when she saw Liam arriving with the child. She didn't seem surprised and was uncharacteristically friendly.
“What is your secretary's son with...?” The woman examined the child, energetic and happy, who was walking around the house as if he had never been inside a mansion.
“That's right, and I ask you in the most attentive way to be kind to him”
“Your guests are also my guests.....”
The man did not even retort that last sentence. It wasn't worth arguing with a woman he was planning to leave soon.
Liam approached Tanner.
“Do you want something to eat, champ? they can prepare your favorite dishes here, just ask for whatever you want,” asked Liam, looking at his housekeeper, who had orders to ask the kitchen to prepare whatever the boy wanted.
“I want to get on the boat, I haven't had anything else on my mind,” asked the boy.
Liam was thinking of getting some rest, after having driven so much.
But Anna, who was so nice, offered something unheard of before.
“You can go and take a quiet shower, if you want I'll accompany your little guest for a walk around the lake surrounding the mansion”
That punctual offer given to a man who needed to take a shower and stretch his legs at least for an hour was hard to refuse.
“All right”
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Anna Foreman arrived at the mansion almost two hours before Liam.
Her father had ordered her to do so.
Michael told her about the creepy secret surrounding Liam's fat secretary and himself. She was still digesting it and as her father had instructed her, she had to be careful to get rid of that mother and child as soon as possible.
When a spy of his father's in the company tipped them off about the Sunday trip Liam was preparing, Michael made his inquiries with his other spy who was part of the Hampton's mansion staff.
What she told him made his hair stand on end: that they had orders to make the guest room fit, that it was a boy, and that the kitchens had to be stocked for anything the little guest might want to eat.
It wasn't hard for them to know that this was the secretary's son, but that for a reason they didn't understand, Liam was still unaware of the secret of parentage.
“And so it must go on,” Michael had said. “It's up to you to do something to get rid of those two, let them go back to their dirty town”
But Anna, a woman who walked between two worlds, that of a calculating woman and another unbalanced by her incipient obsession for Liam, that information was lethal to her fragile restraint.
When she saw the boy arrive with Liam, that dark part of her began to fight to get out.
She hated the little boy the moment she saw him.
She immediately thought about the boat ride.
Her mind had already begun to work a mile a minute, full of grim ideas.
She pulled out her best polite mask to Liam and make sure she had that damn kid with her.
Liam was an asshole?
That kid was a carbon copy of him.
How could he not realize the resemblance?
“Okay, Anna,” Liam agreed. “But I'll join you after a shower and a refill”
“Take your time...”
She watched as Liam headed for the stairs and she was left alone with the little boy, while one of the staff began to lead them out onto the lake, where they had a small dock set up.
The boat was already prepared with all the equipment, including life jackets.
As it was very small, the mansion's employee could not go up with them, but he kept giving them directions.
Anna went up first, followed by a cheerful Tanner.
“What are you to Mr. Van Dyke...?” Tanner asked, as they began to walk away.
The woman faked her best smile.
“I'm his fiancée...but you still have to tell me how you got invited here!”
“Well, that's easy, because Mr. Van Dyke has a keen eye for talent, and he's hunting me down before I go to business school,” Anna crinkled her eyes uncomprehendingly. “He knows that one day I'll be a very important banker, what do you think?”
Anna narrowed her eyes.
The boy was unbearable, but she kept moving the oars toward the middle of the lake.
It was at that instant, that her disturbed mind began to ponder back. His father also had that lethal darkness, but the man had it under control, unlike her who exploded at the slightest provocation.
The boy admired the water and the little fish that could be glimpsed. He stood with his back to her, totally amazed and confident.
She couldn't stand it any longer, so she surreptitiously approached him after making sure that the employee was not watching them and made a motion with the paddle to push the boy into the water.
In such a way that it looked like the little boy stumbled.
“Ahhhh!” cried Tanner, I can't swim!” making desperate motions to grab hold of the boat, but Anna made a move to get the boy to let go.
Anna grinned villainously, but made actress-like gestures to feign concern.
“Oh me!"and she pretended to pass the oars to Tanner to take them and climb up for her, but she cheated before the boy took them and threw him into the water.
“Help!” Tanner began to gulp in despair at not knowing what to do because he couldn't swim. Even his screams were dulled.
“I've lost my paddles and I didn't bring my cell phone with me!” Anna pretended to stretch out her arms to grab the boy. “I can't swim either, help!” she shouted softly, but to make it clear that she wanted to save the know-it-all tadpole.
The truth is that she could hardly hide her happy smile.
Her father would be more than proud of her.
He had asked her to take care of that demon child and she was giving him an extreme and definitive solution.
The child was on the verge of death in front of her eyes.