Chapter 6 Tainted Love #2
After a long lecture from Olivia before the meeting, I felt confident that I’d done exactly what she wanted.
I’d put my feelings aside and tried to get the Fitzgeralds to pay for the relocations, but after what just happened, I knew the poor tenants would probably get a one-hundred-dollar check, and the press-hungry family would make a show of handing out these checks like they were lottery-winning amounts of money.
“Damn it.” I slammed my car door shut and sank into the driver’s seat.
Thaddeus and his fiancée’s smug faces returned to me, and I needed a moment to compose myself.
There was no way I could drive with my hands trembling like that.
I knew I got a wicked vibe from that friend of Ashley’s.
I never even knew Melissa was a lawyer, let alone one who was working for Fitzgerald.
Her energy wasn’t just off at that party—she’d wanted to ice me out, specifically, and I guess stealing my ex-fiancé was her way of doing that.
Who cares, Summer? You guys haven’t been an item in years.
Shaking my head, I tightened my grip on the wheel. It wasn’t like I owned Thaddeus. He could marry whomever he wanted. Frankly, I’d dodged a bullet back then. Literally and metaphorically.
He and Mimi are bound to be the most miserable couple in the world.
Both of them were soulless people. They’d throw anybody under the bus if it meant they’d benefit in some way.
If that was what Thaddeus wanted in a lifelong partner, then good luck to him.
He’d end up paying bitterly in their inevitable divorce.
I heaved a sigh. I shouldn’t let Thaddeus get to me. He wasn’t worth it. He’d already taken so much from me. At least Eden warned me about them in her frantic phone call earlier.
“Are you sitting down? I have something I want you to hear from me first,” she’d said.
News that needed you to sit often meant it would floor you. My gut feeling told me it was about Thaddeus. “I’m sitting. What’s up?”
“Thaddeus and Ashley’s friend, Melissa, are engaged.”
A pit had formed in my chest. For a moment, I just sat there, silent, replaying her words over and over in my head. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Melissa? Which—”
“Mimi,” Eden clarified.
My head had spun with a million questions.
Did Mimi and Thaddeus meet years ago? Did they know each other prior to his release?
Was she one of those creeps who sent letters to murderers?
He’d only just gotten out of prison. How in the hell could he be engaged?
A thought popped into my head that gave me a stomachache.
Maybe they’d met at his coming-home party, and it was love at first sight.
He didn’t deserve to be happy. Not after what he’d done.
“Summer?” Eden’s words pulled me back to reality.
“Good for them. I don’t care.”
Her silence had told me she didn’t believe me.
“Hopefully this puts him in a good mood, and he’ll have mercy on the tenants,” Eden said. Then she added, “It’s a business marriage.”
“How do you know?” I asked out of curiosity.
“After the press release came to my desk, I phoned Ashley in shock. She explained that Mr. Fitzgerald wants Thad married and producing children before he dies.”
I was so grateful Eden worked on the town newspaper, and even more grateful that she thought to call me and give me the heads-up before the meeting.
I’d thanked her and hurried off the phone to process my thoughts.
I had to pull myself together before the meeting.
The man I hate was about to marry another woman and have babies with her.
Meanwhile, I hadn’t thought about babies since he shot my dad.
Thaddeus hadn’t even been home a month, but he was moving on with his life.
So why was I still stuck?
I allowed my hands to loosen on the steering wheel.
The meeting hadn’t gone as badly as it could have, mostly thanks to Eden.
I didn’t want to think about how big a hold Thaddeus still had over me.
Marni’s warning found its way into my thoughts.
My life had been on hold for years. Since my dad’s death, I thought about my father’s murder too often, too fiercely to get on with my life.
I’d been as trapped as he was. Seeing Thaddeus return and carve a future out of the rubble made me question everything.
I’d been on dates, of course, but hadn’t dated anyone long or often enough to let them get the title of boyfriend. Thaddeus was my one and only boyfriend.
“Fucking piece of shit!” I slammed my palms against the dashboard. The new couple was about to claim their first victory if I didn’t come up with a way to save the building.
Competition was on overdrive. I had to beat them. That cause would be a worthy distraction, something to fill my days while the newly engaged couple got married and planned the birth of their first child in the town I loved.
Finally, I took a deep breath and started the car. Sitting there all day wasn’t very useful. I needed to get back to the office and fill Olivia in on what had happened.
Throughout the entire drive back into town, I searched my brain for options. I was a good lawyer, so I should be able to figure out a way to help the families in the Starlight building. There had to be something the Fitzgeralds would agree to.
Olivia was sympathetic when I told her what had happened. Her mouth opened wide when I told her that Thaddeus was engaged to their lawyer. She asked me one final time if I was sure I wanted the case.
“Olivia,” I replied. “There’s no way I’m giving up this case. I’ll get justice for those families.”
After nodding, Olivia left for a meeting with a client.
I remained at the office for the rest of the day. Unlike most of my friends, I actually liked being at work, even when it overlapped with my personal life.
Just as I was about to leave, the phone rang.
“Hello.”
“Oh great, you’re still there. Come to the Starlight building.” Olivia’s voice sounded pinched.
“What’s wrong?”
The silence felt heavy.
“The town deemed the building uninhabitable.”
Shit! Already? I thought they’d assign someone who would get to it later in the week maybe.
“Fuck! I’m on my way.” I hung up the phone and jogged to the building. Thankfully, it wasn’t far from my office. As I hurried my boots up Main Street, chaos unfolded in front of me. Police cars, fire engines, a sea of people in high-visibility vests and hard hats.
“Summer, over here!” Olivia waved. She stood off to one side, away from the scene.
“How did this all happen so quickly?” I panted. Damn, I needed to exercise more.
“Seems the Fitzgerald’s words put the fear of God into the town.
They organized this inspection, and it turned out that the building was in worse shape than even we thought.
Fearing a lawsuit if someone died in there, the town is putting up notices and telling tenants to get out.
” She handed me an envelope. I knew it housed the report. That would be my bedtime reading.
I frowned. “To where? Most live on a fixed income. They don’t have any money to find different housing.”
Olivia nodded. Among the professionals surrounding the building were worried tenants. Olivia and I exchanged a look and stepped forward to try to provide some comfort (although I wasn’t sure what could possibly make them feel any better).
We went from person to person, ensuring they had places to go where they’d be safe.
Luckily, most had family members or friends they could stay with.
Others took the Fitzgeralds’ offer of helping them get to a shelter, understanding that the town decision was in regard to their safety.
However, I knew deep down that one of the residents wouldn’t go.
Mr. Dorman had lived in the building almost his whole life.
“I’m not leaving,” he said when I approached him, “so don’t even try. ”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Dorman, but right now you don’t have a choice. We’re dealing with heartless people who have lots of money and influence. They’ll really ram a wrecking ball through your home and lie through their teeth that they didn’t know anyone was in here, after you’re long dead.”
For a second, it looked like Mr. Dorman understood me perfectly.
“Sweetie, I’m not scared of monsters. I’m a Tarrytown native.”
Unable to help it, I had to chuckle. “Mr. Dorman, I’ll come back tomorrow and see how you are. Please consider what I said. Keeping everyone safe and alive is our top priority. If the building is as bad as they say, you’re not safe here.”
His mouth twitched. “Save your time tomorrow and the day after. My answer will be the same.”
“Think about it,” I said.
“Nothing to think about.” He winked at me and went back into the building.
I’d try again tomorrow. There was nothing else I could do for the night. Olivia had vanished. With a heavy heart, I walked away, shrugging the leftover tension from my shoulders.
When I got to the sidewalk, I turned and took a good look at the old three-story building that I’d been trying to save.
Some of the shutters were crooked, and the paint peeled.
The building looked tired. This wasn’t a revelation; I was aware it needed a paint job and some screws replaced.
Cracks traveled through the brick like veins.
All old buildings had them. They weren’t especially huge or noticeable, but if the town had condemned the building so quickly, it must pose a significant risk.
The envelope containing the report felt like a heavy weight.
A broken window on a unit that wasn’t lived in.
A gently sagging roof. None of this screamed MUST DEMOLISH NOW to me, but I wasn’t the expert—no matter how much time I’d invested into the case.
I worried that maybe I’d been blind. Maybe because Fitzgerald was trying to raze the building and build something else on it, I hadn’t seen the truth. Red-hot guilt flowed through my veins. What if the building was dangerous? What if I’d put all those people at risk for the sake of a grudge?
Everything in my body hated the possibility of the Fitzgeralds winning, but I wasn’t about to risk the lives of others so I could one-up them.
At times like this, I wished Marni was my personal therapist, that she had no other clients.
Often, I resorted to an easy fix. Food and or alcohol usually helped me to get past the hard moments.
It wasn’t a healthy coping mechanism, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.
I headed to the Chinese restaurant to grab takeout.
I opened the steaming container of General Tso’s chicken and fried rice topped with scallions and bits of scrambled egg and quickly ate it on a bench outside the yarn store where Daisy worked part-time.
As I ate, I scanned through the Starlight’s inspection report.
It was beyond anything I had expected. We’d been trying to get an inspector out for months, but none of the companies that specialized in multi-occupancy buildings had space or could meet our very limited budget.
Thanks to the Fitzgeralds’ connections and deep pockets, the Starlight building was inspected and condemned the same day.
Money really might solve all of a person’s problems.
The building’s survey report had a very handy traffic light coding system for each surveyed area. I stared at a sea of red, an odd amber, and very rarely, a green.
I watched Brit Jonas drive past. I didn’t know much about cars, but it looked like a Mercedes.
She stopped at a red light, and I noticed her diamond earrings twinkling in the sunlight.
Her hair was in perfect condition, and it tumbled around her shoulders in a waterfall.
Brit liked to stand out as though she weren’t a lifelong resident.
Like she was just someone visiting our little corner of the world.
She never looked around nor wasted a single smile on anyone; she just kept her head forward. Nothing down the hill fancied her.
Something about Brit always puzzled me. Why bother living in Tarrytown if you’d never socialized or even spoken to anyone under a certain tax bracket?
She mostly stayed atop the hill and rarely came downtown.
The only times she’d ever bothered to speak to me were back when we were teenagers and I had Thaddeus by my side.
Without him, I’d have been invisible to her.
She was the one thing Thaddeus and I had argued about when we were together.
He’d always told me that she didn’t have a crush on him, when it was obvious to anything with a pulse that she did.
The last time Brit and I shared a room was at the courthouse, where she’d sat offering Thaddeus moral support.
Rich people often did stick together. My dad had been her family’s chauffeur for years until his alcoholism got in the way. Mr. Jonas sent his condolences after my dad died.
“Sorry I’m late.” Daisy’s voice jarred me from my thoughts. I watched as Brit’s car climbed the hill, away from the normal folks of Tarrytown and into the heights that surrounded it.