Chapter 20 #3
Dutifully, she sprouted another door in the hallway right next to mine. The first one faded into the wall.
“What is it?” Donovan asked me.
“My lawyer, Courtney, is on her way up,” I said, opening the new door and walking into the tiny replica apartment.
God, it was like a shoebox. Striker and Combs would be having so much fun right now.
“Actually, Violet, you know what? Courtney already knows I own the building; that’s why she’s here.
We can make the apartment a little bigger. ”
My tiny studio mushroomed into the drawing room of the Palace of Versailles again. Cecil, lying back on a chaise lounge underneath the enormous windows, saluted me with his martini glass.
“Uh, sorry, Violet. Maybe something in between,” I amended. “Maybe give me a full studio, instead of a half.”
“Can I stay? It’s so boring stuck behind these walls.” Cecil lit a cigarette, inhaled deeply, and blew out a plume of smoke.
“Cecil, my lawyer would have a heart attack if she saw you right now.”
He shrugged and flicked his cigarette. “Her loss.”
“Actually,” I turned to look at Donovan. “Would you mind staying with Cecil?”
He frowned. “Yes. I would mind very much.”
“Please, Donovan.”
“Why?”
I didn’t want to say it out loud, but it was about time I started being more truthful with him.
Maybe if I practiced being honest with Donovan, I’d start getting better at being honest with myself.
“Courtney is a man-eater. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to slut-shame anyone here.
On the contrary, I’ve always admired her passion and her enthusiasm.
But, Donovan, honestly, she’ll take one look at you, and I’ll have to put up with her fluttering her lashes with her bedroom eyes and making double-entendres.
Which is fine, but I won’t be able to get rid of her in a hurry. ” I blinked up at him. “Please?”
He stared at me stonily. “I do not care.”
“Please, Donovan.”
“Fine.” He turned away and stomped back into the depths of my drawing room, heading towards the kitchen. “But I will be watching and listening. If this Courtney attempts to eat any men, I will take her head.”
“That’s fair enough. Violet, go ahead.”
Violet squeezed again, pushing Cecil and the rest of my drawing room back, sliding new walls in place, and rolling new furniture towards me—this time, going with more contemporary, Scandinavian minimalist decor—cozy white window-frames, low soft beige sofa, seagrass rugs on the polished concrete floor, a long counter in the kitchen absolutely bare of any hint of appliances.
A delicate spray of white orchids popped up on the low copper coffee table.
“Perfect,” I said. “Go ahead and let her in.”
There was a knock at the door. “Susan?”
I opened the door. “Courtney!” She was indeed wearing Armani, like she usually did.
Courtney had taken the bar exam right about the time when feminine power suits were going out of fashion, but she never stopped wearing them.
I knew why—Courtney looked like a human-sized version of Tinkerbell, with her very slim figure and pixie-cut, so her boxy jacket and shoulder pads gave her body a little more substance, and the matching micro-mini and sky-high stilettos offset any masculine vibes that her short hair might give her.
She stalked into my apartment, air-kissing me on both cheeks. “Darling, good to see you.” She did a double take. “You’re looking good,” she said almost grudgingly.
“Thanks.” I backed up into the kitchen. “Can I get you a drink?”
“No, thanks. I have to make this quick; I’m heading to the opera.
I thought I better drop around to discuss this lawsuit that Delilah and Gordon are bringing against you.
” Her gaze ran around the apartment critically.
“Nice place.” She sighed. “It’s a shame.
” She put her bag down on the table and rummaged inside it.
“What’s a shame?”
She stared at me, a puzzled expression on her face. “That you’ll have to sell it.”
“Why would I have to sell it?”
“Come on, Susan,” she said patiently. “I don’t know what kind of people you’ve gotten caught up with, but this whole thing is shady as hell.
I read the purchase agreement. The whole thing is cloaked in so much mystery, it’s insane.
You’ve got shell corporations inside of shell corporations.
” Her piercing eyes held mine. “Someone sold it to you for one dollar, and they paid an absolute fortune in taxes to do it. What’s going on? ”
“I have a very generous new employer.”
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“I am. This building is part of my remuneration package.”
She eyed me beadily. “You’re still working for Base Budget Insurance.”
I shrugged. “I’m moonlighting.”
“Well, I’m sorry to say that it’s all going to be in vain.
” She rummaged in her briefcase. “You know that Delilah and Gordon aren’t going to back down.
They want to see you completely fucked over.
” She threw her hands up helplessly; it looked like a fake gesture.
“You know I keep my fees low for you, but I can’t work pro bono anymore.
The Andresanos are going to drag this out until you go bankrupt, and I can’t see any way out of this lawsuit.
They won’t rest until they peel apart this whole bureaucratic nightmare.
It’s in your best interests to sell the building and give half to Vincent. ”
I stared back at her. “Really? You’re not even going to try to fight it?”
“Come on now, Susan.” A smile curved her lips.
“The rumor mill in this city is in overdrive. You’ve got some mysterious new patron who is pulling your strings.
I’m guessing you probably won’t want people digging too hard into his business.
It’s best if we get the Andresano suit out of the way quickly. ”
Why did she look so different to me? Courtney was a friend. But now, her pale face with its careful contouring seemed so cold, so cruel all of a sudden. Courtney was a fantastic lawyer, one of the top partners at her firm. “That’s what you said about that taxi driver who sued me.”
“Well,” she said, tossing her head. “I was right about that, too. You smashed his windows. If we didn’t settle, you would have lost much more if the case went to court.”
That was the first incident when I truly started doubting my sanity. “I told you I didn’t do that.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t.”
Her eyes widened. “I believe you.”
My skin buzzed at her lie. It never mattered before. I hesitated for a second. “You pressured me to settle.”
“Not because I didn’t believe you.” Buzz. “You know how these things drag out. It was just quicker and cheaper to settle out of court.” She tilted her head, her face concerned. “What’s gotten into you?”
I didn’t respond; I just stared at her. Oh, God, how could I have gotten this wrong, too?
When the taxi driver sued me, I went to her office and cried on her shoulder.
I was so confused, and I didn’t really know what had happened.
I’d had such a bad day at the office, and the driver had been an obnoxious jerk, first leering at me, then snapping at me.
My temper boiled over, and suddenly, the back windows blew out.
“Courtney.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Tell me the truth. Do you think I smashed the windows?”
“Oh, come on, Susan.” She arched an eyebrow. “Of course you did it. We all understand how menopause-brain works. You just forgot that you did it.”
I remember how she kept saying that. I forgot. I had a mind-fart due to a quick drop in estrogen. She kept pushing it as a reason for the driver to accept the settlement offer. I was a poor, sad, menopausal woman, worthy of pity.
“I didn’t do it.”
She let out a bark of laughter. “How else did his windows get smashed from the inside? It’s okay to be wrong about things, you know.”
A buzz ran over my skin at her lie. She didn’t think it was okay to be wrong. It was one of the things me and Courtney had in common—we were both very confident women, so sure of ourselves. It was why we had bonded in the first place.
A little wriggling worm of suspicion burrowed into me, and I looked at Courtney again with new eyes.
Was she on my side? I wasn’t sure anymore. I’d been wrong about smoking. I’d been wrong about Seraphina, and I’d been very wrong about Vincent.
Had Courtney ever been on my side? Now, knowing that I was never crazy, it really didn’t look like it. Courtney pressured me to settle the taxi driver’s lawsuit even though she regularly fought much tougher cases, and she won every time.
She’d lied about taking care of my dog, Rusty, when I went to prison, and Vincent had him put down.
And now, in the face of Gordon and Delilah’s lawsuit, she wanted me to roll over, sell the building, and give half the money to Vincent, even though I knew that legally, according to the terms of our divorce settlement, they didn’t have a leg to stand on.
“Honestly, Susan.” She leaned forward, looking me in the face. “Are you okay? Do you need me to call someone?”
I looked at her. “Did you sleep with Vincent?”
Her mouth dropped open; she gasped, and reared back, offended. “Of course not!”
Buzz.
“Oh, my God. You’re lying.” My words came out in a mumble; my lips felt numb. “You did sleep with Vincent.”
“I would never!” The buzz of her lie ran over my skin, electrifying me.
“When did you do it? Was it after I went to jail?”
“No!” Buzz.
“So, it was before.” I took a step closer and saw her eye twitch. “You slept with him before I went to jail. That’s why you were so enthusiastic about pushing the whole narrative that I was in a perimenopausal fog when the taxi’s windows blew out. You were making your play for him.”
“Susan, you’re being ridiculous.”
I watched her carefully. “I bet you were upset when Seraphina got her hooks into him.”
Aha—there it was, the flare of rage in her eyes. She masked it quickly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, you were. You still are.” I laughed, a bitter, humorless chuckle. “I saw that look in your eye, Courtney. You thought you were going to be able to step into my shoes when I went to jail, didn’t you?”
She sighed sadly. “This is so embarrassing for you, Susan.” Courtney walked into the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards.
“I’ll get you a glass of water. You need to get your meds.
Call your doctor right now and speak to him.
” She looked at me, an expression of pity on her face.
“Don’t worry, we can figure out selling this building and settling with the Andresanos later.
You need to get your mental health back first.”
“Oh, I’m not crazy. I never was.” A wild impulse to lash out with my magic gripped me, but I forced it down. It wouldn't do any good to expose myself. Besides, I didn’t need to. “You’re fired, Courtney.”
A chime ran under my feet; my doorbell rang again. Oh, good grief, what now?
Courtney filled a glass with water and tried to hand it to me. I didn’t take it. “You’re being silly. You need me, Susan. If it wasn’t for me?—”
“I’d be a lot richer, for starters. You represented me in court during my divorce, even though you’d slept with my husband.” I let out a bitter snort. “If that’s not a conflict of interest, I don’t know what is.”
She hesitated for a split second. “You’ve lost your mind. Here, give me your phone. I’ll call your doctor.”
“All it would take is for me to make a complaint to the Bar association, and for Vincent to submit a statement to say that it was true, that he did have an affair with you. They’d take your license.”
Courtney’s eye began to twitch again. “He wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, he would. And he will.” I just had to figure out a way to get him to do it.
“He—no.” She shook her head vehemently. “Even if it were true—and it’s not—Vincent won’t do that. The whole settlement would be voided.”
My heart gave a thud. I could get my house back.
“The settlement happened when I was at my lowest, Courtney, and I couldn’t fight back.
You were supposed to help me, but you didn’t.
In fact, you made everything worse, because you had a thing for my husband, and you thought you were going to be able to get your hooks into him after I was put away.
” I paused and smiled. “But you forgot who I am. Hell, I forgot who I was. But I’m back.
” I locked eyes with her, my smile widening.
“You don’t know what is about to hit you. ”
“You’re crazy,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re fucking insane, Susan Moore.”
“We’ll see. You can go now.” I opened the door. “Watch your back.”
She stalked out. I slammed the door behind her.