31. Charlie
31
Iwas lying on the bed in my hotel room on the north side of the city when someone knocked on my door. No one knew I was in Miami except Amy and my parents, though they’d never have flown in to be with me for this moment. They all knew I needed privacy to talk with Lex. And I had no other contacts in this city, not even any former sources or interview subjects I still kept in touch with. For all intents and purposes, I was a ghost here.
Pushing myself off the bed, I grabbed a washcloth from the bathroom and wiped my face and blew my nose. I was positive that I looked messed up. The last time I even looked at my face my eyes were puffy and had huge bags. I hadn’t slept in days, each night fraught with nightmares about Lex and I having arguments that led to him taking Sebastian away from me. While I was gaining popularity to the point of semi-celebrity status, I didn’t have the resources to fight a billionaire in court.
I peeked through the peephole and saw a man wearing a black suit. He stood looking up the hallway toward the elevators, but I didn’t know him. And hotel staff wore blue polo shirts with golden name tags. This man must have been lost or was knocking on the wrong door. I, however, didn’t want to lie in bed listening to him knock more and disrupt my self-loathing time. So, I opened the door.
“Can I help you?” I asked as I stuttered out a few breaths. He turned toward me with a serious expression and raised his eyebrows.
“Ms. Charlotte Martinez?” he asked and suddenly I felt put on the spot. So he was here for me, but why? And that meant only one thing. He had to have been sent by Lex. If Amy or my parents were involved, they’d have just called my cell phone. That was a number Lex didn’t have, since I changed everything about myself the instant I left Tampa.
“Uh, yeah. That’s me…” I waited as he reached into the inner breast pocket of his suit coat.
“This is a letter from Dr. Alexander Hartman. He asked me to deliver this to you and to remain here in case you wanted transportation.” The man held out a piece of paper, folded in thirds and taped shut with an address label. I stared at it for a second and felt angry.
Lex had the nerve to somehow look me up and send me a letter, but when I was right there in his office ready to talk to him he’d gone off on me, treating me like a monster. I didn’t want that letter. And while I didn’t want to leave town until something was figured out, I honestly didn’t want to talk to him at all right now. I was upset and confused.
“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t think I can take that.” I started to back away into my room to shut the door, but he held the paper out farther.
“He’d like you to join him on his yacht. I can take you if you’re willing.” This man was persistent, but I didn’t feel threatened by him. His demeanor was gentle and his voice was calm. Still, I had no clue how Lex had found me. And if it was that easy to find me here in Miami, how had he never looked me up this whole time?
“How did he find me?” I snapped, then grabbed the letter from his hand.
“I’m not sure, ma’am. He has his ways.”
“Well, you can leave. I don’t want a ride.” I wanted to crumple the letter and throw it away, but I didn’t. Instead, I shut the door and locked it, and when I checked the peephole the man was gone.
The letter burned my hand like fire, urging me to tear it to shreds and throw it away. Then it shifted and my heart screamed at me for being so unmerciful. This was how it went down before; I made assumptions and left town without communicating. That psychologist’s words were haunting me. I had to read the dang thing.
So I sat down on the sofa and carefully peeled the address label back. It was Lex’s address and his monogram. And the writing on the letter was his handwriting too. Unmistakably so. I forced myself to read it.
Charlie,
I apologize for snapping at you when you came to my office to speak with me. You’re right. We have a few things to discuss. Please join me this evening on my yacht so we can have a much-needed conversation.
Yours,
Lex
I couldn’t believe the nerve of this man. He insulted me when I tried to apologize and discuss things rationally, and now he wanted me to show up on his boat to talk about it? I wasn’t stupid. All that would happen would be another argument. I crumpled up the paper and threw it across the room. I was so mad I almost screamed.
Instead of sitting here letting myself get so angry, I packed up and left, I decided to call Amy to check on Bash. She had been gracious enough to keep him for a few days so I could make this trip, and I missed my little boy’s cuddles so much, even after having only left him this morning.
Amy picked up on the third ring. “Chuck! My gosh, I have baby fever so badly. Thank you so much for letting me keep Bash. I am loving this.” Her giddy tone made me smile and started to take the sting out of Lex’s behavior.
“I was just calling to check on him, but it sounds like everything is going well.”
“Oh, he is such an angel. I can’t believe he is jabbering so much. You know he said basketball today? I mean of course it didn’t sound exactly like that, but it was so sweet.” I loved how she gushed over my little man, and it made me wish I was there with her.
“How did it go today? Did you get to talk to him?” Amy was the only one who knew of my plan to make an appointment for myself and force Lex to speak to me in the office. I knew how angry he was, and I figured it was the only way to make him stand still long enough to explain and apologize. It backfired. I forgot how much he hated his work day being interrupted.
“Honestly it was awful. He screamed at me and I stormed out. I’m at my hotel debating leaving town. I’m just so worried he’ll be upset and try to sue for custody. I handled this whole thing wrong.” I chewed on my bottom lip and realized how much I had changed.
Lex had stayed exactly the same—focused on work, grumpy, short-tempered, and busy. But I had become a worrier, fearing things, focusing on the negative, forcing myself to stay positive, but it never worked. Where was the Charlie Martinez who Lex had first met and fell in love with? Why couldn’t I find my sunshine anymore? Why was I so negative and fearful?
“Well, can you just go to his house?” Amy was the knock-down drag-out sort of girl. She’d charge right into his home and demand he listen to her, but I was just not like that. I didn’t have a problem being bold if I needed to be, but this was different. This was Lex. There were so many complex feelings involved. I loved him, but I hated him, but I wanted him, but I didn’t care if I ever saw him again in my life. And then there was Sebastian.
“Actually, he invited me to his yacht tonight via some strange delivery person or his driver or something. The guy just showed up at my hotel room with a note. So annoying.” Lex didn’t even have the nerve to come by himself to say what he wanted. It was like he was recreating that night when I was on that boat waiting for him and saw him with some other woman.
“Well, you know what to do. You have to go. Talk to him.” I heard a clunking noise and she gasped. “Uh, babe. Bash just spilled my plant. I have to run. I’ll be here for you if you decide to go! Bye.”
I sighed and looked down at my phone as the screen flashed from the call to the home screen when she hung up. She wasn’t much help. Of course she’d go. She had no stake in this game. She had nothing riding on it or threatening her. I, on the other hand, was desperate to make sure my son stayed my son. And part of me still thought having something with Lex wouldn’t be horrible. Especially after that moment in my dressing room. He still wanted me. I still wanted him.
I needed another perspective. I needed my parents. I just knew my dad would know how to cheer me up. Of course, Mom would tell me to come home and bring the baby. She would be more than happy to take me into her home and help me raise him, but I needed real wisdom. So, I dialed Dad’s number as the festering anger began to subside.
“Hey, Charlie. How are you doing? How is your trip going?” Dad was worried. I could hear it in his voice just like the day I went into labor with Sebastian and he hovered over me for hours. Except back then, when I thought I wasn’t really in labor and all his worrying was for nothing, now I knew the labor of the moment. My soul toiled and groaned in birthing pains, trying to deliver a decision my heart and mind could agree on.
“Daddy, I need your advice.” I explained what happened, the visit to Lex’s office, the way he reacted, and then the note with the invitation. I hoped that he would say the man was a monster, to go home. But I was wrong. Even my father agreed with Amy.
“Honey, you need to go.” He sighed and before he could continue I protested with my greatest fear.
“But what if he wants to take Bash? What if he sues for custody?” My bottom lip quivered and I bit it to stop the shaking. Admitting my fears aloud always made them seem more intense.
“Then we get a lawyer and fight. You are the child’s rightful mother and the only thing he’s ever known. No judge in the nation will take him fully away. Other than that, there is nothing else you can do. You made choices and those choices have consequences, but your mother and I will be here for you every step of the way.”
Great, now I was basically obligated to do this, and I had no one to go with me. Why? Why had I done this to myself?