Chapter 21 – Remington
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Big news
Remington
I’m at my office in London going over expense reports when my assistant rings through. “Mr. Hale, don’t forget you have that call with your family in five minutes.”
“Thank you, Pauletta. You can go ahead and leave for the day,” I respond, marking an item on my report with a red pen.
Then I set that aside and log on to my laptop.
A few minutes later, my siblings and their spouses begin popping up on the screen, first Perri, then Phoenix and Jordie.
We chat a bit about Jordie’s upcoming football season with the Houston Dragons while we wait for Helix and Nicolette.
As soon as the clock ticks over to five o’clock, they appear.
As always, we take turns updating the others on what’s going on in our lives. I’m fully aware we do this mainly for my benefit since they all live in Houston and can see each other any time they want.
Our sister gives us a very detailed and exciting account of what she’s been up to at Hale Cosmetics. Perri’s always excited about everything, so that’s nothing new.
“As for my personal life, I went on a date last weekend,” she announces.
Three sets of very protective brother ears perk up, and we all lean forward the slightest bit.
“And?” I ask, my voice little more than a growl. Nicolette and Jordie smirk at my sudden attitude change.
“And nothing,” Perri says indignantly. “We went out, blah blah blah, and he didn’t call back, so…” She shrugs.
“Can we go back to the blah blah blah bit?” Phoenix asks.
“Can we not?” Jordie rebuffs her husband with a shoulder bump and a pointed look. “Since Perri is a grown woman who can take care of herself?”
He kisses his wife’s nose. “Stop being so reasonable.” They stare at each other like the newlyweds they are, their faces positively mushy. “And beautiful,” he breathes.
“Oh, good god,” Perri whines. “Cut it out, lovebirds. I think we’re all pregnant now.”
“So you’re pregnant with your brother’s baby?” I ask dryly, earning me a glare from my little sister.
“That’s gross, Remington Haywood Hale.”
“You said it,” I shoot back.
She tips her nose into the air. “I’m going to ignore that because you’re probably just cranky due to the shortage in London.”
I momentarily panic, thinking she’s talking about my sex life, because, yeah, that’s been lacking lately. “Shortage of what?” I ask.
A smug grin crosses her lips as she tosses her blonde mane over her shoulder. “Razors.”
The entire group bursts into laughter, and even I crack a slight grin as I stroke my hand over my well-trimmed black beard.
“Just thought I’d try something a little different. What do y’all think?”
“I think it looks very distinguished,” Nicolette pipes up. “Gives you a little bit of an edge, but it’s still professional.”
“I love facial hair on a man,” Jordie adds, absently reaching a hand up to stroke the scruff Phoenix always rocks. “It’s very manly and totally worth the beard burn in… certain delicate areas.”
Phoenix is grinning like a pig in shit while the rest of us scrunch up our noses. “Why don’t we get this little gathering back on track? What’s going on at the company?”
Helix, who’s usually the quietest of us, speaks up. “Dad’s admin is retiring after thirty years, and he recently hired a replacement.”
“It’s our nanny’s niece. You remember Lorraine, right?” Jordie asks.
My head bobs up and down. “Of course. How’s it going so far?”
“She doesn’t start till next week,” Helix replies, “but Dad said she’s very organized and personable.”
“That’s good. I look forward to meeting this organized and personable woman,” I lie. She sounds boring as shit. “Anything interesting going on in Houston?”
Phoenix wrinkles his nose. “The Carlisles have finished construction on their new headquarters. I actually saw Grant Carlisle when I was shopping for ties the other day, and the asshole had the audacity to smile at me. Stupid man-bun fucker.”
I shake my head in disgust. “I knew they were trying to get a foothold back in the U.S. market. They’ve had jewelry stores in New York and L.A. for years, but it takes a lot of balls to actually set up their main offices in Texas. They should keep their asses in Australia.”
“I have a question,” Perri says, raising her hand. “I know the Hales and the Carlisles have beef, but no one’s ever told me what it’s all about.”
Leaning back in my chair, I brush my pointer finger back and forth across my chin as I recall what my father has told me.
“It’s a long story, and it happened over a century ago. As you know, Hale Cosmetics started out as a fragrance company, relying on freshly grown ingredients like citrus fruits and lavender for their products.”
“Right,” my sister prods.
“Well, the Carlisles were Australian immigrants who bought a diamond mine in Arkansas and a gold mine in West Texas for their jewelry business. Most of the family settled near Houston since it’s a coastal city and convenient for imports and exports.”
“Our businesses don’t even sound remotely competitive with each other,” Perri points out. “So what was the conflict?”
“First of all, there was a land dispute. Harold Carlisle purchased a hundred acres, and part of what he said he owned overlapped with some Hale land. Or what our family thought was Hale land,” I say with an arched eyebrow. “Turns out, about half our lemon grove was planted over the property line.”
Perri’s lips part. “We had taken over part of someone else’s land?”
I nod. “Not in a nefarious way though. The previous owner of that land was an old man who rarely left his house. Apparently, he allowed our great-great-great-great-grandfather to plant there in exchange for our family bringing him groceries and such from town. That deal was made before his son Albert was even born.”
“So Albert would have been our great-great-great-grandfather?” Perri asks.
“Correct. Anyway, he knew nothing of the deal and thought the land belonged to us. This was all in the late 1800s, and they didn’t exactly have computerized county records back then.”
“Well, it seems dumb to be fighting over an old land dispute from over a century ago,” Perri replies with a frown.
“If that was all that happened, then yes,” Helix adds. “But there was more to the story.”
As he takes over, I rise and pour myself a couple fingers of scotch, but I can still hear his voice clearly.
“Some old maps were found that proved the ownership of that parcel truly belonged to the Carlisles, so our family had to cut down a lot of lemon trees. Albert wasn’t happy about it, but he complied. ”
Sitting down, I see Helix push his glasses up his nose as he continues the tale. “On a side note, Harold Carlisle had a son named Thomas who was in his twenties, and Albert Hale had a daughter named Helen who was a little younger.”
“Ohhh, I’m sensing a Romeo and Juliet situation,” Perri muses.
My brother grimaces. “Not exactly. Albert and old man Carlisle didn’t exactly get along, but they’d called somewhat of a polite truce.
Then one night, out of nowhere, Thomas Carlisle—that’s the son—set the Hale lavender fields and remaining citrus groves on fire.
Burned up every fucking thing, including the Hale family home. ”
“What? Why?” my sister gasps. “They got their land, so why would he do that?”
“No one knows,” I answer, “but a family friend of Albert’s saw Thomas fleeing from the scene. Young Helen was inside the house, but she was rescued by the friend. What no one knew before then was that she was pregnant.”
Jordie, Perri, and Nicolette’s eyes are all round as saucers. “Was it Thomas’s baby?” Nicolette asks.
“That was the suspicion,” I answer. “Though no one knows for sure because Thomas was found and killed soon after that. Being an unwed mother was a pretty fucking big deal back then, so maybe he was trying to cover his ass. Some speculate maybe it wasn’t consensual between him and Helen, so that’s why he did it.
To get rid of the evidence.” The disgust is evident in my tone.
“She did end up losing the baby that night.”
“Oh my god,” Jordie says, covering her mouth with her hand. “Poor Helen. Did she ever say what happened or who the baby belonged to?”
I shake my head. “She never spoke again after losing the child, and she was sent to live at a sanitarium.”
“No wonder we hate them,” Perri says angrily. “So what happened after that?”
“The Carlisles left the U.S. and went back to Australia,” Phoenix answers.
“Clearly the land thing was a mistake on our part, but Albert rectified it, so I have no idea why Thomas escalated the situation like that. It almost bankrupted our family’s business, and it took years to recoup the losses of all those raw materials. ”
Helix’s face creases into a bitter scowl.
“But the Carlisles still think they were somehow wronged and occasionally try to sabotage us. In the 1980s someone made an anonymous tip that Hale Cosmetics was testing on animals.” His voice grows even angrier as he lifts one finger in the air.
“Which we have never done. Not even when other companies started doing it back in the 1930s.”
“And the Carlisles are the ones who falsely reported it?” Nicolette asks her husband.
He shrugs. “That was before I was born, but Dad said he heard rumors it was them.”
Perri crosses her arms over her chest. “Well, all the Carlisles can go suck an egg. We don’t want them here. And I hope every one of them stubs their pinky toe on the coffee table in the middle of the night.”
We all chuckle at her response, and I lift my half-empty glass in a toast. “Hear, hear.” I take a slow sip and frown at the screen. “Why aren’t any of you having a drink?”
“Uh, because it’s lunchtime here, Rem,” Phoenix points out.
“Well damn, guess I’m drinking alone,” I say with a roguish smile, over my glass before I drain the contents down my throat.