Chapter Fourteen
Earth Angel
There was no shortage of joy when news broke that Finn was alive and would make a full recovery. Everyone was relieved.
When Flora emerged from Room Seven and said he was awake and asking for a burger, Clara stood, squeezed her hand, and went inside. Roman was crying. But he told Flora not to tell anyone.
“Scout’s honor,” she replied.
Flora collected her bag and waved at Jane.
“Nice to see you again,” she chorused.
“Same to you!” Jane exclaimed. “You must be… something special.”
“Not really. If anyone asks, I’m going back home. I have to pack and get ready.”
“Pack?”
“I’m leaving California soon.”
“Oh?” Jane asked, concern crossing her face. “I thought you were staying for the wedding. Did I get that wrong?”
“I got invited to go to Paris for a few weeks to shoot with Vogue again for the winter issue. I’ve got some friends there that I’d really like to see. I’m leaving next week and figured I might as well get a move on packing.”
“Oh, of course. Will you be at the wedding?”
“Uh, we’ll see. It’s nothing against you. It’s just easier to fly from Paris to Madagascar than SFO to Madagascar. Since I’m already in Paris, it just makes more sense.”
“Totally. Well, I’m bummed you won’t be around to see it. I’m stuck with that awful Holly girl. I’d much rather have you.”
“Don’t you have any friends coming?”
“I do, but since I turned twenty-five and started my residency, I feel like all my friends have left me. Then when I got engaged, they all somehow reappeared.” She rolled her eyes. “Opportunists. Just my cousin and sister are bridesmaids.”
“Well, consider me a friend,” Flora replied, smiling.
She was rolling her eyes at her own self five months prior when she’d been hanging around with Roman, hoping he’d break it off. Jane was great and Flora knew she’d been an idiot.
“And I can’t stand Holly either,” Flora added.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but were you and Finn…?”
“Oh, no. We’re just friends. We were.”
“I see.”
“Well, I’d better get going. My dad’s waiting downstairs.”
“Right. Good luck in Paris, if I don’t see you.”
“Thanks! And congrats… Mrs. Woodhouse.”
Jane beamed.
***
Finn did not recover enough to leave the hospital for another week and a half, or at least that’s what Mrs. Woodhouse was saying to everyone.
She’d made sure he stayed longer than was needed in case something did go wrong.
Finn was fine though, other than the bum arm, and the ribs, and the bruises, and the trauma.
Jack, Allison, and Flora were home on a Saturday when the car pulled around the driveway, and Holly stepped out, helping Finn along after. Jack left to go help as well. Allison and Flora stayed inside, knowing their presence was not welcome.
Allison sighed. “What a mess.”
“Putting it mildly.” Flora raised a t-shirt. “Yes or no?”
“No, too plain.”
Flora set it down and looked out the window again. Holly was of very little help, flitting about and saying “Oooo! This is so bad!” and never doing anything about it.
“I’m gonna miss you so much,” Allison added, watching the Keystone Cops routine outside. “And I’m gonna miss this place. No reason to be here now.”
“I think we need a break from this place.”
Allison flicked a glance at her. “Did you really wake him up?”
Flora went silent.
“So he has broken heart syndrome weeks after ending things with you, you wake him up from his heart attack coma thing, and still nothing. Impressively awful.”
Flora shrugged. “I’m just glad he’s awake and alive.”
“At least it’s somewhat of a clean break.”
“Yes, just like his arm.”
With nothing else to do, Flora sort of wandered about the estate for the next few days, saying her goodbyes to workers as she went. She was pretty decided not to come back for the wedding. Too much work for one event. She’d have Rosa send pictures.
Paris was calling and there was no sense in rehashing things repeatedly by coming back to the scene of the crime to see the same chalk outline.
She needed distance.
Flora wandered toward Kovac Hill alone that afternoon.
She didn’t know but Finn saw her pass. He’d been banished to a downstairs bedroom.
Getting up the stairs on the estate was impossible with a broken set of ribs and arm, and there was no elevator, so he was stuck downstairs until he was well enough to get to his room on the second floor.
She didn’t look toward his office as she had done that summer. Her gaze was set forward, back to her old hill haunting ways. Finn’s heart twisted in his chest, and he tried to calm himself down. He didn’t need another episode.
He still had no explanation for how she’d woken him up after he’d been “out” for hours. He didn’t remember anything but passing out in the board room in abysmal pain, his chest feeling like it was going to explode and concave. Everyone said it was due to stress.
Doctor Dover, the cardiologist at UCSF, told him to take a break from work for a few weeks. But who was going to run things? Roman? He’d told James to run all “big news” by him anyway. If nothing else, he was at least on his laptop less.
Flora’s slim figure disappeared over the hillside.
Holly had returned to the east coast for the rest of her semester, a relief to all on the estate.
It was clear everyone hated her. Jane couldn’t stand her, and neither could Roman, every time she appeared for dinner or a visit, they both suddenly had other plans.
Finn himself had stationed Charles at the door of his bedroom one day telling him not to let her in under any circumstances.
He was trying to determine how to get rid of her, but she still had enough evidence to ruin everything.
Even though the wedding was almost assured to go through along with the merger, if Holly leaked her information, Finn would be battling more than just a media firestorm over the alleged actions he took to keep the merger going.
Roman, Jane, Flora, not to mention Tyson Brooks, would be horrified to know what he’d done.
Plus, if this went public, Woodhouse would look terrible in the press and shareholders would inevitably pull out, board members would be upset, probably call for his resignation…
His chest twinged again.
Holly Woodhouse.
He had really done it this time.
Despite the dire straits, he fell asleep soon after, exhausted from everything. At least there was peace and quiet, if nothing else.
However, the peace and quiet lasted for a very short time.
A few days later, Finn was trying to get a fence replaced on the property and was on the phone with a contractor when Roman walked into his office, looking incredibly stressed.
“Get off the phone,” he demanded.
“I’ll call you back…?” Finn said, turning his phone off. “Roman?”
He paced back and forth and then stopped on a dime.
“Have you been… messing with Flora?”
Finn wondered if Roman was reading his mind.
“What?” he asked.
“Have you been, I don’t know, messing with her head?”
“Again, what?”
“You hung out with her for months this past summer.” Roman’s voice trailed off and he looked closer at Finn. “Were you conning her?”
“Conning her?”
“Flora is smart, Finn. I don’t know how she hasn’t seen through it yet.
Maybe it’s the unbelievability of it all that makes it believable?
” Roman continued, pacing back and forth again now.
“You’ve spent so much time with her these past five months, and you never cared about her in any remarkable way before. You didn’t care about her until…”
Finn groaned as Roman put the puzzle pieces together right before his eyes.
“Oh my gosh, Finn. It all makes perfect sense!” Roman exclaimed, eyes wide. “You are conning her into liking you because you were worried that if she spent too much time with me I’d dump Jane and ruin the merger! Finn!”
So much for Holly telling Roman.
“Roman, do not give me crap for this,” Finn said, sitting up at his desk. “You would have blown the merger had I not stepped in and done something.”
“Maybe so, but you’ve taken it much too far!
Finn, I can’t believe you! I had my suspicions from the day that I saw you two walking to get a book or something, but I wasn’t sure.
Then when Jane mentioned to me how odd it is that you two were together so often this summer, well, I finally remembered what I had been thinking all along.
You cannot do this, Finn. You have to stop! ”
“It’s over.”
“When did it end?! Does she know what you did?” Roman asked, heated.
“I’m not leaving Jane now, I’m not. Flora is beautiful and I had my…
moment… but I am with Jane forever, that’s the end of it.
This is so unlike you! This entire thing is unlike you.
You never do this sort of thing! Knowing you, you would have done something much easier.
Sent her back to Paris. Had a friend at Harper’s Bazaar take her on in New York to get away from the estate… ”
A silence followed and then Roman looked even closer at Finn and with some remarkable scrutiny.
“Wait a minute… this is unlike you unless you—”
“Roman, no.”
“—you like her!” Roman said, pointing his finger. “You must. Otherwise, why would you have gone through all this trouble? Are you just crazy?! Have you finally lost it? Or are you just that evil that you don’t care anymore?”
“ROMAN!” Finn shouted, standing up abruptly.
Roman jumped.
Finn then dropped his voice to a gritted, seething level, which he seldom ever did.