But I did not want my name tied to my father’s. I knew it eventually would be, but not yet. Just… not yet.
I throw the phone on the table between us and Matthias frowns, pulling the phone away from his ear, mouthing, “You okay?”
I just shake my head, and get up to sit at a neighboring seat so I don’t interrupt his phone call.
Even 30, 000 feet up in the air, I can’t escape him. Even if I can run from my past, I can’t run from my bloodline.
“I’ll call you back later,” I hear Matthias murmur into the phone and then he’s right there, kneeling on the ground next to me. “Hey, what happened?”
I turn the phone to him and he reads, lips instantly pursing.
“Fuck them, Rissie. One day, it’s just going to be Clarissa Masters, wife of Matthias Baxter. And we’re going to deal with your dad. You know that right? You know I’m not going to let this go.”
“I don’t know what you can do? He’s the chairman of the board.”
He squeezes my knee. “Chairmen can be voted out. And maybe it’s time anyway. With Kingsley’s
CEO vote coming up… maybe it’s time to clean house. But don’t worry, okay? We’re going to be okay.” I just nod.
And which I could tell him about what’s worrying me, and it’s not just my father.
But he can’t know. He can never ever know.
MATTHIAS
Clarissa to be dropped off at the club so she can jump right into work when we land late Sunday afternoon. I watch her through the car window as she walks down the side alley to the back door of the club, and instantly yearn to follow her.
But I have to content myself knowing I’ll see her in a few short hours, and that maybe she could use a few moments to miss me.
I’m in my own office ten minutes later, with Hannah waiting at the elevator when I get off.
“What are you doing here?” I ask her surprised to see her there. Apparently that question is catching.
“You’re here, I’m here.”
She doesn’t follow me into my office, just returns to her desk, clicking away on the computer. She could be playing solitaire for all I know.
I scroll through my emails, stopping when I see one from Dmitrik with the subject: Patrick Linzer. Finally. I open it and I’m instantly disgusted. It’s filled with over a hundred scanned documents, covering every aspect of his life. As I open each one, my anger rises.
When I’m done going through them, I send off an email to Dmitrik, and wire his fee with a 50% bonus. He’s gone well above and beyond. And now I have what I need to bury the fucker.
Then maybe once and for all, the haunted look in Clarissa’s eyes when she thinks no one is looking can fade for good.
***
Limos line up along Fifth avenue clogging up traffic all the way down to Columbus Circle.
Why people with money have to ride in excessively long vehicles, stopping traffic in Manhattan, that hardly has free-flowing traffic as it is, is your guess as well as mine
Our car finally reaches the entrance of the Plaza, I jump out and run around to Clarissa’s side of the car. When she emerges, the night fills with the flash of camera bulbs. She smooths her hand down the front of her dress; I catch it and kiss her palm. “You are a vision, darling.”
She’s used to these events, having organized a bunch of them herself, as every society woman has.
But this is her first time as Matthias Baxter’s fiancee in his home of New York.
This isn’t Sydney.
New York City is a vulture’s nest and they’re always hungry.
My hand locks onto the small of her back as we make our way inside to The Grand Ballroom.
“Come on, let’s get you a drink,” I whisper, hoping the sound of my voice can act as her anchor.
Over the last week, I’ve caught her a few times on the precipice of an anxiety attack, and the best thing I’ve found is to try to ground her in an action. Sipping a drink helps, as well most simple but physical tasks with her hands.
On our twenty-foot walk to the bar we’re stopped three times. Old socialites fawning over her, pretending they’re not judging every last thing about her.
It makes me sick.
Thankfully, Kaine Ashley and his wife Jade find us at the bar. Jade is like the New York version of My-Linh, sunshine and sweetness.
She puts Clarissa instantly at ease, and it makes me wonder if My-Linh will ever welcome Clarissa the same way. I wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t, though.
My conversation with Kaine falls naturally into business, and we talk about the problems we’ve met with a joint project we’re working on. In the corner of my eye, I see Jade pull Clarissa aside to chat. Eventually they wander away, but as long as she’s with Jade, I don’t feel a need to chase after her. It’s been a while since Clarissa has been in a place like this, and with all the things that are happening with her, at any point someone could approach her with a topic she doesn’t want to talk about and I’d prefer to be there to run interference if she needs it.
Kaine is about as talkative as Kingsley is, so once the work part of our conversation comes to the end, we make small talk that soon fades to a comfortable silence. I’m happy to see him though. He’s so different to the man I first met ten years ago. We were both so green back then, but him especially as he had come from a different upbringing all together. He was forever hiding behind a hoodie to spare the public from seeing the scars he’d obtained in the house fire that had taken his family.
Under the love of Jade, he has grown into a powerful man to match the business mogul. Three kids later, Kaine and Jade are a constant but positive influence on the scene in New York City.
I’m about to ask if he wants a refill on his drink when I feel a third person joins us.