Chapter Twenty-Three
At a travel shop in the airport, Paige bought a tee shirt, a pair of black yoga pants and flip-flops. She rushed to a bathroom and changed in the stall, dumping the new pant suit in the trash bin. Though it was a wasteful thing to do, there were too many memories connected to it, and she couldn’t bear to keep it. Jamming her head under the faucet, she awakened her curls and her ability to think logically with the cold water.
What had been going through her head? Sterling had warned her to get a lawyer before signing anything, but she had felt like this was so right. In actuality, she had been so weary of the responsibilities of the farm that it had felt good to have a break. The money had blinded her a little, too. The situation she was in was her own fault. She wouldn’t blame him.
Luckily, she didn’t have long to wait for the flight, which boarded within an hour, leaving Dallas far behind her. She was on the ground before seven that evening. With no carryon or bag of any kind, she sprinted to the pickup area and hailed a taxi. She told the driver if he would hurry, she’d include a larger tip. She hadn’t realized she was taking her life in her hands by the request, but seventeen white-knuckled minutes later, she sat in her own driveway handing him four twenties.
The lights in the house were on, drawing her there first. Oddly, the front door wouldn’t open more than four inches, so she held her breath and squeezed through the crack. Large moving boxes stamped confidential were stacked by the door. It must have been the last load because there were only six left. The house didn’t look like it was hers. The dinette sparkled like it had been freshly oiled. The kitchen counters were empty and sleek. Her chintz sofa even had a decorative pillow propped on one side that she had lost months ago. A muffled beep from the bedrooms put her on alert.
Running to the kitchen, she pulled open a drawer, hoping to get a weapon of some kind, but the drawers were cleared of everything. Even the no-stick liners. Defeated and emptyhanded, she headed down the hall and stood at the entryway to her bedroom.
Her dresser drawers were open, and Austin was tagging her clothes. A slinky camisole she rarely wore hung from his hand. Her privacy felt officially invaded.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” She snatched the lingerie back and shoved it in the drawer, slamming it shut with her hip.
Austin was speechless. “You said to be thorough.” He held a device that carried a distinct similarity to one of those handheld scanners clerks use at the grocery store.
“You don’t need to dot my underwear!”
“Sorry. They wouldn’t let me do much of anything else.” Austin looked as dejected as a wet puppy, and Paige immediately felt contrite. If she was going to find out anything, getting Austin centered enough to talk to her was the answer. She led him out of her room, down the hall and to the chintz sofa where they both sat.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
Burying his head in his hands, Austin almost whimpered. “I failed you.”
“No, I think I did that.” She never realized how sheltered her life had been up to now. The thought that Elaine would blatantly lie to her face hadn’t even occurred to her. “Can you recall any details?” Paige asked.
Austin stared at her, his brows askew. “Paige, it’s me. All I remember are the details. Right after you left, Elaine asked me to write down all the instructions you gave me, which was only logical. I complied, but don’t you see?”
“What?” she said.
“She didn’t need me anymore. I didn’t realize it, but at that point I was obsolete!”
He was panting, and Paige patted his arm. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
“At seven a.m. sharp we began in the barn. I had a whole set of workers, but you told me not to dot the goats, remember?” Austin waited for her to respond.
She nodded.
“What I didn’t know was that they had a crew of people here in the house packing up all your gear at the same time. None of it got recorded. Not one item. When I realized what was going on, I rushed in here and began correcting the people in the house. Meanwhile, the staff in the barn left with the trailer of livestock and my notes. They never informed me where they were headed. As I was chasing down the livestock, the house items were taken away. All except that last load by the door. No one would listen to me, and I wasn’t sure what to do.” He looked on the verge of tears. Paige was tempted to hug him but resisted. He really didn’t like being touched.
“It’s not your fault.”
“I know.” He grew agitated. “It’s Elaine’s, but when I went to the office to talk to her, the security guard kicked me out. I’m supposed to be manager over the goat project, and she canned me before I even got my first paycheck. Is that even legal?”
Paige didn’t know that much about the law, but something occurred to her that hadn’t before. Even though she had been so particular in writing the details of her rights about the care and treatment of her goats and knowing the location they were held during the lawsuit, by giving Elaine the power of attorney, couldn’t all those documents became defunct? Elaine could change any stipulation she wanted like Austin’s involvement. “I think it is.”
The couch jiggled a little, and Paige noticed Austin’s hands trembling. She knew this was too much for him. “Why don’t you stay in Uncle Bill’s room tonight, and we can figure this out in the morning? We’re both exhausted.”
That was all it took. Austin stood, walked down the hall and slammed the bedroom door. Poor Austin. At least she’d brought this on herself. He was simply trying to help her and was probably the only person who was. Whatever she did, she’d have to make things up to him in the end.
With her mind so jumbled, she felt restless and wandered out to the barn. Glancing over the empty stalls wiped clean brought an ache to her heart. The property looked ready to sell. The strangest part was not hearing the constant bleat of goats in the background. It had become part of the texture of the farm and her life. Without it, she hardly felt home.
Walking back to the farmhouse, she looked up and saw the night sky. It was an identical color to that sapphire dress. The stars twinkled like the crystals, and she let her mind wander to what would never be. She’d hoped to dance in Sterling’s arms wearing it, feeling safe and loved and understood.
A lone goat cry sounded in the night, and she wondered if she had only imagined that, too. Like people with severed arms who felt pain after the limb was gone, was she only hearing a phantom song of the herd that had been part of her life since she was little? She meandered toward the house, hoping sleep would shut off her mind from all the troubles around her. She laid awake most of the night, haunted by what wasn’t there.
By the time the sun rose over the Dallas skyline, Sterling was at five thousand feet. He’d believed Julie when she said Paige had decided to rest instead of joining them for the benefit. In fact, he’d been relieved to hear it. She’d seemed a bit too close to both Julie and Kiyo for his liking.
At dinner Julie turned to Kiyo and dropped a bomb. She told him that Sterling was merely trying to steal all he’d built and that she could offer him a low interest loan that would keep his equity in tact. Sterling knew Kiyo would need help with locations, marketing and streamlining processes through the expansion, but she wouldn’t let him get a word in without taking it personally. An hour later she’d called him a liar to his face twice and by Kiyo’s concerned expression, it was clear there was only one option. Sterling had to get Paige. She could explain his side of the story and no one would doubt her credibility. There was something about her that was so honest. To find that sort of integrity with intelligence to boot was rare. He excused himself, drove too fast to the hotel, and knocked on her door. In less than a minute, he knew he’d been had. Paige was gone. He wondered briefly if Julie had lied to Paige to convince her to go, or worse, if she told her the truth about him. Either way, it was the first time in Sterling’s memory someone had outplayed him, and he was determined to have it be the last. He had to sto
p Elaine.
Trying every means he could think of, he attempted to contact his boss. He left her emails, texts and phone messages, but it was pretty clear she had no plans of returning them. He’d shut out other employees the same way to push a deal through and recognized what was going on. In a few days, when Elaine had all her ducks in a row, she’d give some excuse about how busy she’d been and pretend that it was an oversight. By then, what she was working on would be irreversible. So, in this game he had been a pawn. He couldn’t be angry. It was about time that this happened, actually.
His father used to say ‘it rained seas’ which meant that even if you couldn’t feel the consequences of your actions at the time, they were piling up and would get you in the end. Sterling supposed this was the day he would drown in them.
By eleven that morning, he rounded the corner and pulled into Paige’s driveway. He wasn’t certain of the greeting he’d get. Two vehicle were already there. One was her dented Honda, but the other, also a lowly beater car, didn’t ring any bells. He rapped at the door and waited with his hands shoved in his pockets, ready to eat crow. He didn’t have any new information to offer, but there had to be some way he could make up for not warning her earlier. He knew Elaine, and this was no surprise. What was surprising is who answered the door when he knocked.
The intern’s eyes were lined in red. “You jerk.”
Sterling didn’t see the right hook coming. Austin connected fist to jaw, and Sterling went down.
***