Maybe Baby Lite (48 page)

I'd been there for three
weeks and was coming back from lunch with a stack of files in my
arms when Jill the receptionist at the front desk caught my
attention, waving me over to her desk. She looked semi-frantic and
I was wondering what could have possibly changed her usual, laid
back demeanor.

“
Tylar,” she said in a
loud whisper, “there’s an attorney in your office waiting to see
you.”

“
An attorney in my
office?”

“
Yes,” she stammered,
“he’s like really, really gorgeous.”

Oh God!

“
His name is Mr. Sinclair.
Do you know him?”

“
Yes I do,” I answered,
puzzled as to why Trey would show up here unannounced like this. “I
used to work for him.”

“
He seems a
bit—distraught,” Jill said, reluctantly.

“
Distraught?”

She nodded.

“
I’m sure it’s nothing,” I
said very nonchalantly although my hands trembled. I hurried down
the hall to my office, clutching the thick file folders. As I
opened the door with one hand, balancing the stack of folders in
the other, I was keenly aware that Trey stood next to my desk.
Holding my files with both hands, I kicked my door shut with my
foot. He was right there beside me.

“
Here,” he said, taking
the stack of file folders from my hands, “allow me,
Tylar.”

“
Trey?” I said, genuinely
surprised to see him.

He set the files on my
desk, and then turned to me. “Please sit down, Tylar,” he said,
taking my hand and moving me around to the nearest chair. He was
acting very strange; it was as if I'd suddenly turned into a
delicate China doll that could break at any minute. The suspense
was killing me.

“
Trey, what's going on?
Why are you here? The last I knew we weren’t on speaking
terms?”

He sat on the edge of my
desk and I swiveled my chair around to face him. His nearness to me
was distracting. His tailored linen shirt couldn't hide the
muscular arms and chest beneath. His chin dimple drove me to
distraction, along with his dark brown mass of tousled hair. His
gaze was serious, penetrating as he leaned forward, putting each of
his hands on the arms of my chair so that I couldn't turn away from
him.

“
Tylar,” it was almost a
whisper as the words were spoken, “is there something that you need
to tell me?”

“
I’m not sure what you’re
talking about,” I hedged.

“
Don’t play with me,” he
said his voice on edge.

I shrunk back from him,
trying to increase the distance between our bodies and his piercing
gaze, which didn’t falter in its intensity. “Say what you’re here
to say Trey. I’m on the clock.”

“
You're having
my
baby,” he declared,
daring me to deny it, blue eyes flashing.

“
No,” I replied
obstinately, “I'm having
my
baby.”

He wasn't deterred one bit
by my response. He eyed me warily. I knew he wanted more
information and he wanted it now.

“
I’m not leaving Radcliff
until you and I've had the opportunity to discuss this, do you
understand?” I nodded, somewhat intimidated by his
intensity.

“
What time does your shift
end?”

“
At four,” I
replied.

“
I'll be at your house
waiting,” he said.

I nodded again. He left
without another word. My mind instantly filled with questions: what
was I going to tell him and how had he figured this out? I was
distractedly sorting through the file folders on my desk when Jill
poked her head into my office. I waved her in.

“
Okay, spill,” she said,
“who was the hottie?”

I was reluctant to share
too much. “He’s someone that I used to go out with,” I told her,
which was true.

“
Why did you stop?” she
asked.

“
It’s complicated,” I said
with a sigh. Jill smiled knowingly and shut my office
door.

I had to keep busy or the
day would move all that much slower. I input the new cases into the
database and printed out the customary letters requesting payment
prior to commencement of further legal action.

Finally, it was 4 p.m. and
I closed down my desk for the day. I told Jill I'd see her tomorrow
and left. True to his word, Trey was waiting in his rental car when
I pulled into the driveway at home. He came up to the porch a
puzzled look on his face.

“
Tylar, where is your
Mercedes?” he asked.

I swallowed nervously as I
fumbled to fit my house key into the lock. He brushed me aside,
quickly turning the key, releasing the lock. As I put my hand on
the door handle, he stopped me.

“
I’m waiting for an
answer,” he demanded.

“
I traded it in,” I
answered, “it wasn’t practical with the baby coming and all.” He
said no more on the matter, hopefully realizing that I'd taken the
practical approach. “I got money back from the trade,” I said, not
wanting him to think that I'd taken advantage or profited in some
way as a result of my practicality. “I’d be happy to give it back
to you,” I offered.

He gave me a look that
said, ‘oh, puleeze,’ as he opened the front door, holding it open
for me so that I could enter before him. Once inside, he gazed
around the sparsely furnished house. I felt sort of embarrassed as
I tried to figure out where our conversation was going to take
place. In the living room, there was just the love seat. The
kitchen table might be better.

“
Would you like something
to drink, Trey? I have iced tea, or I could make coffee?” I
offered.

“
Nothing for me, thanks.
You go ahead though,” he replied as he made himself comfortable on
one-half of the loveseat. I guess the decision had been made as to
where we were going to have our discussion. I poured myself a glass
of iced tea and joined him in the living room. I sat down on the
love seat at an angle, sipping my iced tea then setting it on the
end table.

“
So, you wanted this
discussion,” I stated flatly.

“
Tylar,” he began,
carefully choosing his words to mask his irritation, “why didn’t
you tell me that I'm to be a father?” His eyes were intense. It was
clear to me that Trey believed that he was the injured party in all
of this. How very typical of what a spoiled, arrogant man might
feel. I felt my response begged a question of its own.

“
Trey,” I asked tersely,
“why is it that you didn’t
remember
the occasion, and how is it that you remembering
it
now
?”

Trey leaned forward on the
loveseat, resting his forearms on his thighs, clasping and
unclasping his well-manicured hands, occasionally picking at the
band on his Rolex watch. Trey spoke gently and humbly, looking into
my eyes.

“
Tylar, I realize that
it’s despicable that I’d have the occasion to be with you and not
recall it. I apologize for that. For me to sit here at this moment
and tell you that I thought I’d dreamed the incident in the stable
sounds ‘convenient,’ I know. You of all people could agree that
sometimes, given the right frame of mind and circumstances, it can
be difficult to distinguish the reality from the fantasy. Please
know that I'm not comparing this with what you endured in your
past. My situation was self-imposed.”

He stopped, raking his
fingers through his gorgeous hair. He turned then, and took one of
my hands into his, brushing my fingers with his thumb.

“
Go on, Trey,” I said, my
heart racing with anticipation as to how this was going to play
out.

“
I hadn’t seen you in
awhile. It was driving me nuts. It seemed like when I'd spot you
even from a distance, you were always with Mark. You were working
with Mark, going somewhere with Mark in his truck. One day, I saw
you and Mark pass by going out the driveway by the manor. You two
were laughing about something. It made me fucking
crazy.”

Trey paused to collect his
thoughts. “As my 31st birthday approached, I decided to throw
myself a pity party. I only invited one guest, Jack Daniel’s. I
don’t usually drink like that, ever. I started the day before,
drinking well into the morning hours of my birthday. I remember
being in the stable, talking to Derringer. I thought I'd passed out
and dreamt of you. When I awoke, I was still in the stable, dressed
and lying on a pile of straw. Actually, Charlie is the one who woke
me that morning.” His eyes clouded with anger.

“
Okay,” I said, “that
doesn’t explain how you found out.”

“
A week or so after you
were ordered to come back to Washington County to meet with the
C.A. on the case with Charlie; I was called in by the C.A. to be
interviewed.” A hint of a sardonic smile crossed his lips. “I got
the distinct impression that Ms. Denniston suspected I was somehow
involved. To what degree, I wasn’t sure. She volleyed between
making me feel like a co-conspirator to possibly a co-victim, it
was a very strange interview.”

Trey frowned; obviously
irked that he'd been considered a potential candidate for either.
“During this meeting, I was given an opportunity to review the
evidence, and I was questioned as to what, if any, pertinent
information I could offer. Ms. Denniston wanted information
pertaining to how you obtained your job at Sinclair Stables, noting
that most of the others were from local or semi-local colleges. She
delved into our personal relationship as well.”

That part about getting my
job at Sinclair Stables struck a chord with me. The fact was, my
mom had told me a friend or relative of someone she worked with at
the law firm had connections with someone at Sinclair Stables. She
went so far as to promise me that whoever this connection was would
use their clout to help me get the summer position. I filed this
information away for future reference.

Trey continued with his
explanation, “Ms. Denniston allowed me to read through the
transcribed interview that she'd conducted with you the previous
week. I read what Charlie said to you during his assault. It was
about...” Trey stammered. I'd never seen him struggle for words.
“…about apparently what he saw.” Trey shifted a bit, letting go of
my hand. He stood up, and turned to face me on the love seat,
nervously raking his right hand through his hair. “There was
another interview with Charlie after you left, Tylar. The C.A.
wanted to determine what he knew about your mom and the trust, to
establish whether he co-conspired with her to defraud you. The C.A.
offered him a reduction on one of the charges currently pending in
exchange for his cooperation in revealing everyone involved as well
as your mother’s whereabouts.”

Trey stood up and paced
nervously in front of me. I could tell that whatever he was about
to share with me was distasteful to him. He crouched on his
haunches so that we were face to face. He once again took both my
hands into his, massaging my fingers. This has to be bad, I
thought. His dark blue eyes were stormy as they locked with
mine.

“
That early morning,
Tylar, when I was in the stable and the horses were making a
ruckus, Charlie heard it too. He saw you leave your cottage and go
down to the stable. He followed you down there. I’m not sure of his
initial intention but I can surmise that he was going to try to
seriously hurt you.” Trey was looking down at my hands now,
struggling to tell me the rest. Finally, he raised his eyes to
mine. He charged ahead.

“
When he realized that I
was in the stables, he stuck around. He went around to the other
side of the building and entered quietly through that door.
Unfortunately, it offered him an un-obscured view of us. He
observed you trying to get me out of Derringer’s stall, my getting
angry, and ultimately, our lovemaking. He used his smart phone to
video record everything.”

I gasped, jerking my hand
from his and covering my mouth to stifle my scream of horror. “No!
Oh my God!”

“
Relax, Tylar,” Trey
soothed, “He hasn’t done anything with it; I now have it in my
possession. It appears he planned to use it as blackmail. Your
mother was to handle the blackmail in order to keep the suspicion
off of him. He apparently had more to carry out in his
mission.”

I buried my face in my
hands, shaking my head in shame.

“
By the way, she's living
in Indiana now. The plan was to download the video and send it to
me with a warning that it'd go viral if I didn’t pay the demand.
They planned to send copies to your school and my firm. Charlie and
your mom hadn’t decided how the payment was to be handled, which is
why it hadn’t gone any further. Then Charlie was
caught.”

Trey shifted again,
clearly uncomfortable. Was there more? “Tylar, this is still an
on-going investigation and it involves not only Charlie, but your
mother, too. There could be others. For now, that's all you need to
know. Statements that Charlie provided need to be verified before
any more action is taken. Do you understand?”

I nodded numbly. I
couldn’t think about possibilities at the moment, I had to focus on
the facts as I knew them. I felt nauseated just knowing that
Charlie had stood there watching us, probably videoing with one
hand, and jerking himself off with the other. I needed to ask Trey
something but felt embarrassed.