“How do you know this?”
“I just do, Dad.” I said, retaking my seat in the comfortable chair. “Skylar didn’t love me. And to be honest, I didn’t love him either, not in the way you should love your husband. Our marriage was a business deal, one that had been established since we were babies in the same crib. I don’t think even Skylar knew the extent to his father’s conniving. Hell, he was too busy impregnating Beth.”
“What did you say?” my father asked.
“I called off the wedding because I learned that my friend Beth is pregnant with Skylar’s child.”
“Your mother said you had cold feet.”
That was what Skylar said she said.
I looked down at my feet, clad in warm socks. “My feet aren’t cold, Dad. I’m not going to be Skylar’s dutiful wife while he’s screwing other people, and I won’t be Marlin’s pawn.”
Dad’s voice softened. “Little girl, I didn’t know.”
“Mom probably figured you had enough to worry about. She’s asked me to come back and work everything out with Skylar.”
“He doesn’t deserve your effort, sweetheart. I’d give him a good piece of my mind if he hadn’t left town.”
“Isn’t he back?” I asked.
“Back?”
“He came here yesterday,” I said. “I spoke to him briefly and told him to leave.”
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him. As I said, some of the news and social media has the two of you off together working through your issues.”
“I guarantee that we’re not. I spoke to him and he left.”
“Julia, I need to be honest with you,” Dad said. “This could be it for Wade. And it breaks my heart. I’ve put my heart and soul into this company for you and your mother. I don’t know if we can come back from this downturn. If this buyer isn’t announced and announced as a reassurance to maintaining and helping Wade Pharmaceutical, we’ll be done by the beginning of the year. We can’t meet the balloon payment, and we’ll have no choice but to sell.”
“You don’t have any clue who this buyer was?” I asked.
“Marlin had some ideas, but he couldn’t prove it. He thinks it’s a personal vendetta against our family. Your grandfather was selective when he chose the first investors. Some people wanted in and weren’t offered that option. This could be a personal grudge that has been held since then.”
Marlin was right. It was personal, but Van’s grudge seemed to be more with Marlin Butler than the McGraths. I grinned, thinking about the relationship between Van and one particular McGrath, me. It was definitely friendly.
“I’m not answering my phone,” I said, “but I’ll watch for another secret email if you learn anything.”
“I don’t know how you know what you claim, but if you learn anything more, please call us.”
“I will, Dad.” I took a breath. “I’m sorry about the expense of the wedding.”
“Compared to what we stand to lose, the wedding isn’t my biggest concern. You and Wade are. Wade is our family’s lifeline. I don’t want it to fail.”
“Me either, Dad.”
“Julia, now that I know what Skylar did, I’m proud of you, sweetheart. Kick his ass to the curb.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
After hanging up the call, I sat for a minute in the quiet suite, trying to absorb all the information.
Why hasn’t Mom told Dad where I am or about the job in Ashland?
Why hasn’t she told me what is happening with Wade?
Those questions and more were going through my mind.
While Van’s home was large, I was already getting a feel for the general location of different rooms. Off the main living room toward the south wing, essentially neighboring my suite, was the library, being as the library contained both levels. My thoughts were on Wade Pharmaceutical as I mindlessly made my way back to the library and the information waiting to be deciphered.
As I descended the staircase and headed to the left, I thought about what Van had said he did.
Van said he bought and sold things.
It would make sense that he’d buy low and sell high.
If Wade’s worth had dropped substantially since his accumulation of the twenty-one percent of the stock, it meant that Van bought high and the price was dropping. Van was losing money as well as my family.
Why would he want to do that?
Did he know this would happen?
I must have been lost in my thoughts and taken a wrong turn. Still on the first level in the south wing, I came to a tall set of double doors.
Is it snooping if I accidentally find it?
For a moment, I stood and listened for Margaret and Paula. I should have gone to the kitchen to see if they were done for the day. Instead, I turned the large doorknob and pushed one of the two doors inward.
My eyes widened as I took in the splendor of the room.
I hadn’t found Van’s bedroom suite.
I’d found his home office.
I was drawn to a table near his desk.
My stomach sank as I picked up one picture in a silver frame. I knew the man in the tuxedo. It was the woman in the white dress that I didn’t know. “What the hell? You’re married?”
Julia
After saying goodbye to Paula and Margaret, I wandered around Van’s home, searching for more mementos, something to make sense of the picture in his office. I’d been through all the possibilities in my head.
Van was married at one time.
I could live with that fact; after all, he was forty-one years old. What I couldn’t fathom was why he’d kept his wedding picture up if he was divorced. And then another possibility came to me. Maybe Van was a widower. That would make sense, considering how much of a loner he claimed to be. Even Mr. Fields said Van was a private person.
The sun moved closer to the horizon and still no word from Van.
In the library, I’d begun to organize some of the things Van had accumulated. While there were flash drives with folders and folders of documents, it was the old-fashioned paper items, such as older magazines with Donovan Sherman on the cover that I perused. The headlines caught my attention.
Up and coming.
Man of the year.
Most eligible bachelor.
I checked the dates.
The most eligible bachelor magazine was from ten years ago.
If I wasn’t feeling young before, I was now. Ten years ago, I was fourteen and Van was the most eligible bachelor. I flipped open the cover to the article inside. Staring down at the glossy pages, I compared the man he was then to the one I’d gotten to know now. If I were to be honest, I found him more attractive now.
There was a sense of quality to his age. It was probably that unfair issue where men aged gracefully and women just aged. However, as I looked at each picture of Van from a decade before, I believed there was a sadness existing in his green eyes that I didn’t see today.
Taking that magazine to the lounge chair, I turned on a lamp and began to read. According to the article, the pictures of Van with the other women had been taken over a year before publication. Prior to the article’s release date, Donovan Sherman had disappeared from the social circuit.