Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
With a punch of a button, I say, “Yes?”
“The CBS studio head is on the line.”
From there, I’m locked down in back-to-back meetings and I know Bella is as well, confirmed when she calls me about a negotiation she’s in near noon. We debate the contract numbers which has me thinking about José again and his claim that she cried on the anniversary of her mother’s death and then spent the evening in debate with me.
“Also,” she adds, “my brother and father are all-in for this weekend. And I ordered us both lunch we probably can’t even eat together.”
“Bella,” I say, when she would hang up.
“Yes?”
“I hate I don’t know the answer to this question. What is the anniversary of your mother’s death?”
She’s silent a beat. “Why are you asking?”
“Because I should know things like this that impact my future wife.”
“November which makes it hard during the holidays.”
“We should go see your father that day, for the entire holiday, too.”
“Yes. Yes, I think we should.” Her voice cracks. “We’ll plan it this weekend. I have to go. You do, too.”
After a quick goodbye, we hang up and I decide I owe José more than I imagined possible. I just don’t know how to repay a man who wants what he cannot have back—his wife.
I don’t even have time to digest this thought before I’ve got a partner in my office with Allen gossip followed by another. At two, I’m shoving down my food, when my mother calls. “Tyler, honey, any luck weeding through your father’s bullshit?”
“Did my father keep a shrine to my failures?”
“I don’t know about a shrine. He talked about them though.” I can almost see her rolling her eyes. “We fought over you all the time.”
“You did?”
“God, yes. I protected you every chance I got, but I didn’t tell you because, well, I was afraid of weakening you in ways you needed to be strong to endure him.”
“That’s the closest to a motherly comment I’ve ever heard you say.”
“Yes, well, you just don’t remember the rest. You became cold and calculating at a young age and I had to celebrate even if it meant I lost my little boy. It was rough though. If you failed at something, I had to hear about it for years, even more so as those failures became few and far between and he grew competitive in ways that were unnatural. Example: that year in little league when you missed that ball—”
“Can we skip the grade school stories and move to more present day?”
“It’s more of the same. I mean I heard about your first lost rights trial for years.”
“What rights trial?”
“For some actress. All I remember is you lost the case and her. She left the firm.”
Ana Monroe, I think. I know the case well. There were things I should have done differently, mistakes I made that I never made again.
“What is this about?” she asks. “Really about?”
“I’m getting married this weekend in Dallas. And yes, I know you can’t be there. But we’re doing it right in about nine months, probably in Italy. Try to be there, Mom.”
“Why this weekend? That’s fast. Is this about the will?”
“No. More about how damn much she means to me.”
“That’s a shocking but good thing to hear. Don’t become him. I hope Bella keeps that from happening.”
“How did you know it was Bella?”
“You told me. Didn’t you? Either way, no I can’t make Dallas, as much as I wish I could, sincerely. But I will be in Italy. Send me photos. I do love you, Tyler.” She disconnects.
I have a fleeting memory of José and my mother chatting when I was a young boy and I wonder how much of what she knows, and what he told me today, have to do with their mutual efforts.
I consider a moment. How devious of my father would it be for him to place the Allen documents in the case file that is my first loss?
I sit down at my desk and pull up the file archives and curse, when the file I want is not present. Of course not. My father hated online archives. He felt like the data too easily landed in the wrong hands. That means I have to go to our storage facility in Henderson, but I have a good feeling about this. Maybe, just maybe, I will end up sitting across from Knox Allen with more than a bluff in my pocket.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Tyler
I’ve just reached elevator banks, nearing the lobby, about to go see Bella, before I leave for the storage facility when Dash steps off the elevator. “Any news?” I ask.
“Nothing. Still digging. You?”
“Maybe. I might know where my father hid what we need but I need a couple of favors.”
“Hit me.”
“I’m meeting with Allen tonight at eight at the cigar club. If you can get Bella home safely, I’ll have Dierk shadow, and back me up.”