Business as Usual (15 page)

“Don’t have an affair! That sounds logical
enough, doesn’t it?”

“I did
not
have an affair!” I pleaded.

“So it was a one-off? I hope the sex was worth
it…” he muttered, tossing the photos across the room.

One of Ethan’s men scurried to gather them up,
his eyes turned away as he lifted them from the floor.  

“It’s not like that,” I exclaimed, frustrated
that I couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

“I told Danny about the green card. He recorded
the conversation, and told me if I didn’t get give him two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars he would send it to immigration. I would get five years in
jail and you would be deported. I tried to protect you and my father.”

Ethan shut his eyes in frustration.

“You’re a very adroit liar. I don’t need a
green card. I’ve been a permanent resident of the United States for the past
six years. It was just an excuse to win your hand.”

I stared in awe at Ethan, tears swelling in my
eyes.

“And you say I’m the liar?

Ethan shrugged.

“What do you want from me, Elizabeth? Just go.
Your services are no longer needed,” he said, waving me off. “Efrayim…please
escort Miss Byron to the airport. Make sure she’s on the next available flight
out of China.”

“Please don’t do this,” I pleaded, feeling like
the air was being crushed from my lungs.

Efrayim approached from behind and grabbed my
upper arm. I looked over my shoulder at his face. It was the man from the
photos I’d taken in Paris. He had been following us all along. I looked back at
Ethan again, as Chan took the other arm, lifting me out of the chair.

“Ethan, I’m pregnant…”

I
hoped that would be enough to stop the men before they ushered me out of the
door. That it would be enough to make him change his mind.

“Congratulations,”
Ethan smirked, his eyes raking over me. “Who’s the father?”

I
laid my wedding ring on his desk, letting it wobble toward the edge. And with
that, I was swept out of the room and dumped at the airport with a one-way
ticket to California. 

CHAPTER 8

 “It’s
about time!” Claudia said as she opened the door of her cottage.

I pushed my luggage inside and wrapped my arms
around her.

“Hey, you okay?” she asked, concern warming her
eyes.

I shook my head, confirming her suspicions.

“He dumped me,” I sobbed into her shoulder. “He
left me at an airport in China, alone and pregnant.”

“Whoa! What did you just say?”

Claudia dragged me over to the sofa, leaving my
bags at the door.

“I can’t go home. Too many memories there.”

“I understand,” she nodded. “You can stay here
as long as you want.”

“You sure…? Maybe you should talk to Wayne.”
“He moved out.”

“What? I’m so sorry, Claudia. I’ve been so
involved in my own affairs I never got back to you. What happened?”

“We’re getting a divorce. I’ll tell you about
it, but I want to hear about Ethan first.”

I gave Claudia the short version of the story.
But when I told her about Danny, and how Ethan had kicked me out of his
apartment, she was piping hot.

“If
I had a gun I’d shoot both of those bastards in the ass. You report what Daniel
did to the police. That was sexual assault! Doesn’t matter if he touched you or
not. He forced you to take those pictures. Ethan said he was a permanent resident
so you can’t get in trouble for immigration fraud.”

“I know… I’ll deal with Danny soon. I’m a
little fragile right now, and I need to rest. I swear, Claudia, I’m done with
men forever.”

“You were humiliated, and assaulted trying to
protect Ethan, however misguided and stupid that was. No offense, honey. But
how could he treat you like this? Hell, I’m upset!” Claudia wiped a tear from
her eye.

“Have you talked to your father?”

“Not yet.”

“He’s looking for you. Give him a call,” she
sniffed.

“I’ll use my cell phone. I’m in hiding. I don’t
want anyone to know where I am.”

“Your secret is safe
with me,” Claudia said, patting me on the shoulder. “I’ll make some tea.”

I called my father. He answered my call on the
first ring like he was waiting to hear from me.

“You blew it kiddo. We lost the contract with
AmeriAsia. I told you Ethan was in charge of the project. Why did you sign the
contract without getting our input?”

“I wanted to show you I could do the job,” I
answered, honestly.

“And where did that get you?”

Daddy didn’t even bother to ask how I was or
how I was doing. Ethan would never tell him about us, but he had to know
something was wrong. He couldn’t be that unplugged?  

“I’m sorry kid, but I have to let you go.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means you’re fired.
You failed the company and the family and I can’t let that slide.”

 
“I sacrificed three years of my life to help
the company and now you’re firing me? You’d think my sacrifice would count for
something… after all, you did get your stock back.”

“That has nothing to do with it,” Eugene said.

“It has everything to do with it. That’s why
you wanted me to marry him. Now that you got what you wanted, you could care
less about what happens to the rest of us.”

“I was trying to save your inheritance,
Elizabeth.”

“
My
inheritance?” I huffed. “That’s
rich! The only reason you married me off was so I could give you a grandson to
inherit your vast empire. You had no intention of keeping me at the company.
I’m sorry Dad, but it’s over. You can take your job, Byron Energy, the Gold
Dust, and your inheritance, and go to hell. I spent my life worrying that you
would throw me away and disown me like you did my mother. I don’t have to worry
about that now… because I never want to see you again.”

I hung up, wiping tears from my eyes. I’d been
kicked in the gut one too many times this week and it was time to move away
from the people who were hurting me. However, before I fully moved on, I needed
to press charges against Daniel. And I needed to do it before he released the
rest of the pictures to the public.

“Everything okay?” Claudia asked, carrying a
pot of tea.

“He fired me.”

The pot shook as she tried to keep it from
crashing to the floor.

“This is terrible. He can’t do that to you!
What was Eugene thinking?”

“You’re on a first name basis with my father?”

“Of course,” Claudia answered, sitting down. “I
practically run the man’s life, but trust me, not even I could see this
coming.”

“Now…I am officially done with men, and that
includes my father. It’s just as well that I’m pregnant. I have everything I
need to move on, including a baby.”

“What about a job?”

“I have enough money. Money I earned on my own,
without my father’s help. I’ll find a job when I need one.”

It
didn’t take long for word to get out about my parting ways from the company and
that the Gold Dust Las Vegas had been canceled, pending litigation issues with
one of the contractors. The story had been circulated in national news reports.
But that was the least of my concerns. Taking Claudia’s advice, I walked into
the police department and filed an assault complaint against Danny. I gave them
the condensed version of the story, telling them how Danny recorded our
conversation and used it to blackmail me, claiming he would have me thrown in jail,
and my husband deported, if I didn’t give him money. I then explained that my
husband had been a permanent resident for the past six years. I also told them
about the naked pictures, and the stolen wedding ring. It was enough to get him
thrown in jail a few days later. They found my ring at a jeweler in Daniel’s
neighborhood and a few days later, the ring was returned. I had it appraised
hoping to sell it so I could buy a new house for me and the baby. The beach
house was huge, but was more space than I needed. And the property taxes were
excessively high. I needed a new home. Despite Claudia’s many assurances, I
knew I’d overstayed my welcome. I’d lived there for more than a month and a
half. I felt guilty, forcing her to keep secrets from my father, knowing he was
out looking for me. I had to call the Feds twice, to assure them that I wasn’t
a missing person. I wanted to leave but I couldn’t go to the condo in Chicago,
either. My father bought it and I wanted nothing to do with it.

Besides, I liked living at Claudia’s place. It was
cozy. I spent my newfound free time watching daytime TV, a luxury I had never
experienced before. Me and the baby ate ice cream and other junk foods…also a
luxury. But my sleepy days and nights on Claudia’s sofa soon came to an end,
when a woman from a magazine in New York called one day. She said she was from
“
Le New York Fashionista
”, an upscale
magazine headquartered in Paris.

.

“Hi, is this Elizabeth Yu?”

“Yes it is. May I ask whose calling?”

“Francesca from Le New York Fashionista. How
are you dear?”

“I’m great,” I said, wondering what she was
calling about. Francesca didn’t sound anything like a telemarketer.

“Rumor has it you were
recently separated from your father’s company.”

“Well, it’s hardly a
rumor now,” I said.

“We were talking to our
Paris office about you recently, and wondered if you were interested in working
for
Le New York Fashionista
…we need
an interim president for our U.S. based company. We make more than enough money
in advertisement, but too much is going out. We need to bring someone from the
outside in to audit our expenditures.”

 
“That
sounds promising but…”

What would they think about the pregnancy?
Could I really take on a full-time job knowing I would have to leave when the
baby was born?
“This may seem a bit odd, but our Paris office adores you. You were on the
pages of every magazine a few months ago when you were in Paris. You are quite
the fashionista. We’ll sell magazines with you in it. But it’s your brain we’re
interested in. Our shareholders are getting nervous about all of the money
we’re spending. It will calm them down if someone from the outside joined our
team. Who better than a brilliant woman and a style icon like you?”

“I’m terribly flattered,” I stammered. “You
mentioned the position was on an interim basis, but for how long?”

“Only a few months. Long enough to whip us in
shape. We reviewed your corporate profile, Elizabeth. The job is yours if you
want it.”

A week later, I was on a flight to New York to
meet with executives about the transition. Just when I thought I was down on my
luck, something wonderful happened. The magazine was exciting, the people were
beautiful, and money flowed like champagne from advertisers vying to buy their way
into our pages. I just had to stop the financial hemorrhaging the previous
president had caused. I was grateful for the short term role at
Le New York
Fashionista
because the position would end before I entered my third
trimester. The job had also given me the opportunity to prove I could make it
without my father. I was immensely proud. I also had a corner office!
I
was immensely proud. I also had a corner office!

“You should start a maternity line,” Francesca
said, observing my wardrobe, as I walked into the office one morning. “You look
fabulous.”

I shrugged her off.

“These old rags?”

Francesca rolled her eyes, smiling.

“Seriously, I didn’t do anything special. I
bought what I normally would wear, just in a larger size.”

“What? A size zero?”

I laughed in her face. “I wish! I’m starting to
need an elastic band in all of my pants.”

“Oh the horror,” Francesca cried, a mortified
expression on her face. “But you are right, that belly of yours is really
starting to pop out!”

“I’ll try not to eat,” I assured her.

Everyone at the company was stick thin. I felt
like hippo these days.

I walked into my office and sat at my desk,
shifting through files, wishing my life was as perfect as it looked to people
like Francesca. But none of them saw the real me... the one hurting inside. The
one who’d lost the man she loved over a misunderstanding. The one raising a
baby alone. People at the magazine only saw the pretty woman in designer
clothes temporarily occupying the president’s office.

Throwing myself into
work was the only way I knew how to cope. So I was the last person to leave the
office that night. It was dark outside when I climbed into the elevator, hand
resting on my belly. The kid kicked a lot these days. At more than four months
pregnant, he was making his presence known. I had an ultrasound earlier that
week, and knew I was having a boy. I was a little disappointed at first. I was
hoping for a girl. But in the end, the baby’s gender didn’t matter to me at
all. I just wanted a healthy baby.