Second Time Around (14 page)

“Casey is Paul’s son from his first marriage,” Halley explained.

“That’ll make things easier,” Chantelle murmured to herself.

From the lounge Em squealed “Daddy!”

In the back of her mind Halley vaguely registered that Alec had arrived but she was too busy processing what Chantelle had just said.

“What’ll make things easier?” Halley asked warily.

Chantelle took her eyes from Cassie and focused them on her daughter.

“It’ll be easier to look after two kids than three of course,” she said.

“I don’t understand,” Halley replied although the sudden clench in her gut belied her words. Deep down she knew exactly what Chantelle was talking about.

“I intend to seek custody of Krystal’s kids,” Chantelle told her calmly.

“You can’t split the children up,” Halley said, sounding horrified by the thought.

Chantelle glanced down at Cassie and tipped the bottle higher.

“Really Halley, I don’t know why you’re getting so worked up. It makes perfect sense,” Chantelle replied. “By the looks of it you’re going to be a solo mother any day. Yes, I know about your situation. I’ve done my homework,” she added upon seeing the look of surprise on Halley’s face.

“How are you going to manage with four children on your own Halley?” Chantelle said mockingly. “And with two of them under a year old?”

“I’ll manage,” Halley replied defensively. After all, it was what she had been telling herself for months.

“Lucky for you, you won’t have to,” Chantelle said generously. “I’ll take Krystal’s two off your hands and you can keep the older one. He’s old enough to make himself useful.”

“You can’t do that,” Halley spluttered, trying to keep calm and failing. “Krystal and Paul named me as the children’s guardian!”

“I think you need to read that will better darling,” Chantelle purred. “It named you and your late husband to be the guardians. With him out of the picture that’s asking too much of you.”

“I said I’ll manage,” Halley told her between clenched teeth, her hands fisted by her sides. Then something occurred to her and she shook her head. “I don’t know why I’m getting worked up about this. No court on the planet would give you custody of the children.”

“Of course they will,” Chantelle told her indignantly. “I’m married for starters.” Halley’s eyes immediately went to Chantelle’s bejewelled fingers holding the baby bottle and belatedly noticed a yellow gold band that was barely visible beyond the cluster of rubies on the next ring.

“My husband’s also in real estate,” she added proudly. “He couldn’t come with me on this trip because he had to host our open homes.”

Halley crossed her arms over her chest.

“There are lots of solo parents out there. The children will manage without a father. Krystal and I did,” she reminded her pointedly.

“But Krystal’s children won’t have to,” Chantelle said with a smile, ignoring Halley’s jibe. She gave a sigh of satisfaction then gave Halley a sharp look. “Are you really naïve enough to believe a court would choose a solo mother without an income over a professional couple for guardianship?”

“Of course they will,” Halley asserted. “As soon as they hear how you dumped us on Grandma and took off for years…”

“And I’ll just explain it was done under the principle of
whāngai
,” Chantelle said cutting her off. Halley bit her lip and tried to think how she could counter Chantelle’s claim. In Māori culture w
hāngai
was where the child’s grandparents or extended family raised them and it was still commonly practised.

“You’re only something like one thirtieth Māori!” she exclaimed indignantly.

“But our family keep to the old traditions,” Chantelle responded smugly.

Halley knew that wasn’t true but it was her word against Chantelle’s. In fact every argument she could think of would come down to whom the judge decided to believe. Chantelle had lead a charmed existence in that she had never been caught drink driving or any of the other illegal things she had dabbled in.

“What about when you left us after Grandma died?” Halley demanded.

Chantelle’s eyebrow rose and was swallowed up by her brittle blonde hair.

“Did I?” she asked with a smirk.

Halley’s hands curled back into fists, belatedly realising that Chantelle had got away with that as well. After she had abandoned them the second time Krystal had left school to get a job so she could support them both. Neither had contacted any government welfare agencies for support because they were worried that Halley would be taken away and put in a foster home.

Halley couldn’t even argue that Chantelle had ruined her budding career as an actress despite the fact that she had. Once again it came down to whom to believe.

Halley had loved being involved with
Escape from Razxif
and the director had been so taken with her ability during filming the first part of the trilogy he had expanded her role to make her the mercenary’s love interest. Everything had been wonderful until one of her mother’s friends saw the first movie at the cinema and had recognised Halley then told Chantelle about it.

Chantelle hadn’t been able to resist the lure of gaining access to her daughter’s earnings and meeting famous people in the bargain. She had wasted no time returning to her home town where she found Halley involved with wrapping up the filming for the second part of the trilogy.

She had instigated herself as Halley’s manager then had made such a nuisance of herself on set with her demands the scriptwriters were ordered to rewrite the plot of the final film to kill off Halley’s character.

Halley had been powerless to do anything about it. Despite the fact that her grandmother had raised her there had been no legal arrangement so Chantelle had been able to come in and take over because she was her mother.

Upon learning from friends she had made on the set about what Chantelle had done to her granddaughter’s career, Halley’s grandmother had taken Chantelle to task over her behaviour. The resulting argument had ended with Halley’s grandmother having a heart attack from which she did not recover.

Her mother’s death hadn’t upset Chantelle overly much. Although Krystal had just turned eighteen and was legally able to inherit what her grandmother had left to her, Halley was still a minor so Chantelle had appropriated the modest sum left to Halley for herself.

High on the reflected glory of her daughter’s role Chantelle had quickly run through Halley’s inheritance and what Halley had earned since her arrival. The only money she hadn’t been able to touch was the money that Halley had deposited in the account that Krystal had set up at their grandmother’s suggestion before Chantelle had returned to town.

After blowing Halley’s final pay on a new car and jewellery for herself Chantelle had literally driven off into the sunset leaving her daughters to fend on their own. By then Krystal had put Halley’s money into a five year term deposit and in ignorance they had been unaware they could break it to get the money out. Instead Krystal had worked two jobs to cover their expenses.

With that history between them Halley had no intention of allowing Chantelle guardianship of the children. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Chantelle would change her mind about caring for them as soon as she had burned through the children’s inheritance.

If there was only something that she could do to trump anything Chantelle could offer she would do it.

Chantelle said something and Halley raised her head, knowing that she had missed it.

“What was that?” she said.

“I was just saying that you must have come to your senses because you didn’t argue that I had abandoned you. When this will business is settled we’ll sell the house. I’ll take two thirds of the value since I’ll have two thirds of the children,” Chantelle said briskly, looking around the room with a practised eye. “Houses are in high demand in this area. It should go quickly for an excellent price,” she said with satisfaction.

The only reason that Halley didn’t fling herself at Chantelle and knock her down was because she was still holding Cassie in her arms.

Alec froze mid step in the hallway. After arriving home from work and being greeted by the children he had heard Halley’s raised voice coming from the kitchen. Without having to ask, Corey had supplied that Halley was talking to the smelly woman.

Bemused, he had left the children to the movie they were engrossed in to meet the visitor. Halley’s angry voice had him closing the lounge door behind him on the way. Just as he had been about to stroll in and attempt to diffuse the situation he overheard the visitor saying she intended to become the children’s guardian.

That had kept Alec glued to the spot; partly because he told himself it was a private conversation but mostly because they started discussing things that Halley hadn’t shared with him. It hadn’t taken him long to realise that the woman Halley was speaking to was her mother.

When he heard her mother’s intentions to split the children up; only wanting Krystal’s biological offspring, Alec was incensed. Although he had to admit that the thought had crossed his mind when he learned about Halley’s situation he had quickly dropped the idea. It was clear to him that it was in the children’s best interests to keep them together. They had recently lost their parents and shouldn’t have to lose each other too.

Halley’s mother started talking about selling the house and Alec decided to step in. He told himself that it was because he’d to have to find another babysitter for Em if Halley had to move but he had other motives he wasn’t yet willing to admit to.

“Hi honey, I’m home,” he said cheerfully as he casually wandered into the kitchen. Seeing Halley’s surprised expression, he blocked her view of the woman behind him as he came up and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Play along,” he whispered before he pulled back.

As he turned around and pretended to notice Chantelle for the first time, Alec placed a proprietary arm around Halley’s shoulders.

“And who do we have here darling?” he asked.

“Alec, Chantelle. Chantelle, Alec,” Halley introduced grudgingly, giving neither of them any further information.

“I think Cassie’s finished there,” Alec remarked cheerfully the moment Halley stopped speaking.

Chantelle looked down, saw that Cassie was sucking air and plucked the bottle from her mouth. Alec took it from her and set it on the bench.

“I hope she hasn’t got too much wind from that,” he said jovially, prompting Chantelle to raise Cassie to her shoulder and start rubbing her back. Alec made a display of crossing his fingers and gave Halley a wink. Despite herself, Halley felt a smile creeping over her face. Cassie hadn’t let her down yet.

“And how do you know each other?” Chantelle asked curiously as she continued to rub Cassie’s back.

“Alec’s my…” Halley began.

“Fiancé,” Alec interrupted smoothly then bent to place another kiss on Halley’s face to give her time to get rid of the surprised look that had reappeared.

Chantelle inspected Halley’s left hand from where she stood.

“I don’t see a ring,” she said suspiciously.

“That’s because I took it in this morning to be resized.” Alec gave Halley an adoring look. “I hadn’t counted on how slender her fingers were.”

“What does the ring look like?” Chantelle asked, sounding as though she didn’t believe him. Alec smiled. He was glad that he’d spied the jewellery catalogue in the mail last week and had Em grill Halley over which ring she liked the best. At the time he told himself he wanted to know for no particular reason but when Em pointed out Halley’s selection from their copy that evening he’d taken notice.

“Hmm. What was it darling?” Alec mused then tightened his arm when he thought Halley was about to respond. “I remember,” he recalled with a smile. “It was a one carat pear shaped diamond in a channel setting of white gold.”

Beside him Halley’s mouth dropped open. Chantelle noticed.

“You look flabbergasted,” she commented.

Halley shut her mouth and forced a shrug.

“I just didn’t expect him to remember the details like that. You know… men… jewellery,” she said weakly. She raised her eyes to meet Alec’s and he grinned. He had never before managed to astonish anyone in such a manner before and found that he enjoyed it.

“So what brings you to our door?” he asked Chantelle easily. “I understand that it’s been a number of years since you have seen Halley.” And not long enough judging by how upset Halley had seemed by the woman’s presence.

“I’m here on
private
family business,” Chantelle said meaningfully. It was clear to Alec that she wanted him to go but he had no intention of accommodating her.

“It’s about the children, isn’t it?” Alec asked rhetorically, not caring that the woman didn’t intend to include him in the conversation. “You want to know that they’re all happy and well cared for.” He gave Halley an adoring smile. “You’ll be glad to know that Halley has done an exceptional job looking after them and I must admit I’m looking forward to providing your grandsons and granddaughter with a father figure.” As soon as he finished speaking Alec realised he actually meant what he had said.

He thought about further embellishing his role but decided that less was more. Judging by the way that Chantelle’s lips had compressed into a thin line he had achieved what he had intended; namely to make her doubt her ability to gain guardianship of the children.

At that moment Cassie finally released a large belch and a small flood of formula washed over Chantelle’s shoulder. If that wasn’t enough Cassie’s little face reddened and she gave a grunt. Chantelle’s expression of horror was replaced with disgust as she held the baby away from her.

Halley pulled away from Alec’s arm and took Cassie from Chantelle.

“I’ll go change her,” she said and fled the kitchen before she could burst out laughing.

Alec bit the inside of his cheek so he wouldn’t laugh as he reached for a tea towel so that Chantelle could clean herself up. He had to admit it was far more amusing when it happened to someone else.

Chantelle pulled a face as she snatched the tea towel from him and started dabbing ineffectively at her shoulder. Alec wanted to tell her that the smell wouldn’t completely go until the jacket had been dry cleaned but he suspected that the odour of cigarettes would somewhat mask the regurgitated formula.

Not getting anywhere, Chantelle dampened the tea towel under the tap then started wiping at her shoulder again, this time with more success. She didn’t say anything as she worked and Alec could tell that her mind was furiously racing, trying to come up with reasons she could use to claim the children.

He knew the moment she had thought of something.

“I don’t know that it’s appropriate for you two to be living together before getting married,” she told him, giving up on cleaning her shoulder and tossing the tea towel into the sink. Chantelle turned around and faced him. “Family values still account for something you know.”

“We’re not living together,” Alec replied. “I respect Halley too much to suggest such a thing. My house is next door,” he added.

Chantelle pretended not to be impressed and failed.

“The house that shares the driveway with this one?” she asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Alec informed her. For the first time since he had realised that Miranda would be unlikely to ever see the extravagant house he had bought he was glad that he had purchased it.

From the driveway the house screamed wealth with its imposing façade and meticulously landscaped garden. Of course it was all for show; the contents of the house told a different story. No one knew better than him how expensive it was to keep up appearances.

“How many children do you have?” Chantelle asked, obviously realising the house was far more than a single man needed.

“Just the one,” Alec told her. He pulled open the fridge and popped a grape into his mouth.

“What business are you in?” she asked.

“Recruitment.”

Alec dug into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet. Flicking it open he withdrew one of his business cards and passed it to her. As she avidly scanned the details on the creamy coloured card, Alec was glad that Rufus had talked him into the title of CEO. Rufus had been insistent because he preferred schmoozing over the paperwork that went with the job.

“It’s pretty brave of you to want to take the children on,” Alec remarked. “They can be a real handful.”

Chantelle slipped his business card into her jacket pocket and a whiff of regurgitated formula assailed her.

“I’m beginning to think the baby might be better left with Halley,” she confided reluctantly, fighting the urge to screw up her face at the odour. “I think it would be easier seeing as she’ll soon have one of her own that will be close in age.”

“So you want the boys then,” Alec surmised, pretending ignorance of the earlier conversation. “If you want Casey I think his mother would object. She’s already made Halley his guardian.”

“Where is his mother? Why hasn’t she taken him?” Chantelle asked.

“Liz is a nurse with a foreign aid agency in the Sudan. Or is it Ethiopia?” Alec put on an act to remember then shrugged. “I can’t remember but she’s off saving the world and the places she stays in aren’t ideal for raising children. If you want to know how to track her down ask Halley. They’re friends.”

Chantelle frowned, making the wrinkles on her forehead more pronounced. Alec could tell she was mentally working out whether it would be worth her while to try and take guardianship of Casey off Halley. He knew the moment she realised she would be unlikely to manage it because her lips thinned until they were almost the width of her eyebrows.

“I think that I’ll just take the other boy,” she muttered, obviously not liking the fact that she’d just dropped her claim on the estate on the children’s behalf by a significant amount.

“Which grandson was that?” Alec asked. “The lawyer will want to know.”

Chantelle spent a few moments trying to come up with his name.

“Cody,” she muttered to herself. “No, Corey,” she corrected triumphantly.

Alec debated over whether he should interfere. The thought of Halley showing gratitude to him for seeing her mother off won out.

“You know that no judge would take one child from its siblings under these circumstances when there is someone already taking good care of him,” he pointed out. “You’ll be wasting everyone’s time.”

“Thanks for the tip,” Chantelle told him, gathering up the purse she had put down while she was cleaning herself up. “I’ll go for custody of the lot.”

She headed out into the hallway.

“I thought you didn’t want Cassie,” Alec said as he tailed after her. “She’ll be a lot of work,” he warned.

Chantelle reached the front entrance and paused, one hand on the fly screen door.

“That’s what day care is for,” she said.

“What about Casey? How do you expect to gain custody of him?” he asked.

“I’m sure that the lawyer can track down this Liz person and sort it out on my behalf.” At Alec’s expression she smiled. “Now if you excuse me I have a lawyer I need to see.”

Alec was still looking at the empty doorway when Halley came down the stairs, a freshly changed Cassie in her arms.

“You haven’t left Chantelle on her own?” she whispered, aghast at the thought. “She’s likely to pilfer anything not nailed down.”

“No, she had to go,” Alec said. “I just saw her off.”

“I didn’t think she’d give up so easily,” Halley said, moving to the front door in time to see the taillights of Chantelle’s rental car disappear out of the driveway. She turned around and looked at him approvingly. “I wasn’t sure what you were up to at first back there, but thank you for making that stuff up. It seemed to do the trick.”

Alec felt wretched. He had pointed out to Chantelle that it was hopeless for her to expect to gain custody of only one of the children, intending to put her off. Instead he had made Chantelle decide it was worth her while to apply for custody of the three of them. To make matters worse he had given her enough information to go after Liz for approval.

In the back of his mind he knew that Liz would never support Chantelle’s claim but it wouldn’t stop her trying. Somehow he knew Chantelle was the sort of person who would hang on for as long as she thought there was something in it for her. In the meanwhile Halley and the children would suffer as they waited for the children’s inheritance to be freed up. The only ones who would win would be the lawyers who would be happy to work on the case for as long as the money lasted.

Alec knew he had to fix things for Halley. It was his fault that Chantelle had decided that she wanted it all.

“I wasn’t making that stuff up earlier,” he told her. “I just got things out of order.”

Alec swallowed and said the words that he had never expected to say again.

“Will you marry me?”