Billionairess's Dilemma: Reclaiming His Heart

23: Evil Clairee Rides Again

Henry (aka Goose, Clairee)

If you find Cinderelly looking sad with Jaws a little murder stabby looking, you know things aren't good. And when you find out it's because she had to relive her tale of DickRick the Dead Prick because your niece had no idea the extent of the damage he did to your adopted sister, then you go a little nuts and decide that things are going to get much worse. Because you are about to ride and make someone realize just how off their damn rocker they've been raising your niece.

Everyone wonders why Polly was so naive and shattered her own life. Well the answer to that raised her. I always knew Susannah didn't like sharing the dangers of the world with her children, but f*****g hell, why would you not warn your DAUGHTER about men like Rick? And use a very smart woman who got played very deliberately by people who hated her and wanted to cheat her out of something big. Something similar to what your own daughter is going to inherit and run. Mason needs to know too because women are just as evil and devious as men these days. He could be trapped by a girl with a pregnancy that's his or not his. He could be manipulated into marrying someone who only wants his inheritance too.

"You mean she had no f*****g clue?" I ask Ellis angrily after Cinderelly left with Polly and Kevin to get fitted for her gala gown Polly is designing.

"She thought it was a few mere dirty pictures." His eyes blaze even thinking of it. He recounts the rest of what they told the junior shark squad members. "I don't think we hurt him enough to this day."

"You left out a lot. Does Cinderelly even know everything you did to him?" Because Ellis beat the s**t out of him after he mailed all those videos off. The sheer volume of them had enraged him like nothing I'd ever seen. It didn't help he showed absolutely no remorse for hurting her.

"Yes she does. But she is the only one outside of our inner circle."

I nod knowing that he's telling the truth. He hides nothing from Laurel.

"I need to go somewhere." I tell him quietly and those shrewd green eyes stare at me intently.

"Be careful Goose. She's still your big sister." He cautions me.

"And she will be at the end. But she needs to understand the damage she's done. I also have an errand for our big party coming up for Fuckweed. A little gift I need to drop off."

At that he sighs and nods. "I checked in on Cora, Stanley and Eileen today too considering what we are about to do again. They are all quietly minding their own business."

"Small favors." I tell him as I head out the door.

I grab the box I need to deliver and leave wishing we didn't need a junior shark squad. I'd rather bring them into poker night instead of revenge planning and kidnapping avoidance tactics. We should be having a good time planning Polly's benevolent idea not asking Dimitrios and Christos to bring their associates along with booking most of Grant's bodyguards.

I throw on a jacket and cap glad I wore jeans today since I wasn't truly working. I head into the office building for Archer's fake grandparents and stop at the desk. Giving the lady there a big grin, I smack my gum loudly and talk like my tongue is too big for my mouth. "I gotta delivery here for an Archaaarrrr ummmmmmm Torton. Yeah that's it."

She eyes me like she wants to smack the gum out of my mouth. "I can take it to him."

"Sign here lady." I hold my clipboard out and note her name. She takes the clipboard and hands it back. When she does, she lifts the box which is a plant. I hurry to toss the flat legal sized envelope which happens to be wide open on top of the box and as expected, it slides right off spilling the contents on the floor. "Oh shit." I say and watch her scrambling to pick it all up. I reach over and grab her badge and touch it to my RFID copier. After only a second, I get the green light and hurry to replace it on her desk.

"Gotta run. Have a nice day Lois." I say as I walk out quickly.

I knew they'd have shitty security. Too easy. And I bet Lois has access to everything in the building.

I drive to Susannah's office slightly mollified that was so simple. When I get there, I walk in and tell Phyllis, her long standing secretary that I need to see her. She lets me in with a smile and I give her a quick hug. She's like a member of our family at this point. When I walk in, she's frowning over her design table and I step beside her. "Black or grey beads?" She asks me and I glance down.

"Silver with black sprinkled in."

She shakes her head with a small smile. "I swear you should have done this not me. Or maybe been my partner."

"Not my thing. I'd shoot the models and all the prissy people you like to put up with. I much prefer scorching the earth with Ellis and Klein when someone pisses us off."

"What are you doing here? Off today?" She points to my jeans and I nod slowly.

"I was. Susannah what the hell were you thinking by not telling Polly what Rick did to Laurel?" I don't beat around the bush. "Do you know how shocked I was to find that out today? Laurel had to relive that entire hell and tell her after Polly admitted to Kevin she only thought it was a few nude photos. You're damn lucky Ellis is not here chewing you out for making his beloved shortcake go through that again."

She swallows hard and has the grace to look ashamed. "I...I know Henry." She sighs before moving toward her coffee machine. "Sit and we'll talk. You want a cup?"

"No. Brad will shoot me if I have one this late in the day." I sit down on her couch frowning.

She comes to sit next to me holding her coffee in her lap. "I've had to face a lot of my parenting mistakes lately. Watching Polly struggle with her pain as she realized how she lost Kevin hasn't reinforced my parenting skills or good judgment. I suck at being a mom, maybe I should have never tried. I helped cause their breakup, Kevin's change to that cold reserved boy he is now. He cared about her so much and now I wonder if he'll ever even be her close friend again."

"Why? Why did you shelter them so damn much?" I ask frustrated with her. "Polly could have known to be careful. To understand that anyone can be fooled completely. You did a f*****g background check on Archer but it was the bare minimum wasn't it?"

"Yes because I didn't think he was a problem until it was too late. Until Kevin was gone." She admits. She turns to me and her brown eyes are filled with tears. "Henry, do you remember how Grandma Watson never spared us anything? How she told us every horrible thing anyone said about us or did to our family?"

"Yeah. I liked having that knowledge." I watch her closely. "Told me who to trust and who to watch for knives in my back."

"I hated it. I never felt like I could trust anyone. I almost ended things with Charles because I was so afraid he was after our money. Even Mom wasn't exactly that great to him until she ran three background checks proving what I already knew about him. I had ulcers in high school because I didn't have any good friends, always listening to Grandma Watson criticize the people I wanted to hang out with. She relaxed a lot by the time you were in high school. Mom just gave in to her. I struggled so bad and I hid it from all of you. But I would throw up almost every day." She looks sad. "I couldn't handle it Henry."

I stare at her and shake my head. "Because you had extreme anxiety, Susannah on top of OCD. Polly is NOT you."

"Polly has some anxiety too. And I made the decision to go the opposite way with her. To not give her anything to worry about. I thought I could let her get to eighteen or nineteen and then tell her. Warn her when she was old enough and....and s**t it was the worst decision I ever made. I know that. I regret it. I've already started changing things with Mason. I was weak Henry. You've always been stronger and tougher, but I was expected to be that way."

"You sheltered her to the extreme. You share part of the blame in all of this and no I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. You need to understand the damage. You hated Archer and you were so upset with her for running to him all the time but didn't bother to tell her what he was!"

“I know.” She says tearfully. “I just didn’t want her to suffer. I couldn’t handle it. I guess I should be glad Charles handled their schoolwork side and made them do their own work.”

She wipes her tears away. “Suze, it’s hard being a parent. But I’d rather do the hard stuff while they are little enough to listen and learn. She turned out fairly well for as sheltered as she was. You hid the coddling well.”

“Because you thought better of me than how I truly was. I apologized to both of them. All I can do now is do better with Mason and with Polly. Help get them out of this mess I created. He would leave her alone if I hadn’t caused this.”

“That’s actually not true. But he would have had a harder time.” I explain about Kevin being the target and their identities.

“They are psychopaths! I’m helping take them down. Tell me what to do!”

I take her hand. “Go home and tell Polly anything else you left out. I’ll let you know what we need for Operation Take a Whack at Ouisa.” She chuckles a little at that.

“Henry…I really am sorry.”

“Don’t just be sorry. Change it.”