“I don’t know, can we postpone that?”
“I’m not sure how one can postpone their birthdays. If I knew how, I would have years ago.”
Shannon tried to keep the tears from falling. “I’m having a bad week.”
“I can help make it better. Paul called and asked if he could join us.”
Shannon bounced back. “He what? When?”
“He called a couple of hours ago. I saw the paper, honey. I can’t tell you how hopeful your father and I are about a possible reunion. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Mom . . . there is no reunion.”
“Paul made it sound as if there was.”
“Paul is full of shit.”
“Shannon!” her mother scolded her.
“No, Mom. Cancel the dinner. I won’t be there. If Paul calls, tell him to revisit our last conversation.”
“Honey, please.”
“Mom . . . listen to me carefully. I love you. I love Dad. Thank you for wanting to celebrate my birthday with me, but not this year. I have other plans.” Like slipping away to sulk in peace.
“I’m so disappointed.”
“I am, too.” And she hung up.
Pent up energy had her scrubbing the floor harder. Calls came through, but she didn’t answer any of them. Victor, Lori, Avery . . . even Trina.
She got the feeling that if she didn’t leave the loft soon, they would all descend upon her like locusts. In the bathroom, she washed her face and swept her hair back into a ponytail. Dark glasses, in case some camera-toting asshole was outside trying to capture more pictures.
In her car, her phone rang again.
Unknown caller.
“Hello!” Her greeting was an accusation. When no one started talking, Shannon’s anger spiked again. Paul would say something. “Hello?”
Nothing.
There was only one person she knew young enough to be the heavy breather on the phone. “I know who this is. You aren’t fooling anyone, Corrie. Why don’t you try growing up?” Shannon disconnected the call.
It rang again.
She punched the answer button, felt her heart slamming against her chest. “Grow the fuck up!”
“Whoa . . . whoa . . . Shannon?”
Familiar voice . . . not Corrie. “Who is this?”
“It’s Angie.”
Shannon rested her head against the steering wheel and blew out a breath. “Oh, Angie, I’m sorry.”
“Phew . . . hello, big sister. This is Shannon, right?”
“It is. I’m sorry. I’m having a really crappy day.”
“Apparently. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an f-bomb fly out of your mouth.”
They didn’t come often. “Today is that kind of day.”
“That sucks, and on your birthday.”
“That’s tomorrow . . . apparently.” She really had forgotten.
“Oh, yeah. I guess I should have figured that out. I got your message last month and started feeling guilty for ignoring it.”
That was nice to hear. “Why did you?”
“Selfish reasons. But I don’t want to add to your bad day. I wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday and tell you I love you.”
Okay . . . tears were starting to fall again.
This was getting ridiculous. “I love you, sis. I miss the hell out of you.”
“You should come visit me sometime. With all those millions, it isn’t like you can’t afford a ticket.”
Which was true. “I have to know where you are before I book a plane ticket.”
“I’m in Barcelona. I thought you knew.”
“Barcelona? I thought you were teaching English for the Peace Corps somewhere remote.”
Angie laughed. “That was, like, five years ago.”
“Mom said . . .”
“Mom says a lot of things. I’ve been in Barcelona for three years. Still teaching English, but not to indigenous people. I could only volunteer for so long before I realized I needed to make my own income.”
“We have so much to catch up on.” She thought of Victor, Paul . . . her new friends and new direction in life.
Victor.
“Are you serious about me visiting?” Shannon asked as she switched the engine over in her car.
“Of course.”
“How does tomorrow sound?”
“Are you serious?”
“Great, what’s your address?”
“You’re for real?”
“I told you I was having a bad day. You just made it better. Give me your address, Angie. If you can’t clear your schedule, that’s fine. I just need to get away, and seeing you sounds exactly like what I need right now.”
Three hours later, Shannon was boarding a plane with clothes she’d shoved in a bag to avoid lingering at her house and being cornered by anyone.
She sent a group text to her friends.
I’m not pulling an Avery . . . or a Trina . . . Okay, maybe I am. I’m going to visit my sister. I will text the location later. Wouldn’t want the freaking media hacking my messages and following me. And Lori, tell Paul to back off. Remind him of what he signed way back when. I need to clear my head. Love you all, Shannon.
And she turned her phone off. Which was how it would stay until she wanted to pop back up on the radar. Between Friend Finder apps and her supersleuthy friends, Shannon was bound to find someone on the other end of the plane ride aside from her sister.
Lori found Shannon’s text the second she was out of the courtroom and walking to her car. Before she could read it all, Avery was calling. “What the hell?”
“Did you talk to her?”
“No. Did you?”
“No.” She picked up her pace, opened her car door, and tossed her briefcase into the passenger seat.
“Isn’t her sister in Africa or something?”
“Or something. Has Trina heard from her?”
“No, Trina called me,” Avery said.
Lori turned the car over, looked out her rearview mirror. “I’m calling Paul, you try Victor. Something must have gone down.”
“I’m on it.”
Avery hung up.
Before Lori called Paul, she contacted her husband.
“Hey, honey, how was court?” Reed asked before she had a chance to say hi.
“I need you to find Shannon’s sister.”
“Excuse me?”
“Angie . . . Redding, I think. I don’t believe she ever married. She was in the Peace Corps last time I heard anything about her.”
Reed cleared his throat. “Do you want to tell me what this is all about?”
“Yes, later.”
“Can’t you just ask Shannon?”
Lori rolled her eyes, pulled out of the parking space. “If only it was that easy.”
She hung up before Reed asked more questions and then dialed the number she had for Paul. For five minutes she was given the runaround before he finally got on the line.
“Hello, Lori.”
“What did you do?”
“Excuse me?”
“Don’t play coy with me, Paul. You said or did something to Shannon. Fess up.”
He was silent.
Lori waited and gripped the steering wheel to keep her mouth from opening and screaming at the man.
“I asked her to come back.”
“And when she told you no?” Please, please, Shannon, tell me you said no.
“I offered her another contract.”
It was a very good thing Lori was at a stoplight. “I’m going to play lawyer here for a minute . . . Are you listening, Paul?”
He was silent.
“Your contract specifically stated that any continuation or changes or anything in regard to Alliance has got to go through us first. You’re in direct violation just bringing the subject up without consulting us first. Do you understand that? Or have you forgotten everything you learned in law school?”
“Yes, Counselor.”
Good! The man could understand basic English.
“Now that we have that out of the way . . . Are you that big of a moron?”
The light turned green, and she shifted her car around a slow driver and hit the gas. “I understood you were a player when you signed on to Alliance, the risks were spelled out to Shannon, but you changed the rules when you filled her with hope that you were both more than temporary—”
Paul started to interrupt.
Lori didn’t let him. “You didn’t love her, fine. But you knew damn well she loved you, and you worked that for all it was worth. Now that Shannon is finally over you, you try and drag her back? That makes you a special kind of douchebag, Paul.”
“I’m glad you’re being diplomatic about this, Lori.”
“Oh, I’m not being diplomatic. I’m being a friend who is pissed off.”
“Fine. Now that your tantrum is out of the way—”
“My tantrum hasn’t even started.”
“I want to hire Alliance again.”
She laughed. “Not in this lifetime.”
“One good reason why . . . and don’t say Shannon.”
Lori sucked in a breath. “Alliance as you knew it no longer exists. In fact, it was someone searching for the truth behind your marriage to Shannon that helped shape our new business model. If you remember right, you and I had a conversation about this two years ago.” The fact that Lori’s now husband, Reed, was the private investigator searching for dirt on Paul’s hands was left unsaid. “Having you as a client a second time would be entirely too risky.”
“I forgot all about that,” Paul said with a sigh. Maybe she was finally getting through to him.
“Why don’t you find a wife the old-fashioned way? Leave Shannon and Alliance out of it.”
“I’ll consider your advice.”
“Good. You do that.”
“I never meant to hurt her, Lori.”
She wanted to believe him. “If that’s true, then leave her alone now.”