Luckily for me, she was napping. I met Dad in the living room. “Worth called here looking for you this morning.”
“I’m getting cleaned up and I’ll go talk to him,” I told Dad and he nodded.
“Probably a good idea,” was his only comment.
I dressed carefully, choosing colors that suited me particularly. I suspected I was in for an emotional afternoon and while I wanted to look my best, I didn’t want to make Worth desire me. I wasn’t ready to go there yet, not until I knew whether it was possible we were blood-related. In my purse was a release for Worth to sign. I had no idea how to get him to do it, but I was always up for a challenge. This challenge had a great deal at stake.
I pulled into his building parking lot and noticed the new sign. I knew he had a great deal on his hands and wondered if Beverly Dexter had gotten in touch with him yet. There were construction vehicles parked everywhere and a variety of tarps and plastic sheets blocked off his office from the rest of the building. The doors were blocked open and it was chilly inside. It felt foreign, compared to the usual neatness of his domain. I saw Jervis’ door had been removed and it looked like there was a hot tub being installed in that space. I smiled to myself and was proud of the businessman I was going to be marrying… hopefully.
I walked into Worth’s office and found it empty. He was evidently off somewhere in the complex and I took advantage of his absence to use his bathroom. In there, I opened the medicine chest over the sink and saw the toothbrush he kept there. I slipped it into my bag, flushed the toilet and emerged. Worth was standing there facing me, his feet planted wide apart, a black look of rage upon his face.
“Hi!” I greeted him, aware that it was not appropriate given the look on his face but not having anything better in mind to say.
He stared at me, waiting for me to continue.
I felt completely ill at ease. “I see they’re getting things done,” I tried, hoping that the reason for his anger had something to do with the workmen, and not with me. I was wrong.
“How dare you!” he said. The look on his face was fury, but his voice was deadly level. I knew this was about as mad as he was capable of getting and although I figured he’d be upset about my not checking in with him the night before, this was well beyond anything I’d imagined.
“Worth, sit down. Let’s talk. You’re mad, I can see it.”
“You think?” he shouted and I reached behind me and shut the door to his inner office. There was no reason to involve others. “You were with him!” The shout roared through the room.
I went blank. “Him? You mean Brandon? Oh, yes, of course I was,” I answered innocently. Then it struck me what he meant. “Oh, wait, Worth… no, it’s not what you think. You think I was with him, as in spending the night with him? Oh, no, no, no. Don’t you know me better than that? What happened to our up front trust we agreed on?”
“How would you explain your car in his parking lot all night?”
I was puzzled. “How would you know that, unless you were spying on me?” So much for trust, I told myself.
“Explain yourself,” he ordered and his voice was strong enough to make me fall backward into the chair opposite his desk. Visions of my mother ordering me in the same tone surfaced in my head.
“How dare you speak to me like that! You know that’s a trigger for me. What the hell is the matter with you, anyway? Don’t you trust me?”
He stared at me and I could see the realization of our situation dawning in his eyes. I said it again, “Do you trust me, Worth?”
He sat down, his fingers tapping the surface of his glass desk. He settled, knowing that this was a make or break answer. “Yes.”
“Yes? You don’t act like you trust me.”
“I do, I do, dammit,” he cursed, looking at the window to try and regain his composure.
“How much?”
“How much what?” he asked.
“How much do you trust me?” I pushed the point home.
“With my life,” he said and he uttered those words with the realization that yes, he probably did trust me with his life. It must have dawned on him at that very moment.
I opened my purse and slapped the permission slip onto his desk. I had tri-folded it so only the third with the signature line was legible. “Do you trust me enough to sign this without reading it?”
He cocked his head and frowned. “What is that?”
“Worth, I asked you a question. If you trust me, you’ll sign it without knowing what it is. This is a test, Worth. Do you trust me?”
He grew dark again, accepting my challenge and overriding whatever common sense would have kept him from signing a blank document. He picked up a pen and with a great flourish, made a show of putting his name on the permission line. Before he changed his mind, I slid the paper quickly back into my bag. “Now, as to what happened last night, if you promise to stay calm, I will explain it.”
He nodded, folding his hands in his lap in his best imitation of a stable psychologist.
“Alright then. I went to visit Mrs. Jessup at Sunset Village yesterday. While I was there, it started to snow. When I left her, I went to Brandon’s office. We talked about Sunset,” I continued, careful to not lie but to not necessarily reveal my entire reason for being there. “He suggested that since the weather was bad, that we have that date you paid for and he would take me to dinner at a local restaurant near his home. I agreed, we had dinner, he dropped me off at a hotel and he went home,” I stressed the last three words. “This morning, he picked me up, we stopped for breakfast to let the rush hour settle down and then took me back to his office so I could get my car. Since I hadn’t planned to be out all night, I went home first to shower and change and then came here to see you. I didn’t have my phone charger with me and it went dead at some point in the night. I knew you had probably been trying to call me, and since I wanted to see the progress on your office, I thought I’d come in and surprise you. This wasn’t exactly the kind of surprise I was expecting, though,” I finished and was proud of myself for not lying or twisting any facts. I just left a couple of internal feelings out, not to mention the giant detail that he and I might share a father, for God’s sake.
Worth studied me and knew I wasn’t lying. I would have been disappointed if he’d thought I was. I wasn’t. I continued. “Now, I thought we agreed that you would not interrogate me again?”
He relaxed. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You have to admit, the evidence seemed pretty damned incriminating.”
“Only if you were looking for it to be,” I pointed out. The look on his face told me he probably agreed with that. “So, how did you know I was with Brandon in the first place?”