Glass Towers: Surrendered (17 page)

“Look, I guess maybe we should agree to disagree on this. I feel like you still should have told me that you were engaged to Marion at some point. I realize that I told you I didn’t want to hear all the details of your past with her. I also understand that you were respecting my wishes. But
, you have to agree that sometimes people need to hear things, despite their wishes. Do you get what I am saying?” I have managed to calm my voice down.

He sighs.

“I do understand. It’s like I don’t want to know details of your past with Bradley, but sometimes it does have a bearing on our present and inevitably our future. I just wish you would not fly off the handle at me. It pushes my buttons and infuriates me to where all I can see is red.”

Hmm. I had not thought about Harrison not wanting to hear about Bradley
as being the same as my not wanting to hear about his past relationships.

“I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I think we both have some things to learn about communicating and not jumping to conclusions. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” I can hear the smirk in his voice. Phew!

“So
, moving forward. I assume you got the fax? Eleanor said that by the time she contacted the doorman there had already been a shift change, so she would follow up in the morning about the florist. I don’t know why we are spinning our wheels on this. Marion sent the flowers; you and I both know that.”

“While we know that, I want the proof to provide for the case we are building against her in Montreal.”

“Oh, I see. So, are you still meeting with Bradley tomorrow?”

“Yes, at 10:00 AM
. It should prove interesting.”

“I had better get back out to the living room. The ladies are waiting for me to start the movie. We are watching a chick flick
, and we will continue our wedding shopping and planning tomorrow. I will touch base with you in the morning. I miss you!”

“Ah
, but I miss you more!”

“Impossible!”

“I love you! Bye!”

“I love you too
, Mr. Towers!”

After a late night of watching two movies and eating popcorn, I go to bed exhausted with a tummy ache. I climb into the large bed feeling lonely. I have not had much time with my husband since
we returned from our wedding trip. First, I was hospitalized, then recuperating at home. A couple weeks after that, here I am spending almost a week away from him. I sigh to myself. I can’t wait to get into a normal routine with Harrison.

I drift into a fitful sleep
to be greeted by another horrifying dream. I am running down the white corridor with the shrouded man in black chasing behind me. I turn to look, and once again, he disappears. When I turn back around, expecting him to be in front of me, he is not there either. I think he is gone and feel relieved. My relief dissipates quickly when I realize that the corridor is coming to a dead end with nowhere to run. I turn around to head back the way I came, but to my horror, the shrouded figure reappears and he is heading straight for me with boney hands outreached. I have nowhere to go, so I reach out to block his attack. I open my mouth to scream but nothing comes out. I start kicking and punching my way past him when I feel his hands on my arms. He is yelling ‘Dani, Dani!’ I wake up and there are my mom and Clarke hovering over me.

“Honey, you were having a bad dream. Here have some water.” She hands me a glass.

“Dani, was it the guy in black again?’

“Yes! It was so real! It’s
as if I know him or something. It’s…it’s….Ohhh!” I then break into uncontrollable sobs. I have been trying to keep my emotions in check. I have been working hard at being the happy newlywed, but I simply cannot hold it in anymore! I feel my body wracking with pain from the fierce shudders of grief ripping its way through me like a hurricane through a hut. I can hardly breathe as the tears flood my face.

My mom is holding me
, petting my head as I continue to allow my release. I can see out of my tear-blurred eyes that Clarke is pacing back in forth beside the bed. I know this is hard for her. She is a jovial girl and this type of display of emotion is foreign to her. I know she cares, though.

I continue to heave
, but the tears have subsided to a trickle. My mom is still holding me, and Eleanor has now joined us. She is handing my mom a warm washcloth. My mom accepts the washcloth and dabs at my tear-soaked face. I am so embarrassed for my outburst. Eleanor must think I am a disturbed woman.

Once the heaves have diminished, I turn to the concerned faces. “I am so sorry for waking you guys. It was just such a terrible dream! I look straight at Eleanor. “I don’t normally do this.”

She smiles. “It’s okay. I do understand that you have been under a tremendous amount of stress.” She looks at my mom, “Donna has told me a lot. You are a brave and patient woman. I don’t know that I would have the fortitude to remain as strong as you have.” She pats me on the shoulder, and I feel the tears spilling down my face once more. Without missing a beat, my mom is dabbing at them again with the cloth.”

“Can I interest anyone in some hot tea?”

Clarke practically jumps at the chance to leave the room, “Yes! I’ll come help!”

I watch as Clarke scurries out the room after Eleanor. My mom turns to me, “She spent a lot of time at your bedside when you were in the coma. She was so worried about you. I even caught her coming from the chapel one day with her rosary in her hand. I didn’t think that girl had a religious bone in her body. We all were so uncertain about who you would be once you came out of the coma. Some people experience brain damage
, while others lose part of themselves or their personalities change. I think we are lucky that all you came out with is nightmares, as scary as that may seem.”

I guess that was supposed to make me feel better? I smile and wonder if these nightmares would subside if they were able to catch my attacker.

After we all drank our fill of chamomile tea, we said our goodnights once again. I asked my mom to sleep with me in the master bedroom, and she agreed. We curled up in the enormous bed, and I managed nightmare-free sleep for the remainder of the night.

In the morning
, I wake to an empty bed. I look around for a minute, wondering if last night was a dream too. I stretch and get out of bed. As I pass by the mirror. I take note that I look like crap. My eyes are puffy, and I look like I ran into a wall and the wall won. I take a long, hot shower, hoping that will help my appearance. Once I finish applying enough eye makeup to cover up the raccoon circles under my eyes, I decide to go find the others. I hear voices coming from the kitchen and walk in, expecting the same hushed welcome I got yesterday. Instead, they continued their chatter and act as if nothing happened last night. Good. That is exactly what I need. After three cups of coffee and a delicious breakfast of Quiche Lorraine and a cinnamon coffee cake, I look at the time.

“Ladies, we should get going if we are to pick out ensembles for you two to wear to my wedding!”

“You are so correct! Time is burning, and I am excited to get my shopping on today! Let’s find our bodyguards and get rolling!” Clarke’s enthusiasm always makes me giggle.

As we head out to go shopping, I think about how Harrison has to meet Bradley in a couple hours. I sure hope it goes well.

“Coming?” Mom asks.

“Yes, right behind you!”

Back in Portland…

Harrison stands as Bradley enters the small café. Bradley sees Harrison and heads to his table.

Harrison reaches out his hand
, Bradley accepts it, and they shake.

“Please sit.” Harrison motions for Bradley to sit
, as he takes his own seat.

Harrison and Bradley look at each other for a minute before anyone speaks. Bradley finally begins. “So, thank you for meeting me.”

“Well, as you know I wasn’t going to, but my interest was piqued. I don’t have much time Bradley, why did you ask me here?”

He looks over his shoulder
, then back at Harrison. “As you probably suspect, I want to discuss Dani.”

Harrison nods.

Bradley nervously continues. “Well, as you have probably also figured out, I want Dani back.”

Harrison
’s eyes narrow and his hands are now in clenched fists. “Ok.”

“I know you are married
, and there is no chance for a reconciliation, so you don’t need to punch me out. But, there is more. A lot more. I need to preface this by saying that I never meant Dani any harm. All I wanted was to have a second chance with her. The only way I thought I could get her attention was if she needed me. Things just spiraled out of control and here we are.”

Harrison interjects, “You’re going to have to back up a whole lot here. I don’t understand what you are saying. You might as well start at the beginning.”

Bradley nods, then looks over his shoulder again. He almost jumps when the waitress comes by the fill his coffee and water glass.

“Ok. Here it
goes. I have been in coalition with Marion Devereaux to break up or get in the middle of you and Dani.” He lets out a huge sigh.

“What? How the hell do you know Marion Devereaux?

“I don’t actually know her. I met her once, but the rest of our communication has been by phone.”

“When
exactly did this alliance start?”

Bradley taps his finger on the table
, while he appears to be thinking it over. “I guess it has been about four months now. She sought me out when I moved back to Portland. I had visited Dani at the ribbon cutting ceremony. I brought her flowers, and hoped that she would give me at least a minute of her time. But, you walked up and stomped on my chances. She hardly even looked at me; she couldn’t keep her eyes off you. I was getting into my car in the parking lot, when Marion approached me. She had obviously done her homework and knew who I was. She also knew where Dani lived. She had her followed and had a guy stake out her condo prior to the opening of your towers.”

“Okay, continue.”

Bradley takes a large sip of water. “Well anyway, Marion told me that she was supposed to marry you, but when you met Dani, you broke it off. She said that you had cold feet and that you would drop Dani and break her heart once you decided to go back to Marion. She offered me money to get Dani away from you. I had some financial setbacks prior to that, so that was appealing to me. Besides, I didn’t want Dani with you, so I would have probably helped her for that alone.”

“What exactly did you do for the money? And for the record, I have not been engaged to Marion Devereaux for almost twenty years.”

Bradley is stalling and Harrison is getting impatient.

“What did you do Bradley?”

He sighs. “A lot. I have done a lot.” He looks away. “I was the one who hired the thug who plastered the pictures in her condo. I spent a lot of time spying on Dani and reporting back to Marion. When Dani stayed with me on the first night, I took her keys to Home Depot, while she slept and got a key duped off. I gave a copy to another one of Marion’s thugs. He is the one who entered her condo the night she moved in with Simone. The plan backfired, she was supposed to stay with me, but like an idiot, I left my phone in my car and didn’t get her call until later.” Harrison is doing everything he can to not climb over the table and start thumping on Bradley.

“Is there anything else?”

Once again, Bradley stalls. He takes several sips of his coffee and then clears his throat. “Um, yes, there is.” Harrison’s eyes narrow again, as he waits for the rest.

“So a while back
, I was tired of Marion calling all the shots and told her I was done and that I wanted to handle Dani my way. Well, she began threatening me and telling me she would expose me to Dani and Dani would hate me even more than she already did. I had no choice but to go along with her for fear of being exposed. I knew she was blackmailing you and some other guy. I was then added to the list. And she stopped paying me, saying I owed her now.” He pauses to drinks more coffee. “I told her thugs where Simone lives, so they could just scare her. I had no idea that they were going to try to hurt her. I was in the vicinity when the jerk knocked her over while she was jogging, so I showed up to play hero when she got back to the house. The problem is that she doesn’t want anything to do with me. Once again, she shunned me. I was so mad that I called Marion and told her about it. She just laughed at me and told me she couldn’t blame Dani for leaving me and that I was worthless. I was incensed. I managed to get information out of one of Simone’s clients about their trip to Palm Springs. I was about to buy a ticket to go down there, when I learned that you were already there. Even after that trip, I was able to probe enough information here and there that I was keeping Marion satisfied. She also had some guy working from the inside, who seemed to be off way too often. She was growing suspicious of him and was getting ready to blow the whistle on whatever it was that she was blackmailing him with.”

Harrison nods his head. All of this is starting to make perfect sense, he
’s referring to Garrin.

“I didn’t want her to do the same to me
, so I stayed on top of Simone and pried as much information out of her as I could.” I learned of your wedding the same way as everyone else though; it was plastered all over the media.”