I Married a Billionaire: Lost and Found (Contemporary Romance) (12 page)

"No, I'll get it," he said. "Just - not right now."

I rolled my eyes. "Really? Do you want me to stand in the corner with my eyes covered?"

"Maddy, it's nothing personal. I just…I've never told
anyone
where it is."

"Sure, and we've only been married for…how long now?"

He shot me a look. "Relax," he said. "I'll get you the money."

"Fine, you're the one who wanted the fucking bill paid."

We left for the hearing shortly afterwards, sitting in the backseat of the town car in a stormy silence. Lindsey sat awkwardly between us, saying nothing, and John, the driver, stayed tight-lipped, only nodding at us when we got in and out. He'd been looking awfully wan and baggy-eyed lately. I wondered if Daniel had told him more about the situation than he'd told me. It didn't seem out of the realm of possibility.

We convened in a small courtroom. The judge was a stern-looking middle-aged man, sitting down behind his bench with a sigh that said he'd rather be anywhere than here. Lindsey reached out and patted my hand, giving me an encouraging smile.

"We will now proceed with the initial hearing of Daniel Emmett Thorne's petition for his assets to be unfrozen, pending the investigation of an alleged violation of sections 16(b) and 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. I granted the Securities and Exchange Commission's request to freeze Mr. Thorne's assets due to concern that he might be a flight risk." The judge seemed like he was stifling a yawn. "Ms. Greenlee, do you have anything you'd like to say to start us off?"

"Yes, your honor." Daniel's lawyer stood up, clearing her throat. "Thank you for agreeing to meet with us today. I appreciate that you're very busy, so I'll keep this brief. My client needs to be able to conduct his daily business, and all of his personal affairs. He cannot do this with a freeze order in place. I understand the flight risk concern, but my client not only has no intention of leaving the country, I highly doubt he would be able to without being recognized. My client is featured on the covers of magazines on a regular basis, your honor. I'm sure that you've seen them yourself."

The judge made a slight noise of assent.

"Your honor," she went on. "I'm not trying to drum up sympathy for my client. But he is living off a small amount of cash reserves, and the generosity of family and friends. No matter how rich he is, you can't expect him to live on nothing while this issue drags on and on."

"I had planned to lift the freeze once he is arraigned in court," said the judge.
 

"But that could be months from now," Ms. Greenlee insisted.
 

"I'm aware," said the judge, drily. "I'm also aware, Mr. Thorne, that you have family and friends helping you out. You're not in any immediate danger of being thrown out on the street, are you?"

Daniel stood up. "No, your honor," he said.

"Well, in that case, I don't see why I need to hurry things along." The judge shuffled some papers on his bench. "Mr. Thorne, you're a resourceful man. I am absolutely certain that you will find a way to survive for the next few weeks. As Ms. Greenlee pointed out earlier, I am a busy man, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't waste my time any further."

Daniel took a deep breath. "I apologize, your honor. That certainly wasn't my intention."

The judge adjusted his glasses. "I'd hate to see any suspicions rise about your sister in connection with all the assistance she's been giving you. She's not immune to this either, you know."

"Your honor," Ms. Greenlee cut in. "Please - this is ridiculous. There is no need to intimidate my client. He's done nothing wrong."

"My apologies, Mr. Thorne," the judge intoned. "I certainly never meant to cross any lines. I'll see you at the trial." And with that, he was standing up and gathering his papers. I sat there on the hard wooden chair, completely stunned at what had just transpired. Ms. Greenlee looked like she'd been sucking on a lemon, even more so than usual. She rushed up to the judge, calling after him as he headed for one of the side doors - "Robert - ROBERT! Wait! I want to talk to you!" But he brushed her off with a gesture.

She came back to us, dejected.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," she said. "I've never known him to be so hostile. I never would have suggested this hearing if I thought…"

"It's all right," said Daniel, his face very grim. "I didn't really expect anything different."

But I could tell he was upset. He'd been hoping for a better outcome, of course - we all had. But the judge obviously had strong personal feelings about the case, for whatever reason, and we certainly weren't going to change his mind.

I could have sworn there was an actual cloud hovering over our group as we walked out onto the sidewalk and headed towards the street corner where John was going to pick us up, minus Ms. Greenlee, who broke off at the parking garage with a polite little wave.
 

"Well, it's nice to know he'll be the one conducting the trial," said Daniel with a hollow smile.

"Can't you petition the court for someone different, if you think he's biased?" Lindsey looked over her shoulder. "Shit, I should have asked what’s-her-name."

"Oh, no doubt," said Daniel. "But how will that look? 'I don't like this judge, please send me another.' Everyone already thinks I'm a rich spoiled brat who just gets whatever he wants. If I get a new judge, too, on top of everything?"

"But you're entitled to a fair trial," I said, as we climbed into the car. "Everyone is. It doesn't matter."

"How did it go?" John asked, gingerly.

"Not well," said Daniel. "Don't worry, you'll still get your paycheck," he added, which I assumed was a wry attempt at humor. It fell flat on John, who looked slightly offended as he pulled away.

"That's not what I'm worried about," he said.
 

No one responded.

I wished Daniel would just cave and ask for a new judge. This one had left a horribly unpleasant feeling in my chest, and in some way I couldn't quite explain, it was about more than just the things he'd said, and the way he'd talked to Daniel. He unnerved me on some other, deeper level I couldn't quite explain. I just knew things would be much better if someone else presided over the trial, but at the same time, I could understand Daniel's concern. He didn't want to look demanding and petty right off the bat, before he even had a chance to make a first impression in his trial.

I wondered how long the arraignment would actually take. I knew from following cases in the news that things like this often dragged out for years, and I simply couldn't imagine living through something like that. I knew I had no choice - I certainly wasn't going to leave him - but it already felt like we'd been slogging through a dismal swamp for God knew how long, and it was about to get worse.
 

"I really think it would be better," I said, trying again, more gently, "if you just got a different judge. I know it's not the best thing, for the sake of appearances, but this is ridiculous. You have to do something. You can't just lie down and take his abuse, he obviously dislikes you for some reason."

"Maddy, please."
 

I wasn't sure if that was meant to be
Maddy, please let me make my own decisions
or
Maddy, please shut up
, but either way, I was appropriately cowed. I sat back and stewed quietly in my own annoyance.

"For what it's worth, Daniel, I think she's right." Lindsey spoke up, finally. "You can't just let yourself be mistreated, no matter how you think it might look if you start complaining. I don't know why he was acting like that, but whatever the reason, you don't want him presiding over your trial. It's only going to make things more difficult."

"I just want some time to think things over!" Daniel said, more loudly than he needed to. "Is that too much to ask? Both of you, just keep your opinions to yourselves for a few minutes?"

We all sat in silence for the rest of the journey. Poor John, I thought to myself, absurdly. He looked like he wanted to disappear into his seat, or maybe spontaneously combust and never seen any of us again.

Once we were home, Daniel stormed up to the bedroom again and sequestered himself. I wandered aimlessly around the kitchen, and Lindsey turned on the TV in the living room, flipping through the channels so fast I was sure she couldn't possibly be processing what was on each of them.

"There's a channel guide, you know," I said, flopping down next to her on the sofa.

"Ugh. I don't even want to watch anything," she said. "I just want Danny to stop being such a shitheel. After everything we've done for him? He's still going to act like a whiny little baby when we try to give him some very well-placed advice."

"Well, he's under a lot of stress," I pointed out. I couldn’t believe I was defending him.

"Maddy, please." She shook her head at me. "I think he's been treating you worse than anybody. You don't have to pretend."

I took a deep breath. For some reason, hearing her say it was just too strange. "I don't think he's been…bad," I said. "He's just preoccupied. I'm pretty low-maintenance anyway."

"But you're sticking by him through all this. You're trying to help out. And all he can think is that you might…"

I looked at her. "I might what?"

She shook her head vigorously. "Nope, nope, I swore not to tell you. I'm sorry. I should have just kept my mouth shut. It's stupid, it's a silly little irrational fear that he has and it doesn't have any bearing on reality and I'm not allowed to tell you - I'm sorry, I just can't."

"Please," I implored, leaning towards her and lowering my voice. "I need to know - if there's something I can do, anything, if I can just know why he's acting the way he's been lately. It's almost like he doesn't remember that we're really together, you know? Like we're back to just being…a fake couple." Now that I said it out loud, I realized how true it was. All this time, I'd been carrying around the insecurity that came from the fact that our relationship had started as a business arrangement.

"He's just trying to protect himself, that's all," said Lindsey. "He's just trying to…look, if I tell you this, you have to promise me you won't take it badly. And for the love of God, don't tell him I told you."

"Of course not," I said, my heart thudding in my chest. "I just want to know. Any hint of what he's thinking. I don't have a god damn clue and it's driving me crazy."

"He's afraid," said Lindsey, softly. "That's all. He knows you were only with him, in the first place, because of the money. And I think there's still a part of him that thinks…it's not just you, either. It's everybody. He always thinks it's about the money, that it couldn't possibly be about him. He thinks he's not worthy of people's attention on his own, and it's always been that way, ever since he first started making enough money to wear nice clothes and drive nice cars. He's neurotic about it. He only tells me about it because I'm his sister. I'm required to care about him whether he's a billionaire or not."
 

She smiled, briefly. "But Maddy, I swear to God, it's not about you. It's not that he thinks you're gold-digger, or anything like that. But all of his previous relationships eventually ended with him pushing them away because he couldn't convince himself they really cared about
him
. I mean, he might have been right. Who knows. But I know you're not like that, and I think he knows it, too. But he's having a hard time convincing himself."

I bit my lip. "That…makes sense, actually," I said faintly.

"But really, I don't think there's anything you can do. You're already being so supportive, or trying to at least. But if he's not letting you in, that's all it is. He's just trying to keep you at a distance. He does it to almost everybody. I know it must be painful as hell, believe me, but I think it might just be something you have to weather for now. When all this is over, and he looks and sees that you're still by his side, I think he'll realize how silly it is. But there's too much going on inside his head right now. He can't see things clearly."

It did make sense. It made perfect sense. Back when we were first "dating," before our fake marriage and long before our relationship became something real, I'd said something about wanting to remain friends, and he'd acted like I was just saying it out of obligation. Like I couldn't possibly want to be friends with him just because of…
him
. But after all this time, I would have thought he'd have gotten over that - just a little.

I could sort of understand why he was still afraid, though. He'd given me a lifestyle that was difficult to walk away from. Some people might have been able to talk themselves into staying, even if they didn't have feelings for him, just for the money.
 

I wanted to think he knew me well enough by now, but that wasn't really true, was it? In some ways, after all this time, we still hardly knew each other at all.

"Thank you, Lindsey," I said. "I promise I won't tell."

"I know you won't, honey." Lindsey leaned over and gave me a sideways hug. "Just hang in there, okay? Things are going to get a hell of a lot easier once all this calms down."

"Yeah, but how long will that take?"

Lindsey shrugged. "I don't know, really. But eventually, things just sort of get…normal. You'll adjust to the stress. You both will. Once the whole thing is finally over it'll be like letting out a breath you've been holding for months and months. But that doesn't mean that every day leading up to that has to be painful."

"You sound like you have some experience."

"Not quite the same thing," she said. "I took someone to court once. But, I know the feeling, sort of - it's just like this long nightmare and you start to feel like you're never going to wake up. But eventually, you do. You wake up, and the world hasn't ended like you thought it would. Everything's just sort of…carrying on, so you start carrying on with it, even if you don't feel like you know how anymore."

"Thanks," I said, leaning back on the sofa with a long, deep sigh. "It’s good to know I’m not losing my mind."