Infraction (13 page)

We became pretty self-sufficient again with my limited but gained mobility. He was
still staying in my condo, his all but abandoned, and sleeping in the same bed. We
stopped putting up the invisible barrier in the bed and often fell asleep holding
hands or touching in some way. We also woke up snuggled in each other’s arm. I was
beginning to feel so much warmth and security there, it scared me, but I tried to
push the fear away.

Sarah, Teresa, Erin, and Caroline still helped out on occasion, especially with doctor’s
appointments and taking me home from work.

Caroline was reluctant to welcome Nathan back in the fold. She didn’t trust him with
me but was giving him the benefit of the doubt for my sake. She was watching him like
a hawk though.

There were occasional dinners that popped up in my condo from time to time. One time
there were three dinners that showed up. Needless to say, we were eating well. It
was a good thing since I’d lost almost ten pounds through everything, and all the
food was helping me to put it back on.

I spent my first three weeks back to work as part-time. Owen was doing a great job.
He was a fast learner and a great help to Nathan and me. Hopefully they’d keep him
in the position, for a little while at least.

When Jack Holloway called both of us into his office on my last part time day, I thought
it was to discuss how things were going and to find out what Owen would be doing.
Now donned with crutches, I hobbled through the door Nathan held open and we both
made our way to the plush leather chairs sitting in front of Jack’s desk.

“Well, it’s been three weeks since you returned, Delilah, how are you feeling these
days?” he asked.

I stowed the crutches beside me. “Better, and even more so when I get this cast removed.”

“Good. Very good. I remember when Nathan was the same,” he said with a nod. “How are
you two doing?”

My brow scrunched at his question. “Well, we still have mountains of cases on our
desks.”

“I don’t think that’s what he’s asking,” Nathan said. I turned to find him staring
at Jack, an inquisitive look on his face. Jack smiled back. “Jack?” There was a pause
as they looked at one another. Nathan rubbed his face and groaned. “He knows.”

“Knows?” I asked before realization dawned. I turned to look at Jack who was…smiling.
Not the image I had in my mind when I thought of our boss finding out about us.

I had visions of a red-faced Mr. Holloway screaming about company policies and how
could I corrupt his son-in-law or something. Though I’m pretty sure Nathan was the
one doing the corrupting.

“And here I’ve been freaking out on how to tell you, and you knew!” Nathan threw his
arms into the air. Jack smiled bigger and Nathan cocked his head and stared at him.
“Jack, why are you smiling? Wait, yo-you didn’t…plan this…did you?”

I turned toward Jack and stared in shock. Was Nathan correct?

Jack continued to smile, a smug expression on his face. “Before you came here, Nathan,
neither one of you was living. You both went through the motions, both dead on the
inside. I hoped that you would be able to help one another.”

Nathan shook his head, his brow scrunched, disbelief in his voice as he spoke. “You
were playing matchmaker?”

I was too stunned to even say anything. He brought us together. The initiator of the
non-fraternization policy in our company.

“Nate, I love you as if you were my son by blood; you will always be my son. I couldn’t
stand to see you like that anymore. Watching you push us all away. You were never
going to heal that way.”

“But, Sadie and Will… You were going to fire one or both of them,” I said, still slow
on the uptake.

Jack sighed. “I really hated to see Sadie go. We were already thinking about altering
the policy when we found out. By then it was too late. The good thing is they already
decided she was going to stay home with the baby. I wrote a letter of recommendation
for her to use in the future.”

My head was spinning. Jack planned it? Put us together on purpose? “Why me? How did
you know I was…dead inside?”

An apologetic look flashed on his face; he felt guilty. “It was little things I noticed
about you, and one was that you wore the same expression Nathan did when you thought
no one was looking. Also, when I received your background check…I was quite disturbed
by what I read. Filed for emancipation at sixteen. I needed to know more, so I looked
into it.”

I tensed, and my eyes widened. He knew. Mr. Holloway knew.

“Yes, Delilah, I know about the abuse you suffered at the hands of your family. You
were broken. I studied you in the office for weeks. It was the little things. You
kept to yourself, besides Caroline. You avoided eye contact and shied away from men
who bared any resemblance to your father or stepbrother.”

I froze, staring at him in horror. “But, why? Why would you look me up? Dig into my
past?”

Jack’s head bowed. “I apologize. I know it was wrong.”

“I don’t get
why
?”

“I’m sorry. I never intended for you to know I had gone so low, that I ever doubted
your loyalty to the company.”

My loyalty to the company?
  My chest tightened, and I found it difficult to force out the words. “When did you…”

“Four years ago.”

I heard a gasp to my right and looked at Nathan. Four years ago, Jack lost his daughter;
Nathan’s wife.

“Why then?” I asked.

“Antonio,” Jack said, and I stared at him confused. “When the relationship with Antonio
and Karen blew up, shortly after… It was maddening, what I found out, and I became
obsessed. I had to know everything about
all
of my employees. I was not going to allow anyone else to get hurt. Any background
check that came back questionable, I dug into. Yours was the one of greatest concern
to me at that time, Delilah.”

“Why me? What happened that would make you do all that?”

“Antonio was using Karen to gather information for him. It was when Antonio was caught
with another woman that Karen went off and spilled everything. None of us knew… I
trusted Antonio.”

“You aren’t making sense. What is the deal with Antonio?” Nathan was just as confused
as I was.

I was there when things blew up, but it was becoming apparent I didn’t know anything
about the sordid details. “You put the non-fraternization policy up because of them.
I don’t see the connection.”

Jack swallowed hard and looked straight at Nathan. “Antonio has a cousin he’s very
close with. I didn’t know. No one but Karen did. Antonio is Vincent Marconi’s cousin.”

Nathan’s eyes widened and his hands began to shake, evidence of the panic boiling
inside him. I slipped my hand into his, and he squeezed it. He brought my hand up
to his lips, placing a light kiss there and he took a calming breath.

“They killed my daughter. It made me sick to know someone close to me fed them information
to end the lives of my family,” Jack said. His composure faltered, tears brimming
in his eyes. “Excuse me.”

“The rumors said Antonio was fired because he attacked Karen.” I wondered now what
the truth was.

“He did. He became angry when she said she was ending their relationship, and she
wasn’t going to help him any longer. She said she was going to go to the police and
expose him,” Jack explained. “Antonio didn’t take to kindly to that. We found him
with his hands around her neck, Karen pinned to the floor. I’m thankful we made it
in time. It was a combination of that and the lawsuit by her that followed. Those
were the reasons we put the policy in place—to protect our employees and the company.”

“What happened to Antonio?” Nathan asked.

“Antonio was put in jail for assault and battery. Karen pressed charges, and I’ve
been working with the Feds ever since to make sure he stays in jail for a very long
time.”

“What about Karen?” I asked, afraid I already knew the answer.

Jack’s eyes saddened, his voice dropping. “Karen disappeared before she could testify.”
Nathan tensed beside me. “She’s probably fine. More than likely, the Feds put her
in witness protection. Don’t worry.”

Nathan was going to have a full-blown panic attack if he kept on the current train
of thought that was circling in his head. I knew it would lead him to me and thinking
about if they made me disappear. He would pull away, and I wasn’t going to allow that
again. I was going to be with Nathan, Marconi be damned.

“When did you put this massive plan into motion?” I turned to Jack, trying to draw
the conversation away from Karen’s disappearance.

Jack smiled at that, still happy with his plan and the outcome. “When I decided to
move you and Vivian into the same space, I did so with purpose, more so than simply
you two sharing duties. I had already contacted Nate and offered him the position.”

“But, that was four months before Vivian left,” I said in shock. He’d planned it,
planned the whole thing.

That caught Nathan’s attention, and he was back in the conversation.

“I had to give Nathan time to take a few classes and get caught back up after being
away for a few years, before I fired Vivian.”

Nathan snorted and shook his head. “The combined office was a set up.”

“Yes,” Jack revealed. “I really hoped you two could help one another. I want you both
to be happy. She wouldn’t want this for you. She would want you to move on, not trapped
in this purgatory you’ve created.”

“How do you know what
she
would have wanted?” Nathan asked with a scowl on his face.

Jack’s expression faded. “Because that was her nature. She always wanted you to be
happy.”

“It’s so hard,” Nathan said. The pain was evident in his voice.

“Why?” Jack asked.

“Why is she dead, Jack? Why is your daughter buried six feet under?”

Jack sighed. “Because there are bad people in the world, Nate. You can’t control what
they do. No one can, so we deal with it and move on.”

C
HAPTER
13

J
ack’s reveal still had me in shock days later. Not only did he know about Nathan and
me, he orchestrated the entire thing. He said it was still going to be a few weeks
before the new policy rolled out, and even then, Nathan and I were not safe. It allowed
two people to be in a relationship as long as they were not in the same section, such
as Nathan and me, or directly over someone.

So, we would remain in hiding until we figured out what to do professionally. Overall,
we thought it best to stay as is—secretive about our relationship. We didn’t need
any added stress at the time.

Nathan was acting strange. He had an overwhelming desire for me to see the remodeling
of his condo. I reminded him I’d seen it a few weeks prior with Erin, so I didn’t
know what he was going on about, but followed anyway.

He held the door open and I hobbled through, where he picked me up and headed toward
the darkened living room. He set me down and I turned in his arms, only to be blinded
by the light coming on and a loud “Surprise!”

Standing in Nathan’s condo were all my friends and my family smiling and awaiting
my response: Teresa and Armando, Caroline and Ian, George and Sarah, Erin and Trent
along with their little boys, and Andrew. I was stunned speechless, as well as confused
until I looked to see a huge banner hanging above the mantle that said “Happy 30
th
birthday, Lila! We love you!”

It was my birthday? I hadn’t even noticed, like every one that came before.

I looked around the room and found a beautiful cake decorated in varying shades of
red from wine to pink, a table full of gifts, and one full of food and drinks. There
were even party hats which I had no doubt were Erin’s doing. Best of all, the walls
were sans holes.

I was so overwhelmed; my lower lip began trembling, my eyes stung with tears, and
I turned into Nathan’s chest. My fingers clenched around the fabric of his shirt,
and he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight, placing a kiss on the top of
my head.

“Happy birthday, Honeybear,” he said.

The tears left my eyes, slipping down my cheeks.

Everyone came over, and Nathan released me so I could give them all hugs. They all
wished me Happy Birthday, told me they loved me, and were happy I was better.

We all had a wonderful evening, my first birthday party…ever. We ate, drank, told
stories, laughed, drank some more, opened presents, and enjoyed each other’s company.
It was the perfect celebration.

I was presented with the beautifully decorated birthday cake, another first, and blew
out the candles, making my very first birthday wish. I knew what I asked for was a
lot, but I also figured I had twenty-nine previous years of wishes I was due.

Nathan woke with a start, jostling the bed. I was blinded when he turned on the light,
and he began a frantic search in the nightstand.

“Nathan?” He jumped from the bed with the dream journal Dr. Morgenson had given to
us in his hand.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said, walking out into the living room. I lay back down and
tried to get to sleep, but I tossed and turned with worry.

Sniffles echoed off the walls, cutting through the silence of my condo. He was crying.

I must have fallen asleep not long after because an hour later, Nathan was shaking
me awake. I shifted to face him. The expression he wore confused me; it was triumphant
yet filled with sadness. In his hand was the journal.

“I need you to read this,” he said, motioning to the book in his hand. “I need you
to know.”

My eyes blurred, and I tried to focus to grab hold of it, but couldn’t. It was only
four in the morning, after all.

“Will you read it to me?” I asked.

He nodded and slid onto the bed next to me, and I curled into his side as he began
to read.

The world always seems to stay the same, but a person grows and evolves constantly.
From infant, to adult, and beyond. When you are younger, you’re invincible, but it
only takes one act to realize you are far from it and one act can destroy you.

I was dreaming. God and the Devil were playing a game of Chess, and I was the pieces.
Each time a piece was taken, it was destroyed, turned to dust. Like in Wizard Chess
in
Harry Potter
.

A dark version of me, cloaked in shadow, was me at the point between the time in which
I lost Grace and met Lila; he was played by the Devil. A light version that reminded
me of myself fresh out of college, full of life, was being played by God.

In my sleepiness I confirmed that Nathan had much more interesting dreams than I did.

I noticed the hand of the King on the light side had a red string wrapped around his
pinkie finger, the end dangling down, and the dark version had a pile of ash in his
hand.

It was an odd dream to have; I’m not religious. It was even odder when I realized
all the pieces were protecting not the King, but the Queen. The dark me had the morbid
decaying Grace, while the light me had a broken winged angel Lila.

My mind woke more at his last sentence. Me, an angel? I was nowhere near angelic,
broken wing or not.

If I really thought hard, it wasn’t that odd.

I watched as they strategically played the pieces. Pawns were lost, bishops and rooks
broken to bits, and castles crumbled to the ground until all that was left in the
middle of the board were the two Kings. The Queens stayed locked in place. The rules
were different, but I supposed God and the Devil could make up whatever rules they
wanted.

The ultimate showdown began, and I watched my two halves fight for survival.

There was a loud, splintering crash, and when the dust settled, the victor was revealed.

I was awake, my mind immersed in his story. My body tensed as Nathan paused. We had
reached the climax. I knew, just knew, the outcome would define our future.

The light.

I stopped breathing, my body frozen, curled up against his. Was it true?

God won and beat the Devil. He laughed jovially while the Devil cursed.

The light King ran across the board to Grace and took her to God, begging him to let
her in and keep her safe. God agreed, saying her soul was already safe and she was
happy in Heaven. He said he had a message from her.

“Be safe,” God spoke in Grace’s voice. “Be happy. Live, Nathan. Live for the both
of us, make the most of it. Love with everything you have, and don’t be afraid. Fear
is a product of the Devil. Don’t let him rule you.”

He made her a promise of affirmation before rushing over to the broken angel, taking
her into his arms and declaring his love and life to her. She too, had a red string
hanging down from her finger, and when she took his hand the two strings came together,
binding them as one before disappearing in a flash of brilliant light.

Tears pricked my eyes when he spoke of the red string.

The red string of fate: soul mates. Destined lovers regardless of time, place, or
circumstance.

When I awoke, I reflected on the dream and realized why it was that Lila was the angel.
My time with Grace was up; her thread of life was gone. Lila was hope. She was love,
and she was life. She would be my resurrection, and in this new life, the fates would
bind me to her and she would make me whole.

I lay frozen in his arms, taking in his dream, lost in thought.

Could it really be this was Nathan’s mind saying enough? That he had overcome his
final hurdle needed to be over Grace? He had reached acceptance after all this time?

My head moved up to look at him, hoping what I understood his dream to mean was indeed
the truth.

“I will always love Grace, and I will always hurt when I think about her and my son,
but they’re gone now. You are my everything, my future, my Lila. I’m
in
love with you. I’m so in love with you I can’t even imagine my life without you.
You fill my heart and make me whole. No one will ever compare to you or the way you
make me feel. If she met me now, I doubt either one of us would want the other. She
couldn’t handle the real me the way you can. With you, I am reborn.”

I stared at him in disbelief, uncertain of how to react or what to say.

There was only one thing I knew for certain: birthday wishes really do come true.
My mind was spinning with the dream he had read to me.

“I don’t need you to say anything,” he started, his eyes gazing into mine. “I needed
you to hear me out. I’m ready to let go of some of the guilt that holds me back.”

Holy. Shit.
I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I was awake. Was it for real, or was it simply
a dream?

My emotions were all over the place. Was this an impulse? Would he retreat back into
himself in the morning?

I really didn’t want to get my hopes up, but his past behavior left me guarded.

“Take your time. I want you to think about what I said. We’ll talk more in the morning,”
he said, kissing my forehead and snuggling back under the covers, lingering longer
than normal. He pressed a few more light kisses at my temples as he pulled me close.

My forehead tingled as it always did when he kissed me there. Sweet and simple, a
contrast from his kisses in the beginning of our relationship, but it held so much
more meaning than the demanding ones. I liked the demanding ones as well, a lot.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t sleep. My mind replayed his dream over and
over again until I eventually drifted off.

I still hadn’t figured out anything the next morning. I wanted to believe it with
every fiber of my being, but the sting of the past kept rearing its ugly head.

We got dressed and the air was different. Very tense, but also uplifting.

“I want to talk to Darren about your dream.” He nodded in understanding. “I just…I…”

Nathan stepped toward me and leaned forward, placing a kiss on my forehead. “I’ll
give him a call and set up an appointment today.”

I sighed with relief. I didn’t need to say it; he knew because he felt the same way.
We needed Dr. Morgenson’s help for something that big and momentous.

As soon as we entered the office, he was on the phone, making an appointment. The
effort did not go unnoticed. He wanted it, needed it, as much as I did.

A short while later a text message popped up on my cell phone.

Couldn’t make appointment for today, so meeting him for dinner at Erin and Trent’s.
Will talk then.

Dinner couldn’t come soon enough.