The Biggest Part of Me (16 page)

Ed hurried to the door and taking her elbow led her to a high backed leather chair across from his desk.  He sat on the arm of the chair and began massaging her shoulders.  “My poor darling.  You’ve been working too hard.  What you really need is a night out on the town.  What do you say?  A quiet dinner, maybe a carriage ride, and then—“

“Ed.  I need to ask a professional favor of you.”

Ed’s face turned to concern.  “Sure, what do you need?”

Jane determined that she was going to be strong, but the words would not come.  She handed the document to Ed.

“What’s this?”  He looked the document over.  The concern in his face turned to intense concentration as he moved to sit behind his desk. 

“I, I found this. Please tell me this is a fake or some crazy kind of a joke.”

“I don’t know, Jane.  At first glance it looks pretty legit to me,” Ed said without looking up.  Silence filled the office as Ed continued reading.  Finally, he put the document down and grabbed his pen and pad.  “You don’t remember this date?”

“Of course I remember that date.  It was the day after my twenty-first birthday.”

“And you don’t remember . . . getting married?”

“Of course I don’t remember getting married!” Jane said as she left her chair and began pacing.  “Look, here’s what I do remember.  Jason and I went out to celebrate my birthday.  We met some friends and had dinner.  Then, just because I could, we went bar hopping.”  She hesitated.  “I drank entirely too much and don’t really remember anything else about that night.”  She lifted her eyes to look sheepishly at Ed.  “The next morning I woke up in a little motel room in Georgia.”

“Were you alone when you woke up?”

Boy, this was hard.  She hated airing out her past in front of anyone, let alone the man she had planned to marry.  She twisted her hands together trying to figure out a good answer.  When a good answer didn’t come she went with a short answer.  “No.”

“Jason Collins?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

There was silence again. 

Ed began tapping his pen on the desk in a nervous staccato rhythm.  When she could not longer stand it, Jane said, “Say something.  What should I do?”

Ed leaned back in his chair.  After gathering his thoughts, he said, “Here’s what we’ll do.  Let me investigate this, see if it’s legal.  I’ll come to your office when I have any news.  Then we’ll proceed.”

“Proceed?”

“Divorce, Jane.  There shouldn’t be any trouble dissolving this so-called marriage.”  A little concerned he added,  “You do want me to start divorce proceedings, don’t you?”

Aggravated beyond her ability to think, she rose to leave the office. “You’d better hold off on the divorce and get ready to defend me.”

Surprised, Ed said, “For what charge?”

“Murder!”

The rest of the day dragged by as Jane waited for word from Ed.  Thankfully, she hadn’t had to talk to Jason all day.  Meetings regarding CARL’s development were keeping him busy.  Thank God.

Just before six, Jane sat at her desk doing paperwork when she looked up to see Ed standing in the doorway of her office.  Her heart raced as she asked, “Well?”

Ed walked in, closed the door, and sat without saying a word.  This was bad.  He dropped a manila folder casually on her desk.  She opened the folder to see the marriage certificate along with notes and verification of the justice of the peace, place, state seals, etc.  “It’s legal and binding, Jane.  There’s no record of an annulment or a divorce.  I’m sorry.”

“Why, that lousy son of a . .”  Her voice grew heavy with a mixture of anger and confusion.  The ring of Jane’s finger felt incredibly heavy.  She worriedly began to move it up and down.

“Are you okay?” Ed asked gently.

“No.” If it hadn’t been happening to her, Jane might have thought the situation humorous.  After the previous evening with Jason, she had been thinking of some way to call things off with Ed but this certainly wasn’t the way she’d intended.  Looking down at her hand, Jane took the ring off.  “Ed, I need to give you back your ring.  I wouldn’t feel right wearing it.”

Surprised, Ed said, “Jane, we’ll get all this straightened out.  You don’t need to do anything drastic.”

Knowing in her heart that she was doing the right thing, she handed the ring to Ed.  She shook her head saying, “No, I can’t be engaged to you and married to him.” 

Ed looked at the ring.  Then he leaned forward with a devious smile on his face.  “Listen, if you really want to get even, why not go the distance.  Sue for divorce and half of his company.”

Jane was shocked.  “Ed Simpson, I can’t believe you’d suggest such a thing.  I don’t want his money.”

“No?  You have a right to it.”  Ed was practically salivating at the thought.  “Technically you were married while he made his fortune.  It’s half yours.”

“No, it’s not.”  Jane grabbed the folder, her coat, and her purse.  “I don’t want it.  In fact, I don’t want
anything
that has to do with him,” she stated as she stormed out of the office.

“Well, thank God for that,” Ed murmured.

Arriving home after a long day of meetings, Jason set his briefcase on his dining room table and walked back into the kitchen to make a ham sandwich.  What he really needed to invent, he decided, was a toy to make him dinner.  Cooking was not his forte.  His jacket and tie came off before he opened the refrigerator to inspect the contents.  As he stood there looking for ingredients he unbuttoned his top button and ran his hands through his expensively styled hair.  He grabbed a chilled apple and went back to his living room couch.
I’ll just lie down and watch the news for a few minutes
, he thought taking a big bite of his apple.

An hour later, the ringing of the building intercom shattered the deep sleep that Jason had fallen into.  Bleary eyed, he stumbled over to the unit by his front door to answer. 

              “Mr. Collins, there’s a ‘Jane Kendall’ here to see you.”

             
Trying to wake up by rubbing his eyes and stretching, Jason directed the doorman to allow her up to his penthouse. 

             
Interesting.  What was Jane doing here?  Was there a problem with the ad campaign?  Did she want to take up where they left off the night before?

             
Before he had time to think through the possible answers, she was banging on the door.  “Open up, Collins.  I want to talk to you!” Upon the door opening, Jane stormed into the room like a whirlwind.

             
“I cannot believe what you’ve done.  How could you not tell me?  Do you know how I feel?” Jane shouted.

             
“Good to see you, too.”  Jason was puzzled as he closed the door.

             
Jane looked up at him, trying not to notice the “just woke up” look on top of his gorgeous looks.  His eyes were still a little droopy, his hair sticking up, and his shirt rumbled.  He was delicious.  Blinking hard and rediscovering her anger Jane lashed out, “Jason Collins, I thought we had meant something to each other.  Now I find that you have deceived me all these years.  Why couldn’t you tell me?  Why did you hide this from me?”  Jane quivered with anger.  Her voice shook as she dropped the manila file folder on his coffee table. 

             
Jason was completely confused.  However, he did notice the absence of an engagement ring on her finger as Jane stood there with hands on hips.  He would have cheered and pumped his fist in the air if he hadn’t seen the fury in Jane’s face.  “Janie, sit down and tell me what’s wrong,” he said glancing at the folder and placing his hands on her shoulders to comfort her.

             
Jane pushed his arms away.  “Don’t you try to calm me!  I am so angry I could . . . I could . . .” Jane started banging her fists into Jason’s chest as she screamed.  Jason grabbed her wrists hard and held them.

             
“All right.  You’re upset at me.  I get that.  Could we please sit like rational adults and discuss whatever has you so mad?”

             
“Why, by all that’s right in this world, didn’t you tell me we were married?”

             
Jason was more confused.  “What are you talking about?”

Jane pulled her hands away and motioned to the folder.  “I’m talking about that!”  

Jason sat on the couch and opened the folder.  How did she get a hold of the marriage certificate?  He slowly looked up into her furious eyes.  “Honey, let me explain.  Let’s talk about this.”

             
“Don’t you ‘honey’ me.  There’s nothing for us to talk about.  I’d rather let our lawyers do the talking.”  She turned to leave but Jason was quicker, jumping up and grabbing her arm.

“If you’ll just wait and listen to me, I can clear this up.”

“You’re seven years too late!”  Then she kneed him in the groin hard.  Jason doubled over, releasing her arm and falling on his knees as stars appeared before his eyes. 

Jane stomped towards the door.  She stopped when she heard his pitiful moaning.  Feeling repentant for bringing him to his knees, she turned.  “Did I hurt you badly?” she asked trying not to feel too sorry for him.

“That’s all right.  I didn’t want to have children anyway.”  Jane grimaced.  “Janie, you don’t understand.  We’re not married anymore.  Please, sit down and let me explain,” Jason said hissing the words through his teeth.

Jane thought for a moment and then took her coat off and laid it and her purse in a nearby chair.  “All right.  I’m ready to listen, Jay.  But I can’t see how anything you say will change the past.”

“I don’t mean to imply that it will change the past.  I just want you to hear my side,” Jason said as he hobbled to the couch.

Jane followed him and defiantly crossed her arms.  “All right.  I’ll listen.  Then I think we should plan the divorce.”

The music was loud and the smells were heavenly.  People at the Jacksonville Landing knew how to celebrate.  Jason wanted the best for Jane’s twenty-first birthday party.  He had reserved a table at one of the fine restaurants for fifteen of Jane’s closest friends.  The look on her face as they entered the restaurant and she saw those special people made all the planning worth it for Jason.  Jane was so moved.  She gave a long, lingering kiss to Jason as everyone cheered.

During dinner, Jane’s eyes sparkled as she talked.  Jason thought her eyes were like sapphire stones, glittering with life and love.  He was completely mesmerized.  Until talk at the table went to Jane’s plans. 

Jane played with the wine glass as she spoke, delighted that she was now allowed alcohol in restaurants.  “I can’t believe I’m leaving for Europe in a few weeks.  A whole week to explore the continent and then Oxford.  Please, somebody pinch me!”

Jane’s best friend Julie said, “Well, you be careful of those European men.  I hear they tend to love ‘em and leave ‘em.”
              “Hey, I’m only there for the culture.”  Everyone laughed.  Everyone except Jason.  He was not too happy.  In order to keep his sanity, he began looking around.  His mind became busy imagining a Lego type toy of the Jacksonville Landing.  He imagined all the brightly colored pieces.  Surely, it could be a huge seller.

When the conversation turned to other things, Jane looked over at Jason who seemed to be deep in thought.  He was nervously fingering something in his pocket.  “Is something wrong?” Jane asked.

He looked at her bright, shining eyes and smiled.  “No, everything’s fine.  Are you having a good time?”

Jane took his arm wrapping hers around it.  “The best.  Thank you so much.”

After dinner broke up, Jason asked, “Where would you like to go next, sweetheart?”

With a mischievous smile she said, “I’d like to try a few different bars.”

“Janie, I don’t think—“

“Oh, please, Jay?”  Jane fingered the buttons on his shirt.  She looked up at him with her large, clear blue eyes.

Melting, he moaned.  “All right.  But not too much.  I don’t want you getting sick on my new shoes.”

One hour later, Jane was getting sick on Jason’s new shoes.  “All right, Janie.  Time to go home.”

“Don’t want to go home.  Having too much fun.”  Jane reached in her purse for a small vile of mouthwash and swished a little in her mouth.  “There.  That’s better.  Where we going now?”

“No, I think you’re done.”

Jane would have none of that.  She pulled Jason hard against her and kissed him, running her hands intimately over his back.  She whispered lustily, “Jason, I’m going overseas in a few weeks.  I don’t want to leave without a few more good memories.  I want them to be with you.”  Then she used her tongue on his ear driving him just to the brink of insanity.

The real insanity came later.

They hit every bar in the landing trying out the house specialties and more.  Jane had officially hit drunk the previous hour.  Knowing that he was driving, Jason limited his intake.  Even though he wasn’t technically drunk, he wasn’t thinking too clearly.  What happened next was more like a dream to him.