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Cora stepped toward him and reached her hand out, running it down the bulky muscular curve of his arm. “Are you sure you want to open that first? You know, we could do so much more with the time that we have than just looking at boring old paperwork. What do you say?” she asked in a coy and sensual voice.
He shook his head. “No. Open the envelope.”
She pushed her fat lower lip out into a full pout and slid one long red fingernail underneath the fold of the envelope, and slowly ripped it open. Taking her time, she gradually pulled the papers out of their sleeve and smirked as she handed them to Scott with all the confidence in the world.
“Here you go, daddy,” she purred softly.
Scott felt ill as he took the papers from her and read through the cover letter. A smile began to spread over his face, and a deep laugh echoed in his chest.
She looked at him in surprise. “What is it? What’s funny?”
Scott handed the papers to her and felt a world of relief flood through him. “That baby was fathered by your husband, not by me. That’s not my kid.”
Cora ripped the pages out of his hand and stared at them wide eyed as her eyes moved over the same few places on the page several times. “No…” she whispered. “No… this can’t be right! This can’t be right!” she insisted.
He shrugged. “It is right, and you’re not right. You should have had that test done as soon as you could, because now you look like a big fool. You went and gave that exclusive interview to the Times, and now you’ll have to admit to everyone that you aren’t carrying my child, that you just cheated on your husband and your own husband got you pregnant. Tough break, Cora.”
“No!” she snapped furiously at him. “This is your baby! It can’t be his!” She raised her voice.
“Well, that’s not what your paperwork says.” Scott laughed lightly. “Now, take your test results, and your baby, and go home to your husband and try to work things out, okay? That’s the best possible thing that you could do right now.”
She shook her head and he began to gently guide her to the front door. “No! Scott! I don’t want to go home to him! He’s an old man! I don’t want him! He just used me, and I didn’t know it until after we were married! I need you! Don’t desert me, especially not now with this baby! Please don’t desert me!” She began to sob and moan and Scott reached the door with her.
“You can work out your own problems with your husband. I’d suggest that you start by staying faithful to him and stop having affairs behind his back, then focus on being a good mother to his child.” Scott moved her to the front deck of the house and then closed the door behind her with a last goodbye and wave. “Don’t ever come back here again, Cora, there’s nothing here for you.”
He waited and watched her from the window as she made her way to her car, weeping miserably and screaming at alternating intervals. Before she got into her car, she picked up a rock from the front garden and threw it with all of her might at the window where he was standing. She swore loudly, and the rock missed the house and landed on the front deck nowhere near the window. She screamed in frustration, cussing again, and then got into her vehicle and left, and Scott knew that he was never going to see her again.
He grinned to himself as he headed to his office to call Harold. One more problem gone, and one more solution done.
The Final Chapter
Naomi was sitting at her desk when Reggie walked into the office. She looked up at him and her heart caught in her chest. She was not ready for him. She had most of the money she needed, thanks to Jennifer and all of the extra jobs that she had gotten as a result of the publicity from Scott’s house and Jennifer’s house, but it wasn’t as much as she needed to give to him, and her time was up.
He stopped at her desk and sat down across from her. “Good afternoon,” he greeted her with a kind smile.
“Hello Reggie,” she said, feeling her stomach drop out of the bottom of her and through the floor. It was over. She had done all that she could, and all that she could do had just not been enough. There was nothing for it. She only hoped that he could give her enough time to pack up the business and try to find somewhere to move it; or perhaps the new owners could let her have a week to move out.
The thought of anyone else owning her beautiful building made her want to cry, but she had been given a chance, an opportunity to make it work, and it hadn’t happened. She couldn’t do it. She knew that she had to face her responsibilities.
“Today is the last day of the month, Naomi. It’s time for us to talk about what we’re going to do with this building.” He leaned back in his chair and looked at her seriously. “Do you have the money you need to buy this from me today?”
She drew in a shaky breath and somehow tried to find her voice. “No, Reggie. I am sorry, but I don’t. We’re close; we have most of it, but we didn’t quite reach the goal. I thought we could get to it, or I would have told you earlier in the month that we wouldn’t be able to reach it, but it just didn’t happen. We have about ninety percent of it, and we won’t have the other ten percent for about two more weeks. Thank you for the chance and the time that you gave to us.”
He looked at her shrewdly for a long silent moment, and in that eternal moment, she felt like she died a thousand deaths. She was losing her business. She was losing everything that she had worked so hard for all of her adult life. Sometimes the race does not go to the good, she thought to herself.
He took a long deep breath and leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees. “You know, Naomi, normally I would not mix business with anything outside of business. Normally I would handle this differently. I would tell you that it is admirable that you tried to reach the goal in so short a time, and it is admirable, and I would then tell you that you would need to find another place to move your business, and I would sell this building to the highest of the two bidders that I currently have on it.” He cleared his throat.
“However… things are not normal in this case.” He smiled sheepishly as he looked at her and continued to speak. “I’m not sure if you are aware of it, but I have been seeing Malaika.”
Naomi stared at him and nodded, only barely finding a voice to reply to him with. “I am aware of it,” she answered him.
“Well, Malaika and I have grown quite close in a short time, and my feelings for her have gotten to be very strong. Very strong indeed. To that end, I do not wish to cause her any grief; any trouble or sorrow, and I know that selling this building to the highest bidder and sending all three of you to find another place for your business would do just that. She loves this job, and she
loves this building. She has not asked me for any favors or benefits for you as an extension of our relationship.
She’s kept her work here and our new bonds completely separate, and I deeply respect that. As a consequence of that, I feel like I should handle this matter differently than I normally would. I also feel that I owe it to my late father, who thought so much of all of you, to be a little more lenient with this situation. So, I am going to give you the extension of time that you need to collect all of the money.
You said that you could have it all in the next two weeks. I will give you another month. You will have the time that you need to collect that money that you need, and at the end of next month, I will make a final sale, no matter who buys this place. I hope that it’s you, and I will not make another offer like this one I am giving you right now, but I will give you one more month to reach your goal.” He leaned back and smiled broadly at her, and in that moment, she felt like the whole world had somehow righted itself.
