That One Time by Aja Foxx

Chapter Seventeen

~ Frank ~

 

I'd had a busy morning. After waking up with Henry in my arms, I had laid there and just watched him sleep for the longest time, stunned not only that he was there, but that he had stayed the night. I had high hopes for even more nights like this.

After carefully sliding out so I wouldn't wake Henry, I'd showered and dressed and then snuck out of the bedroom. I had a lot to do and very little time to do it. I started out with calling Mr. Simpson and asking him for a recommendation for a lawyer in the area, someone that could see to my needs immediately.

Once I had a name, I started making phone calls. I was hoping to have everything in place by the time Henry woke up or soon after, but my plans were interrupted by the arrival of my brother. I almost growled at Martino when I opened the door and saw him standing there.

"What do you want?"

Martino's eyebrows lifted as he chuckled. "Well, hello to you too, brother."

I rolled my eyes and turned and walked away. I heard the door close behind me, but I wasn't stupid enough to think Martino had left. I was just glad I'd cleaned up the living room this morning. Henry's clothes were neatly folded on a chair in the bedroom and the butter packets had all been cleaned up.

"I'm expecting company," I told Martino. "I'm a little busy right now."

And I really didn't want Martino here when Henry woke up. I could understand Henry's anger and disdain at Martino, and I even understood that animosity, even if I didn't think it was true. Martino cared about me and his actions were based on that, not on a desire to keep me and Henry apart.

"Anything I can help with?"

"No."

"Oh, well, I just came over to talk to you about the merger. I met with Mr. Simpson like you wanted me to. I'm not sure of everything I was looking at so I brought the file for you to look over before I signed."

That actually made sense. Martino didn't do business acquisitions and mergers. That was my department. Maybe I could give it a quick look over and get Martino out the door before Henry woke up.

I held out my hand. "Let me see the file."

Martino set his briefcase down on the table and opened it up. He grabbed a file out of it and handed it over. I set the file down on the table and started flipping through it. Everything on the surface looked good, but I wished Henry had had a chance to go over it before now. I really didn't feel comfortable signing without having a forensic accountant go over the accounts.

Technically, it wasn't too late to hire him for the job, and I knew the money would be going to a good place. The care of my daughter.

"Leave this here with me," I told Martino. "I'll go over it better a little later."

"Okay, well, I'm supposed to meet with Simpson again in a couple of days."

"I should be done going over it by then." And hopefully, Henry would, too.

I clenched my jaw when Martino made himself a cup of coffee. I should have offered, but I hadn't wanted Martino to stay.

"So, did you find him?"

"Who?" I asked, playing dumb.

"Henry, of course."

I sighed because I couldn't lie to my brother. "Yes."

"And?" he asked. "What happened?"

"A lot, actually." I closed the file and pushed it away before leaning back in my chair. "Did you know that the pictures were fakes when you brought them to me?"

Martino's mouth started to drop open before he snapped it closed. "Is that what he told you?"

"That's what he proved to me." I got up and walked over to my briefcase and grabbed the photographs I'd purchased from Stewart. I tossed them down onto the table in front of Martino before taking my seat again. "Take a look at them. Pay special attention to the ones of Ryan and Henry in bed together."

"Frank, I don't want to see—"

"Look at them!"

Martino heaved a breath, but grabbed the stack of photos and started going through them. "Okay, so what am I supposed to be seeing here?"

"It's what you're not seeing."

"Come again?"

I grabbed the main photo, the one where Henry's hand was supposedly wrapped around Ryan's dick. "No wedding band."

"What?"

"When I proposed to Henry, I used a simple gold wedding band. It isn't in that picture. You can see the two rings in other pictures, just not those three."

"So? He took it off."

"Also, in the pictures that ring fits Henry's finger perfectly." I held up my hand and showed Martino Grandfather's ring. "This does not fit Henry. It's way too big. We were supposed to get it sized, but never got around to it. Henry kept it on his dresser, only wearing it occasionally."

Martino's eyebrows drew together as he frowned and glanced down at the photograph again. "I don't understand."

"It's very simple. That isn't Henry, but it's not Ryan either."

"What? His ring doesn't fit either?"

"I have no idea, but Ryan has a tattoo on his left shoulder. Where's the tattoo in these pictures?" I picked up a few of the others; the ones Henry had admitted were actually him and Ryan. "You can see it here, and here, and here, but there is no tattoo in any of these three pictures."

The more intimate pictures.

"Maybe he covered it up."

"Really, Martino?" Just how far was Martino going to push this, and why was he pushing so hard? Maybe Henry was right? "Why are you so insistent that Henry was unfaithful to me? Why do you hate him so much?"

"I don't hate him," Martino insisted.

"Seems to me you kind of do. You've certainly done everything you can to try and keep us apart. You even issued a restraining order against him when I never asked for one." I clenched my hands into fists as I leaned forward in my chair. "Did you know Henry was carrying my child when you had him arrested and thrown into jail?"

Martino gasped as his eyes rounded. "Your child?"

"Yes, my fiancé and my unborn child spent ten days behind bars because of that stupid restraining order."

Martino's face became and emotionless stone mask. "How do you know he isn't lying? How do you know he was even pregnant?"

"I know because I've met my daughter!" I snapped.

All of the blood drained from Martino's face. "Your daughter?"

"Henry didn't say he was pregnant to try and trap me into marriage. We were already engaged, remember? And he had signed the pre-nup and everything. He was not after our money. He wants nothing to do with our money."

"He may say that, but—"

I slammed my fist down on the table as I snarled, "Henry is not Stewart or Jack, Martino."

Martino's lips pressed into a thin line as he leafed through the pictures again before tossing them onto the table. He looked me straight in the eyes before asking, "Are you really sure he's telling you the truth, Frank?"

"Yes," I said without hesitation.

"Then I don't know what to tell you. Everything I saw said Henry was in the wrong here, but now you're telling me he wasn't. I don't understand how that works. How can you simply dismiss all of this? What about the text messages?"

"Henry and I had a long talk last night. He explained all of this and he made me see a few things. Stewart took a series of events, none of which would be questionable unless you were looking for something to pin on Henry, and tossed them all together, making him look guilty."

I had to search for the words to explain to Martino what I was just coming to terms with. "We were so worried about someone coming after our money that we automatically assumed someone was guilty without proof, so when evidence was presented to us, we could point our finger and crow that we were right. It was guilty until proven innocent." I shook my head in disgust at my own actions. "Henry never had a chance."

I grabbed the stack of pictures, the innocent pictures, and started slamming them down on the table one at a time. "Ryan and Henry were friends and study buddies. They spent a lot of time together. They studied together, they went out to eat together, and Ryan even brought his pajamas over to sleep on Henry's couch when they would study late into the night. These are all things friends do together."

I picked up the three more intimate pictures. "But if you add these pictures, there is a clear line of evidence of someone in a relationship."

"And the text messages?"

"All explained." I pointed a finger at Martino. "And one of them was Ryan telling Henry he needed to tell me that he'd spotted Stewart following him."

"You really think Stewart set him up?"

"I think that Stewart was after our money and when he couldn't get it through you, he came up with another way to get it. I also think none of us ever gave Henry a true chance because we were always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it dropped right into our laps, we knew we were right and Henry was guilty."

My burst of laughter was a cold sound, but I felt cold all the way to my soul. "I never gave Henry a chance to defend himself. I just assumed he was guilty. He didn't even know what he'd been accused of until yesterday."

"Fuck, Frank, are we that twisted?"

"Yes." I drew in a shaky breath. "And my punishment is the knowledge that I missed the first four years of my daughter's life because of my stupidity. I missed four years that I could have had Henry at my side, building a life with him and Eva."

"Eva?"

"Henry named our daughter after our grandmother because he said she was the only one who never said a hard word to him."

"Fuck." Martino pressed his fingers against his eyes before dropping his hand to the table. "This is going to kill Mama and Papa."

"And that's their punishment." They had missed out on the same four years as me. "Henry has agreed to let me see Eva, but he doesn't want any of you around her without supervision. He doesn't trust any of you." I was pretty sure he didn't trust me either, but I was working on that. "He doesn't want you around her at all."

"He...He hates me that much?" Martino whispered.

"He says he doesn't hate you, but he certainly doesn't trust you."

"I guess I haven't given him much of a chance to."

"None of us have. We were so concerned with making sure that no one took our money that we forgot people are innocent until proven guilty. Henry did everything we asked. He signed the non-disclosure agreement, he signed the pre-nup after making sure he had absolutely no access to our money, and he turned down every chance he had to get that money. And we still turned on him."

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"Hopefully, get to know my daughter and see if I can convince Henry to take me back."

Martino's eyebrows lifted. "You're going to try and get him back?"

"I want my family, Martino, and that includes Henry and Eva both."

That was all that was important now.