That One Time by Aja Foxx

Chapter Nineteen

~ Frank ~

 

I shot Henry a quick look before shaking both men's hands. "Please, come in." I waited until they walked past me before closing the door and walking over to stand next to Henry. "This is my fiancé, Henry Warner."

Henry stayed where he was, but nodded to both men. "Gentlemen."

"Why don't we sit down?" I grabbed Henry's hand and drew him over to the couch. I took a seat and pulled him down beside me. I did not let go of his hand. "Did you bring the papers I requested?"

"Yes." Mr. Evans set his briefcase on the coffee table and opened it up. He pulled out a large legal sized folder and handed it over to me. "I believe this is what you requested?"

I felt Henry scoot closer as I flipped the folder open and began reading. After I finished reading each page, I handed it to Henry. When I got done, I could only find one thing that needed to be changed.

"The payout amount if I am unfaithful is supposed to be ten million dollars, not five."

I heard a small gasp, but I wasn't sure who it came from.

"Do you have a pen?"

"Yes, of course." Mr. Evans handed me a pen. I crossed out the wrong amount and wrote in ten million dollars, and then initialed it before handing it off to Henry. He read it over and put his initials next to mine before handing it back.

"If you are agreeable to the terms, and have some form of valid identification, I can notarize them, and then we wouldn't have to have them rewritten and taken down to the office. I am certified in this state."

I glanced at the man beside me. "Henry?"

Henry nodded. "That would be fine, but is there any way we can get two copies notarized? One for me and one for you?"

"I can ask if they have a copy machine at the front desk," Mr. Franklyn said. "You'd have to sign both copies, of course."

"I'm agreeable to that," Henry said.

"Trevor, could you grab the small case in the backseat of the car," Mr. Evans said as he dug his keys out of his pocket and held them out. "I seem to have forgotten it."

Trevor grabbed the keys, and the folder, and then headed for the door.

I waited for the door to close before looking at Mr. Evans. "Does Mr. Franklyn work for you?"

"Yes, Trevor became one of the lawyers in my firm about a year ago when he moved to Seattle with his husband."

"His husband?"

"Yes, a nice young man named Stewart."

"Trevor is married to Stewart?" Martino snapped as if he had been standing right outside the door listening.

Mr. Evans spun around.

"This is my brother, Mr. Evans. Martino Galeazzi. Martino, this is Mr. Harold Evans, the lawyer I hired to facilitate the paperwork for Henry."

"Trevor is married to Stewart?" Martino asked again.

Mr. Evans nodded. "Yes."

Martino pulled out his phone and swiped his finger across the screen several times before turning the screen toward the lawyer. "Is this Stewart?"

Mr. Evans frowned as he looked at the picture. "Yes, but..." He glanced at me and then Henry before looking back at Martino. "How do you have a picture of Trevor's husband?"

"Because he used to be my husband and Trevor was his divorce attorney."

"I don't...I don't understand."

"It's like this, Mr. Evans," I said. "We have a conflict of interest here. Trevor Franklyn was the divorce attorney for my former brother-in-law and is now married to him. I do not believe it is ethical for him to work on our case."

"No, of course not." Mr. Evans straightened his tie and then smoothed down the lapels of his suit. "I can recommend another associate in our office, or if you would feel more comfortable, another firm for you to work with."

"I have a question,” Henry said. “Did Trevor know who you were coming to see today before you arrived?"

"Uh, yes, he is a junior lawyer in the firm so he worked on the file for me."

"So, he knew he was working on paperwork for Francesco Galeazzi and me, Henry Warner?"

Mr. Evans started to look a bit nervous. "Yes, I believe so."

"While Francesco Galeazzi is quite the unusual name, and with the name Henry Warner added in, I doubt he could have been confused. He had to know it was a conflict of interest."

Mr. Evans swallowed tightly. "I assure you, I was totally unaware of any of this. Trevor never said anything to me. I certainly would not have had him work on the case or accompany me today if I had even the slightest indication that—"

"Did you know Trevor's husband is downstairs in the lobby right now?" Henry asked. "I was in the lobby when he arrived. He asked for their room, saying he was Martino's husband. Then he left a note for Trevor to meet him in the bar."

"You should also know that Stewart conned me out of five million dollars," I added in. "He said he had evidence that my fiancé had been unfaithful to me and showed pictures that we know were doctored."

"And that was after he got five million dollars out of me when we divorced," Martino said. "In a word, Stewart is bad news, and I'm pretty sure Trevor is in this up to his neck."

Mr. Evans pulled a white handkerchief out of his pocket and began mopping his face. "This is going to ruin me."

"No, it's not," Henry said. "If you didn't do any of this, then you have nothing to worry about, but if we find that you did, if you knew anything, I will personally destroy you."

"Please, I knew nothing." There was a hint of desperation in Mr. Evans' voice. "I swear."

"I don't want to bring the police and the courts into this unless I have to, Mr. Evans," I said, "but I will if I have to. I need to know everything you know about Trevor Franklyn and his husband."

"It's not that much, I'm afraid. I didn't hire him and he's just one of a bunch of lower level lawyers we have in the firm. He was the one available when you hired me."

"What can you tell us about his past?" I asked. "Where's he's from? Who his references were? Any interactions you might have had with Stewart? Anything at all that you can think of."

Mr. Evans started talking, but it quickly became apparent that he really didn't know much. He'd only interacted with Trevor a couple of times due to work and Stewart at a couple of company parties.

"Is there any way you can get me a copy of his resume?"

"Give me a moment and I'll have my secretary email it to me."

"Actually, can you have your secretary email it to this email?" Henry quickly wrote an email address down on a piece of paper and then slid the paper across the table to Mr. Evans.

While Mr. Evans made his phone call, I turned to look at Henry. "What's your take on this?"

"I think Trevor and Stewart are working together and have been working together for quite some time. I just can't figure out what their game plan is."

"We know they are after money. It's always been about the money, but if they think they can fool me with fake pictures again, they're stupider than I thought." I'd almost lost Henry once due to them. I wasn't about to let them do it again.

Icy fear twisted around my gut when Henry gasped and reached for his phone. "Henry?"

Terror, stark and vivid, glittered in his eyes when he raised them to meet mine. "Eva."

Fear and anger knotted inside of me. "Call Ryan, check on her."

"That's what I'm doing." Except his hands were shaking and he could barely dial. I took the phone from him and punched in the number and then put the phone on speaker so we both could hear what was going on.

"Hey, man, when are you getting home?" Ryan asked. "Eva is starting to get worried."

"Ryan, this is Frank. Is everything okay there?"

"Yeah, everything is fine."

I gripped Henry's hand. "Where is Eva?"

"She and Arty just finished breakfast. I sent them to their room to play while I clean up."

"Can you check on them?"

"What's going on, Frank?" Ryan asked. "Where is Henry?"

"Just do it, Ryan," Henry shouted. "Please."

"Okay, okay. You'd think after a night spent out with Frank that you'd be in a better mood."

I could hear Ryan walking and a moment later, a door opened and the sounds of kids came through the phone.

"Hey, Eva, Daddy is on the phone."

"Daddy?" I smiled at the excitement in Eva's voice and hoped that one day she'd be just as excited to talk to me. "Hi, Daddy, when are you coming home?"

Tears swam in Henry's eyes as he smiled up at me. "Soon, poppet, and I'm bringing a surprise for you."

"What is it?" Eva asked.

"If I told you," Henry countered, "then it wouldn't be a surprise."

The relief I felt almost took the breath out of me. I was ready to turn this whole fiasco over to Martino so I could go see Eva with my own eyes and assure myself that she was okay.

"Feel better?" Ryan asked.

"I'll explain this all to you when I get home, Ryan," Henry said, "but things have been a little insane."

Ryan snorted. "You didn't have to get two kids up, dressed, and to the breakfast table by yourself. That's insane."

"Look, I'm going to be bringing Frank back with me to meet Eva. We're going to go to the park for a little while and then have lunch together. You and Arty are welcome to join us. We are going to the park after all."

"We might join you at the park so Eva has someone to play with, but I think we can find somewhere else to be while you guys all have lunch. Maybe I'll take him to that burger place down the street."

"Seriously, Ryan," Henry said, "its okay if—"

"Hold on, someone is at the door."

"No!" Henry grabbed the phone and started shouting at it. "No, don't answer the door, Ryan. Just stay inside and call the—"

Two shots rang out and then the kids started screaming.

"Ryan! What's going on?" Henry screamed. "Ryan!"

"Hello, Henry," someone said who was definitely not Ryan.

"Wh-Who is this?"

"That's not important. Is Frank there?"

I knew who it was. "What do you want, Stewart?"

The chuckle that came from the man was evil and dark. "Which one of these little darlings is yours, Frank? The boy or the girl?"

Henry gasped.

"They're both mine," Frank said.

"Twins? How delightful. Well, in that case, I want five million dollars for each of these little lovelies or you will never see them again. I also want use of the family jet, destination to be determined by me once I am onboard."

"Done," I said instantly.

"No cops, no feds, or they die."

My jaw clenched. "Understood."

"You might want to call an ambulance for Ryan so he doesn't bleed out all over the floor."

Fuck!

"Wait, how do I get the money to you?" I asked.

"I'll call and let you know."

The line went dead.

Henry lost it, screaming at the top of his lungs as huge tears slid down his face. I grabbed him and pulled him into my arms, pressing his head against my chest even when he fought me.

"Martino, call an ambulance and send it to Henry's house and then call Mama and Papa and let them know what is going on."

"What exactly is going on?"

"Call the fucking ambulance, Martino!"

If Ryan died, I'd never forgive myself.

I waited until Henry's cries had lessened to the occasional sob and then cupped his face and tilted his head back so I could look at him. "I will get our daughter back, Henry. I swear I will."

"Arty," Henry whispered.

"Arty, too." I stood up and then pulled Henry up beside me. "Mr. Evans, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to stay here until the police get here and they can take your statement. You can order whatever you want from room service."

"Of course," the lawyer replied.

"They said no police," Henry whispered.

"They always say no police, Henry." Besides, I wasn't exactly calling in the police. "But I don't want you to worry about that. We need to get over to the house as fast as we can. We need to make sure Ryan is okay."

I stuck Henry's phone into my pocket. I wanted to be able to hear it if Stewart called back. "Come on, Martino." I would have preferred leaving him here to keep an eye on Mr. Evans, but I needed him with me to run interference with anyone who might try and get in our way or not listen to us. He might be the only thing keeping me from strangling people.

The elevator seemed to take forever and by the time we got outside the hotel, I just hailed a cab. I didn't have time to go looking for my car. I ushered everyone inside, gave the driver the address. "Two hundred dollars if you can get us there fast."

The cab shot out into traffic. The driver made good time, especially considering the traffic. He pulled up in front of the house next to Henry's fifteen minutes later. I handed the driver our fare plus the two hundred dollars I'd give him. I held up another hundred dollar bill. "If you can stick around, we might need another ride."

"You got it, man."

I slammed the door shut after Henry and Martino had climbed out and then assessed the situation in front of me. There was no ambulance. I hoped that simply meant they had already left with Ryan. There were, however, a lot of cops.

I walked up to the closest one. "My name is Francesco Galeazzi. That's my fiancé's house."

"Can I see some ID?" the officer asked.

The three of us pulled out our wallets and showed the officer our IDs.

The officer grimaced as he handed them back. "I'm afraid there's been a shooting, sir."

"I know," I said quickly. "We were on the phone with Ryan when he was shot. I want to know if there are any signs of the kids."

The officer's face paled. "Kids?"

"Two, both four years old. One named Eva Warner. One named Arty—"

"Arturo Jones," Henry said. "We call him Arty."

I glanced down at Henry. "Ryan named him after my grandfather?"

Henry shot Martino a quick look before whispering, "We'll talk about it later."

Right.

"After Ryan was shot, we heard the kids screaming, and Henry had just gotten off the phone with Eva, so we know they were here."

"Hold on while I get the detective in charge."

Henry waited for the officer to walk away before looking up at me again. "How could Stewart tell us to call an ambulance for Ryan and not expect the police to be involved in this mess?"

"Simple," I said. "He's an idiot."

I don't think he understood how much this act of insanity was going to bite him in the ass.