Page 58 of Damaged Billionaire Daddy
“What I need?” I looked at him. I probably looked as gobsmacked as I felt.
Caleb said, “I overheard you and that older guy talking about someone in the hospital. I didn’t know for sure where you would be staying, but I thought I would start here first. Looks like it was a good guess.”
I held onto the door jamb. I could feel the matron hovering behind me. “Yes,” I said through numb lips. “Mom is in the hospital. She has pneumonia.”
“Richie says you hate him,” Caleb remarked calmly, watching my face.
“I did say I hated him,” I agreed, “Pops and Mimi have worked too long and too hard on the vineyard and our specialty wines to just give it all up.”
“I thought it might be something like that,” Caleb said. “His business partner is a real hardass about commissions. I walked in on them. Delard said he paid him what he would have gotten. And the boss looks pretty much like a kicked pup. Do you really hate him?”
I thought about it.
“No,” I said, “And he wrote this sweet apology letter. I need to talk to him, but I don’t know how to reach him.”
“Well, weep no more, my lady,” Caleb said. “If you don’t mind riding in my rattletrap instead of a limo, I can take you straight to him.”
“You trust this guy?” the matron asked.
“Yes,” I said. “He’s...” I stopped. I didn’t know how to explain. “He’s a driver for someone I know.”
The matron looked at me as if she didn’t quite believe what I was saying. She pressed a card into my hand. “If you have any trouble at all, you call this number,” she said. “There’s help on the other end of the line.”
I glanced at it and realized she’d handed me the card for an abused persons hotline. I feel embarrassed and grateful all at the same time. “I’ll be alright,” I said.
Caleb bundled me into a rusty orange Honda Civic, and we hurried into a part of town that I’d never seen before. Tall, gleaming buildings make canyons out of the streets.
“Wow,” I said. “Just, wow. Richard lives here?”
Caleb drove into an underground parking garage. “Yep. I’ll walk up with you; sometimes the garage and elevator aren’t all that safe. You’d think as much as this place costs, it would have better building security.”
We didn’t see anyone on the way up. I stared around me in shock. Even the elevator screamed money.
At the door of the apartment, Caleb knocked before using a keycard on the door. “Richie?” he called out. “I brought you someone.”
“I don’t want to see…” Richard shouted back, coming through an inner doorway. He stood still and just stared.
“I read your letter,” I said. “I didn’t know where to find you, but Caleb showed up looking for me.”
Richard looked over my shoulder, and I glanced behind me.
“Already ducked out,” Richard sighed. “That’s Caleb. Come on in, let’s sit down and talk.”
I followed him, marveling at the off-white deep pile carpet, chrome and leather living room suite, and the big picture window that looked out over the city. “This is your place?” I blurted.
“Yeah,” he said. “Or to be more exact, it was mine and Kayla’s. That was before she left me at the altar. I’m thinking about letting it go.”
“Which means exactly what?” I asked, perching on the edge of a square-cut leather and chrome chair.
“It means that since my lease is up at the end of the month, I’ll move out. It isn’t really my taste.” Richard sat down on a chair as if he was afraid it might break under him.
“Were you serious about not buying Pops and Mimi’s place?” I felt as if I had turned into a question machine, kind of like one of those fortune telling kiosks. Put in a quarter, ask a question like, “does he love me?”, and get back a little card that has a pithy saying.
Only, the questions I was asking and the answers I was getting could affect both our lives forever.
It gave me a shiver of goosebumps up and down my arms, and a feeling of nausea in my stomach.
“Yes,” Richard said. “It was importantto you . . .”
