I was sitting at my desk, trying to get some real work done. The problem was I couldn’t stop thinking about Vicki. “Mr. Reigns, Mr. Bronte is on line one,” my assistant told me. Bronte is the lead attorney on the civil case against Victoria. I had left a message for him this morning, telling him I wanted to drop the suit. Maybe after I talked to him, my frame of mind would be better.
“Herb! Thanks for getting back to me.”
“Alex, I got your message about dropping the lawsuit. I have some concerns…”
“Listen Herb, there’s no need to argue with me. My mind is made up. I want to drop this suit. It’s ridiculous and should not have ever been started in the first place. I let other people do my thinking for me. I don’t want to do that any longer.”
“Well, as much as I disagree with you and fear for your assets in this case, I won’t argue with you. You’re the boss. I also received word from Miss Hart’s attorney this morning. She’s dropped her suit as well.”
“Really? Did he say why?” I wondered if it had to do with our talk. That was what drove me to it. Not so much her words, but the feelings she expressed to me in her eyes. She didn’t want this or anything material of mine. That much I firmly believed.
“Pretty much the same silly reasons that you’re giving me. She told him it never should have been filed in the first place and that she didn’t want a dime. Maybe we could still get her to sign an agreement that states she doesn’t want anything and doesn’t feel entitled to anything and won’t sue in the future for anything…” I hung up on him. I didn’t want to hear her called a gold-digger anymore, even if it was in a roundabout way. For some reason, the news that Victoria had dropped her suit made me feel ecstatic, like the stressors of the past several months had suddenly been lifted. It’s not about the money; it’s about the fact that it proves I was right about her. I knew that she wasn’t a gold-digger and I suspected she had feelings for me. I think this proved both of those things. Where to go from here was still a question I’d have to give a lot of thought to but at least I had a starting point.
I dialed the staff number for my home and waited for Karen to pick up. “Reigns’ residence, Karen speaking. How can I help you?”
“Hi Karen, it’s Alexander.” I’d known Karen my whole life. I felt comfortable with her knowing my personal business. She never shared it. She was one of the most loyal and faithful people I’d ever known.
“Well hello Mr. Reigns, what can I do for you?”
“I need you to get in touch with Victoria Hart and offer her job back.”
“Excuse me sir? Isn’t there a restraining order or something like that in place?” I knew that Karen liked Vicki and all of this had been hard on her as well.
“Yes, there is Karen, it was all a mistake. Please notify the other staff of that before Vicki gets back. I don’t want this to be unnecessarily hard on her. She’s pregnant, so I’m sure there will be some other restrictions, but I trust you to handle all of that. When you talk to her, tell her that if she’d like to come back, she can start the first of July. That will give me a few weeks to take care of the legal nonsense.”
“Yes sir.” She sounded pleased.
“Karen, be nice to her please. She’s been through a lot.”
“I like Victoria sir. I was very sad to see her go. I’ll be kind; you can be assured of it.”
“Thank you.” After I hung up with Karen, I called back the attorneys and we worked out what steps I would need to take to get rid of the legal restrictions on her being at the mansion. They would actually have to take the steps; I would just need to sign the paperwork. I told them to get on it at once and I wanted something on my desk by tomorrow. Then I made the second to last call on my list, to my wife.
“Alex,” Cassandra answered. She sounded like I was interrupting her.
“Are you busy?”
“In the middle of my massage,” she said. I wondered why she needed a massage every week when she never really did anything. “Why are you calling in the middle of the day? Is there a problem?” She could be such a witch.
“No, Cassie. I just wanted to tell you that I’ve re-hired Victoria Hart as the upstairs maid. She’ll be starting back on the first of July.” I didn’t have confirmation that she would say yes… but I was hoping and trying to stay confident.
“The blonde?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Why was she let go again?”
“There was a misunderstanding,” I said. I was hoping she’d leave it at that for now. I had yet to tell her that Vicki was carrying my child. I hadn’t wanted to let her get involved in the lawsuit. She would have been ruthless. Now that it would be dropped, I would tell her about it in good time. At least before the baby came. I fully intended at this point to be a part of my son’s life. “It’s been cleared up and we have had temps in and out of the house. I don’t like that. I prefer a stable crew.”
“Makes sense,” she said. “The one we have now is terrible anyways. I told Karen to tell the agency not to send her back. She made the bed with no top sheet yesterday!” I rolled my eyes.
“Good then, it’s settled. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Looking forward to it,” she said. She didn’t sound like she really was, but she said things like that so if I accused her of not being affectionate, she could throw it back in my face.
“Okay then, have a good day, Cassie.” I hung up with a smile on my face that my wife had nothing to do with. I was going to get to see Vicki again every day. I hoped.
Lastly, I called the payroll department.
“Payroll, this is Lydia.”
“Lydia, this is Mr. Reigns.” Lydia is another loyal employee that had been with me from the beginning.
“Good morning sir.”
“Good morning, Lydia. I need you to do something for me and I need it done quickly.”
“Okay sir.”
“Will you please figure up how many hours Miss Hart who was let go from my house staff in March, has missed if she worked full time from the day she was let go until the end of June?”
“Of course sir.”
“Wait, there’s more. After you do that, cut her a check for those hours and have it sent to her address by courier. I’d like it done today, and the sooner, the better.”
“Okay sir, I’m on it.”
I hung up with her feeling satisfied that I was at least taking steps to rectify the damage I had allowed to be done to Vicki’s life. I didn’t take precautions when we had sex… I was more responsible for this than she was. I was in a place of power and some might say I abused it. I had no intentions of doing that, but I had done it nonetheless. All I wanted now was to fix it.
VICTORIA