"You said she would crawl back to me." Daniel spat, furious. "You said that if you cornered her, she would come back to me."
Nancy shrugged as she gazed outside the giant windows in his office. "We discussed this. You're supposed to come in as her savior," she reminded him, "and what's a knight in shining armor without a damsel in distress?"
Daniel clenched his jaw. "The specific damsel left New York. That was never part of the deal."
"She'll be back."
"How do you know?"
Nancy smirked, fixing her blood red lipstick. "Because she's a born martyr. She'll come begging on his behalf, and that'll be your chance to save her from oh, naughty, naughty me." The young lawyer laughed wryly. "It'll work, Danny, don't you fret. You'll barge in as her savior and make her forget about all you did to her-"
"I did nothing to her." He defended, adjusting on his seat. How wrong had he been to even only make a deal with the devil! How could he think that this foolish plan would bring his Allison back to him? "I would have gone to prison for her," he clenched his fists, remembering the endless arguments with his father years back.
"Sure, sure," Nancy rolled her eyes as she pocketed her lipstick. She turned around and went to him, sneering. "Oh, Danny," she said as she traced his features with her long fingers, "you're such a child. Didn't anyone ever teach you to take responsibility for what you do? Emma surely has learned that."
Daniel slipped out of her grip, standing up and going to the window, as if taking distance from his own misdeeds. "I never wanted to hurt her, I-"
"Yeah, yeah, you love her ... whatever." Nancy yawned. "Goodness, that girl must be a real bomb in the sheets if you guys get so whipped."
"You of all people should know that sex doesn't buy everything." Daniel mused, only to then sigh, raking a hand over his hair. "I was an immature brat that let slip the best thing that ever happened to him. And now it's too late ..."
"Do you even listen to me?" Nancy spat, getting irritated. "This is your chance, you moron! It's what we planned, isn't it?"
"The plan was that she would call me, desperate, when you cornered her. The plan was that I would swoop in when you made trouble for her, and she would be grateful to me and we'd mend everything. But she left. How am I supposed to fix anything when she left?"
Once again, Nancy rolled her eyes, walking up to him. This is what I get for working with imbeciles, she told herself. "Oh, my God, you're just as stupid as your father said." She flicked his forehead. "Think, idiot, think." She said. "She left in a hurry, with no money."
"But he's with her."
Nancy laughed loudly. "You think he has a penny for his name? Please. I can freeze his bank account just like that," she snapped her fingers. "But it's not even about that."
"Then what?"
The young lawyer sighed, tired of having to explain herself because her partner in crime just didn't get it. "Ok, listen, I'll make it clear enough for your tiny mind to get it." Nancy said, walking back to the windows. "Alex is on parole, and he just left the State. What do you think will happen to him if he misses the visit from his parole officer on Friday?"
"He'll go back to prison. So?"
"Your Emma-sorry, Allison, she's a born martyr. He got in this trouble for going after her ... do you think she'll let him go to prison?"
"No ...?"
Nancy smirked, nodding. "So ...?"
"I don't understand ..."
"Of course, not." She sighed, once again rolling her eyes. "She will come back to New York to bargain on his behalf."
"Bargain with ... who?"
"Me, of course." The woman sneered, eyes on the city's skyline. "Once she realizes what's at stake for him, she'll come begging me to free him from our contract."
"You're assuming that he'll tell her about it."
"Oh, please. Of course, he will. He'll feel bound to tell her everything just to convince her they are meant for each other and blah, blah, blah." Nancy scoffed. "She'll feel obliged to save him, because she's such a nice girl ..." She ignored Daniel's dirty look as she sneered. "As I was saying, she'll come begging me to free him from our contract."
"You'll deny her?"
"Obviously." Nancy pursed her lips. "So ...?"
"So ... she'll come to me?"
"Bingo." The woman grinned.
Daniel shook his head. "You don't know her like I do, Nancy. She'd rather starve than ask for help, my help especially." He sighed, dropping back onto his chair. "I should have taken the chance to make amends when she came for the interview," he scolded himself as he relented his tie, "I should have crawled to her feet instead of acting like the asshole she used to know."
Nancy rolled her eyes, feeling nauseous at the sound of those lovesick regrets. "Look, I don't have time to listen to you crying over spilt milk," she glanced at her watch, "I need to make sure everything is ready for the wedding."
"Wedding? What wedding?"
She shrugged. "Ideally, it would happen in about 3 months, but I might need to rush it a little bit ... my groom has a case of the wedding jitters, you see."
Daniel arched an eyebrow at her. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd say you're in love with this guy. You're going out of your way to keep him by your side ..."
"Ahhh, Danny," she laughed wryly, pinching his cheek, "you know what's your biggest problem? You never see the bigger picture."
He frowned, dumbfounded. "If you're not doing this out of love, then what ..."
"There are more important and greater things than love, Danny."
"Seems to me you're way more involved than you'd like to admit." Daniel argued. "You pretty much put your career on the line to overturn this guy's sentence, and then you even got in a relationship with him ... you laugh at me for doing all this to get Alli-I mean ... Emma back, yet you're moving mountains to chain Alex to you."
"You make me sound so cliché." She smirked.
"Maybe that's all it is."
Nancy laughed loudly – as wickedly as a woman that's about to make fur coats out of Dalmatian puppies –, truly amused. "Like I said, you always fail to see the bigger picture, Danny." She glanced at her watch. "I have to go now. You do what I said, and the lost kitten will be yours." Then, she made her theatrical exit.
Once she was gone, Daniel sighed, slumping against his chair. For a slight moment, he wondered whether Nancy was right. He and Allison – ugh, Emma, her name was Emma now, he reminded himself – had loved each other once, they'd been inseparable. Maybe not all was lost, maybe he could still make amends and start over with her ... if only he could wipe away all the hatred she nurtured towards him.
Emma Hudson may have been more compliant, but the Allison Healy he knew was a spitfire that would never accept anything from the man that was responsible for her ending up in jail, consequently ruining her life for good.
Daniel grabbed his phone, and opened his gallery. There was a picture he went back to over and over again every time he thought about her. They were together, laughing on the dock, having the best night of their lives, feeling free. A few hours later, drunk, he would convince her to steal his father's car, putting in motion the events that would pull them apart for good.
He'd thought about that night so many times over the years, regretting it dearly, and when she'd shown up unexpectedly, looking for a job, Daniel had thought it was destiny reuniting them at last.
Even when Nancy Dorsey, this high and mighty uptown girl he'd mostly met at those boring galas his father used to drag him to, had contacted him, talking about a mutual goal and a way to achieve it, he'd believed it was fate.
But was it? Was it really a good idea to partner up with this dangerous woman? What would his life coach say, again? No ultimate goal is worth sullying your soul; end justifying means is a mantra that only hurts your spiritual growth.
Daniel sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. Maybe he should find Emma on his own, before Nancy had a chance to set her plan in motion. Yes, he would do that. Hopefully, it wasn't too late.
✧✧ ✧ ✧ ✧
"So, you're supposed to be a ... couple for 13 months more?" Emma asked, trying to process everything she'd just learned yet remaining mostly unfazed. More than the whole revelation about how Nancy and Alexander's relationship was merely a contract, what took a toll on her was the fact that, simply, he had been lying to her, too.
"Yes." Alexander confirmed, playing with her hand as they lay together in bed, huddled to each other. He'd give anything to prolong that moment into eternity, but the sole fact that they were talking about such a harsh reality served to keep them grounded. "The contract expires exactly 13 months from now, which is the exact same amount of time left for parole, give or take a day or two."
"That means she owns you until then." Emma stated matter-of-factly.
He sighed. "I guess so, yeah."
"And simply not being in New York right now is putting you at risk."
He smiled tenderly, pecking her temple. "I told you, she covered for me. She won't give me away as long as she needs me."
Emma remained quiet for a few minutes, pondering. When she'd gotten off that bus, she hadn't thought about her next moves. She'd acted impulsively, because he wouldn't give up until she gave an answer, and she didn't want to give one. She'd thought that, giving in and remaining alone, would buy her some time. She'd never expected to learn such truths.
In a way, it changed everything. All that time spent wallowing in misery, torn by guilt, had been mostly pointless. Not only Nancy had known since the start, but she'd even made it happen. She'd pushed for the two of them to have dinner, remain alone ...
Emma remembered the day after, she remembered clearly the sense of guilt gnawing at her, the excruciating doubts about telling Nancy or not. To think that, all of that had been in vain. She hadn't broken her friend's trust, she hadn't violated girl code. They'd been manipulating her all along.
It was difficult to remain in his arms while thinking of how many times he'd lied to her. And if there hadn't been a straight lie, he'd definitely omitted a lot. Coming face to face with the fact that Alexander was, in that sense, just like everybody else, hit her like a ton of bricks.
Emma heaved a deep sigh as she hid her face against his chest. Could she trust someone that lied so easily? Someone that, even seeing her devoured by sense of guilt, hadn't even considered telling her the whole truth.
"I didn't mean to lie to you." Alexander's voice broke through her train of thoughts, as if he'd just read her mind. "But ..."
"You couldn't tell anyone." Emma filled in flatly, without moving.
"Well, yes, that, too, but ... it's just that I didn't know how to handle it."
She didn't reply, just closed her eyes, and silence returned for a few moments. It didn't really help, did it? Emma told herself. Learning that there had been no betrayal, because there wasn't a real relationship between Alexander and Nancy to begin with, didn't soothe her guilty conscience. At the time, she had no idea, she'd done it all the same.
As if that weren't enough, the way he put it, Nancy may have agreed to a sexual relationship, but in no way she was okay with them being more than just lovers. Then again, Emma reminded herself, was she okay with it? So many questions rumbled in her head, and so few had an answer.
"I can hear your wheels spinning." Alexander chuckled, placing a small, gentle kiss on her forehead. "What's tormenting you?"
"I'm fine."
"You're not."
"I am."
"Emma ..."
She pulled back, slightly moving away. "Between prison and this ... contract, do you honestly expect me not to need some time to take it all in?" She wondered out loud.
Alexander sighed. "It's messed up, I know. But ..." he grabbed her hand, looking into her eyes, "what are 13 months more?"
"Are you asking me to wait for you?"
He pursed his lips. "I guess I am, yeah." Gazing into her eyes, he asked: "Will you?"
Wolfie 🐺 note:
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