Chapter 61 (Robbie)

I lay down on my bed over the covers. After a few minutes, there was a soft rap on my door.

"No."

"It's me," Maria said.

I sighed, rubbing my face with my hands, "come in."

I felt her weight on the mattress when she sat down and felt her hand on my leg under my knee, "Robbie, please tell me what happened."

"I was a dick to Lia, and Viviana is off the rails crazy."

"Robbie, why?"

"I don't know. It runs in her psycho family?"

"No. Why were you mean to Lia?"

"Because it's easier to push her away than deal with her being close enough to touch and not being able to."

"So you want her to hate you?" she asked, her green eyes narrowing in confusion. 

"If it means never having to speak to her again, yes."

Her eyes softened, "Robbie."

"Tell me the truth," I said, looking at her, "is she sleeping with Justin?"

I don't know why I couldn't let it go. I thought obsessively about her Noah, and now that I knew it wasn't real, Justin replaced him.

"Not that I know of. I think he just kissed her. I know he asked her out, and I believe she said yes. Is that what that was today? A jealous fit?"

I rubbed my eyes.

"Yes," I admitted.

"Robbie, you broke up with her. You can't get like this. She's going to date again. It's not fair for you to make her feel bad when she's done nothing wrong."

"But so soon?"

"It's been almost two months, and now is when she's starting to see someone else. That's not so soon."

"I can't handle seeing her with someone else, Mar. I can't. I feel as if I'm losing my grip on reality."

"That's not your choice, little brother. She's her own person."

"I feel as if I'm being punished because I wanted her safe. Every time a guy even speaks to her, I just jump to conclusions. I imagine myself doing horrible things to him. It's so ridiculous, and I hate it."

"I'm so sorry, Robbie, and I'm so sorry they still follow her."

I took my arm off my eyes.

"What?" I asked, sitting up, "why would they do that. We're no longer together."

"I don't know."

"How do you know? Did she tell you?"

She gave me a funny look, "Yes."

"What the actual fuck Maria? Why wouldn't you tell me this?"

"Are you serious?" She said, standing up. "I told you three weeks ago."

"No. You didn't."

"Yes, I did, and you told me to fuck off."

I frowned, trying to remember what the fuck she was talking about.

The day of the interview.

I was so upset over Ted being a creep it didn't even register.

I shook my head, "How long, who?"

"Are we being...listened to?" she whispered the last part.

"No. I have set up, so they have an endless loop of me sleeping or watching Youtube videos on drones. It's riveting stuff."

"Okay, well, I don't know how long. Noah apparently caught the guy and ripped his camera off."

"Who was it? Lehman?"

"Who?"

"Lehman, the tall guy with the fucked up nose. He's come to some dinner parties. He's grandmother P.I."

"Oh, Carl? No. It wasn't him. She said he was skinny. Wait, Carl is a P.I? I thought he was a DEA agent."

"No. Why would you think that?"

"His car has really tinted windows," she said, shrugging.

"A lot of jobs require cars with tinted windows. Why would you jump to DEA agent?"

"Uncle Ted doesn't like him."

"Uncle Ted doesn't like anyone."

"Yeah, but he's like scared of him. Like really scared."

"Well yeah, he knows grandmother has him tailed, to make sure there aren't anymore fuck ups. Probably by Lehman."

We both snapped up to look at each other.

"You don't think Lehman would know something?"

"He would never tell us," she said.

"He was dad's best friend. If he saw something strange while dad was alive, you don't think he would mention something to us?"

"You don't think he would have mentioned something to dad? He obviously didn't. He's in grandmother's pocket," she said.

"When he comes to dinner, he always brings his laptop. His wife always gets upset he's working on his off time."

"You can't hack into a computer, Robbie," Maria said.

"Antoine can."

"No." She said, getting up from the bed and wagging her finger at me, "We are not dragging Antoine into this. We've been too reckless; Chris is already involved."

"Yeah, because you involved him."

"I know, and I regret I was too emotional. We can't bring Antoine into this."

"I agree, and we aren't. We tell him we just need the files for my grandfather's business. We won't tell him why."

She stared at me for a long time, "He gets nowhere near the house. You leave with the computer and meet him somewhere safe."

"That makes sense."

"Okay, I think next Friday is grandmother's birthday dinner; Lehman is always invited. I'll double-check and add his name to the guest list if he isn't"

"I'm going to talk to him too. Press him about dad. What do we have to lose?"

She nodded.

"You should apologize to Viviana."

"For what?"

"If they're still trailing Lia, it's because they think you two are together. It's going to be hard to prove otherwise if you abruptly end things with Vivi and she starts acting like a jilted lover. Plus, she has pull with the dancers. I don't want her punishing Lia over you being a jerk."

"She won't say anything."

"Come on, Robbie. Do you really trust her? I don't," she said, standing up.

"I just don't get why they still think we're together. I would like to know who the fuck was following her."

Maria walked across my room and stopped in front of the painting Lia made me.

"Well, Noah took his cellphone. It wouldn't be hard to figure out who it is if they haven't already. I haven't really spoken to him a bit. He and Chris are struggling to pass math."

"They?"

"Lia and Noah."

I covered my face with my hand. This was too fucking much.

"You know she spent like four weeks on this? She got like an hour or two of sleep the night before trying to make it perfect for you. It came out really nice."

I let out a sigh, "I know she loved me, if that what you're trying to imply."

"If things were switched, would you give up on her?" she said, turning to look at me.

"I cannot let them hurt her. I refuse to let them."

"You know I love her too. I was scared of something happening to her and pushed her away as well. Now I realize she is the most stubborn fucking person. I rather know what she's doing and be there for it than let her go off on her own."

"Is that why you're conspiring with Noah?"

"How do you know?"

I gave her a hard look.

"Does Lia know?"

"I don't know. I don't even know who she's dating."

She looked worried and then looked up at me, "Yes. He keeps me up to date. I gave him the information Chris, and I uncovered that he could share with her on our end. He isn't that bad, you know. He really cares about her."

I looked at her deadpan, "I'm sure he does."

"Seriously. And they aren't like that. Lia doesn't like him like that."

I shook my head, "right, she likes Justin like that."

"Robbie, don't you want this to be over? They can help us. Lia is strangely good at this. It's like she was a detective or something in a past life."

"I'm working on it. I have it under control. I rather you guys just stop."

"What have you ever done? Other than poorly convincing grandmother, you are fucking Viviana. I mean, geez, you have given the most minimal effort. It comes off as if you tolerate her at best."

"I do tolerate her at best," I said.

"Robbie."

"Maria, it's not that simple. This goes beyond Lia and me."

"Because of dad."

"No, because I'm being put in charge of a business made up of over 2,000 people who depend on me to feed their families. I can't just ignore that."

She looked down at my floor, looking embarrassed.

I looked at her tiredly, "Grandfather is an asshole. He had them making bullshit wages. If I let this go, it's 2000 families that lose things like health insurance and education for their kids. I have to make sure he can't touch that.

Believe me, I would do anything to have Lia. Anything. But I can't ruin our family until I can make sure those families are okay. I know Lia. She would never respect me if I did that. I want to be able to look at my girlfriend in the eye and not feel like a joke."

Maria bit her lip, "Robbie."

"I need time. I need to get all my ducks in a row. So that when our grandfather dies, there's an iron-clad contract in place, and grandmother can't touch it."

"Robbie, I am so sorry. If I had known this would happen when I asked dad to take me out of his will for the company, I would have never asked him to."

"It's okay."

"No, it isn't. Robbie, your plan is really noble, but Grandfather will never sign off on that, and Grandmother won't either. You have to know that. I'm so sorry."

"I don't need him to sign off on it. Either of them."

"Doesn't the company go to you and grandmother when he dies?"

"Nope. Dad never took you off. He only said he did."

She put the magnifying glass she was playing with down.

"What?" she asked, whipping around to look at me.

"Yeah. I just need you to sign off on it."

She blinked and shook her head, "No. Dad took me off the company. I told him to."

"You told him to take you off, sure, but he didn't. I spoke to his lawyer. He told me dad had fake papers drafted and gave those to Grandfather. The real ones, which are hidden somewhere, still have you as the primary inheritor."

"What?"

"Yeah. Dad decided to wait before taking you off. He died later that week."

"Wait for what?"

"If we're going to believe his journals and what Lia figured out, I guess wait to see if they kill him."

"Where are these papers?" She asked.

"That is the billion-dollar question."

Her mouth opened and closed a few times in disbelief.

"Robbie, this is everything. If our grandmother isn't on that will, then she can't give anything to Ted."

"No, she can't."

"It also creates a motive. The lawyer has to have transcripts of grandmother demanding to be put on the will in my place. You weren't there, dad thought you were too little to come, but she made a whole deal of making you seem like a child who couldn't be left as the sole inheritor."

"Yeah, I know."

"If we can find the driver and we can find the will, then those two along with those transcripts."

"We got them."

She jumped on the bed and threw her arms around my neck.

"But I need you to sign off on my contract first."

"Why? I don't get it. What's on that contract?"

"I want to make Lia the sole inheritor of the company if something were to happen to us."

"Like if they killed us?" She said, her eyes wide.

"God, I hope not. I really don't want to die. I just mean when everything comes out into the open about what grandmother did. It's going to make the company look really bad. We will lose so much money and so many investors in that scandal; I don't want to have to downsize and have to fire anyone. It's going to need rebranding. I want it to go to Lia under a new name. Right before anything about our family gets out. I don't want them to fear that the Bennet name would tarnish the companies success."

Maria stood silent for a moment and then smiled and shook her head.

"I think you handing over a billion-dollar company to your girlfriend will probably give grandmother a stroke. She won't even make it to prison."

I shook my head, "whatever."

She let out a genuine laugh.

"So we need to find that driver," she said.

"And the will."

She nodded, "Any leads?"

"To the will, no. To the driver, a few."

"I have some leads to the driver too."