Peter and Lindsay Lahann are newly married. He is a partner in a law firm and she is the manager of a teen clothing store.
The last time around we focused on Lindsay and her step-daughter Sarah but this week's story focuses on Peter. Specifically I wondered why he was so happy about Lindsay's new job. Why was he so keen to keep Lindsay busy during the day?
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the delivery
“Samantha, would you come in here please.”
Peter closed the envelope and held it up as his assistant entered the office. “Where did you get this envelope?”
“It was on my desk when I came back from the coffee shop. I know that you were waiting for information about the Hall deposition so I brought it in with your coffee and left it on your desk.”
“Who signed for it?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders. “I was out so I just assumed that one of the other assistants signed for me. Usually Sophie keeps an eye on things while I am away from my desk and I do the same for her.”
“Go ask Sophie who delivered it and when,” Peter said abruptly. Samantha looked confused but got up immediately and did as she was told.
As she closed the door behind her Peter opened the large envelope once again. It was a plain manila — not the type of package he would expect to receive legal documents in but Samantha was new and likely did not know better.
The glossy eight-by-ten photos fell onto his desk and he flipped through them once again. The first shot was of him and a woman eating lunch in the back corner of a dark restaurant; him holding hands with his lunch companion; a quick kiss on the sidewalk out front; and finally one of him and his companion walking hand-in-hand into a nearby hotel. He recognized the images immediately. They were taken last week, during his business trip to Boston with his paralegal.
He shook the envelope one more time and a small note fell out. It was red marker scrawled on yellow lined stationary. “Is this why the new wife is hidden away at the mall – so she won’t catch you in your escapades? “ There were no threats, no ultimatums but Peter felt a cold chill run up his spine.
Lindsay… They had been married for less than a year and he had been sure that everything was under control. When they first met she was his housekeeper and she had asked him about working at the firm when she tired of cleaning houses. He told her it was impossible because of the firm’s ethics policy but nothing was further from truth. While the firm specialized in sexual harassment and wrongful dismissal cases, at least half of his partners were currently married to former assistants and just as many were fucking other members of the staff behind their wives’ backs. It was an irony they frequently chuckled about over scotch and cigars.
He wondered if he should talk to the other partners to see if they too had received a mysterious envelope today. Maybe it was an attack on the firm: it was an idea that had merit.
It could also be his ex-wife. The bloody woman was trying to get more money for Sarah’s private school and dance competitions. At sixteen, his daughter was already costing him a fortune and college was still years away. He would not put it past that cut-throat lawyer Susan had hired to pull a stunt like this to get some leverage. Lord knows Susan had never forgiven him for all of the indiscretions during their marriage. To ruin his relationship with Lindsay, that would be icing on the cake.
Peter got angrier with every passing minute. He worked hard to orchestrate things so that Lindsay was removed from his day-to-day life. He had encouraged her to take a job so she would be unavailable for lunches with the other partners’ wives. He bit his tongue when she found the position at the mall as the assistant manager in a teen boutique. While the job was an embarrassment, he knew that Lindsay’s new younger friends and lunches at the food court would never interfere with his own lunch-hour plans.
No matter who was responsible for this special delivery he had to keep the whole matter as far away from Lindsay as possible. He could not afford another messy divorce or another alimony payment.
There was a quiet knock on the door and he looked up to find Samantha sticking her head around the corner. “Sophie said she did not sign for any envelopes this morning. I also went to talk to the receptionist and she has been at her desk all day. She has signed for five packages and none of them were for you.”
“Thanks,” he said with a sigh. This was definitely not good news. Whoever was playing this game was closer than he had imagined.
Want to know more? .... Part 2 has been posted
1 comment:
Waiting for part two anxiously!!
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