Chapter 14
"Hey, Dad," Viv called as she walked through the door.
"Viv, what are you doing home?" Logan asked curiously, but he already knew she was coming home thanks to her text to Richard.
"The boys were driving me and Aunt Honor nuts. She didn't want to leave since she never gets to see them," she explained.
"I think that she loves that they drive her crazy," Logan said with a chuckle.
"Well, I don't," Viv replied. "I'll go back in the morning."
She goes into the kitchen to get a snack and looks around for anything that may suggest Richard was the guest for her father's 'business' dinner. She saw the extra plates in the sink to indicate that someone was indeed at her house for dinner. Lobster is not food for one of his regular business meetings. It's a long-standing family tradition, Viv thought. Time to start putting some pressure on him.
"Hey," she said walking back to the living room. "How did your dinner go?"
"What dinner?" he asked pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.
"The work thing you had. Looks like you cooked lobster," she reminded him.
"Oh, oh - that dinner," he replied.
"Yeah, that dinner...or was it a date?" she pried. She knew it wasn't, but she had to suggest it was something other than business.
"The dinner went well. It definitely was not a date," he averred.
"Oh, then who was it?" she asked continuing to probe.
"Just someone from work," he replied vaguely.
Lie! Viv thought.
"Seems awfully intimate for a work dinner. Are you sure it wasn't a date?" she pressed harder.
"I can assure you, it wasn't a date," he replied definitively.
"You don't just cook lobster for a work dinner..."
"I wasn't planning on being the one cooking, but Lena went home sick and it's what I had originally planned. So, it was kind of late to change the menu," he said starting to get a little more irritated.
"Really, Dad? That's the lamest excuse ever," she said pushing the limits. "Just admit it. It was a date!"
"Why are you so obsessed with whether or not this was a date? I'm far too busy to be interested in dating," he replied angrily. "Can we just love my love life alone?"
She had pressed a little too hard, and she knew it. Logan's ire seemed to come out of nowhere, but he couldn't handle any more of his daughter's prying. Sometimes, she didn't know when to leave well enough alone.
"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly. "I'll be in my room."
That certainly didn't go as planned. Wonder why he's getting so bent out of shape, and why won't he just tell me? she wondered as she made her way to her room upstairs.
Meanwhile, Logan started thinking about how his life had been thrown into chaos with Rory's revelation. He'd really felt like he was bonding with his son, although it was at the expense of nearly alienating his daughter. He was so wrapped up in figuring out the situation himself that he'd forgotten that it's not just about him. She had a right to know one of her best friends was actually her half-brother. He hated fighting with her, but sometimes she pressed a little too hard about things. He didn't want to sit on bad terms, so he went up to her room to chat once he'd calmed down a little bit.
"Knock, knock," Logan said as he rapped on the outside of Viv's bedroom door.
"Yeah?" she replied still feeling a little bitter about her dad yelling at her. He opened the door and stood at the entrance to her room.
"Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I'm just under a lot of pressure at work with the transition and the move. I just don't need any added pressure about my love life," he said apologizing for his behavior.
"Sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to pressure you. I just want to see you happy, that's all," she said.
"I get that, Viv, but that's the last thing on my mind right now," he explained.
"Oh," she said sounding slightly sad. She knew he'd been in touch with the love of his life, and wanted him to have a fair shot at love.
"I guess I didn't think you'd be disappointed by me not dating. I actually expected the opposite," he said.
"I know things with Mom weren't really great, and I think you deserve a shot at happiness," she replied.
"Thanks, Viv," he said. "That means a lot to me."
Logan gave his daughter a smile before he left her room. He was stunned at her honesty and maturity. He felt like maybe he should change his approach to things with Rory. He'd been so busy trying to cope with everything that happened over the last year that he hadn't really thought of himself. Things had gotten crazy with the divorce, and then with Odette's death. To top it all off, he was taking over HPG which required a move across the pond and a major shift in daily duties. He'd barely gotten his feet wet in the new position when Rory blasted back into his life with a revelation straight out of a Lifetime movie.
He had completely forgotten about himself in all of this, and now, his daughter was reminding him that he was allowed to find his own 'happily ever after'. He'd always seen it as Rory, even though it had faded over the years.
Is this my chance to find out? I'm so confused. I feel everything that I felt back then, but I think about the fact she didn't tell me about Richard, and it's hard for me to reconcile my feelings, he thought. He tried to shake the notion from his head. I don't even know if she feels the same. For all I know, it was just too much wine the other night.
"I still need to figure out how I'm going to tell Viv about Richard," he said quietly. He didn't know she was coming out of her door at that moment.
"Tell me what?" she asked. She already knew the answer, but she needed to hear the truth from him.
"Oh, nothing. I was just mumbling to myself about something from dinner tonight," he replied hoping she didn't hear all of what he said.
"No, you said something about me. I distinctly heard my name."
"Hate to break it to you, but there's more than one Viv in the world," he stated trying to play it off. At this point, he was certain she'd heard every word, and would push him on this one.
"And you mentioned Ritchie, well you said Richard, but even still," she said knowingly.
"Once again, there's more than one Richard in the world. Besides, it's the name of the colleague I had dinner with tonight." It's only a half-lie, he thought. He felt himself getting caught up in winning the argument and not the actual content of the fight.
He's telling half the truth, she thought. Time to push harder!
"Are you sure it wasn't my Ritchie? I thought I saw his motorcycle leaving the neighborhood as I pulled up." I've got him now! she thought.
"Did it ever occur to you that he knows someone in this area? He went to Chilton, so it's highly likely," he replied fending her off. She has to know the truth. That's why she's pushing, he thought.
"He never mentioned it when he was over the other day, and he's not really friends with most of the kids at Chilton," Viv explained countering Logan's rationale.
Dammit, he thought.
"Perhaps, it was someone else with the same motorcycle," he offered as a last ditch effort.
"Whatever," she said. "I'm going back to my room."
Dad seems to have an answer for everything, and I forgot he's better at this than me. I'm going to have to dig deep and get creative if I want someone to tell me the truth, she thought. Then, out of nowhere, it came to her. She knew exactly how she was going to get them to confess.
Damn, my daughter is persistent! Why didn't I just tell her the truth? My instinct kicked in and I battled back, that's why. That girl is too smart for her own good, but how did she know about Richard? Is that why she was asking about siblings the other day? It didn't help that I nearly slipped up and called him her brother, he thought.
After Viv went back to her room in a huff, Logan went down to his study. He didn't think there was anything in there that would point her in the right direction. He started opening drawers, looking for any sign that she'd been in there. The top drawers were slightly askew, but didn't seem to be out of place. It wasn't until he got to the drawer with the false bottom that he noticed things were really off. He rarely used that drawer, and it served only one purpose - to hide that letter. The one he wrote after that perfect night in New Hampshire, but never sent. It had been therapeutic and had become more sentimental as the years wore on. He'd read it to remind him of the time when he was most happy. It was a time before everything in Mitchum's plan came to fruition, thus turning his life mostly to shit, but he accepted that he'd essentially chosen that path.
Once he'd cleared everything off the opening, he pulled out the letter and looked at it. How could she know from this one letter? he wondered. The date. The date gave it away. The girl's got skills. He began to read through it. He hadn't read it in years. It brought a smile to his face as he imagined that magical night. He thought it would be the night that Rory would tell him that she wanted to be in a fully committed relationship, one where they'd be together forever. Instead, she said good-bye to him and the rest of the gang. At the very least, he'd hoped to keep a connection through the family home in Maine, but she cut all ties.
Logan had become an expert compartmentalizer, so he put his broken heart into a sealed box in his mind. At first, his inner circle asked about her, wanting to know if anyone had heart from her. Each mention of her name was like a knife through the heart. He never let anyone see the hurt, but eventually the pain lessened and she became the person no one spoke of. He'd tried to make things work with Odette, but she just wasn't Rory, and with each passing day became more like his mother. He played along in public, but at home, they lived separate lives except when they'd both had too much to drink at an event. She'd flirt shamelessly, preying on his lowered inhibitions and charged libido. The sex was an explosive battle for dominance, and in the morning, regrettable. They never spoke about it until she became pregnant.
The thought of having a child scared him, but he was determined to be a better father than his, so he embraced it. Vivienne's presence drew them together. They started connecting as a romantic couple, and things were tolerable bordering on good. It all changed a few months after their daughter was born, and the depression took hold. It was all downhill from there as she continued to withdraw from everyone. Logan hadn't even noticed she'd began an affair with her trainer. He'd been occupied with Vivienne and work. After years of keeping up pretenses, they were finally honest with one another, and ultimately, decided to divorce. Most things were settled with the prenup, but Logan didn't want to personally fund her new life. This was a point of contention because she wanted an increased amount for spousal support, and he thought she could get a job if she wanted more money. He didn't think he should have to pay for the new gym Odette's personal trainer girlfriend wanted to start, which is where the money would end up going. Thankfully, she didn't fight over Vivienne, and Logan got full custody.
Eventually, they settled on a one-time lump-sum, signed the papers, and waited for the paperwork to clear the court system. It was in that time that Odette moved back to Paris and met her untimely death. Ironically enough, it was near the same tunnel where Princess Diana's fatal accident took place. Logan worked hard to shield his daughter from the pains of their personal strife, but he couldn't protect her from the death of her mother. He didn't go to the funeral to pretend as if he cared for Odette, rather, he went for his daughter.
During Odette's own version of the cold war, Logan sought comfort elsewhere, but it wasn't anything more than a physical relationship when he was traveling. He knew better than to do anything around London, where his photo was constantly published in various gossip publications. He could never understand their fascination with him, so he was very conscious of every move. Most of the women never even knew who he was, and he wanted to keep it that way.
Logan didn't even noticed the single tear rolling down his cheek as his life flashed through his memory. He didn't realize how messed up his life had been. He should have fought for Rory instead of expecting her to fight for him, but deep down, he knew that she wouldn't be happy being the wife that everyone else expected. She wasn't meant to be a society wife, and even if she did work, she'd constantly question if opportunities were based on merit or the Huntzberger name.
But now, things were different. She'd already established herself in a career, and was doing fine in her own right. Could things be different for us now? he wondered. Logan began to consider other factors including his own daughter. If she knew about Richard, what did she know about Rory? Where would she even get that information? I bet she found everything up in the attic, too, he thought.
After collecting his thoughts, he put the letter back in the drawer, and neatly placed the items in their spots. Then, he went up to the attic staircase and pulled it down. Using his phone as a flashlight, he warily made his way up. Much like Viv, he found attics to be slightly creepy. When he flipped on the light switch, he saw that boxes had been moved around and opened, indicating that his daughter had been up there. One box, in particular, caught his eye. It was a box of pictures from Yale.
There had been several pictures that caught his eye, and most of them included Rory. Once he was finished walking down memory lane, he grabbed a few of the pictures and brought them down to his room. After getting ready for bed, he looked through them and started thinking. She'd become an integral part of his life at college. When they ran into each other in Hamburg, he thought fate had brought them together once more as a sign they should be together. That, too, didn't last, and finally, the cosmos have aligned their destinies a third time. Although serendipity had laid dormant for many years, she was not hard at work because their fortune was written in the stars.
