The Return of the Prodigal: Part V
"Oh, my dear Dr George, it is such a pity that you did not take time to get to know your husband's friends properly, instead of regarding us as a group of singing preppy losers. I mean, I am his best friend, his loyal buddy, but all you know about me is my first name; you don't know my surname even, and that is such a pity…"
Lucy looked at Ethan like he had just uttered the most ridiculous statement ever. "There was never any need or point in me learning your surname, or that of any of the other losers you hang around with! I mean, what the hell is it with men that went to fancy schools together that makes them feel obligated to have reunions every five minutes? Is it some kind of sex thing? After all, from what I could see that one time I was forced to be in your collective company, your precious Warblers are nothing more than a group of queers and misfits that have no choice but to stick together because real men would beat the living daylights out of you all."
"I am guessing from that reaction that you aren't part of any sort of social group at the hospital, and that probably you weren't all that popular at school?" replied Ethan with a smile. "Whatever, that isn't what matters here. What matters is that you should have paid attention then, and maybe, just maybe, you could have saved yourself a lot of trouble now. It is ironic though, that you being such a complete bitch has actually been the thing that has helped me out no end…"
"I beg your pardon? Who do you think you are, sitting here in my house, lecturing me! All that you probably are is some Yank city type that would take great pleasure in screwing over the world for his own benefit! You may not be aware of this, but I save lives every day!"
"I am fully aware of that; to the outside world, you are exactly what you claim - a brilliant doctor. Here however you are only a sad, troubled woman. Anyway, maybe I should just show you my card, let you read what it says."
"I don't want to see or read your effing card!"
"Nonetheless, I am going to show you it," Ethan said, pulling one of the many he had out of his pocket. He laid it down on the table in front of her. "There you go. Mr Ethan MacKenzie, Chairman, The MacKenzie Trust." He stopped then and looked up at Lucy's face, and had to struggle not to smile as he saw the disdain and anger vanish from her face as she dealt with a horrific realisation. "My mother was the chairperson, but then my father suffered a heart attack, and she was forced to devote a lot more of her time to the family business, a little firm called MacKenzie Inc. So, she asked me to chair the trust; I have so far refused to join the board of the business. I will have to do so one day, given that I am their only child, but for now, it is only the trust. The trustees are a lovely group of people, all with many more years experience than me; but there is one thing they hate - any sort of whiff of a scandal connected to any of our projects. A scandal like the lead doctor at a hospital being revealed to be the perpetrator of a systematic program of domestic abuse against her husband…"
"You wouldn't dare to tell them - and in any case, you are too late; all the funds have been transferred," replied Lucy, although Ethan could see she was a lot less smug now.
Ethan sighed, and replied, "The first thing I was always told to do by my parents was to always read the small print. If you had, you would know that the terms of our donations are always the same; if in the first year after a donation is made any sort of scandal emerges which could damage the reputation of the project, and therefore the MacKenzie Trust, or if misuse of the funds is suspected, then the cash has to be paid back in full. It would be terrible for the hospital and the children it serves if they were to lose all that money now, what with the works being in progress, but I would not hesitate in the circumstances to ask the trustees to back me in pulling the plug; the Trust cannot be seen to condone domestic abuse. Of course, the hospital could always just remove the offending person from the project, and that would resolve the issue to our satisfaction."
"Are you threatening me with getting fired? How dare…"
"I dare," Ethan said over Lucy, "because you have made my best friend's life a living hell for far too long, and now it is time for him to get some payback. I will not hesitate to call the hospital right now, and tell them all about what you have been doing to your husband for the last six years or more, and then repeat to them what I have just said to you; if they fire you, they keep the money. I doubt that you would get much of a leaving gift; let's face it, even the most gifted of surgeons is not worth losing millions of pounds of hard cash for. The story would probably get out, and once it does, I doubt that you would even be able to get a job cleaning the bedpans in any hospital in this country. I am not proud of myself for resorting to this, but for once, I hold all of the cards, and you hold nothing. In any case, I am giving you an option, a get out clause that lets you keep your career. Keep the attitude, refuse to give Drew the divorce on his terms, and the whole world finds out about the real Dr Lucy George. Agree to what I have said, and you get to keep your job, and your reputation. The choice is entirely yours to make…"
Lucy sat brooding in silence for a moment, then grabbed another plate, hurling it once more at the wall, where it managed to dislodge a picture, which crashed to the floor with just as much noise. "Now, temper, temper!" said Ethan. "Now, I am guessing that you have just realised that you have lost, so let me set out the full details of the option which lets you keep your career. It is the only real option you have, so I suggest that for once you listen, then decide. Number one, you will renounce any sort of claim on this house. Drew paid for it in cash; there was no mortgage, no loans of any sort, and I am pretty sure you haven't been paying him anything towards it. So he sells the house, and keeps the proceeds in full. Now the sale is likely to be swift - buyers already lined up, desperate for houses like this I am told - so you will move out in the next week. Where you go is up to you, and you may take any personal item you wish, along with anything that you can prove you bought and paid for with your own money."
"Number two, you can keep custody of the not-so-joint account; after all, given that it is probably empty, that is no loss to Drew. Number three, you do not attempt to ever make contact with Drew or Evie again. If you do, or you send an agent to harass or harm them, the whole story will come out. Know this too; if you cause so much as a hair on either of their heads to be harmed, you will find that I and my other Warbler brethren are very bad enemies to make. We will be able to keep a close watch on you through our network of friends and contacts, and we will also do our best to ensure that no man in the future will suffer the same fate as Drew has done at your hands."
"Now, initially, there was to be a number four, which was that you sought employment away from Great Ormond Street, but I have checked out your work, and if I insisted on that, it would be the children that would suffer most. I suggest that you stay there, dedicate your entire career to the services of that hospital, and certainly never leave there to take up a post anywhere in the United States or indeed, the whole of North America. It will also make it much easier to monitor you if we know where you are. So, that's the deal; any questions before you sign?"
Lucy sat there, shaking her head, her face red, before saying in a voice that rose as her anger built, "Where do you think you get off, thinking that you can control me, can make me do anything? You are nothing to me!"
"In some ways, I would have to agree, but in others, you really need to see that it is all over, and I am a sort of nemesis. Face facts - this is all over. Frankly, you will be the one to lose everything if you fail to accept what is inevitable. You have lost, and Drew is having the final laugh."
Ethan waited for more china to fly, or worse, fists, but it did not come; instead, there came a dry laugh, which made him much more afraid if he was being honest. "You really think that you have won here, don't you? That you have swooped in like some sort of superhero and saved the day. Wrong. There is something that you do not know, Mr Thinks he is so smart MacKenzie. I was intending on leaving your pathetic excuse of a friend anyway. I met someone else a few months ago; a real man that knows how to act around a lady; an equal of mine in so many respects that Drew never was. He is a doctor like me, but works in the private sector, earns real money, and has no intention of ever wanting a whining brat of a kid. I don't need this dump of a house in noveau riche Kensington; he had a much better place in Holland Park. He will be overjoyed about the fact that I am finally free to move in with him at long last."
"Is that so? Well don't let me stop you packing your bags and heading to him right now! All that is required is a signature from you on a few documents."
"It might be okay in the States to just get a signature for something like this, but that isn't how it works here. You need to have an independent witness to my signature, to prove that it was not extracted from me under duress; in fact, ideally, you need two. As you do not count, I am signing nothing, and good luck with getting me to ever do so."
"Lucy, having lived in Cambridge for three years, I am strangely enough, acquainted with that aspect of British law. That is why I took the liberty of asking the realtor - my apologies, estate agent to come round and see me around about now. As for a second witness, I am sure that your former friend over the road will agree to sign too, and in her we do have someone that is totally unconnected to the entire process.."
"I doubt that she will be in any hurry to come over here if you have fed her your twisted version of the truth," Lucy snapped back.
"On the contrary," said Ethan, "I am certain that her curiosity will have her back here in just a moment or two." He was confident as he had heard the sound of a car drawing up outside. He heard its door open and close, and then the gate to the house open. That was swiftly followed by a rhythmic banging noise outside. "You see, I doubt she will be able to resist coming over now that a For Sale sign is going up outside in the garden; her nosiness will get the better of her…"
The banging stopped, and then the door knocker went. Ethan got up and walked past Lucy. He opened the front door to find the estate agent waiting, and as he had suspected, the neighbour standing at the end of the garden path. "Hello, I take it you are Mr Corbett-Winter? We spoke yesterday; I am Ethan MacKenzie, acting on the behalf of the owner, Mr Symons. Here is my card, and papers from Mr Symons to back up what is said…" Ethan handed over one of the documents that he had asked Drew to sign, and the young man perused them, before nodding and handing over his own card.
Ethan smiled, then continued, "As I explained, Mr Symons has decided to return to the United States after the breakdown of his marriage. His wife has been having an affair you see…" - he paused at hearing a gasp from the woman at the end of the path - "…and has agreed to a divorce in which she takes full responsibility and makes no claims upon him. In fact, she is actually here at the moment to collect her bags, and just has the papers to sign. I wonder, Mr Corbett-Winter, could you possibly assist myself and Mr Symons by witnessing her signature to those papers? And ma'am, I know from speaking to you earlier that you are a trusted friend of the couple, so it would assist if you would agree to witness it too…" The lady in question was reluctant, but she realised that a divorce would get the woman she now realised was a monster away from the street, and if she spread the news that they had split because of an affair, it would sound far better than domestic abuse…
Ten minutes later and Lucy was upstairs, backing her bags, having signed the papers. She had also handed her keys to the house to the estate agent, who had agreed to wait with the neighbour to see her off the premises. As for Ethan, he had a plane to catch. He had sent his texts to Jeff and Nick, telling them he was okay, and the former that he had to get Drew and Evie through check-in and security, as he would be in a cab in a few moments and on his way. Jeff responded as Ethan waited outside for the cab that the estate agent had called for him that he would wait in the check-in area with the two bags allocated to him, and that he would physically push Drew up to the security desks if he had to. Then the cab was there, and Ethan returned to the doorstep to thank the estate agent and the neighbour, and to thank the former for arranging the taxi for him to Victoria Station so quickly.
"I should have no problem in catching my flight at Gatwick now. Mr Symons is already en route there, and now I should be able to catch him up, get him to sign these, and get them posted back at the airport before we fly back to Boston," he said, raising his voice in the hope that his words would be heard upstairs. As he stepped into the cab, he looked back in through the front door and saw Lucy's feet on the stairs as she hurried down; she had been quicker than he expected, and so now he had to think fast. "Driver, what is the fare to Victoria Station?"
"It will be around £25," replied the driver, as he started off down the street.
"Okay, so here is the deal; I am leaving my psycho bitch of a wife. She will be attempting to trail me to the station in that fancy red sports car of hers, thinking I am heading to Gatwick. In fact, I am going to Heathrow, but as she is stepping in the car right now, there is no way that you can take me without her knowing. Is there any way that we can go past one of the tube stations on the Piccadilly Line en route, and I can jump out in the traffic there. I will pay you double after that just to drive to Victoria."
"Not a problem mate. I will drop you off at Gloucester Road station; the traffic is always snarled up around there. I have a few friends with wives like yours, so I get it." Ethan smiled, and handed over the £50. As they took a left at the end of Launceston Place, he saw Lucy's car moving off. As the driver had surmised though, a combination of traffic lights and other drivers meant that she was not able to catch up with them. Outside Gloucester Road station, luck was smiling on Ethan; the cab had to pull up at a red light on a pedestrian crossing, and there was a bus right behind them, obscuring the view. The driver unlocked the door, and he jumped out, melting into the crowd on the pavement across from the station. He remained in it, looking into a shop window as he heard her engine approach, and then smiled as he saw her car reflected in the glass as it zoomed past as she pursued the cab…
Drew of course was not aware of all of the drama that had been playing out back in Kensington; had he been, then his already tense mood would probably have been ten times worse. The last time that he had been on a plane had been with an angry, resentful Lucy at his side on their return to England from Sebastian and Dave's wedding; that had been a minefield, and in the end he had limped off the plane at Heathrow, the pain in his knee leaving him in agony. The cabin crew had also believed the tale about the faulty tray table, and the way it had spilt all that scalding hot coffee into his lap. This time there was no risk of him being deliberately injured on the flight, but this was however the first time that he would be flying with a child, and that made it an all together more interesting experience…
Evie was excited of course, having heard at kindergarten all about the holidays that all her friends enjoyed. Drew had not yet had the heart to tell her that she would never see or hear from any of them again. She would of course make new friends in the States, wherever they settled down in the end, but those childhood friends that she had in London would never be completely replaced. Then there was the whole fact that he was as yet undecided as to where their new home would be; they might end up moving around a lot, and that would make her problems all the greater. He couldn't shake the thought that Lucy would never let him go completely; that she might pursue him. Even if she did not, then she would never agree to a divorce unless she stood to benefit from it…
At his side, Jeff was doing his best to keep Evie entertained in the busy environment of an airport. He could see that Drew was deep in thought, and he did not want to disturb him. He periodically checked his phone for a message from Ethan, hoping he would receive one soon; his first attempt to get Drew to check in when they arrived had been greeted with an emphatic no, his old friend determined to wait until Ethan was there. When the message finally arrived, Jeff showed it to Drew, but it was not enough to persuade his old friend to do as Ethan wished. In desperation, Jeff decided to send a message back to Ethan, asking him to confirm that he was en route, and better still, send a specific set of instructions to Drew, so that he might actually comply with his wishes instead of holding out. It was a shock to Jeff when his phone began to ring just seconds later, and even more of one to see Ethan's name on the screen. He answered it cautiously with a simple "Hey…"
"Put him on for me Jeff, I haven't got long." The blond man held out his phone to Drew, who after staring at it for a moment nearly snatched it out of Jeff's hand as he saw the name. "Right Drew, I am just about to get onto the tube and head to the airport; I will be there in less than an hour. I have expedited clearance, but you don't. I need you to go and check-in, and get yourself through security. I have dealt with Lucy once and for all. Trust me, that part of your life is over for good. So, say your goodbyes to Jeff, and get in line for the rest of your life. Okay, so my train is approaching. I will see you at the gate, failing that, on the plane."
The call ended then, as the roar of the train arriving at the tube station platform drowned out all other sound… Drew handed the phone back to Jeff, who looked at him expectantly. Then, seeing the smile on his friend's face, he grabbed the two cases that were being checked in for Ethan, and headed towards the check-in queue. Drew followed right behind him with Evie, pushing the trolley on which the other four cases were resting.
If the lady behind the desk thought that the young man and his daughter had a lot of luggage, she said nothing, just watched in silence as their blond friend hefted each case on to the bag weighing point next to her, allowing her to check the weight and label them with their destination. Then Drew got an unexpected surprise; he had suspected that they might be in business class, but it seemed that they had been upgraded to first. Seeing the way that he stared at the tickets for a moment, the check-in lady wondered if there had been a mistake, until she discretely checked who had booked the flight, and then she realised it was all in order. MacKenzie Inc was a key client, and checking the booking, she saw that the youngest member of the family was booked to travel with them….
She opened her mouth to enquire where he was, but Jeff was ahead of her and spoke first. "I'm afraid that Mr MacKenzie has been unavoidably delayed, but is en route as we speak. He asked me to ensure that his guests were checked in and cared for."
"Ah, I see," she said, assuming that Jeff was an employee of the business. "Would those be his cases that you have with you?"
"Yes, he asked me to wait here with them until he arrives to avoid any problems or delay to the flight should he fail to arrive on time."
"I am sure that he will make it if he is en route, so it will be no problem to check them in just now as well. The MacKenzie family are very important clients, and I am sure that if he doesn't arrive in time, then someone will be able to collect them at JFK."
"I have no doubt as to that," replied Jeff. "As long as it won't be an issue, then yes, let's get them checked in." He hefted the other two bags up, and they too were labelled and sent into the baggage handling system.
Then it was time for him to walk Drew and Evie over to the security queue and say his goodbyes. He said goodbye to Evie first at the entry door, and then he stood up and pulled Drew into a hug. "I am so glad that I bumped into you…"
"Me too," replied Drew, who could feel tears welling up. "I don't think I will ever be able to thank you and Nick for all that you have done for me. Tell him I'm looking forward to actually seeing him one of these days."
"I'm sure he will be too - and we only did what we were trained to do; after all, Once a Warbler and all of that… Anyway, you take care of yourself, and Evie, and hopefully it won't be too long before we see you again in a better place…" Drew smiled, and then taking his daughter's hand, headed into security. Jeff stood and waved for a moment, and then smiled as he saw the person in charge directing them over to the priority queue…
As Drew helped his daughter with all that she had to do to pass through airport security, Ethan sat on a tube train as it made its way back through the West London suburbs he had seen the previous day, with one eye on his watch. The journey was a longer one than he would have liked, and with dealing with Lucy, he had less time than he would normally have liked at the airport before departure. He pondered as they headed west as to how Lucy had got on at Victoria Station. The trains to Gatwick were very frequent, and when she did not spot him in the vast station, she would merely assume that he had caught a train already, and would hopefully board one herself….
Then again, she did own a very fast car, so he would not put it past her to have tried to drive to the airport to head him off at the pass, so to speak. There was very little parking in Central London, so it might well be the case that she had not followed the taxi at all, but branched off southwards through the city. He could just picture her at Gatwick, stalking around all the check in desks for flights to Boston, trying to force her way through to the gates, to make the airline staff tell her if they were on board. She might even approach the airport police and ask them to arrest her husband and the man he was travelling with. By the time that she realised that she had been misdirected and was at the wrong airport, they would hopefully be airborne.
He was suddenly conscious that he was being watched, and he looked up to see standing to his left the familiar figure of Wes. On the draughty train he had not even noticed him arrive. The angel said nothing, just smiled at him, and gave him an approving nod. He knew that their hands had been tied, not able to intervene in the mortal world, but in the end, Ethan felt that he had done pretty well on his own with a little help from his closest friends…