Hey Everyone!
Yes, I know, an update so quick? But I couldn't help it. I missed you guys! Well, that, and the fact that I have a busy week next week, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to update. So I decided to post this chapter ahead of time so I don't make you guys wait. I know, I know. Say you love me through the reviews.
Enjoy!
P.S. I own Max & Julian (Say Julian like 'Hoolian' in a Spanish accent. It's so awesome.)
Two hundred million dollars. Her father gave her two hundred million dollars. The back of her head hit the chair. What the fuck was her father doing, giving her two hundred million dollars like that? First, he leaves her and her mother. Then, he disappears, but not before placing a 'trust fund' in her name. Now, after twenty-eight years he finally decides to show up and hand her two hundred million dollars, but not before suing her? Was this guy mad? Was he toying with her? Or was he just on drugs?
She shook her head. Two hundred million dollars...
She couldn't give it back. It was her money now, there was no giving back to anyone. She ran a hand over her face. It wasn't like she was breaking bank, but she was starting to become wealthy. Now, it seemed that she was richer than Harvey. No, she was richer than Harvey at the moment. But keep it? It was her father's money. Although earned honestly, the man was mean, and heartless. He was probably trying to buy her back. Maybe it was a ploy to convince her to give up all of the items in the safety deposit box. Whatever it was, she didn't know what to do with the money.
A thought struck her, causing her to go into her contact book. She dialled the numbers on her cellphone quickly, placing the phone to her ear.
"Hello?" The sweet voice said on the other line.
"Hi, Anastasia Mathers?"
"Yes, who am I speaking to?"
"My name is Maxine Harris, I'm with Pearson Hardman-" she was cut off before she could continue.
"Oh! I remember you! You helped me win my case against Harrison. Thank you again, you helped save my life."
"You're welcome," Max said smiling. This woman was genuinely nice. It was a wonder why people didn't believe in her when the case was still open.
"Everything alright? Am I in any more legal trouble?"
"Oh no, nothing like that. This is more of a... personal call."
There was a silence on the other line.
"I'm listening."
Max took a deep breath, "I've been thinking about your trust fund recently. How did you decide to give it all away? I heard that you gave every cent to charity..."
"Well, yes, I did, but you didn't hear the rest?"
The brunette's head jerked back, "Not at all."
She head a giggle, "Oh golly gee, you are one in a million Miss Harris. Well, yes, I gave away my trust fund, but only because my father gave me the company."
Now Max was confused, "Beg your pardon?"
"He left me everything. Including the company. Said I could be CEO anytime I felt comfortable with it. After Harrison, I realized that my father actually gave me a gift."
Her eyebrows furrowed, "Is there some significance in that?"
She heard another giggle, "Well yeah. My dad was a hard business man. They don't give gifts. Sure, maybe a bottle of scotch, but never money. I was even surprised he left me a trust fund. Fathers like mine; big, powerful business men, don't want to put money into the hands of people they don't trust. If my father left me not only four hundred million dollars, but the company he built from the ground, he must have really thought long and hard about it."
Max chewed on the thought. Maybe her father wasn't out to get her. Maybe somehow, he actually cared about her. If Anastasia's theory was right, then maybe her father actually trusted her.
"So since you had such a big company, you thought you should give back."
Another giggle, "I would have felt so guilty if I didn't. Plus, I have much more money than four hundred million dollars."
Max just nodded, "Thank you, Anastasia. This actually was eye opening for me."
"No need to thank me. Please, next time you call, just leave it at Ana."
She smiled, "Well thank you, Ana."
"You're welcome. Goodbye, and have a lovely day!"
The brunette placed the phone on the desk, picking up the check as she brought it in front of her face. It was an absurd amount of money, but it was a gift from her father. Although she loathed the man, she should be the better person and just accept the gift. The heartless man did try to show affection, maybe this was his way how to.
"Thinking about it?"
Her eyes shot to the door, noticing that it was not Harvey standing in front of her door. Nor was it Mike, or anyone else from the firm for that matter. Rather, it was a tall and stern man, with salt-and-peppered hair. His deep blue eyes looked into her hazels as Julian Satin looked at his daughter, Maxine Harris.
She swallowed, seeing as this was her first time seeing him in eight years.
"Yeah," she said quietly.
"You look beautiful, Maxine," her father said quietly.
She hit the cheque against the table as he stood by the door.
"Why? Out of the twenty eight years you had..." She asked, "Why now? Why..." she said holding up the piece of paper, "What's with the money? And... suing me? Really? Is that your only way for you to talk to me? Or do you just want something that you have to just take it, and not even try to ask for it?" She was so confused, and so angry that she just needed answers right away.
His smile tightened, "You haven't read your mother's letter."
"Should I?"
"If you want your answers, yes," he said.
He walked up to her desk, noticing the little shoes hanging in the corner. The corner of his mouth turned up slightly in memory, "I remember your mother's face when she opened these. She thought it would look adorable on you."
Max's heart stopped.
"You bought her those?"
He nodded, "It was from our first Christmas together."
Our? Max thought.
The old man smiled before reaching into his breast pocket, pulling out an expensive wallet. Unfolding it, he held a small picture, before turning it and giving it to Max. She took it from him, noticing it was a photo of her, possibly around her third birthday. A youthful version of her father holding her up, smiling at her.
Her father pointed to the letter, "Read it."
Her eyes watered as she looked down at the picture before she looked up to find something in his eyes, only to find out that he had disappeared. She shook her head.
Julian Satin, billionaire extraordinaire, heartless business man, ruthless aggressor, Satan himself... had a heart.
Before doing anything else, a knock was heard against the glass, causing her to look up to the face of Mike Ross.
"Ready for house hunting, birthday girl?" He said in a happy tone.
She smiled, wiping her eyes, causing Mike to notice that Max had been crying.
"Max?"
"I'm fine," she said, tucking the letter in her desk before locking the drawer, "Just a personal moment."
Mike nodded, understanding perfectly, "You wanna head out?"
She smiled.
"Yeah. I could use a break."
As she was getting up to grab her overcoat, she thought of something, "Why don't we bring Rachel?"
"No!" Mike said quickly.
Before Max could react, Mike recovered, "She's studying for the LSATs.":
Max grinned as she was leaving the office, "Finally the girl grew a brain."
As the brunette was out of the office, Mike sighed in relief.
Close one.
"Ew, Mike!"
Mike quickly wiped his mouth from his linguine trick as the four individuals sat at the round table at Babbo, the Italian restaurant on Waverly Place. Of course Max knew the piece of pasta was gone, she still found it rather disgusting how it threaded through his mouth and... well, she wasn't going to continue the thought. To her right was Mike, and to her left was Harvey. Straight across from her was Rachel, who was savouring her meal. Max smiled; it would be Rachel who understands the true beauty of a great Italian dish.
The moment Max's smile appeared on her face, Harvey was mesmerized. He was always in awe of his girlfriend's beauty. She didn't have light features like the women he used to spend his time with, yet her radiance was stunning. Her looks were supposed to be average, but with Max, she livened up her appearance drastically. Her personality shone through her face, and it made Harvey take a step back and become humble. Her beauty reminded Harvey that he was blessed with a good thing.
"You do realize, Mike, that you missed half of the sauce," Harvey said, snaking his hand below table level to grasp onto Max's hand. She didn't look down, but smiled at his touch.
Mike ended up running the napkin all over his mouth.
Rachel laughed, "He was joking, Mike."
Sheepishly, Mike placed the napkin down slowly. As the blond cleaned himself up a bit, the caramel-skinned woman thought it would be a good idea to give Max the gift she bought her. Reaching under the table, she grabbed three boxes; one as big as her forearm, the other two smaller that the first. She passed it over to Max, who took it skeptically.
"None of you understand the concept of no presents," Max mumbled mostly to herself, yet the people around her laughed. She picked up the smallest one, noticing Rachel's eyes light up. She smiled; it was from her. Peeling away the wrapping paper, she looked at the box and laughed at the front.
"Type-faced wine glass," Max said, laughing. She read the font on the glass through the clear case: 'This is my fourth glass.'
"Clever," she said smiling. Placing the cup beside her, she opened the other small gift, causing Mike to squirm around. She rolled her eyes as she unwrapped Mike's present quickly. As she looked at the print, her eyes furrowed in confusion.
"You bought me a stain remover?" Max asked. Mike smiled as he pointed to a specific font under the advertisement. Max, following Mike's finger, she realized that the stain remover was not any stain remover. The stain remover specialized in removing a specific type of stain.
Orange juice.
"Bless you," she said, throwing her arm around Mike's neck. The blond was startled, but smiled and patted her shoulder quickly. He looked over to Harvey, taking in his confused face. Mike mouthed to Harvey: 'I'll tell you later'.
Max smiled in happiness as she realized she didn't have to throw out her favourite shirts or get them dry-cleaned. The brunette wasn't a fan of dry-cleaners; she always liked making sure she did things, and when she did things, she did things properly. Pulling away, she held the last present in her hand. With small rips, she unravelled the item. As soon as half of the item was showing, she ripped the entire thing, having her mood change from silly to seldom in a second.
A photo album.
"You weren't studying for the LSATs, were you?" Max said quietly.
Rachel shook her head. Mike and Rachel had been waiting for the moment where Max was out with either one of them so that the other one could sneak into her house to take a few pictures that Max stuck onto her wall. After Mike told Rachel that he had an opening, Rachel left a few seconds after the two left, and headed to Max's house, using the spare key Mike owned. After some snooping around, Rachel noticed a box on the top of her bookshelf contained several other pictures. Very sentimental pictures.
She opened the cover to find the first page held one picture of her mother and her as a young child, and Max noticed this was from her private box. As she went through the album, the further she got, the older she was in the pictures. As soon she got to her twenties, she noticed that Mike slowly crept into the pictures, as well as Rachel. The last few pages was just of her and Harvey, several pictures she'd seen, and some she hadn't even known existed.
Looking up at all three of them, she noticed that the present was from all three of them. A hand snaked back into its rightful place as Max locked onto eyes with Harvey.
"Have you changed your mind on concepts of presents now?" Mike said, smiling.
Without looking away, she smiled.
"Maybe a little."
"He said what?" Harvey asked, standing in front of Max's door.
Max knew she had to tell Harvey about her father, and yet she felt that she shouldn't have uttered a word. Harvey had the right to know, but Max could see that the man in front of her was downright pissed. Maybe it was the fact that she told him that her father talked to her. As soon as she spoke of it, Harvey's mind went into overdrive, trying to figure out if he was being honest, or if she was playing him.
"How could you know he wasn't just toying around with you? Maybe he is just trying to manipulate you, Max. You can't believe anything he says."
"I know," the woman said before digging into her purse before pulling out the letter, "I'm going to believe what my mom tells me."
Harvey held the letter between his hands, his eyes glancing over the word 'Maxie', "You can't be sure that this is from your mom."
"Yes, I can," Max said grabbing onto the envelope, "I would know my mother's writing even if I was blind."
"Max-"
"Harvey," Max said cutting him off, "It's from my mom. The one person in the world who I trusted with my whole life, who taught me how to ride my bike, cook pasta, and determine what is a Nebbiolo and what is a Pinot Noir," Harvey could see the pain on her face, "she meant everything to me Harvey. I can't not read this. It's like she's talking to me again, and this," she held the letter, "this is something she would do. She would leave me a letter to read when I was older. That was like her," Max looked at the piece of paper in her hand as if it was a bar of gold, "Messages. She liked writing messages that would be sent in the future. She thought it was a great idea."
A hand covered the letter, pushing it away from her eyes. Max lifted her head to see the dark, brown, remorseful eyes. She smiled at him, knowing that his eyes were telling her that she had the power now.
'I'm here for you', she saw in his eyes.
Words seemed to be useless. Here, she was seeing the vulnerable Harvey, and she knew to tread lightly. He was going to do something crazy and stupid, she could feel it. She wasn't going to stop him, of course. Stopping him would just make his initial action longer than they should be. She never wanted to see him hurt and worried and vulnerable. Plus, if you knew Harvey Specter, you never got in his way.
She placed her lips on his, enjoying his manly smell emanating from him.
"Be careful," she said softly.
He smiled slowly, leaning down to kiss her again.
"Same to you," he whispered.
Max turned to her door, unlocking it as Harvey began walking through the hallway. Once she was in the house, she turned, looking at the back of her boyfriend, watching him go down the hall. As she saw his retreating form, her heart ached. She didn't want him to go. She wanted to run down the hall, drag him back to her home, and just hold him as she slept. To wake up in the morning with him by her side, the feel of his rough hands in hers as she woke up, him being the first face she sees in the morning. She stuttered in a breath as she saw him walk into the elevator, hearing the heavy doors shut behind him. She looked at the envelope in her hand. As she did, she could hear her mother's voice in her head. A memory of when she was sixteen and she had her heart broken by Jimmy Austin.
"Maxie, the person you love isn't the person you can imagine your life with. It's the person you can't imagine your life without."
Her hazel eyes looked out into the hallway, wishing that it wasn't empty.
I love him, she thought.
The cold October wind hit Harvey's face as he stepped out of Max's apartment building. He bundled into his overcoat, watching as his breath escaped into the night sky. He walked to his car, unlocking it quickly before sitting in the front seat. As it was warming, Harvey looked at the time. It was late, but he didn't care. The lawyer picked up his cellphone, dialling a number before placing it on his ear.
It rang twice.
"You better have a good reason to call me at this time, son," the gruff and tired voice said.
"I'm not your son, Julian," Harvey said in a acidic tone.
The brunette heard a scoff, "So you are not asking for Max's hand?"
Harvey's eyebrows rose, "Why would you assume that?"
"For God's sake Harvey, it doesn't take a genius to see that you are head over heels for my daughter."
The brunette internally sighed. He cared for Max more than anyone he had come across. She made him a better Harvey Specter, if there ever was a better Harvey Specter. With Max, he might have been a little bit more than caring.
"What other reason is there to call me at this God forsaken hour?"
He was brought to reality, "To tell you to stay away from her."
There was a pause.
"With all do respect, you have no right to say that, Harvey."
"With all do respect, you need to shut the fuck up, sir."
Harvey heard a mattress squeak on the other line, "What did you just say to me?"
"You had no right to do that to her," he said, his tone becoming very protective, "she was fine without you in her life. She was making it on her own. You had no right to waltz into her life like this. Suing her was the most stupid first step you could ever take."
He heard a sigh on the phone, "I know."
If Harvey wasn't shocked at Julian's confession, he probably would have been amazed.
"I made a mistake, Harvey. Not just with the lawsuit, but with Max in general. Even Jojo for that matter," the man on the other side of the line let his voice sound old and remorseful, "Life was good for my wife and I, we had it all. I had it all. I was the most powerful man, and I had a strong women holding me there."
"It all changed when Max came, though," Harvey said, filling in the blanks.
"No," he said.
Harvey was taken back.
"It all changed when I got scared."
He continued, "When Jocelyn told me about Max, I didn't know what to do. I am a business man, Specter, I'm not familiar around children. I took a risk loving my wife, but a child? It was something I couldn't do. It took me years and several break-ups with Jojo to finally accept the fact that I was in love with her. But how could I love a child just as much as I love my wife?"
"You didn't want to take that chance," the brunette mumbled.
"The divorce broke her heart. I broke her heart. She never wanted anything to do with me after the situation. But Jo couldn't bear for me to miss out on the first years of Max's life. That moment when Maxine was born, and she looked up at me with those eyes and all that love that she could muster up... at that moment I realized I made a mistake. I ruined everything good I had in my life because I was scared."
The lawyer heard shuffling, "You listen to me. Don't you dare second guess yourself when it comes to Max. Harris women are strong beings Harvey. They will hold you up when you need them to. But once you take them for granted, do not expect them to take it lightly. Are you hearing my message?"
"Duly noted," Harvey said solemnly.
The brunette started his car, "But don't think that changes my threat."
He heard a chuckle, "Do you know how old I am, boy?"
Harvey couldn't help but smile, "I don't care how old you are, I will still kick your ass."
"Duly noted," Julian said before hanging up the phone.
Harvey put the phone into the cup holder as he started his drive home. For some strange reason, he didn't feel as hostel as he did earlier. Maybe Julian was trying to get to know his daughter, but Harvey could never be sure. What he was sure of was that Julian was right: Max was a strong woman, and the only thing he heard about Jocelyn Harris was that she was just as strong has her daughter, maybe even more. But did Harvey do more than care for Max? Did he feel something stronger? He was always protective of her. Sure, he was protective of Mike, and also Donna, but when it came to Max, he wanted nothing and no one to hurt her. He wanted what was best for her, and damn it, he was the best for her. He knew that was selfish, but the thought of Max with someone else tore his heart out of his chest. He felt incomplete when he wasn't with Max. He felt incomplete just thinking of Max not being a part of his life.
He looked in the passenger seat, wishing it wasn't empty.
I love her, he thought.
On the next TAOP: Max learns the truth, straight from her mother's mouth.
Review?
xoxo N.