Bella
"And then she met Eleazar." Edward stares at me, almost in disbelief. "Edward, you inadvertently introduced Maria to her father. Eleazar knew of Maria's existence but had never seen so much as a photo of her. There she was with you, parading herself around as someone named Jane, and something he said to her tipped her off."
I can see Edward trying to wrack his memory, thinking back to when he first took Jane or Maria anywhere.
"She accompanied me to a charity dinner. I remember introducing her to Eleazar, and they had an interesting interaction. At the time, I chalked it up to him figuring out what type of relationships I had." Edward closes his eyes, sighing at the memory before looking at me. "How did you learn all of this?"
Shrugging but secretly very proud of myself, I smile. "My phone call was with Maria's mother. She lives in Queens now. She wasn't interested in talking to me about her daughter at first, but when I told her that Maria had been arrested in the city, she changed her tune pretty quickly."
The room is silent for a few moments before Felix pipes up. "Will you come work for me?"
The three of us chuckle before we fall silent again. "Edward, Eleazar knew the entire time that your baby, Jane, was actually his daughter Maria. He prompted her to search your house and office. She gathered information about your other shareholders, and she breached your firewall at the magazine."
"From what her mother told me, Maria confided in her and told her that she'd met Eleazar, and he promised her the life they missed out on. Her mother, Didyme, warned her to stay away from Eleazar; that he would only use her until he got what he wanted, and then toss her aside. When Maria refused to listen, Didyme cut contact with her."
Edward shares a glance with Felix. "That's fucking awful. Abandoned by both of her parents and—"
"Abandoned by her father; let's be clear about this. Didyme cut Maria out when she refused to listen and was already living a dangerous life at that point. She was already Jane and had been swindling a lot of people for money and gifts. Setting boundaries doesn't equal abandonment." Sometimes, I have to remind my beautiful, stupid man that not everyone grew up privileged like he did; not everyone had the same opportunities.
I don't agree with what Maria and Eleazar did, but I understand the world isn't always black and white.
"So, Eleazar was behind it all and he used Jane, I mean, Maria as a pawn," Edward states as I nod.
"Seems so."
"Let's go talk to Eleazar."
Luckily for us, Eleazar was working on getting Maria released from custody. Eleazar had pulled in a top notch attorney to help him get his daughter out, but we'd had an ace up our sleeve when I called the cops. I identified her as Jane just as Edward had known her. When the cops arrived and pulled her aside to speak to her, they asked for her ID and became suspicious when she pulled out a Virginia license for Maria Xavier. They arrested her because Jane had a warrant and her other known alias was Maria.
False identification is just a misdemeanor in New York, but in Washington and Delaware, the charges can be much more severe. While waiting at the police station, we learned that the warrant for Jane was for a stalking charge. One of her former admirers had become so disenchanted with Maria that she didn't take it very well when he broke things off with her.
She showed up everywhere to confront him: his office, his home, the gym, his favorite bar. Maria wouldn't take the hint and wouldn't stop calling so he filed for an order of protection. She never showed for the hearing, he moved, and she wound up at his doorstep once again. There's been a bench warrant out for her since she was arrested for that, let out on bail, and then promptly jumped it.
Edward contacted his lawyer, who recommended a colleague who was now up to speed and speaking with Eleazar's attorney in an office in the station. I don't want to be here because as far as I'm concerned, we now know what's been going on, and it's over, but Edward needs to know every last detail. I can't blame him, but I don't think Maria or even Eleazar will tell him everything he wants to know. He won't be satisfied.
When Edward's de facto attorney, Demetri Marcus, comes down the hall, his face has a grim expression on it. "Mr. Donnelly and his attorney have agreed to speak with you on a conditional basis."
"What are the conditions?" Edward asks as he stands, pulling me up with him.
"Mr. Donnelly would like to give you a timeline of events, so to speak. Then he's open to a discussion." The attorney seems to be holding back an eye roll. I can tell how difficult it is for him.
Looking up at Edward, I search his expression. "We only have to listen to him. You want to know,;this is your chance. You don't like it, we leave."
Edward nods, and we're led to the office where Eleazar and his attorney wait for us. Neither of them say anything as we enter the room, but once we're seated, Eleazar clears his throat. Before he can speak however, Demetri jumps in. "My client has expressed that he would like this conversation recorded. If there is an issue with this from your client, then we walk. My client will continue pressing charges, and we'll let justice take its course."
The room is silent for more than a few uncomfortable minutes until Eleazar finally nods and says, "Fine, go ahead."
Demetri pulls a small recording device from inside his jacket pocket, clicks a button on the side, then sets it on the table between us. He rattles off the date, time, location, and all of our names before gesturing to Eleazar.
He sighs deeply before beginning with meeting Maria's mother, Didyme. The romance was quite the whirlwind, but Eleazar knew that his family wouldn't approve. When Didyme told him she was pregnant, he did what he felt was right—he provided for her and the baby but stayed away. He spoke to Didyme often about wanting to walk away from his family and their money, with Didyme always telling him that he would have a home with her and their daughter.
"She always used to tell me that the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb. She always told me that she loved me, and our love had created such a beautiful creature that we had one of the strongest bonds on Earth." Eleazar hangs his head. "I never truly believed her."
That's why he cut Maria and Didyme off when Maria turned 18; that and pressure from his parents who had found out about them. Eleazar put the two women out of his mind and his heart, moved on with his life … until Maria waltzed back in.
"That charity dinner for Seattle Children's Hospital is where I met Jane. Only, as we all know at this point, she is actually my daughter Maria. When you first introduced me, Edward, it was like looking at Didyme when I first laid eyes on her. I was in shock, but I just attributed it to an attractive woman with similar coloring and features. It was in the course of the evening though that she had responded to some comment with blood of the covenant—" Eleazar trails off.
"I wasn't entirely sure, but I suspected. Just as I suspected how you preferred to spend your personal time, Edward. When Maria came to me with pictures and a copy of her birth certificate, something inside filled me with rage that my daughter could be taken in by you."
Edward tenses next to me. He never felt shame for his personal relationships, but to hear from a man he looked up to and admired that maybe he hadn't been honest with the women Edward chose to be involved with had to hurt.
"When did you decide to set your daughter against me? Why not just come to me, man to man?" It's the first time anyone other than Eleazar has spoken, and I can hear the hurt in Edward's voice.
"She convinced me that you had taken advantage of her, and in my guilt, I blindly believed her. My daughter convinced me that I should take your business from you and, in the long term, turn it over to her. I let her wild and outlandish stories mar my judgment. I never checked up on her or her background; I should have. The only time I suspected something was off about Maria was when I had a security breach around Thanksgiving. Maria had always told me what she was capable of, but I never understood until I saw it with my own eyes." Eleazar describes a situation almost identical to what Edward dealt with at Real Men, and I squeeze my partner's hand to comfort him.
Eleazar explains to us about how he went digging into Maria's checkered past, and what he found shocked and disappointed him. "I wasn't there for her when she was growing up, and I can never fix that, but I wanted to be there for her when we stumbled into each other's lives later on. I … I didn't want this, Edward. I wanted to humiliate you, not be on the verge of losing everything you worked for."
When Edward doesn't speak for a few tense moments, I finally speak up. "Do you think it's possible that Maria didn't just stumble back into your life? Maybe she targeted Seattle in order to find you?"
All four men whip their heads to look at me as I shrug. "I'm just saying it could be entirely possible that she knew exactly how to find you. She just needed a way to get to you."
Everyone falls silent again before Edward finally speaks up. "What do you plan to do? With Maria?"
"Let her face her consequences. A lot of things can be traced back to her, and I can help with that. I'm sure with my cooperation, any charges I face will be less than necessary. I've been in contact with a few of her former acquaintances who are interested in seeing if anything from their time together sticks," Eleazar says without any emotion whatsoever. He's resigned to everything at this point that everything about him is blank.
"And the shares of Real Men?" Edward asks.
"Gifting them is impossible, but I will sell them to you at the lowest possible price … just to keep it above board." Eleazar sighs, propping his elbows up on the table. "I'm tired, and I'm just done, Edward. I'm sorry for everything, but I won't waste your time or mine waiting for your forgiveness. If I have to face jail time, I'll do it without complaint, but at this point, I just want to go home and live my life quietly."
Now I have a question. "What about Lauren? Where does she fall into all of this?"
Eleazar's gaze shifts to me. "I love Lauren, but I don't expect that she'll want to stay with me after all of this. She knows nothing about Maria or my connection to her. I'll make sure she has everything she could need, but I can't predict how she's going to react to this."
I look over at Edward, and while his gaze is unreadable to anyone else, to me, I know he needs a moment alone. Demetri turns off the recorder and excuses us from the office. Edward and I walk down the hall, trying to get as much distance as we can before either of us speaks.
Edward breaks first. "What does your gut say?"
"Are you asking me if I think Eleazar is being honest right now?" He doesn't respond, but I know what his answer is.
"I think so. It seems like Eleazar held onto a lot of guilt about how he treated Maria and her mother. It doesn't excuse anything, and I don't understand it, but I'm not built the same as him. I don't know how I'd react to something like this potentially uprooting my entire life, but he obviously went down the wrong path." Leaning against the wall, I look up into Edward's eyes.
The green color is cloudy as if tears are welling in his eyes. I don't know if he wants to cry at the loss of a mentor and friend or finally knowing how all this happened. "What do you think?"
He lets out a long sigh. "I think Eleazar should retire … quietly. I think he should turn over operations to Lauren. That place needs some new life. I think he should worry about protecting Maria as much as possible because once it gets out that she's been arrested, more people are going to come forward."
"You want to continue with pressing charges?"
"If we can press any on her. The cyberstalking, the network shutdown, whatever. Eleazar alluded to having information about it. Let's get that and end this. All I want is to take you home and take care of both of you." He gently lays his hand on my abdomen, smiling.
"All three of us." I rise up, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. "Let's go knock this out."
Demetri and Eleazar's attorney had been in talks, trying to come to some sort of agreement while we were gone. Once we came back into the office, Eleazar shushed them and looked at Edward, and then me before speaking.
"I'm ready to listen to your terms. I've come to realize that my acquiescence may be the only way to prove my remorse."
Before Edward can lay things out, I sit down across from Eleazar. "I have one more question. You told me how you care for Lauren, but what about Didyme?"
"I burned that bridge a long time ago, but if you're asking me to consider Didyme in all of this, I haven't, but I will. I'm afraid she gave up on me years ago when I refused to leave my family for them." He chuckles darkly. "I can't blame her. I'm the only one to blame."
I'm not satisfied at all with his response, but I allow Edward to step in and lay out his thoughts. Eleazar and his attorney don't readily agree, but my man won't budge. "It's time, El. The truth is people talk, and this will get out. If you retire after, it'll be seen as a way to save face. Do it sooner rather than later and you're ahead of everything."
"I can get paperwork drawn up today," Eleazar's attorney tells us, and Edward only nods.
"You'll sign everything, El; all of it. Lauren is still here. Fix all of this with her and face that fallout. Bella can't be her shoulder to cry on forever. At some point, we all have to move on." Edward isn't trying to be harsh, but I know he's done. Eleazar Donnelly could disappear from every aspect of his life, and it wouldn't bother him.
"Bella, Lauren … she truly views you as a friend. She hasn't had any involvement in this," Eleazar pleads with me, and I give him a small smile.
"I hope our friendship remains intact." I reach for Edward's hand as he speaks quietly with Demetri. "Can we go?"
The two men shake hands with Demetri, telling us he'll be in touch later today.
Edward and I walk out of the office, down the hall, and exit the building hand in hand.