Those Black Roses. Joyce Zeledonis
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engraved in her mind forever.
*****
A year later…
“Adam.” Elizabeth entered her law partner’s office, and she saw Adam Cane sitting at his desk. He looked up from his paperwork and smiled.
Adam had been her business partner for twelve years, and she only had been married a year to Richard when they started this law practice. Now she was divorced for six months, and she was free from Richard.
“Yes, Elizabeth,” he said loudly, breaking out her line of thought.
“I have a fundraiser tonight,” she informed him as she stopped at his desk, “so I am leaving early.”
“Where is the fundraiser?” he asked, removing his glasses and rubbing his face.
“At the art gallery downtown,” she answered, sighing. “It’s starts at seven. So I have to drive home, take a shower, eat, and stay with my sister or my father overnight so I don’t have to drive myself home. Fur Ball can take care of himself.”
“That’s your kitten?” he asked, laughing. She was a softhearted person, but when it came down to fighting in court, she had no mercy.
“Yes,” she answered, laughing.
“Which gallery?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Simon Lafayette’s.” Just saying the name gave her chills.
“He owns half of New York,” Adam stated seriously. “Just be careful.”
“I will.” She changed the subject; she did not want to think about that man yet. “You know we are in business together for twelve years.”
“Yes, I remember,” he said, smiling. “You and I met in law school. I had just married Corinne. You and I became friends. Then you met Richard and married him two years later. Corinne and I are married fifteen years and three girls later. You were twenty-three, and I was twenty-five,” he stated, putting he glasses back on. “We were not even thinking of this plush office.”
“We were downtown,” she stated. “Now we have this and hundreds of clients.”
“Yes, we are very busy,” he stated, and smiled at the thought. He could support his family on this income. His wife was a second-grade teacher. His three girls ranged from five to two, and they were not planning to have any more. They had their hands full.
Richard and Elizabeth never had any children, and he never asked why.
“I am leaving now,” she said, seeing it was going on to three o’clock. “I’ll see you at eight o’clock on Monday.”
“I am leaving at four today. I am taking Corinne and the kids to the beach for the last time tomorrow,’ he informed her.
“Okay, have a nice trip,” she said as she turned to the door.
“Enjoy your fundraiser,” he stated as she stopped at the door.
“The last one I am going to attend,” she assured him. She could not afford the price of the ticket, but she had bought it last year.
She left his office, went to her own home, grabbed her briefcase, and said goodbye to their secretary.
The drive to her ranch home in the suburbs took an hour, and her thoughts wandered as she drove. She thought about living in the city, but she disliked the city. It was loud and crowded, and the apartments were very expensive. The cost of living in the suburbs was less expensive. There was peace and quiet.
Her father and her sister both owned apartments in the city, but when she stayed, she stayed with her half sister Nichole Svenson; there was an eight-year gap between them. Nichole was twenty-three and a model, and she was designing clothing, which was becoming popular with the young generation.
Nichole and Elizabeth had different fathers. Elizabeth’s father was Dominic Ricc, a designer himself, and he was one of the top 10 designers in New York. Elizabeth saw her father when she could. Nichole’s father, Hass Svenson, was a scientist from Switzerland.
Their mother, Janice, had been married to him for twenty-five years now. Janice, their mother, was a great makeup artist. She did makeup for the movie stars.
Nichole was the social butterfly and their mother’s protégé. Nichole had the ballet, singing, piano, and modeling lessons. Janice entered Nichole in several pageants when she was young and won several of them and then became a model when she was five.
Elizabeth was shipped off to an all-girl school in England, so she was not raised with Nichole. Then when she turned twelve, she was shipped back to New York and placed in a Catholic school. She decided to study law and attend law school. There she met Richard Summerton. He was handsome and swept her off her feet. He was two semesters ahead of her and Adam. She and Richard have a five-year age difference. They got married when she entered her fourth year of college, and then she passed her bar exam before she graduated.
Richard started his own law firm and ran for Congress, and he won with his smooth talking. He was a smooth operator, and he knew it. He knew how to walk the walk and talk the talk and knew what to say to win people over. He was a great public speaker. She was proud to be married to him in the beginning, but in the last five years of the marriage, she began to question herself and blamed herself for his lack of interest in her. He was not coming home at night, and she would sit up and cry herself to sleep. And then there was talk of him having an affair with a stripper named Apple. Then she caught them last year in bed together. He thought that she wasn’t going to come home that early, but she did and found them. She never felt so betrayed in her life. She just walked away without a word and had left. She stayed with her father while she was getting a divorce, and Richard seemed like he did not care if their marriage was ending.
She found herself a house and moved in with her father’s and his friends’ help. She made it official. She was not going to live with him or be seen with him. It had been six months now.
There was nothing left for her, and she let him have the huge house—everything except her car. She wanted nothing from him. She just wiped her hands clean.
“You can ask for half the house,” her lawyer informed her the day Richard signed the final paperwork.
“I don’t want it,” she told him. And that was the end of that.
The ranch house she owned came into view, and she parked her car in the driveway.
Her maid was in the kitchen as she entered. Elizabeth hired her a month ago when her workload increased, and she was glad to have the help.
“Hello, Marie,” she said as she placed her briefcase down. “I am going to eat and go to my fundraiser.”
“Yes, you told me yesterday.” Marie smiled at her. “I marked it on the calendar.”
“Oh, good.” Elizabeth realized she was extremely tired. She needed to call Nichole to ask to stay, but she could ask her father.
She sat in the kitchen alone after she ate what Marie had left for the day, but her small kitten meowed. He purred as he brushed up against her, reminding she was not alone. She picked up the kitten and loved her little kitten. She could never have animals with Richard. After all, the man never wanted children. He told her that in the beginning. He said they were a mess. She would have loved a have a child, but she never talked about it with him because that was the way he was.
She called Nichole, putting the kitten down and breaking herself out of her train of thought.
“Yes, Lizzy,” Nichole answered, calling her by her nickname.
“I’d like to stay overnight.” She hoped she could. Dad had his ways, but she loved him.
“Not a good idea,” Nichole hesitated. “I might have planned to go out after the fundraiser at Simon Lafayette’s art gallery tonight.”
“You are going?” Elizabeth was surprised. Nichole never