No more surprises, please?

…

Meetings, legal jiggery-pokery, dealing with recalcitrant and obstructive people, figuring out how to deal with people, the sort of skills Michael never acquired because he never really needed them, leave him exhausted, angry, and seriously considering going into hiding.

Accepting the role of fixer-upper of all things Agatha had not turned out to be the two-day doddle he was expecting.

That dive into the even murkier world of high finance, the rich and powerful, the aristocracy, what not-for-profits were supposed to be about, and somehow strayed from the path of good, and into something else, was an education in itself.

Perhaps it was his ‘outside the window’ view that gave him the edge over all the slick talking and fast-talking that people in the business seemed to do so well, baffling people from his side of the tracks with what could only be described as bullshit.

But that was not the worst of it.

A knock on the door to his new, but self-proclaimed temporary residence, delivers Howard with an envelope that has the sort of news that had that ‘knock the wind out of you’ effect.

Agatha was murdered.

…

Words today, 1,921, for a total of 37,433

Memories are sometimes best left in the closet.

…

A dreaded visit to the boarding school to see the twins, her children being looked after until he arrived to collect them, brought back a whole raft of memories of his time at school, and not in a good way.

Resentful, sullen, definitely the result of substance abuse, and a whole lot of those issues, they instantly dislike, and disbelieve he’s their father, not that it matters, he had the documentary proof.

Agatha’s assessment of the headmaster was spot on, a man who would exploit the plight of a family to extract a sizable donation to forget anything that might be detrimental to the school and the family.  It was the nature of business where the rich were concerned.

Michael was annoyed that it hadn’t taken very long before he slipped into her murky world.

That old expression ‘give them an inch and they’ll take a mile’ comes home to roost, and he is led on a brief odyssey before the children’s solution is found.  A month in a new type of detox was going to be the first stage of their rehabilitation. 

…

Words today, 2,334, for a total of 35,512

Reliving the past

…

A visit first to Agatha’s parents was not the nightmare he was expecting, considering the last one, being treated like something the cat dragged in, handed a large envelope with money in it, and the signature on a piece of paper saying he would never return, or come back into her life.

He was not proud of his actions that day, and it haunted him for a long time after, but it was for the so-called best.  Their mixed marriage was never going to work, no matter how much she wanted to piss her father off, and he knew it.

It didn’t take long to realise the parents didn’t want anything to do with the children, that their opinion of their grandchildren was less than stellar, and that he would have to do something about them.

Agatha’s own description was hardly a recommendation, but she had dropped the ball once that parenting thing had got too hard, and chose the easiest option, sending them away to an institution that was supposed to turn them into individuals others could use as an example.

Of course, that went horribly wrong, as any normal person would expect.  Children needed both hands-on parenting and discipline.  Instead, they were left to find their own way, and it was the wrong way, the result of too much money and too little commonsense.

From observing Agatha, Michael knew the children were never going to get the parenting they needed from their grandparents, who conveniently advised they could not be tapped to take over their care, so his mission just got a lot longer and far more difficult.

…

Words today, 1,942, for a total of 33,178

Revenge is best served cold.

…

Though revenge is not what Michael wanted to get caught up in, it was the people with whom he had to see that had him thinking that way.

Michael knew from bitter experience that the world would be a better place without half the people in it, the half that made up the cheats, liars, self-serving, egotistical twits, and pompous asses.

He’d seen enough of those when he and Agatha had been together.

Dealing with a chap Agatha had had what had to be described as a fling, seemed to think that an invitation to stay at one of her apartments until he found his own was the same as being married.

That aristocratic self-entitlement was enough to have Michael considering whether a three-hour torture session in a disused factory where no one would hear the screams, might just teach him the error of his assumptions.  Sadly, it didn’t come to that, but there were plenty of others on the list.

…

Words today, 1,810, for a total of 31,236

A series of encounters

…

Agatha must have realised that her life was in danger, whether she expected her condition would worsen, sending her back to the hospital, or whether she was dying, that was clear enough in the letter she left behind, but that letter also had a fairly detailed rundown on everyone in the organisation, every suspicion she had, and what she and Howard were planning to do about it.

It was perhaps the most frightening document he had ever read, and with each succeeding paragraph, page, character, situation, and fear, he was able to slip into her shoes and feel the pain, anguish, and disappointment filtering through, and her feelings became his motivation.

This is the plan:

Meet the press.  Well, no, that wasn’t on the plan, but someone called a press conference, and he decided to crash it.

He had hoped meeting the General, one of the causes of her angst, would be later after he had time to prepare, but it wasn’t to be.  He’d met formidable commanding officer once before, and had heard far more about him, and perhaps had been at the end of an order or two if not directly, but he was also privy to scuttlebutt, and if rumours were true…

It doesn’t go well.

He does meet the impertinent reporter again with an interesting surprise attached.

There’s the other office, another PA, and yes it’s a test of patience he wasn’t expecting, but he did have some information on her that smooths the encounter.

And, so it goes, the usual grist to the mill…

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Words today, 1,730, for a total of 26,667

A new meaning to ‘a change of life’

…

It was not the thought of having a large house in the most expensive part of London, the servants, or what he could do with the money.

That was all for the charitable intentions she had set out a long time ago when he had mentioned that there was a lot of good she could do rather than just spend it on drugs parties and alcohol.

Yes, that was the first of what he called the doosie arguments.

After that, it was the unkind remarks of her friends, what he called the hangers-on and aristocratic deadbeats.  It earned him no kudos, so he went off and did his own thing.

He should have tried harder.  It was clear she had loved him, but there were too many forces pulling at her, the friends, the lifestyle, the parents, the aristocratic blood.

That all came back in that moment he saw Adria, her best friend and perhaps the only other voice of reason, and who had been in the beginning his arch enemy, the one who tried hard to prove he was just like any other man; and in the end, became an ally when she found he wasn’t anything like she expected.

Just too late, the damage had been done.

This visit brought back some very raw memories, and having to work with her again was going to be difficult.  Perhaps it would only be fleeting because this was going to be a fly-in fly-out job, sort out the mess, and move on.

He could see the original bequest to her charitable organisation had been sequestered from everything else, and all he had to do was divorce the new charity, pull out her interest in it, or that of her organisation as a parent and let them sink into what she had called ‘piggie quagmire’.

It was what he had always feared would happen that someone like her father would intervene and take everything from her.  Having met Howard, he could see that would never have happened.

…

Words today, 1,863, for a total of 27,696

It wasn’t a hard decision

…

Michael may have thought he was done with the complications of life with the one woman he ever really cared about, but no.

Even in death, the tendrils of that time together come rushing back, just at the mention of her name.

And it explained that sudden almost crippling feeling he had several days before, that he could only assume was the moment the love of his life died.

It never occurred to him at the time it could be anything other than a virus or something he ate.

It was too soon, perhaps the punishment for the prevaricating.  Ever since the visit from Monte, she had been constantly on his mind, and it was partially the reason he had come home.

Yes, he had considered getting back in contact with her. Certainly, he had followed her life from the moment they parted, hoping she would change, that common sense and purpose would prevail, and eventually, they did.

It was also fascinating that she had children, the ages of which surprised him because the way he calculated it, they were conceived when they were together, convincing him she had been, as he suspected, having an affair.  Why she hadn’t married the man the moment she left was also interesting, but not something he pursued.

She had made her feelings clear, and her father didn’t have to try very hard to persuade him to leave.  If anything; he should have been more disappointed in himself.

…

Words today, 2,279, for a total of 25,833

Cue Michael

…

It wasn’t as if he was waiting in the wings, ready for the call.

The truth is, it was not the call he ever wanted to receive.

Though, to begin with, it wasn’t a call, but a visit, advising him to expect a call.  Monty arrives at his hotel room, in the depths of Africa, about to go home.

It was a very strange meeting, talking about a ghost from the past.

Then, finally, back in the city he had called home, he gets a call from Howard.

A visit, a proposition, a confrontation in a hotel bar.

This is definitely not your typical day after being told your wife, the woman you thought you had divorced a long time ago, has just died and left you everything.

Everything, when it came to Lady Agatha had a whole different meaning to that of anyone else.

It was not the first surprise that day, and it wasn’t going to be the last.

…

Words today, 1,901, for a total of 23,554

As one day ends, another begins

…

Here’s the thing…

What happens when the planets line up, and everything goes wrong.

Howard calls at Agatha’s residence for an early morning meeting only to find that she has finally succumbed to her illness.  He is completely shattered and it will take time to gather himself and work out what to do.

There are people to notify.  Firstly Adria.  Secondly, the authorities.  Thirdly, those on a list they had created for just such an eventuality, though her incapacity was not expected to be death.

Fourthly, her parents, but that was not the most expedient.  Just before he called her father he sent a message to Monte, telling him to find Michael, the man she had never divorced, as an absolute priority.

He was hoping her faith in Michael would come to fruition.  For the future of her charity, and for the future of their children.  And that was the last of his priorities, informing the children, a job he wished he could pass to someone else.

How will those at her charitable organisation react?

…

Words today, 1,578, for a total of 21,653

You can’t keep a good person down

…

So, what do you do when you discover your life’s work has been hijacked, not only by people you thought you could trust but that unfortunately includes your father.

Guinevere is in charge, making changes, hiring cronies, and pandering to the passed-over celebrity who is now the face of her organisation.   An advertising campaign that cost a lot of money, salaries and benefits to the management and talent, and something else entirely for her father.

He had been waiting in the wings a long time to get in the door, and her incapacity was his one chance.  She had kept him at bay, and if it had not been for her illness, and the accident, he’d still be in Siberia.

So, what does a stranger in her own castle do?

Plot against those insidious creatures that have taken over.

This is where we discover the plans, she implemented with Howard just before she was incapacitated.  That and the investigations she had Monte the private investigator undertake on all of those now working in her organisation.

A very interesting collection of individuals, all of whom had something to hide, and because of this, a means of leverage.

Plans are drawn up, and shots are fired over the bow as a warning.  Everyone has been told, the proverbial is about to hit the fan.

…

Words today, 2,013, for a total of 20,075