Chapter 14 Unfinished Business

Chapter 14 Unfinished Business
Elizabeth ended up staying with Paul a little longer then she thought that she would have to. However that gave her time to think of what she was going to do with her life now.

Elizabeth quit her job at the law firm, and waited for everything to get settled. When the businesses were transferred to Elizabeth she sold them all. The money she made from those sales were added to her bank account of the one million dollars she got from Keith’s life insurance policy.

She put Keith’s place up for sale. Once everything was taken care of she thanked Paul and said goodbye to him. She packed her car with her stuff, and then she went to Davina’s house and spent some time with her and Darren before she left. She then said goodbye to them too. Before she knew it she was on the road again.

Elizabeth had reached her destination after a couple of hours of driving. She went to a hotel and called a cab. The cab pulled into the driveway of a rustic looking house in the countryside. A man walked out from the side of the house he was watering the grass; he was completely unaware of his visitor.

“Hello John.”

John looked up startled, he reluctantly said “Hello.”

“Are you going to invite me to come in?” Elizabeth asked.

John shook his head and said “Oh yea of course come in.”

Elizabeth turned back to the cab reached in and grabbed her purse. She paid the driver and turned and she turned to look at John he was staring at his house. She took this time to grab her pink compact machete; she put it through the back waist of her pants, and then pulled the bottom of her shirt over it to hide it.

She then proceeded to follow John into his house. When she got in she looked around, it was a quaint house. The dim lights gave it an ominous look, which she felt was befitting to the character of its owner.

Elizabeth wandered through the house as John nervously followed her; she saw a case of stairs but decided to stay downstairs. She walked into the dining room. She saw a decorative table pushed up against the wall, there were many pictures atop of it.

Elizabeth studied them she saw a woman and two boys, some of them together, some of them alone, and some with John beaming. She picked up a picture that was of the two boys, turned it so John could see and asked “Who’s this.”

“They’re my sons.” John answered matter-of-factly.

“Hmm.” was all Elizabeth could say. She put the picture frame down, then pointed to the woman and asked “Wife?”

John calmly answered “Yea.”

Elizabeth nodded her head slowly, and hummed ‘mmmmmhm’

“I know...” John started.

Elizabeth interjected “You don’t know anything.”

She walked over to the china cabinet and saw a collection of trophy’s and awards proudly displayed.

She snorted “Huh, funny.”

“What?” John asked.

“None of my trophies or awards are here, not one. And I have a lot but you wouldn’t know that would you!” Replied Elizabeth.

John blinked hard, and let out a deep sigh he knew he was defeated and there was nothing he could say.

“You know it would have been nice if you in some way let me know I have brothers, what if I didn’t know and ended up dating them or marrying them. We would have produced cousin-siblings even that is trashier than we are.” Elizabeth interrupted his thoughts.

“Sorry.” He pointed to the pictures “There are your brothers, don’t sleep with them.”

Then he nervously looked toward the door. Elizabeth saw this and asked “Let me guess they know as much about me as I knew about them?”

“Less now.” John replied.

Elizabeth retorted “You mean now that I am here learning about them.”

John nodded and said “Yea.”

“So I am guessing you don’t want them to come home and find me here. It might be hard to explain your long lost daughter. You were always one to run rather than man up and face a challenge head on.” Elizabeth remarked.

“Wow don’t hold back. I did not run away from you and your mother, your mother and I were horrible for each other.” Headlights passed by the window and John’s eyes shot up out of fear of thinking his family would come home and find Elizabeth there.

Elizabeth let out an annoyed breath and said “Let’s go outside take a walk or something.”

She walked toward the back sliding doors where she saw a large field in their back yard. As she walked past John she muttered “You aint nothing but a candy-ass bitch.”

John let out an offended laugh, but followed her. They walked for about half an hour, then Elizabeth turned and asked “Is this far enough for you?”

John sighed “Why are you here Elizabeth?”

“Why were you at my mother’s funeral?” returned Elizabeth.

John took a deep breath in then said “Oh boy! Is that why you are here because I was there.”

“I’m here because you weren’t there.” Elizabeth answered.

John answered “Elizabeth you are a grown woman you need to let this go.”

“You know something parents don’t seem to know, is that there actions affect their kids for the rest of their lives. I don’t want to hold onto this, it’s like a dark cloud stuck to me.” Elizabeth explained.

John looked as though Elizabeth’s words caused him to have a minor epiphany then he said “I’m sorry Elizabeth, but your mother and I.”

“Oh my God!” Elizabeth interrupted frustrated “You didn’t just leave her, you left me I had no father. I had father’s day gifts that I made at school and no one to give them to. I never got to go to father-daughter dances. Not only did you abandon me but you had another family that you stuck around for, you raised them, you’re still raising them.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” answered John.

“Nothing, I just wanted to let out my frustrations.” Elizabeth stopped talking and there was a lull of silence. Elizabeth walked around John so that she was behind him he stayed still frozen where he was. “I caught my fiancé cheating on me; he brought some random woman into my bed.” Elizabeth admitted.

“I’m sorry.” John awkwardly said to her.

“I killed him, and his side bitch.” Elizabeth confessed.

John was shocked. Elizabeth pulled her machete out and stabbed John in his right carotid artery in his neck.

She said to him “You messed me up John.”

She then pulled the knife out of his neck and he fell to the ground. From the ground he tried to say Elizabeth, but it came out as un-understandable muffled sounds.

Elizabeth put the knife back in the back of her pants, she walked away and said “Night, night daddy!” Then she left as he laid there quickly, bleeding to death.

Elizabeth walked through the field back through his house, out the front door. She was grateful that no one had come home. She got another cab, but made it pick her up down the street. Elizabeth got back to the hotel and she went into the bathroom, drew herself a bath, then she put on the radio and found a song befitting her mood. She got into the tub, with the knife in her hand. She looked at it, and smiled. She then submerged it into the water with her and stayed there bathing in her father’s blood.

Elizabeth had left her town, and her dad’s country, she had resolved that she would never kill again. There was no need for it and she knew that it was not right...

She took to travelling and making the most of her life by experiencing new things. She now had the money and the freedom to do so, so she figured why not. However the jet-setting life was starting to bore her. She found it difficult to appreciate it now that it came so easily.

Elizabeth decided she was happiest when she planted roots, and that is what she needed to do now. She really loved being a lawyer, but that was in the past. Now she wanted to do something completely different and out of character. She just did not know what she wanted to do.

The first step was finding a place to settle down; she wanted something completely different there too. She wanted it to be the exact opposite of the town atmosphere she had always known, she did not want the country life so, she finally decided on settling down in the big city.

Elizabeth bought a beautiful penthouse, in the centre of the city which allowed her easy access to the city life. She had a great time decorating her new penthouse. There was a lot more to do when decorating now that she had money compared to when she had none.

Once Elizabeth had decorated, and settled in she started to feel an itch. She was getting bored again, sitting at home all day. She knew she needed to find something to do so she started taking classes. She took a culinary class, a painting class, an acting class; she took many different classes trying to find herself. She did not find anything that felt like it was her calling or her destiny, but she was enjoying herself and she could now cook.

Elizabeth was walking back from one of her classes; she passed a school for fashion design. This school had gotten her interest so she went inside, she saw a receptionist desk she went and asked for a brochure. She flipped through it; she became more and more interested. So she asked the receptionist how to apply to the school. The receptionist told her that she had to apply online. Elizabeth thanked her, went home, and applied to the school immediately.

It took a couple of months but Elizabeth finally got accepted to the fashion design school. She was given her schedule, and she signed up to the schools web mail service. She found all her syllabuses for her classes online and she wrote down all the books she would need to buy. She went to the school bookstore and bought them, she leafed through them before classes started and found herself getting excited.

Her excitement did not dwindle after the first class. Elizabeth loved it she loved designing and then creating new clothes out of her very own designs. She loved learning about all the different fabrics; she did not realize there were so many. The more Elizabeth completed of the program the more she realized that this was her calling.

Elizabeth just did not know what she was going to do with it; she could try to get into an already established fashion line but thought that would probably be difficult. So Elizabeth decided she was going to buy a storefront and sell her own designs when she finished school.

It was a two year program but, Elizabeth took some courses online, took a summer semester, and finished it in a year and a half. She was already out with a realtor looking at different properties for her store front before she graduated.

By the time she graduated Elizabeth had bought her retail property and was creating a logo to put on the front of the store. She decided to call her store simply Elizabeth’s. Elizabeth spent most of her time getting her store ready, when she was not at her store she was at home designing and sewing her clothes.

Elizabeth was not expecting her clothing to be as successful as designer label clothing lines. She was happy just to have a small boutique with an intimate clientele. Still she invested in advertising and planned an opening day event. She decided to open the first day of November, just in time for Christmas shopping.

Elizabeth was not expecting a huge crowd but she still got snacks and beverages for those who did attend the opening. Finally the first of November had arrived; Elizabeth went to her store for a few last minute touches before the grand opening. Finally it was ten o’clock, Elizabeth went and turned the sign to say open, and then she unlocked the door.

Elizabeth went to the door, she saw a few people standing there. They went in to the store as soon as she opened the door. Elizabeth was surprised she thought she would be sitting idly in the store; maybe have one or two customers for the whole day.

The whole day went amazingly many people came in and by the end of the day when she took stock of her inventory she had sold half of her merchandise on the first day open. She was running on a euphoric high when she got home, when she called Davina to tell her about her great day.

The phone was ringing for a long time, before Davina finally answered sounding excited and out of breath “Hello.”

“Hey, Davina what’s going on?” Elizabeth asked very curious to know what had her so excited.

“Oh my God, Elizabeth?” Davina said a little confused in her ecstasy.

Elizabeth answered “Yea, what is happening? Why are you so happy?”

“Darren just proposed to me and I said yes, I am getting married. Ah!!!!” Davina responded.

“Wow, I am so happy for you...” Elizabeth laughed.

“Yea thank you.” Davina said with less enthusiasm, and more of a sort of saddening faltering voice.

Elizabeth got confused then asked “What’s wrong?”

Davina paused for a moment and then sounded like she sniffled.

This worried Elizabeth until Davina informed her “I am fine, and I am sorry. I just realized that engagements may not be something you want to hear about.”

Elizabeth felt bad that she brought down her friends engagement news, so she told her “No, oh my God, no. I am so happy for you and I don’t want my past bringing you down. This is amazing I am so happy for you two. I can’t wait to see you in a wedding gown. I never thought I would, so you know it’s good, don’t think anything else.”

“Thank you, but still it would have been nice to see you in a wedding gown. It’s still kind of hard to believe that you guys aren’t getting married I wish you ... you know, things happened differently. It just would have been nice if you got to get married.” responded Davina.

“Yea it would have been.” Elizabeth said trying not to feel sad about it “But it was not meant to be, so let’s focus on the future, because you and Darren are getting married. I am so happy for you guys, I feel like my new is so minimal now.” laughed Elizabeth.

“Oh yea. What is your news?” asked Davina.

“Nothing huge just had a great first day at my new store. I sold half of my merchandise and made a huge profit already. I just hope I can keep up this level of business to keep the store going. But the people here seem to love the originality of the designs and the fact that they are limited really appeals to them seems to make them want them even more. So I have high hopes that they will continue to come in to the store. Seems minimal in comparison to your news, but it excites me.” Elizabeth responded.

Davina replied “No that is great; if I was there I would force you to go out and celebrate.”

“I wish you were here I feel so lonely here without you.” Elizabeth confided. “I have made some friends here but, none I really hang out with much. I miss you.”

Davina responded “I miss you too; you were the only real friend I have ever had. Why did you leave?”

“Too many negative memories there.” Elizabeth reminded her. “Oh hey have you seen or heard from Paul, just curious to know how he is doing?”

“Yea we actually make sure to talk to him regularly, he is good has his own garage now, and a new girlfriend.” Davina said that last part slowly scared of how Elizabeth would take it.

Elizabeth giggled “That is great, I am happy for him.”

“OK wasn’t sure how you would take that, I know you are not into him anymore and have not been for a while, but it is still kind of disheartening to know that a guy who is obsessed with you has a girlfriend and may be over that.” Davina answered.

“Oh no I am not jealous at all or disheartened” Elizabeth laughed. “Besides he will always be obsessed with me, with or without a girlfriend.”

Davina laughed “Yea that’s true. Oh shoot I have to go, Darren needs help cooking.”

“OK see you later Love you.” Elizabeth parted.

“Bye, love you too.” Davina hung up the phone.

Elizabeth thought about everything Davina had told her and she decided to call Paul. The phone was answered instantly this time around.

Paul answered “Hello.”

“Hi!” Elizabeth responded.

Paul was surprised and elated to hear Elizabeth’s voice “Hey.” There was a long pause, and then Paul said “I’m sorry I don’t know what to say here.”

Elizabeth told him “Yea that’s understandable; we haven’t talked in almost a couple of years now. Entirely my fault sorry.”

“Yea, I would like to disagree but I cannot. I would have loved to keep in touch with you.”

“I know I am sorry, I thought leaving my old life entirely behind me would be the way to move forward. Instead I am just missing everyone like crazy.”

“Yea.” Paul teased.

“Yea, I talked to Davina she told me you are dating somebody.”

“Yea. I am.”

“So tell me about her!” Elizabeth demanded.

They talked into the night it felt just like old times. Until they hung up, Elizabeth promised to keep in touch. Elizabeth was alone in her pent house in a city where none of her friends were, and she was feeling lonely again.

Elizabeth shook it off, and picked up her newspaper. She started leafing through it when she came across a story that caught her eye. It was an article about a murder that had taken place in the country the victim was identified as John Waller. Her heart started beating rapidly as she read the article to see what they knew about it. She was relieved when she came to the part of the article that said that the police had determined that his wife had killed him based on the fact that she had so thoroughly cleaned the crime scene.

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief she was so happy that his wife had cleaned their house before she realized her husband was missing. If she had not then the police may have been able to find her fingerprints in the house. She could not believe that she had been stupid enough to touch things inside his house.

She folded the newspaper, and put it down. As she thought about it a large satisfying smile slowly made its way across her face. She sat there with this feeling for a while.

Finally she got up, and she walked around her place. She was starting to feel really bored now, she just kept walking around hoping something to do would find its way to her. It did not. She decided just to watch TV in bed, so she went to bed. So she watched TV until she fell asleep.

The next day was just as successful as the first day at Elizabeth’s store. From then on Elizabeth was busy running the store designing and making clothing for the store. She started to get so busy with it, that it soon became the only thing she did. Elizabeth had realized that she would need to hire someone to help her out.

Elizabeth took out an ad in the local newspaper; she interviewed multiple applicants before deciding to hire a young woman named Carmela. She was a great employee she came in early and worked overtime without Elizabeth ever asking her too. Elizabeth got along great with Carmela, and was ecstatic about her choice in hiring her.

The store was very successful, after a year in business Elizabeth decided to have a party to celebrate the store’s success. Elizabeth rented out the hottest club in the city for friends and customers.

Elizabeth was really excited about the one year anniversary party for the store, however on the day of the party she was feeling nervous that no one would show up and it would be a failure. Carmela eased her mind when she told her that over one hundred people responded to their invitations.

Elizabeth and Carmela spent the day getting ready for the party they went to the club to make sure it was set up how they wanted it to be. When they arrived at the club they walked in and it looked amazing. They had a large space for dancing and an open bar set up. They had tall round bar tables with a white table cloth draped over each one and a beautiful unique centre piece atop each of them as well. The stage was set up for the live band that Elizabeth had hired, there was a smoke machine, cotton candy machine, popcorn maker, snow cone machine, and a picture booth set up.

Elizabeth was very happy with the set up and told the owner so, who then brought her to the kitchen. There she spoke with the chef about the food that the kitchen staff would be preparing for Elizabeth’s guests. They had decided on hors d’ouevres, which would consist of mini burgers, bruschetta, garlic bread, mini hot dogs, and caramelized onion and blue cheese sausage rolls.

Elizabeth also decided that she wanted a lot of sweet delectable desserts to be served as she believed her clothes were delectable and that the dessert would be representative of that. So the chef came up with a dessert menu of molten chocolate cakes, red velvet cupcakes, rich cheesecake, chocolate éclairs, Nanaimo bars, and the classic vanilla cake.

Elizabeth loved the dessert menu too which meant she could go home and put together the swag bags she was going to give away to each guest. She and Carmela put together the bags; they put in a fifty dollar gift card to her store, gender neutral chap stick, European chocolates, and other knick knacks. They put together about one hundred and fifty bags to ensure that there was enough for everyone. When they were done Carmela boxed the bags and loaded them into Elizabeth’s car. While that was being done Elizabeth showered got dressed, and put on her make-up.

Elizabeth got ready just in time; she arrived at the club right at 10:00 PM right when she had wanted the party to start. Her guests started arriving immediately; Elizabeth and Carmela stayed at the front door to greet everyone and thanked them for coming. At about 11:30 PM it seemed everyone that was going to attend had arrived so Elizabeth told Carmela to go inside and enjoy the party.

Elizabeth gave the box of swag bags to one of the club employees who was standing at the door so that they could give one to everyone as they left. Elizabeth ran around checking on everything, making sure it was all exactly as she wanted it.

Elizabeth went to check on the food in the kitchen. When Elizabeth came out of the kitchen she ran into Davina, she almost bumped right into her. Davina caught her before she did

Davina said “Hey slow down.”

Elizabeth raised her arms up and hugged her immediately “Oh my God I cannot believe you made it, thank you so much for coming. Did you just get here?”

“Yea it took a little while to get down here. Congratulations, I cannot believe that your store has been open for a whole year already. I thought you would always be a lawyer and instead you are a hugely successful fashion designer.” Davina answered.

“Yea I know it’s crazy that the store has been open for a year. I don’t know that I am a hugely successful fashion designer I just own a little boutique.” responded Elizabeth.

Davina tapped Elizabeth’s wrist “Oh my God, I have to tell you my company does PR for Melnic, and the CEO asked me about you.”

“Oh wow why?” asked Elizabeth surprised.

“She wants to hire you as a designer for her new line.” answered Davina.

Elizabeth was taken aback, she raised her eyebrows and said “Wow really?”

“Yea is that something you would be interested in?” asked Davina.

“I don’t know I am having a great time running the boutique. Plus what about Carmela?” Elizabeth thought aloud.

“Well she said that you could bring your employees, I guess she thought you had more than one.” Davina responded.

“Oh wow. You guys really talked about me huh?” Elizabeth asked amused.

Davina giggled “Well yea, she was asking about you and your my best friend. Plus if you do it she may be moving here which means I will be moving here too because she would want to hire me too. I guess she thinks I would do amazing PR for my best friend.”

“Oh wow will now I have to do it.” Elizabeth laughed “What about Darren, can he move out here too?”

“Yea of course he is self employed he can do that from anywhere. Are you really going to do it, or were you joking?” Davina asked seriously.

Elizabeth pondered it for a few minutes, she thought about the job security it would offer and how it offered a retirement plan. She liked that she could bring Carmela along and that it would bring Davina closer to her. She had been really missing all of her old friends from back home so it would be great to have her best friend back.

Finally she answered “You know what yea I am serious, I will take it. Only if you can guarantee that Carmela will be hired as well.”

“Yea, I’ll set up a meeting for you and Fiona next week.” Davina answered happily. “OK so now that is out of the way you need to enjoy this party and stop working. There is a reason you rented out the club and hired their employees.”

“OK.” said Elizabeth.

Elizabeth and Davina partied like they used to party. They were dancing all night long. While Elizabeth was dancing a man came up behind her and started dancing with her. He brought his left hand around her waist she looked down and saw that he was wearing a wedding ring. She was initially mad but then she decided to shake it off, as he could have just wanted to dance with her.

The night went on and the married man stayed dancing with her the whole time. Davina got tired and left; Elizabeth was tired as well however she had to stay until everyone left. Soon everyone was gone except for the married man who was dancing with Elizabeth.

The married man went over to Elizabeth, grabbed her and pulled her closer to him; she pushed him away and asked “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” he returned.

Elizabeth gave him a dirty look and responded “It looks like you should be going home to your wife jerk.”

He gave her a sly look “My wife’s not home, I can take you home though. My name is Liev by the way.”

“Don’t care and you can go home by yourself.” Elizabeth retorted.

Liev took a pen from his pocket, grabbed a napkin and wrote down his number, he handed it to Elizabeth and said “Here is my number if you change your mind.”

Elizabeth stood there still, and then he said “I am not leaving until you take it.”

Elizabeth was annoyed but, she grabbed the napkin and put it in her purse, so that he would see that she took it. He leaned into her and stole a hard kiss from her then left. The second he was out of sight Elizabeth wiped her lips disgusted that this stranger Liev had put his lips on hers.

Elizabeth tried to forget it. She checked to make sure that everything was taken care of and cleaned up after the party. Everything was taken care of; all of the swag bags were given out. So, Elizabeth called a car to take her home.