“I like Victoria sir. I was very sad to see her go. I’ll be kind; you can be assured of it.”
“Thank you.” After I hung up with Karen, I called back the attorneys and we worked out what steps I would need to take to get rid of the legal restrictions on her being at the mansion. They would actually have to take the steps; I would just need to sign the paperwork. I told them to get on it at once and I wanted something on my desk by tomorrow. Then I made the second to last call on my list, to my wife.
“Alex,” Cassandra answered. She sounded like I was interrupting her.
“Are you busy?”
“In the middle of my massage,” she said. I wondered why she needed a massage every week when she never really did anything. “Why are you calling in the middle of the day? Is there a problem?” She could be such a witch.
“No, Cassie. I just wanted to tell you that I’ve re-hired Victoria Hart as the upstairs maid. She’ll be starting back on the first of July.” I didn’t have confirmation that she would say yes… but I was hoping and trying to stay confident.
“The blonde?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Why was she let go again?”
“There was a misunderstanding,” I said. I was hoping she’d leave it at that for now. I had yet to tell her that Vicki was carrying my child. I hadn’t wanted to let her get involved in the lawsuit. She would have been ruthless. Now that it would be dropped, I would tell her about it in good time. At least before the baby came. I fully intended at this point to be a part of my son’s life. “It’s been cleared up and we have had temps in and out of the house. I don’t like that. I prefer a stable crew.”
“Makes sense,” she said. “The one we have now is terrible anyways. I told Karen to tell the agency not to send her back. She made the bed with no top sheet yesterday!” I rolled my eyes.
“Good then, it’s settled. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Looking forward to it,” she said. She didn’t sound like she really was, but she said things like that so if I accused her of not being affectionate, she could throw it back in my face.
“Okay then, have a good day, Cassie.” I hung up with a smile on my face that my wife had nothing to do with. I was going to get to see Vicki again every day. I hoped.
Lastly, I called the payroll department.
“Payroll, this is Lydia.”
“Lydia, this is Mr. Reigns.” Lydia is another loyal employee that had been with me from the beginning.
“Good morning sir.”
“Good morning, Lydia. I need you to do something for me and I need it done quickly.”
“Okay sir.”
“Will you please figure up how many hours Miss Hart who was let go from my house staff in March, has missed if she worked full time from the day she was let go until the end of June?”
“Of course sir.”
“Wait, there’s more. After you do that, cut her a check for those hours and have it sent to her address by courier. I’d like it done today, and the sooner, the better.”
“Okay sir, I’m on it.”
I hung up with her feeling satisfied that I was at least taking steps to rectify the damage I had allowed to be done to Vicki’s life. I didn’t take precautions when we had sex… I was more responsible for this than she was. I was in a place of power and some might say I abused it. I had no intentions of doing that, but I had done it nonetheless. All I wanted now was to fix it.
VICTORIA
I had to spend an hour at my attorney’s office signing forms to drop the lawsuits. They were not happy with me. They kept repeating the same things to me about how he could blackball me in the community and how I might not be able to get another job. They said I could sue him for harassment. I had the proof in my belly. I didn’t want to hear any of it. I knew money was what they were most concerned about and it was theirs, not mine. I still owed them close to a thousand dollars. They hadn’t been all that worried about it because they assumed they would get their money from the billionaire when this was all over and done with. I apologized profusely, but the bottom line was that they couldn’t proceed without me. I assured them that as soon as I got a job, they would be first on my list of creditors to pay. They didn’t seem impressed with that, but it was the best that I could do.
I went by Jason’s apartment after that. He was at work, but I had text to ask him if I could pick up my things. He was curt, but he said that I could. I only really had clothes there. I had left my things in storage when I moved in with him. I could get them out now and the storage bill would be one less payment I had to worry about. God bless Liz.