His Sugar Baby(80)
He frowned as he carefully thought it through. If he was going to do this, he would have to move swiftly. He knew once she became aware of what he was doing, she would be furious. She did not want him in her life, and what he contemplated would be an intrusion that she could not ignore. Even if the subsequent communication between them was acrimonious on her part, at least it would establish a fragile contact with her. At the very least, she would acknowledge him. At best, she would permit him to talk to her. His heart thudded with a faint curl of hope, but he cautioned himself against disappointment.
Michael reached for the phone on his desk. First, the liquidity of some of his assets had to be arranged. He would have to discuss the legal ramifications with his attorney, in light of the petition for divorce, but he thought there wouldn’t be a problem if he touched only those investments that had been in existence before his marriage.
As for the other thing he had in mind, he would need to run it by his best friend.
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Michael saw the Lexus sitting in front of his house, he parked quickly and leaped out of the Porsche. His heart thundered. His hands were shaking before he was able to unlock the front door. He strode inside, leaving the door gaping wide behind him. “Winter? Winter!”
Silence greeted him, the silence of an empty house.
Michael didn’t want to believe it. He swiftly glanced through the rooms on ground floor, circled back to the stairs, and mounted swiftly. “Catherine?” She has to be here. But she wasn’t. The disappointment of not finding her at the house struck hard. Half afraid of what he would find, he searched all the places in the bedroom that he had set aside for her. He opened the closet, the dresser drawers, and the cabinets in the bathroom. All of her things were still there. She had not come back for them. Instead, she had brought back the Lexus.
He went back down the stairs with considerably less speed than he had mounted them. He halted at the open front door, stretched out an arm, and with his hand grasped the frame. He stared, dry-eyed, at the Lexus at the curb, even though his heart was tearing out of his chest. He knew what it meant. She was determined to sever all ties. Well, he wasn’t ready to give up. He still had a hand to play.
As he started to close the door, Michael caught sight of a brown manila envelope sticking up out of his mailbox. Michael stepped out on the porch to retrieve the envelope and carefully opened it. Inside were the keys to the Lexus and the house key that he had given to Winter. There was nothing else. He narrowed his eyes. The cell phone. It’s not here. He checked inside the mailbox, but it was empty.
An hour later, he had thoroughly searched the Lexus and every place that he could think of inside the house. He did not find the cell phone. It looked like she had kept the cell, just as he had asked her to do in his e-mail. It was little enough reason to hope, but he smiled to himself anyway.
Michael had opened an account specifically designated for the purpose that he intended it to be used, the Association of Friends— Chloe Somerset. He had reasoned that printed checks, with the name of a formal-sounding association, would be readily accepted.
At the hospital, Michael represented himself as the spokesman for a group of friends of Catherine Somerset, which wanted to bless her with the easing of her financial burden. “We know how crushing her daughter’s medical bills are to her, and we want to help as much as we can. However, we don’t want to embarrass Ms. Somerset. So we’d like to make an anonymous donation against any outstanding balances on her account. Can you give me a ballpark figure that we might work up or down?”
The hospital billing department expressed guarded interest, as long as client confidentiality was maintained, and provided the sliding scale. When Michael wrote a check for the upper-end figure, the atmosphere warmed considerably. “I am aware that there were other health care providers involved in Chloe Somerset’s treatment. I’d like to contact them as well.” He understood the need for confidentiality, but could the hospital recommend medical service providers that were usually involved with the care and treatment of leukemia patients? He was given the names of other medical entities that might possibly have provided services to Chloe Somerset. When he asked, he was given to understand which providers might be expected to hold the highest outstanding balances.
Michael easily discovered which medical service providers had been involved in the little girl’s treatment. All were willing to embrace his story and to accept payment from the Association of Friends—Chloe Somerset.
He couldn’t settle everything, of course. The very healthy deposit in that special account evaporated like water. However, he had the satisfaction of knowing that some of the medical bills had been either eliminated or substantially reduced.
Michael knew that he had to accomplish what he could in one billing cycle. When Catherine received paid-in-full notices, rather than billing statements, it would not take her long to find out that the bills had been paid anonymously. She was an intelligent woman. She would realize very quickly who was behind the Association of Friends—Chloe Somerset. Then, if she did still have the cell phone in her possession, he expected that she would use it.
When he heard from her, it almost took him by surprise. Michael double-checked the number so that there was no mistake. She did still have the cell. His hands were shaking slightly when he opened the text. Stop helping me! A second text followed. Thank you. She had not left him an opening to build on, but neither had she left him without a generous word.