Chapter 17: Who Would Visit Me Here?

Crystal had always sat behind Carlos in class, so this was a familiar view of her. In the self-study classes, they had worn the same style of headphones, and Crystal had often stared at the back of his head for the whole class, with no sense at all of the passing time.

Crystal looked away in disgust, and when Joyce saw that she no longer had an audience, she quit performing. After a few minutes, she looked at Crystal and said, “I heard that you almost got kicked out of school. yesterday” she laughed. “If it weren’t for Daddy’s money, you would be long gone. Isn’t that correct?”

Unlike Joyce, Carlos was a little embarrassed by the situation, and now that the two girls were talking, he nudged Joyce back onto the couch, and his cheeks turned pink as he covered his pants with a pillow. Joyce patted the cushion playfully and said, “Isn’t it exciting to stage a Passion Play? When you dated this prude, she wasn’t even willing to kiss you in public. What a phony. I knew all along that she was the biggest slut of us all!”

Joyce turned to Crystal and said, “I’m sure, you were just afraid of losing face, and the professor was just a rebound, but look how much it is going to cost you! You didn’t have to do that, my dear sister. Trust me. You’re still young. You will find someone better than Carlos,”

Crystal: “Thank you for your concern. And you’re correct. It won’t be hard to find someone better than him.”

Joyce: “Well, you’re right. It’s too bad, though, that you settled for that gigolo. It would be best if you were careful. I know that you’re afraid of being abandoned, but you are going to piss away what little value you have if you don’t start making some changes in your lifestyle! I must ask you something, though, my dear sister: Why would you have thought that once your money ran out, Carlos would still want to be with you? He was obviously using you - and everyone saw it except for you!”

Crystal was prepared for a counter-attack, but Carlos interrupted her assault. He looked at her with a cold expression on his face and said, “Crystal. Mr. Henry is waiting for you in the study. You’d better not keep him waiting.”

After giving bitch and the scumbag a disdainful glance, Crystal slowly walked toward the study.

There’s a sofa in the middle of the study. Todd Henry sat on the couch with his legs crossed and a cigarette between his fingers. White-grey smoke rose slowly and gradually filled the room. “Crystal,” he said, “come and sit here.”

Crystal sighed and said, “No, thanks. I don’t think we’re close enough to sit together and talk about the old days. I’m just here to get my mom’s stuff and go.”

Todd leaned forward and pushed a photo album across the coffee table that was in front of him. Crystal picked it up and turned to the first page, and then she quickly flipped through it. Unexpectedly, every photo was of her. Her first smile. Her first steps. And in each picture, she was slightly older than in the previous one. Some of the photos had notes underneath them, recording things like her weight and her first words. Is it an illusion?- she wondered.

She felt that the photo album had been compiled with love - but if my mother loved me so much, why did he leave me in the hands of a man like Nathan Davis - she wondered. Crystal closed the photo album and forced her face to remain emotionless. She watched her father as he took his last drag off his cigarette, and after he’d snuffed it out in the ashtray, he said, “Your mess at the university has been taken care of, but you need to understand that five million dollars is no small sum, not even for the Henry Group. I helped you this time, for your Mother’s sake. I hope that you’ve learned your lesson and that you can behave yourself from now on because this is your last bailout.” Todd pulled a contract out of a drawer in the coffee table and handed it to Crystal.

“After what I have done for you,” Todd. continued, “It is only right that you sign away your rights to any of my post-mortem rights to the Henry Group.”

So, this is why he invited me here - Crystal

thought to herself and why he bailed me out of trouble with the university. He is trying to pay me off so that I won’t compete with Evan and Joyce for shares in his company after he’s dead! What a bastard. He has gone too far this time!

Crystal laughed and said, “You needn’t have gone to so much trouble. I’ve never intended to take a penny from the Henry Group. My last name is Smith, not Henry - you haven’t been my Father for a long fucking time. You stopped being my Father the day you abandoned my Mother and me!”

Todd shrugged and said, “In that case, let’s call the contract a safety precaution.”

After scanning the contract, Crystal stooped to pick up the pen, and she signed her name without hesitation.

Now that Todd had what he wanted, he was suddenly in the mood to celebrate. He looked up at Crystal, smiled, and said, “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“No, thanks,” Crystal replied. “Trust me, you and your family won’t be happy having dinner with me, and I wouldn’t be happy having dinner with you and yours either. Trust me. And now that I’ve signed the contract, I see no reason to associate myself with you.”

Todd frowned and said, “Have it your way, then. You can see yourself out.”

Before Crystal had reached the door, though, Lucy appeared. She looked at Crystal and said, “Mistress Crystal has company.”

Who would visit me here? - Crystal wondered And for that matter, who even knows that I’m here?