Episode 83 - On Board

"Reese, welcome!" Dustin smiled as he invited his former coworker into his new office space. "I'd offer to give you the grand tour, but we aren't so grand around here yet. Emphasis on the yet.

"This is our office receptionist, Christy," he said, motioning toward the person sitting at the front desk. "Christy, this is Reese. Reese is one of the most talented corporate lawyers I have ever had the pleasure to meet. She was one of the youngest people to finish law school and pass the bar exam in our state, so she has more years of experience than one would think."

Reese blushed at the praise and exchanged hellos with the receptionist before following Dustin through the office.

"I didn't know you knew so much about me."

"I always do my homework, especially when it comes to my career, and this new firm is my baby. It's what I've spent my entire life working toward, and I'm determined to make sure it succeeds. I'm leaving no details to chance, so that means no secrets for anyone who wants to work with me."

"I have nothing to hide," Reese promised.

"I know you don't, and that's why I would be a fool to pass up adding someone like you to the team."

"About that. I'd like to talk more about what you have in mind."

"Of course," Dustin agreed as he led Reese into an office space where they could speak privately. "Let's get down to business."

"So, are you thinking I would work for you or with you? Is this a partnership situation?"

"Honestly, I'm open to whatever you prefer. Even if you want to operate independently within the same office, I think it would be an advantage for both of us. But if you don't want to handle the business side of it on your own, we could go in together under the same umbrella. Right now, I'm the only one who is confirmed, but I have feelers out to a couple of other lawyers to join the firm. I'm not at liberty to name names yet, but one of our colleagues from my uncle's firm is considering joining, and I've reached out to a friend from law school who is a fantastic attorney. I think the four of us have different areas of expertise and strengths that would make a great team."

Reese just nodded thoughtfully. "It sounds like a promising opportunity."

Dustin could hear the hesitation in Reese's voice. "I know it's risky and there is so much to do getting started, but I already have my first client." Dustin smiled, obviously pleased. "It's an interesting case. I was called in to represent a woman who had been brought to the police station for questioning, but the woman they were actually looking for was her estranged sister. They suspected the sister was posing as my client, but it turns out my client had also been impersonating another woman for months and is now being charged with identity theft."

The enthusiasm in Dustin's voice was contagious, and it made Reese eager to get back to the workforce, but she wasn't sure whether or not this was the path she wanted to take. It would be a step up in her career, but nothing too different from the work she had been doing for the last twenty years. This could be her best chance to try something completely new instead. Did she want to branch out in a new, unknown direction or continue on the career path she had been pursuing since she was a teenager?

* * * * *

"You're on your phone a lot this morning," Vivian remarked as she and Simon sat together in the break room.

"I was just texting Reese to see how her meeting went this morning."

"What kind of meeting?"

"A former colleague made her an offer to join the new firm he's starting. I want to wish her luck, but she doesn't need it. The position is hers if she wants it. She just has to make the decision."

"You are a very thoughtful husband," Vivian gushed as Blaine entered the breakroom to pour himself a cup of coffee. "I hope your new wife realizes what a lucky lady she is."

"I consider myself the lucky one."

Blaine was glad he had his back turned to them as he overheard the last part of their exchange, so he wouldn't have to hide his eye roll.

"She's been out of work for a while, hasn't she? She hasn't worked since the fire closed down her old firm?"

"Two months ago," Blaine replied absently. In his mind, flashes of memories were coming back to him of crashing glass and flames. He remembered shielding Natalie and boosting her to safety before the blast that sent him flying out the window onto the pavement in the alley.

"Good memory," Vivian remarked.

Blaine shook the thoughts from his head and focused his attention on the present. "No, not since that day."

Vivian looked questioningly from Blaine to Simon, desperate to know the rest of the story.

Since Blaine seemed in a world of his own, Simon explained briefly. "Blaine was in the law office when the fire started. Luckily he escaped, but the explosion was when he lost his memory."

"Oh! Oh, I'm so sorry," Vivian apologized, realizing she had just put her foot in her mouth. "That was insensitive of me. I had heard about your memory loss, but I had forgotten all about it. I hope you don't think I was making a joke at your expense."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it," Blaine assured her.

"I didn't know your accident happened at Reese's place of employment. Is that how you know each other? You used to work at the same law firm?"

"I was helping with a project at her latest law firm, but we knew each other long before that. We both worked for the Townsend Corporation years ago. This is where we met before we started dating . . ." He knew these pieces of information were facts, but when he tried to reach back into his mind to recall that time, his memories were shadowy and jumbled. Sometimes they seemed unreal. Sometimes they seemed like yesterday. He felt himself starting to slip back to that time briefly before being brought back to the present. "But that was sixteen years ago, apparently. Most of my memories are still hazy."

"Sixteen years," Vivian remarked. The number seemed unusually specific. Her eyes grew wide when she realized the significance. "Oh!"

Simon could see the gears turning in Vivian's mind, and he knew the conclusion she had reached, but he wasn't interested in staying around to discuss it. He rose from his seat. "Well, I guess I should get back to work."

Vivian checked the time. "Me too. Unfortunately." On her way out, she stopped to have a word with Blaine. "Let me know if you want some company the next time you take a break. I'd love to chat with you more."

Vivian was beaming with the new information she had just learned and wondered who she could share it with. As she made her way back to her desk, she saw Lawrence, Shayna, and Andrew leave Andrew's office together after a private meeting. Now there was another trio she would like to know more about.

The three went their separate ways as Andrew headed for the break room, Shayna returned to her desk without a second glance at Vivian, and Lawrence stopped by Pamela's desk outside his office. Vivian decided to make an excuse to stop by the reception desk.

"Any messages for me, Pamela?" Lawrence asked the receptionist. He took the messages she had jotted down for him and was about to head back to his office when Vivian intercepted him.

"It's nice to see you back, Lawrence. We were so sorry to hear about what happened to your family. I can't imagine what that must have been like for you. Are your children doing okay?"

"As well as can be expected," he replied.

"We'll be thinking of you," she said encouragingly before he nodded and disappeared into his office.

* * * * *

Lawrence sat at his desk and closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to regroup. He had taken a few days off to be with the children after the kidnapping. This was his first day back, and he was struggling to stay alert and focus on work.

Since the ordeal with Lauren, he hadn't been sleeping well. He kept thinking back to the cruise. Had there been any hint that Lauren had been there all along? Was there anything he missed that could have warned him that Eileen was in danger? There were so many new questions running through his mind. Questions that he might never get answers to. Once the police showed up, Lauren stopped talking, but at least she was back where she belonged, in a high-security mental institution where she wouldn't be able to bother him or his family again.

As much as he wanted to live in the past, Lawrence couldn't linger there. He had too many responsibilities that needed him here in the present. In his meeting with Andrew and Shayna, he told Shayna to stop the search for a new nanny. After what had happened, he couldn't trust another stranger with his children. Lorna was having nightmares about what happened, and he wouldn't put her through that again. He was forced to rely on the people he knew he could trust. Vanessa and Logan were more than willing to lend a helping hand, but he hated to impose on them too much. He decided to take a step back at work to spend more time with his children, and that meant handing over some of his responsibilities at the office to Andrew and Shayna. At their meeting, they had worked together to put a plan in place for the business that he felt optimistic about.

Lawrence was startled out of his thoughts when his intercom buzzed.

"Mr. Arrendale, there is a Paige DeVille here to see you."

For a moment, Lawrence couldn't speak. He didn't want to see his former nanny. As far as he was concerned, they had nothing to say to each other, but curiosity got the better of him. Reluctantly, he replied, "Send her in."

He rose from his desk to meet her, not intending to let her stay long.

"Hi," Paige said meekly as she walked into the office. "I promise I really am who I say this time."

When her attempt at humor did not go over well, she cleared her throat awkwardly and continued. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't bother you, but I feel I owe you an explanation."

"You really don't," Lawrence said as he started to usher her toward the door. "Whatever it is, I don't need to hear it. And with the charges you will be facing, I don't think it's a good idea for us to speak."

"I'm not here because of that. I went to visit my sister. They have her back on her medications, and she's starting to level out. She was actually pretty reasonable when I spoke to her-"

"I'm sure that's nice for you, but all I want is to put all of this behind me."

"I'm sure you do, and I don't blame you for that." Paige spoke quickly, hurrying to say what she needed to say before he kicked her out. "She told me what happened the night your wife disappeared."

Lawrence felt all of the air go out of his lungs. He was torn. Did he really want to hear the details? Could he trust anything that Lauren or Paige had to say? Ultimately, he had to know. He took a step back and stopped pressuring Paige toward the door. "She admitted to making Eileen go overboard?"

"No." Paige could sense Lawrence's patience for her start to slip again, so she continued on before he could change his mind and ask her to leave. "But she admitted that's what she had planned to do. She was interrupted before she had the chance to carry it through."

Lawrence motioned for Paige to take a seat and sat across from her while she relayed her sister's story.

"As I suspected, Lauren had been stalking you ever since she escaped from the mental institution seven years ago. When she found out about the cruise you and Mrs. Arrendale had been planning, she bought a ticket for the same voyage. She kept a low profile, but watched the two of you from a distance and came up with a plan to get Mrs. Arrendale alone.

"One evening she called your cabin pretending to be a crew member on the ship and said you needed to meet with the captain about an issue with your cabin."

"I remember that," Lawrence recalled. "I went to find out what was going on and no one knew anything about any issues."

"She just wanted you out of the room. While you were gone, Lauren had a note delivered to your wife, saying that you wanted to meet her on deck for a romantic surprise right away."

Lawrence's breath caught in his throat. He felt sick to his stomach thinking of what was to come next.

"Lauren was waiting for Mrs. Arrendale on deck. She was going to sneak up behind her, hit her over the head, and push her overboard, but a crew member caught her in the act, and she ran. The crew member sounded an alarm, but before she could get away, she was surrounded. With nowhere to escape, she jumped over the railing into the water."

Paige continued on about how her sister swam to shore and found someone to take her in, but Lawrence had stopped listening. He was turning the story over in his mind, trying to envision the series of events as claimed by Lauren - or Paige - and see if they added up. He recalled the phone call. He had seen Lauren's boarding pass in her apartment, but he wasn't sure about the rest. For years, the events of that night had replayed in his mind. It was difficult to think that the accident had happened any other way than how it had been relayed to him.

"No one said there was a chase. They didn't say that Eileen had jumped. They told me she fell."

He knew Eileen never would have jumped off the ship, but he never understood why she was on deck alone after dark or how she could have fallen overboard. The only thing that had made sense, knowing what he knew now, was that Lauren had pushed her.

There was one missing piece of this puzzle that bothered him. "If it was Lauren that went overboard, what happened to Eileen? Why would they have only reported one woman missing?"

Paige shook her head. "I have no idea. I know it's a wild story and my sister is far from the most reliable person, but she really seemed like she believed what she was telling me. If I thought she was just rambling or hallucinating or making it up, I never would have brought this to you. She just sounded so certain. If it was the truth, I thought you needed to know."

"Thank you," Lawrence said tersely. He felt like he was in a daze as he rose from his chair and showed Paige to the door.

"I also wanted to tell you how sorry I am for my part in everything. I'm partially to blame for her escape from the mental hospital, and I realize I gave her an opening to go after the children when I came to work for you. I only thought I could find some information to help locate her. I never meant to put your children in danger. I wish I could explain to them why I lied and to tell them goodbye and that I'm sorry, but I know that it's probably best that I stay away."

"Yes," Lawrence simply agreed. His mind was preoccupied with other matters.

"If there is anything I can do to help, I will be glad to, but otherwise, I promise I won't contact you again."

"I think that would be for the best," Lawrence said as he closed the door behind her.