Page 49 of Taming His Honeydoll
“You should have told me,” Henry yelled, his face apoplectic. He threw his hands in the air. “Why didn’t you tellme, Everett? I could have bloody well done something!”
Nat’s eyebrows shot up. “And what would you have done, Henry?”
“Exactly what I’m going to do right now,” he boomed. “Get the real boss involved!” He picked up his cell phone and dialed a number. “Recording, not a word unless I give the nod.” He pushed the button so they could all hear.
“Henry Brassington speaking, how may I help you?”
“Father, this is Henry. You’re not going tobloodybelieve what Mother has been up the last few days!”
“Now, just a minute son. I know she’s hard to get along with and I know the two of you are fighting again, but we’re still family after all.”
“Really?” Henry snorted. “You sat there and let her tell me I was disinherited and throw me out of the house.”
“You know she doesn’t mean that, Henry. She’s willful, underhanded, and will go to great lengths to get what she wants but she loves you. We both want what’s best for you.”
“Well, she’s outdone herself this time father—she’s gone beyond the restraints of the law and may very well end up in jail.”
“What?” Big Henry roared. “Marlene! Get your arse in here!”
Emma winced at the loud tones but all the men smiled grimly.
A few seconds later, they all heard her voice. “What is it, Henry? I’m working on something important.”
“Doesn’t have anything to do with our son, does it?”
“That’s my business.”
“It’s mine now. Your son is on the phone and he’s going to tell me everything you’ve been doing that might land your arse in jail. If there’s anything left of it when I get finished with my cane that is. Speak up, Henry,” he boomed back into the phone.
Henry explained everything that had been going on in between his father’s roars of indignation and incredulity and his mother’s protests and tearful admissions.
“May I speak?” Nat asked and stepped towards the phone.
“Father, there is a police detective here named Nat Murphy who is going to add to this conversation.”
“You’ve gone to the police?”
“Not formally. Nat has been investigating the case for Emma and Levi’s father.”
“I didn’t know Levi’s real father was in the picture,” Marlene snarled in the background.”
“Go ahead then,” Big Henry replied with a worried growl.
“Sir, right now your wife has just admitted to arson and a host of other charges a DA could make against her. And it’s all been recorded.”
They could hear both Marlene and Big Henry’s intake of breath. “So, what you’re saying is you have me by the short hairs,” he admitted.
“Something like that, as well as Everett’s testimony of coercion in anattempt to kidnap a minor scheme,among other things. Emma and Sawyer are both here with us and it’s their choice if they want to press charges. It might be long and drawn out, as well as having to extradite Marlene to a US prison facility, but it’s doable if that’s what they want. Do you have anything to say to them?”
“Yes, sir, I certainly do.”
“Go ahead, then.”
“Hello, Sawyer and Emma,” Big Henry said kindly. “Sawyer, I’m sorry we have to meet under such incredible circumstances, and I don’t blame you for ill feelings toward my wife. I knew she was getting out of hand again, but I’ve been involved in some business deals and just let her fuss and stew about Henry the way she always does.
She’s developed a tendency to speak for me way too often. I didn’t realize things had gotten this bad, and I’m sorry she pulled someone else into one of her schemes. If she had managed to get Levi over here, I would have given him back and she knows that.”
“Are you sure about that?” Sawyer asked through gritted teeth. “Seems to me you both have a lot to answer for if you allowed Henry to marry a woman that he didn’t love in the first place.”
