Millennium - 67. Chapter 67

March 9, 2000

 

“What do you mean he’s not my father?” Ella asked Darius. Ella stood there, freaking out, but everyone was ignoring her as they went to welcome our new visitors, which I thought was pretty rude.

I walked over to her and Darius. “Ella, let’s get everyone situated, and then we’ll lay things out for you, alright?”

“Alright,” she said reluctantly. I gave Darius a look that told him to keep his mouth shut, then went back to greet JP, Stef, and Claire.

“JP, Stefan, how wonderful to see you,” Clara said, ignoring the big issue on the table.

“This is my daughter,” JP said, “Claire Crampton Hobart.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Claire said. I noticed that she made sure that her voice was friendly and unassuming.

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Clara said. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

“Hopefully not from Bradley,” Claire said, as she gave me a nice hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I told her honestly.

“Let’s all go inside where it’s warm,” Clara said. I suspected that a bigger reason was that a bunch of the neighbors had wandered out to see what was going on, and the last thing Wally and Clara wanted was to have all their neighbors in their business. She led us into the front room and got us all chairs.

“What a lovely home you have,” Claire said. “Did you decorate this yourself?”

“I did my best,” Clara said.

“I think the curtains perfectly complement the sofa.” I just had to admire Claire and her ability to pick out something positive to comment on.

“Why thank you,” Clara said.

Everyone else was being superficially social, but Ella’s patience was at an end. “What do you mean he’s not my father?” I went over and sat next to Gathan and put my arm around his shoulders. He was the forgotten one in this thing, the guy who had just found out that his sister was in reality only his half-sister.

JP gave me a dirty look, not because I was sitting next to Gathan, but because Ella found out and that obviously had to have come from me. I ignored him. He looked at Ella with a much nicer expression. “Your father was in jail when you were conceived.”

“I know that,” Ella said. “It was during a conjugal visit.”

“Ella, the prison didn’t allow conjugal visits back then,” Clara said.

“You knew?” Ella asked Clara. “You knew?” she asked again, more distraught, this time directing the question to Wally. “You all knew this, and no one bothered to tell me? I’ve gone through my whole life thinking that monster was my father, and you let me think that?”

“Ella, you’re my own daughter as sure as if Clara had given birth to you,” Wally said. “There didn’t seem to be any reason to spring this on you until you were older.”

“No, you just let me live a lie,” Ella said, but her anger was fading.

“You are our daughter,” Clara said. “Have we ever treated you any other way?” A tear fell down Clara’s cheek, and I felt Gathan stiffen under my arm.

“No, Mom, you haven’t,” Ella said to her. “I’m just a little upset by this, and I’m trying to figure it out.”

“You’re not the only one,” Gathan said as he glared at everyone. I squeezed his shoulder, my non-verbal way of telling him to settle down.

“So if he’s not my father, who is?” Ella asked.

“The only way to be completely certain is to perform a DNA test, but we’re almost certain that we know who he is,” JP said. Everyone stared at him, demanding that he go on. “Your father is my nephew: Rich Crampton.”

“Does he know?” Ella asked.

“Probably not,” JP said.

“How do you know?” she asked.

JP looked very uncomfortable, and of course he vented that by giving me a dirty look. “He’s pissed at you,” Gathan whispered in my ear.

“I’m used to it,” I whispered back.

“We were keeping tabs on someone else and stumbled onto his relationship with your mother,” JP said. He’d told me that Rich was fucking Bitty after he was done with Ella’s mother, but that must not be true. There must have been some overlap.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” she asked.

“My mother left some provisions in her estate for you, some money that becomes available in part when you turn 18. We would have had this conversation at that point, although probably without so many people present.” JP looked apologetically at Wally and Clara. “If you would have known about this, it might have changed the family dynamics.”

“You mean because Ella’s richer than the rest of us?” Gathan asked.

“That’s what he means,” Wally said firmly, shutting Gathan down.

“So you raised me for over half of my life, even though I’m not a blood relation?” Ella asked Wally and Clara.

“Like we said, you’re our daughter, no matter what,” Wally told her.

She went up and gave both Wally and Clara big hugs, a really sweet and classy thing to do. “Do you mind if I excuse myself?” she asked. “I’d like some time to think about this.”

“That’s fine,” Wally said.

She walked over to Gathan. “Come see me in a few minutes.” He nodded. She headed to the stairs, stopped, and held out her hand to Darius. He took it silently and followed her up the stairs. I wondered how Wally and Clara would feel about that, about Ella taking a boy upstairs, but they seemed alright with it.

“You didn’t want to separate us,” Gathan observed after she left. “That’s why Ella stayed here.” No one said anything. “I’m glad you didn’t.”

“This might have played out more smoothly if we had waited to tell her and had done it in a more organized manner,” JP said to me.

“Darius overheard us talking, and insisted that Ella be told,” Robbie said, jumping in for me.

“Besides, it’s a lot easier to live your life out in the open, without all the secrets and tangled webs you like to weave,” I said to JP. I wasn’t going to put up with any shit from him on this.

“I am not going to sit here and play what-if games until you two get mad and start fighting,” Claire said authoritatively. “The question now is what happens next?”

“Why would anything change?” Gathan demanded.

“In a few months, you’ll be finished with school and thinking about going off to college,” Claire told him. “Ella will be here with a year of high school left.”

“If Fred is still around, that could cause troubles,” Clara stated.

Claire looked nervous, something not too common for her. “I’d like to extend an offer, just for you to consider, to have Ella spend her last year of high school with us, in Palo Alto.”

“So you can teach her how to be a real lady?” Wally asked, with a bit of blue-collar pride making it seem almost a slam.

“No, her mother has already done that,” Claire said, giving Clara a very nice compliment. “It’s just an option for you, and Ella, to consider.”

“I think we should let Ella make that decision,” Clara said to Wally. “Why don’t we give her some time to let this settle, and then we’ll let her make a decision this summer.”

“When will Ella get to meet her real father?” Gathan asked.

“He is on our list of people to see while we are here,” Claire answered. Gathan nodded, and then headed up to see Ella.

“I’m sorry that she found out this way,” I told Wally and Clara.

“It had to happen eventually. Now is probably as good of a time as any,” Wally said fatalistically.

“So Darius found out and insisted on telling Ella?” Stef asked, chiming in for the first time. “I assume you told him not to.”

“We did,” Robbie said.

“And it had no appreciable impact?” Stef asked.

“None at all,” I said, knowing he was making the same comparison that I had about my own arguments with JP when I was younger.

“They say no one can escape karma. Perhaps that is so,” Stef said, grinning at me.

 

March 10, 2000

 

“So what’s the plan?” I asked of our little group. We’d all been exhausted after last night, and had pretty much just come back to the hotel and passed out, all of us except Darius, who had spent the night with Wally and Clara. We hadn’t reconvened until now, at lunchtime.

“Since we’re here, I figured we’d meet with Rich and Jim to discuss those plans for the factory,” JP said. “And deal with this other issue.”

“We?” I asked.

He sighed. “I thought that you, Claire, and I could do that. I assumed that Robbie has work to do, while Stefan will probably want to check in on our house.”

“That sounds good to me,” Robbie said. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

“I think I will join you. I can check on the house later,” Stef said. He obviously sensed that the meeting may require his diplomatic intervention. “I have invited Clara, Wally, and their family to join us for dinner at that little Italian restaurant downtown. Gathan said it is one of their favorites, and we can show Bradley there are more places to dine than the Club.”

“I’m sure I will enjoy being enlightened,” I said with a smile. We headed out to the waiting limo and rode off to the offices of Crampton Construction.

“So why did you come out here?” I asked Claire.

“To make sure the rest of you didn’t make asses out of yourselves,” she said, teasing us.

“Good luck with that,” I joked back.

“Ella really responded to Marie and me. I got the feeling that she’s been living in a testosterone-laden world, and really enjoyed hanging out with the girls,” she said, using the term ‘girls’ colloquially. “I also wanted to personally offer her the option to come out and live with us.”

“Well if Jack is there, I’d want to come live with you just to stare at him.” She rolled her eyes at me. I turned to JP. “You don’t think Rich knows about Ella?”

“I’m not sure,” JP said. “Jim asked me why Mother had put less money in trust for Rich than her other grandchildren, and I told him that she’d had to make other provisions for Rich. He didn’t push too hard, but then again, if you remember, we weren’t on the best of terms at that time.”

“Do he and Uncle Jim have a close bond?” Claire asked.

“I think that Jim tries to focus on Rich’s positive attributes, and since those revolve around his business abilities, that’s where they tend to bond.” JP seemed rather sad about that. “Rich is slated to take over the company when Jim retires, and that should be in the next five years or so.”

“You say ‘slated’ as if it’s not a done deal?” I asked.

“Crampton Construction is no longer the exclusive family company that it once was. Since they went public back in 1994, the investor base is much broader. Together, family members control about 40% of the stock. Jim and his children control 25%, while the rest of us maintain about 15%.” JP let us digest that. “Rich’s succession, and even Jim’s retention of control, is not guaranteed. Outside investors could certainly decide otherwise.”

“My experience is that once a group owns 25% of the stock in a company, they are difficult to dislodge,” Stef observed.

“Are you and Jim on good terms?” I asked JP.

“We are. There’s been no meeting of the minds or formal resolutions to problems like we are used to,” he said, smiling at me. He was trying to be nice after being so bitchy last night. “Instead, we just seem to let the unpleasantness fade into the past.”

Before any of us could elaborate on that, we arrived at Crampton Construction. They were extremely courteous to us, and I could understand why. Besides Jim and his family, we represented the next largest block of shareholders.

They led us into the board room, where we found Jim and Rich waiting for us. There were blueprints spread across the table, blueprints I was intimately familiar with since they were the plans for our new factory.

“Claire!” Jim said enthusiastically as he got up to greet her. “I didn’t expect to see you here.” Was there a hint of nervousness in his voice?

“We had some family issues to deal with, and since I was here I figured I’d see how these plans were progressing,” she said smoothly.

“Family issues?” Jim asked.

Claire reached into her thin, stylish attaché case and removed a folder, and from that she removed a single sheet of paper. She handed it to Rich. “I need you to sign over guardianship of your daughter.”

Rich stared at her blankly. He had two children: Haley, who was 14, and John, who was 12. “You want guardianship of Haley?”

“Not Haley; Ella,” Claire said. Rich blanched at that, which really pissed both Claire and me off, since he obviously knew about her.

“Who is Ella?” Jim asked.

“Luella Hayes,” JP answered him. “Rich fathered a daughter with Fred Hayes’ wife while Fred was in jail. She’s spent most of her life with Wally and Clara Hayes.”

“You knew about her?” Jim demanded of Rich.

“I suspected.”

“You let my granddaughter grow up, let her get raised by a garbage man?” Jim asked. It was at least reassuring that he was surprised and upset about it, even though he certainly had no moral grounds to chide Rich.

“It seemed like the best thing to do,” Rich said in a factual voice. “She grew up with her brother, and seemed to be happy there.”

“How do you know she was happy?” I asked him.

“What business is it of yours anyway?” he shot back rudely. I was really surprised by that, because although we’d never liked each other, we’d always at least been civil.

“Well, if you’re going to treat this town like your own personal whorehouse, and you’re going to leave other people to clean up your messes, then I’d say that involves the rest of us,” I snapped back at him.

“What do you know about this town?”

Now I really got pissed. “Let’s see. I’m staring at plans to dump millions of dollars here to build a new factory and create jobs. We’ve been running around trying to convince other companies to move here and get the economy going. I’ve flown out here at least ten times this year already to work with Nick and try to save this dying city. What have you done? Where are you in all this? What kind of community leader are you? You’re just sitting back, waiting to rake in profits by building on the backs of the rest of us.”

“That’s not true, we stayed here,” he said, directing that slam more at JP than anyone.

“So you want credit for not moving? You think that is the same thing as trying to revitalize a city? And let’s not pretend that you were noble, even doing that. I’ve seen the tax rolls. You were bribed to stay here by tax concessions from a city that couldn’t afford them.”

“That’s good business, what our shareholders demand,” he shot back.

“The only good thing you’ve done for this city was, as you said, to stay here. I’m just pointing out that you didn’t really do much for the city in that regard either.” We stood there, glaring at each other. “Grandmaman and Tonto devoted much of their lives to this town. You’re a sorry excuse for their legacy.”

“I would like to know,” Claire intervened, “how you knew that Ella was happy.” She was daring him to respond to her the same way he responded to me. If he did that, he’d finally earn some respect in my book for having courage. He didn’t.

“I’ve kept an eye on her, watched her progress,” he said.

“Have you ever met her?” Claire asked.

“No.”

“Do you want to?”

He looked away, and that answered the question. “I think if I did, it would start a relationship that would complicate all of our lives.”

Claire looked at him with disdain, and just handed him a pen. He signed the paper and handed it back to her. “Thank you,” she said politely.

“Excuse me,” Rich said, and left the room.

As soon as he was gone, Jim turned on me. “You have no right to lambast him for what he does in this community when you’re not even here to know. You don’t know about his contributions to this City.”

It was intriguing how now that the older generation had decided to engage in this argument, I saw Stef getting ready to jump in and go to bat for me. JP would too, but he’d wait in the background longer. “What are these amazing achievements?”

My smart-ass response pissed him off. “We employ hundreds of people in this city, and we provide, through their salaries and wages, the revenues that allow this city to function.” He puffed out his chest. “We live here, and we certainly don’t need someone coming in from out of town, judging us and telling us what we’re doing wrong.”

“Well that’s just too damn bad,” I said to him. “I’m sick and tired of having to come back into this town to clean up after you. You live here and you can’t see the problems, or you just don’t care. You have absolutely no reason to treat me like this. I’ve worked to bring lots of work to your business, I’m devoting time to help improve the city you live in, and I’ve raised your son for the past 14 years.” I pointed at a mirror on the wall. “Good luck when you look at that thing.”

Jim and I glared at each other, while no one else said anything. “I think I will excuse myself, since I have accomplished my goal,” Claire said. I glared at Jim as I followed her out the door. We didn’t say anything until we got into the limo.

“No wonder Rich is like he is,” I said.

“It explains so much,” she said. “You know Brad, not everything has to be a battle.”

“Claire, the guy attacked me.”

“He was frustrated and cornered. You’re an easy target, because other men sense your testosterone overload and know they can get a reaction from you.”

“Testosterone overload?”

“Rich challenged you and provoked a conflict so he didn’t have to answer your question and so he could avoid thinking about what he did. Then when he was gone, Jim did the same thing.”

“So this is my fault?” I asked, my irritation showing through.

She raised an eyebrow to remind me that I was talking to her. “It’s not about fault or blame; it’s about owning up to things and facing the consequences.” She put her hand on my knee. “I’m not saying you were wrong, or that you don’t have every reason to be upset. I’m just saying that by getting upset, you made it easier for them.”

“You mean that instead of having a big argument where we all get mad and stomp off, we could have had a civil conversation where we all sit around and hear Rich pour his heart out. He’d tell us how he was sad that he wasn’t in his daughter’s life, and how it was a huge sacrifice to stay away, but one he made because he loves her. And we’d all sit there and want to puke because it would be so obvious that it wasn’t true.”

“That’s probably how it would have gone.”

“Yeah, but then he thinks he got away with it, that we believed him and that he’s a great guy.”

“Or maybe Uncle Jim would have stepped in and said something instead, and that would have meant more than anything the rest of us could say. Do you remember Stephen’s diary?” She was referring to Stef’s father’s diary, the one we’d found last summer.

“Yes.”

“Jim was really an asshole until his grandfather laid things out for him. He didn’t get it until then, until confronted by someone he feared and respected.”

“So you think that until Jim lays into Rich about this, it won’t have any impact?”

She thought about it, and seemed to reconsider her position. “No, I think it has to come from Daddy. I think he’s the one that Rich really fears. Jim won’t do anything to him, he can’t. He has no moral ground to stand on. JJ is proof of that.”

I didn’t get it. “Why would Rich fear Dad?”

“Because of that other 15% of stock, and the fact that Daddy pretty much controls it, since everyone but you will do what he wants them to do, to vote how he tells them to vote.” She was teasing me now.

“So you’re saying I should have backed off and taken his punch, then let Dad come in and explain things to him?”

“That would be an alternate approach,” she said.

I thought about what she said, and my reaction to it made me sad. “I’m not sure I’m willing to trust him to do that. Ever since this thing with Brian, I have to re-learn how to have confidence in him, in how he makes decisions. It’s like this thing with Ella. We don’t even know she exists, and here he is, managing some trust fund for her behind the scenes.”

“I’m going to bet there’s a clause in the trust that says he can’t say anything,” she said. “If it’s there, he’ll do what it says.”

“So you think I’m an idiot?” I was frustrated because it didn’t seem like she understood what I was saying.

“That’s not it. I already thought you were an idiot,” she joked, making me chuckle. “Daddy has to earn your trust back. I can see that, and I think he does too. But I think you owe it to him to give him a chance to do that.”

“I think you’re wrong,” I told her. She looked at me, annoyed that I’d contradict her so directly. “I think everyone in that room was more afraid of you than anyone else.”

“You train one man, you train them all,” she joked. JP and Stef hopped into the limousine and seemed surprised to find us there laughing.

“You’re in a good mood,” JP observed coolly.

“Claire usually cheers me up,” I told him.

“I can see that,” he said, smiling slightly. “Well without our outspoken and ill-mannered offspring there, we were able to extract a pledge from Jim to play a more active role in Claremont’s revival.”

“Hmm,” I said, giving Claire an evil look. “It seems that things worked out in the end.” She rolled her eyes. “I got your point, though.”

“Good. Now if we are all done, I’d like to deposit you two,” she said to JP and me, “at the hotel while Stef and I see if there are any stores in this city worth patronizing.” Stef smiled big at that.

“I’ve got a better idea,” I said. “Why don’t you drop the two of us off at Dino’s?” That was the local bar JP used to go to when he was in town. “It’s close to the restaurant, so we can meet you there.”

JP and I got to the bar and walked to the back, where we snagged a booth. “This place looks run down,” he said. “Then again, it always did look run down.” That cracked me up. A waitress came over to the table with a lazy walk, but perked up when she recognized JP. We ordered drinks and she left us alone.

“You’re a celebrity here. It’s like going out in Hollywood with Robbie.”

“Yes, but without the paparazzi,” he joked, and then he got serious. “I understood why you got upset with Rich and Jim. I didn’t intervene because you didn’t seem like you needed the help.”

“I’m sorry if I lost it with them. It’s just frustrating, because I’m so fucking busy that I barely have time to enjoy my own home, and here I am, trying to make this city a better place while all they do is sit on their asses.”

“That’s a fair assessment. It’s also unfair of Jim not to even acknowledge what you’ve done by raising JJ.”

“How can they just write their kids off like that?” I didn’t understand. “It’s like they’re an inconvenience, so they just ignore them.”

“I think in their minds, and they do seem to think alike on that subject, that they only need to be involved to the degree that they ensure their illegitimate offspring are well taken care of.”

“The word ‘love’ doesn’t seem to factor into that.”

He nodded sadly. “No, it doesn’t. When I stand there, like I did today, and compare my children to Jim’s son, I feel so proud of both of you. And then I think that here you are, two kids raised in a family with a mother and her boyfriend, and a father and his boyfriends, not to mention a zany uncle, and you turned out so much better than someone raised in a conventional heterosexual family.”

“I thought you’d be mad at me for losing it with them.”

He grinned. “No Bradley, I expected it.” That really made me laugh. He and I sat there, drinking a lot, and reconnecting even more, until Robbie came over to drag our drunken asses over to the restaurant. I liked to think we were the life of the party, but in reality, everyone was probably just laughing at us. The only thing I really took away from that dinner, the thing I remembered, was when Gathan got up and demanded our attention.

“Ella and I have talked about it, and come up with our plans for next year.” I hiccupped loudly. “I’m going to Stanford, and Ella is going to spend her last year of high school with the Hobarts.” Everyone seemed happy about that, even Wally and Clara.

“I’ll drink to that,” I said, mostly to JP, who laughed and downed a big swig with me.

We finished up our dinner then drove back to the airport for our flight home. Darius decided to stay for the weekend with JP, Claire, and Stef, so it was just Robbie and I on our flight back. Robbie helped me out of the car and up the stairs, and positioned me at the back of the plane, where there was a bed and a bathroom. He let me curl up on top of him and pass out, and he helped me get up and rush to the bathroom to puke about midway through the flight. “Thanks,” I said after that, now that I was more sober.

“You’re cute when you’re drunk,” he said lovingly.

“No, I’m obnoxious and out of control,” I said, flagellating myself.

“Yeah, well it’s nice to see you out of control.”

“You should have seen me today then. I pissed off a whole side of the family in less than an hour.”

“So I heard,” he said, chuckling. “Don’t worry about it.”

I decided to take his advice. I’d let JP worry about his brother and fucked up nephew. I had enough on my mind with our assault on Omega. That was set to start on Monday.