Poor Man's Son - 31. Chapter 30

July 29, 2000

Rome, Italy

Will

The six of us sat in the limousine, trying to be happy that we were leaving and going home, but in reality, none of us were. JP and Stef didn’t want to go back to face his surgery. Darius and Ella were in heaven here, alone in their own world. We’d be going to Claremont on our way home and dropping off Ella, and then they’d be separated, so they were dealing with that. And finally, Berto and I didn’t want to leave each other.

“I feel so much better in my normal clothes,” I said, being bitchy. I had on a pair of baggy shorts that rode down my hips, exposing my Tommy Hilfiger boxers.

“You looked hot in your clothes last night,” Berto said, smiling at me.

“When you had them on,” Stefan quipped, pissing me off. Even he was petulant today.

“Their group home is a good work in progress,” JP observed, changing the subject. We’d gone to see Signor Benedetto’s efforts, and it was kind of a let-down after seeing what Father Tim had accomplished.

“I’m not sure that dude is trustworthy,” Darius said, talking about Benedetto.

“He did not inspire confidence,” Berto agreed.

“It was nice that you helped them anyway,” Ella said. Stef and JP had given them a nice contribution.

“Father Tim cautioned Brad about places like this,” Stef said. “His advice was to invest in the buildings and facilities and lease it to them. That way, you have some control.”

“Are you going to do that?” Berto asked.

“I am not sure. I do not know if that is the best environment anyway.”

“It is a pretty bad neighborhood,” Berto agreed.

The drive to the airport was all too short. I’d sat there in the limo, trying to bite back the tears, while all the time holding Berto’s hand and probably squeezing it way too hard. We drove up to the plane and got out of the car while the crew loaded the bags.

“We will see you on board,” Stef said politely, giving me some time to say goodbye to Berto.

I held both of his hands and looked in his eyes. “I don’t know if you realize how much you mean to me.”

He smiled at me. “You are important to me too.”

“I was floundering after Paris, and you made me feel so much better. Like new,” I said honestly. “I will never forget you.”

“Perhaps you have done the same for me? We will see. And now you have a good reason to come back to Rome. Often.”

I gave him a big hug, and that served to start the tears flowing. I felt him making funny noises and when I pulled away I could see that he was worse than me; he was practically sobbing. For some weird reason, that made me feel better. “You’re coming to visit, right?”

“Next summer,” he promised. “I cannot come this summer.”

“If you change your mind, let me know. I’ll buy your plane ticket,” I volunteered.

“You know I do not love you for your money, do you not?” He loved me? Fuck.

“And you know I don’t love you for your amazing ass,” I teased back. He’d turned into a total bottom.

He leaned in and kissed me for the longest time. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, the kind before you fuck. It was a deeply loving kiss, one that seemed to go straight from my lips to my core being. “You must go,” he said, breaking away from me. I stood motionless as he got back in the limousine, like I was some statue. I saw him wiping away his tears as he closed the door, then the limo whisked him off, but I still didn’t move; I just stood there, watching it as it drove off.

I don’t know how long I stood there, I just remember focusing on that rear window of the limo as it got smaller and smaller, then disappeared. I felt an arm around my shoulder. “Let’s go home,” Darius said.

I nodded and put my arm around him, letting him escort me up the stairs, and drawing strength from him. “Thanks,” I said when we go to the top of the stairs.

“Dude, I know what you’re feeling. It’s what I feel every time I leave El behind.”

I’d always thought he was pretty dramatic, probably overly so, when he had those long, maudlin goodbyes with her. Now I got it. “It hurts really badly,” I said like an idiot, and felt the tears start again.

He pulled me in and gave me a hug, one that was so reassuring it helped me get my shit together enough to get on the plane. The others were looking at me, concerned, but I got my act together pretty quickly. “Let’s go,” I said. Stef nodded to the pilot, and we were airborne in no time.

I took one of the bedrooms and crashed for the first part of the flight, letting sleep dull the pain and get rid of the raccoon eyes that crying had given me. I woke up a little disoriented, and decided to go see where we were. Darius and Ella were in the other bedroom, which made me feel guilty.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mess up that bed if you want to take a nap,” I said to JP and Stef.

“Perhaps we will go back there later,” Stef said, and leered at JP, who blushed. They were so cute.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Over the Atlantic. We will be in Claremont in about five hours,” Stef said.

“How long are we staying?”

“We had planned to make it a quick stop, but we have a meeting to attend, so we will be on the ground a few hours,” Stef said gently.

“What? We’re not going straight home?” I demanded, sounding like the douchebag teenager I was channeling.

“Gathan needs our help,” Stef said simply.

“What happened?” I asked, now fully engaged and on board with the plan to stay longer.

“He was arrested yesterday for statutory rape,” JP said calmly. “It was a ridiculous arrest, since the charge is not applicable. Now if Kristin were under 16, it would have been a problem.”

“So why did they do it?” I didn’t get why they’d arrest Gathan if it wouldn’t stick.

“To try and scare Gathan away,” JP observed sagely. “The Hendricksons are trying to tell him not to mess with them. They want him to leave their daughter alone.”

“So what meeting is this?”

“An attempt to work out an amicable solution to the problem,” JP said.

“You don’t seem too optimistic,” I said.

“I’m not. They don’t want him with Kristin, and as I understand it, that’s not a negotiable point.”

“So we’re going to show the Hendricksons that they’re not just tangling with Gathan Hayes?” I asked, getting it.

“You are very perceptive,” Stef said. “It would be helpful if you would keep your clothes on at this meeting though.”

“You sure about that?” I joked, getting a chuckle from JP.

“We need to talk about that incident,” Stef said, back in his serious mood.

“The incident,” I joked in a much too severe manner, making it sound like it was some international controversy. JP tried not to smile. Stef was getting pissed at me. “What do you want to talk about?”

“I must talk to your father about it,” he said.

“I understand that,” I agreed reluctantly.

“If you would like to talk to him before I do, I would be amenable to that,” he said.

“Thanks Stef,” I said. “I think that would be better.”

“Then, after you two talk to him about it, I’ll be able to really give him crap about it,” JP said, chuckling.

“You are not helping,” Stef scolded. Actually, I thought he was pretty funny. Stef turned his attention back to me. “You are OK?”

“No,” I said honestly, and felt a tear fall down my cheek. I was fucking crying again. “Being with Berto helped me forget about Gustave, but it hurt really badly to leave him behind.”

“Saying goodbye is one of the hardest things to do,” Stef agreed. “There is nothing any of us can do to take away the pain, or to make it feel any better.”

“That’s not very encouraging,” I said with a cracked voice, but I was tired of being all sad, so I ended my quip with a joke. “I thought you’d tell me to find a new man.”

“I am not sure Berto will be easy to replace,” Stef said honestly. “He would only take enough money to offset what he would have earned working at the hotel during our stay.”

“What?” I couldn’t believe that.

“I’d say he wanted to be with you,” JP said. Holy shit. He really must love me. I thought he was just saying that. In fact, I thought all the stuff he’d done had been at least partially motivated by the fact that he was working for us. The trip to the beach, the tours of Rome, all of that was genuine, things he’d done because he liked me and wanted to make me happy.

“That just makes it worse, knowing that he cared more than I thought he did,” I said sadly.

“Having money sometimes can cloud your judgment when it comes to relationships,” Stef said philosophically.

“I shouldn’t have let him pay for lunch,” I said. They thought that was humorous. “I’ll make it up to him. I told him I’d fly him out to see California next summer.”

“I think it would be fun to show him around,” Stef said, smiling indulgently.

“Maybe if there’s time at the end of summer, I can go back to Rome?”

“You will have to talk to your father about that,” Stef said.

“I’d rather talk to you about it,” I joked. “You’re a lot easier than he is.”

“That much is true,” JP said, laughing hysterically.

 

July 29, 2000

Claremont, Ohio

Gathan

My nerves were totally frayed at the thought of this meeting. “Relax,” Kristin said reassuringly. “It will be alright.”

“You don’t get it,” I said too loudly. “No matter what happens, this sucks.”

“Gathan, I know that,” she said calmly and reassuringly, which should have made me feel better, but instead it just made me feel like some little kid that was being protected by his mother. “This isn’t just about you.”

“What do you mean?” I’d asked that a little severely, and got a dirty look from her, so I tried to soften it. “Everything’s about me.”

“Ass,” she said lovingly.

“Why isn’t this about me?” I asked her.

“My parents have been trying to restrict me more and more, the older I get. It’s kind of weird, because I haven’t given them grounds to do that. I’ve been pretty good, I do well in school, I’m an awesome person,” she joked.

“Yes, you are,” I agreed. “So why are they putting the crack-down on you?”

“I don’t know. Taylor thinks they’re suddenly realizing that I’m growing up and moving away from them. Then again, she’s not all that smart.” That cracked me up. Taylor was an airhead.

“So why are they taking it out on me?”

“Because you’re the one who’s whisked their little girl off her feet,” she said, smiling at me. “You took me to Paris, and then we had our issue, and they were too far away to do anything about it. They probably felt powerless.”

“I don’t know,” I said skeptically. “If you say so. You know them better than I do.”

“I’ve spent way too much time thinking about this,” she said with a sigh. “I thought I knew them, but then they do this, have the man I love incarcerated just because he loves me back.”

“They love you,” I told her. “That has to count for something.”

“It counts, but they’re wrong, and what they’re doing is wrong. I have to stand up to them.”

“Why you?”

“Because I’m the only one who can,” she said. “Gathan, if they’d done this, and that charge stuck, it could ruin your future. What if you run for office someday? You don’t think your opponent would have pulled that out?”

“You’re saying that because I had sex with my girlfriend when I was 18 and she was 17, I’d lose an election?” I asked incredulously.

“You have a lot to learn about politics,” she said somewhat condescendingly. It would have pissed me off if I didn’t know she was probably right.

We got to the office where the Hendricksons’ lawyer worked and breezed up to the second floor. Our lawyer met us and led us to a conference room. We sat on one side, and the Hendricksons sat on the other. Staging a more confrontational meeting would have been difficult. It was at times like this that I felt completely isolated. I had Kristin here, and that made all the difference in the world, but other than that, I was pretty alone. The Hendricksons are powerful people. I’d seen them throw their weight around when I worked at City Hall, and I’d seen the impact of their power yesterday when I’d been arrested. Kristin was, as they saw it, part of their clan, so it was them against just me.

I knew that I’d be in this situation, knew I’d be alone, but what could I really do? Ask Wally or Clara to go with me? They’d be so afraid they’d be all but useless, and the Hendricksons may just decide to turn their wrath onto Wally and Clara as well. I almost asked Nick Schluter to be here, but that wasn’t fair to him either. He didn’t need Chris Hendrickson as an enemy. But it wasn’t just the Hendricksons that I was up against; it was even deeper than that. Chris’s aunt was Donna Crampton, who was married to Jim Crampton, the biggest industrialist in town. The two of those families together could crush me.

I’d been on my own for a long time, I decided, steeling my resolve. I’d had to fight for everything until Robbie came into our lives. I’d done fine on my own, and I’d do fine now. Besides, I did have Robbie and Brad in my corner, even though they weren’t here. I just didn’t know if the Hendricksons knew that. We were just about to start when there was a knock at the door. I almost fell out of my chair when Stefan and JP walked in. Will followed them as well, which was odd. It’s not every day you have a 14-year-old dude come to your rescue at a lawyer’s office.

“We are about to start a meeting,” the Hendricksons’ lawyer said imperiously. “What can we do for you?”

JP and Stef didn’t have to introduce themselves. Everyone in Claremont knew who they were. “We consider Gathan Hayes to be a member of our family,” JP said directly. “We are here to support him.” Everyone just stared at them, shocked shitless, probably me more than anyone.

“That’s very nice of you,” Kristin said. “I thought you were in Europe.”

“We flew straight here from Rome,” Stef said, as he gave the Hendricksons a scathing look. I caught Will’s eye and winked at him. He smiled back slightly, but I was worried about him. Something was really bothering him.

The Hendricksons’ lawyer leaned over and whispered to his clients, and then they excused themselves to go talk in a conference room. My lawyer jumped up to welcome JP and Stef, and to suck up to these power figures, but I pushed him aside. “Thanks for coming. I can’t tell you how much this means to me.”

They smiled at me. “We are here for you,” JP said.

“Can’t have you going to jail,” Will joked with me. “Kristin would really be upset then,” he said, referring to prison rape.

“It’s almost good to see you too,” Kristin said, teasing him as she gave Will a hug.

The Hendricksons came back into the conference room with their lawyer. “My clients want you to know,” he said to me, “that just because statutory rape isn’t a valid charge, there are other legal consequences to aiding a minor in delinquent acts.”

“Delinquent acts?” Kristin demanded. “You mean when we make love?” I really wished she wouldn’t have said that, because Chris Hendrickson shot me a look that said he’d take a gun and shoot me dead if he could.

“So you admit it?” their lawyer demanded.

“I thought we were here to negotiate my emancipation,” Kristin said, the edge in her voice clear.

“And who would be your guardian?” their lawyer asked smoothly.

“I don’t need one.”

“I doubt the courts would agree,” he said with a smarmy look. “The best thing for you is for Mr. Hayes to go to school in California, ending your relationship. Then you can move home and attempt to repair the damage you’ve done to your relationship with your parents.”

I saw Kristin’s cheeks flush red, a danger sign for anyone who knew her. “Interestingly enough, that is my last option. I think a better approach would be for me to have nothing to do with them, ever again.” The Hendricksons, despite their efforts to remain calm, couldn’t hide how hard that hit them.

“Kristin, this man almost killed you,” her father said, pleading with her.

“Are you insane?” she demanded, almost screaming. “I would have gotten on that plane if he hadn’t come to the airport and begged me to stay.”

“If it weren’t for him, you wouldn’t have been at the airport in the first place,” Mrs. Hendrickson said. She turned to me. “Gathan, we have nothing against you personally, but you are clearly not a good match for our daughter.” And that was it; the big issue was on the table. I wasn’t good enough for her. I came from the wrong side of town. My father was in jail most of the time, and my Pa was a garbage man.

“What a terribly short-sighted observation,” JP said. He had such a smooth, even tone; no one argued with him, they just looked at him to expand on his statement. “I have the privilege of professing at one of the premier universities in the world. Just to get into Stanford is a stunning achievement, one that Gathan has already accomplished on his own. I’ve seen men and women his age throughout my career, and I know how to separate out those who are really gifted from those who are only moderately gifted. I can spot talent and potential. Gathan Hayes has more potential than any student I’ve encountered in the past ten years.”

No one was more amazed by his statement than I was, but I got my act together first. “Thanks JP. No one’s ever said anything that nice about me before.”

“You’re welcome,” he said succinctly. “I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true.”

“You’re also biased,” the Hendricksons’ lawyer said cautiously. No one in Claremont wanted to piss off JP Crampton.

“You would question my word and my integrity?” JP demanded. He was normally so calm and logical that when he got mad like he just did, it had a huge impact. I thought the Hendricksons’ lawyer was going to shit his pants.

“We’re not doing that,” Chris Hendrickson said hastily. “We just want our daughter to be home, and to be safe.”

“And to date an idiot like Josh Grover?” I shot at them.

“Josh comes from a good family,” Mrs. Hendrickson said, almost with a sneer, clearly implying that I did not.

“Yeah, and he drank himself out of Ohio State,” I said. “The guy’s a tool.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Kristin said, shutting our exchange down. “I’d never date him.”

“I referred before to a guardian,” the Hendricksons’ lawyer said, almost triumphantly. “You don’t seem to have one.”

“It would be possible to have one appointed,” our lawyer said.

“You know as well as I do that the courts would look at relatives first. They’d assume that if the Hendricksons were such unsuitable parents, another family member would step in. None of them will.”

“None of them?” Kristin asked, not a little upset.

“None of them,” the lawyer answered. “Your aunt and her children have all declined to intercede on your behalf. Anyone else would be too distant to be a factor.” So that was their case, what they based their position on. They’d done an end-run around Kristin and blocked off any support she might have gotten from her extended family. She didn’t have many options.

“Kristin, no matter what they do, we’ll still end up together. You’re 18 in February, and then you can do whatever you want. You don’t have to do this,” I said to her. “Go live with them until then. In February, you’ll be free.”

“Yes I do have to do this,” she said. “I’m not going to let them stomp all over my feelings and try to ruin my relationship with the man I love, and all for some stupid reason.”

“The reasons are hardly stupid,” their lawyer said.

“Their reason is the stupidest reason around,” Kristin snapped. “They’re snobs. The only thing worse would be racism, and I’m wondering if that’s really any different.”

“I am not a racist!” Chris Hendrickson said loudly, outraged.

“No, but you are a bigot; prejudiced against people who aren’t rich like you,” she snapped. “I don’t want to be like you. I don’t want to live with people who only care about net worth and pedigree.”

“I don’t think wealth factors into it,” JP said. “I think that if we were going to be auditing cash flow statements, we’d find that Gathan is wealthier than your parents.”

“What?” Kristin asked, shocked. She knew about my six million dollar trust.

“What would you know of my financial situation?” Chris Hendrickson asked, outraged.

“Perhaps I spoke inappropriately,” JP said diplomatically. “Perhaps all the rumors about late country club dues, mortgages on your homes, and personal loans that are near default are all inaccurate.”

“They certainly are,” he said pompously.

“Are you willing to swear to that under oath in court?” Kristin asked him, driving a stake into his argument.

“This discussion isn’t about my balance sheet,” Hendrickson said, avoiding the issue.

“It is relevant, though,” Stef said. “You are not the only one in a position to influence lives. Perhaps if we do not go through with our plans to buy that piece of land by the old mill, your problems will be more apparent to all?” I was stunned when Stef said that, not by his words, but by his demeanor. He was so cold and serious; so unlike how he normally was.

“I guess we’ll have to see,” Hendrickson said obstinately. I recognized that mood. He was cornered, and he was going to fight.

“And none of that impacts the guardianship issue,” their lawyer chimed in, bringing the conversation full circle.

“I will serve as Kristin’s guardian,” JP said.

“You’re not related to her, except by marriage,” their lawyer said, just remembering to modify his tone so it was polite instead of blatantly rude.

“You’re wrong. I am related to her,” he affirmed. “She is my niece.”