Bennett

“Dolores Calloway, you’re being placed under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to an attorney.”

The security guard— policewoman? — kept speaking, her mouth moving rapidly, the words not making it past the static in my ears. I couldn’t have heard that right. Under arrest? My mother?

Henley gawked from where she stood a couple of feet away, her expression slack. Our eyes met and I knew she shared the same thought as me: What was going on?

“Arrested?” my mother repeated, not budging, even when the officer gestured for her hands. “On what basis?”

“There’s a warrant out for you.”

“I want to see that warrant. I won’t be going anywhere with you. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

“I don’t suggest resisting arrest,” Cecil advised, speaking lowly.

My mother turned to him, eyes narrowing. “What did you just say?”

“Here you go ma’am,” the officer said, handing over a piece of paper. “Perjury, subornation of perjury, filing a false police report, obstruction of justice, conspiracy, official misconduct, and assault with a deadly weapon. You can either come with me quietly, or we can add to that list.”

“This is preposterous,” she spat. “Who made these accusations? Find them. I plan to sue them for defamation.”

The officer didn’t answer her, instead, reaching behind my mother’s back to wrench her wrists together and snap on the handcuffs. “Keep objecting and we can tack more onto that list.”

“We’re out of state, how can you even arrest me?” my mother demanded.

Sebastian stepped up to my side, his eyebrows furrowed. I turned to him, finally finding my voice. “What’s going on? What did you do?”

“I— nothing. Nothing to give grounds for a warrant to be obtained. Even with all our evidence, it’s unlikely, unless…”

Cecil gave us a half-smile. “I confessed to everything this morning. I submitted all the evidence I could in hope it was enough to put an end to this. I’ll be following them back to the station.”

My mother whipped around at his words, a snarl on her face. “How dare you? Don’t you know that if I go down, you go down with me?”

“I can’t watch this any longer, Delores. I refuse to ruin so many people’s lives, even with your threats,” Cecil responded, rubbing the back of his neck. “I can’t live knowing I’m protecting someone who tried to harm their own children.”

My mother glared at him. “This won’t end well for you.”

“Or you,” he said evenly. “Let’s go, Raveena. Should I come in the car with you?”

The officer shook her head. “You can drive yourself back. I know you won’t try to run. You’re doing an honest thing here.”

“No, I’m not doing anything honorable,” Cecil denied. “I’m simply cleaning the mess I made and receiving my punishment for it. Please let Tala know how sorry I am.”

“You’ll be able to say that yourself. She’s here somewhere. She came to stop Cara. Cara can ride back with her as well, but for now, we have to get to the station. My captain wasn’t happy with my decision to come here, so the faster we return, the less likely I am to be berated.”

Cecil nodded and turned to face me. “I’m sorry for all this, Bennett. I’ll make sure everything is cleared up. Including the marriage license. And I promise your brother will face no consequences. Please, if I can ask one thing, can you stay in touch with Cara? She is having a hard time about all this.”

I struggled to answer that. None of this felt real yet. I almost felt like I was in a dream. It was surreal to see my mother in handcuffs. I was sure Cara would feel the same way. “I’ll be with her,” I promised Cecil.

“Use this time to your advantage.”

Before I could ask what he meant, he began gathered my mother’s and his own luggage and walked off, my mother being hauled off by Raveena after him, her face twisted into a glower. Her head turned over her shoulder with an uncanny resemblance to The Exorcist and I resisted a shudder. “Don’t think this will change anything,” she warned me.

“Oh, shut up,” Henley said before I could answer. “It’s over for you. You should start apologizing now, but I know you won’t, so get out of here before you actually give me a reason to get kicked out of the airport.”

My mother ignored Henley, her jaw locking. I folded my arms over my chest. “Why don’t you use this time to think about how a real mother should act?”

When she started to protest Raveena snapped at her to be quiet and dragged her away from us, Cecil following behind them. Silence settled for a moment in their wake, only to be broken by the security guards urging Henley to start moving.

“I’m going,” she said, ducking under their arms to come up to me. She stretched out her hand, her eyes meeting mine. “Come on, Bennett. Let’s go home.”

“Okay,” I answered.

She grinned holding out her arms. I didn’t hesitate to step into them, crushing her to my chest. Seconds later I felt a pressure on my shoulder and Sebastian offered me a small smile, squeezing his hand gently. I felt a lump in my throat and swallowed it down.

Henley stepped back after a moment, throwing a look over her shoulder. “Um, we actually should go, though. They don’t look very happy.”

“Sebastian, can you grab Cara’s luggage?” I asked, taking my luggage with one hand and Henley’s hand with the other.

Sebastian nodded and grabbed Cara’s suitcase. “When did you pack this?”

“I didn’t,” I answered dryly. “My mother prepared everything. Her car is also here, but I don’t feel like bringing it home. She can afford the price of keeping it here until she manages to come back to pick it up.”

“Hopefully in a few years,” Henley said, letting the security guards guide us away from the gate.

“As unfortunate as it is, that is unlikely. My mother will probably get away with this,” I told her, shaking my head. “This is a break at best. You saw how she acted. Surprised that we got this far, but definitely not worried.”

“That’s why we have to move quickly,” Sebastian spoke, scanning the crowd. “We have to find Lee and Henry—”

“Bennett!” Lee called, appearing as if summoned, rushing over to us with Henry in tow. “I just saw our mother in handcuffs— what happened?”

“Cecil confessed,” I told him. “We should start planning for when she—”

“We have to get to the company,” Lee cut me off. “There’s a board meeting. I’ve gotten everyone together. This is our chance to force her into early retirement.”

“How did you gather everyone so fast?”

Lee gave me a half-shrug. “I’ve been planning this for a while. Whether our mother got arrested or not, I was going to turn myself in, and let the committee know what was happening within our family. Now with this though, we have it secured. We have to go.”

“You think we can get her voted off?”

“I know we can. Our mother will soon see the difference between us and her.”

“I’ll drop you guys off at the company and then take Henley with me to the police station,” Sebastian offered. “And I’ll wait for you there, Lee.”

“Why would you wait for Lee?” I asked.

“I’m going to confess as well,” Lee said. “Don’t panic, Bennett. Sebastian is coming with me. He’ll act as my defense if needed. I need to do this.”

“Fine.”

Lee blinked at me. “You took that very well.”

“You are also a victim,” I said. “We have evidence of that. You need to get your justice as well. Sebastian is one of the most trust-worthy people I know as well, so I know you’ll be fine. First though, we need to make it to that meeting.”

Holding Henley’s hand tighter, we rushed out of the airport, and I squeezed with her and Henry into the back of Sebastian’s car. I took out my phone, pressing Cara’s contact. She answered almost immediately. “Bennett? Where are you?”

“Leaving. Are you with Tala?”

“Yes, but what about you?”

“I’m with my brother and Henley,” I told her. “Did Tala inform you about what’s going on?”

“Yes. Bennett, I’m sorry that all this had to happen. I begged my father to come clean. And I didn’t want to make your mother suspicious, so I just went along with everything. I didn’t know my father went to get a warrant. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” I told her. “Relax with Tala tonight. Tomorrow we can meet up. We can talk about it then.”

Cara hesitated for a moment. “You want to meet up? Really? I thought you wouldn’t want to see me ever again.”

“None of this is your fault. You became someone I would gladly call my friend. I don’t want you to think I hate you.”

“Is Henley okay with that?”

Although Henley had appeared like she wasn’t listening, at this, she leaned over, taking the phone from me and putting it on speaker. “We can go on a double date. Someone needs to stick around and share Bennett’s obsession with BMWs.”

Cara laughed. “It’s a lifestyle, not an obsession.”

“You’re proving my point.”

“You’re right. Listen, while you’re on the phone, about earlier—”

“Nope, I’m going to stop you there,” Henley interjected. “If anyone is to apologize, it’s me. I shouldn’t have grabbed you. Are you okay?”

“No, I’m fine. I just wish I could have stood up to her.”

“I don’t think it would have mattered, Cara,” I cut in. “I suppose the only true way to get to her is having the cops show up to arrest her.”

Henley tsked. “Although I wish I could have just punched her. Just once.”

“Then you’d be being arrested as well,” I pointed out.

Henley tapped a finger to her lips. “Hmm. I’d say it’s worth it.”

Cara giggled. “I have to say I would’ve loved to see that. Sorry, Bennett.”

“Perhaps it wouldn’t be such a great idea to go on a double date with you two. I can only imagine what kind of trouble you two would get into,” I said, biting my lip to keep from smiling.

“I guess we’ll find out,” Cara responded. “We’ll let everything settle a little bit. I’m getting into the car now though, so I’ll call you later, Bennett.”

“If you need anything, just let me know.”

“You as well. But I think I’ll be okay. See you.”

I hung up the phone and Lee swiveled around in his seat. “Wow, Bennett. You really have changed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re willing to go out of your way to help someone? That’s rare.”

“It is not,” I muttered.

“If it’s not me or Henley it is. But that’s what a company head is supposed to do, so it’s a good thing you’re getting used to it.”

“I— wait, company head? What are you talking about?”

Lee raised his eyebrows. “If our mother retires, who do you think will take her place?”

“You!”

“Bennett, I have to clear my name before I could even think of taking that position. It should go to you.”

“You’ve always wanted it,” I protested. “It should go to you.”

“I only wanted it to protect you. Now you can protect yourself. The company should go to you.”

I shook my head. “No, Lee—”

“It won’t be like before,” he assured me. “Once my name is clear, we can decide what to do. We’ll keep the work even between us. We can hire more personnel. We don’t need to overwork or stress ourselves out anymore. We can promote Henry.”

Henry jerked at the mention of his name. “What? I told you, Lee, I’m not going back—”

“Did you already forget what I promised you if you did?”

Henry’s face exploded with color. “O-oh. Right.”

I grimaced. “I don’t want to know. I’m not happy to hear you’re planning on taking my assistant away from me though.”

“You’ve threatened to fire him one too many times, Bennett. I need to protect my boy.”

“Oh, God. Is this what I’m going to have to put up with now? It’s official? You two are a thing?”

Lee’s simper told me all I needed to know. Henley chuckled from beside me. “I guess there can’t be a rule against workspace romances, huh?”

“If I set one, it wouldn’t be beneficial to us anyway,” I sighed.

“Us?”

“If I’m going to get a promotion and lose my secretary, I need someone reliable quickly,” I said, giving her an innocent look. “Who else would I ask?”

Her eyes widened. “Me?”

“The pay is good. I can offer great health insurance and a 401K.”

“I don’t have any qualifications!”

“Henry can teach you. You don’t have to work full time, either. You can go to college and graduate. Then you can make the choice to stay within the company or move on. It’s up to you, though. You don’t have to.”

“I can’t accept that. That’s not fair to the other people within the company,” she protested.

“You’re not one-upping anyone. I’d hire someone outside the company anyway. Think about it. I’d love to work with you.”

“I second that,” Lee added, winking at Henley. “Nothing like bonding with my future sister-in-law.”

Now it was Henley’s turn to blush. “S-sister-in-law?”

I smiled, but it instantly died, my heart plunging. So much had been going on, I’d almost forgotten. I immediately ripped the ring on my hand off, rolling down the window, ready to toss it. Henley’s reached out to stop me. I clenched my jaw. “I want to be rid of it.”

“Then we can pawn it off,” she told me. “Don’t throw it. We’re on the highway. It might bounce and hit someone’s windshield.”

Knowing she was right, I rolled the window back up, holding the ring in my hand tightly. “I’m sorry, Henley. When we arrived at the courthouse, my mother had already forged my signature on the marriage certificate.”

“Ah, about that,” Sebastian spoke up, earning my attention. “We should be able to prove you didn’t sign anything. Cecil was there. All he has to do is confess to that. The courthouse has cameras. The magistrate at the courthouse will be penalized as well.”

“Will it annul the contract?”

“It will be like it never existed in the first place,” Sebastian told me. “You have never been married, Bennett. Don’t even worry about that.”

“And,” Henley added, taking my hand in hers, “even if it did, it wouldn’t matter. I told you I didn’t care. You never wanted that. Just focus on the meeting for now. Everything else can wait.”

I lowered my gaze, processing everything. “Doesn’t this seem… too easy?”

“Too easy?”

“We barely did anything. I didn’t do anything at all. Is it really over?”

“Who said we had to do anything in the first place?” Henley said. “We didn’t do anything to cause this. We were fighting to stop it because the ones responsible refused to take the blame. Now Cecil is stepping forward to fix it. We don’t have to do anything. Things are the way they should be.”

“Still.”

Henley shook her head. “You’ve been through enough, Bennett. This is the best thing that could have happened. Now you can finally relax.”

“You deserve to relax, too.”

“I plan to. My brother’s innocence is finally being proven. That’s all I ever wanted from the beginning. Once this settles we can have a normal relationship, Bennett.”

Normal? Was that even possible? The thought of my mother still having control over me lingered. Would everything really change? Would it really not go back to the usual pattern when everything was over? The thought made a threatening ebb and flow of nausea reappear in my stomach.

I felt like I couldn’t believe it. But the look in Henley’s eyes convinced me to accept it. Pure affection, happiness, relief. I felt it too. Without warning, I closed the few inches between us, pressing my lips to hers. She responded without hesitation, her hand coming up to rest on my cheek, her lips soft and pliable and perfect against mine. I got lost in the moment, hoping Henley could feel the emotions I was trying to deliver.

However, I forgot we weren’t alone. Lee wolf-whistled, effectively ruining the moment. Henley broke away from me, wrenching herself backward, her elbow going straight into Henry’s gut. Henry cried out in pain and Henley apologized profusely, causing Lee to start cackling. I glared at him. “I hope you do end up in prison.”

“Harsh,” he responded with a grin.

“I’d bail you out,” Henry promised Lee.

“I wish I could squish you from here,” Lee answered, leaning around in his seat to try and reach the back, stretching out his hands.

Henry pressed himself against the door. “No PDA!”

“That’s not fair. Did you not just see Henley and Bennett?”

“They had a good reason,” Henry defended.

“We do, too! I’m going to prison.”

Henry rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic.”

Lee pouted. “You don’t care about me.”

Henley covered her mouth to control her laughter and Sebastian cleared his throat from the driver’s seat. “I quite feel like a fifth wheel right now.”

“You are,” Lee said casually.

Sebastian gave him a flat look. “Thanks.”

“It’s not like you have options. Henry told me about Ariana and Brandon.”

“Ariana is most likely to choose Brandon over me.”

Henley sat up. “What? Why do you think that?”

“Who cares? I’m sure you can steal Brandon away from her,” Lee said, waving his hand dismissively.

Sebastian pulled on the steering wheel, causing us Henry, Henley, and I to bump into each other. “What?”

“Guys are much better to date than girls,” Lee explained. “I know it’s hard to choose between them, though.”

Henry groaned. “No, Lee. Both Sebastian and Brandon like Ariana. Not Sebastian and Ariana both liking Brandon.”

Lee paused. “Ooh. Well, still. Go get her.”

“Easier said than done,” Sebastian sighed. “Let’s forget it. Are you two prepared for the meeting? Lee, the files you requested are in the glove box.”

Lee opened the dash and pulled out a manila folder, handing it over to me. “Look over this. It’s the key points were going to make and all the evidence we’ve gathered about my accident. I’m sure it won’t take much convincing, but the better prepared we are, the easier it’ll be.”

I took the folder, flipping it open. Lee had prepared it well. Everything was organized and the points he made were clear and concise. Another reason it should’ve been him taking the spot. But I wouldn’t argue that for now. We had to remove my mother from her position to start with.

By the time we arrived at the building, I felt more-or-less prepared. With Lee though, I felt confident. The two of us could do it together. I knew we could.

Henley stepped out of the car with me, pushing her blonde hair behind her ears. “You okay?” she asked me.

“Yeah. I’m just taking it all in. You?”

“Yep. You’ve got this Bennett. I know you do.”

I smiled. “Thank you.”

She stood on her toes to give me a quick kiss. “That’s for luck.”

“What do I get if I succeed?”

“I guess we’ll see later when that happens,” she responded, rolling her eyes, but grinning again. “Let me know how it goes, okay? I don’t know when my brother and I will be home, but text me.”

“Of course. Tell Brandon I’m happy for him.”

Henley froze for a moment and then her face brightened. “I will! Thank you, Bennett.”

I wrapped her in my arms once more. “I love you, Henley. Thank you again, for everything.”

“Thank me later. Go get your company!”

I chuckled. “Okay. See you later.”

She waved and then climbed into the passenger seat, letting Lee close the door behind her. Lee then joined me at my side, looking up at our building. He placed an arm over my shoulder. “You ready?”

I straightened my tie. “Let’s go.”

THE END.