Chapter Twelth - Revelations

A nervous, edgy Victoria walked into the Jabot boardroom, holding her notes, pages and slides, she had a big Brass and Sassy presentation that day, about last year sells and her expectations for the year of 1996, which was only 7 days away...

She knew Neil, Brad and her father were suppose to be there, Ashley would have been there but she was in Paris.
She was very surprised to walk in and find Jack there, she was early and expected to find the place deserted, she called out "Jack!"
 

Jack looked at his former step daughter with a smile "Hey kiddo, big day?"

Victoria laughed nervously "Don’t remind me, I’m nervous enough as it is, what are you doing here?"
Jack looked at her with surprise "Well, I’ve come to see the presentation, of course, Brass and Sassy
is growing and becoming a big part of Jabot, I wanted to be here"

Victoria looked at him "Really? Who else is coming, other than Neil, Dad and...hmmm... Bradley?"

Jack said "Well, just about everyone, all the Jabot board members"

Victoria’s mouth opened in shock "No one told me that!"

Jack looked at her "Is that a problem?"

Victoria looked at him, a little scared "Well, it’s my first big presentation, yearly summarize and 1996 forecast... is your father coming too?"

Jack nodded "I assume so, But I think he and Jill would have to leave early because they have a big meeting elsewhere"

Victoria muttered "I better go over some notes..." and sat on the chair and started ramming through pages.

Jack smiled at her and asked gently "So, how are you?"

Victoria looked at him and said "Not the greatest, you know what happened at the trail don’t you?"

Jack nodded sadly "Yea, I know, I am sorry Vick, you know how I feel toward Nicholas, he was like a son to me"

Vicki smiled sadly "I know you two were close"

Jack tried to encourage her "Hey, I know your father is doing everything he can to get him out of
there"

Victoria was surprised "Where do you hear so much?"

Jack said "I talked to your mother yesterday"

Victoria smiled "I’m glad... She’s not taking it well, no one in the family does"

Jack said "Your mother and I will always be friends, you know that"

Victoria’s face suddenly  grinned "Oh, by the way! did you know that she and Brad are over?!"

Jack made an attempt to smile "Oh..I heard alright..."

Vicki asked "Who told you?"

Jack replied "Brad did"

Victoria asked gleefully "Oh...Was he heart broken?"

Jack, knowing what had just happened couldn't’ share her excitement "He wasn’t thrilled"

Victoria wore a vicious smug "Well good, it didn’t come a moment too soon either,"

She looked at Jack with curiosity  and said "I kinda thought you would be a little more excited about it,
I know you didn’t like the idea that they were seeing each other"

Jack smiled "I think your mother made a very wise choice"

Victoria grinned at him and said with relief "I am just glad it happened before Dad found out,"

She shuddered "Right now, I could live without that one"

Jack looked at the girl, who looked like a but before he was able to say anything, the door opened and people walked in, John, Jill, Ryan and  Neil walked in and greeted Jack and Victoria.

John greet her "Hello Victoria"

Victoria smiled at John and said "Hello Mr. Abbot"

John commented "I was rather surprise that we were still having this meeting, I thought that because of your situation at home you would delay it, I was very sorry to hear that Nicholas had been convicted"

Victoria said sadly "Thank you,"

She sighed "We still can’t believe it, it just seems so unreal, My brother couldn’t hurt a fly and now he is in jail"

Jill said "I’m sure your father is doing everything he can to free him, speaking of which, where is Victor? Shouldn’t he be here?"

Victoria rubbed her forehead tiredly and said "I am not sure we should even wait for my dad, he came to the ranch to talk to my mother, and from the way he acted it looked like he had something important to tell her.
He just came from seeing Nicholas for the first time so that must be it, Nick doesn’t want mom or me to see him, he won’t even let his fiancee to visit".

Jack, who was busy looking at his notes sent a sharp look toward her and sighed - he knew well that Nicholas had nothing to do with why Victor was there, and he had a pretty good idea where that talk was going, if it weren’t for Nikki and the situation with Nicholas he would have managed to enjoy Victor’s reaction to the discovery about Brad and Nikki.

He wanted nothing better than for him to be out of the company, but he knew that right now it was the worst thing that could happen to the Newman family.

Victoria  sent her hand to straighten an unseen wrinkle on her suit "God knows how long it would be till he is here and it’s a long drive from the ranch, and if it’s bad news.."

She shuttered and swallowed hard and muttered, almost to herself "I don’t even want to think about it" and said "So maybe I should just begin"

Jack asked her with concern "Are you sure you want to? It’s nothing urgent, in fact, you are even a little early in the year for that kind of report, we usually do that by the very last days of the year".

Victoria smiled  and said "No, No, that’s okay, I’m ready..."

Neil asked "Wait a sec, what about Brad?"

Victoria grimaced and muttered, so only Jack could hear "Who needs him?"

Jack smiled and answered "I think he may be tied in another meeting" Neil shrugged.

Everyone took their sits as Victoria started talking.

After 10 minutes the door opened, and a very dejected and depressed Victor Newman walked in, his entrance was like a dark cloud walking into the room, his mood showed and was felt by everyone in the room, Jack eyed his silently and rolled his eyes, he wasn’t surprised at all.

Victoria, in mid presentation stopped and looked at her father with obvious concern, he was in a terrible mood and it showed, it rather scared her.

Victor sat down in his chair, more like sank into it and said "Hello everyone, I apologize for being late"
John said "It’s alright Victor, I’m glad you could join us".

Vicki managed half a smile "Yea, I’m kinda glad too"

Victor raised his eyes to look at his daughter and wondered if she knew about Nikki’s involvement with Brad... He thought she probably did, his daughter always made sure to keep track on what was going on in her parents life.

Victoria, somewhat worriedly continued her presentation,  she noticed how distracted her father  was all through it, and especially when it was time to ask questions.

Her father who usually dominated the meetings and was very involved in everything that was being decided sat somberly in his chair and looked out of sorts, he didn’t seemed like he was even aware of what was going on around him, and didn't participate at the meeting at all.

It worried Victoria deeply but she couldn’t confront him about it during the meeting, So she did her best to answer questions and did a fine job.

Then it was Neil’s part in the presentation, Victoria took her place in the front of her father and looked at him with concern, she saw Jill sending a quizzing look to her direction and shrugged with confusion.

Victor hardly pay attention to what was going on in the meeting, his mind was busy  with so many other things, Nicholas, and Nikki...

The last thing he wanted was to quarrel with her, especially now when things looked so bad with Nicholas, the last thing they needed was to hurt each other now, they needed each other too much.

He beat himself up for blaming her for making advances at him, and for blaming her for sleeping with Brad behind his back, he winced in pain as he remembered her reaction to it, she was insulted and hurt and she had every right to be...

He let out a sigh, he would have given anything to take it back.

But it only made him realize how emotionally connected he felt to her, how much she meant to him, how much he resented her relationship with Brad.

Otherwise he never would have overreacted the way he did, and lashed out at her that way - especially since she told him she broke up with Brad, but it still didn’t excuse the way he acted.

Brad had neglected to mention that fact that he and Nikki were no longer together when he talked to him "That bastard" he thought.

But even as Victor knew he overreacted to it, he was still mad that she hasn’t told him about Brad and her...involvement with him, he knew she was right - they weren’t together when she began seeing him, and he was married.

He didn't want to admit to himself that his pride was hurt, because Nikki chose to back away from him and seek a future with Brad, he knew he had no right to feel that way, but, nevertheless  - that was what he felt.

"But regardless," He thought to himself "Nikki should have told me about it after what happened between us".  Again that hint of Jealousy touched his heart, and he couldn’t fight it.

He talked to Nicholas on the phone again from his car, he sounded alright, Victor wanted to tell Nikki to reassure her that their son was okay, but was afraid that any conversation they would have at his point would deteriorate like the last one.

As he looked up he noticed Neil was no longer talking and that the meeting was warping up, John, Jill and Neil were no longer there... he didn't even noticed they left.
Jack and Ryan were the only two left, they were discussion Ryan’s work with Jill.

At that exact moment Carol, the secretary knocked on the door "Mr. Newman, a phone call for you, Doctor Haming".
Doctor Haming was Amy’s psychiatrist so Victor got up from his chair and said to Jack and Ryan  "If you don’t mind, I will take this in the other room..."
And he walked out to the small room next to the boardroom. Victoria, wanting to talk a few moments a lone with her father walked after him.

Her father was talking with the Doctor on the phone about Amy’s condition, she asked him to come by later because Amy remembered Matt, he thanked her and finished the call, and buried his face in his hand, unaware that his daughter was standing behind him, looking at him with concern.

She called out softly "Dad..." He turned to Victoria as he was standing by the door and asked "What?"

She approached him and asked "Are you okay?"

He ignored her question and said  "Victoria, I would not come back to work today...hmm...I need to see someone...Do me a favor, call your mother later tell her I’ve talked to Nicholas an hour ago, and he sounded fine, so she won’t worry"

Vicki looked at her dad with surprise and commented "Well, call her yourself, I’m sure she would rather hear it from you - because you were the one to actually talk to Nicholas"

Victor was silent, Victoria was alarmed and walked to her father  "Dad, what’s wrong?!"

Victor didn’t answer her, he just pressed his lips together and answered nothing.

Victoria was getting angry, she didn’t loved to be left out of family issues and she definitely felt like she was being left out now.

As her father walked in she thought it was about Nicholas but now she wasn’t so sure, her father had an expression on his face she had seen before, she just couldn’t put her fingers on it.

Victoria asked "Dad, what’s going on here? ! Something is happening and I want to know what it is!"

Victor told his daughter "It is nothing for you to be concerned about, alright?"

Victoria looked at her father with annoyance and said in a slightly higher tone "Well, I am concerned, This is more than just Nicholas isn’t it? It has something to do with you and mother"

Victor tried to avoid the issue "It has nothing to do with your mother and me and I would appreciate it if you won’t grill me this way"

Victoria said "Yes, it is, Mom was acting weird all through the last few days, and now you, and now you won’t even call her to tell her Nick is okay, what’s up with that?"
She crossed her hands across her chest and asked "Did you and Mom get into an argument or something?"

Victor didn’t look at his daughter as he answered "Something like that"

Victoria sighed "Why? For god’s sake?!"

Victor said sternly "I don’t care want to get into it with you right now".

Victoria looked at him and tried again "Dad, tell me, maybe I can help"

Victor sent a look toward his daughter, she was distressed and he didn’t mean to cause that, but he wasn’t going to talk to her about it so he said "Victoria, stay out of it, please"

Victoria said "I don't understand it dad, you and mom were in good terms up till today, what could have happened to change that...."

Suddenly she figured it all out, and sent a sharp look toward her father "Unless....."

Victor looked up at his daughter, and knew by the look in her eyes that they were both talking about the same thing, because his daughter lowered her head and wouldn’t look at him "So she did know," He thought.

He didn't’ want to get into  it with her, he simply did not want to talk about it until he had a chance to calm down a little bit, and he was late for his meeting with the psychiatrist.

Victoria tried to apologize "Dad...I’m, I’m sorry I didn..."

Victor told her firmly "Sweetheart, not now, okay? I am not in the mood to talk about it now and I don’t know if I’ll ever be, and beside, I’m running late".

And at those words, he walked out.
 

Victoria looked after him with concern "Oh, no.."

She thought to herself as she clasped her hand against her mouth... "Damn, Damn, Damn... not good..."
She finally recognized the look on her father’s face "He found out about mom and Brad - at the worst possible timing".

Victoria walked back into the boardroom and sank into the chair and muttered "Oh, that’s just great..."
Ryan asked her "Vicki, what’s up?"

Victoria muttered "Problems, really big problems"

She lowered her hand on the desk with a painful expression and muttered "What have I done to deserve it now?"

Jack looked at her and commented "Your father in a bad mood?"

Vicki looked up as she caught the look on Jack’s eyes and said accusingly "You knew!"

Jack smiled to her apologetically and said "I suspected it"

Ryan felt like his presence is becoming unnecessarily so he left, leaving Vicki to stare at Jack
accusingly "Well thanks a lot for the warning!"

Jack smiled and said "Sorry, didn't want to tell you until I’m sure"

Victoria called out in despair "Now I know what was up with Dad, he and mom clashed about Bradley"

She closed her eyes and sighed "I should have realized it when he first walked in the door" and said bitterly "God knows I’ve seen that look about a 100 times before... that’s just great"

She slammed the file she was holding on the table, Jack said "If I were you, I would go and talk to him"

Vicki looked at Jack annoyed "If you were me you would jump of a cliff, and beside, I don't think he wants to talk to me about it at all, he is in a terrible mood...He found out about Brad, and what’s worse is that he knows I knew and didn’t tell him"
 

She buried her face in her hands and looked at Jack with frustration "Mom Broke up with Brad today, and he finds out about it now! How the hell could he have known? Mom sure as hell didn’t tell him".

Jack ran his fingers through his hair... Victoria gasped in shock "Oh no... Brad told him?"

Jack said "Oh yes, I tried to tell him it wasn’t the best idea but..."

Victoria said with disgust "What a jerk, Mom blew his off and he runs his big mouth to tell Dad?"

Jack told her "I think *he* thinks your mom did it because of your father"

Victoria sneered "No kidding, she probably did!"

Jack tried to explain "No, he think your mother wanted to avoid your father having a bad reaction to their relationship at this time, and that’s why she broke up with him"

Victoria sneered "Yea, I figured out that much, what? his big ego can’t deal with the fact mom dumped him because she didn't want him anymore? what an idiot!!"

At this moment, Brad walked through the door.