A TWIST OF FATE
Chapter Fifty-Three
Cal sighed and pushed things around the desk.
The silver inkwell, the pen stand, the closed book. He moved them to one side
of the desk then the other, as though this pointless exercise would clear
things in his mind.
He was annoyed with himself. All morning he
had thought over and over again what the Doctor had said. Rose could not bear
children. She was a liability, an expensive liability who no longer could give
him what he wanted. He was angry and the only conclusion he could draw from
that anger was that he wanted rid of her. And her interfering, expensive
mother. The only way clear to him was to divorce. He hadn’t spoken to his
lawyer and he thought at the time that he could ride out the storm of
publicity. On reflection now, having delivered the blow to Rose and calmed
down, he realized he could not afford to suffer financially or socially. So
wound up was he that he let Rose know of his plan. What an unguarded moment
that was. Although he had the satisfaction of making her suffer, she now knew
he wanted a divorce. He did not like people anticipating his next move. That
was how worked in business. It also applied to his private life.
The other thing was: Cal had changed his
mind.
He cursed himself again. This plan was
better. Why hadn’t he thought of it earlier before he opened his big mouth? Cal
was normally more calm, organized and in control. When it came to Rose, well,
everything was different. He was not in control of her or his emotion. She
bought out the worst in him. She asked for all she got. Now she had gone too
far. It had to end.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He had to
get Ruth out of town. That wouldn’t be hard. Offer her an all expenses paid
trip and she would lap it up, like a cat. He needed somewhere private to send
Rose. His Mother would know of such a place. He needed to convince Doctor Henry
that Rose was getting unbalanced. That would not be hard. Doctor Henry was an
old family friend who had a habit of listening to the husband rather than the
wife. If Cal told him Rose was being difficult, he would accept Cal’s word as a
gentleman and would not even ask Rose a question.
The plan was forming in his mind. If only he
had checked himself and not mentioned the divorce.
That was it! Cal grinned. He could tell
Doctor Henry that Rose had gotten it into her head that Cal wanted a divorce.
It was in her imagination of course and she would be unreasonable about it. In
fact she was imagining other things too.
“Yes,” Cal muttered to himself. “This little
mistake of mine may have a positive outlook yet"
*****
Jack sat on the park bench in the late
afternoon sun. He was totally engrossed in his sketches. He sat sideways on,
leaning his folder on his drawn up knees, his hands and parts of his face
covered in black crayon. He had left Joe’s earlier, on a high and had wandered
into the park. It was so nice; he decided to do his preliminary sketches for
Fabri’s wedding present there. So far he had five different sketches of Fabri
and Maria, drawn from memory. He wanted this of all pictures to be perfect and
that meant planning. He looked at the completed sketch, tipped it sideways,
moved his head then rubbed part of the drawing. Satisfied, he turned it back
and signed it on the bottom, a habit he had. He signed anything he did.
Slipping it into his folder he looked up at the sky to try and gauge the time.
He then realized he had his watch in his pocket. Feeling slightly silly at
forgetting this, he pulled it out.
It read 5.45pm. Jack put it safely back in
his pocket. He hadn’t meant to be this long. There was still a walk to Benito’s
restaurant, where Fabri and Maria were now living. Gathering everything up, he
straightened his clothing and set off. He would go straight there. Ideally, he
wanted to pack first and maybe try and straighten things out with Theresa. But
he did not have time to go all the way back now.
He was pretty sure he knew the way from here
and set off through the park gates. A flower seller was just packing up. Jack
decided it would be a nice gesture to take Maria some flowers. He felt at the
few coins in his pocket.
Putting on one of his most charming grins he
walked up to the girl.
“’Scuse me” he smiled, dazzling the young
girl with his blue eyes. “But I could save you the trouble of taking those
flowers back if we can come to a price.”
The girl laughed at the cheek of the young
man. But she didn’t want to take the flowers back.
They haggled over the price, Jack getting his
own way. The girl wrapped up the flowers in newspaper whilst good humoringly
berating Jack for not paying enough money.
Jack watched as she pulled sheets of paper
off a piece of string. Something suddenly caught his eye. The name Hockley was
in a headline on the page.
“Whoa, can I take that piece?” he asked,
reaching forward to take it.
The flower girl looked a little surprised,
but handed it over to him. Jack almost snatched it and smoothed it out to read.
The title was ‘NEW SCHOOL TO BE NAMED AFTER
BENEFACTOR HOCKLEY’
The piece was about a charity ball held to
raise funds for a new school in Pittsburgh. Nathan Hockley and his son Caledon
had principally put up the money for the school. There was a cloudy photograph
of Rose and another man. The caption said ‘Mr. Caledon Hockley and his wife
Rose.’
Jack stared at the photo. So this was the man
Rose had married. Hockley looked cold Jack thought, whilst Rose looked sad. She
was looking blankly at the camera, a forced smile on her face whilst Hockley
smiled straight into it. Jack knew it was forced, he could tell from looking at
the photograph how miserable Rose was. The piece went on to describe the ball,
hosted by Caledon and declared the guests of honor as being Nathan and his wife
Lucy. It described Lucy and Rose’s dresses in great detail. Jack skipped the
details on Lucy and went on to soak up the description of Rose’s midnight blue
taffeta gown with a sequined bodice and matching train. Jack closed his eyes.
He could see her wearing it. He went on to read. Caledon was quoted as saying
‘he had wanted to do something for the children for a while’ and ‘how important
the welfare of the workers children was’. There was also mention of a
politician Jack had never heard of, being supported by the Hockley’s.
He looked hard at the picture of Rose, her
facial features, the way her hair hung framing her face. The fire that he had
seen in her face when she talked to him was gone. But the description of the
fine gown haunted him.
“Rose” he thought sadly. “If only I could
bring you back here with me. But you aren’t going to leave all this for me. I know”
He folded the paper carefully and put it in
his pocket.