Oxterionn: Of Love and Fast Cars

Kat awoke to the sound of Red snoring. Annoyed, she covered her head with her pillow and tried to get back to sleep. She was hung over, and every sound made her want to scream, and the morning sunlight pouring through her window only made it worse. 'I need some coffee,' she thought.

And then it hit her. Red was snoring loudly because he was in her room, in her bed, right next to her. She sat up too quickly and sent her head spinning; not looking at him, she swung her legs over the side of the bed until her toes touched the cold wooden floor. She took a deep breath and tried to recall the events that had led to these circumstances...

There had been alcohol, and lots of it. There was that kiss, and then Kat climbing over the table, pushing her engineering homework aside. There was more kissing (a lot more), and Red mumbling something romantic that Kat did not remember, yet still found shockingly alluring. And then there was...

'Wow,' she laughed to herself. 'I've slept with the chauffeur.' She hopped out of bed and found her robe and slippers, and without glancing back at Red, she made her way out to the kitchen to make some coffee. She ignored the trail of clothes left behind from the night before and headed straight for the medicine cabinet to find something for her pounding headache.

'God, I've really slept with the chauffeur. I'm like Sybil from Downton Abbey!' Kat stopped opening the bottle of aspirin and laughed to herself before getting a glass of water. "What's the quietest way to make coffee?" she said to herself out loud and looked around the kitchen.

"I would suggest the French press, although you still have to grind the coffee first." Kat froze when she heard Red's voice and slowly turned around.

"French press?" She asked. Kat had only made coffee using a Keurig, so she did not know how to grind coffee, let alone use a French-whatever.

"Let me do it," Red smiled tiredly and set about making them some coffee, so Kat sat at the table with her head resting in her hands. She could not think straight, and really did not want to talk about last night with Red, not yet at least. She tried to remember what exactly had happened the night before, but there were blank spots. Red sat down across from her and slid her a mug of coffee. She did not look up until most of her coffee was gone and the caffeine was starting to work. The first thing she noticed, once her eyes focused, was how guilty Red looked. Or perhaps it was not guilt, but he was upset about something; it was not the face of a man who'd just gotten laid, that was for sure.

"We don't have to talk, if you don't want," Kat mumbled and avoided eye contact, resting her head back on the table. "You are obviously embarrassed, or regret it, or something, so..."

"It's not that, it's..." he looked at her, and realized she did not know. He almost considered not telling her. "Do you not remember saying Cal's name in the midst of everything? Actually, you kind of screamed it and then fell over and passed out."

It was worse than Kat imagined; she thought he felt bad about sleeping with her, and she might have been okay with that. She was not experienced and did not have too many skills in that area, so perhaps he had not been satisfied – and Kat could understand that. But yelling another guy's name – a creepy ex-boyfriend at that – was beyond embarrassing. She started laughing quietly, but Red thought she was crying, so he put his arm around her.

"It's okay, I don't hold it against you. He was really hot, I'm sure I'd scream his name too if I were into guys," he was trying to make her feel better, but ended up sounding oddly homoerotic. He closed his eyes and tried to think of a way to come back from that, but Kat sat up suddenly.

"You know, it's weird. I hadn't thought about him for three days (which was my new record), until we went to see Charlie. Cal had said Charlie was his favorite driver." Kat leaned back in her chair and shook her head. Red smiled sadly and sighed. She realized how nice his eyes looked when he smiled, even if it was not a happy smile. "At first I thought of calling him, or even texting him, just to see if he was okay. But lately I haven't thought about him much."

He put his hand on her shoulder and felt her jump slightly. Her eyes flicked up to his and briefly held contact before slipping back to stare into the darkness of her coffee. She had hoped his usually expressive grey eyes would give her a hint at his thoughts, and tell her how to feel. But they were blank, and lined with tiredness.

"Kat, it's hard. Getting over someone you were so certain of, someone you thought you might spend the rest of your life with. It's like having a part of your life taken away, taking your heart apart piece by piece." Kat wondered if Red was talking about her situation with Cal, or if he was speaking of his own experiences. "It will take time, but you'll get passed it."

Reluctantly, she got up and gathered her things for school. She opted to walk to class today, even though it was a bit far and she still was not feeling that great. It gave her time to clear her head and figure out what she wanted. It would take time to get over Cal, she knew that. But she did not want to wait. Or, maybe she did not want to get over Cal.

Kat had a lot to figure out.

~ ~ ~

Millie refilled their glasses before continuing her story. It was starting to get dark outside, but neither she nor Andy were in a hurry.

"Once the rest of the Saxons heard Rosie was blackmailing me, they upped the price every year and said it was to compensate for inflation, and other excuses. Old John's illness got worse, and things got a little behind since money wasn't coming in as easily as it used to. They needed my money back, but they were patient, or vindictive, rather. I couldn't touch the inheritance fund since it was in Callum's name, so I could not pay them back even if I wanted to. By last year I owed them $20 million, so I finally decided to do something about it. Rather than just ask my son for the inheritance fund, I planned on getting the money from Albert Brice in exchange for influencing a deal between him and the British Royal Navy. The deal went through, but the profits for Brice Inc. ended up being a lot smaller than Al thought it would be. I had already told the Saxons I'd pay the $20 million, just so she would stop increasing the amount owed, so this put me in a serious jam when Albert couldn't come up with the funds. This is when things got even more complicated."

Andy nodded. He knew this next part of the story very well, or at least what Red had told him.

"He said he had money, but it was in his daughter's name and he couldn't touch it – sounds familiar, right? Albert's always been very uptight and cautious about his money, to the point of paranoia almost, so the safeguards against this fund being used wrongly were intricate. After he found out his first wife was basically a gold digger, he wanted to make sure no one who married him could get to his money. He made his daughter a co-signer on some accounts, and even made an offshore account in her name. It was in this offshore account that his last usable sum of money was stored. He suggested something I wasn't entirely okay with, especially since it involved Callum."

º º º

"I don't know what to tell you," Albert answered. Millie thought he sounded indifferent, but Albert was more worried than he had ever been. "The money is in her name; I can't use it."

"Can't you just ask her for it? It is your money after all." Millie replied.

Albert shook his head. "No, the stipulations of the fund require her to have complete control over the money with no influence from me. There are third party trustees and several other checks and balances. If any money is going to be used she has to complete the transaction completely on her own."

Millie stared back in shock. "You would just give your daughter $20 million dollars with no supervision?"

"Katherine is responsible. It's for her future, and what she chooses to do with it is up to her." Albert explained.

"Is there no other way?" Millie pleaded.

Albert thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, no I don't think so. It belongs to her, and whomever she marries, if she chooses to." He closed his eyes and shook his head again. "No, she would never go for that."

"For what?" Millie asked hopefully. She was desperate and open to any idea.

"Your son.... Is he single?"

º º º

Andy leaned back in his chair. Things were coming together perfectly. "So you both had money tied up in accounts you couldn't access... how ironic?"

"Yes, an odd coincidence." Millie agreed.

"And this is how the engagement ring debacle started?" Andy asked.

Millie raised an eyebrow. "Well, it was Albert's idea for him to use Elizabeth's old ring. I knew that wasn't a good idea, but he was so sure of it. And Callum, well... he is easily manipulated."

"Callum was apprehensive. He'd dated girls for money, or to cheat on a test in school, but this was different. Marriage is more permanent, even if they got divorced right after, it would still be in the records, and he would be a divorcee – you can't change that. Considering I had gotten married for the wrong reasons when I was young, I wanted to make sure Callum didn't make that same mistake." Millie shook her head, and Andy agreed. "But of course, Callum messed it up by actually falling in love with her. He didn't want to go through with it, and even called me the morning of the proposal. He said he wasn't going to do it, that he couldn't hurt Kat like that. I almost told him...everything. All I had to do was tell him who his father really was, and Rosie and her sons would back off about getting Johnny's inheritance back. I wouldn't need Albert's money, and Callum wouldn't have to marry Kat. I could have made it all go away. I could have told him, but my pride stopped me. But now it's too late. Even if I tell Callum, it doesn't matter. The Saxons are after that money."

* * *

Red visited Charlie quite often, which Kat thought was just an excuse to get away from her. He always seemed to just be leaving when she was returning from school, and that could not be a coincidence. If Kat had not been so distracted by her studies, she might have realized Red was just waking up at that late hour. So, she tried to throw herself into her school work to distract from Red's absence and whatever meaning might be behind it. While that did lead to her getting good grades, it did not make her forget her feelings for Red.

And just when she thought things could not get worse, she got a letter. It was forwarded to her Switzerland address from New York, originally postmarked England. She felt her blood turn to ice in her veins, and her heart ceased to beat as she read her name hand printed on the envelope in handwriting she was too familiar with. Short love letters, notes slipped into her pocket when she was not looking, poems attached to bouquets of flowers...yes there was no mistaking Cal's handwriting. She dropped the rest of the mail on the kitchen counter before continuing to her bedroom with the letter clutched tightly in her hand.

Kat stared at it for several minutes before throwing it across the room. She cried, so angry that she could not get rid of him, but crawled over to where the letter lay on the floor. She slowly tore at the edge of the envelope until it was open, and it felt like she was peeling back layers of bandage over an open wound that stubbornly would not heal. The envelope held a single page of British Navy stationary folded crisply in thirds. Reluctantly, she opened it and braced herself for whatever it said.

'Kat,

I have tried to contact you many times over the past few weeks without success; I hope this letter finds you safely. I cannot begin to apologize for my actions, or to explain what led me to treat you so poorly, but please listen. You have every right to be mad at me, to hate me, but please listen to what I have to say.

I meant every word I said to you. I know this does not mean much given my actions, but please know that I truly did, and still do, have feelings for you. I was put in a difficult place by my mother who seemed to think she could arrange a marriage between us in order to access your father's money. Your father thought you might like that ring, and while I thought it looked very elegant, I had never noticed the name inscribed on the band. Had I known it was your mother's ring I would not have used it. Instead, I would have used the ring my mother had provided. She said it had been hers, given to her by my father, and for a moment it almost seemed real: like she wasn't asking me to marry you for your money and your father's connections.

I am so sorry. I cannot explain why I went through with my mother's plan, except that I owe her a considerable debt and she could put me in a very dishonorable position. Given the opportunity to do it again I would not have gone through with it, but that does not change the past. I am not trying to ask for your forgiveness or redeem myself. I just felt you should know how I came to be in possession of your mother's ring. You probably assumed I had stolen it, but I promise you even I am not that low.'

Kat's eyes filled with tears again and blurred the last few words of his letter, though she could easily recognize his signature. She leaned against the wall and slowly fell to the floor sobbing. Everything she had feared was slowly becoming reality. Albert was, in fact, a cold hearted, unfeeling businessman – Kat knew that, but she could never have thought he would be heartless enough to go this far. This was her life he was messing with! And Cal, blackmailed by his own mother?

Red came home and the house was dark. He called out for Kat and heard a noise from her room. She was still sitting on the floor with a letter in her hands when he came in, her face streaked with tears and pink from crying.

"Kat – are you okay?" He kneeled next to her and put his arm around her, instinctively she leaned into him. "What's wrong?"

She burst into tears again and shoved the letter into his hands. Red read the letter carefully before angrily crumpling it up and throwing it on the floor.

"Your father gave him your mother's engagement ring?" Red's face reached a color that was beginning to match his name. The tips of his ears burned scarlet with anger and it took everything he had to keep his mouth shut. "The disrespect... how could he? An engagement ring is supposed to be special, and unique, something you give a girl to show her you want to spend the rest of your life together. Even if Albert thought you really might like her ring, why would he give it up over some cheap, fake engagement?"

He looked back at Kat and realized she was thinking the same thing. However, she did not realize how vehement Red was about engagement rings. Despite her current predicament, she allowed her mind to be distracted by this thought and started to wonder who this Fiona really was. Perhaps there was a lot more to Red than she knew about.