Coming Home

The next morning, he gave me a pill wrapped in foil. "This the 'morning after pill, take it and you'll have nothing to worry about.

Two things bothered me, how did he know about this pill, had he been in this situation before? And why did he no longer seem interested in me?

When I missed my period, I told him that I was pregnant. "It's not unusual for you to be late for your period, don't worry, it will come."

It didn't and I had to tell Mother. She was not happy. "How could you? Who did this to you?"

"Spencer Wharton, we only did it the once."

"There has been no-one else?"

"No, he was the only one."

"I'll have to tell your father, you know that, don't you?"

"Yes."

Father was unhappy about the situation. "I'm not pleased. I assume that he initiated this."

"Yes, I didn't want to do in and told him so several times. He promised that he would take precautions and I believed him."

"I'll have a word to his father tomorrow." Father worked for Whartons.

When he got home the next day, he was very unhappy. "I spoke with Mister Wharton. and he rang Spencer. Spencer told him that he is not responsible. He also said that you had been doing it with other boys in your class, which was why he was not interested in doing it with you, you are a slut."

"That's a lie! I have not had sex with any other boy."

"I told Mister Wharton that I trusted you to tell the truth and that I would take steps to ascertain the truth. He told me to reconsider, if I continued. he would have no option but to terminate my employment. He knows that I will be unable to find another job due to the lack of jobs and my age. I don't know what to do."

"I don't want you to lose your job just because of me."

"But we can't let you have an abortion, the church doesn't allow it." Mother said.

"What am I to do, I can't go to school when I begin to show.

"I'll call your Aunty Betsy, she might be willing to take you in until after the baby is born."

"What am I going to do then?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

I graduated just before Phoebe was born. I got very good grades and had already decided that I wanted to study Law. Revenge on Spencer being the driving force behind that decision.

I met Bryan at Law school. At first, I didn't pay much attention to him because I sort of had tunnel vision, focusing on my ultimate goal, revenge. It was at the end of our first year that he actually spoke to me. "I don't know whether to be jealous of you or to congratulate you."

"What do you mean?"

"Here I was, confident of getting the highest marks and what happens? I was blown away by you. I wouldn't have minded all that much if it was by only a handful of marks, but you beat me by a lot of marks. If you don't mind, how do you did you do it?"

"I don't know, I guess that I have this built in photographic memory along with an in-built filing system with a def-rag programme. Information, once filed, is easily recovered. While it's handy at the moment, once the law books are digitised, extracting information will only need an efficient search engine"

"You could make a great friend that I could use to my advantage."

"Oh, and what makes you think that I'd be interested in helping you?"

"Because, I could be of benefit to you when you graduate."

"How so?"

"I have guaranteed employment when I graduate, and if you play your cards right, you could also have guaranteed employment."

"No thanks. Many years ago, I acted on a promise, and it jumped up and bit me big time."

"Not all men are disreputable you know. Take me for instance, I am as reputable as you will ever find."

"Don't get me wrong, you seem a nice enough guy, as guys go, but my focus is on graduating and getting a good job so that I can pay my parents back for the mistake that I made."

"We can always help each other, work together so that we'll get so high a grade that any law firm That's worthwhile will be beating a path to our door."

"We shall see what we shall see. Okay I'll collaborate with you, but if you screw up, go back on your promise, you'll find your scrotum to be an empty memory of what might have been."

"Consider me warned."

It took until half way through our final year for him to make his move. "I have been discussing you with my father."

"The significance of which is?"

"He is the person who will be beating a path to the brightest law students when we graduate."

"And that will be you and I?"

"Yes, he said that if you are only half as good as I told him you are, he'd be a fool to let another firm grab you. He wants to meet you."

"He does, does he? I suppose that I should meet him, I mean, what do I have to lose?"

Bevan Somerville gave me some idea what Bryan would look like in years to come, this particular gene pool ran deep. Note to self, 'I could do worse'.

"So, you're this amazing legal genius that keeps topping his grades. It's not that I don't trust him, he wouldn't be the first man who has been influenced by his dick. I will need to have a formal chat with you. Call it a job application interview, it is up to you to convince me that he has not been influenced by your obvious good looks. Can you meet me in my office on Friday evening at five thirty?"

"Certainly, I have nothing planned. I will have to be home at a reasonable hour, I need my beauty sleep, I'm going to see my parents."

"I thought that you lived at home with your parents." Bryan said.

"I live with my aunt."

"Why is that, if you don't mind me asking." Bevan asked.

"Circumstances meant that this was the best solution to a problem that I had."

"You are very good at avoiding an answer, I would hate to have to cross examine you, it would be like pulling teeth."

"Knowing how to avoid answers prepares you for asking the right questions."

Bevan looked at me for several seconds. "I think we have enough time to have a pre-dinner drink before dinner arrives. It's a gourmet take-out."

"Will your wife be joining us?"

"My wife is no longer with us."

"Non-committal, may I ask why?"

"She died two years ago."

"I'm sorry, I'll shut up now, I don't need to know the details."

"In the fullness of time, when it becomes appropriate."

This answer puzzled me.

The doorbell rang and Bryan went off to answer it. He returned bearing containers of Pad-Thai and rice, along with a dessert. "Dig in, you'd better be quick, Bryan can eat all of this on his own."

Dinner was pleasant enough, the conversation flowed freely. Bevan was good, he steered the conversation, without seeming obvious, to gather information from me without broaching on anything personal. "If you don't want to say anything, that's fine by me."

"My father seems quite taken by you."

"Really? I like him, he interrogates without asking, that's something I want to learn."

"I haven't seen him this animated since my mother died."

"I know that he's reluctant to discuss your mother's demise, that's fine by me, but If I knew what happened I'd know how to react, how if I'm able to support him, after all, it isn't that long ago that I lost my father."

Friday evening, I arrived at Bevan's office just as the receptionist was switching the phones over to the answering service. "You must be Miranda, go straight in, his office is down that corridor, I'll call Bethany to let her know that you're here.

I knocked on the door. "Come in, he's expecting you." She led me into Bevan's office. "If you don't need me, I'll head off and see you Monday." She paused, looking from me to Bevan. "Now you two behave, no funny business."

"Get out before I kick you out."

"It's a shame that you two don't get along." I smiled at him.

"You mean the bitch? I don't know what I would have done without her after Meryl died. Have a seat won't you." He indicated the leather chair at the coffee table. "Bryan is very impressed with you, to the point that I do believe that he could be a little in love with you."

"I don't know what gave him that idea."

"Don't you? I would have thought that you would have been beating them off with a large stick."

"I have little time for men at the present. My focus is elsewhere."

"He mentioned that you seemed to be preoccupied with something. Do you mind me asking what it is?"

"Revenge. Pure and simple. I am working my butt off to graduate, get a job that will allow me to get my revenge on the person that totally ruined my life. At least that was my original intention, but life seems to get in the way."

"Okay, now you've got me confused."

"The driving force behind my studying law was so that I could get the expertise necessary to get my revenge on the person that I was seduced into trusting, and who betrayed that trust. This not only affected me, but my whole family. But in hindsight, if it hadn't been for him, I probably would not be here now. I guess that you could say that revenge is down the list of my priorities, behind making the most of my opportunities."

"And Bryan has led you to believe that your opportunities will be with him, here."

"Yes. I'd hate to disappoint him, but I'm unsure that it will be with him. Don't get me wrong, I like him and, if it wasn't for my negative attitude to men, I could get to like him better, enough to see a future with him."

"My reason for inviting you here this evening is to discuss the possibility of a position for you with this practise. I want to offer you an associate position, and I want you to accept that offer. However, this could create some friction between the two of you, and between myself and Bryan. He has long believed that he would be offered this position, but to put it bluntly, you appear to be better than he will ever be, and I want you."

"We have a problem. If I decline the offer to preserve his expectations I could be missing out on a great opportunity, but I will also be losing a friend because I would have to seek employment elsewhere. I don't suppose that you would consider employing both of us?"

"I could, but he would have to understand that you would be collaborating directly with me, while he would be working with another partner."

"If he'll accept that, I'll accept your offer."

"Have I made you an offer?"

"Not yet, but you will."

"You are a very confident young woman and it's that confidence that I'm looking for."

I reached over to shake his hand, but Bevan did something totally unexpected, he hugged me. "I guess I should have expected that." I said as I extricated myself from his arms. "I notice the way that you interacted with Bethany."

"Now that we have that settled, can I offer to drive you home?"

"It would be rude of me to reject that offer."

He led me from the building and to the under-croft car park. "You surprise me."

"How so?"

"I would have expected some flash, high end vehicle, not some prosaic thing like this."

He held the door for me, and I slid in.

"You're doing it again." I said as we neared home.

"What am I doing?"

"You are interviewing me without asking questions."

"What do you mean?"

"You start a conversation, and then you gently steer that conversation around to getting me to volunteer the information that you seek. That, Bevan, is a skill that I want to learn. Will you teach me?"

We had reached Aunty Betsy's house and he stopped the car. "Don't take this the wrong way." He leaned over and kissed me.

"Oh. The last time someone did that to me it didn't turn out well."

"I will not do anything to hurt you." He looked at me for a few seconds. "What the hell, Miranda, will you have dinner with me tomorrow evening?"

"Now you have me confused. You are old enough to be my father..."

"Thanks for that."

"And you're my future boss...."

"So?"

"You're the father of my best, only friend..."

"I want you to start thinking about you, what's best for you."

"I don't know what's best for me."

"We will discuss that over dinner tomorrow. Shall we say seven thirty?"

"Yes." I got out and almost ran to the door. What was I to make of all of this?

I whiffled around all day, my mind in a turmoil, not the least of which was, what am I going to wear?

He was punctual, the conversation was relaxed, the food was brilliant and the wine, in moderation, was perfect.

As we left the restaurant Bevan slipped his arm around me. "Miranda, I never intended to ask you to dine with me this evening and I'm unsure of my motives for so doing. Was it because I miss the company of a woman? Was I just being a lecherous old man looking for sex? I might be making a fool of myself here, but the more that I'm with you, the more I want to be with you."

I stopped walking and turned to face him. "You are not making a fool of yourself. I like you, a lot. I have never felt more at ease in the company of a man than I've felt with you. I cannot contemplate my future with you or anyone else until I find closure to that part of my life that has driven me to where I am now". I turned in his arms. "Don't take this the wrong way." I kissed him. What began as a chaste kiss, degenerated into one of passion. "Oh god. Take me home before I do something that I'll regret."

When we reached home, I kissed him again. "That will have to do until I get my revenge for what happened."

"If I didn't know better, I'd say that you're leading me on so that I'll help you gain your revenge, but I know better. Darling Miranda, I will help you, but in an advisory capacity, you'll have to do all of the work."

"I expected nothing more. Thank you."

It was his turn to kiss me, and it was a toe curler. "That will have to do you until you find closure."

Now that's what I call motivation.

"What's going on between you and my father?" Bryan asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I know that he took you to dinner on Saturday night and he was like the cat that got the canary all day Sunday. I asked him about it, but he would tell me nothing, so I thought that I'd ask you."

"And you thought I'd tell you?"

"It was worth a try."

"My relationship with both you and your father is strictly professional."

"I hope that I can believe that."

There was a moment of uneasiness between Bryan and me until Bevan explained that the decision to offer me his associate's position was for his (Bryan's) benefit.

Because we worked closely together, Bethany and I got on really well, she sharing a lot of interesting stories about Bevan. Like how devastated he was when Meryl died. "You know, You're a lot like Meryl." She said done morning over a cup of coffee.

"So, I'm a substitute, is that it?"

"No, never think that. If I'm not mistaken, and when it comes to him, I seldom am, there's something going on between the two of you."

"Why would you say that?"

"I have eyes, I see the way that he looks at you, it's taking all of his self-control, not to grab you and ravish you."

"There'll be no ravishing." I told her. She recognised the lack of conviction.

"So, it's on a low heat, is that it? Low and on the down low until you're ready to reveal all."

"Let's change the subject."

"That's as good an affirmation as I've heard."

"Shut up and let's get back to work."

"More and more you're sounding like the boss, or boss' wife."

I hurled a paper clip at her.

The recess over, I began to outline my case against Spencer Wharton for child support.

"Spencer Wharton seduced me, he told me that he would take precautions so that I would not get pregnant, that he would withdraw before ejaculating. He then gave me what I was told was the morning after pill. It didn't work and I found that I was pregnant. When I told him, he not only went back on his promise to look after me, but he denied ever having sex with me. He told his father that he was the only boy in our class at school that had not had sex with me. My father could not pursue the matter further because he was told that if he did, he would lose his job with Whartons. My father, faced with the prospect of not gaining employment in a job market where his age was against him, was forced to forego action."

"My father has since died, so that encumbrance no longer applies. That is the reason that I have waited to pursue this action. I have decided that it is now time to seek my pound of flesh and give my mother the finances necessary to enjoy the peace and serenity that has been denied her for so long."

Fenton rose. "That is all well and good, except that you have no evidence that this scenario actually took place. It is your word against his and without proof, you have no case."

"I did ask for a sample of Spencer's DNA to be provided so that we can ascertain the truth or otherwise of my case. Do you have that results of that test?"

"Yes." He handed me the copy of the test results. It was as I had expected, it was close but not a definitive match. Fenton, Thomas and Spencer smiled, they had won, at least that's what they thought.

"This indicates a close match, but not a one hundred percent match. I admit that there is a strong possibility that this does not prove paternity. However, we have our own DNA sample. You see, after the first and only time Spencer and I had sex, and after Spencer had failed to take the promised precautions, I, feeling betrayed by him, placed my panties in a sealed and labelled container into the freezer compartment of our refrigerator. When tested, this sample resulted in a one hundred percent match. How could this be? How could this sample be different from that provided by the defendant? I know, I have proof, that this sample is definitively Spencer's DNA, so why is there a difference? What explanation is there?"

"Without a definitive match to the sample that the defendant has provided, paternity is not proven, and you have no case. The defence requests that this court finds for the defence and denies the claim of paternity."

"There is another course of action. I am requesting that another swab be taken, here in this court, which can be matched against both samples. If this sample matches that provided by the defence. then we will concede that there is no case for paternity. If this new sample matches the one provided by us, then we can form two conclusions. The first is that there is proof of paternity and financial restitution is claimed. The second is that the defence has provided false evidence in an attempt to avoid its responsibility. Shall we take a swab that can be tested against both samples?"

A hurried conference took place. Fenton's anger levels spiralled to the point that he rose and addressed the judge. "I find myself in a difficult situation. I have been misled by my clients and I am withdrawing from the defence. I have suggested that the defendants admit that they have conspired to mislead this court and accept the penalties that have resulted from this action."

"Mister Wharton, do you agree with your former counsel?"

"Yes, I accept responsibility for the deception and my son Spencer accepts his paternal responsibilities."

"Well, did you win?" Bethany asked when we returned to the office.

"Yes, we won." I replied.

"No, we did not win." Bevan said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We did not win, you won."

"I doesn't matter whether it was Miranda or both of you, a celebration is in order. Don't go away." she headed for the door. "Oh, by the way, you'll find glasses in your bottom drawer."

I had the glasses out by the time Bethany arrived back with not one but two bottles of champagne.

Bevan looked at one of the bottles. "Who paid for this, I hope that it didn't come out of petty cash."

"You're such a tight arse." She looked at me. "See what you're letting yourself in for?"

"What are you on about?" Bevan asked. "Have you made an early start on the celebrations?"

"Fess up boss, admit it, you have the hots for Miranda, and she fancies you big time, tell her what you've been wanting to tell her for ages."