Justice

Chapter Twenty-Five

"What are we going to do?" Minerva asked.

"About what?" Never entered Hayden's mind. He realized that it had been a largely rhetorical question by Minerva, but her phrasing it as "we" was interesting. It implied at least a willingness for them to find answers and make decisions together.

"I think we should start by taking a walk on the beach," Hayden told her. "I always think better with sand between my toes."

"You expect me to go out in public looking like I just left a funeral? My eyes have got to be puffy from crying and my face is probably a mess as well."

Hayden kissed her on the forehead and lifted her into his arms as he rose from the couch. As he set her on her feet, he said, "Your sunglasses will hide your eyes and your face is as beautiful as ever. You just have to decide whether you want to go dressed as you are or get a bit of afternoon sun during our walk."

Taking a step back, Minerva placed her hands on the lapels of Hayden's shirt and slowly pushed it off his shoulders and down his arms. "You could use some more vitamin D yourself. Plus, this thing needs to dry out."

"I do have other shirts you know," Hayden chuckled.

Minerva didn't speak in reply as she placed the side of her face against Hayden's bare chest and wrapped her arms around him. She then whispered, "Thanks for being here with me, even after I've been such a bitch to you."

Returning the embrace, Hayden said, "Minnie, you have become precious to me in an amazingly short time. 'To progress', remember?"

Minerva felt like she was living on a new level. Just being near this man made her melt. She clearly understood how her sister had fallen so hopelessly in love with Hayden and envied Athena for the experience of having her love returned by this amazing man.

Leaning her head back to gaze up at him, she asked, "Would you mind if I wore just my bathing suit on our walk? I would like to get a little sun."

"Whatever makes you most comfortable is fine with me," Hayden assured her. "We won't be going anywhere but on the sand, so a bathing suit would be more than appropriate."

"Okay, then you wait here and I'll go get ready."

The two separated and Minerva headed for the stairs leading to the upstairs bedroom where her stuff was. She paused when Hayden asked her, "Would you like me to get us some towels in case you want to go into the water?"

"If I go into the ocean, I'm going to want to shower afterward..."

"Fortunately," Hayden teased, "This house has one of those. In fact, it has four facilities with showers."

"How many of those four come with you?" Minerva almost asked. Instead, she said, "I think the most that I would do is wade into the water to the level of my knees. We are intending to continue our discussions during the walk, aren't we?"

"Good point, Counselor. We'll save the towels for showers later."

"Will you stop mentioning showers already?" Minerva silently chastised. Before the blush that her thoughts evoked was too obvious, she turned and hurried up the stairs to remove her tank top and shorts.

Quickly pulling her tank top over her head, Minerva studied herself in the mirror above the dresser and pondered her reluctance to take her clothes off downstairs in front of Hayden. After all, she had her bikini on underneath and he would be seeing her in that shortly. She supposed that the act of disrobing, even partially in front of him seemed inappropriate at this stage of their relationship.

"Their relationship?" What was their relationship? Acquaintances with a common interest? Friends? Companions? More?

Definitely, a "work in progress", Minerva admitted to herself as she pulled her hair into a ponytail and secured it. Not bothering to fold her top and shorts when she tossed them on the bed, she grabbed her sunglasses and headed back downstairs in her bare feet.

"Holy crap!" Minerva thought when she saw the expression on Hayden's face as he watched her descend the stairs.

No one had ever looked at her with as much... What? Admiration? Appreciation? Desire? She had never given a lot of thought to whether others, in particular men, had found her appearance appealing. In her mind, "it was what it was".

Now, the visible expression of Hayden's interest in how she looked gave Minerva a sense of pride that she hadn't experienced previously. She was both elated and embarrassed when realizing the effect that she had on this man.

Hayden wasn't surprised by Minerva's beauty or grace. He had been witnessing those since they had met, and he had been able to adapt to her attractiveness as he once had with her sister. However, he was gobsmacked by the sight of her in the hot pink bikini.

Though conservative in comparison to a lot of those that they would likely encounter on the beach, it encased the most intimate parts of a body that would put all other females to shame. In this bikini, Minerva epitomized her namesake. She truly was a goddess.

The smile on Minerva's face assured Hayden that she had not been offended by his visual assessment of her physical charms. This belief was further reinforced when she jumped over the last two stairsteps and launched herself into him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she planted a chaste kiss on his cheek.

"I have never been so happy to be a woman as I am when I am with you."

Hayden laughed, "Well, you'll get no complaints from me."

Releasing Hayden, Minerva took his hand and said, "Come on, let's take that walk that you suggested.

Hayden led her across the patio and toward the beach through the dunes. The tide was out, so they had to trudge another twenty yards before the firmer sand along the shoreline provided them with a cooler surface and more solid footing for a leisurely walk. They were able to continue walking hand-in-hand on the firmer sand without the surf reaching their feet.

They had to dodge or pause in their walk to avoid running into oblivious people looking for seashells or sharks' teeth as well as the occasional child running haphazardly to or from the water, but they were able to continue holding hands as they did so.

They walked silently for several hundred yards before Hayden spoke, "You said that you knew the psychologist that Athena was seeing when she was younger. Can you get her contact information? I know that we learned a lot from the documents, but there are still several questions, at least in my mind."

"Mine too," Minerva agreed. "In particular, I need to know what caused her to act so irrationally and if there is any chance that whatever her affliction was could be hereditary. I have to think of Alex. I plan on having Lana try to find out about her tomorrow and then to schedule a meeting with her. I assume that you would want to be there too."

"That sounds like the best approach," Hayden said. "First, she might be more receptive to sharing Athena's history with you since you were sisters..."

"I thought that you understood that her speaking to both of us about Athena shouldn't be an issue, at least from a legal perspective. I took pictures of the relevant pages in the documents where Athena's recorded statements clearly provide her implied consent for you to be made aware of her medical history, treatments, and prognosis. I hold the legal status as Athena's personal representative, so that gives me the right to hear everything said about her."

Nodding in agreement, Hayden said, "I wonder how difficult it will be to schedule a meeting with her. She seemed anxious to share information with me when she first called, and she sent the documents as promised, but I have to question why she has been ghosting me since then."

"We'll find out when Lana gets in contact with her tomorrow," Minerva assured him. "There is one thing that we need to be prepared for, however."

"What's that?"

"She might be reluctant to discuss Athena with both of us at the same time. There may be things about the relationship between you and Athena that Dr. Vinson might feel are none of my business."

Hayden had to consider this. The mutual interest that he and Minerva had been sharing about her sister had been rather academic to this point. They both wanted to know if Athena had lied about who the father or her unborn child was, and why. The documents had convinced them both that Athena had lied, but the reasoning was still confusing for them. If his relationship with Athena had been as influential in her behaviors, how would that information affect Minerva? Would she place even partial blame for her sister's mental challenges on him?

He asked, "You and your parents weren't aware of the problems mentioned in the documents, right?"

"No," Minerva emphatically replied. "Sure, Athena would sometimes be in a funk when we saw her at holidays and such, but we accepted her excuses about her being under a lot of stress over her heavy course load. Also, like I said, we all were pretty self-absorbed with things in our own lives and we obviously didn't focus enough on Athena and what symptoms we did notice to do anything about them."

Hayden nodded, "I only got to spend a couple of months with her each year, and the majority of our time together was in a professional work setting. I did notice things about her behavior, such as her shyness around large groups of people compared to her confidence when it was just her and me together. But that was the only way that I had ever known her to be, so it didn't raise any red flags for me or anything. She always sounded the same when we spoke on the phone, her e-mails were consistent and generally upbeat, and she gave me no reason to suspect that there was this darkness in her life."

"I assumed from the pain that you experienced when you thought that she had betrayed you," Minerva said consolingly, "that you were completely unaware of Athena's problems. At least you had an excuse for your lack of insight into her behavioral challenges. Her family has none. We should have been more aware, or at least given Athena the confidence to share her problems with us. We failed her, you didn't."

"I'm not convinced that is true in either case," Hayden countered. "Regardless, if this Dr. Vinson objects to you and me getting our answers together, will you help me to overcome her objections? I think that we need to try and achieve closure together and can support each other to realize that goal."

Squeezing Hayden's hand, Minerva asked, "Can I ask you something about you and Athena? About your relationship I mean?"

"I guess so."

Minerva considered her words before speaking, "Athena was never a very affectionate person from what I remember. My mom said that she didn't even like being held much as an infant. My question is, how was she with you? I mean, you two obviously had some intimate physical contact for her to get pregnant, but how was she otherwise?"

Raising their joined hands to illustrate his statement, Hayden said, "This is one of the contrasts between you and Athena that I was referring to earlier. She was always reluctant to show any physical affection between us in public, yet you seem to encourage it."

"So, Athena was fine showing affection in private, but not in public?" Minerva asked.

"Not initially," Hayden tried to clarify. "When we met and started getting to know each other, it was always in a work-related environment, so professional decorum dictated our physical contact, or lack thereof. When we started getting more serious and actually spending time between just the two of us, Athena began to accept things like a brief hug or us holding hands while sitting together. That sort of thing. She didn't like going out in public much, and when we did, she refused to hold my hand or show any signs that would give people the impression that we were a couple. Even as we became more physically intimate in our relationship, she was always very guarded about us in public."

"Was she ashamed about your relationship or something?"

Sighing, Hayden said, "Looking back on things, I now realize that what I perceived as Athena's shy and introverted personality went deeper than I had thought. She never seemed to have a very high regard for herself and her value as a person. I was always trying to reassure her of her beauty, intelligence, and my pride in her, but I now question whether my efforts had any effect. It was almost as if she thought that me being with her would make people think less of me."

Nodding, Minerva said, "I picked up on some statements of hers in the documents that sort of reinforce that. My sister definitely lacked self-confidence, but there were also comments that lead me to believe that she felt better about herself when she was with you. Does that make sense?"

"Not really, but I have no frame of reference for how she behaved when she wasn't with me. I'm hoping that this Dr. Vinson can help me see how Athena behaved when with me wasn't just an illusion on my part."

"Me too," Minerva said.

She then removed her hand from his and placed her arm around his waist.

"Just so you know, I don't care if being seen with me is bad for your image or not. I am proud to be seen with you, and that's good enough for me."

Hayden placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

"I am perfectly fine with people viewing us as a couple but you should be more concerned about what that image could do to your reputation rather than mine."

Hayden noticed Minerva had stopped walking, so he paused as well. She removed her hand from his waist and stepped around in front of him, facing him with a serious expression evident.

"Confession time," she said, taking both of his hands into hers.

"About what?"

Taking a deep breath, Minerva steeled herself before speaking, "I like you, Hayden. I mean, I really like you. I don't know how anyone couldn't like you, and I can see clearly why my sister fell so hopelessly in love with you."

"I really like you too, Minnie. We've established that already."

"I know, and making 'progress' in our relationship is something that I am truly looking forward to. But you need to know that I have never done the 'couple' thing before..."

"How do you mean?" Hayden asked in confusion. This woman was far too beautiful and confident to not have had relationships before. Wasn't she?

Minerva explained, "I have never been in an actual relationship with anyone. Sure, I've dated guys, but no one ever made me feel the slightest bit connected to them. You know, like someone that I would want to get to know better, learn to trust, and want to share things with..."

"Make progress with?" Hayden interrupted.

"Exactly!" Minerva exclaimed. She placed her arms around Hayden's neck as she said, "I want to make progress with you, I really do. Being with you makes me excited to find out what happens next. I just need you to realize that I am in unfamiliar territory..."

He whispered to her, "The beach is getting more crowded in this direction. Let's head back toward the house."

His response, and the silence between them on the walk back to Hayden's house didn't concern Minerva. With his strong arm draped around her shoulders as they walked side-by-side, she remained confident that he was merely contemplating what they had discussed and was not bothered by it.

Chapter Twenty-Six

"See, I told you it wasn't far."

"I believed you," Minerva replied. "I'm just surprised how fast the trip was. The wait at the guard booth was the longest point in the trip."

Minerva had been surprised when Lana had been unable to track down Dr. Vinson through her office in Greenville on Monday. They had learned that Dr. Vinson had closed her practice and transferred all of her patients to other psychiatrists. Hayden put Tasha on the case and it had taken her and her team less than two hours to determine that Dr. Vinson and her husband had retired to their second home in Myrtle Beach and were now making it their primary residence.

Providing that information to Lana had allowed her to make the arrangements that now had Minerva and Hayden sitting in Hayden's Bentley, which was parked in the drive leading to the palatial home of Dr. Denisa Vinson. Lana had explained that Dr. Vinson had abruptly ceased seeing patients in the middle of April when her husband had suffered a stroke.

After Lana had explained what Minerva had told her about the implied consent that Athena had clearly provided during her sessions with Dr. Vinson, the psychiatrist had been enthusiastically willing to see Hayden and Minerva as long as they could come to her house for their meeting. While her husband was recovering well from his stroke, Dr. Vinson preferred to remain home in case he needed anything.

"Stick with me," Hayden teased. "I'll teach you all the shortcuts around this town."

Minerva said, "Maybe I'll just let you chauffer me around once I relocate here. I think I look pretty good being driven around in this car."

"And humble too," Hayden laughed. "Don't forget humble."

She smacked him playfully.

While she had explained to Hayden that she wanted to personally manage the growth of her law practice in the Myrtle Beach area, leaving TJ and Lana to manage the more established operations in Greenville, Minerva didn't delude herself into believing that her desire to be closer to Hayden hadn't played a major role in her decision.

Hayden patted the large three-inch ring binder that he and Minerva had placed the documents into so that they could add dividers and tabs for the sections that they had the greatest interest in discussing with Athena's former psychiatrist. "Are you ready to see what the good doctor can tell us?"

Squeezing Hayden's hand, Minerva replied, "I certainly hope that she can squelch her sesquipedalian tendencies exhibited in the case notes."

Hayden gently returned Minerva's squeeze and said, "Don't you find it ironic that you, as a lawyer, someone whose profession promulgates the use of words that only they understand, are criticizing someone else for using big words?"

"There is no comparison," Minerva insisted. "Latin allows usus paucioribus verba facere punctum."

"Very funny. What does that mean?"

Minerva grinned as she opened her car door. She glanced back over her shoulder while exiting the car and said, "Latin allows the use of fewer words to make a point. In English, that sentence has eleven words. In Latin, it only has seven."

Hayden joined her at the front of the Bentley, "Yeah, seven words that only another lawyer would understand."

Minerva simply shrugged and took Hayden's hand as they started for the house. Glancing to the right, they could see a few boats on the Intercoastal Waterway just a few yards away. The sound of a golf ball being hit on the course that the house backed up to could be heard in the distance. The house didn't appear to be as spacious as Hayden's, and the view of the Intercoastal couldn't compare with his view of the Atlantic Ocean, but it was still an impressive residence.

When they rounded the corner leading to the entry of the house, they saw a woman standing in the open doorway watching them approach. Her hand went to her mouth as she watched Minerva walking towards her. She lowered it as she stepped out of the house and pulled Minerva into a friendly embrace.

"I forgot how much you and Athena looked alike," Dr. Vinson said. The hint of tears was just forming in the corners of her eyes. "I am so sorry for the loss of your sister, and even sorrier that it has taken so long for me to express that to you. Please come in."

Following the two ladies into the house and closing the door behind them, Hayden said, "Dr. Vinson, I'm Hayden Justice. We spoke on the phone ..."

Pausing in the foyer, Dr. Vinson turned to face Hyden and said, "No need for an introduction, Mr. Justice. I always felt confident that I would be able to pick you out of a crowd from the descriptions that Athena always shared during our sessions. I do want to apologize for sending you the documents and not being able to follow up with you afterward. My husband's sudden illness turned our world on end for several weeks."