The Hanover House

-------------------------------------------------"Goddamn it, Frank! You knew I was married and wanted Doug and I reconciled before we ever fell in love. He's just as big a part of me as you are. I asked him if it was possible for us to be married and you still be part of my life, something I would very much like. He said it wasn't possible putting me in the position of having to choose. I don't want to choose. I love you both and have come to rely and need you both.

"I'm the luckiest and unluckiest woman in the world. Lucky to have you both and unlucky knowing I can only have one of you. At some point it's going to come down to choosing between you and I don't want to do that. It's my own Sophie's Choice, and I can't bear the thought of hurting either of you.

"Oh, God, that sounds so narcissistic. Let's just see how this works out. Maybe the choice will be made for me and I won't be forced. Bye. I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you; you know I do. Yes, I know. Goodbye, Sweetheart."

-------------------------------------------------Sophie was reviewing the House's expenses summary for the preceding month with the House finance manager when a call came. Susan said it was an emergency. Listening for a moment and asking a minimum of questions Sophie excused the finance manager, grabbed her coat and purse and left the office in a hurry. Telling Susan on the way out that she'd be gone for the rest of the day and asked that Doug and the Concierge be notified.

Sophie arrived at the hospital within moments and found Frank's partner moments later. When she found that he'd been shot and was in surgery it was all she could do to hold herself together. The surgeon found them 90 minutes later. The news was not good. One of the bullets had severed an artery. One barely missed the heart, puncturing the lung. Another grazed the stomach and lodged in the liver after passing through the gall bladder, destroying it. If he recovered it would be a long recovery. Fortunately his blood type was common minimizing further complications.

Sophie was allowed into post op recovery and was the first thing he saw after regaining consciousness. Frank had much to live for. Sophie had become a lover and confidante in the past several months, someone he'd come to rely on. Their sex was good, very good with Sophie using her expertise to give him pleasure and orgasms beyond any he'd ever experienced. He could not and would not let this woman go. She was more capable than anyone he'd met to make a new life for him. She was also someone he wanted to make happy whatever the cost, with one exception. He had less than a year to go for retirement and wanted to get it before making a new life for Sophie and himself. He didn't know about Sophie's wealth and ability to live any lifestyle she chose.

He'd been thrown off after learning about Sophie's New Orleans reconciliation visit. He knew she was married as he fell in love with her confident that her estrangement from her husband would end in divorce. Her attempt at reconciliation came as a surprise that she tried very hard to downplay. He found her plan to maintain their relationship the best alternative to an otherwise bad situation. Did her husband know of her and his relationship? He did.

Her husband was in the process of relocating to the Bay Area making the prospects of him keeping their relationship alive and vibrant less so. Their phone conversation this morning solved nothing. Yes, she loved him. No, she didn't want to leave him, but ultimately, it would come down to choosing, something neither wanted. With that on his mind he started his shift.

Several of his detectives had called off leaving the squad shorthanded. That didn't stop the pimps and their girls from running their game. Frank had little choice but to work with one of his detectives to collar a particularly miserable pimp, one known for abusing his girls to the point of them needing medical attention. It was more than just business as usual when one of the girls couldn't work after a workout with him.

The collar shouldn't be anymore dangerous than others except that this pimp was also a crackhead. As long as his stable kept him in drugs he was pliable. The best way of dealing with him was to let the drugs kill him or so debilitate him that he could no longer pose a threat to them, the girls or their Johns. The downside was that strung out crackheads are irrational and difficult to control when apprehended.

Waiting for him to kill himself placed everyone at risk. Predictably, one of his girls was in the hospital unconscious from a particularly vicious beating. Witnesses and forensic evidence made it clear who the attacker was. Frank and the lead detective along with two uniform patrolmen broke into the pimp's apartment (they had a warrant) and began clearing the rooms when Frank entered the back bedroom. No one was in the room and the windows were locked. Turning to leave Frank opened a closet door with his gun drawn. The pimp shot at the figure framed in the doorway until he passed out.

That's how the lead detective and uniforms found them. Frank was on his back on the floor bleeding from gunshot wounds. The pimp was slumped on the floor of the closet unconscious from the excitement with the gun still in his hand.

The EMTs took heroic measures stabilizing Frank and getting him to the hospital. He didn't regain consciousness before the surgeons opened him up in the OR. Sophie got there while they were working on him. She was almost hysterical, barely holding together and frustrated that no one could tell her what was going on. The lead detective was trying to explain what happened but in her frenzied state she didn't understand. She kept asking what happened? A nurse gave her a sedative and put her in a room as a courtesy to the police. Hours later the surgeon came out and said Frank survived the surgery but it wasn't clear he would survive the damage caused by the wounds. Though stable he was in grave condition. Sophie stayed the rest of the night only leaving to return to her apartment to freshen up and get a change of clothes.

-------------------------------------------------The Concierge covered for Sophie while Frank was in the hospital. When Frank was released from ICU Sophie brought an overnight bag and stayed with him around the clock, sleeping in his room. After two weeks of her constant haranguing Frank was released to her care. She had her apartment converted to a medical theater that allowed overnight accommodations for a nurse to tend him around the clock. Sophie looked in as often as she could which was often. While she was back at the Hanover House she wasn't performing her duties. She relied on the Concierge to cover and kept only the most superficial contact with House operations and community, and Doug. The object of her attention and focus was Frank's recovery.

Everyone was aware of Frank's presence and his effect on Sophie. She took notice of their concern and thanked them for it but, in truth, only cared about Frank's. As he improved so did she until after a few weeks she was almost back to normal. The Hanover House gave a collective sigh of relief.

-------------------------------------------------Having never met Frank, Doug had no ties that would cause him to wish more than that he recovered. He was appalled at Sophie's reaction. If he had any doubts about the sincerity of her love for Frank they were gone after observing her reaction to his injuries. He realized that forcing her to make a choice was too selfish of him. Expecting her to turn away from someone that she cared so deeply for no longer seemed appropriate.

Even if she did there was no longer any doubt that there would always be a lingering attachment (regret?) that could only become anger toward him over time. He realized he could no longer hope to reconcile their marriage under its original terms. The choice now became to walk away or accept her love and need for Frank alongside his.

-------------------------------------------------After a month or so under the constant care and nurturing at Hanover House Frank took a turn for the worse. The nurse called for an ambulance to return him to the hospital where he was diagnosed having an infection, actually two infections, pneumonia and a complication from his wounds.

Sophie had a limousine take her to the hospital arriving shortly after the ambulance. After being triaged to ICU the attending physician put him on aggressive antibiotic regimens to reduce the danger posed by the microbes coursing through his body. In an already weakened state, Frank didn't have strength or reserves to continue and died six hours later. Sophie blamed herself for his death for having removed him from the hospital too soon.

-------------------------------------------------Sophie was inconsolable and unapproachable until after the funeral. Having died from complications stemming from injuries sustained in the line of duty Frank was given a department funeral with appropriate honor and solemnity. The police department planned and organized the funeral leaving Sophie to mourn. Frank was well known and liked. Mourners representing every police department and agency in the area up to and including the State Bureau of Investigation and troopers were in attendance as were the district attorney's office, and superior court. Hovering on the periphery were a group of women wearing too much makeup, tight clothes and very high heels. Very few of those in attendance knew whom the strikingly beautiful woman in black seated in the front was but all knew the loss she suffered. Standing graveside between his partner and a female deputy chief (the same that initially advised Frank how to behave on an early date with Sophie) her pain and sorrow were obvious to all. Those few sought to console her.

The wake was held in the Hanover House dining pavilion attended by the House and police communities. Those that didn't know who Sophie was were impressed by the extent and extravagance of the accommodations. Either Frank had been more important than they suspected or this mystery woman was very influential, maybe both. Certainly the later must be the case because of the deference shown her by some very important public figures in attendance.

-------------------------------------------------After walking over to the main residence from his office in the carriage house Doug stood in the doorway to Sophie's office. Behind him Susan could be seen looking at him with interest. Softly knocking he entered as Sophie looked up from what was holding her attention at her desk. The adjoining door to the Concierge's office was open. The Concierge and his steward could be seen moving about but not heard. Business of the day and office routines seemed to have returned to normal. He came in and settled into a chair in front of her desk instead of one of the side chairs where he usually sat.

"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Sophie. I'd like a few minutes of your time. Thank you. Frank's passing last month was traumatic and I'm sorry for your loss. It's that loss that I'd like to talk about; it's clarified my thoughts about us.

"I guess I didn't understand how strong your feelings for Frank were. Yes, I knew you loved him but never understood how much until his injuries and all that followed. I honestly question if it is possible for you to love another with that intensity and that's the problem. If we were to rehabilitate our love I'd be forever haunted by its comparison to what I've observed these past few months." Movement in the Concierge's office stopped as if in suspended animation. Susan had sat down but was not working. She was hanging on every word.

"That comparison would have me come up short. No. No. Please don't tell me I'm wrong. I'm convinced I understand perfectly well the circumstances I find myself in. I think it's in both our best interests if we move on.

"Effective immediately, I'm exercising my option in our partnership agreement to cede my share and interests to you. I'll have my attorney execute the appropriate paperwork and negotiate its final dissolution on my behalf.

"I'll be returning to New Orleans. I plan to leave by the end of the week. All the arrangements have been made. I'll check with you before leaving." After he left Sophie stood up and told Susan she was going out for a walk on the grounds. Susan called the Chief and told him of Doug's plans and the need for Sophie to be left alone and not approached while on the grounds.

Shortly after hanging up Susan heard the lawn mowers turned off and saw through the windows that gardening and maintenance people were walking away from their work to give Sophie space and the opportunity to digest losing Doug.

-------------------------------------------------It was several months before Sophie felt emotionally strong enough to resume all her duties with the urgency and skill that characterized her leadership in the past. Things were getting back to normal. The Hanover House community and patrons figuratively uttered a sigh of relief. Sophie occasionally smiled and laughed when warranted. She apparently viewed her role and job as therapy and was responding well to it.

She even weathered signing off on the final divorce settlement severing her last ties to Doug. Heartened by unburdening him of their marriage, she knew he was still very much a part of her life. They simply had too much history together for it to be otherwise. She had a keen interest in him finding happiness and continued to use private investigators to keep tabs on him. She enlisted the aid of the New Orleans Concierge to be on the look out for women that might suit him. A blind matchmaker, if you will, where one of the parties is unaware of their role.

Ground was being broken for the first phase of her expansion program, enlarging the dining pavilion into an activity center suitable for community and conference events when the Concierge collapsed in his office. His illness inexorably claiming more and more of his vitality it was only a matter of time before it carried the day. There was never a question of it succeeding, just a matter of when.

Having his medical power of attorney she allowed the physicians to only take reasonable and prudent measures to treat him. By the end of two weeks he was on a steady drip of morphine to ease his pain. After he slipped into unconsciousness and in the final stages of his death Sophie ordered his life support terminated. He died within hours with her at his side. It was the first time she kissed him on the lips. She felt she was now responsible for killing two of the three most important people in her life.

-------------------------------------------------"Good evening, Dr. Hanover. No. No, it's all right, your steward called telling us to expect you. Your table is ready for you. Will anyone be joining you this evening? Very good, let me help you to your table." After seating her he said, "I'll send Thomas over, immediately."

"Good evening, Dr. Hanover. Would you like something to drink while you wait for your guest? Very good, I'll send James over and then return to take your order." He removed the extra place setting before leaving.

"Good evening, Dr. Hanover. How may I help you this evening? Wonderful! I always enjoy helping you. Thomas and I will confer and make sure dinner is memorable. Leave everything to us. Ah, here he is now. Thomas, we must talk."

Left to herself she looked out at the room not noticing the attention she was receiving. Wearing black, she only wore black now; her gaunt features were accentuated by the lighting. To a casual observer she looked pale and under nourished. She could easily take on an additional ten pounds and still be thought slender. Resting her head on her interlaced hands she would occasionally come out of her reverie to touch the corner of her eyes with her napkin before returning to her distracted gaze.

Many in the room wondered how such a hauntingly beautiful woman could be eating alone. The restaurant did not cater to an out-of-town clientele. It took weeks and sometimes months to make a reservation. No one would know in advance when they wished to dine alone, would they? Only a handful of the patrons knew who she was. Fewer still knew the circumstances that caused her to be alone. None wished to acknowledge her in her sorrow.

Spotlighted by muted overhead lamps her monochromatic image of pale skin and a black dress was in jarring contrast to her lipstick matched by her signature red rose boutonnière. She didn't realize James had returned with her wine. She was distracted by her own thoughts until offered the decanted cork for inspection. Getting no response he poured her wine and left.