“Hey!” Ang greeted, cheerfully, walking into Brook, Lanie, and Alyssa’s house at nine thirty the next morning. “I come bearing bridal magazines.” Brooke laughed and led Ang into the kitchen, where Lanie and Alyssa were seated, still in their pajamas. “These two are not very happy with me right now.”
“I just don’t see the need to do this so damn early,” Alyssa grumbled into her coffee.
“Do you want to be in my wedding?” Brooke joked.
“Not if it means I can sleep in,” Alyssa retorted, smiling.
“Shut up.” Brooke sat down next to Ang at the table, across from Sleepy (Lanie) and Grumpy (Alyssa).
“Hey Lyss,” Ang began as she passed the magazines around the table. “Have you talked to Howie?”
“Not in the last couple of days,” Alyssa answered, absentmindedly, as she flipped through one of the magazines. “Ooh…I like this one.”
“So, you don’t know that Christine is back in town?” Ang looked up at her, gauging her reaction.
“What?!” Alyssa exclaimed.
“Oh, it’s way too early for yelling,” Lanie complained, letting her head fall into her hands.
“That little bastard.” Alyssa stood up from the table and went to get the phone. “Why didn’t he call me and tell me?”
“Do you guys think I should ask Sarah to be in the wedding?” Brooke asked, as Alyssa was calling Howie .
“Sure,” Ang replied. “Why not? I think she’d be honored.”
“Yeah, she definitely would,” Lanie agreed. “Especially since the rest of us are all in it.”
“Thank you so much for doing this.” Brooke stopped flipping through her magazine in order to look at her friends. “I don’t really have any family. Well, except for my foster mother. But for the last three years, you guys have been it. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Aw, Brook-ee.” Ang leaned over and gave her friend a hug. “Of course we’d be there for you. You’ve been like an older sister to me ever since I met you.”
“Yeah,” Lanie added, smiling. She glanced at her watch. Nick was supposed to call her before he went to meet with the lawyers and she still hadn’t heard from him.
“What’s up?” Brooke questioned, noticing her disturbed expression.
Lanie sighed. “Nick was supposed to call me.”
“Where is he?” Alyssa asked, walking back into the room, tossing the portable phone on the table.
“He’s in New York again,” Lanie responded. “He got some thing that said he needed to be there for the reading of a will. He has no idea why he was needed. He doesn’t even know who these people were?”
“What are their names?” Ang asked. New York City may have millions of people in it but it was worth a try.
“Gordon something.” Lanie scrunched up her nose in thought. “Catherine and Peter Gordon.”
Ang was deep in thought. Where had she heard that name before? Friends of her parents? No. Hmm. Then it hit her and her eyes widened. She had heard that name from Katelin. These were the adoptive parents of Aidan. But why the hell was Nick needed there? She quickly jumped up and grabbed the phone. “Do you guys mind if I use this a second?” Everyone nodded and Ang ran out of the room, dialing Katelin’s number in New York.
“Hello?” Adrienne asked tiredly.
“Hey Adrienne,” Ang said. “It’s Ang. I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
“No,” Adrienne answered. “I’ve just been lounging around here, not wanting to deal with the day yet. What’s up? Katelin’s not here.”
“Oh.” Ang was disappointed. She needed to get in touch with Katelin before Nick found her. And he was going to find her when he found out about Aidan. Katelin would be lucky if she walked away from him alive.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Christine sat at her desk, staring at the paperwork in front of her. She loved doing what she did. Really she did. Working for a record company had always been her dream job when she was in college. But sometimes she really got fed up when stars thought that she was to cater to their every want and need. And that’s exactly what she was feeling at the moment. When she had started at Jive two weeks ago, they put her in charge of the new NSYNC tour. Their old tour director had been fired and Christine took over the job. Some of the work was already done but she still had hotels to book, venues to book, interviews to book, the whole nine yards. And the things that NSYNC were asking for were ridiculous. She had never booked a tour this extravagant. This was insane.
“Chris?” Emily buzzed in. “There’s a call for you on line one.”
“Thanks.” Christine picked up her phone and pressed the button. “Hello?”
“Christine,” Paul said flatly.
“How did you get this number?” Christine asked, impatiently. She had specifically instructed no one to give it out. She would have to have a little talk with Emily. She wasn’t supposed to patch any calls from him through.
“That’s not important,” Paul told her. “I believe we have some things to discuss. You walked out of here without so much as an explanation and I would like to know why.”
“Paul,” Christine sighed. “I can’t talk to you right now. I have a ton of work to do.” She was really surprised he was this calm. She thought he would be yelling at her. She even thought that, instead of calling her on the phone and trying to talk to her, he would just have come down here. And God knows what would’ve happened if he did.”
“Don’t hang up yet,” he growled. “This isn’t over. We are going to talk about this. And then you will come home.”
“Whatever,” she sighed and slammed the phone down. He was going to have to learn that he couldn’t control her life. She never thought about what consequences her reactions would bring.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Nick stepped nervously off of the elevator and approached the receptionist’s desk. “I’m looking for Jared Dylan’s office.”
“Name please?” the receptionist asked, without even looking up at him.
“Nick Carter,” Nick replied.
“Down the hall. Third door on the left.”
“Thanks,” Nick muttered, walking away. He walked into the conference room that he had been directed to. There weren’t many people there. One older couple sat, holding hands, both weeping quietly. The other older couple sat, in pretty much the same state, across the table from them. There were a few other people in the room. Some attorneys and others, he guessed, friends or relatives of the deceased.
“Mr. Carter?” one of the attorneys asked. Nick nodded. “Now that we’re all here, we should get started.”
Nick sat and listened intently to all of the legal babble that Mr. Dylan rambled on and on about. He felt completely out of place. He felt like he was intruding on something he shouldn’t be and he had no idea why. Until that second.
“On behalf of our son, Aidan Hunter Gordon, we bequeath full custody of him to his biological father, Nickolas Gene Carter.”