Victoria Rose

CHAPTER 1

M att Emerson stepped onto the elevator, pushing the number ten. As the doors closed he began pulling off his gloves and unbuttoning his full-length double-breasted coat, laying it across his left arm while still holding his briefcase. For November it was colder than usual; the temperature had plummeted and it was a slushy mess outside. He watched the numbers flash one after the other until the elevator came to a stop on the tenth floor and the doors slid open.

Like Victoria, back in August, who had no idea of the crisis unfolding before her, it was now Matt who had to face the oncoming crisis—which would come at him so fast and hard he would be blindsided by the fury of something he could neither control nor understand.

He had wanted to plan something special for his and Victoria’s sixth wedding anniversary but not a surprise. Victoria did not handle surprises well. He had hoped that they would be in their new house by then, but the contractors were behind schedule due to the cold and rainy weather. As it appeared, it would be spring before they would be able to move in.

They had lived in his Fifth Avenue apartment since they had married, and it was the only home Matthew Jordan had known, except for their summer home on South Holston Lake; and going back there did not look promising.

They had not been back to East Tennessee since her accident. She had hit her head on the bottom of their boat; and in some small ways, Matt had noticed she just wasn’t the same. She complained of frequent headaches, at times was irritable, and sometimes she would cry for no reason. Like most women, she had always had PMS which accompanied her cycle, but something was different. She seemed to have lost interest in alot of the things she normally enjoyed. She pulled away from social functions, even made excuses to avoid the regular Tuesday-night family dinners at his parents’ house, which she had always enjoyed so much.

His parents, Mason and Audrey Emerson, had given each of their four sons one hundred acres of their 2050-acre estate to build a home. Mason Emerson wanted to make sure his sons stayed close to their mother and himself.

Their beautiful mansion sat in the heart of the estate, which Mason had proudly named Audrey’s View. In a lot of cases, Matt, Victoria, and all the other members of the family, including Mason and Audrey, referred to the estate as Audrey’s View, rather than our house or Dad and Mom’s house.

Their new house was going to be beautiful. In spite of the lack of interest in other things, she did take some interest in designing the house but not with the enthusiasm she did with the apartment when she moved in.

The three-thousand-square-foot apartment was nice but very much a bachelor’s pad, with mostly dark subdued colors. Once Victoria moved in, things changed. She put her decorating abilities to work and created a warm, inviting home that even Matt was happy to come home to. She did a complete transformation; it was like walking into a totally different apartment. It radiated warmth and happiness, and once Matthew Jordan was born, the apartment exploded with life, bubbling with excitement as they watched him grow.

Life seemed almost perfect. Matt was a well-established business consultant; they both were young, beautiful, and they loved each other and had a beautiful son, who was the light of their lives. Now Matt was about to learn that it wasn’t so perfect after all, and something had gone terribly wrong, once again.

Once he completed the fifty-foot walk down the luxury hallway with beautiful artwork, tables with flower arrangements, and beautiful carpeting, he was finally standing at his apartment door. He turned the key in the dead-bolt lock and stepped into the foyer.

Just as he turned the inside lock, he heard the pitter-patter of little feet, turned, and knelt down on one knee just in time for Matthew Jordan to fly into his arms. He wrapped his little arms around his neck and gave his daddy a kiss on the cheek.

Dad… Dad… Daddy? Smiling, he said, Do you know what?

Trying to sound really excited, he said, No! What?

Daddy… Daddy, I’ve been waitin’ for you.

You have?

Yeah, I have been waitin’ and waitin’ for you.

He looked at his watch—2:15 a.m. Does Mommy know that you are up?

With a broad smile and a giggle, he placed one little index finger up to his lips and said, Shhhh, Daddy, shhhh. It’s our secret, Daddy, okay? Okay, Daddy? Don’t tell Mommy. He was shaking his head back and forth.

Do you think Mommy would be mad if she knew you were up?

Still with a sneaky little grin and shrugging his shoulders, he said, Yeah, Daddy, I think she might be mad.

Well, we don’t want to make Mommy mad, so I guess we better keep it a secret.

He smiled from ear to ear and said, I knowd you would keep our secret, Daddy.

He stood up holding him in one arm. Hey buddy, I’m hungry, what about you?

Yeah, Daddy, I’m hungry too.

What would you like to have?

PIZZA ROLLS!

Well, I don’t know. That might be a little tough on your stomach this time of the morning. How about a grilled cheese sandwich and some milk? That’s what I’m going to have.

Okay, Daddy, if that’s what you are having, then that’s what I want too.

Good deal! Grilled cheese is what it’ll be. He tossed him over his shoulder and carried him to the kitchen, sitting him on one of the red suede bar stools.

He took from the refrigerator the butter, milk, and cheese and then took bread from the bread box. By then the double sandwich grill was hot. After placing the sandwiches in the grill, he poured two glasses of milk, placing one in front of Matthew Jordan.

While placing the sandwiches on plates, he said, Daddy… Daddy.

He knew that if he did not look at him, he would keep saying Daddy over and over again. He looked at him and tried not to laugh. With his white milk mustache, he said, Daddy, I’ve been thinkin’.

He sat the plates on the bar and sat down on a stool across from him. Just what have you been thinking about?

Well, Daddy… Daddy, you know that I am five years old now.

Yeah, that’s right, you are. You had a birthday party just last week, didn’t you?

Yeah, Daddy, I did.

So you remember that, don’t you, Daddy?

Matt, still trying to not let him see him laugh, placed his elbow on the bar and his right hand over his mouth. He loved to listen to all the things that Matthew Jordan came up with. All of his little schemes, tricks, and his five-year-old logic that went behind all of his ideas and adventures. I do remember that you are now five years old.

Well, Daddy, I think I need to go to wok with you and flied in the airplanes so I can take care of you.

His speech was well developed for his age, but there were a few words he continued to have trouble with, and he continued to have trouble with his tense. Instead of saying work, he would say wok, and instead of fly he would say flied. There were a few other things he had trouble with, but he usually waited for Victoria to correct him on his speech.

You think you need to do that?

Yeah, Daddy, I… I do.

Well, what about Mommy? Who would take care of her?

Now, Daddy, I have already thought about that.

You have?

Yeah, Daddy, Nanna and Mimmie could take care of Mommy. He was referring to Eva, Victoria’s mother, and his mother.

Okay, I guess that solves that problem.

What about school?

Well, Daddy, you know that I went to school all last year.

That’s right, I know you graduated from preschool.

And, Daddy, I have been going to school a long time this year.

Well, let’s see, you started in late August, and it is now November so you have been going to school almost three months this year.

See, Daddy, that’s a long time, right?

Yeah, I guess so.

Daddy… Daddy, just the other day, Ms. Elliott asked, ‘Who can tell me what 2 x 2 is?’ Daddy? . . . Daddy… I raised my hand and I told her it was four. She said, Well, thank you, Matthew Jordan, for telling me the answer. Whispering, he said, Daddy, she didn’t know what the answer was. I had to tell her. So you see, I know more than Ms. Elliott, so I don’t need to go to school anymore.

Matt, still trying not to let him see how amused he was, trying to maintain a serious look, said, I guess you are pretty smart by now.

Yeah, Daddy, I’m real smart, and I can take care of you. I’ll keep all the bad mans away.

Matt, felt a sinking feeling as he remembered the incident in August that led up to Victoria’s accident. Cyrenius, his arch-enemy, was responsible for everything that had happened. Three of his sidekicks had ambushed him as he and Matthew Jordan were leaving a restaurant in San Diego. He and Victoria had talked about it and decided that Matthew Jordan could fly with him on one of his business trips. What a low-life thing to do. Something he would never have wanted Matthew Jordan to see.

Three men grabbing his father, pointing guns at his head—no wonder he was spending a lot of time thinking about the episode, and now feels he needs to go to work with me. He wants to protect me.

Suddenly Matt saw the situation as more serious than a fantasy. He too was trying to deal with the aftermath of that incident. He thought that Matthew Jordan had fully recovered and it had vanished from his memory. He had never said anything else about it. He thought it was just a bad memory and he had bounced back with no after affects. Now he realized he was wrong. So very wrong.

And Gloria! In her hat and sunglasses, came swooping in like a vulture, grabbing Matthew Jordan and putting him in the back of a limousine while the driver sped off with his son, not knowing where they were taking him.

Gloria, oh yes, he knew Gloria—Gloria Cassadina a.k.a. Cassie. She wasn’t dead. No, she was very much alive and among the living. Did she think he would not recognize her in her sunglasses and that stupid hat? What an idiot. Now just who was behind all of this? At what point in time did she team up with Cyrenius? And how did they fake her death? The autopsy said she wasn’t pregnant, or so he was informed. How did they manage to pull that one off? There has been a major cover-up. He knew he would get to the bottom of this, but he had to play his cards right. He needed to take it slow and wait. The right time would come. He had told Victoria none of this. Cyrenius was the one thorn in his side that has destroyed his efforts for a completely perfect life.

At one time, he had only one reason to want to get revenge on Cyrenius, and that was the death of Cassie, the woman he once loved and had planned to marry. Until she supposedly turned up dead in her gift shop in New York City. Now that Cassie is very much among the living, that was no longer his mission. His reason now was even more intense, and that was what he had done to Victoria and Matthew Jordan. He wanted Cyrenius for that reason, and Cyrenius wanted him for the three-carat ruby that he no longer had nor had any idea of its whereabouts It could be anywhere in the world right now. It might still be mounted on the ring he had purchased from Jazmar for Cassie, or the ruby may have been removed from the mounting. He had no idea.

Victoria did not know that Cassie was alive. She did think that it was possible after she talked to a dispatcher following her accident and thought the officer had said later that the dispatcher’s name was Cassie. Because of this, she was adamant that Buck and Jessie go back to Bristol and check it out.

What they learned was the dispatcher who had talked to her was Chessie, not Cassie. It was a clear case of mistaken identity. She accepted what Buck and Jessie had told her with no further questions. She trusted them, and if Buck and Jessie said it, it was so. The subject was dropped.

Considering what she had gone through, he elected not to upset her with the details. Up until this point, she feels that Cassie is indeed dead but had asked several times who was Gloria. It was Gloria who had put Matthew Jordan on the plane alone to Tri-Cities Airport. Victoria nearly lost her life in an effort to get to him, which included hitting her head on the bottom of the boat and nearly drowning.

He had continually avoided a full-length explanation of Cassie’s death with Victoria. He had certainly never told her about the ring he had purchased for Cassie, so she knew nothing about the three-carat ruby, for which the Egyptian government was offering a twenty-five-million-dollar reward. He had paid thirty-five hundred dollars for the ring, not knowing it was a stolen artifact from the Egyptian government, and they would not stop until it was returned to the ancient headdress of the Pharoah Rameses.

Are you through with your sandwich?

Yeah, Daddy, I’m through.

Do you want another drink of your milk before I pour it out?

He placed both hands around his glass and took an additional drink. Mmmm, that’s good.

Okay, cowboy, to bed with you. He placed his hands under his arms and lifted him off his stool. He placed his arms around his daddy’s neck and wrapped his legs around his waist. I don’t believe that you are a cowboy. I think you’re a spider monkey. Placing both little hands on each side of his daddy’s face and turning his face toward him, he looked very sweet and innocently he said, Daddy, I love you."

He smiled at him. Hey, buddy, I love you too.

He flipped off the kitchen light, carrying him in his cowboy pajamas through the family room, living room, and into the foyer and turned left and started down the long wide hallway. Matthew Jordan’s bedroom was on the right, which was initially the guest bedroom. Across the hall was another bedroom that at one time had been his office. That room harbored a five-year sad story that they no longer talked about.

For several years they had referred to it as Victoria Rose’s nursery. As the years passed by, it was then referred to as the extra room, even though nothing had been changed.

The double doors at the end of the hallway was the entrance to the master bedroom. A room which was a haven for Victoria and himself. It was beautifully decorated with a king-size bed, yellow fabric headboard, scalloped, with fabric folding gently from the high ceiling around the headboard to the floor. A large room-size yellow and navy blue plush rug was centered in the room. It had his and her walk-in closets and his and her bathrooms. A set of French doors led out onto a large balcony, which overlooked the city.

The balcony was a place of solitude for Matt. Some nights he would come home and just sit for hours listening to the sounds of the city. At times Victoria would join him. Matthew Jordan was only allowed out on the balcony when he was home. There was a security code pad at the top of the door, out of his reach, and a three-foot wall that lined the outer edges of the balcony, which Matthew Jordan could barely see over but could ever climb. Just another reason why Matt wanted to get into their new home. Audrey’s View was a place where he could roam wild and free, have a pony and a puppy, growing up as he did.

Matthew Jordan’s bedroom door was open and the light was on. As he walked up to the door, in his peripheral vision he noticed that the door of the other room was open about six inches. This was the second time in the last couple of weeks he had noticed the door being open. Feeling a little confused, he reached over, closed the door, and walked into Matthew Jordan’s room. He carried him into his bathroom and stood him on the small foot stool so he could reach the sink. He ran his toothbrush with toothpaste under the water and then handed it to him. Within ten seconds he had water and toothpaste all the way up to his nose, all the way around his mouth and dripping off his chin. Again, Matt tried not to laugh. He took a paper cup from the dispenser, filling it half full with water. Okay, good job. Rinse your mouth. He handed him a hand towel to wipe off all the excess toothpaste and water. Do you need to potty before going to bed?

Yeah, Daddy, I think so.

Okay, go for it. He waited for him and then picked him up and carried him back to his sink to wash his hands and then carried him to his bed. He and Victoria had decided on a rule that anytime they put him to bed, they would always sit on the side of the bed for a few minutes with him.

Matt tucked him under the sheets. Do you want your blanket?

No, Daddy, that’s okay. I’m warm.

Is there anything you need before I go to bed?

I want my teddy bear. It’s over there, he said, pointing to the other side of the bed where it had fallen out. Reaching across the bed, he retrieved his teddy bear, placing it beside of him. He kissed him on the forehead.

Hey, buddy, I have a question for you. Are you the one who is opening the door to the other room?

No, Daddy, I never open the door, but Mommy does. She says she has to take care of the baby that lives in that room.

He felt he had been hit right between the eyes with a brick.

There is no baby that lives in that room.

Mommy says there is, and sometimes she has to rock the baby. She says, Matthew Jordan, be real quiet so you don’t wake the baby up."

He felt his arms and legs tingling and an overwhelming sense of shock. He thought, Oh my God, what have I done? Come on, I’m going to show you that there is no baby living in that room. He gently lifted him from his bed and held him tightly in his arms, feeling like he never wanted to let go of him.

He felt totally responsible for what was happening to his family. It was his decision to leave Victoria Rose’s nursery intact rather than redo it for Matthew Jordan. Instead, he decided to transform the guest bedroom into a nursery for him. He truly thought that within a year or so she would be pregnant again and possibly they would have a girl, but as hard as they had tried, it just did not happen. The nursery remained in silence.

He remembered how much he wanted a boy and how excited they were when the appointment finally arrived and they were to find out the sex of their baby. He remembered how young the ultrasound girl appeared to be. Even though he wanted a boy, he knew he would never tell Victoria, but when the tech told them it was a girl, he felt a sense of joy and overwhelming pride. So from that day forward they started planning for their baby girl, Victoria Rose. The next five months, every flutter, twitch, and kick was a bonding process between them and their baby girl.

Matt had designed her nursery with pink walls, with little fairies, pink carpet, white molding, a white bassinet with lace, a pink-and-white rocking horse, and a white teddy bear. His mom and her mom threw them a baby shower, and they received an abundance of gifts—everything for a girl.

It wasn’t until she was lying on the operating table following a C-Section that the smiling nurse laid the little bundle into Victoria’s arms and said, "Victoria, Matt, you have a beautiful baby boy!" His heart leaped with joy. He had not been selfish about it; he had accepted that he would love his little girl as much as he would a son. It wasn’t anything he had done to change the situation. Victoria seemed okay and bonded very quickly with Matthew Jordan, and he knew she loved him dearly.

While she was still in the hospital, he got busy again designing a nursery for Matthew Jordan. The plan was to strip everything out of Victoria Rose’s nursery and transform it into a nursery for a boy. Something inside of him just would not let him do it. He kept telling himself that it was just a matter of time before she would be pregnant again, and if it wasn’t a girl, he would then change it into a boy’s nursery.

He made a conscious decision to leave the nursery as it was. He covered the walls, carpet, and all the furnishing in heavy plastic; even the little dresses hanging in the closet were wrapped in a lighter-weight plastic. The door was closed, and as far as he knew, the door had never been opened. That was until lately, and he had to close the door twice. He thought maybe Matthew Jordan had peeped into the room with no harm done. Now he realized he had a much bigger problem.

Walking across the hallway with Matthew Jordan in his arms, he opened the door and flipped on the light. What he saw sent another electrical surge through his entire body. He was stunned! All the plastic had been taken down from the walls and from the carpet; it had been removed from all the furniture and even removed from the little dresses in the closet. There were baby clothes scattered about the room as if some had been worn. Trying to minimize what he saw and hoping Matthew Jordan was not noticing the details of what was apparently irrational behavior, he swallowed to try and eliminate the lump in his throat. See, there is no baby that lives in this room. Have you ever seen or heard a baby?

Matt held his breath, waiting for the response.

No, Daddy, I have never seen or heard the baby, but Mommy sees and hears it all the time. She rocks it in the rocking chair.

Does Mommy still rock you?

When the baby is asleep, Mommy sometimes says, ‘Matthew Jordan, come and let Mommy rock you.’

So Mommy does not leave you out? Is Mommy grouchy with you?

Not much.

Do you think Mommy is sick?

Sometimes she is sick and lays in the bed, but, Daddy, I take care of her. I get her juice and I put a blanket over her.

Matt was fighting back tears. He had no idea the amount of weight his child was carrying and what he was being subjected to while he was working. He didn’t even realize his wife was sick. Maybe that was another reason he wanted to go to work with him. My God, maybe he’s afraid. Children are smart.

He carried him back to his bed and tucked him in again. Thank you for taking care of Mommy. I’ll take her to see the doctor and she’ll be good as new. Okay?

Okay, Daddy. He yawned and turned on his side, placing his little hands under his chin, and his eyes closed. Matt sat on the side of his bed for a long time. With his elbows resting on his knees and with his left hand in a fist and his right hand covering it, he rested his chin on his fist. It was then that he cried and prayed. Dear God, please help this family. Please, don’t let Victoria slip away from us. He wiped his eyes and looked over at Matthew Jordan, sleeping like a little angel. In the hour that he had been home, his almost perfect life had turned into a nightmare.

Cyrenius was managing to destroy his family from the other side of the world. Victoria Rose’s nursery has to go!

He walked into their bedroom; took his shoes, socks, pants, and shirt off; and laid down beside her. He put his arm around her waist and pulled her up close to him. She was sleeping soundly. Again, he cried and prayed. He had not actually cried since he was told Cassie had been murdered. That was certainly a waste of tears. He had never loved Cassie the way he loves Victoria, and now she is sick.

There were several times he thought he had heard her talking to someone in the bedroom, but when he asked her about it, she dismissed it as I was singing or I was just talking to myself. He had never known her to lie to him, but now he knew she was lying. Yes! Victoria Rose’s nursery has to go, but first, he needed to talk to Don and Eva. After all, she was their daughter—they had a right to know. He would call his mom and dad and ask them to come by as if unexpected, and he would say he had to go out for a while. That way, they would be there with Matthew Jordan. She would have to stay, as it would be rude for both of them to leave. He did not want him subjected to anything else. Maybe Matthew Jordan should spend some time with his parents or her parents. He would call his mother first thing in