Sold #3 - A Haunting Hope

Chapter 13

Antony could feel a distinct sense of dislike radiating from Trisha whenever they were in the same room together but thankfully, since Arena's business out of town had been shorter than Tai and Travis had expected it to be, he had spent most of the weekend meeting up with the woman he loved as often as possible. Their relationship had too many painful memories for their first encounter since their break-up to result in the same antics Tai and Natasha's had and he was relieved, but he still held hope for a reconciliation. So far they had caught up on all the gossip and talked about her reasons for coming back home, he had told her about his chance of a promotion and although she said she was happy for him, he rather felt that she was trying not to show her disapproval, or start another argument which she would have had no bones about doing had they still been together. It was strange to Antony, why she would pick a deliberate fight over his job when they were engaged and ultimate bring about their separation, but now that they weren't together she was holding back for the sake of his feelings and to keep the peace. The problem was, that she had changed so much since they had last seen each other that he wasn't even sure he recognised her anymore. Of course, he wasn't just going to throw all their years away just because she had changed, but he did have reservations about whether their reconciliation would be of the romantic notion or not. At the rate things were going, he was guessing not. Regardless, he had to put his job first...again.

They had made a little headway on the Amy Stevens case, which Mrs Baldwin was vexed to find had to be solved before her divorce could be settled, just in case her husband had committed the murder. If that was the case, which they doubted, then her husband would lose his right to anything they had possessed during their marriage and his wife would get everything.

"So you said you found out about the house?" Trisha reminded him, snapping him out of his dream, but he was allowed to drift off into his thoughts, it was ten in the morning and they had only started their morning break ten minutes ago. The usual practice was to have around a half hour for breakfast, even though no-one ever really did, they worked through it, especially on an interesting case like the one they were delving into. But Michael had always been one to demanded that everyone take proper meal breaks, to refresh their minds and rejuvenate themselves before getting to work. He was a strict believer that a happy worker was a fast, more reliable worker and it paid off, for him at least.

"Yeah, I called up Mrs Baldwin and she gave me the papers." Antony explained calmly, planting his feet back on the ground, from the boardroom table as he sat forward and rummaged through the folder in front of him for the pink form that held the details.

He could clearly see that the fact he didn't have the file handy for her to peruse over was obviously annoying her but he didn't care, his world didn't revolve around her and she would have to get used to that. He was looking forward to the day when he took over Michael's job and landed her onto someone else as a partner, then he'd see how much better he faired in her judgements. "Here they are...she said that Murdoch came to her two years ago, insisting his wife loved the house and they wanted to buy it for a considerable amount. She refused because; well simply because she had no children and it was the only real home she knew. She says she hasn't seen him since." He recalled everything that he had been told about the new information they had; or really, he had discovered. Travis had been helpful enough to come up with the idea and although he would never tell anyone, it was because of the same reason he wasn't at the office that morning. Because a night with Victoria, to express the love he had felt for her for so long had relaxed and soothed his tired brain and given him a chance to think of something other than work for once. Antony was glad for it, not just because it had inspired him to think outside of the box in their case, but because Travis was a good friend and work colleague and he wanted him to be happy.

*****

As soon as Miranda got to work, she got down to the all important task of rearranging her bosses day planner, placing a delicate finger under each post-it as she lifted the receiver and dialled out, raising it from the time slot she had placed it under to make sure she hadn't written in anything important underneath. Sure that all his appointments and notes of interest were merely tacked on with a different coloured post-it for their different levels of importance, she went ahead and called up Mr Brown to apologise for Michael's disappearance. He had decided to take most of the day off, only popping in during the morning to dictate a few things, pick up a folder or two and then leave, adamant to have a full day with his new fiancée. Luckily for her he had a fairly light day, mostly just with the lunch meeting with Brown and a few phone calls to make. "Hello? Who the devil's there?" A stern voice answered after a short period of ringing filled her ears and all Miranda could do was smile at the somewhat familiar voice from the many phone calls she had passed from that one man to her boss. Brown owned a rather large investment company of his own and had been keenly interested in the way Michael run his own business ever since he had heard of the young eighteen year old who had had enough luck with his own investments to start his own empire.