“Mr. Timberlake, I’m a patient woman.  I’ve tried time and time again to get Austin to open up, but something is wrong.  I understand about his parents, but he seems to be delving deeper and deeper into himself lately.  He’s cutting everybody off, he barely says hello to me in the mornings anymore, and now he’s lashing out with violence.  Surely, you see the problem we’re having.”

“Of course.”  What I’m really thinking is, how much is it going to take to make this lady leave me the hell alone?  Ah, the overly concerned teacher.  So wonderful that this school puts pride into their hirings.  But shit, I have no fucking time for it.  I’m here to shut Abbey up once and for all, end of story.  

I mean, it’s too late to replace her now. The boys are already too attached and I may be an “asshole” but I know a good thing when I see it, and firing her...I’d never be able to get them over it, and because I have common sense I’ll make sure she never quits.  It’s why I gave her that bonus.  I want her to think that I really like having her work for me.  In reality, if the boys weren’t so attached I wouldn’t make this much of an effort...but they are and I have no time to find somebody else as good and as patient as she is.

I also have no idea who would do half the shit I make her do for me, either.  Even though, being my date for a formal benefit isn’t exactly horrible, if I do say so myself.

I do look very nice in a tuxedo.

“Have you considered seeking therapy for him?”

She’s staring at me seriously, as if I’m not entitled to be raising Austin.  Hell, maybe I’m not.  Maybe I’m the worst guardian in the history of the world, but the kid is still my brother, and I certainly wasn’t going to leave him back in bum fuck Tennessee to be raised by the bunch of hillbillies he used to consider family.  “I don’t think Austin needs therapy,” I state to her bluntly, making sure I look her right in the eyes.  “He’ll get over his issues in a few months.”

“Begging your pardon,” she pauses and swallows a little bit.  “But it is in my educated opinion that he does.”

I scowl at her.  I hate when people tell me I’m wrong.  Trace does it a lot, but I trust his opinion, so he doesn’t really count.  Abbey...she’s starting to do it more and more.  I think I may have intimidated her that very first day, but ever since then she hasn’t really seemed to care what I say to her.  She takes all the liberties she wants with me as far as her attitude goes, and I can’t upset her no matter what I say.  The only time she takes things personally is when the kids get screwed over...

I guess I shouldn’t blame her.

I just don’t fucking get why she’s so strong.  She’d do so well on my executive panel it’s not funny. The crazy thing? Looking at her you’d never know it.  She looks so sweet, so nice, so innocent.  It’s the thing she can lure a man in with.  Her damn smile...the way she’ll...do the craziest shit for the kids just because they say please.  She’s a good person.  I can’t deny that.

If things were different, I could see us being friends.

But that’s just not possible.  At this stage of my life I can only afford to have friends that understand my career.  Up until recently, I thought that included Danielle too, but when I called her up yesterday afternoon from my office, she made it pretty clear that she didn’t want me to include her anymore.

“Justin, I think we need a break.”

I had never ever been dumped before, so the shock hit me pretty damn hard. “What do you mean, a break?” I said, feeling my brows scrunch together, meaning my face had probably been contorted into some weird, clueless, expression.  

“I just...after the other night, I started to think about a lot of things.  Our lives are changing, Justin.  You know they are.  Your brothers are here now and...”

“It’s not about them,” I said, through gritted teeth.  “I told you that they wouldn’t get in the way.”

“I’m not saying they are,” she supplied.  “I’m just saying that...you need to be a little bit more responsible now.  I’m about to be promoted anyway.  I’ll be swamped.  I don’t think I could even afford a relationship when that happens.  You understand, right?”

“No,” I grunted.  “I don’t fucking understand.”

She just sighed.  “Look, I have to go.  Maybe I’ll see you around, right?”

“What about the benefit?”  I moaned.  “Where am I supposed to get another date?”

“Oh, Justin,” she sighed.  “I’m sure you’ll manage.”
r32;I could hear her rolling her eyes.

“Dani...”

“Goodbye, Justin.”

When she hung up I knew that was it, and there was no way in hell I was about to go chasing after her.  That wasn’t my way at all.  I was still pissed though.  Really fucking pissed.  She’d bailed when I really needed her the most, and I had no idea what the hell I was going to do.

So I ran into Trace’s office and told him what happened.

“Fuck ‘er.”  Trace swatted his hand carelessly in the air as he shoved some Pringles into his mouth.  “Seriously, I never liked that one much, anyway.  Now, Silvia, she was nice looking.  I woulda done her...”

“Trace!” I yelled at him, a desperate tone in my voice.  “Can you focus please? Me, biggest benefit of the year...without a date at the last minute?”

“Why don’t you just make Abbey do it?”

I sat back, ready to tell him it was the stupidest idea ever.  But then it hit me.  He was brilliant.  If I took Abbey I wasn’t obligated to commit to her, and she had no choice but to say yes because it was her job.  “You really think I could pull that off?”

He just shrugged and laughed.  “Justin, you’ve made us billions of dollars.  I think you can pull anything off.  Besides, she can’t say no.  She’s on payroll.”

I smiled.  “Thanks.”

“Pleasure.  Now get out of my office!” He said, mocking my own attitude.

I rolled my eyes.

The next morning I broke the news to Abbey.  She didn’t take it well, but I made it a point to put her in her place, even dangled the boys’ well beings in front of her when she wouldn’t give in right away.  That changed her attitude real quick.

My plan worked.

She has her dress, and Sydney agreed to take her along to the hair salon out of “the goodness of her heart.”  She doesn’t really like me, and I don’t really care for her either, but we tolerate each other for Trace’s sake.  The only thing I have to do now is hold my breath and hope that Abbey doesn’t make a complete ass out of me tomorrow night.  I mean, I’m normally not this nervous.  I’ve held benefits before, lots of them.  But this will be the biggest.  Some of the most elite people in New York are on this guest list, which means there could potentially be a lot of money at stake.  I want it to be perfect, because all the cash is going to go to a cause that I fully support.  Hell, I think it’s the only thing I make a charitable donation to that I actually give a damn about, and that’s saying something.

Mostly, I like to line my own pockets with other people’s money.

“Fine.”  I nod at the teacher.  “Then I’ll take him out of your school, and make sure all of my friends know how corrupt it is here.  By the end of the week, you’ll probably lose about a hundred students.”  Then I lean in close to her and whisper, “How will that affect your petty little job, Ms. Parks?  Pity, they may have to let you go.  All for the sake of you giving me your ‘opinion.’”

She looks horrified.  I smirk.  “Yeah, a lot of my board members kids go here.  That’s how I heard about Dalton in the first place.  Obviously, you don’t know how to handle children properly, if you’re willing to push them off onto shrinks.”

“T-that’s...that’s not the case.”  

I start walking away.

“Mr. Timberlake!”

I love this.  Love it.  Nobody, nobody fucking defies me unless they want the worst reputation in New York City.  I turn around slowly, making sure my smile is non existent.  “Do you have something to say?”

“Perhaps Austin can work one on one with our staff here?”

“Oh, I don’t need him being alienated either,” I scoff.  “He’s going to go to class like every other brat in this place.  If I wanted him tutored, I would home school him.”

She sighs, defeated as she leans against the desk.  

“There’s nothing wrong with Austin that a little time won’t fix,” I snap at her.  “If he acts out, I have no problem with you disciplining him, either.  Believe me, Austin needs plenty of it.  What I don’t want is my nanny coming to me with this shit about you needing to speak with me every time Austin messes up.  If you have an issue you can talk to Abbey.  I don’t have patience for this rhetoric.  Frankly, it’s a waste of my time, and that becomes a waste of my shareholders time.  What kind of an establishment is this, where you can’t keep a bunch of twelve year olds in line for six hours a day?  I shouldn’t have to hold your fucking hands.”

She just nods, and doesn’t meet my gaze.  “Yes, sir.  I’m very sorry to inconvenience you, Mr. Timberlake.  I understand you’re a busy man.”r32;

“Good. So we’re clear then?”

She nods again.

“I’ll keep Austin out of school next week to give you a chance to get a plan together for when he comes back.  Maybe what you need to do is move that other kid...the one he had a fight with, into another class, but I’ll leave that up to you,” I tell her.  “Make sure you have somebody fax his assignments to my office so he doesn’t fall behind.  My secretary will make sure I get them, and Abbey will take care of the rest.”  For the final touch, I pull my checkbook out of my pocket and make a check out to the school for a large sum of money.  Not that it matters.  There’s always more, and I can write this off on next years taxes.  “Here, give this to your superior.”  I rip it out and hand it to her.  “Put it into the school.”

She takes it from me, and I can tell she’s trying extremely hard to hide how she really feels about me.  I watch her eyes widen as she reads the amount that the check is made out for, and she gasps a little.  “Oh...Mr. Timberlake...this is, this is very generous.”

“I don’t want to have to come back here,” I warn her, pointing my finger at her for added measure.

“It won’t happen again,” she tells me seriously.

“It better not.”  I give her one more intimidating look before I walk out of her classroom.

Although I acted like Dalton isn’t worthy of Austin’s presence, I know that it’s actually the best school in Manhattan.  The kid is so lucky to be in this school, and he doesn’t appreciate it.  He doesn’t appreciate the light punishments I give him either, like taking his x box or tv time away.  When I was young, if I was bad, my dad would beat the shit out of me with a belt.  I’m not sure if he ever did that to the boys, but seeing as how both of them are timid little pussies, I seriously doubt it.  Maybe my mom put a stop to that once I left.  Maybe she thought that was the biggest reason I resented my life and how I was brought up.

But it was more, only...she never really saw it, because she had the same problems.

Before New York City, I’d never been able to read very well.  Only very basic words, like the ones on street signs.  Books were nearly impossible for me to get through. It was something I’d always battled with, from the time I started going to elementary school, until the day I dropped out of high school.  No, I never graduated high school.  I got my GED when I moved to New York.  Trace helped me do it.  We met randomly.  He was waiting for a bus, and I thought he looked a little nicer than most of the people I came in contact with, so I asked him if he could help me read a bus schedule.  From then on Trace helped me with a lot of things.  He taught me how to read past the level of a first grader, he taught me how to work numbers and understand the stock market.  Soon, I realized that I had never been dumb.  I was smarter than I thought.  My memory was excellent, which explained why I was able to wait tables without having to write anything down...pass a test without having to read the study material.

At times, Trace would tell me I had a brilliant mind, that it had just been “warped,” and that it wasn’t my fault.

It was him who introduced me into the financial world, and we made it our plan to make it big on Wall Street before we turned thirty.  I guess we lucked out...or something.

I felt stupid my entire life before that.  Countless teachers had tried to improve my reading comprehension, but to no avail.  They just didn’t have enough time since the classes were always overcrowded.  They recommended I get a tutor, which my parents could never afford.  I fell behind, and became really bitter, really closed off.  My parents couldn’t seem to help me, because they were just as dumb as I was.  My mom didn’t work, she’d gotten pregnant with me while she was still in high school and dropped out.  She never went back.  My father worked in the local machine shop factory down at the end of town.  He’d never gotten past the eighth grade, and so he was no help to me with homework.  My mom tried, but she usually gave up after the first assignment became too difficult for her.  

I really struggled.  My entire life.  When Austin came along my parents were in a better situation.  My dad had a better job, and they had a little more money to live on.  Austin would be brought up right, and when Davey was born, I knew he would be too.

I was twelve then...passed along to the next grade one too many times by one too many teachers.  I was just left in the fucking dust, while my parents got another chance to get it right.

So, when I hit seventeen, I dropped out of school and left.

Quincy is waiting for me outside the school, and I tell him to take me to the banquet hall so I can make sure everything is in order for tomorrow.  From the moment I walk in the place I can already tell that all the workers are intimidated by me.  Some of them drop the items they are carrying as I walk by, and when I enter the ballroom, the lead organizer rushes up to me and shakes my hand, presenting me with a nervous smile.  I look around as he does so, and I like what I see, so rather than berate him for being a lesser being than myself, I just smile, pat his shoulder and tell him he’s doing a great job.

Good, one less thing to worry about.

I get back to the office, and am looking forward to working on some trades as I get off the elevator and head down to my office.

“Hey,” Trace sticks his head out of his office door and flashes me a playful grin.  “A client of mine offered some box seats for the Yankees on Sunday afternoon.  Do you think you’ll be up for it?”

I shrug.  Really, I have no idea what mood I’ll be in after the benefit, but I can always cancel on him if need be.  “The boys would probably like it,” I nod.

“Cool, I’ll tell him.  Oh, how did that school thing go?”

I laugh.  “As usual.”

“You pay that bitch off?” He chuckles.

“ ‘Course.  I’ll see you later.”  I don’t give him a chance to make small talk, and quickly make my way into my office.  I find Cheryl in her normal place, but there is somebody else I don’t recognize.  A man in a suit that I’ve never seen before is sitting in a chair against the wall.

“Can I help you?” I say, having stopped in my tracks.  “Cheryl?”

She gives me a weird look and shrugs as if she’s just as confused as I am.

“Justin Timberlake?”

“Yeah. Didn’t you read the sign on the door?”

He just chuckles and shakes his head.  “You’ve been served.”  

He hands me a thick blue piece of paper thats been folded into thirds, and I tear it from his hands.  “What the hell is this?”

“Have a pleasant day.”

That’s all he says, and then he just leaves.  

“What?”

The door closes behind him.

I turn to Cheryl.  “Why did you let him stay!”

“Sir, he had identification!” She defends.  “What could I do?”

I have to take a deep breath in and out, tell myself that it’s not Cheryl’s fault.  I can’t fire her.  She’s the best secretary I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot.  “It’s fine...” I huff as I tear the summons open.  “Get my lawyer on the phone,” I say bluntly as I scan the paper with my eyes.

"Yes, sir."

 This document mandates you to be in family court one month from today, due to an injuction filed by Kimberly Hanson.  

Accusation: Unfit to parent

The client is seeking sole custody of the minors Austin Michael Timberlake, and David Bryce Timberlake, pending formal hearing.

Fucking Kimberly.

I throw the paper.  Damn it.  I told her.  I fucking warned her not to mess with me.  What the hell provoked this?

Austin.

Really? Would he really have gone to those lengths? Contacted her? Played me off to be a mean son of a bitch who doesn’t care about him?

I just don’t know for sure.

I’ll kill him though.  I really will.

Cheryl tells me that my lawyer is holding the line, so I take it in my office.  Naturally, he reassures me not to worry, that he’s seen dozens of these types of cases before.  “Some family members just can’t let go,” he tells me.  When he asks me the name of the judge, he laughs even more, telling me that he is a golf buddy of his and owes him a few favors.

I already knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

It just annoys me that I should even have to deal with it.

“When we win we’ll file a letter of restraint, Justin,” he tells me.  “It won’t be a problem.  You’ll only need to appear in court this one day, I’ll handle the rest.”

“Thanks Mac,” I sigh.

“I’ll be in touch.”

I hang up the phone, and stare at it for a long time.  I know it’s probably best if I don’t call her.  It will make things worse, she’ll find a way to use it against me, even though it doesn’t matter anyway.

Fuck, I’m too pissed to ignore this.

The phone rings three times in my ear, and I recognize her voice immediately when she picks up.

“What the hell are you doing, Kim?”
r32;

“Oh, Justin,” she says wittily.  “How nice to hear from you.”

“I want to know what brought this on,” I snap.  “I told you to stay away from us.”

“I found your number, so I decided to give my nephews a call, that’s all,” she says quietly.  “I can’t help it that Austin is unhappy.  That nanny though...she seems nice.  Where did you find her?”

I pause.  Abbey talked to her?  “When did you call?”

“Wednesday.”

Abbey didn’t tell me.  It keeps running through my head, over and over again.  She didn’t tell me.  She would have known that she should have.  It doesn’t make sense.  I...I trusted her.  “What did she tell you?”

“That Austin was struggling and Davey still isn’t talking.  I can’t help but be concerned Justin.  Why, with all that money, I would have thought you would have taken care of all of it by now.”

I suck in a long breath.  Money.  “How much is it going to take to get you to drop this thing.”

“I want the boys not your...”r32;

“A million dollars,” I say, with one hand over my eyes.  “I’ll give it to you, to leave us the hell alone.”

Silence.

She’s thinking.  Yeah, she’s a real great relative.  If she loved them, she wouldn’t hesitate to tell me to shove it in my ass.

“A million dollars?”

“Drop this today and I’ll send you the check.”

She sighs.  “Fine.”

“My lawyer will contact you.”

I hang up on her.  Jesus Christ.  Really? Is this really fucking happening?

I call Mac first, to tell him the situation.  He’s not thrilled that I’m about to settle with money, but he knows I don’t feel like dealing with a courtroom, so he reluctantly agrees to do as I ask.  I storm out of my office after that, don’t say a word to Cheryl, or to Trace who is now standing in the hallway.  The only thing I can think of is getting home and giving Abbey the ass reaming of a lifetime.

Shit, I hope I don’t have to find another date to this benefit.