Justice

"Oh," Corrine Justice said with calm sincerity, "I would certainly hope so. A man should always take responsibility for his actions and face whatever consequences those actions bring to bear on him. But, what does that have to do with Hayden?"

"Are you serious?" Minerva gasped. "Do you mean to sit here and tell me that you didn't know that your son got Athena pregnant and then dumped her when he learned about her condition? He broke my sister's heart and felt zero remorse doing so..."

'Is that how Athena described things to you?"

"She didn't have to," Minerva exclaimed. "She told me that the man that she loved; the man that she spent three summers with, the only man that she ever had sex with..."

"Oh, dear," Corrine said as she took one of Minerva's hands in hers. "I'm afraid that you are making some seriously incorrect assumptions."

Standing suddenly, which pulled her hand from Corrine's, Minerva said, "I knew that you would take his side..."

She didn't wait for a response but simply stormed away from a shocked Corrine Justice, still seated on the bench in the courthouse hallway.

Too riled to return to the office, from both the lost case and from speaking with Corrine Justice, Minerva decided not to return to the office that day. She would share the details of the case with Lana some other time.

After crossing the Intercoastal Waterway and getting closer to US 17 [Business], the tell-tale signs of Memorial Day preparations became very evident. The city had started placing changeable message signs in the center divider of the highway which would be used in the coming days to direct vehicles to and from Ocean Boulevard once the traffic loop became active.

It had become a tradition in Myrtle Beach for the city to make Ocean Boulevard a one-way street for miles of its busiest section during the Memorial Day weekend. Vehicles would only be allowed to travel southbound, with all northbound traffic being forced to take US 17 [Business], or as it was known in the area, "Kings Highway". Local residents, especially those with homes between the two affected roads saw no benefit to this traffic strategy and frequently complained about their inability to get out of their neighborhoods while the traffic loop was in effect.

Glad that the condo was well north of the area impacted by the traffic loop, Minerva ignored the barricades and other traffic control devices being staged along her route. She would remind her parents to stay away from the affected areas over the weekend since they had historically avoided Myrtle Beach during peak tourist season and had little experience with the challenges they would face if they ventured into the heart of the entertainment area.

"How'd it go?" her mother, Pandora asked as soon as Minerva entered the condo.

"This day has certainly not been what I expected," Minerva huffed. "Where's Alex?"

Her mother was in the living room, sitting in a chair with her feet propped up as she read a magazine, "Your father took him to one of the arcades. We knew that the crowds would make the area with his favorite arcades a mess within a day or two, so it was decided to take him today rather than wait. So, what happened?"

"The case never even made it to trial," Minerva groaned as she sat in a chair across from her mother. "The judge issued a summary judgment for the defendant almost immediately after taking the bench. I can't say that I blame him. My client really hung me out on a thin branch that the defense counsel was able to easily chop off."

"I'm sorry," her mother said. "I know that losing is hard..."

Shrugging, Minerva said, "It comes with the territory. Mom, can I ask you something about Athena?"

She saw her mother's shocked expression and almost regretted broaching the subject. They had never spent much time discussing Athena after she had passed away, focusing instead on doing their best to raise her son.

"Wh... what do you want to know?" her mother finally asked.

Minerva considered what she wanted to ask and how she could phrase it to not upset her mother too much. She finally said, "Athena never shared with me any details about who Alex's father was. Did she mention anything to you?"

Setting the magazine that she had been reading aside, her mother said, "No, not much. You have to remember that after you two girls were both in college, your father and I started traveling. We did e-mail you both and call when we could, but it wasn't like we had conversations every night over dinner anymore. I did sense that Athena had really been taken with the boy, whoever he was, and that it had to have been someone that she had been involved with while she was here in Myrtle Beach doing her summer internships."

Minerva nodded and said, "I sensed the same, and agree that it had to be someone that she became involved with over the summers that she was here, and I always assumed that it was the same person each summer..."

Pandora answered, "I think that she tried to keep in touch with the boy between summers, but after the first summer, she devoted herself so much to finishing her degree as quickly as possible that I question how successful her efforts would have been. She had worked so hard. Her and I did discuss letting your father and me keep the baby after it was born so that your sister could finish the few classes that she had left for her Master's..."

"What are you talking about?" Minerva gasped. "Athena was only two years ahead of me, so by the time that she became pregnant, she wouldn't have completed her undergraduate courses yet."

Giving Minerva a questioning look, her mother asked, "You didn't know that Athena had started on her Master's already? She had only about nine credits and her thesis left to complete?"

"How?" Minerva asked.

"By almost killing herself," her mother said. "Athena took a heavy course load her first two semesters at Clemson, but when she returned after that first summer as an intern, she signed up for even more courses, including several online ones. You should remember, this is when she begged us to let her get her own apartment so she could move out of the dorm and get away from the noise and distractions of having roommates."

"Vaguely," Minerva admitted.

"She completed her undergraduate courses in less than six semesters," Pandora said proudly. "Then she threw herself into getting her Master's as quickly as possible. She never explained what her rush was, but in retrospect, I'm sure it had something to do with whomever she was involved with in Myrtle Beach and her wanting to eliminate any hurdles to them being together more often."

"She never discussed this with you, but you're assuming?" Minerva asked.

"That's right. It was almost as if Athena thought that talking about this relationship with whomever it was would be somehow jinxed if she shared any of the details about it. We've discussed that before..."

"I know," Minerva said, "but did she ever give you any idea who it might have been, mention a name or anything? More importantly, did she ever express any doubts about knowing exactly who the father of her baby was?"

"No," her mother said, "Nothing. I do remember talking with her about what she was going to put on the baby's birth certificate under the father's name. All she said was that she was going to leave it blank for the time being. Not that she didn't know who it was or anything, just that she wasn't ready to do it yet. Do you understand what I mean?"

Minerva's mind was drifting, but she paused it and said, "I think so."

Pandora asked, "Why the sudden interest in who the father was, or is?"

Ignoring the question, Minerva asked, "Tell me this, Mom. If you knew who Alexander's father was and you met him, what would you say or do?"

"Before or after slapping his face?" Pandora growled.

Minerva smiled and said, "You would have to get in line behind me. I'm going to go change and maybe go sit by the pool for a while Will you text me when Dad and Alex get back?"

The condo property where her parents had bought their unit years ago was not designed as a resort, but rather a residential community. As such, it was occupied by owners and their guests rather than tourists. A few of the owners rented out their units to long-term tenants, but the covenants prohibited short-term rentals of any kind. This resulted in a pool area that was more docile and frequented by a more mature crowd.

Minerva recognized several of her neighbors as she selected a chaise lounge well off to the side of the patio area, under an umbrella that blocked a majority of the late afternoon sun. She wasn't interested in tanning, and her clothing choices reflected that. With a pale blue tank top and denim shorts that came to mid-thigh, her interest was in comfortably relaxing to the sound of the ocean without having to traipse out onto the sand.

The conversation with her mother was still fresh in her mind as she studied her cell phone. She then recalled her earlier encounter with Corrine Justice and decided on a whim to try for a few answers. It took her a few seconds to find him in her contact list and she wondered momentarily why she hadn't deleted his information. Quickly typing a brief text message, she then hit "send".

MINNIE: Can I ask you a few questions?"

After five minutes with no response, Minerva broke into a laugh that caused several other residents to glance her way. Shaking her head at her own pin-headed actions, she debated her next step.

Of course, there was no response. She still had Hayden's number blocked. That status would prevent him from calling her, but it also prevented him from texting her, even in response to a text from her. Now, if she wanted to chat with him, she would need to either unblock his number, hold a one-sided conversation, or call him. She decided on the latter.

"I was wondering when you were going to figure it out," Hayden said when he answered. She could hear the mirth in the tone of his voice.

Minerva tried to maintain the sternness in her voice even though she was smiling at her screw-up. She replied, "I'm glad that I can entertain you. Maybe that will make you more receptive to answering a few questions for me."

"I don't mean to seem difficult or unwilling to speak with you," Hayden answered as cordially as he could, "But I question the wisdom of doing so. Is this conversation off the record, so to speak, or should I have my attorneys present?"

"I understand, and if I was one of your attorneys, I would probably advise you to hang up on me right now," she admitted. "I'm asking that you don't do that, though. My questions are related to Athena. Well, to Athena and you to be precise. They have nothing to do with any pending litigation."

Hayden was quiet for several seconds as he considered Minerva's request. He finally said, "Athena is not one of my favorites topics of discussion, but she has been on my mind quite a bit over the past month and some questions have developed that you might be able to answer for me..."

"I don't know," Minerva sighed. "I'm embarrassed to admit how little I knew about my own sister. That's one reason I want to ask the questions of you. It seems like you may have been someone who knew her better than her own family in the years right before she died."

She heard more hesitation on the other end but waited patiently. Hayden finally said, "Can you give me a day or two to think about it?"

"Sure," Minerva said, although she sensed that he could hear the disappointment in her voice. She added, "And, Hayden, I'm going to unblock your number. I'm not sure that some of your answers when we talk won't prompt me to block it again, but you'll be able to let me know your answer when you decide."

"All right."

Minerva sensed that he was preparing to end the call, so she quickly asked, "Can you answer one question for me?"

"What?"

"Did you know that Athena was pregnant?" Minerva asked in a whisper.

The silence this time was so long that Minerva pulled her phone away from her ear to check the display to verify the connection. She finally heard Hayden's voice cracking with emotion when he said, "Believe me, she made that fact very clear to me the last time that we spoke."

Minerva remained silent as she watched the display on her cell phone return to the home screen when Hayden disconnected the call. His words echoed in her head and she couldn't find a way to make them make sense.

Admittedly, she and Athena had not been close in the last four years of her sister's life, but damn it, they had grown up together for sixteen years. Minerva knew who and what her sister was as a person; what she had always been. There was no imaginable way that Athena could have ever been the cold-hearted bitch that Hayden was portraying her to be, at least towards him.

He simply must have done something to her. That was the only explanation that made any sense.

Chapter Ten

Hayden had often pondered whether it was merely the feel of sand between his toes that was so therapeutic, or if it was the fact that the feeling was usually accompanied by warm breezes, the rhythmic sound of breaking surf, and the smell of salt air. He always concluded that it didn't matter, because singularly or in combination with everything else, a walk on the beach was the most soothing activity that he could think of. That was, of course, until some aspect of mankind became an interloper to his therapy.

"I can't hold it that long," the young boy argued.

It appeared that he was pleading with a middle-aged woman that Hayden had to assume was the boy's grandmother or another relative.

The woman implored in frustration as she pulled the boy along the beach towards a street end exit., "But there are no public restrooms anywhere near this part of the beach. You'll just have to hold it until we get back to the condo."

As they came closer to Hayden, he spoke to the woman, "Excuse me, but do you see that light blue house about thirty yards north of us?"

The woman turned and looked over her shoulder in the direction from which they had just come. She said, "Yes, what about it?"

Hayden explained, "If you walk up the path through the dunes to that house, you should see a nice lady sitting beside the pool reading a book. Tell her that her son sent you and I'm sure that she would be more than happy to unlock the pool house for you. There is a restroom there that might be useful to this young man."

The boy didn't hesitate to start pulling the woman's hand, trying to get her moving towards the indicated house. She addressed Hayden over her shoulder as she retreated, "Thank you!"

Corrine Justice had witnessed the interaction involving her son on the beach and suspected that he had once again offered someone the use of his pool house facilities. She sometimes wondered why he even bothered to lock the door.

Corrine had planned to spend the holiday weekend on the yacht that she lived on in Charleston Harbor, but Hayden's melancholy mood for the past month had prompted her to spend more time with him. He might not need her assistance with the day-to-day operations of the company, but she was still his mother, and she would always be there to support him in his personal life in any way that she could.

Hayden had left his cell phone on the table next to where his mother sat by the pool, and for the umpteenth time that day, Corrine silently willed the phone to ring, hoping that it would be the mysterious psychiatrist who had sent Hayden the documents. The promised call from her to discuss what the documents had revealed never occurred, and Corrine suspected that this contributed more to Hayden's current funk than the pending court cases did.

Lowering her sunglasses as the woman and boy approached, Corrine studied the visitors. The woman appeared to be approximately her own age of fifty-two, while the boy was an indeterminable pre-adolescent age somewhere between eight and twelve Corrine guessed. She was reminded of Hayden when he was around the same age as this boy. He had been tall for his age, yet he had retained more child-like features on his face and in his mannerisms.

"Excuse us," the woman said as the pair stepped from the sandy path onto the concrete patio which surrounded the pool. "A young man claiming to be your son offered my grandson the use of a restroom..."

Corrine picked up a key ring from the table beside her and held it out to the woman as she said, "Of course. This key will unlock the pool house over there and the bathroom will be to the right once you enter."

The boy grabbed the key and trotted to the pool house door, leaving his grandmother and an amused Corrine Justice in his wake.

"Please, have a seat," Corrine said with a chuckle. "There isn't much that he can get in trouble with in there, so relax and take a load off while you wait for him. I'm Cori by the way."

Rearranging a nearby seat so that she could face her host, the woman sat and said, "Thank you, Cori. My name is Pandora, and that scamp is my grandson, Alexander. We appreciate your hospitality."

"Oh, you're more than welcome," Cori said, "But I'm just a guest here myself. The house belongs to my son, so it's his hospitality that you have to thank."

The huge house along the beach had been built by Cori and her husband in the mid-1990's but she had signed the deed over to Hayden after her husband had passed and she had decided to spend most of her time in Charleston where the social life was more to her liking. The yacht that she owned served as a perfect residence for her, and she could hire a crew easily enough for when she wanted to sail to another destination.

Pandora Hart studied the back of the house and the landscaping around it as she replied, "We'll make certain to find your son on the way back to thank him personally. So, if you don't live here, where are you visiting from?"

"I live on a boat in Charleston Harbor. What about you?"

Pandora glanced at the pool house before answering, "My husband and I live in Greenville but we own a condo a mile or so north of here." She pointed towards the beach and said, "My husband wanted to try a new section of beach for his treasure hunting. That's him out there with the metal detector..."

Cori placed a hand across her eyebrows to help shade the glare as she searched for a man with a metal detector. She finally spotted him about two-hundred yards up the beach. She said, "My husband was obsessed with a metal detector for a short period before he got too frustrated with it. I bet the stupid thing is probably still someplace in the garage."

Hearing the door to the pool house, both women turned to watch the boy returning. He smiled at Cori and extended the key to her, saying, "Thank you, Ma'am. I apologize for my rudeness earlier, but I really had to go bad."

Corrine smiled as she took the offered key and said, "We've all been there at some time in our lives. I'm just glad that you were able to take care of your business before you had an accident."

Returning her smile, Alex said, "It was close, but I made it. Thanks."

"Your grandmother tells me that your name is Alexander," Corrine said. "May I ask how old you are?"

Alex glanced at his grandmother and saw her nod, so he answered, "I just turned ten. And yes, my name is Alexander. Alexander Hart, but everyone calls me 'Alex', at least when they're not mad at me."

Corinne laughed along with Pandora at the boy's comment, but she felt anything but amused upon hearing his full name. She studied his features more closely as he asked his grandmother's permission to return to his quest for sharks' teeth along the beach.

Pandora began to rise from her chair, but Cori placed a hand on her arm and said, "Please stay for a while. We can watch him on the beach from here and my son is right there in case he's needed."