“A free clinic?” Janet’s voice caught in her throat. “For poor people?”
“Yes, Mom.” So it begins. “You say it like there’s something wrong with that.”
Steven took a heavy breath. “We donate to several clinics like that, but it’s not the right job for you. You’re a Chase, Leigh. If you want to show compassion, make a donation or find a safe clinic to volunteer at every now and then, but you’re going to be a doctor of reputation and success and that only comes from having powerful patients and major hospital connections.”
“That’s your dream, not mine.” Leigh begged herself to keep it together. She’d known this would be hard and she hated being such a coward. “What I experienced in Africa has—”
“Warped your mind,” Janet pointed out. “You’re just on a goodwill high. You’ll come down.”
Leigh shook her head. Her mother spent her life on philanthropy. What had it all been for? “You’re wrong. HIV and AIDS among African Americans is an epidemic. Lack of education and access to care is what is killing our people, not the disease.”
“Leigh.” Steven loved the heart of this child. “Maybe there is some way you can continue to volunteer with these types of people, but not for a living.”
Leigh didn’t try to conceal her hurt. “Look, the truth is I need the Chase Family Foundation to help fund the clinic.”
“No,” Janet dictated. “I won’t support this.”
“Daddy.”
“Leigh, I’m sorry. You know I love you and want you to be happy. We agreed to this stint in Africa, but…”
Agreed? Leigh specifically remembered threats were made. They fought her tooth and nail, but she did it anyway because it was her calling. So was this clinic.
Janet began anxiously fluffing the pillows on the sofa, unwilling to add this to her list of worries. “I can’t deal with this right now.”
“Think about it,” Steven said. “You’ve glamorized this stuff. It’s not—”
“Glamorized? I just spent a year in Africa! Look, I’m going to do this.”
“Not with the Chase Family Foundation, you aren’t.” Steven hated hurting her, but that was what a father had to do for his child’s own good.
“Fine.” Leigh knew that wasn’t fine at all, but there was nothing else she could say. “I know people who want this as much as I do.”
She had to bite her lower lip to keep from crying until she left the room. She had no reason to cry because, unfortunately, that had gone exactly as she’d thought it would.
Steven kissed his wife on the forehead even though it couldn’t cure the pain in her eyes. “Baby, I have to go to the office. You’ll stay with Haley?”
She grabbed his hands, feeling such a burden with her desperate need for him. He was the world to her. “Not today, Steven.”
“I need to go to the office for at least a few hours today. You’ll be here and so will the bodyguards.” He ignored the guilt that he always felt when he picked Chase Beauty over everything else. Janet understood more than most wives, but she couldn’t be expected to understand all the time. She would be cold to him when he got back home. He was used to this.
In her heart, Janet tried to smother the disappointment that came with Steven’s choices. It was a sacrifice for him as well. She had to remember that and handle this day herself. Reaching into her pocket, she took out a small prescription bottle of Valium and swallowed a pill. She was used to this.
After graduating from college with a business degree, Avery Jackson, the girl next door, knew opening a hair salon wasn’t what her parents expected, but they had always taught their daughter to find what she loved and the money would come. That advice birthed Essentials in View Park, and three years later, Essentials II in Baldwin Hills; a neighborhood beauty salon where there would be no two-hour wait, and everyone would be in and out on time; even on Saturday. Service was better than the highest-end salons, but at neighborhood salon prices.
And she was only twenty-six.
Avery knew she should be the happiest woman in the world. Sometimes she wished she was better at fooling herself, but like most women, she wasn’t able to separate her private life from her business life. Everything melted together, and as she sat in the back office of Essentials going through numbers that didn’t make sense, all she could think of was Alex, her apathetic fiancé, and wondering why she let the phone call she had just hung up on get so out of hand.
She had tried to hold on to her emotions, because Alex only became defensive when she yelled. What was she supposed to do? He had been canceling their plans week after week, and wouldn’t settle on a wedding date. He preached about the pressures of a salesman, telling her the solution was for her to work less. What was happening to them? She was so easily irritated and he was constantly annoyed. All of those qualities, Avery told herself, weren’t as important as their love three years ago, but were becoming more important now after almost a year of being engaged.
“You wanted to see me?”
Avery hadn’t even noticed Craig come into the office, let alone stand at the desk staring down at her with an anxious expression on his face. Craig Moon was a throw-back from the eighties. He was a dead ringer for Phillip Michael Thomas in his Miami Vice days. An expert accountant, after four years he was now a minority owner in the overall business. Avery respected Craig’s talent, but his secretive behavior in the past few months was bothering her.
“Craig, I was just going over last month’s numbers and I think something is—”
“Knowing you can’t count past ten.” He laughed, scanning the documents on her desk.
“I can count, Craig. I have a business degree.”
“I told you I would do that. That’s why you brought me on. I’ll handle it.”
“We’ll handle it.” Avery worked hard not to seem so possessive of Essentials, but it was her baby and she wasn’t going to stand for anyone pushing her out. With all of her frustrations with Alex, she ignored Craig’s increasing tendency to push her away from the numbers. She had to regain her focus. “If we don’t increase our profits, we’ll never be able to open Essentials III.”
Craig grabbed his keys on the hook at the door. “It’ll pick back up.”
“Where are you going?”
“I have some errands. Then I’m off to II.”
Avery let him walk away even though she was angry. She hated coming down hard on Craig—on anyone. That was her problem. She was so preoccupied with keeping peace and making people happy that she was losing control of her business and her relationship. When had she lost her backbone?
Avery knew she had a temper, a spicy side to her, but she had bottled it down recently because it only seemed to anger Alex, making him push away from her. She preferred to hang up on him than deal with him. The old Avery would have called him back and cussed him out, putting him in his place, before asking him what he would like for dinner later that night. This Avery didn’t want to bother starting something. She couldn’t blame that all on Alex.
She needed a distraction. She needed out of this office. Tuesday was one of the slowest days of the week for Essentials, but she welcomed whatever distractions were there. Seeing her business—her child—thriving always made her feel better.
“What’s going on?” Avery sauntered to the front window of the salon where most of the customers were standing, looking out.
“Outside, girl.” Alexa Duchese licked