Forever Yours
©2025 Elder Road Books - Lynnwood WA
Chapter 59: Deena
FEW PEOPLE` got much work done on Wednesday at Open Cloak. Henry and Chastity, of course, were staying home with Lisa and little Cassie. They’d been happy to have Jackie’s help and support the week before the birth and immediately after, but it was nice to have just the family of four getting used to being a single entity. The cats were using the time to sniff at the milky smell of the baby and Lisa.
Lisa got up and dressed while Chastity took care of Cassie and Henry cooked breakfast. They all had a lot to learn about being parents. That included cooking, childcare, and care of each other.
The reason no one else was getting work done was the first day on the market for Open Cloak stock. Even those in the company who had only a couple thousand shares to sell were making a fantastic profit. Options that were issued at $1.50 or less per share were selling for $12-$18 per share as the market fluctuated during the day.
Of course, not everyone sold all their shares. The original partners sold four million shares from their LLC, bringing in $72 million. This would be distributed evenly among the four. Henry figured $18 million was all he needed to sell and he wouldn’t need to sell any of his patent stocks or options for several years. They’d already found a couple of possible houses and he figured they would move into one of them by September.
To celebrate their good fortune, Germaine drove Henry, Chastity, Lisa, and Cassie to tour a house in Penn Cove, east of the university. Lisa had spent quite a bit of time researching places to live over the past few months and had shown Henry and Chastity the results of her searches.
And Germaine.
They had offered Germaine the opportunity to switch from working for Open Cloak as Henry’s driver and security, to working directly for the family. It would include some childcare duties as well as her normal security duties. They enthusiastically accepted.
The truth was, Henry didn’t want to drive anywhere. Each time he considered getting behind the wheel, he saw the flash of a sword painted on a black car hood. He’d successfully broken the hold his painkillers had on him, but at times like that, he longed for the numbing effect.
The family’s intent was to find a home that could accommodate the unusual family of three adults and one or more children, plus an apartment for their security/nanny, a place where Lisa could have her office, and a home study space for Henry and Chastity. The home in Penn Cove had the added benefit of being just a few yards from the sixteenth hole of a private golf course. It was fully fenced with its own security gate, which Germaine considered of utmost importance.
After all five had toured the property, they decided it was probably the right place for them, but they’d wait to make an offer until Beau and Solange toured it over the weekend with them. Cassie’s great grandparents would arrive on Friday for a long weekend. They weren’t worried about the property being snapped up while they delayed. It had been on the market for close to six months already.
A very different scene was playing out at the Riordan home. When they’d received word that the IPO had been successful and they were called by the broker to indicate their LLC-owned shares and their personal shares had been sold, Isobel left the office to go home.
Luke stayed for the rest of the day, congratulating employees and talking about how the success was a part of all their work. Those working on the robot paver project were pretty isolated from the celebration because they were all employed by the spin-off joint venture company, American Intelligent Machines. That was jointly owned by Argos, ARDC, and Open Cloak.
Isobel drove her convertible out to the highway. As soon as she verified there were no police in sight, she slammed her foot down on the accelerator. The exhilarating feeling filled her with laughter. The laughter continued all the way back to her home and she walked inside.
Grace and little Paul were in the playroom and she stuck her head into the room. Paul clung to Grace as his mother laughed.
“Is everything okay?” Grace asked.
“Yes! I’m rich. And I’m going to give you a lot of money, too!” Isobel said. “And my parents can just go fuck themselves. I think that’s what they’ve been doing for years.”
“Congratulations?” Grace said hesitantly. She was still getting used to Isobel and her mood swings. This was the first time she’d seen her in a hysterical fit of laughter.
“Yeah! This,” Isobel said, motioning to herself, “is just a manic episode. In an hour, I’ll be depressed. I need to take a pill. But it’s not an alternate personality. The drugs for schizophrenia are more stable than the ones for bipolar disorder.”
“I’m glad. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Keep hold of Paul and don’t let him near Mommy unless she’s calm and stable,” Izzy said. She flopped in a chair to watch her son as he resumed playing with Grace. The tyke could crawl and loved to find colorful toys to chew on.
Unsure of how else she should act, Grace asked a question.
“Mrs. Riordan, what’s it like having schizophrenia?”
“I suppose you want to hear something deep and artsy and angsty but it’s more like some stupid song from the 1960s got inserted into my shuffle and now every time someone says something to me, I sing ‘What a fool believes, no wise man has the power to reason away,’ in my head. And there’s an intermittent sound of the doorbell for really no reason.
“And sometimes it’s demons trying to get me to hurt people I love, or being eaten alive by maggots, or whatever. But I also have an imaginary forever puppy, and my friend Pythia comes to visit me, and sometimes there’s a Taylor Swift concert in my bedroom.
“Sometimes it seems like I go through the office yelling at people and telling them they don’t know what they’re doing, all because my clothes felt weird. The temperature in the office was too loud. And my hair was touching me.”
Tears were running down Isobel’s cheeks with her mascara in long black streaks.
“See? I told you I’d be depressed before long. Because being rich doesn’t mean I have nice parents or that my friends even like me. And it doesn’t make me a better mother. And because there’s this unending sense of doom that hangs over me and I need a drink.”
“I’m sorry,” Grace whispered.
“It’s been going on a lot longer than you’ve been here. Which doesn’t mean I won’t blame you for it. But if you ever see the demons chasing me, grab Paul and run to Henry and Lisa and Chastity. Don’t wait and don’t pack. Stay there until Luke arrives and says it’s safe to come home,” Isobel said. “I need to go to bed now.”
She wearily pushed herself out of the chair and up the stairs to her bedroom. She poured herself a glass of tequila and fell into bed.
Thursday morning, the only ones in the office were the robotics team. They hadn’t had much to do with the IPO celebration and were nearing their next major paving test with new materials. They all entered through the main lobby and were greeted by Deena, but no one else was there.
Luke had impulsively given all Open Cloak employees the day off, even if they hadn’t cashed in stock. The robotics group was not made up of Open Cloak employees.
At about eleven in the morning, two men in military uniforms entered the lobby. Dale should have locked the front doors when his people were in, but he’d left them open for late-comers.
“Good morning, Colonel. Welcome to Open Cloak. How may I help you?” Deena said. The first officer turned to look at the hologram. “Good morning, Specialist,” Deena continued, looking at the other soldier. “Welcome to Open Cloak. How may I help you?”
The colonel glanced around the room, not seeing anyone else present. He looked back at the hologram who returned his gaze expectantly.
“I want to see Henry Pascal,” the colonel finally said.
“I’m sorry,” Deena responded pleasantly. “Mr. Pascal is not in the office.”
“Where is he?” the colonel demanded.
“That information has not been given to me.”
“Then get someone out here who has it!” the colonel shouted.
“I’m sorry. No one is in the office today,” Deena said. She continued to smile.
“What? Why not? Where are they?”
“I’m sorry. That information has not been given to me.”
“Go to hell,” the colonel snarled. He approached the inner door to the office and pulled on the handle. It did not budge.
“Colonel Edinger, you are not authorized to enter the offices without an official escort,” Deena said, sounding shocked.
Edinger shook the doors.
“Get me an escort then. There is government property here and I intend to take it back to the Pentagon!”
“I’m sorry. There is no one here to escort you now,” Deena continued.
Edinger stalked toward the hologram’s plexiglass panel. He looked around, attempting to spot the cameras.
“All right! Whoever you are, get down here right this minute! I’ll have you arrested and hauled to a deportation camp.”
He was greeted by silence. Furious, he threw himself at the door again. It didn’t open.
“Markle! There’s a computer on that desk. Hack the system and open this door. That’s what you’re here for. We’re going inside.”