The Underground

Chapter 29: Choices and Changes

"Sure, I can track a cell phone. Why?" Louis asked.

"Great – I was relying on your infinite knowledge to help me out here." I explained to him the situation with Richard and he immediately jumped into action, getting the necessary information online to be able to track Richard while I talked to him.

With shaky hands, I dialed Richard's number.

When he answered, he sounded surprised to hear from me. "Ashten? Are you all right?"

"Yes, Richard, I'm fine. But I just wanted to talk to you about the photo of me Louis and me. I assume you saw it?"

He sighed. "Yeah, I saw it. I guess that's why you broke up with me, huh?"

I closed my eyes feeling intense guilt. "No, it was a misunderstanding. Veronica and I just happened to see Louis and his friends in Central Park and we danced for a few seconds. Somebody caught us at just the right time."

"That makes sense, I guess."

"But Richard, that doesn't change the way I feel about you. I really have to move on, and I think you do, too. I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea about the photo."

"Fine," he said quietly.

"But I need to talk to you abou something else, too. I need to ask you something, and I want the truth," I said firmly. "Where are you right now?"

He hesitated for long enough that I thought he'd hung up. Finally, he said, "I'm in Chile."

"What are you doing in Chile? Your father doesn't have any oil operations down there. And oh, your parents gave me some interesting information yesterday. They said you haven't been going on business trips at all. What's up with that?" My voice was sounding more irritated with each word.

After another long pause, he sighed heavily and said, "I didn't want you to know about it. At least not yet."

"Trying to figure out a way you were going to have a wife and a mistress!?" I yelled.

"Ashten, it's not like that at all. I guess I can tell you now since we're no longer getting married. I've been trying to start a business of my own...importing lapis lazuli, because I know you love it. It was going to be a wedding present for you. I thought you could run the company instead of going to law school if you really hated Harvard that much."

"Richard..." I said in a squeaky whisper. "That's so sweet. I...I'm so sorry that I accused you of cheating."

"Yeah," he said. "The hardest part now is trying to figure out if I want to dump this business, or if I still want to make something of it. Maybe you could still have it..."

"No, I couldn't possibly take something like that from you. And I'm really sorry that I hurt you. I just...I think it's for the best. But we'll still talk when you get back, okay?"

He said a quiet good-bye and then I burst into tears. I felt awful about doing this to him. He'd never given me any reason to doubt him, and he'd always taken good care of me. I just didn't love him.

I told Louis about Richard's business idea and that he wanted me to run it. I was very moved by his thoughtfulness; I really couldn't believe he'd made such a grand gesture for me.

Louis pulled me to his chest and let me cry.

"I feel so guilty, Lou. I told him that the picture was nothing, but that's not true." I looked up at him. "That picture was the start of my everything. And I feel terrible because I thought he was probably feeling the same way about our relationship – that it was getting old and that our hearts weren't in it anymore. I turns out that it was only mine that wasn't in it, and I think I ended up breaking his."