Chapter Two

 

"Rape!" Ryan Bancroft growled.

He was having a less than stellar start to his Monday. Everything that could go wrong was going wrong in his administration. He just received word that one of his chemistry lecturers, Kelvin Hart, was to appear in court for attempting to kill his chief nemesis, D.M. Carter, and now he was hearing that his son is a rapist.

He looked at Deidra Durkheim as if he was seeing an apparition. He wasn't sure if he was hearing right.

She was sitting in a tight red dress, which was all the way up to her mid-thighs. Her bosom was barely contained in a flimsy silky white camisole and she was in four-inch red heels.

He made a mental note to revise the school's dress code by the end of the day. When had the system gotten so slack that this kind of dressing for students was even acceptable? He would enforce a zero tolerance for dressing like how this young lady was dressed.

He instantly believed her about Micah. The girl looked like she was practically asking for it. Then he reminded himself that that was no excuse for forcing a woman to have sex.

"So what you are telling me, Deidra, is that you went to look for my son up in that god forsaken hide hole he lives in and he pounced on you like a starving animal?"

"Yes," Deidra said meekly. "I carried him some Sunday dinner that I prepared with my own two hands."

Bancroft looked at her long French manicured nails and shuddered to think of all the germs lurking under their pristine finish. Somehow, he couldn't imagine Deidra Durkheim cooking.

"And I knocked on his door," she said breathlessly a little hitch in her voice as if she wanted to cry. "It was raining and chilly. I was in my long sleeved furry sweater and a really slack jeans and Micah came out of the house almost naked. Before I could say why I was there, he jerked me into his dark hallway and started kissing me."

She closed her eyes as if in painful recollection.

"At first, I was happy that he was happy to see me but he started getting rough, saying how much he wanted me and was happy that we were engaged. Then he dragged me to his bedroom," she swallowed, "and he raped me."

Her long eyelashes covered her eyes in a perfect feathery half circle.

Bancroft hit the desk in anger. "I can't believe this! I am not even officially president and Micah Bancroft is jeopardizing it for me. I am sure that the chairman of the board of trustees will leap on this as a reason not to select me for the presidency."

He shook his head in consternation. "I am so sorry Deidra," he said sympathetically, "I thought Celeste and I raised the boy better. I am going to have to do something about this."

Deidra said quickly, "Dr. Bancroft, I am willing to forget the whole thing if he is..." She cleared her throat. "It would be even better if we hastened the wedding, you know... " Her hands fluttered nervously. " Just in case there is a little one on the way."

Bancroft closed his eyes as if he was praying. He tapped his fingers on the desk. His mind was racing. Micah and this girl getting married was the easy way out. This would not affect his chances at the presidency since the girl was willing to get married and forget the whole rape issue.

He opened his eyes and looked at Deidra. "I am going to talk to him. There will be a wedding in the near future, if Micah has any sense. In the meantime, could you not tell anyone about this?"

"Oh no, I won't." Deidra shook her head. "I definitely won't."

 

***

 

Micah usually ignored internal calls to his office from his father, especially in the morning. He groaned when he saw the number for the president's office flashing on the phone's display. After his confrontation with Deidra, he had arrived at the dinner yesterday quite late and had gotten a proper dressing down from his father for his tardiness.

Taj, the guest of honor, had been ensconced in a chair by the fireplace with family albums heaped on top of his lap.

Everyone had seemed pleased to see him but he had looked a little overwhelmed. When Micah arrived, his face had lit up.

Micah had grinned back at him in sympathy. He felt that same feeling of being overwhelmed when he was with his family. He made a mental note to go and hang out with Taj some time in the week. He was possibly the only person in his family that he liked and felt a sense of kinship with, well, except for his mother.

He delved into the stack of mail on his desk and turned down the volume of the desk phone, occasionally glancing at it to make sure that he wasn't ignoring anybody else's call.

The business center on the school campus had dual roles. He was expected to assign business students to various roles so that they could get hands-on experience working at different jobs in the center. He was also expected to make sure that the physical needs of students and faculty were met.

The place had every business imaginable to cater to the school's population and some members of the public. It was long tedious work. Added to that, the business center had to be profitable or he would be in trouble.

As manager of the business center, he reported to the Financial Controller but the president had a keen interest in his work, mainly because Micah was his son, and he expected him to fail somehow.

Micah closed his eyes briefly and wished that D.M. Carter would find another candidate who could beat his father for the presidency. Then he'd have a little more peace of mind and be free of his father's micromanagement.

"I have been calling your phone for the past hour," his father stood at the doorway of the office and said belligerently. "We have a problem."

Micah looked at him, surprised. It must be a huge problem for his father to even set foot inside his office. He couldn't recall him ever doing so and he sat up in alarm.

"Is something wrong with Mom?"

"No," Bancroft gritted out and closed the door, coming into the middle of the room. "Something is wrong with you! How can you rape your own fiancée and then have the gall to look at me with innocence, asking if something is wrong!"

Micah gripped the edge of his desk and watched as his father paced the office. Bancroft almost stubbed his toe on a shipment of toothpaste that Micah had been storing in his office until he could get it down to the supermarket storage area.

He felt like laughing at the accusation because he realized that Deidra had really gotten his father in a tizzy.

"Is Deidra claiming that I raped her?" Micah asked calmly.

Bancroft glared at him. "Are you claiming that you didn't?"

"I have never touched Deidra inappropriately," Micah swiveled in his chair, "and I have no intention to."

"She says she will forgive you for the whole rape fiasco if you marry her sooner rather than later." Bancroft delivered with gritted teeth. No matter how he tried, Micah always seemed to rub him the wrong way. It was as if this child of his was born for adversity.

Micah looked at Bancroft coolly. "I am not surprised that you just took her word for it, but I am not going to marry that spoilt brat, no matter how pretty she is or what she thinks she is entitled to."

Bancroft suddenly sat down in the chair that was in front of the desk. "You do realize that rape is a serious charge, don't you?"

"Her word against mine," Micah said affronted. "What did she tell you?"

Bancroft told him and Micah exclaimed in defense.

"She came to my house naked as the day she was born, proclaiming that she wanted me. I didn't even let her in!"

Bancroft tilted his head. "If what you say is true, then we have an issue. Deidra doesn't seem as if she is about to let you go and Edward Durkheim is a serious man. She's his only child. You, my dear son, will be in trouble when she runs crying to Daddy. If she decides to publish this to all and sundry then your name will be trampled in the mud."

Micah hissed his teeth. "I don't care!"

"Your name ends with Bancroft," his father hissed, "which means I will be tainted in this mess. The selection of president is a month away. Can't you keep this girl quiet until then?"

"Ah," Micah grinned. "So it's really all about you, isn't it?"

"Micah," Bancroft growled, "I don't ask you for much, do I?"

"What?" Micah said enjoying their little tête-à-tête. "You are the bane to my existence. You are the...hold on," he said in mid recital. "If I go through with this charade to save your precious presidency, will you lay off me and allow me to live my life in peace?"

"I don't interfere in your life!" Bancroft exclaimed loudly. "You just need guidance a bit more than most."

"Oh no, old man! You have to promise me," Micah said solemnly. "I pretend like I am going to marry the little spoiled rich girl and when you get your precious presidency, you stop policing my every move. Which means, no early morning cussing about my running of the business center…no micro managing my life, my dress taste, and my friends."

Bancroft looked at his son. He wanted to rebut but what Micah said was true. Micah had always been different and he did try to change him to be a more respectable version of himself. The problem, as he saw it, was if he said left, Micah would go right.

Micah was unconventional and thought outside of the box and he Bancroft had always tried to hold him down and pigeonhole him into what he thought he should be.

He stared in the defiant eyes of his son and heaved a sigh.

"Okay, I will not bother you about any of your decisions. Though I think they are zany and off the wall. I still think you dress unprofessionally and your fascination with growing things and that old haunted house you live in is..." his voice trailed off.

Micah was looking at him smugly.

"Okay that was the last time." He got up. "Let me not hear about anymore of this rape business, Micah."

"Yes Sir," Micah said nodding. "I am going to appear to give Deidra Durkheim what she wants…me. I will hold out for a month, but after that she has to hit the road."

Bancroft grunted and left the office.

Micah leaned back in his chair. He was going to have to pretend, once more, to be Deidra's fiancé. He envisioned himself trying to dodge her for the next four weeks. He wasn't even angry with her about the hatched up rape story. Deidra was willful and spoilt and obviously was quite determined to marry him. He contemplated a way to get Deidra to change her ways.