Greg was feeling pretty good as he and Carrie walked around to where Helen's office was located. The business and the land it was on were sold and there was almost two million dollars in their bank account and he was now free to do what he really wanted to do and have his own business as a consultant.
He was even going to be able to work with Helen for a while... and with the beautiful Carrie too. He told himself that he had managed to come to terms with the change in Helen and he was seeing her begin to grow as both a human being and a businesswoman and really... life couldn't be better.
But there are always surprises.
The first surprise came when they walked into Shanti's office and the door to Helen's office was closed. The second surprise came when Shanti asked him to go straight in but asked Carrie to remain in the outer office.
The third surprise came when he looked at the girl sitting on the couch.
"Hello Dad."
"Mom... Dad... would somebody please yell at me instead of just staring at me... you're making me feel uncomfortable."
"When did you change your name?"
"Mom... I'm 21... I don't have to ask your permission..."
"When did you change your name?"
"I changed it two weeks ago."
"Why did you change your name Amy?"
"Dad, it was a compromise... Russ kept on at me to marry him but I didn't want to go that far... so I just changed my name to his name to shut him up."
Helen got up and went to the door, "Shanti would you please contact Serge and Alex and ask them to come to see me as a matter of some urgency?"
Helen went back to her desk, "Why did you choose to do your internship at Kalya?" Amy looked at the floor and didn't answer.
"Did Russ suggest that you apply for an internship here?" Greg sighed as he saw that his daughter just kept her eyes on the floor. He looked across at Helen and saw the slight nod.
There was a slight commotion at the door and then Serge and Alex burst into the room and stopped as they tried to make some sense of the tableau before them.
"Alex, Serge, I would like you to meet Amy Brewer, the Intern that started at Kalya this morning. Until a couple of weeks ago Amy Brewer was Amy Weston... our daughter.
"Amy doesn't live with us... that's her choice not ours... and relations between us have been strained for quite some time. She moved out a while ago and now lives with her boyfriend who has tried to turn Amy into an amateur pornstar... has peddled drugs and one a bunch of other things that have brought him to the attention of the law.
I think that the fact that she is here as an Intern is not a coincidence. I think Russell, her boyfriend, has at least sent her to spy on Kalya and it is just bad luck that she should encounter her parents here."
Alex and Serge looked at her for a few moments and then Alex broke the silence, "How old are you Amy?"
"I'm 21 and Mom and Dad can confirm that."
"Hmmm..." he turned to Helen and Greg, "I guess this has come as quite a shock to you both... Helen, perhaps you should take Greg down to your favourite coffee shop and buy him a coffee or two while you discuss the outcomes you want from this.
"Serge and I... and maybe Carrie too... will talk with Amy... and I'll call you in a little while. Perhaps we can arrive at some sort of resolution where everyone wins."
Serge put his arm around Helen's shoulder, "Don't panic Helen... talk this over with Greg while we have a chat with Amy."
Helen took his arm and led him a few steps away from the other, "Fucking me like you and Alex did a little while ago is good... I want more of it... but touch my daughter and I'll scratch your eyes out," she whispered.
He grinned at her and gently pushed her towards the door, "It will be OK, Amy is an adult and she will make her own choices."
Helen was about to say something but Greg took her arm and kept her moving towards the door, "Come on love... we both need that coffee."
Neither of them said a word until they were in the elevator, "I was standing closer than you thought... so that is where you've been for the last hour."
"So what?" she snapped, "They wanted me and I wanted them. They're the ones who are paying my salary, not you!"
Greg opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. There wasn't a whole lot he could say in response to that and it was some time after their coffees arrived at their table before Greg started the conversation.
"OK, she's there and we probably know that she's there because Russ pushed her in that direction but why?"
Helen snorted, "I think that we both know why," and Greg had to agree. Neither of them had liked Russ when Amy brought him home to meet them two years before. Even then he seemed to have some control over their daughter and they weren't slow to voice their disapproval.
Of course, that only made Amy more certain that Russ was the right guy for her and it wasn't long before she moved in with him and they almost lost contact with their daughter.
While Amy wouldn't talk to them some of her friends were worried about the influence her boyfriend was having on her and they kept in touch with Greg and Helen.
Through those friends they learned that Russ had stopped working and Amy had all but dropped out of college and was working as a bartender to try and keep a roof over their heads and from there the news just go worse.
Russ started dealing... but not very successfully... and at the same time he was pushing Amy into some sort of online amateur porn... their informant didn't know exactly what that was but Amy had told her that it involved having sex with a lot of guys she didn't know.
After getting that news Greg had hired a private detective to do a little digging and they learned that Amy was appearing online as some sort of Web amateur who wanted to share every aspect of her life with anyone who would pay a monthly fee to be a member of her website but that hadn't gone so well.