for either of them to be stealing money from me. They don’t need it. I just don’t get it.” She looked tired and depressed. The whole thing was immensely distressing, and he was distraught about it too.
“Could it be anyone else?”
“I just don’t see who. Maybe it’s something my accountant is doing. Business managers and accountants steal from people like me all the time. But he seems so respectable and serious, I can’t see him doing this either. And why now? He’s been doing my accounts for nearly twenty years. And that still doesn’t explain Hunt cheating on me, if he is.” She still hoped in her heart of hearts that Brigitte was wrong and it would turn out not to be true.
“Maybe your accountant is in some kind of financial trouble. People’s circumstances change. You should have him checked out too.”
“I will. But I want to know what’s going on with Hunt and Brigitte first. I want to know who I can trust. And even if he’s not stealing from me, Hunt could be cheating on me.” They both knew that was true.
“I hope he isn’t,” Sam said unhappily. “I like him a lot. I always have.” And he thought he was good for Tallie. Or had been until now.
“Yeah, me too,” Tallie said glumly, and it was going to be really difficult to act as though nothing was happening now while she waited to find out. “Have you had dinner yet?” she asked her father with a look of concern, and he nodded.
“I want you to take care of yourself,” he admonished her with a fatherly look. “This is very hard on you.”
“No kidding.” She smiled ruefully. “I feel like my whole life went down the tubes this week. I’ve been avoiding Max. I don’t want to tell her about any of this yet. She loves Hunt too.” And she had had so few male role models in her life that Tallie didn’t want to spoil their relationship, at least not yet, until she knew if he was cheating on her or not. She hoped that the story Brigitte had told her wasn’t true. Maybe he was just concerned about the girl in his office and had been kind to her, without it being an affair. For the moment, it was a slim hope, but she was clinging to it until she knew more.
Tallie and her father chatted for a little while, and then she went home. Hunt was out and had left her a note. He was having drinks with Mr. Nakamura’s lawyers. They were getting the last details of the contract worked out, and he said he wouldn’t be home late. He got home shortly after she did and was tired. Tallie looked exhausted and was lying on the bed.
“You look beat,” he commented, as he took his jacket off and threw it on a chair.
“I am,” she said without moving from their bed. “It’s been a tough week.”
“At least you’ll be home from location soon. I miss you when you’re gone,” he said with a smile and sat down on the bed next to her. She didn’t know whether to hit him or cry, or take him in her arms and hold on for dear life. She didn’t want to lose him, but maybe she already had.
“Do you?” she asked, her voice small and muffled in his chest.
“Of course I do, silly. Do you want to go out to dinner?” She shook her head. She was too tired and down to want to go out.
“Not really.”
“I can rustle something up here.” She nodded, wondering how many more nights like this she would have with him, how many home-cooked dinners and sharing the same bed. If Meg told her that he was involved with someone else, this was all going to be over, and she realized that it was possible their days were numbered. The very thought of it wore her out, and made her immeasurably sad. She already felt as though she had lost him. In her gut, she believed what Brigitte had said, and feared it might be true. It had happened to her before, though not after four years. This time she had thought she was safe and home free. Maybe not.
He went downstairs then and made an omelette and a salad for both of them. He opened a bottle of her favorite wine, and they sat quietly in the kitchen and ate dinner. Tallie was very quiet, and he put some music on. But she couldn’t think of anything to say to him. He asked how the last two days of shooting had gone, and told her about his meetings with their investor’s lawyers, and he said everything was going well. And after dinner, Tallie took a shower and went to bed. She had hardly said a word all night.
“Are you okay?” he asked, looking worried about her. She was painfully subdued.
“I think I might be coming down with something,” she said vaguely. “I’ve been feeling weird since yesterday.”
“Then get some sleep,” he said, tucking her in, and he went downstairs to his office to look over some papers the lawyers had given him to read. And she pretended to be asleep when he came back upstairs. She felt like she was living a nightmare with him. It was a lonely feeling, and when he turned off the light, there were silent tears rolling slowly down her cheeks.
She went to the gym early the next morning, and called Max in New York afterward. She was out with friends for lunch in some noisy place, and Tallie was relieved. It was hard to talk and Max said she’d call her later, so she didn’t hear the tone of despair in her mother’s voice.
Hunt played tennis with friends that afternoon, while Tallie read new script changes and added to them, and he suggested they go to a movie that night. Tallie felt as though she were moving underwater and they were moving in slow motion. She wondered how long the investigation would take. It felt like an eternity and had only been a day, if that.
She realized that one of Meg’s investigators must have followed them when they went to the movie, but she had no sense of it. Meg had assured her that they were good, and Tallie knew they must be. There was nothing to suggest that they were being followed or watched. When she looked around, she saw no one. And Hunt suspected nothing.
It felt like the longest weekend of Tallie’s life. They took her father to lunch at the Ivy the next day, at Hunt’s suggestion. It was a production taking him out, but Hunt had always been sweet about doing things like that, which made Tallie even sadder now. What if that was all over? She could see why people didn’t confront a cheating spouse, as Meg had said. There was so much to lose. But she couldn’t see living with him if she knew he was being unfaithful to her. She couldn’t have done it, but losing her life with him would be hard if that was what happened in the end.
Lunch at the Ivy was busy and noisy and her father made an effort to appear normal, but she knew he was as disturbed as she was. They sat on the terrace and saw several people they knew. Tallie could barely get through the charade and was relieved when it was over.
Brigitte checked in with Tallie twice over the weekend, which was unusual for her, and she sounded uncomfortable too. She said that she was enjoying the spa in Palm Springs, but Tallie suspected that if she had been, she wouldn’t have called. Brigitte was clearly worried. And so was Tallie. Only Hunt was oblivious to what was happening and thought she was sick. He made a gentle attempt to make love to her on Sunday night, but Tallie just couldn’t. She wanted to wait for Meg’s report now, and she told him she thought she had the flu. He brought her dinner on a tray and made her chicken soup, which nearly made her cry.
“You don’t have to spoil me like that,” she said sadly.
“I want to. I love you, Tallie,” he said, and sounded so sincere. It made her wonder if Brigitte was wrong and had heard inaccurate office gossip. She didn’t know what to believe. More than anything, she felt confused. And they chatted like old friends while she ate her soup. He tucked her into bed afterward, with a kiss, but she couldn’t sleep. She’d had nightmares all night whenever she did.
She drove herself back to Palm Springs on Monday morning in the SUV she’d borrowed from the set, and she was in her trailer by six A.M. She tried to rouse herself to think about her work, but everything was hard right now and took ten times the effort it normally did to get her motor running and concentrate on the film.
She handed the script changes back to the writers, and by eight the cameras were rolling and they were back to work. Brigitte had gone to L.A. for the day, to do some work, and she didn’t come back to Palm Springs until Tuesday. Brigitte arrived in the Aston Martin, looking as sexy as ever. She put on a big show of being jolly and in good spirits. She had brought Tallie her mail from the city and had a number of things to show her. Tallie pretended to be interested but she wasn’t. She didn’t care about anything right now except what she was waiting to hear from Meg. It was Thursday when Meg finally called, six days after they had met. They had been the longest six days of Tallie’s life.
“How are you?” Meg asked her politely. She sounded businesslike and cool, and Tallie wanted to scream at her to tell her everything immediately. She couldn’t wait a minute longer, but that wasn’t the way Meg worked. She was professional and precise.
