Tallie lost most of the day getting there. And after she got her bags off the carousel, and took a cab into the city, she was at her New York apartment at five o’clock. Max had said she’d be back from class at six. And the apartment was dark and empty when she let herself in. It was a spacious, sunny apartment in a high-end modern building in the West Village with a doorman and security. Tallie liked the fact that she felt Max was protected there, and she had agreed to let her stay at the apartment instead of the dorms. It wasn’t showy, but it was a nice building, and the neighborhood was safer than most. And the apartment was bright and sunny, and simply decorated.
There was the usual student debris lying around, clothes in her bedroom, books spread out on the table, full ashtrays, some empty Coke cans, and a pizza box from the night before. Tallie tidied up while she waited for Max to come home. She threw the garbage away, made Max’s bed, and ran a bath for herself. She was wearing a cozy pink terrycloth bathrobe and lying on her bed when Max walked in, gave a squeal of delight when she saw Tallie, and took a flying leap at the bed and lay laughing next to her mother in tattered jeans, a red sweatshirt, and flip-flops. She looked no different than she did in L.A., or than Tallie did anywhere. They almost looked like clones.
“I missed you so much!” Max said as she clung to her mother. They had big plans for the week ahead. Dinner out, meeting Max’s new friends, all the places, shops, and restaurants Max had discovered since living there, and Tallie was dying to see at least one Broadway play.
“I missed you too,” Tallie said, holding her in her arms. She suddenly felt as though she had come home. Being with Max was like sinking into a big cozy feather bed. For the first time as she lay there, she realized just how brutal the past few months had been, and what a toll they had taken on her. Max could see it too. She thought her mother looked tired, although she didn’t say it to her.
“You’ve been working too hard, Mom,” her daughter scolded her. “I’m so glad you came!” And then a minute later, the question Tallie had been dreading. “How’s Hunt?”
“I guess he’s okay,” Tallie said, sounding vague.
“What do you mean you ‘guess’ he’s okay?” Max sat up on the bed and looked down at her mother. “What’s that supposed to mean? Is he away?” Tallie didn’t answer for a minute, searching for the right words.
“Kind of.” And then she took a breath and plunged in. “I didn’t want to tell you till I saw you,” but she had hoped this question wouldn’t come this soon in her stay, “Hunt moved out.”
“When?” Max looked shocked.
“About three months ago,” she said gently.
“And you didn’t tell me? How could you do that?” She was suddenly angry at her mother, for keeping a secret from her, especially something as major as this. She had lived with Hunt since she was fifteen, and he was the closest thing to a father she’d ever had, even if he had arrived late.
“It was complicated. It’s really been kind of a difficult time,” Tallie admitted, and there were tears in her eyes. She didn’t want Max to be angry at her too. The rest was bad enough.
“Complicated how?” Max wanted to decide for herself.
“Well, a lot of stuff has come up in the last few months that I didn’t know about. It made it impossible for me to go on living with him.”
“Like what? Stop being so mysterious about it. I’m not a child. I’m eighteen.” It sounded like childhood to Tallie, but she could still remember how grown-up she had felt at Max’s age. She’d had a baby two years later. But Max was nowhere near that, and had no intention of getting married and having a baby at twenty in whatever order.
“To be honest, I don’t know where to start. It’s a long story, but we had a new Japanese investor for our next movie, which I’m not doing with Hunt, by the way, since you want to know everything. The investor wanted an audit, so we did one, and our accountant discovered that I had quite a lot of missing money, as in close to a million dollars. Someone had been stealing about twenty-five thousand dollars in cash from me every month for several years. So that was the beginning. My accountant was worried. I couldn’t understand it. I asked Brigitte about it, she said she didn’t know anything, although she should have since she took care of all my bills. And finally, a couple of days later, she told me that Hunt had been stealing money from me, or having Brig get it for him, and swearing her to secrecy-” Max interrupted her before she could go on, and looked irate.
“Mom, that’s bullshit! And you know it. Hunt would never take any money from you, or anything else. He’s always
“Actually, that turned out to be the case. Brigitte is crazy, and Hunt wasn’t stealing money from me, but someone was, and I didn’t know who. Brigitte really did convince me it was Hunt, for a while.”
“That’s shitty of you,” Max said, looking annoyed, as she lay down next to her mother on the bed again, and listened to what had happened. It sounded like a long story, and totally insane to her.
“Anyway, aside from the money, Brigitte gave me more bad news.” She took a breath before she continued. “She said that Hunt was involved with another woman.” With that, Max rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“That’s bullshit too. Hunt would never do that to you, Mom. What’s wrong with Brigitte? Why is she saying all this stupid stuff about Hunt? Is she mad at him or something?” Max had always loved Brigitte, but the whole story sounded ridiculous to her, and mean to Hunt.
“Yes, she is mad at him. But it turns out she was right. He was seeing someone else, he had been for the last year. I didn’t believe her either, so I went to a private investigator, and she showed me pictures of them. To cut the story short, he was involved with this other woman, he’s in love with her, and they’re having a baby, so that’s not such great news,” Tallie said with a lump in her throat as Max sat up again and stared at her mother.
“You’re lying,” she said, wanting that to be true, but it wasn’t.
“No, I’m not, sweetheart. I’m sorry, I know you love him, and I do too, or I did… but he lied to me. He admitted it about the other woman, though. I asked if he’d stop seeing her and he wouldn’t. He loves her. So he moved out.” She made it sound matter-of-fact, but it was an ugly story, and that wasn’t lost on Max, who was crying by then, as her mother put her arms around her. It was a huge disappointment to them both. “I don’t know what happened to him. He just kind of went off the deep end, I guess. But it was very dishonest of him. And as much as it hurt, I’m glad Brig told me.”
“How did she know?” Max asked, cuddled up next to her mother like a child. She was badly hurt by what she’d just heard.
“Someone told her. Anyway, the story’s not over.” Not by a long shot. “When I went to the private investigator, she also told me that Hunt had had an affair with Brig for three years before that. He cut it off when he started seeing this other woman, so you’re right. She’s pissed at him. Meanwhile, if you add up his three years with her, and the year with this other woman, that means Hunt cheated on me for all four years we were together. Brig claims he forced her into it, he says she did, but you don’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to do for three years. They were having an affair behind my back. Hunt’s a very sweet guy, but he’s a cheater and he lied to me. And even if you love him, I couldn’t stay with him.”
“Of course not, Mom. I understand,” Max said, wiping her eyes and hugging her mother. “That’s so sad. How could he do such a terrible thing to you? And how could Brig? You’re always so good to them, and she’s been your friend forever.”
“Yeah, I know. I felt pretty bad for a while, a little better now. And there’s more. The money. Since they both lied to me, I didn’t know who to believe, so the private investigator sent me to the FBI. They investigated the whole thing. Brig has been embezzling from me, maybe for a few years, maybe longer. It turns out that nothing she ever told me about her history is true, she’s a liar, and a thief. She’s been ripping me off.” Max looked totally shocked.
“Oh my God! Mom! How awful!”
“Yes, it is,” Tallie said quietly.
“Is she going to give it back?” To Max, it was all so simple. If she took it, she should give it back. Tallie wished she would, but Jim Kingston said that wasn’t likely to happen, or not in full anyway, probably only a fraction of what she lost, if that.
“I don’t know yet,” Tallie said with a sigh. Telling the story to Max, even in a simplified version, made her realize again how truly awful it was. “They’re going to arrest her next week. There will be a trial in about a year, and I’m going to sue her to try and get some money back, or her house or something. And she’ll probably go to prison.” Max was shocked into silence. The man who had been her hero and father figure had cheated on her mother for the whole four years and lied to them both, and the woman who was like an aunt to her was an
