a word about other relatives.”
“She never met him, never even knew he existed, as far as I know. Why should she? Her mother, the poor bitch, wouldn’t tell her, you can bank on that. This cousin was evidently there only a short time and then he was gone, and he never came back. He’s dead. He died in the late eighties, in a skiing accident in the Alps. Mind you, this all came from my father while he was screaming at Delmartin.”
“Weren’t there any photos of this Robert character? Didn’t your grandmother ever say a word?”
“Not a photo, not a clue.”
“What the hell kind of family is this? Oh, I forgot, you’re a big part of it. Go on, Sydney, finish this. I’ve already got an inkling about your punch line.”
“My price goes up every time you’re a shit, Taylor. This Robert was the son of my grandmother’s younger brother, and evidently the spitting image of him. The eyes, I found out, are hereditary. Of course, I never went sorting through any of my grandmother’s things either before or after she died. I remember wondering why Father couldn’t stand Lindsay. Of course, I never paid her any attention at all, although I remember thinking that something had changed, but I can’t be sure of the time because I was always in and out, usually out of the state. He started cutting her down whenever she came anywhere near him. Of course, he’s always adored me—a large part of that was because of my mother. I look like her, he says. He loved my mother more than anything in this world. So, through her, he gave me all his love, all his attention.”
“And you followed in his footsteps and became a real bitch to your half-sister.”
Sydney shrugged. “She was a pain, always in the way, and besides, she’s barely related to me.”
“All right, Sydney. I’ll bite. You’ve dropped one shoe. Where’s the other? How are you planning on keeping your father from screaming the truth to the media?”
Sydney smiled then. “I phoned Mr. Delmartin before coming back here to the hospital and told him what father had said and threatened. He laughed, said that Grandmother had foreseen his threats and had taken steps to see that he’d be disappointed—her word.”
“What are the steps?”
“I don’t know.”
Taylor said, “Probably some kind of legal adoption, I’d imagine, done between Lindsay’s mother and grandmother.”
“That sounds like the old lady,” Sydney said. “The miserable old biddy and—”
“Get on with it, Sydney.”
“All right. For five million dollars I’ll keep quiet about this; Lindsay will never find out the truth.” He raised his eyebrow and she said, “All right, let me spell it out, lover boy, for five million she won’t find out that her dear mother was a slut and she’s a bastard.”
Taylor laughed. “What makes you think her ex-father won’t be here yelling the truth at her just for revenge?”
“He can and will bargain with you himself, don’t doubt it. Once he calms down and realizes the potential of what he now knows, he’ll be right back here, ready to cut a deal.”
Taylor didn’t say anything for a very long time. Sydney, an excellent lawyer, knew not to move, not to fidget.
“All right,” he said.
“Just like that? You’ll come through with the five million just like that?”
“Oh, no, not a bloody dime.”
“Don’t you realize what this would do to your precious wife? Your precious very, very rich wife?”
“She’ll never know, at least from you. As to her father, he’s something of a wild card. I’ll just have to deal with him when and if he shows up.”
“You’ll deal with me!”
“No.”
“All right, let’s just wake up Lindsay and tell her!”
Taylor grabbed her arm as she tried to push by him. “Keep your voice down, Sydney. You won’t wake her up. You’ll listen to what I have to say to you. You see, I want to cut a deal with you.”
“You don’t have anything,” she said, but she was wary now, he saw it in her eyes.
“Your wonderful mother,” he said very quietly. “The woman your father adored, the woman who died, and all the women who came after her were just dull copies of this perfect woman. You’re just like her and that’s why your father treats you so well, why he worships you.”
“What about my mother?”
He heard the fear in her voice, low, masked, but still there. She was good, she really was.
“Would you like to have her address, Sydney?”
She reeled away from him as if he’d struck her.
“You’re lying!”
“Keep your voice down or I’ll drag you into the corridor.”
He didn’t have to drag her anywhere. She raced past him and was out of the room in an instant. Taylor followed. He wasn’t smiling, but it had to be done and he would be the one to do it. He would be the one to end it.
She was standing outside the room, leaning against the wall, her head back, her eyes closed. She didn’t open them, just said very quietly, “You’re lying.”
“Ask your precious father.”
“She’s dead. She died when I was six years old. He came and got me at school and told me she was in heaven. He cried and held me. She’s dead. I hated Jennifer when he brought her home. She proved what she was, didn’t she? A slut, and she had Lindsay, a bastard. She wasn’t married to my father for more than a year or so before she was screwing around on him. Damn you, my mother’s dead!”
“No she isn’t.” He wanted to tell her that most likely her mother had walked out on him for his infidelity, that she’d also walked out on her daughter, but he simply couldn’t bring himself to say the words.
Then, in the space of an instant, her eyes grew as cold as her voice. “So, what deal, Taylor? What you’re saying could be true, but who cares? There’s no real value to it, none.”
“Your father would probably care, for one. He lied to you. I doubt he’d appreciate being confronted not only with his lie but also with the woman herself. Who knows? Since you believed he loved her so much, maybe when he sees her again he can convince her to divorce her current husband and come back to him.”
“She’s dead!”
“Maybe she could even fly to New York and you could introduce her to all your hotshot friends. Maybe she’d really like to see her granddaughter in Milan. What do you think, Sydney?”
“You’re a lying bastard!”
“I wonder how many little stepbrothers and stepsisters you have now? Do you think they’re all as smart, beautiful, and charming as you are?”
She struck him hard, with the palm of her hand. His head snapped back. Very calmly Taylor grabbed both her hands in his and held them in front of her.
“I must say I’m delighted you’re not my sister-in-law. You probably have some good points, most folk do, maybe even the Son of Sam. However, enough of all this garbage. You won’t say a bloody word to Lindsay about her mother. You’ll fly home to daddy and tell him that if he opens his mouth, his dead ex-wife will be on his doorstep. If he wants scandal, he’ll get it. Do you understand, Sydney?”
“I hope she leaves you.”
He laughed. “We’re not even on our honeymoon yet. Do you intend to go right out and buy a voodoo doll?”
“She’s so screwed up, you’ll leave her!”
His laughter died, but his smile didn’t. “There is something I’m very grateful to your father for. He never told you about Lindsay. I can just imagine you tormenting both Lindsay and her mother for ten years. Now, go away, Sydney. Go away and keep away.”
He released her wrists. She rubbed them. Then, very slowly, she walked away. She never turned back.
Taylor sighed. Jesus, he hoped he’d done the right thing. Actually, it didn’t matter what Sydney or her father did. He would tell Lindsay about her mother and real father when the time was right. It seemed to him that taking
