Southern Lights (10 page)

“Okay, okay,” Alexa conceded about the shoes, if it would help. “You can have them too. You drive a hard bargain.”

“What if his wife hates me? I’ve never even met her. She probably won’t like having me there,” Savannah said, panicked. That sounded like a major understatement to her mother. Luisa was a bitch on wheels, and Savannah had heard her say it for years.

“Daddy will take care of it. You’re not staying forever. It’s only for three months. I’ll try to come down next week.”

“You’d better, or I’m running away and coming home.”

“Don’t you dare!” Alexa said sternly, but she knew Savannah wouldn’t do that. She had been reasonable all her life. And she was being reasonable now too, even if it was a hard situation for her. “I’d better go pack now. I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”

Tom called her ten minutes later, and said he had gotten them on a six o’clock flight that would land in Charleston at eight-thirty, and they were leaving Vermont right then. He hoped to be at JFK by four or five.

“I’ll be there at four with her bags. Call me on my cell phone when you get to the airport.” She gave him the number, which he had never had before. All he had was her e-mail, but they had to work together now. “I’ll be at the United terminal.”

“I’ll try to get there as soon as I can, so you have a little time together. She’s pretty upset.” He could hear that Alexa was too. But none of them were half as upset as Luisa when he called and told her the news.

“Are you crazy? You’re bringing her
here?
You can’t do that. Daisy doesn’t know that she exists.” Daisy was the ten-year-old daughter she had conceived to break up his marriage to Alexa and get him back. She hadn’t given a damn about their boys during his marriage to Alexa—she had abandoned them for eight years. She had left him for an oil tycoon in Texas, and left the boys with their father, but as soon as her new husband died, she came running back. She had used a baby to get him, and he had stupidly fallen into her trap. He had bitterly regretted it in the years since. But it was too late to do anything about it now. All he could do was try to make it up to Alexa by taking care of Savannah. He owed her at least that—Savannah was his child too.

“Well, you’d better tell her,” Tom told Luisa coldly, referring to Daisy’s not knowing she had a sister and that her father had been married to someone else. “We’ll be home tonight, and I’m not going to have Savannah pretend to be someone else. This is hard enough on her as it is.”

“Hard on
her?
What about me and Daisy? Did you think about that? Or have you been screwing around with her mother? Is that what this is about?”

“I just saw Alexa for the first time in ten years. Our daughter’s life is at risk here. I’m bringing her home, Luisa, like it or not.”

“You sonofabitch. I always knew you’d go back to Alexa someday.” She knew Tom didn’t love her. It didn’t matter to Luisa. She had wanted her old life back, and him, when it was convenient for her. It was always and only about her.

“She wouldn’t go near me with a ten-foot pole, and she’s absolutely right,” he said about Alexa. “I screwed her over ten years ago. The only reason she’s talking to me now is because she needs someplace to send Savannah. Someone is threatening our daughter. Probably related to the case her mother is working on. I
have
to bring Savannah home. Her life may be on the line.” It made him sick that he even needed to argue with her about it. Luisa didn’t have a drop of human kindness in her, or compassion. She would never have done what Alexa had for her boys. It was ironic that now Luisa was in the position of having to take care of Alexa’s child. Alexa had done it for Luisa for seven years.

“Well, don’t expect me to do anything for her,” Luisa said in a fury.

“I expect you to be civil to her, and make her as comfortable as we can.”

“Is her mother coming to see her?” Luisa sounded suspicious.

“Probably. I haven’t talked to her about it yet. I’ve only known about this for half an hour. She got another threatening letter about Savannah last night.”

“Just keep her away from me, Tom. And I mean it. Keep her out of my sight.” He loathed everything Luisa was and stood for. His punishment for what he had done to Alexa was living with Luisa now. It had been a long, hard ten years. But he didn’t have the energy, or the guts, to get divorced again. So he had made his peace with it. At a very, very high price.

He and Savannah left the hotel in Vermont a few minutes later, and Savannah was silent and looked sadly out the window for most of the drive down. He tried to tell her how much she would like Charleston and how happy he was that she’d be there with him, but Savannah clearly wasn’t in the mood to talk, and after a while he stopped talking and left her to her own thoughts. She was already homesick for New York, her mother, and her friends.

Alexa spent most of the day packing. She packed all the clothes Savannah liked best, everything she’d need for school and on the weekends. She gave her all the things Savannah coveted from her own wardrobe. She packed her schoolbooks, her favorite music, and two teddy bears she hadn’t even looked at since she was a child, but Alexa thought they might comfort her now. And if she could have, Alexa would have packed herself in the suitcase. She hated to see her leave, but they had no other choice.

Alexa called her mother and told her what had happened, and that Tom had been decent about it. Whatever she thought of him, she had to give him credit for that.

She barely had time to dress and leave for the airport. She had three good-sized valises with her and got there at four o’clock. Half an hour later Tom called her on her cell phone. He was ten minutes away, and as soon as he drove up, Savannah jumped out of the car and flew into her mother’s arms. She was sobbing, and it took her most of the time they had together to calm down. Alexa gently smoothed her hair that looked so much like her own, she held her and comforted her, and promised her she’d come to Charleston in no time, and before Savannah knew it she’d be home. Alexa barely had time to talk to Tom. He watched them unhappily, and walked away discreetly, so they could be alone. And then it was time to go. He had bought Savannah’s ticket, and Alexa insisted on paying for the excess baggage, and they both cried when Alexa had to leave. Alexa couldn’t walk them to the gate since she didn’t have a ticket herself.

“I love you,” she said over and over, and Savannah clung to her like a child. Tom finally put an arm around his daughter, and gently led her away from her mother as both women cried.

“Take care of yourself,” he said over Savannah’s head to Alexa. “I’ll take good care of her, I promise. Just see that you stay safe.” Alexa nodded and thanked him, and then they were gone, through security and heading for the gate, and Alexa couldn’t see them anymore.

She was still crying when she hailed a cab to take her back to the city, and she was exhausted when she walked into the apartment and called her mother. The plainclothesman Jack had promised was posted outside her door.

“How did it go?” Muriel asked her. She sounded worried and had thought about them all afternoon.

“It was awful. But Tom was very nice. I’m going to try and go down there next week,” Alexa said sadly. She couldn’t even imagine her life without Savannah for the next few months. And in the fall she was leaving for college. Life as they had known it was about to end, or just had.

“I’ll call her tonight,” Muriel said somberly. She hated what was happening to them, and what the trial had done to their lives. “Do you want to come over for dinner?” her mother asked her kindly, but Alexa wasn’t up to it. Seeing Savannah cry at the airport had been too hard.

“No. I just want to crawl into my bed and cry.”

“I feel terrible about this. Maybe I was wrong to tell you to send her to Charleston. But I think it’s better to be safe. Come over and have dinner anytime you want.” She knew how lonely Alexa was going to be without her daughter.

“Thanks, Mom,” Alexa said miserably. And after they hung up, she did just what she had said she would. She climbed into her bed, pulled up the covers, and cried.

Chapter 7

The flight to Charleston took just over two hours. Savannah sat quietly in her seat, looking out the window, with tears rolling down her cheeks, and dozed off in the last few minutes. The shock of leaving home so suddenly had worn her out, and the emotions of leaving her mother had been overwhelming. Neither of them had expected this as a consequence of Alexa handling the trial. Tom watched her as she slept, and gently covered her with a blanket. He was well aware that his minimal presence in her life, and defection a decade before, had strengthened the bond with her mother to an unusual degree. Alexa was all Savannah had, and now suddenly she was being catapulted into a new world, without her. Worse yet, it was a world and life where she was not welcome, and was viewed as a threat. He was worried about Luisa, and with good reason. She wasn’t known for her kindness, warmth, and compassion, and he knew that bringing Savannah home with him was going to start a raging battle. It already had. Luisa had declared war on him that morning, and she meant it. And knowing her, the worst was yet to come.

They landed in Charleston with a sharp bump on the runway, which woke Savannah up, and she looked at her father in surprise. For a moment, she had forgotten who she was with and where she was going. It came back to her in a rush when she saw his face.

“We’re here, baby. I’m glad you slept for a little while. You needed it.” She nodded, turned her phone back on, and saw a text message from her mother that said only, “I love you. See you soon.” And Tom suddenly sounded even more southern than he had before. He was home. And Savannah was far, far from hers, and felt like a lost soul.

She followed her father off the plane, and they got their luggage, her three big bags, and her father’s small one and his skis. Her mother had taken her skis home. A porter followed them outside with their bags on a trolley, and her father hailed a cab. She settled in beside him, and looked around as they drove home. She had heard her father give his address in Mt. Pleasant, the part of Charleston where he lived.

“Do you remember anything about Charleston from when you lived here?” Tom asked her gently, and Savannah shook her head, her eyes wide. She looked beautiful as she sat there, still wearing ski pants and a heavy sweater, and carrying her parka. Her hair hung down her back like spun gold, and her eyes were the color of cornflowers, a rich, vibrant blue. She looked exactly like her mother when he had met her, and he knew Luisa would see it too. Savannah was only four years younger than Alexa had been when he fell in love with her, after Luisa had abandoned him and the boys for someone else. He had been devastated then, and had found happiness he’d never dared to dream of with Alexa. And seven years later, he had been a total fool when Luisa returned and spun her web. When he thought of it now, as he did often, he knew he had gotten everything he deserved after that. But when he’d seen Alexa again, he realized she was still paying the price too. He felt desperately guilty for that—he had hoped she was long over it by then. Instead, he could still see the pain in her eyes. He hoped that now he could help her in some way, by taking care of their child, and doing all he could for her. He wasn’t going to let Luisa stop him this time, as she had so many times before, and he had let her. He was planning to do all he could for Savannah. She was his child too.

“I think I remember my school,” Savannah said softly, “and maybe the house, or the garden …and Henry and Travis,” her halfbrothers. She had had no contact with them for ten years.

The air outside was mild. It felt more like spring in New York than winter, and she was warm in the heavy sweater on the short ride. In fifteen minutes, they had reached Charleston, and she could see church spires rising in the air. She looked with curiosity and interest at the beautiful old homes they were driving past, painted in ice cream colors, with wrought-iron gates and balconies. The architecture was intricate and ancient, and there were lovely old bridges reaching out to tiny islands. There was a spectacular harbor full of boats, mostly sailboats. Tom pointed out Fort Sumter in the harbor, where the Civil War officially began. It was a beautiful city, and had an aura of history and grace about it. Before she came to hate it, Alexa had always said it was the most breathtaking city in the South, maybe the world. There were tall trees with moss hanging from them, which were still green although it was February. As they approached Mt. Pleasant her father told her they were oak trees.

“I’ll take you sightseeing tomorrow,” he promised, and took her hand in his, as she smiled bravely and nodded. Everything was so different and new, it felt like she was on another planet.

You could sense that everything here was different, a different culture, a different way of life, a respect for history, and a feeling of another world. She felt as though she was floating in space, although it was very pretty. The city seemed to be entirely about history and beauty. She knew that southerners were very proud of their history, and years before when she had asked her father about the Civil War, when she was studying it in school, he had corrected her and called it “the War Between the States,” and said there was nothing civil about it. Her father was every inch a southerner, by ancestry and birth, and very proud of it. He was a southern gentleman to the core, although her mother had walked away without a word when Savannah had said that to her over the years. Clearly, he hadn’t been “gentlemanly” to her, but he had extremely gracious manners. It didn’t change what he’d done to her either, but it made him nice to be around.

And the old black man who drove the cab had a heavy, warm accent. Savannah loved to hear it. Whenever she met someone from the South, it always reminded her of her father, and she said her father was from South Carolina. She was proud of it too, although in her style and habits and culture, she was a total New Yorker, like her mother. A Yankee.

The houses her father had pointed out to her in town predated the Civil War, and they bumped along over several cobblestone streets. He said there was a French Quarter he would show her too. There were two rivers, the Cooper and the Ashley. And her father told her that the beaches were terrific, at the Isle of Palms and Sullivan Island. He said she could go there when it got warmer. It was a small city, but there would be a lot for her to do. There were several colleges, coffeehouses where students hung out, and wonderful stores where she could go shopping. And he turned and asked her then if she knew how to drive a car. He was embarrassed not to know that about her but he didn’t. There was so much about her that he didn’t know—but he was about to learn now. He wondered if, in some ways, this flight from New York would turn out to be a blessing for them both. Her coming to Charleston to be with him would never have happened otherwise. Luisa would never have let it, and hadn’t for the last decade. Savannah had been banished. Thinking about it, he was deeply ashamed, and knew he should have been before this. It had made him uncomfortable, but never enough to do anything about it and challenge his wife.