THE GREAT BETRAYAL (24 page)

“Heck, no,” replied Jodi. “Are you nuts?”

Before long Jodi disappeared with Adam, leaving Kate to suffer the company of his dorky friend Horace. She danced with him for a while, just to be polite, but once he started behaving as though he thought she was interested, Kate told him she had to use the bathroom and sought refuge in the house.

Kate was sorry she had come. Instead of sneaking out, she should’ve just stayed home and rested up for work the next day. Settling onto a barstool just inside the patio door, she saw Holly Samson coming in.

“Katie! What’s doing?” she said happily, joining Kate on a barstool. “You sure don’t look like you’re having a good time…but I saw you dancing with Horace a few minutes ago, so…” She winked. “I guess that explains why, huh?”

“Gosh, did you
see
that?” Kate asked, rolling her eyes. “I think he actually thought I was into him or something. Gimmie a break,” she said, waving a hand.

Holly turned serious. “So aside from geeky Horace…is everything else good?”

Kate looked at her, a little surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Sister gone yet?”

“Thank God,” she replied, twirling her finger in her drink. “All my mom does is fawn all over her now that she’s visiting. It totally sucks. It sucks
royally
.”

“I know,” said Holly, offering sympathy. “I still can’t believe you and your dad never knew about her all that time. I can’t imagine how I’d feel if it were me.”

“Yeah…and now my mom wants to tack her onto our family tree and make nice, like it wasn’t a completely fucked-up thing that she did. My Dad’s so hurt about it. Sometimes I wish he’d just leave and take me with him.”

“Really?” said Holly, riveted.

“Really. He has another house, you know? When all this first happened he moved out. But he kept the place even after he came back home. He used to take me there sometimes, and we would just hang out and watch movies and talk about stuff. Just the two of us…He doesn’t really like Grace either.”

As always, Holly listened and didn’t judge…unlike Jodi, who, the first time Kathryn had told her how she felt about Grace, had said, “You’re just jealous. You thought you were an only child, your mom’s only daughter, and then—wham! In comes Grace, and you’re jealous.”

That made Kate angry. She was not jealous! At least, not completely. She was just really pissed off. She hated how Grace made her mother so happy and excited, how her face glowed when she talked about her. It was nauseating.

And it was painful.

Shaking the subject off, Kate said, “Is Lauren coming? Is she here? I might not be able to make tomorrow’s shoot. I just know my mom’s going to pop a vocal cord when she finds out I snuck out of the house tonight.”

“You
snuck out
to come here?”

“Yep.”

“Why would you do that?” Holly said, shaking her head. “Lauren’s gonna be pissed if you don’t come tomorrow. She’ll lose money.”

“I know—I wasn’t thinking. Mom just made me
so
crazy going on and on about being nice to
princess
Grace.” Kate made a face. “I didn’t go to their stupid lunch date, so she said I couldn’t come to your party.”

Holly looked worried. “I’ll try to explain it to Lauren, but you know how she is. You’d better lie low until Monday.”

Ever the conciliator, Leslie had ordered a meat lover’s pizza, Kathryn’s favorite, hoping it would help improve her mood, strike a truce.

When it arrived, she’d called up to her daughter from the bottom of the stairs. But when Kathryn didn’t answer or come down after the third call, Leslie had stomped up the stairs, only to find Kathryn’s bedroom empty.

She checked her bathroom. The oval mirror still bore steam from a recent shower and the curling iron was still warm. Her favorite clogs were also missing from her shoe rack.

Kathryn had gone to the party!

Well
, Leslie thought, slapping her hand against the banister and slumping back down the stairs,
I fucking give up
.

“
Your daughter disobeyed me,” Leslie complained, reaching Luke on his cell phone. I told her she could not go to Holly Samson’s party tonight, but still she showered, got dressed, and sneaked out of the house…all while I was here surfing the Internet.”

Luke replied, “What were you doing on the Internet? Driving up the balance on a MasterCard?”

“That’s not funny, Luke. Kathryn’s becoming more and more rebellious, and now she’s sneaking out of the house! That’s it. I give up. You have to take over.”

“Why did you tell her she couldn’t go to the party?”

“Well, if she didn’t feel well enough to come with you to have lunch with us, what’s she doing going to a party?”

Luke sighed. This was getting old. “She’s thirteen, Leslie. Welcome to the wonderful world of raising a teenager.”

“No, I mean it. I give up. I’m done trying to reason with her. She’s all yours.”

“Leslie, you don’t get to give up. I’ll talk to her, but she’s your problem just as much as mine.”

“Why weren’t you nicer to Grace earlier? She’s not stupid, you know; she can tell you don’t like having her here.”

“I can’t talk about this right now. I’m in the middle of a sketch, and Evan’s on his way over.”

“Luke…we haven’t made love in nearly two weeks. Are you sure it’s
Evan
who’s on the way over?” She paused. “How do you think it makes me feel to know you never sold that house? That I’ve never even seen it, don’t even know where it is!”

“How do you think it makes me feel to know you spent the first ten years of our relationship hiding a dead husband and a child?”

“This is never going to end, is it? You’ll always bring it up.” She sighed. “I don’t even know what’s holding our marriage together anymore.”

Luke’s fire died. The desperate tone in Leslie’s voice killed it.

He had no idea what else to say. What exactly
did
he want from her? Could she even provide it? Could he ask her not to want something that was perfectly natural? Not to have a relationship with her own daughter? Could he make her see how it was a constant reminder that she was never completely his? And possibly never could be?

No. He couldn’t ask for what he wanted.

“Luke?” she said, her tone suddenly firm. “I think you should come home and deal with your daughter. I’m going to Vegas.”

Dial tone. She’d hung up.

Closing his eyes briefly, Luke tossed his BlackBerry onto the kitchen table and picked up the kitchen phone. He called Kathryn’s cell. The blare of rock music could be heard in the background when she answered. “Katie, what happened this afternoon with your mother? She says you snuck out of the house, and now she’s running off to Vegas in a huff.”

“Man!” he heard Kathryn grumble. “She always does this! She always has to make everything about
her
. Why must she up and take off all the time?” Luke heard a mixture of anger and hurt in his daughter’s voice. Leslie’s unpredictability had begun taking its toll on Kate…especially now that she was a teenager. It was almost as if she’d begun testing her mother’s loyalty, just to see if Leslie would pass.

“Don’t worry about it, honey. I’ll be home later tonight. Why don’t you go home now? Maybe if she sees you she’ll change her mind.”

“No,” said Kate, her voice sounding choked. “Let her go…” Then she paused. Finally she added, “I won’t make any difference—I’m not her precious Grace.”

“Don’t say that, Katie. She loves you…you know she does. You should not feel like you’re in competition with Grace.” He hesitated. “You know what? Get home. We’ll talk more when I get there.”

Just as he hung up, he got a message on his BlackBerry. It was from Dawn.

She just called me. She wants to go to Vegas. We’re flying out tonight. I thought you were going to be keeping things under control?

Yeah, right
, thought Luke, unable to shake the irony of it all.
So did I
.

Chapter 44

Leslie had always loved Palm Beach in December. It was pure heaven. While northern folks suffered the frigid temperatures of the winter, the residents of South Florida got to relax on the coastlines, enjoying the beautiful weather from beneath the cool shade of towering palm trees. Perfect beaches. Crystal-clear waters, blue, warm and inviting. Never-ending sunshine. Pure heaven.

As Christmastime approached, Dawn and Leslie made the rounds shopping for gifts. Having already bought presents for everyone, they were now walking through Nordstrom as Dawn contemplated buying something for her on again/off again beau, Lyle Burns.

“Things have been going so well between us lately…I want to get him something nice,” she said, browsing the cologne counter. “Without overdoing it.”

Leslie gave a concerned look. “Overdoing it? Dawn, you’ve been torturing him for over ten years now. I’m still wondering why he even bothers with you anymore.”

“Look,” Dawn retorted, “we’ve grown a lot closer lately. Lyle’s a really nice man, and I’m appreciating him more. Letting him in slowly. We enjoy each other’s company and have really good conversation—”

“Don’t forget the sex…” said Leslie, her eyes narrowing mischievously. “That must be pretty hot, too…right?”

Dawn pointed to a display in the glass case. “May I smell this one?” she asked the smiling woman behind the counter. Her nametag read MAGGIE. Her hair was dyed tar black, and she was wearing far too much of a bright reddish orange-colored lipstick that did nothing for her porcelain complexion, but her smile was pleasant and warm.

“Sure!” Maggie replied, sliding the door back. “This is one of our latest ones.
Very
popular, let me tell you! It’s Canali. Eau de Toilette. It’s got a very unique scent…the freshness of bergamot and apple with a hint of coriander and nutmeg. It’s simply splendid! Try some.” She sprayed a small white card with the fragrance, fanning it in the air before handing it to Dawn.

Dawn sniffed it, then held it to Leslie’s nose. “What do you think?”

Leslie breathed it in. “Hmm…I like.”

“Great,” said Dawn, turning to Maggie with a smile. “I’ll take it.”

Leslie hung up the phone smiling, filled with excitement.

December had started out on a rather ominous note, but things were now looking up!

Grace had just called to say she’d decided to spend Christmas in Florida after all. She was flying in on the twenty-third. She wanted to bring her sister and brother along so they could all visit Disney World, but Beth had objected to them leaving her and Billy alone for Christmas. Unfortunately, time had not yet lessened Beth’s angst over the growing bond between Leslie and Grace.

By now they were having several e-mail communications back and forth daily, and Leslie found that, with the friction at home, sitting down to read Grace’s e-mails had become the highlights of her day—often the best parts.

She no longer spoke to Luke about her daughter, and he inquired about Grace only on occasion, seemingly more out of a sense of decorum than because he had any particular interest in her welfare.

Now that Grace would be spending Christmas with them, Leslie hoped the holiday spirit would help to foster the kind of healing their family was in such desperate need of. Kate should get to know her sister, and it was time for Luke to accept that he had a stepdaughter, a very important part of his wife’s life.

Jeff
…
our daughter is twenty years old
, thought Leslie, staring down at the receiver she’d just placed into its cradle.

She missed Jeffrey so acutely now, at Christmastime, almost as much as she did in April…when that awful day came back to suffocate her.

Memphis, Tennessee

Grace Cunningham had not been raised with the capacity to weather emotional storms. Unlike many of her friends, she’d had one of the best childhoods any kid could dream of. Her parents had lavished love and affection on her and her siblings, and had done their best to shield them from conflicts of any kind.

Until Leslie Cavanaugh reentered the picture.

Not for lack of wanting to, but for lack of knowing that, this time, the conflict would get bigger than they could imagine. Their daughter was drowning in a sea of heartbreak. Leslie Cavanaugh had entered her life, and there was nothing Beth and Billy could do to protect Grace from the onslaught of turmoil that came with it. A storm was raging within her, urges she didn’t know how to control.

She’d decided to spend another Christmas in Florida.

“Why bother, Grace?” her mother had asked when Grace informed her. “Can’t you see you’ll never fit in? You’ll never be a real part of that family. Don’t you see you’re only asking for more disappointment and pain?”