Chapter Twelve #3
“My father was a crook,” I tried, relishing the relief that came with saying that aloud, with not having to be the only person who knew the sordid truth. “A liar. A thief.”
Adam sat back in his chair as if the words I’d just spoken had punched him in the chest. “What?”
Adam
This dinner had taken a turn. I’d lost my appetite, and sat focused on what Lila said, and not entirely sure I’d heard her correctly. Maybe she was exaggerating.
“I didn’t find out how far it went until after he died,” Lila added, and her stony expression told me no, she wasn’t even close to lying. She meant what she’d just said, and I wondered if she’d been thinking all evening of a way to tell me. “And it was…very upsetting.”
“What did your mother say?”
“She doesn’t know. She’s…she’s not well.” Lila looked around the dining room for a beat. Then she shrugged one shoulder as she brought her attention back to me. “Might as well tell you this part too. Right now, she’s in a long-term care facility because she has early-onset Alzheimer’s.”
“Oh, Lila, I’m sorry,” I said. And I meant those words, I truly did.
Mrs. Montague had been a gorgeous, immaculate woman who’d only said hello, who’d never engaged me in a real conversation, a woman who presented herself as put together and ice cold, but who was also the picture of everything my own mother never would be.
“How long have you been dealing with this?”
“About three years.” Lila fiddled with her escargot. “After the diagnosis, things progressed quickly. It has been devastating, and right now I have her at a place over in West Palm. Best place for her.”
“That’s a shame,” I said, not caring anymore about this stupid dinner I’d ordered or the thousand ways I’d wanted to impress her now that she was back in my life. “I hate hearing this.”
“Everyone hates hearing this.” Lila pushed away her appetizer plate. “And that’s the problem. It’s—it sucks. And then when Dad died, I found out the truth about him.” She wrinkled her nose. “And the ugly reality of it all.”
“Meaning what?”
She glanced at the other patrons. “Not here, okay? Not here. When we’re alone.”
“You’re right. This isn’t a conversation to have over dinner.”
Not a tough decision. I signaled for the waiter, who scurried over to us.
I instructed him our plans had changed, and we wouldn’t be eating in the main dining room at all.
He seemed shocked, then relieved when I told him we’d take our entrées to go, but I was past the point of caring what he or anyone else thought.
I wanted to know the rest of Lila’s story.
In my mind, I was already out of the restaurant and back at my place, where I had Lila, and whatever story she wanted to tell me, all to myself.
Should have taken her there to begin with.
“We can take this all back to my house, okay?” I focused on Lila again. “How does that sound?” I leaned across the table. “No parties there tonight, though, so I hope you aren’t disappointed.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh, no, I don’t know if I can take that.” Then she gave me a genuine smile for the first time that night. “Actually, I can’t think of a better place to have dinner.”
“Then consider it done.”
Fifteen minutes later, with our food wrapped in neat little boxes, and our server efficiently given a two-hundred-dollar tip for his trouble, we retrieved the Bentley from the valet and left the restaurant for Ibis Isle.
As we wound through the streets, I noticed how much I relished having her in the car with me, sitting a few feet away, her perfume mixing with the breezy, salty air.
God, she was gorgeous. Irresistible. The woman I’d waited a decade to see once more.
And fuck, all the effort I’d put into this felt worth it—even if it all hadn’t worked out the way I expected.
By God, now that I had her here with me, I never wanted her to slip out of my life again.
We arrived at the house and I guided her to the deck that overlooked the backyard and the Intracoastal Waterway at the edge of my property.
“See?” I asked as we sat at the metal table and chairs that had a permanent place on the patio when I wasn’t throwing one of my famous parties. “Much better, right?”
“Much better.” She grinned again and opened the foil canister holding her duck. “Takeout from Café L’Roque. Doesn’t get much snobbier in Palm Beach than that.”
“If I’d known where this conversation would lead, I would have had my staff make us dinner tonight, here.” I opened the box holding my pork tenderloin. “In fact, that’s what I should have done. But I was—”
“I get it. You’re at a point in your life where you can go to a place like Café L’Roque and get the best table, no matter what day it is, and no matter who else is eating there.” I nodded. “It means something.”
“Yes, it does.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Does that sound a little arrogant, though? A little strange?”
“Not to me. My father was like that too. He was self-made when he…well, back when he had money. And that made him incredibly proud.”
“I thought your family was old money, Lila.” I frowned, thinking about all I remembered about her life, all the things I’d keep track of during the years. “Generations of it.”
She shook her head. “On my mother’s side only.
” She sighed and looked away for a brief second.
“Looking back on it now, I see how that dynamic played out for them. Mom was a trophy to him, a symbol he’d risen beyond the white working class.
” Her gaze returned to me. “He worshipped her, but it always came with stipulations. She had to be perfect, I had to be perfect, and our whole life served as a reflection of him.” She shrugged.
“But I get it. Being able to do whatever you want is one of the biggest reasons to become rich. Otherwise, what are you doing it for?”
“Exactly. And, thank you.” I felt glad she acknowledged that element of all of this, and she didn’t think it strange that a guy like me, who came from nowhere, took extra pride in all the trappings and trimmings that had come with being a tech mogul running one of the world’s greatest media companies.
“By the way, I really am so sorry about your mom. And your dad, it sounds like.”
“Life takes a lot of twists, Adam.” She stared at me; her eyes soulful yet sad.
I couldn’t believe what her father had done to her, how much he’d hurt her.
If he saw her the way I did, the way I always had, deep down, he’d have never wanted to do that to her.
Yet even in her sadness, Lila was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever known, and I basked in it.
Her with me in my home. I could get used to the warmth that she brought.
“It certainly does take a lot of twists, Lila,” I managed.
Then I raised my index finger as I got up from the table.
I had a selection that provided any wine I wanted in the cellar downstairs, but I also kept some special bottles in the chiller on the first-floor butler’s pantry.
When I returned to the back porch, I carried two glasses, a wine key, and a bottle of seventy-five-year-old pinot grigio from France, a vintage someone had given me years ago at a Christmas party, which I had never had the occasion to drink.
“There.” I placed it all on the table between us. “They say it was a very good year for this. Care to find out if they’re right?”
“Absolutely. I’m always in the mood for a good wine.” She laughed to herself. “And probably tonight more than usual.”
I opened the top with the silver key and poured us two large servings. I handed her one and raised my own glass in a toast. “To reconnecting.”
“To reconnecting.”
We clinked our glasses together, and I returned to my seat at the table.
Refreshed and more relaxed, we dug into our now cooling dinners, and I watched her take the first bite of her duck.
She moaned a little, closing her eyes, and fuck, that was something I was glad I heard here rather than in an elite restaurant.
I’d had sex with a few women over the years, but Lila turned me on more than anyone ever had. She was simply stunning.
“Sounds like you’re…enjoying that,” I said, hopefully not betraying my lewd thoughts.
She opened her eyes, and I saw the sadness behind them again. “Things have been tough lately. Different from when we were kids.”
“In what ways?” I took a careful bite of my own dinner but didn’t really taste it. I was too focused on whatever she was about to say; it felt as though she was about to share something monumental. “Your father, of course.”
Lila nodded. “There’s nothing left, Adam. Nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“No money. No estate. Nada.” She put down her fork and laughed without humor. “Just debts. A lot of them.”
“How much?”
“More than you can imagine,” Lila replied slowly.
“And he was so good at hiding all of it, concealing how far this went. I didn’t find out until after his death, when his attorney in Miami called with the news.
” Her voice broke, and I heard a pinch of bitterness in it.
“I can’t pay it off by the timeline the creditors have set. ”
“I see.” I studied her. “And that’s why you’re selling the house.”
She nodded. “At first, I thought I could make it work and still keep the house. But I was wrong.”
“What are we talking about here? Banks, credit card companies, what?”
“No, you don’t want to know this.” She pursed her lips and shook her head. “It’s embarrassing. Disgusting.”
“There’s nothing you can say that will shock me. I went to war. I’ve seen the worst in humanity.” I leaned over the table and almost took her hand, but then I stopped. “Tell me.”
It sounded almost like an order, and I knew I didn’t have a right to make such a demand.
It technically wasn’t my business to pry into her affairs like that.
But I also had an overwhelming urge to do so, to find out the details of this mess.
I wanted to take care of Lila, and I guessed that had always been part of my plan.
“Tell me,” I repeated. “You don’t have to hide this from me.”
Something pulled at her eyes as she stared at me, and I wondered about the thoughts flowing through her mind, the consideration she made about letting me in on such a private matter.
And then she shook her head. “He was in debt to just about every bank you could think of, and then to some private creditors.” She lifted her eyebrow.
“Some of those people are pretty shady.”
“Who?” I pressed. She was holding something back. I sensed it. “Who are we talking about?”
“Some people from Miami and—” She broke off, and a strangled sob escaped her lips.
“God, these are the kind of people that hold things over you. They don’t forgive.
They”—she swiped her eyes—“they’re after around three million…
in one account. It’s two million, five hundred thousand in another.
And then seven hundred fifty thousand dollars to another.
After that, it’s mostly over. But then I have Mom’s care, and—”
“I can pay it.” The sentence leapt out of my mouth, but even if I’d given myself time to think about it, I would have still made the offer.
“I’ll take care of it for you, I promise.
” Now I really did take her hand in mine.
It felt warm, soft, and fragile in my grasp.
She didn’t pull away. We were getting somewhere, and I could feel things changing. “Whatever you owe, consider it paid.”
“No. No way. I can’t take money from you.” She wiped her eyes again and focused on me. “That’s not what tonight is about. Besides, it’s not right.”
“I can more than pay your debt. I can pay it a hundred times over.” I gestured wildly at the house with my free hand.
“Like I said earlier, I have whatever I want in life. Everything I need, it’s all here.
I was serious before, Lila. This quest of mine has been about finding you and making you mine.
I know we had such a small amount of time together as kids, but you were the first person to believe in me.
I’d been angry for a while, like I said, but your words…
the boat symbolizes a great journey, there was a reason to keep moving forward to the something else ahead…
you gave me the drive to succeed. So please let me be a part of your life.
Please allow me to take care of you now. ”
“No.” She picked up a paper napkin and wiped her nose. “Things are not as simple as that. It’s not. These people…these creditors, well, they have an agenda. They like things a certain way, and I—”
“Lila, please.” I reached over and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. God, how I loved feeling those strands, still as silky and smooth as they had been all those years ago. “Let me do this for you.”
“But I—”
Before she could protest any more, I leaned over and pressed my mouth to hers.