Chapter 3 #2
Isabelle looked at them mournfully then, loosened up by the wine and the overwhelming emotions of the day.
“I just found out that Ian is having an affair with a girl in his office. She’s twenty-three.
” And Ian was forty-four. Isabelle was thirty-four, and they had had a perfect life until then, and now everything was teetering on the edge of a cliff.
“Have you talked to him about it?” Quinne asked her, as Isabelle’s eyes filled with tears and she shook her head.
“I just found out two days ago, and I didn’t know what to expect here today. I’m going to talk to him about it this weekend. The person who told me said it’s been going on for six months.”
“Don’t tell him about today,” Charlotte said firmly.
“It’ll just muddy the waters and you don’t want to wonder for the rest of your life why he stayed, if he does.
He needs to stay because he loves you. Let it give you confidence when you confront him, but don’t tell him what Mom left us,” she said wisely.
Isabelle realized she was right. It was something they all had to deal with now.
They were going to become targets for fortune hunters and greedy men.
It was what their mother had wanted to spare them when she steered well away from fame, but it couldn’t be helped now.
Sooner or later it would leak out that they had inherited money, especially with their partners.
It wasn’t a happy thought to contemplate.
“Put your foot down,” Charlotte said harshly.
“Don’t let him jerk you around or ask you to be patient.
You’re a good wife to him, and a wonderful person, and you don’t have to put up with him being a jerk, if he wants to have his cake and eat it.
I learned that lesson with Adam. I should have thrown his ass out long before I did.
I think Mom would say the same thing to you now. It’s good motherly advice.”
“I want to save my marriage,” Isabelle said sadly.
“That’s up to him now,” Charlotte said, and Quinne agreed.
“I want to be his wife, I don’t want to be a rich divorcée.”
“Hopefully you won’t be,” Quinne said more gently. “But don’t settle for less than you deserve.”
“I never thought he’d cheat on me.”
“Char and Quinne are right,” Veronica said softly.
“I settled for something I never thought I’d do.
I love Anson, but you lose a piece of yourself when you settle for less than you deserve.
I have no choice with Anson, because of his life in politics.
But you do with Ian, the others are right, don’t let him jerk you around, and tell you he can’t decide.
He has to. You’re his wife. She’s just a girl at the office, she doesn’t deserve to ruin your life. ”
They talked late into the night, about their mother, and everything that had happened that day.
All that they had learned about her had brought them closer.
Their bond was stronger than any of them had realized.
Their mother had counted on it. She knew them well.
She wanted them to be there for each other when she was gone, and she hadn’t expected it to come so soon.
—
They had breakfast together in the morning, and went back to the city. Isabelle was quiet on the ride with Veronica. They both were for a while. They were all proud to know that their mother had been a famous and very successful writer, but there was so much more to the story and to figure out now.
“Do you think the inheritance will change things between you and Anson?” Isabelle asked.
“I don’t know,” Veronica said honestly. “I thought about it all night. I’m not sure how he’d feel about it. I’m not going to tell him for a while. I need to get used to it myself.”
“I’m not going to tell Ian either. I have to confront him about the girl in the office and I’m scared. What if he really loves her?”
“If he does, he’s an idiot,” Veronica said. “You’re a great wife, and you two have a wonderful life. He’s crazy to put that in jeopardy.”
“Maybe I bore him. I don’t have a career or do anything interesting.
I don’t have Mom’s talent, or your law degree, or Char’s talent in business, or Quinne’s.
And Olivia was a fantastic dancer before the accident, and she’s still involved in it now, even in the chair.
All I ever wanted to be was a wife and mother. ”
“And you do it better than I ever could have. You run a beautiful home for him, and you’re a great wife and mom.
Hold your ground, Isabelle, don’t let him make you feel that you have no value.
” Isabelle wanted to feel stronger than she did, but she didn’t.
And the girl in the office had youth on her side, and was probably sexy and exciting.
Ian was handsome and successful. She felt as though she had already lost the battle before she started, and she was afraid to lose him.
She had been dependent on him financially for their entire marriage, but at least now that wasn’t the case.
If he left her for the girl in the office, she wouldn’t have to beg for support.
She could support herself now, better than he ever had.
At least it was something. She wasn’t a beggar. All she wanted was for him to love her.
In the other car, her sisters were discussing her situation and felt sorry for her.
“You and Isabelle are the nicest of all of us,” Charlotte said to Olivia. “She doesn’t deserve this. I hope she has the guts to be tough with him. He’s a fool to risk their marriage. He probably figures she won’t do anything if she finds out, and can’t afford to. But now that’s changed.”
Quinne dropped Olivia off at her apartment on the West Side, and Charlotte in Tribeca, and reminded them of their meeting that week with Robert Farr, their mother’s agent.
He was almost like an uncle to them, had been the closest person to their mother, knew the sisters well, and had worked with their father.
They shared history, and they needed his advice about how to handle their mother’s enormous body of work.
It wasn’t someone else’s problem now, it was theirs.
Scott could help them with taxes and legalities, but Robert was vital for advice on their mother’s backlist of more than a hundred books and the opportunities that would stem from them.
Their mother had always said that there were sharks in the waters of publishing, and Robert would be able to steer a safe course for them.
And Felicia had also said that he was a fierce negotiator.
They needed all the help he had to give as the agent for their mother’s work.
They were innocents, and had been thrown into the deep end of the pool with the discovery that their mother was Morgan Reed.
—
All five women showed up at Robert’s office on Wednesday afternoon for the appointment he’d given them, and he looked solemn when they filed into his office and he invited them to sit down.
He hadn’t seen them since their mother’s funeral.
He had looked ashen, and sat in the pew behind them at the service.
He was still vital and active at eighty-two, but Felicia’s death had hit him hard, and it had been so senseless, at the hands of a mentally deranged sniper, running a marathon.
There had been no apparent motive. The police sharpshooters had taken him out, killing him before he could tell them.
No one had been able to shed light on a motive in the five weeks since.
It was all still so fresh for all of them.
“Your mother was a woman of mystery,” Robert said, smiling at them.
“I tried for years to get her to tell you about Morgan Reed. She insisted it wasn’t important.
She was a very modest woman. She thought celebrity would be harmful for all of you, and for her.
Fame meant nothing to her. She liked the money because she could leave it to you one day, and make a difference for each of you.
The rest didn’t matter to her. She was a wonderful writer.
Your father always thought she would be, and he was right.
“When he worked for me, he was a terrific agent. He could spot a bestseller a mile away, and a writer who would grow into one. I liked him a lot, but he gave your mother a raw deal. She never wanted to tell you, and taint his memory, but I always thought she should have. He fell in love with an agent I hired. She was a hotshot from a big agency, young and good-looking, from L.A. He told your mother he was leaving her, shortly before the crash. The girl wasn’t as beautiful as your mother, but she was bold and brash.
She went after him and she got him. They were on the way to L.A.
for a premiere she was invited to. He was all excited about going.
They died together in the crash, but he had already told your mother he was divorcing her.
And then he was killed.” Isabelle felt a shudder run down her spine as she listened to the story, thinking of Ian.
And all five women were staring at him, shocked by the story.
“Mom never told us any of that,” Quinne said in a hoarse voice.