A Family Affair (6 page)

“
Did you see her?” He
closed the bedroom door, kept his voice low.

“
No. I saw her son,
though.”

“
Hard ass. What’d he have
to say?”

“
That . . . that . .
.”

“
Tell me, Chrissie. What
happened?” He poured himself a double scotch, neat, carried the
glass and the bottle to the burgundy leather recliner, sat
down.

“
Fourteen years, Uncle
Harry. Fourteen years.”

“
What? What’s fourteen
years?”

“
How long they were . . .
together.” Pause. “How long he was seeing her, Uncle Harry.
Fourteen years.”

“
Jesus.” He took a healthy
swallow of scotch. “Jesus.”

“
All this time, all these
years, and he’s been with her.”

Fourteen years? Harry took another drink,
drained his glass. “Desantro could be lying. We never heard the
name before two weeks ago. This could all be a scheme to get more
money, maybe the woman blackmailed him into leaving her a wad of
cash so you and your mother wouldn’t find out and Charlie just
figured he’d live long enough to change the will later. Shit, I
don’t know. None of this makes any sense, but, I’d believe the
mother and son were trying to blackmail your father before I’d
believe he was,” he almost said, ‘screwing the bitch’ but reworked
it to, “in a relationship with that woman for fourteen years.”

“
Really?”

There was hope in her voice, clinging to one
last shred of possibility, and he could not disappoint her, so he
said, “I do, Chrissie. I think maybe they both set him up.”

“
I’m going back tomorrow.”
She sounded more like the old Chrissie now. “I don’t care if I have
to sit outside of that house all day; I’m going to talk to Lily
Desantro.”

“
This isn’t something you
should do alone, kid. Let me come, too, it could get nasty. I can
leave first thing in the morning.”

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