Dangerous Games (23 page)

“I don’t know if I ever believed what he said but that’s what he told me, and I am so sorry I went through with it at all. I can’t stay at home. All I can think about is Finn coming back, and having to tell him this very same story I just told you. Will he want me or have I lost him forever?” I stared at my glass of champagne but I’d yet to pick it up and sip from it.

“Oh, Evie, mistakes happen and believe me, when I get down to the bottom of this situation, I might just throw my new hubby out of the house.” She grabbed her fluted glass and drank most of her champagne in a few controlled sips. “He didn’t…rape you, did he?”

I shook my head profusely. “No, he didn’t. It was consensual but that doesn’t mean I felt any less guilty. I know I haven’t been the ideal daughter but I’m so sorry, Mom. I understand that doesn’t make up for what I did to you but the thought you could be angry with me, hate me, and perhaps choose your husband over me is a scary proposition.”

My mother grabbed my hand. “Honey, I haven’t been the greatest mother, either. I abandoned you, left you with my parents, and I was never there when you needed me the most. The whole teenage pregnancy incident would have never happened if I hadn’t been so busy chasing after your father, and trying to prevent him from nailing every available—and sometimes unavailable—skirt in town. I’ve made so many mistakes when it has come to you. Please believe me when I say you have
nothing
to apologize about. I will handle the situation with my husband but I have to ask…do you feel anything for him? Any emotions at all?”

“No, none at all. I can honestly say that Etienne could teach Finn a thing or two in the lovemaking department but…the only man who has ever held my heart is the rogue Irishman from Omagh via Boston. I love him so much and yet, I haven’t told him. Not all the many times we have spoken because I can’t bear to tell him over the phone.” I explained before I finally summoned the courage to grab my champagne and take a satisfying swig.

“Do you really think Finbar is going to take the news better in person?” my mother inquired sarcastically. “Why don’t you just tell him and be done with it. Don’t you think it would be easier for everyone involved?”

“How would you have reacted to the news if I had called you in Switzerland and told you? Wouldn’t you have felt betrayed and blindsided?”

My mother rolled her eyes before she shook her shoulders in a nonchalant way. “Fair enough. I’m merely saying you are a young, beautiful woman who has only begun to live life. Surely he didn’t think he would be your one and only. When you get to be my age, a little experimentation goes a long way. I’m not saying there aren’t people out there who know they’ve found the one, and cannot be happy with that one person but you’re my daughter.”

She shook her head before she finished her champagne. “When I was your age, I was an absolute, uncontrollable riot. When I came here to L.A., believe me I had more than my fair share of men. How do you think I ended up pregnant with you? By that time, I’d had a couple abortions, and I couldn’t do it again. I wasn’t even sure Rolf was the father but he insisted on a blood test, which proved to be his undoing. It still took me seven years to capture him, and less than another ten years before I’d lost him again.”

“Mom, we are talking about the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, the man I want to marry and father of my child…hopefully, we can have more once I finish with university. No more cheating between us and no more lies. I don’t know how to rectify what I want from Finn with what I have done
to
him. He doesn’t have to forgive me, and that’s what scares me the most!” I exclaimed though I kept my voice low.

“Well, if he really wants to make a life with you then he will find a way to forgive you because none of us are perfect, and he must realize you’re human too. If I can excuse your transgressions than so can he.”

Of course my mother made sense and her words haunted me throughout our dinner together. I couldn’t believe how well she had taken the news given I had slept with her husband but it was nice to know my mother had never treated me like a prostitute nor given her husband carte blanche to sleep with me.

By the time we left the restaurant together, I embraced her deeply before we parted.

“Listen, I will talk to Etienne and he will learn to make himself scarce on certain days I want you to come over. I’m not saying this means I am definitely staying with him but at the same time, I don’t know how prudent it is for me to leave him either. I am not a young woman anymore, and it’s not exactly as if men are beating down my door. However, I don’t want his presence to make you feel like you are barred from the house. It is just as much your place as it is ours.” She smiled at me and I returned her expression with glee.

“He doesn’t have to make himself scarce, Mother. We are all grown ups. I do need to know that he respects my privacy and my decisions. I would slit my wrists before I’d sleep with him again. Nothing untoward will happen between us ever again. Not while I am upright and breathing,” I said as her vehicle was pulled around by a young guy from valet.

“Goodnight, and I love you, my gorgeous daughter.” She kissed my cheek before she climbed into her expensive, 2013 black Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, and proceeded to drive off.

When my Mini Cooper pulled up, I tipped the valet driver a fifty-dollar-bill and slid inside. I knew I should have been worried but at the same time what could I do?

My mother had a way with convincing people everything was going to be all right and I believed her at that moment. Then again, how could I have fallen hook, line and sinker? It turned out she was a more consummate actress than I ever thought she could be, and that was the moment when my world came undone right before my eyes.

M
y Ulysse Nardin buzzed on the bedside table, and I kept hoping it would stop ringing; I was so very tired and wanted nothing other than a good night’s rest.

It didn’t.

I turned over to see it was three twenty-one in the morning and by the looks of the world still dark and foreboding outside.

I grabbed the phone and pressed answer. “Hello?”

“Is this Ms. Elvira Sandstrom, daughter of Athena Donahue Fournier?”

“Yes,” I replied with closed eyes.

“Hello, this is Ruth Atwater—your mother’s publicist—and I am calling from Cedars-Sinai Hospital. I would like to let you know your mother is in ICU. She was brought in after her car hit an embankment on the Pacific Coast Highway. This wasn’t the closest hospital but her agent, and I insisted her insurance specifies she is brought here in case of an emergency.”

“Ruth, what happened?” I inquired out loud as my heart thudded in my chest so fast, my ribs hurt.

“Turns out that hubby and her got into a massive argument and she left the house. She wasn’t in any shape to drive and was far from sober. I’m only too happy she didn’t injure anyone. That would have been a mess given the fact her blood alcohol level was way over the California state legal limit for driving a motor vehicle of
any
kind.”

“Where’s Etienne?”

“He’s here at the hospital and you should be too.”

“I’m leaving right now,” I said and hung up the phone.

F
inn managed to catch a red-eye to Los Angeles and although it meant getting in at the ungodly hour of six in the morning, he caught a taxi, took a shower and dressed. His body functioned somewhere between wired and tired but he couldn’t wait to see Evie again.

The trip had been an absolute surprise. He and Brandon had finally managed to shut things down with the exception of Rich. They had an ongoing deal to supply his drugs but they’d also made sure they wouldn’t be hearing from him for a while. The man had a lot of stock, most of it hidden within the actual walls of the club and way past the point to where even if the police raided the place, it was unlikely their dogs would be able to sniff out the scent.

Finally, he and Brandon had parted ways at Boston Logan International Airport. His best friend was taking his old lady, Fiona, to Ireland on a surprise vacation, and he had decided to join his wonderful lady in the City of Angels.

After his shower and a venti coffee with extra cream and extra sugar from Starbucks, he drove over to Monika and Dylan’s. Evie had told him she’d been staying with them for a while but he never understood why. She was loath to tell him much of anything that was going on in her personal life but he knew they’d be able to catch up as soon as they were face-to-face.

Not that he could blame her. She was lonely and tired of being patient waiting around for him. That much was certain but after the few initial skirmishes, there had been nothing from her on the subject in the past month. If he didn’t know any better, it was almost as if she’d given him a free pass, and as great of a situation as that seemed, he knew he didn’t deserve it.

Of course her bitching and moaning had proven she cared about what he was doing, and the fact he wasn’t with her in L.A. Once Evie stopped broaching the subject, he knew something was wrong but if he was honest with himself, he hadn’t pushed her about it because he wasn’t sure he
wanted
to know.

Monika and Dylan were up and promptly answered the door after just one knock.

Monika embraced him tightly before she stepped back. “Aren’t you a vision? I know Evie would be delighted to see you right at this moment because she needs you—now more than ever.”

They separated and he followed her inside. She looked far too casual, dressed in a pair of black jeggings, and an oversized UCLA sweatshirt. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail and she wore a black pair of ballet flats.

“What’s going on?”

“Evie went out with Athena last night—”

“Oh Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—what the hell happened? Where is she?” Finn wondered out loud as his voice slowly rose.

“She’s not here and it’s not what you think. I spoke to her before she went to bed, and everything was fine between Athena and her. They had a lovely dinner at Spago and that was it. She came home, we talked a bit and then she went to bed. Ruth, Athena’s publicist, called her at three-thirty this morning, and told her Athena was in ICU at Cedars-Sinai. Apparently things didn’t go too well between Athena and Etienne but we don’t know all the facts yet. All we know is it’s touch and go…and Evie might lose her mother.”

I
sat the allotted twenty feet away from anywhere near a door and smoked a cigarette in silence. I had officially quit once I’d gotten back to L.A. but now it was a case between whether my mother would live or die, re-acquiring my nicotine habit wasn’t exactly priority number one of issues that could destroy me beyond repair.

I knew I looked like shit. I’d barely had time to jump in the shower before I quickly got out, slipped on a pair of black Juicy Couture sweats and a white Juicy Couture tee-shirt before I raced to the hospital in my Mini.

Etienne was there of course and the doctors filled me in. The situation with my mother was touch and go; it could be for a few hours, days or weeks—they couldn’t be certain. I cried on Ruth’s shoulder as they told me the news though I avoided my stepfather like the plague.

Finally, I decided enough was enough. I picked up my phone and called my father. He might no longer be in love with my mother but she was his first wife and the mother of his child. He might want to know she might not have very long to live. I knew after I finished speaking with my father, Finn would be the next person on my list.

My father’s phone rang several times before a female voice answered.

“Hello, Artemis, it’s Evie. Is my Dad at home?” I greeted without a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

“Evie, it’s been a while. Sure, ‘old on a tick, I’ll get ‘em for ya!” she said in a thick Cockney accent that grated on my nerves in the worst way.

Moments later, my father lifted the receiver and he answered with a regal, “Hello, Evie. How was your birthday? I hope the present you picked out from Hermès was adequate for the occasion?”

“Yes, Papa, it was.” I dragged on my cigarette and allowed the smoke to tumble from my mouth in a stream as I continued, “Mom’s had an accident and she’s at Cedars-Sinai in ICU. They don’t know how long she’s got so I really think you and Artemis need to get the private jet gassed, and you need to make a much needed appearance here in L.A. I hope you get here in time…we might be talking about arrangements for her funeral when you finally arrive for all I know.”

“Stop being so melodramatic, Evie. For God’s sake, if there is anyone who could kick death in its ass, that person is your mother. She isn’t going to go down without a fight—
that
I can
absolutely
guarantee.”

I finished my cigarette and disposed of it in the trash receptacle before I looked up and imagined myself to be hallucinating.

Finn strode right toward me.

My mouth opened and closed as my father continued to drone on in my ear from the other side of the world.

“Look, Dad, I have to go but if you need any more additional information, Ruth told me you should contact her.”

“Believe me, I will. Love you, sweetheart.”

“Love you. Bye.” I quickly ended my phone call, and ran to Finn before he placed his arms around my waist and embraced me.