Diva (27 page)

He wasn’t playing the servant today—his black tuxedo was of finer quality than half the guests here. His black bowler hat pitched low over his eyes and made his garish scar less obvious, but Gloria could still feel his stare. When Pembroke made eye contact with Gloria, his lips peeled back to reveal a smile that was more of a sneer.

Gloria tugged on Forrest’s sleeve. “Come on, I’ve got to join the wedding party.”

They made their way through the crowd and under the domed ceiling of the Plaza’s Palm Court. Large tables were already set up with place cards and more silverware than one person could ever need for the reception that would follow the ceremony. Gloria and Forrest walked between the columns and began to climb the steps.

“You don’t have to go with your father,” Gloria pled with Forrest under her breath. “You’re a better man than he is.”

Forrest refused to look at her. “I have to help him. He’s my dad.”

“Yeah, well, your
dad
is holding my fiancé hostage. And I doubt he got that scar rescuing small children.”

“He’s not a good man, I know,” Forrest admitted. “But without him, I’m just another poor boy—no mansion, no musicals, no shot to win the heart of Ruby Hay worth.”

“But you
were
planning to leave him,” Gloria said when they reached the second floor of the hotel. They walked quickly past the entrance to the ballroom, where several men and women mingled and smoked cigarettes. “You wanted to run away to Paris with Ruby,” she whispered. “What happened?”

He gave her a bleak smile. “You happened, Gloria. How am I supposed to leave now, knowing you’ll probably turn my father over to the feds before my boat’s even left the harbor? I owe everything I have, everything I am, to my father.”

They reached a long hallway. Gorgeous landscapes and portraits of women in elegant gowns hung between the doors. Gloria stopped walking and leaned against the wall. Her bare
arm brushed up against the rough texture of the painting behind her. From here she could see the ballroom entrance to their right and the stairs beyond it. Pembroke was nowhere in sight. “What happened between you and Ruby? She said you two were planning to elope when you were younger.”

Forrest stopped as well and leaned on the wall beside her, a gold candelabra sconce right above his head. “We were seventeen,” Forrest said in a dreamy voice. “Even before she was onstage, a spotlight seemed to follow Ruby Fredericks everywhere she went. I could hardly believe my luck, that a girl like that would even notice me, much less love me back.”

“Why, though?” Gloria asked. “You’re a charmer, Forrest, and you’re not too horrible to look at, either.”

Forrest frowned as the memory slipped away. “I was poor. And to people in Ruby’s world, that was all that mattered.”

Gloria could understand that. Even if Jerome had been white, her family never would’ve accepted her love for a penniless piano player.

“She said the money didn’t matter to her,” Forrest said. “But it did, in the end. Money kept her from running away with me, and sent her straight into the arms of that block of wood, Marty. I was so angry with her at first. But then I realized I couldn’t blame her. I had expected her to walk away from everything she’d ever known. All the little comforts she’d grown so used to would be gone.”

Gloria flinched at the heavy sadness in Forrest’s voice. Ruby
wasn’t as blameless as he claimed, Gloria didn’t think. Giving up a life of comfort—that was exactly what Gloria had done to be with Jerome.

“I didn’t know my father back then—he left my mother when I was only seven. All I knew was that he was a shady businessman, that my mother expected better of me. But Ruby left me, and my mom died not too long after. I didn’t have any brothers and sisters—my whole life it had just been my mom and me. I’d never been so alone.”

His voice broke on the word
alone
. Gloria’s heart twisted.

“I had no choice but to track Dad down. I found a few of his letters that Mom had never given me, and went to the return address. He took me in, brought me into his insurance business.

“I didn’t have much of a head for the work—numbers and I don’t get along so well. Which is why I didn’t realize until it was too late that my father was engaged in ripping off thousands of people.”

So Forrest
was
innocent. And he’d only sought out his father because he’d been backed into a corner. Gloria knew from experience that desperation had a way of glossing over red flags where money was involved.

Gloria looked over at the ballroom entrance and saw that everyone milling around it had gone inside. “We’d better get going.” She walked fast down the hallway, her heels sinking into the fluffy peach carpet. “Is Pembroke even your father’s real name? ”

“It isn’t, but I’m not planning on telling you what it really is.”

“Is Forrest Hamilton
your
real name? ”

“Yes. Hamilton was my mother’s maiden name.”

For some reason it made Gloria feel better that she knew Forrest by his real name. “So Pembroke got caught?”

“Only after he’d illegally made enough money to buy this hotel a dozen times over.” Forrest gestured at the chandeliers they passed under and the crystal doorknobs that probably cost more than some people’s houses. “When the cops came to arrest him, we fled across the country and made new identities for ourselves. I convinced my father that we could hide on Long Island. Ruby was in Manhattan with her new husband, and I wanted to be close by while I became the man she needed me to be.”

“She needed you to be a criminal?”

“She needed a man who could take care of her.” Forrest’s expression grew hard. “The feds never came looking for me—they just wanted my dad. So I could pretend to be a high roller and disguise my father to keep him safe. I invested in shows, laundering his money, all the while hoping Ruby might recognize my picture in the newspapers. Eventually she did, and she showed up at one of my parties.”

The two of them stopped outside the last door on the left, room 219. Gloria knocked and looked back at Forrest while they waited.

A smile had appeared on his face when he mentioned
Ruby, but it dissolved as quickly as it had come. “I can’t leave my father to the authorities, though, not now. If it’s got to be one or the other, I’ve got to leave Ruby behind.” He let out another world-weary sigh. “She probably would’ve changed her mind at the last second anyway. Dad’s right. She’d regret ruining her career for a punk like me.”

“You’re not a punk,” Ruby said, surprising him. “Just an idiot.”

Ruby stood in the doorway of room 219, looking stunning in a deep-purple sleeveless gown. Flowers were embroidered in silver thread all over the dress’s bodice. A rhinestone headband held Ruby’s luxurious waves in place.

“Ruby, what are you doing here?” Forrest asked. He glanced anxiously down the hall in the direction he and Gloria had come.

“Don’t worry, I think we lost him when we came upstairs,” Gloria said, following Forrest into the room and closing the door behind her.

They walked into the parlor of a luxurious suite, complete with a gold chandelier, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a grand piano in the corner. There was a brown velvet couch in the center of the room with two matching armchairs on either side. Marcus sat on the couch in his tuxedo. His golden hair was slicked away from his face and showed off his sculpted cheekbones.

Somewhere along the line, Gloria’s best friend had shifted from a prep school rake to a devastatingly handsome man.
His golden skin glowed with a fading summer tan, and long, sooty lashes framed his arresting blue eyes. But when he grinned and his dimples sank into his cheeks, Gloria was still able to see the boy who’d first taught her how to sneak out her bedroom window.

He rose from the couch and hugged her. “You’re finally here! Agent Phillips said he hadn’t heard from you since yesterday, so I offered to let him and his men wait for you in here. And then another agent brought Mrs. Hayworth in just a second ago. I loved you in
The Girl from Yesterday
, by the way,” he said to Ruby. Then he leaned in close and said in Gloria’s ear, “Something go wrong with that bureau business of yours?”

“Maybe for a minute,” Gloria said. “I think it’s all on track now, though.” Marcus sat back down and she sat beside him.

Burly men in black suits stood by the windows. They had the bored, slightly angry expressions Gloria had come to associate with FBI agents.

“I’m glad you were finally able to pull this off,” Hank said. Special Agent Hank Phillips sat in one of the chairs. The handsome FBI agent sported his usual five o’clock shadow and skinny tie. He gave Gloria a half-smile. “Took you long enough.”

Gloria looked back to Forrest, who clutched both of Ruby’s hands in his own.

“What are you doing here? I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.” Forrest tucked a dark curl behind Ruby’s ear and she
leaned into his hand. They fell into each other’s arms and Forrest held her tightly, whispering, “Ruby, oh, Ruby,” over and over.

Finally Ruby pulled away. “You let
me
walk away once—I’ll be damned if I let
you
do the same thing. I love you, Forrest. Let’s forget the past and start fresh in Paris.”

“Only if you brought what was promised,” Hank cut in sternly.

Ruby stepped away from Forrest and picked up the fat leather binder of papers sitting on the coffee table. She handed it to Hank. “It’s all in there, Agent Phillips. It’s not Forrest, it’s his dad. He’s alive—the two of them faked his death.”

Ruby looked back at Forrest and gestured toward the binder. “I was scared when we were kids, but not of being poor. I mean, that
was
part of it. But mostly I was afraid to leave everything I knew—of losing my parents and friends from my life forever. But now all I’m afraid of is losing you again. I don’t care about your money or anything else, Forrest, I care about
you
.”

Gloria leaned her head on Marcus’s shoulder and tried not to cry. She felt exactly the same way about Jerome, but wasn’t sure she’d ever put it as clearly as Ruby just had.

But Forrest paled and his eyes narrowed at Ruby. “I trusted you! ”

Hank set the binder on an end table, rose from his chair, and approached Forrest. “You were right to trust her. Special Agent Hank Phillips.” He extended his hand, but Forrest refused to shake it. “Listen, if everything checks out according
to what Mrs. Hayworth has told us and you agree to be a witness against your father, we can reach a deal whereby you serve no time.”

“I can’t believe this!” Forrest exclaimed. He turned to Ruby; he didn’t look angry so much as desperate. “You ran out on me once, and now you’re sending my father to jail? How could you betray me again?”

Ruby put a hand on either side of his face. “No, this time I’m giving it all up for you,” she said calmly. “I’ve already told Marty I’m leaving him.”

Forrest raised his hands to cover hers. “What about your career, and the money?”

“I don’t care about any of that! All I care about is
you
.”

Forrest stared into her eyes for a few long moments. He looked pained and elated all at once. “But he’s my
father
,” he said, his voice tight.

“He’s a dangerous thug who doesn’t care about anyone but himself. The only reason anyone could call you a criminal is because he forced you to become one. You don’t belong with him. You belong with
me
.”

“My father’s been there for me all these years, Ruby. Unlike you. Now you want me to repay him by selling him out to the feds? All so I can go to Paris with you? How do I even know you won’t just run off on me again when we get there?”

“I won’t, I promise I won’t,” Ruby said fiercely. “I’ll be happy as long as we’re together. Please, Forrest.”

Forrest was silent for several moments. Then his face crumpled. He jerked away from her. “Maybe you’d be happy, but I wouldn’t. Not knowing that my father is rotting in a cell and that the woman I love is the person who put him there.”

With that, Forrest stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind him. Ruby gasped and rushed out after him.

Gloria looked at Hank. “Aren’t you going to go after them?”

Hank flipped through the binder Ruby gave him. “You heard Mrs. Hayworth—Forrest’s father is the fish we really want.” He pointed to a page in the binder. “I
knew
there was something shady about that butler of his. Callum Morrison pulled off the biggest insurance scam this decade—I didn’t recognize him with the scar. And I didn’t even know he had a son.”

Gloria put two and two together: Callum Morrison was Forrest’s father’s real name. Not Pembroke.

Hank pulled a silver pistol from the holster on his hip and checked the bullets in the cylinder. Then he nodded to the men standing by the windows. Immediately the other agents checked their guns as well. “We’re going after
him
.”

“What about Jerome?” Gloria asked, her voice breaking a little. “Pembroke said he had Jerome somewhere. I got you your information. You owe it to me to find him!”

“As soon as we bag Callum, my boys and I will head over to Forrest’s place. We’ll search it from top to bottom,” Hank said. He patted Gloria’s shoulder. “You’ve done good work
here, Gloria. We’ll make sure Jerome makes it back to you safe and sound.”

Once Hank and the other agents were gone, Gloria slouched into the couch cushions beside Marcus.

Marcus let out a low whistle. “You really do know how to liven up an event. If you’re not getting ripped offstage by your fiancé, you’re singing for gangsters in a basement club or running away from home and living like a ragamuffin on the streets of New York. All I need now is for Lorraine to barrel in drunk and spoil things.”

“Just like old times,” Gloria said. “Though I hear she’s staying sober these days.”

“Well, we both know the booze was only part of Raine’s problem.” Marcus knocked his shoulder against Gloria’s. “Anyway, I’m glad we got all of this taken care of before the big event. I intend to have you by my side when I finally hang that golden noose around my neck—I mean, put a ring on my finger.” He squeezed her hand. “You’re my best friend. Always were, always will be.”