Sins of the Flesh (52 page)

“For God's sake, Bebe, Mickey entrusted them to me!” he gasped. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you owe me!” she cried. “You owe Reuben! And you owe
my
son!”

For several long moments Daniel merely stared at her, weighing the justice of her words. At last he rose and walked to his office wall safe. Without a word he unlocked the safe and withdrew the certificates, then returned to his desk and endorsed them.

When he inched the stock certificates across the desk, Bebe snatched them up and stuffed them into her purse. “We're square now, Daniel,” she said, rising. “You don't owe me anything. If Mickey were here, I'm sure she'd applaud this generous gesture on your part. If I didn't believe in my heart that she would have approved, I wouldn't be standing here like this. On behalf of my husband and my son, I thank you.”

At the door she turned. “I think you should know that Philippe is back. He's at Nellie's right now. If I were you, I'd go there as soon as possible.”

Daniel was on his feet. “Philippe's back!” he cried, incredulous.

Bebe grinned wryly. “Oh, yes, he's back, and I can't wait for you to see him and hear what he has to say. Good-bye, Daniel.”

In her rickety car with the doors locked, Bebe collapsed. She was shaking so badly, she could barely put the car into gear. Cracking open the window, she struggled to take great gulping breaths. She had it! The two certificates necessary to control Fairmont Studios. Once Philippe signed his name to the back, he would be in control of the entire studio. “I did it for you, Mickey,” she whispered as she drove back to her house in the canyon, “to try to make up for all the nasty things I've done. I know it's what you would have wanted.”

It suddenly occurred to Bebe that Daniel had barely said two words; she'd done all the talking, all the maneuvering. She laughed then until the tears flowed. Poor Daniel. He never had a chance.

She'd finally beaten Nellie Bishop at her own game.

Nellie heaved herself over the edge of the pool. After fifty laps, she was barely winded. The regimen was second nature to her now; she'd followed it faithfully every day since she'd given birth. The doctor's nurse had told her it was the best way to regain her figure, and she'd been right: she was now exactly the same weight and size as she was before she decided to get pregnant. The only problem was that swimming gave her a ferocious appetite, she thought sourly.

These days she spent a lot of time in the sun, and her skin glowed a golden bronze, her hair bleached almost white. She was the perfect picture of health and happiness. Well, she might be healthy, Nellie conceded, but she definitely wasn't happy. Although in control of Philippe's fortune, she still ranked a mean second at the studio, and it was the studio she really wanted. Bebe wouldn't give an inch; every decision, every little thing, had to meet with her approval. It was an intolerable situation, and she'd have to do something about it—soon. It was obvious to her, as well as to everyone else, that Philippe wasn't coming back. Most likely he was dead somewhere in Europe. In seven years if he didn't come back she'd be legally a widow. A widow at the age of twenty-five!…

A shadow fell across her line of vision, blocking out the sun. Damn, she thought, they weren't supposed to clean the pool till tomorrow. She'd wanted to sun a while longer. An angry accusation on her lips, she looked up—and her eyes almost popped from her head. “Phi—Phi—”

“Say it, Nellie, say my name,” Philippe said quietly. “Did you think I was dead, that I wasn't coming back? Well, I'm here now.” Lord, he thought, she was just as pretty—almost as pretty—as Lizzie. Where Lizzie was tall, Nellie was petite. Nellie was more rounded, Lizzie more muscular. He tried to remember what it was that he'd ever seen in Nellie.

“When…how long…I'm so glad you're home,” Nellie blurted out as she struggled to her feet. She drew in her breath. “How handsome you look! Are those aviator wings? That explains it! We all thought you'd joined the army. Lieutenant, yet. However did you manage it? You must know some very important people in high places.” What was he doing here? she thought wildly. Calm—she had to remain calm, not let him upset her, no matter what he said. Everything was taken care of, she'd done it all legally. What could he do?

“I've been here awhile,” Philippe said, watching her with narrowed eyes. “You might say I've been getting the lay of the land. I understand you've been guarding”—he waited a moment before he dragged out the words—“my fortune.”

“Yes, I've made some excellent investments,” she replied nervously. “I think you'll be…satisfied.”

“In both our names?” he asked with a grim smile.

“No, yes…well, not exactly. Actually, they're in Little Philly's trust.”

He nodded. “Little Philly. Your son?”

“Our son, Philippe Reuben Tarz. Not just mine,
ours,
” she emphasized. “My attorney said it was the right thing to do since none of us had heard from you. Oh, Philippe, I wrote you every day, twelve thousand letters, and had nowhere to mail them. Why didn't you write or call?” she asked tearfully.

He ignored her. “I don't have a son. You have a son. I never touched you, so let's not have any lies. I'm back now, and this is all going to get straightened out.”

“Philippe, you weren't yourself then,” Nellie said desperately. “How could you forget something so important? How can you say you never touched me? Little Philly is the living proof. He even has your nose and chin. Ask anyone.

“You drank too much that second night, that's why you don't remember,” she continued when he didn't respond. “We have a son, and you don't even remember making love to me. I remember, I remember every little detail, and what do you do? You run off like a little boy and join the navy and lie about everything. You're lying about Little Philly now because you don't want the responsibility of being a husband and father. How could you do this to me?” she wailed. “How?”

“I never touched you,” Philippe said stonily. “I'm going to petition the courts and have all that crap you took care of rescinded. You're not going to get away with this. I'm having the marriage annulled.”

Nellie shook her head, eyes glittering. “That's going to be hard to do with a baby in evidence and your past record. And I'm not giving you a divorce, either! When you come to your senses we can talk about your loss of memory. Your
convenient
loss of memory,” she spat out. “You wait right here.” She was gone in a flash of running legs, returning a minute later with a pink-cheeked toddler in her arms. “This, Philippe, is
our
son!”

Philippe stepped back and almost fell into the pool. He drew in his breath in a sharp hiss. “He's not mine, he's yours. I don't care what you say or how you say it, he isn't mine!”

“Let's hold on a minute,” Daniel shouted from the terrace.

Philippe and Nellie turned in surprise. Daniel's heart hammered in his chest as he approached them. Lord, if Reuben could only see his son now.

“Sir,” Philippe said respectfully.

Daniel grimaced. “How…Are those aviator wings you're wearing?” he asked incredulously.

“Yes, sir.”

“How?”

Philippe allowed himself a small smile. “The same way you got to Harvard, sir. Mr. Sugar helped me.”

Daniel nodded. “I can see that you two young people are pretty hotheaded right now, so I'll mediate this. Philippe, I want to hear from you what the hell happened. I've already heard Nellie's version.”

“As you know, we got married. However, we never…consummated the marriage.” Philippe looked Daniel straight in the eye. “It was my decision—I wanted it that way. And afterward…well, I knew I never should have done it, gone off like that, and I regretted it immediately. I just turned tail and ran, that's the beginning and end of it. I stopped by my mother's to say good-bye and gave her a new power of attorney. Now I understand that all my money has been turned over to Nellie's son. But this is not my child. I never touched Nellie—not before we were married or after we were married. I swear to you, I did not touch her. I don't know whose baby this is, but it isn't mine!”

For the first time in his life Daniel was truly at a loss for words. Philippe sounded truthful. What was worse, he believed the boy. Finally he found his voice. “Those are very serious statements, Philippe.”

“I know that, sir, and I'm not making them lightly. When I left here I was a fabulously wealthy man by American standards, thanks to my mother. I go off, fight for
your
country, and when I come back I find out that your daughter has used the time to misrepresent my wishes and then question my very existence—all in order to help herself to my fortune. I'm not proud of the way I went off, but I feel I redeemed myself and I want what's mine. I'm willing to make a settlement with Nellie for all the aggravation I've put her through. Whatever you think is fair, sir.”

“What?” shrieked Nellie. “How
dare
you! How dare you deny this is your child! You're insane! Settle with me? I already have it all—you can't settle with me!” Little Philly started to cry, his chin trembling at the harsh, strident words.

“Now look what you've done, you've made him cry!” Nellie ran into the house, gave him over to the nanny and was back at poolside in less than two minutes, her eyes shooting sparks.

“I can't believe you're doing this to me,” she cried. “This should be the happiest moment in our lives, and you're standing there in that handsome uniform lying to my face!

“You've fallen in love with someone else, haven't you?” she continued, groping wildly for a plausible diversion. At her husband's startled expression she realized her shot in the dark had hit home. Daniel saw it, too. “And now you don't want me anymore or Little Philly. You found someone else, and you think you can get rid of us. Well, it isn't going to work, Philippe. I don't care about myself, but we have a son to consider. I stayed home, was faithful, I wrote you every single day, and I had the baby alone while you were falling in love with someone else.”

She turned to her father. “
Now
do you believe me?” she demanded. At Daniel's obvious distress and uncertainty, she shrieked in frustration and flailed her fists in the air. “All
right!
I don't care if you do or not! You can go to hell!” She whirled on Philippe. “Get out of here, husband
dear,
and don't come back. Or I'll get a restraining order from the police!”

Daniel's stomach churned as he watched his daughter run into the house. The vicious pounding in his head was making him nauseated. He turned to Philippe. “Is it true? Have you fallen in love with someone else?”

“Yes, sir, that's true,” Philippe replied soberly, “but it just happened. It has nothing to do with why I left Nellie. I am not that child's father. I never touched your daughter!”

“I think we better leave. And I wouldn't come back here, Philippe,” Daniel advised. “Nellie will get a restraining order. Everything is on her side, and I have to be honest, you don't have a chance in court. The baby makes all the difference, and if I'm called as a witness, I'll have to testify that you admitted you're in love with someone else. Think very carefully, Philippe. Whoever it is you're in love with is innocent in all of this, and you don't want to drag her through a mud-slinging divorce. You don't want to ruin her name. This is what your father would tell you.”

Philippe seethed. “That's
not
what my father would tell me, and you damn well know it. He'd tell me to fight for what's right. I told you the truth—Nellie is the one who's lying. Jesus, can't you see it? She's
sick,
Mr. Bishop!”

“I don't want to hear any more, Philippe,” Daniel snapped. “Believe it or not, I am not involved in all of this. However, there is one thing you should know. Bebe came to my office a little while ago and I gave her my two voting certificates. I believe she intends to turn them over to you. I agreed to the transfer only because I felt, as she did, that Mickey—and Reuben—would have wanted it that way. But I absolutely refuse to take sides between you and Nellie. You'll have to straighten out this mess yourselves. I suggest you do it legally….”

Philippe smarted over Daniel's words all the way back to his mother's house. This couldn't be happening to him, it just couldn't. How could a young woman so pretty and innocent-looking be so evil? The baby was…whose? The fact that he now held the controlling interest in Fairmont didn't fully register until he reached Bebe's house and saw the stock certificates on the table, where his mother sat waiting for him.

He was angrier than he'd ever been in his life. He was also scared. “More than anything,” he told his mother, “I feel guilty. All those years when my…other mother tried to safeguard her fortune for me, I took it for granted. Now it's gone, in trust for a child I don't even know.”

“But Nellie has control of that trust,” she pointed out. “She made sure of that. You're going to have to see an attorney first thing tomorrow. If nothing else, the wheels will be in motion. How did Daniel take it?”

Philippe grinned wryly. “He talked more like a lawyer than a father. I had the feeling there was a lot of strain between him and Nellie. Also, I think those two certificates were a thousand-pound weight on his shoulders. If you want my opinion, I think he was relieved to part with them.”

Philippe's gaze was far away as he idly stirred a fresh cup of coffee. “I won't win any court contest. Nellie…Nellie homed in on the fact that I'm in love with someone else. She said I wanted to be rid of her and the baby so I could be with my new love…made a big deal about being loyal and waiting, having the baby alone and writing me all these letters…. Mr. Bishop asked me how I got into flight school, and I told him about Mr. Sugar. Nellie will probably use that, too. I'll be painted as a bogus war hero trying to steal a child's trust fund so I can go off with my girlfriend.”

Mother and son stared across the table at each other. From outside came the happy sounds of the children frolicking in the pool. “Cut my losses and go on from here, right?” Philippe said at last. Bebe nodded. “I never wanted the studio. I still don't want it. I made no plans for the future, and I don't know why. I guess I didn't want to think that I might eventually end up here. Mike knows what he wants to do. He was born to fly, and that's what he does best. He's going to take out a loan and open up a flying school. I was going to surprise him and give him the money. Now I can't do that. It looks like I have no other choice but to come back to the studio. There's nothing I can do about Lizzie, either. If I file for divorce, Nellie will contest it, and I know they'll paint Lizzie as some kind of…I can't do that to her,” he said miserably.

“You're standing on a very rocky road, Philippe. It's a terrible feeling, I know because I've been over that road.” Bebe sighed. “It's definite, then, you aren't going to fight Nellie?”

“I'll talk to a lawyer, but for every reason I can come up with to fight her, there are three more why I shouldn't.” He shook his head. “I don't want to hurt Lizzie or have her family dragged into something because of my stupidity. The baby…that's her ace in the hole and she knows it. Whoever would have thought she'd be that devious, that evil?”

Bebe grimaced. “Jane knew. She saw it first. In my heart I know Daniel agrees, but unless he sees Nellie take an ax and kill someone, he isn't going to do anything. He is so incredibly loyal. In the end, if it comes down to the wire and he has to choose, really has to choose between what you say and what Nellie says, he'd go with you. At least the old Daniel would. What strange paths we've all taken,” she said sadly.