Undone (17 page)

“Oh, she’s cute, all right,” he said cheerfully. “She can also be a handful. But come.” He again touched her back, and escorted her into the foyer. The plan was in motion again, and she was powerless to stop it. Besides, she told herself, Dez was probably right about Maddy. He
must
be right. In any case, it was far too late, now, to second-guess him, or the plan.

He closed the door behind them and they were enveloped in the darkness of the unlit foyer. She turned to him. He put his arms around her and said in a steady voice, “Everything is going to be fine.” Although Jasper, recalling Pauline’s dark, baleful gaze at his departure yesterday, was not at all sure that this was true.

H
e abandoned the carry-on by the front door, then led her toward the light at the end of the short entry hall, to the wide door that looked onto the living room. There, they stopped. On their right were the sliding glass doors that, in daytime, gave a view onto the patio, lawn and Sound. But it was now night, and the windows were black mirrors that doubled the width of the room and twinned everything within it, including Maddy, who had taken up position behind the wheelchair where Pauline sat, facing them, halfway down the room.

“I’ll bring her!” Maddy cried as she began trying to wrestle the unwieldy chair into motion.

“Just leave Mom,” Jasper said. “We’ll come over.”

As they approached, Jasper saw Pauline’s eyes boring into Chloe, her gaze cold, hostile. He had allowed himself to believe that Pauline might disguise her displeasure, soften it—if only to minimize social embarrassment. But apparently the threat she felt from Holly’s ghost was so acute, she could do nothing to mask it. He suddenly understood the unnamed discomfort that had assailed him, on the driveway, at the sight of Chloe’s beauty. He had been, unconsciously, anticipating Pauline’s reaction to this vision of youthful loveliness, which could only exacerbate whatever miseries of jealousy and threat Pauline felt over the encroachment of dead Holly’s ghost.

They halted a few paces in front of her and stood side by side, at attention, like soldiers on parade inspection. Jasper cleared his throat, licked his lips and pulled his facial muscles into a smile.

“Pauline,” he said, “this is Chloe. Chloe, this is Pauline—your stepmother.”

“She can hear everything you say!” Maddy shouted.

“She knows that,” said Jasper. “And there’s no need to yell.”

Chloe made a tentative bow. “It’s nice to meet you,” she said in a voice barely audible.

She stood, in a state of agonized self-consciousness, as Pauline’s eyes picked their way down her body, lingering on the short skirt and the long expanse of bare legs. How she longed, now, to be wearing a floor-length skirt—or sensible dress pants! Finally, Pauline’s gaze moved back up to Chloe’s face. Jasper, looking on breathlessly, noted how Pauline’s eyes drilled into the girl, like lasers, and she did not blink in acknowledgment of
Chloe’s shy pleasantry. This was worse than he had feared. He only hoped that Chloe did not realize it.

That hope was dashed when the girl turned to him, a look of wild panic on her face. Jasper pretended not to see it and—determined to fill the expanding silence—spoke up. “We had a good drive,” he said, looking back and forth between the two women. “The traffic wasn’t too bad.”

Pauline made no reaction: no blink, no twinkle of curiosity in her eyes. Chloe, frozen in fear, remained silent.

“And the hearing itself,” Jasper continued, “went without any problems—although the judge was quite pompous and eccentric, wasn’t he, Chloe?” He turned to her, trying to draw her out. Chloe, however, declined to accept the conversation ball tossed to her, pressing her lips together and dropping her eyes.

Maddy spoke up. “What’s a hearing?”

“Please, Maddy,” he said. “The grown-ups are talking.”

“Chloe isn’t,” Maddy observed. “Asides, she told me she’s
not
a grown-up.”

“Maddy—” he began, but just then Deepti emerged from the kitchen. She was wearing a black-and-white striped cooking apron and holding a stirring spoon.

“Hello! Hello!” she cried out. “I was in the basement, getting something from the freezer, when you came in!”

“I was about to bring Chloe to meet you,” Jasper said. “Chloe, this is Deepti—I’ve told you about her.”

Chloe turned and saw a short, middle-aged woman with dark, lovely skin and a warm smile beaming at her. She felt an absurd urge to throw herself into the woman’s arms and start crying.

“It is a pleasure,” said Deepti, shaking Chloe’s hand. She looked at Jasper. “My goodness—so beautiful! No one told me! Like a model!”

“Deepti is a wonderful cook,” he said, quickly changing the topic. “Wait until you taste her food.”

“Do you like paella?” Deepti asked the girl.

Chloe looked at Jasper, her face registering terror. “I’ve never had it,” she whispered.

“It’s wonderful,” he said. “I think you’ll love it.”

Once again, Chloe felt a gust of gratitude for the kindly way that Ulrickson spoke to her in that comforting tone, so attentive of her insecurity. He seemed able to read her thoughts and emotions, just as she used to dream that a real father might.

“Well,” Deepti said, “it is ready now, if you are hungry.”

Ordinarily, the family ate in the kitchen, informally, around the Saarinen tulip table. But for the special occasion of Chloe’s arrival, Deepti had set the long mahogany table in the dining area at the far end of the large living space. Pauline’s wheelchair was drawn up to a corner beside Jasper, who sat at the head of the table. Chloe was to his left, and Maddy beside her. Maddy ignored her own food in the interest of watching Chloe raise each bite of the paella to her mouth. She kept up a running commentary on the girl’s actions: “Chloe isn’t eating any of the shrimp!” “Chloe doesn’t eat very much.” “She eats so slow.” “How come Chloe doesn’t get any wine?” (Jasper had poured himself a glass of pinot grigio.)

“Please leave your sister to eat in peace,” Jasper said. “She can’t drink wine until she’s twenty-one, and that’s still a long way off.”

“Daddy is going to be
forty-two
soon,” Maddy stated.

Chloe, who had been keeping her face close to her plate, looked up at Jasper.

“Next month,” he told her. “The tenth. Some of us are more excited at the prospect than others.”

Chloe did not smile and only lowered her eyes back to her plate. But a few seconds later, she ventured a glance at Pauline and saw that she was staring at her with that same freezing hatred. It was uncanny, as if the poor woman had somehow divined the plan. But that, of course, was not possible.

With Maddy’s commentary stanched, the table and room fell into a silence punctuated only by the sound of forks clinking against brittle china, a sound that accentuated the pall that had fallen. Jasper racked his exhausted brain for a topic of conversation that might draw Chloe out a little, and demonstrate to Pauline that she was a sweet child, not deserving of anyone’s enmity.

“Maybe you’d like to tell Pauline—your stepmom—a little about today,” Jasper said. “The courthouse was unexpectedly interesting, I thought. Architecturally.”

Chloe glanced up at Pauline, then over at Jasper. “I guess so,” she said timidly. “I never was in one before.”

“No, of course not,” Jasper said. They fell to eating again in silence.

Deepti came to collect the dinner plates. Chloe jumped up and began to help clear the table. Deepti said that she did not have to do that, but Chloe insisted. Anything to get away from the table.

“Isn’t that great of her?” Jasper whispered eagerly to Pauline
when Chloe was in the kitchen putting a stack of plates on the counter. “I think she’s going to be a
big
help around here.”

Pauline answered with a look of such murderous hostility that he immediately fell silent.

Chloe came back into the room. She had taken her shoes off and was padding around in her bare feet. “Did we get everything?” she said, scanning the table.

“Yes, that’s fine,” Jasper said. “Let’s move to the living room.”

He steered Pauline over to one end of the sofa, parked her there and took a seat beside her. Chloe made one last trip from dining area to kitchen, carrying the salt and pepper shakers and two glasses, then came into the living room. Her eyes darted back and forth over the grouping of chairs and sofas around the glass coffee table, and after a moment she stepped over and carefully lowered herself onto the sofa beside Jasper—a spot she chose because it put him as a physical barrier between her and the terrifying Pauline.

Maddy, who had been sent to the bathroom to brush her teeth before bed, charged into the living room crying out, “I wanna sit beside Chloe!” She leapt onto the sofa, clambered onto the cushion between Jasper and Chloe, and then settled herself, legs outstretched.

“So,” he said, smiling stiffly and rubbing his hands together as if to warm them, “what do you think of Connecticut so far, Chloe?” He was determined to get her talking.

Chloe, too, was determined to overcome her nervousness. She cleared her throat and said, “It’s very nice,” addressing herself to Pauline. “But I haven’t seen very much of it yet,” she added with
a shy smile. “Like, just the highway—and now this room. And they’re—they’re very nice.” Chloe was mortified at the vapidity of this halting utterance but was surprised to see that the effort seemed to have brought a slight softening in Pauline’s gaze. Jasper, thrilled, noticed it too.

“Will you play the alphabet game with me?” Maddy asked, tugging at Chloe’s arm.

“Maddy,” Jasper said, “Chloe just got here after a long, long drive. She’s relaxing now. Maybe tomorrow.”

“What’s the alphabet game?” Chloe asked.

“Trust me,” Jasper said, “you’ll be hearing all about it from Maddy. Speaking of whom …” he added, throwing Maddy a loaded glance.

“I don’t want to go to bed yet!” Maddy cried. “I wanna stay and talk!”

“You’ve got preschool tomorrow,” he said, “besides which, you’re already up a half hour past your bedtime. So it’s off to slumber land now, my darling.”

“I’ll only go if you carry me,” she announced flatly.

Sensing an opportunity, he quickly acceded. “Okay,” he said, rising from the sofa. “But no story tonight. I’m going to put you in bed, tuck you in, and that’s it.”

She hopped up into a standing position on the sofa cushion and then jumped into Jasper’s waiting arms. Chloe threw him a panicked look, clearly terrified at the prospect of being left alone with Pauline. Seeing that look of desperate entreaty, he almost took pity on Chloe and sent Maddy down the hall on her own, but he had resolved that Chloe and Pauline would
have to get to know each other sooner or later, and it might as well be sooner. But to give her something to do during his absence, he pointed out the stack of family photo albums on the shelf under the table at the end of the sofa. “You might want to take a look while I tuck Maddy in,” he said. Chloe fairly dived at the albums.

He carried Maddy down the hall to her bedroom. She obediently scrambled under the covers.

“So, what do you think?” he asked, standing beside her bed. “Is Chloe nice?”

“Yes!” Maddy said. “Are you going to marry her?”

“
Marry
her?” he almost shouted. He dropped his voice to a hissing whisper. “Don’t be silly. I explained to you: she’s my daughter. Daddies don’t marry their daughters! You know that.”

“Yeah,” Maddy said. “But Chloe is so pretty.”

“Now listen,” Jasper said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “Chloe is my daughter, same as you. That’s why she’s here. I want Mommy and me to finish raising her, just like we’re raising you. Besides, I have Mommy. Marry Chloe! What a silly thing to say!”

“I’m glad,” Maddy said. “Where will she sleep?”

“Sleep?” he said. “In the
bedroom
we made for her! In Mommy’s old office. You remember!”

“Oh yeah,” she said. Her jaws opened in a yawn. She was already bored with this topic. “Will you read to me?”

“You remember our deal,” he said. “Sleep.” He kissed her, stood and put out the light.
Marry Chloe!
If the idea weren’t so strange, he would have to laugh. The misapprehensions of children!

He returned to the living room.

Chloe, her head bent low, was looking intently through a photograph album, her legs crossed demurely, high at the thighs. Pauline sat, silent and watchful, near the end of the sofa. Without lifting her head, Chloe asked, “You went to Mexico?”

“For our honeymoon,” Jasper said, pausing at the dining table and pouring himself a fresh glass of wine. “One week in Ixtapa, on the west coast. This was before the drug cartels and beheadings. It was lovely.”

He came over and sat next to her. She had the album open on a double-page spread that showed Jasper and Pauline lounging in swimsuits in front of their hotel, a five-star place on a private beach. The hotel was built by an indigenous architect who outlawed air-conditioning and used ancient principles of cooling devised by the Mayans: the adobe-style brown clay walls were six feet thick to keep out heat, and the glassless windows had been cut fore and aft in the structure to allow the constant breeze off the ocean to aerate and cool the rooms naturally. Though spartan in appearance—on arrival, they thought they’d made a terrible mistake choosing the place, with its unadorned walls and bare tile floors—the hotel proved to be the most comfortable and strangely luxurious that they had ever stayed in. He explained all this to Chloe, who nodded dutifully.

He turned to Pauline. “Remember, honey? I got so sunburned the first day on the beach. I turned into a lobster and had to spend our second day lying in our room covered in lotion. Remember that, Paul?”

Pauline, whose eyes were fixed on the photo album, glanced
up at him and gave him a blink—a sign, perhaps, that she was coming out of her shell. The contrast between his memories of that week in Mexico and the sight of her now, a slightly hunched figure in a wheelchair, her balled fists and bent wrists in her lap, the right side of her face drooping slightly as if made of wax that was lightly melting, made him see her appalling debility with fresh eyes, and he felt a wave of sadness and horror he had not felt in some time, perhaps years.