Family Ties

by Danielle Steel

  “You just can’t protect them forever though,” Tom reminded her, and she shook her head, disagreeing with him.

  “Maybe not. But I have to at least try.”

  “You still can’t stop them, and they still do what they want. Look at Katie, and Ted. My guess is that he’ll go back to this woman, out of guilt.” Annie was afraid that he was right. She could see that happening too.

  They sat and talked for a long time after they finished their ice cream, and Tom finally stood up to go home. He kissed her before he left and told her to call him if she needed anything. She promised that she would and thanked him for his help. He looked profoundly upset. And so did she.

  Annie heard Ted’s cell phone ring just after midnight, and she tiptoed into his room to turn it off. It had awakened him by then, and as she left the room, Annie could tell it was Pattie on the phone. She didn’t want to eavesdrop on him, but she could sense that the conversation had started just as she thought. Pattie was blaming him for pushing her over the edge. She was saying that the stab wound in his hand was his fault. Annie could hear him apologizing to her. Pattie had him completely spun around. And she suspected that Pattie was furious he had called his aunt. She would blame him for that too. Ted looked exhausted when Annie kissed him goodnight.

  “Just get some sleep. Don’t think about any of it tonight. Why don’t you stay here for a while?” Annie suggested to him as she turned off the light.

  “She wants me to come back,” he said in a beaten voice. She had said everything Annie had predicted she would. She was blaming him.

  “We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Don’t worry about it tonight.” He nodded and closed his eyes, grateful to be home. His eyes fluttered open for a moment, and he thanked her again. She kissed him on the forehead then and walked out of the room. It had been a long night, and she was sorry that Tom had gotten dragged into it too. He had been incredibly understanding about the whole thing and their disrupted dinner at La Grenouille.

  In the morning, Ted was still asleep when Annie got up. She had an early meeting and had to leave. Kate was in her room, and Annie left the apartment quietly. She had left Ted a note telling him to take it easy and stay at the apartment all day. The last thing she wanted was for him to go back to Pattie. Who knew what she would do this time? Annie had asked him in the note to call her when he woke up.

  He was in the kitchen, looking ghastly, when Kate walked in to get something to eat. She had no idea he had slept there, and she looked stunned when she saw the huge bandage on his hand. It was throbbing miserably by then. The pain medication had worn off.

  “What happened to you?” she asked, staring at his hand with a worried look. “Did you get in a fight?” It was hard to imagine. He never had, even as a kid. She wondered if he’d been jumped by a mugger or something.

  He nodded and looked at his sister with tired eyes. “Yeah, I did. With Pattie. I upset her, and she did something stupid. She didn’t mean to, but I pissed her off. It was really my fault.” She had convinced him of it the night before. Annie would have shuddered if she’d been there to hear what he just said. He had been the perfect abuse victim at Pattie’s hands. And he had no idea what had hit him. It was a classic case of abuse, and it was now all his fault, according to Pattie. And Ted believed her.

  “What happened to your hand?” Katie asked as she sat down and looked at him. His eyes looked dead, and the circles under them were almost black.

  “She stabbed me with a steak knife. I shouldn’t have made her mad.”

  “Are you kidding?” Katie looked at him, shocked. “People piss me off all the time. I don’t stab them with a steak knife. Is she nuts?” Hers was the right reaction to have.

  “She’s a very emotional person,” he explained, “and I upset her.”

  “She sounds crazy to me. And dangerous. If I were you, I wouldn’t stick around.”

  “We’re having a baby,” he said as Kate’s eyes opened wide. “In September. She wants to get married.”

  “I’ll bet she does,” Kate commented. “You aren’t going to, I hope. She’s twelve years older than you are.”

  “It’s a little late to think of that now,” he said, looking unhappy. And then he heard his cell phone ring and hurried back to his bedroom.

  The next time Katie saw him, he was dressed and his hair was combed haphazardly, as best he could with his left hand, and he told her he was going back to his place for a while to get some things. She knew he was lying and he was going to see Pattie. She wanted to stop him but didn’t know how. She had the feeling that nothing would have. He was a man on a mission, a robot being controlled by someone else. He turned as he got to the front door and looked at his sister, as she stared at him.

  “If Annie calls, tell her I’m asleep. I’ll be back soon.”

  “I’m going to work,” Katie said to him in a voice full of pity. “Be careful,” she warned him, looking worried, and he nodded, and then left.

  Once Ted got to Pattie’s, everything was all right. She held him and crooned to him. She treated him like a baby and cradled his injured hand. She told him that she forgave him for everything he had done the night before, and he thanked her and then burst into tears. He was still crying when she started to fondle him, and then he made love to her to make up for what he’d done. He missed all his classes and never went back to Annie’s that night. Pattie had won another round.

  Chapter 17

  Tom called Annie at her office two days after Pattie’s attack on Ted with the steak knife. He’d been working on a breaking story the day before, about a political scandal in Washington that had just been revealed, involving two senators, and he hadn’t had time to call her. Annie had learned by then that when Tom didn’t call her, it was for an important reason. He wasn’t dealing with domestic crises or unreliable contractors, he was reporting on major events in the news, or international crises, or being sent halfway around the world on short notice.

  “How’s Ted doing?” he asked in a quiet moment, which he said was usually the calm before the storm in his line of work. But it was obvious that despite the stressful moments, challenging demands, and network politics, he loved what he did, and Annie was fascinated by it. He existed in such a broad world, and he knew everything that went on behind the scenes in world events. She loved hearing about it from him. But she sounded discouraged when she answered. Her life was so much smaller than his, and her focus now was on Ted and the dilemma he was in.

  “I don’t know. He was with her yesterday, the minute I left for work. Katie says she called him, and he said he had to see her. He never came back last night. I’m sure she wouldn’t let him. And now every time I don’t hear from him, I’m scared to death she’s going to hurt him.” In Annie’s eyes, the incident with the steak knife was no small thing, and Tom agreed with her. Pattie had crossed the line, and having done that once, there was no way to predict how far she would go, or where she would stop. Ted had fallen into the clutches of an unbalanced, dangerous woman, possibly a sociopath. She sounded psychotic to Annie, and Ted had ten stitches to prove it.

  “I was afraid he’d go back,” Tom said quietly, sorry for him and for Annie. He knew how worried about him she was. “I was in a situation like that once, at his age. A gorgeous lunatic of a girl who was on hard drugs. Situations like that are so abusive, and it’s hard to get out once you’re in them. You keep waiting for things to calm down, and they never do. People like her thrive on chaos.”

  “And he’s so naïve,” Annie said mournfully. “He’s way out of his league. And now with a baby on the way.”

  “He’s a bright kid. He’ll get out of it eventually,” Tom reassured her. “But it may take a while, and I know it’s hard on you.”

  “It’s a lot harder on him.” She and Katie had talked about it the night before until the wee hours, hoping he would come home, but he didn’t, and he wasn’t answering his phone. He had answered a text from Kate at one point, saying he was okay, but that was all the
y had heard. At least they knew he was alive.

  “I was actually calling to ask you if you’d like to have dinner. There’s a new restaurant I want to try. It might be fun.” She didn’t feel very lighthearted, but she appreciated his calls, and she liked spending time with him.

  “I’m sorry my life is such a mess right now,” she said apologetically. “We were all sane a few weeks ago, or a couple of months anyway. Now Ted is being held hostage by a psychopath and having a baby, and Katie is threatening to go to Iran. The only sane one at the moment is Liz,” despite the breakup with her boyfriend, which she seemed to have weathered well. She had been very sensible about it and said she was taking a break from dating for a while, until she felt ready to make a commitment herself. “And I’m not feeling so sane myself with all this going on.” She was worried sick about Katie’s prospective trip, but at least they hadn’t set any dates yet. For now it was just an idea, which Annie viewed as a threat. She was hoping they’d change their minds. But none of it was an atmosphere conducive to her being happy and relaxed, or enjoying a new man in her life. And it couldn’t be easy for him, Annie knew, trying to get to know her and figure out who was on first. But so far Tom had rolled with the punches pretty well.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Tom said calmly, “it happens. It’s called real life. No one’s life can be smooth all the time. And usually when things go wrong, they come in bunches. It happens to me too. My mother died unexpectedly while I was getting divorced, and my father had Alzheimer’s and I had to put him in a home, while trying to unwind my life with my ex-wife. It wasn’t fun for me then either.” He’d also had a brief romance then that had gone right down the tubes because of it. He couldn’t concentrate on that many things at once. He had broken it off with her, and when he called her again a few months later, she had met someone else. It was just the way life worked, and he knew Annie was under a lot of stress at the moment.

  “How about dinner tonight?” he suggested. “I know it’s short notice, but it might do you good.”

  “I’d love it,” she said, determined to make it a pleasant evening and not tell him all her problems. She wanted time to enjoy him too. And for the rest of the afternoon, she tried to concentrate on lightening her mood. She almost succeeded—until a burst pipe in one of the houses she was designing caused a hundred thousand dollars’ worth of damage and destroyed an important piece of art. And she had to deliver the news to the client, who went through the roof. She was still upset about it when she got dressed for their date that night and there was no news from Ted. She tried to release that from her mind too, for now, since there was nothing she could do about it. However naïve he was, Ted was an adult and had gotten himself into this mess in the first place. Now it was Annie’s turn to enjoy a quiet evening and a good dinner with a man she liked. It didn’t seem like too much to ask.

  She put on one of the new outfits Liz had picked for her, and she was starting to feel better, when Kate walked into her room with a serious expression.

  “Can I talk to you?” she asked as Annie hesitated and looked at her.

  “Why does that sound ominous to me?” Annie asked her as she put on lipstick. Tom was due any minute. She wondered too why kids always broached important subjects just as you were walking out the door, or the phone rang with the crucial call you’d been waiting for for weeks. Murphy’s Law. “If it’s something pleasant, you just say it, you don’t ask for my permission to talk to me.” Katie smiled at what she said. “Which tells me that this might be something I won’t like hearing.” Katie didn’t deny it.

  “Yeah, maybe that’s true,” Katie conceded with a rueful look.

  “Is it important?” Annie asked as she put her lipstick in her purse.

  “Sort of,” Kate admitted.

  “Then let’s talk about it later or tomorrow. I’m just about to walk out the door. I want to pay attention to whatever this is. And right now I have a date with Tom, and I want to focus on that and enjoy him.”

  “Okay,” Katie said glumly. She didn’t look pleased to be put off, but she could see that Annie was going out. “You look pretty, by the way.”

  “Thank you. I’m hoping to have a decent evening with Tom, without anyone getting stabbed, announcing that they’re pregnant, or scaring the hell out of me. I think he’s beginning to think we’re all crazy.”

  Tom appeared on schedule, looking handsome and relaxed. And he smiled broadly when he saw Annie. The new additions to her wardrobe were working well for her. The contractor at the flooded construction site called her just as they were walking out the door and told her that they had discovered a second painting that had been damaged. This one was a Picasso. And Annie said calmly that she would call him about it tomorrow. There was nothing she could do about it now. It was her time with Tom.

  “Something wrong?” He had sensed her tension when she took the call.

  “We had a flood at a construction site this afternoon, and two very valuable paintings got damaged. The client was upset, to say the least. That was the contractor. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.”

  “I never realized how stressful architecture can be,” he said as they got in the elevator.

  “It’s always stressful when you’re dealing with deadlines and high-powered clients. And building a house or remodeling one brings out the worst in people. About one in five of my clients, or even one in four, get divorced. If you have a shaky marriage, the last thing you want to do is build a house together.”

  “Actually, that’s true,” he said pensively. “I’d forgotten about it, but the last straw for us was a remodel we decided to do on our apartment. It cost a fortune, which pissed me off, and she was mad that I was never there to talk to the contractor. When we decided to break up, we sold it, and I was thrilled.”

  “See what I mean? I feel like a marriage counselor sometimes. Perfectly sane people turn into monsters when they redo houses, and if they have a good marriage, they take it out on me. In the bad marriages, I get caught in the crossfire.”

  “Have you considered retiring?” he teased her. He knew she couldn’t do that.

  “I’d be too bored,” she said honestly, “and I worked too hard to get here. Besides, the insurance money for the kids started to run out a few years ago, and I want to help them.” She was paying for Ted’s law school.

  “They’re lucky they have you,” he said as they got into a chauffeur-driven town car he had hired for the evening since it was so cold. He didn’t want Annie freezing while they waited for cabs. And she couldn’t walk long distances with her crutches. He tried to make things easy for her. No one else ever had before.

  The new restaurant he took her to was beautiful, and the food was delicious. Annie wasn’t hungry after all the crises she’d been dealing with, but she was happy to be there. She picked at her food, and Tom noticed it and asked her if she didn’t like it. He looked disappointed. He had wanted to take her out for a special evening, and he could see that she was tired, although she made an effort to keep up the conversation with him.

  “I’m just not used to having a social life,” she admitted. “I usually get home late from work and fall into bed. I can manage kid problems and work and all that goes with it, but I’m not used to getting dressed up and going out too.” He had the same trouble socializing at the end of a long day, but he hadn’t wanted to wait until the weekend to see her.

  “I have an idea,” he said to her as they shared a dessert. It had been a beautiful meal, and the chef had sent them several treats and surprises to impress them. Restaurants often did that when he dined out. “I know it’s a little soon, and we wanted to be sensible and move slowly. But we’ve been going out for nearly a month now, and I don’t think we’re going to get any peace and quiet around here. What do you say we go away for a weekend? If you prefer, we can get separate rooms. But I’d like to take you away somewhere. How does that sound to you?” It sounded both wonderful and a little nerve-racking to Annie. It was a step she hadn’t
been ready to take yet, but she could see that he was discouraged by the chaos in her life and by having to fight for her time and attention. She was lucky he was even willing to hang in. She wasn’t sure she would have in his shoes.

  “It sounds fantastic,” she said softly. “Where were you thinking?” With Ted in such a volatile situation, she wasn’t sure if she should go far away, but he wasn’t five years old either, and she didn’t want to say it to Tom. He was trying so hard to please her and give them the best chance he could for success. She couldn’t have asked for more from any man. And he genuinely liked her and wanted to give their relationship a decent shot. For a moment she thought it was more than she deserved.

  “Why don’t you leave it to me? I’ll see if I can find someplace fun for us to go, where we’ll have peace.” He smiled at her and put a hand on hers on the table. So far their physical explorations with each other had involved only kisses. “What would you prefer? Two bedrooms or one?” She wanted to say two but didn’t have the courage. And she knew she would be nervous about it whenever they took the plunge.

  “One,” she said so softly he could barely hear her, and he smiled and put an arm around her.

  “How about two, and we can play it by ear.”

  “How did I get so lucky?” she asked, looking at him in amazement. “You could just tell me to go to hell.”

  “Yes, but think of what I’d miss. Love can be messy, and at our age it takes a little organizing and adjusting. My life isn’t always such smooth sailing either.”