For The Sake Of His Child
Page 16
‘Why aren’t you wearing the clothes I bought you? I don’t want you in old jeans and a sweater.’
She spoke too fast for him and Gina, who’d followed him into the room, interpreted.
‘For pity’s sake!’ Angelica muttered. ‘Don’t tell me he didn’t get that. What is he, dumb or something?’
‘No, he’s exceptionally intelligent,’ Gina said. ‘But he couldn’t see your lips and he doesn’t know the words yet.’
‘Well, get him into those things I brought. It’s top-quality designer gear and it cost me a bomb on Rodeo Drive. What’s he saying?’ For Joey was signing something.
‘The clothes are too small,’ Gina explained. ‘He’s grown a lot recently. ‘Does it matter what he wears?’
‘All right. Leave it. But make him hold this.’
Angelica took up a football and pressed it into Joey’s hands. ‘You like football, don’t you?’ she asked.
He shook his head.
‘Nonsense, of course you do. All kids like football.’
Carson entered the room, having overheard the last part of the conversation. ‘He doesn’t,’ he snapped. ‘It bores him. He’s interested in marine life.’
‘In what?’
‘Fish, to you.’
‘Well, if you think I’m going to let people see him holding a damned fish-! Of course he likes football.’
Joey shook his head.
‘Yes, you do! All boys like football. That’s how you know they’re boys.’
Joey tried to explain, using words since she didn’t understand signs. Angelica listened to the incoherent noises that came from his mouth, and she froze.
‘Look,’ she said, dropping down so that her face was on a level with her son’s, ‘I don’t want you doing this. Just keep quiet. OK?’
But in his urgency to explain the child ignored her. His quick brain lined the thoughts up too fast for his mouth to cope with. Sounds poured from him in a jumble and he grew more and more agitated.
So did Angelica. She rose and tried to pull away from him, but Joey seized her arm, trying to make her listen.
‘Yes-yes-’ she said, struggling to maintain her smile and free herself. ‘All right, all right, but not just now-careful-my dress.’
He couldn’t follow. He held her more tightly and words poured from him. ‘Mom-mee, mom-mee-’
In his agitation he didn’t notice a tall glass of milk-shake on the table. His sleeve brushed it, sending it flying, and next moment strawberry milk was sprayed over Angelica’s beautiful gown.
‘Look at me!’ she screamed. She whirled on Joey. ‘What’s the matter with you, brat? I thought you were supposed to be normal now.’
Gina tensed at the look on Joey’s face. He’d read Angelica’s lips without trouble. He’d also heard her, not making out individual words, but sensing the malevolence in her tone.
In that moment Joey understood all about his mother, and his eyes filled with tears.
Gina began to edge carefully towards the child, letting him see her and know she was there, but not putting pressure on him. Young as he was, what happened next was for him to decide.
Angelica pulled herself together, evidently realising that she was ruining her own performance. Somehow she hoisted a fractured smile into place.
‘I’ll have to go and change, won’t I? I’ve just got time before the press arrive.’ She tried to sound ingratiating. ‘You didn’t mean to spoil Mummy’s dress, did you?’
Joey didn’t answer. He just looked at her.
‘I hope you’re not going to look so stupid when they’re taking your picture,’ Angelica snapped.
‘Nobody’s going to take his picture,’ Carson said quietly. ‘This farce is over. Get out of here, now!’
She gave him her gayest laugh. ‘Why, darling, you don’t mean that. What a fuss about a little blip.’
‘I never meant anything more seriously in my life. Get your things together and leave.’
‘Don’t be silly. The press will be here any minute.’
‘Yes, they will, and if you’re still here I’ll give them a story that will make your public look at you with new eyes.’
Angelica played her last card. Turning to Joey, she cried, ‘You don’t want me to go, do you, darling?’
He didn’t answer, but stood looking at her steadily.
She raised her voice. ‘You want me to stay. You love Mummy, don’t you?’
Joey regarded her in silence for a long moment. Then he stepped close to Gina, and took her hand.
‘Yes,’ he said simply and clearly.
At first Gina wondered if she’d understood right. Surely Joey couldn’t mean…?
Then she found him looking up at her, his eyes full of thoughts too old for his years. He had meant exactly that.
‘You’ve had your answer, Brenda,’ Carson said.
‘Don’t call me that!’
‘I’d have put up with you for Joey’s sake, but now that even he’s seen through you you’ve got no hold on me any more. In fact, it’s the other way round. You cause any trouble and I’ll give the press a story that will finish your “image” for good, and destroy what’s left of your career.’
Angelica visibly blenched. ‘You can’t do that. You mustn’t-it’s all I-’
‘It’s all you’ve got left,’ Carson supplied. ‘Yes. Once you had a husband and son who adored you but you threw them away. So now they’ve both chosen somebody else-a real woman, with a heart, that they’ll both love as long as they live. Now go and pack. There’ll be a taxi here when you come down.’
‘You think you’re so clever, the pair of you,’ Angelica snapped. ‘But I’ve still got friends. I’ll tell them what you did to me, how you threw me out to make way for some speech therapist-’
‘Lawyer,’ Carson snapped.
‘No,’ Gina said quickly. ‘Speech therapist sounds much better, doesn’t it, Angelica? Someone who understands Joey and can help him-which, as a loving mother, is all that you want.’
‘What?’
‘You’ve been treated really badly,’ Gina went on. ‘You’ll get a lot of sympathy when you tell the world.’
‘Gina!’ Carson exploded, but she held up a hand to silence him. And he drew a sharp breath, for suddenly he could see the knives flashing from her eyes.
‘If you time it right,’ Gina went on, ‘the first interview will appear the day Carson’s divorce becomes final.’
‘The first interview?’ Angelica echoed slowly.
‘I’m sure someone with your skill can get two bites of the apple. Carson and I will be getting married in a few weeks. I’ll let you know the date, and you can give another interview that will really spoil the day for us.’
That thought brought a smile of malicious pleasure to Angelica’s face. Gina watched it with contemptuous pity. As though anything this creature could do would spoil the day she became Carson’s wife!
The eyes of the two women met. Somewhere in the silence a deal was made.
‘Of course,’ Angelica said at last, ‘for my child’s sake I’m ready to make the sacrifice-even if it means giving up my husband and home…’
She spoke slowly because calculations were seething through her brain. For a moment they could all see the headlines that would proclaim her a martyred saint.
‘And since neither Carson nor I are going to talk to journalists,’ Gina added, ‘there’ll be nobody to contradict you.’
‘You say that, but what about you?’ She turned on Carson. ‘Does she speak for you?’
‘Of course,’ he said in disgust. ‘Get out of my hair, and I’ll keep out of yours. I won’t sell any fewer engines because of what you say about me.’
‘But you and Joey must stay in touch,’ Gina offered her quickly. ‘In a while, when he can talk properly, we might visit you out there, and you and he can-’
Angelica swung around so that she was facing Gina and hidden from Joey.
‘Get real,’ she muttered. ‘He’s a
ll yours.’ To Carson she said, ‘Make sure that taxi’s there in ten minutes.’
She went upstairs. A few minutes later she had left the house without a backward look.
Joey watched his mother’s departure in silence, staying close to Gina. He’d been hurt, but in another way he’d also come to the end of his hurt. Like his father, he had made his choice, and it was for ever.
When they were alone he tugged at Gina’s hand.
You won’t go away now?
‘No, I’m staying always, darling.’
‘I’m going to make sure of that,’ Carson said.
Joey touched his father’s sleeve, indicated Gina and put his hands together as if clapping, the fingers of one hand folded over the back of the other.
‘I don’t know that one, son.’
‘It means marry,’ Gina said huskily.
‘Yes, we’re going to marry,’ Carson told him.
When?
‘Next month.’
Joey made another gesture.
‘That’s right,’ Carson agreed. ‘We do-all three of us.’
‘Did you understand that one?’ she asked shakily.
‘Yes, but only because you taught me. Without you, I might never have understood.’
‘Do it, Carson. I’ve heard you say it, but I’d like to see you say it, just once.’
He nodded. Gravely he faced her, folded his hands and crossed them on his breast.
‘Love,’ he said.
Lucy Gordon
Lucy Gordon cut her writing teeth on magazine journalism, interviewing many of the world’s most interesting men, including Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain, Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guinness, and Sir John Gielgud. She also camped out with lions in Africa and had many other unusual experiences which have often provided the background for her books. She is married to a Venetian, whom she met while on holiday in Venice. They got engaged within two days.
You can visit her website at www. lucy-gordon. com and look out for The Italian’s Passionate Revenge which will be available in May!
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