"Not as much as you think." Leni smiled with tenderness and amusement. "In fact, he's very much like Felix. He's what Felix would have been if he had been a good man. Wes wants to dominate and control; he needs to know he's in the center of events; he doesn't suffer fools gladly or have patience with people who are slower than he. But Wes believes in love and intimacy, and Felix doesn't. Wes is willing to bend with someone he loves, and even learn. Felix can't; he has too much anger inside him. He needs to control people or, if he can't do that, defeat them. But when he can't win, or it's harder than he expected, his anger spills over, and he has to fight to control himself, to keep from exploding in public. Felix's life is one long balancing act, and that takes so much of his energy he doesn't have any left over for love and a family."
Laura was nodding. It was all true. Leni, who had lived
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with both men, saw them more clearly than anyone. "In the most important ways, they're very different."
Leni smiled. *That's why I'm marrying Wes. I don't mind being taken care of—in fact, I'm used to it and I prefer it— but I want to be loved, not owned." She paused reflectively. "A long time ago, before I met Felix, I was in love with someone. And when he sent me away, he said, Tind someone strong and powerful, someone who can use your strength. You'll be happy then.' It took more than twenty-eight years, but I think I've finally done it." There was another pause. "Will you and Paul come to visit us?"
"Of course. I'd like it if we're all friends."
They talked quietly, and Allison turned to join in, and it was the three of them, close together, that Felix saw when he returned, before he quickly jerked his head in another direction. He crossed the room, with Asa a few steps behind. Paul tried to read Asa's face but could not; his deep frown could be from anger or from shame at being cowed. He met his father's eyes, and Cole Hatton's. They couldn't count on Asa after all; he was too fearful.
This family is fueled by fear, Paul thought. Everyone is afraid someone will take something from us. If we had less money, we probably wouldn't be so worried. He wondered what the cutoff point was: with one sum of money people were happy, but if they had a dollar more, they pulled their wagons in a circle and lived in fear that the rest of the world might get too close. We'll have to teach oiu" children to be generous, he reflected, and to believe in themselves so they aren't afraid of taking risks, and to understand that the real tragedy is not losing money, but losing trust and love.
He reached out and took Laura's hand. She had been listening to Alhson, and she returned his clasp before she turned to him, her eyes sofr and warm on his, her smile as open as he remembered from the time they had first loved. The careful, closed look on her face was gone. And then Felix cleared his throat.
Standing behind Owen's desk, his gaze skidding around the room just above everyone's head, he called the meeting to order. *Thomas, you requested this meeting. You said you had questions about Salinger Hotels."
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"I do. But first"—^Paul felt Laura*s hand tighten on his—^'*there are some documents that might be helpful to us. If you would get them for us, Felix ... I believe they're in your safe."
Felix stared at him. "My safe? What are you talking about? There's nothing there of the slightest interest to anyone here."
"I believe there is," Thomas said easily.
Felix's eyes narrowed. He saw Paul and Ben watching him closely, and also Cole Hatton, while the others simply looked curious. They've put something together, he thought, and once again alarm cut through him. He'd gotten Asa in line, but, still, there seemed to be a conspiracy here. What the flick were they up to? He shook his head once, sharply. "If you have something to say, Thomas, you have the floor. If you want to try diversionary tactics to cover the fact that you haven't enough votes to accomplish anything, we can adjourn this meeting now."
Cole Hatton said lazily, "If there's something we ought to see in that safe, I for one want to see it."
"So do I," said Barbara Janssen.
"There doesn't seem to be much harm in opening it," said Paul.
Felix felt besieged. This wasn't random; they had orchestrated it.
"Well, why not?" one of the cousins asked. "At least then we could get on with the meeting."
"He knows what he has in his own safe," another cousin protested.
Another shrugged. "So? We could still open it; we're not getting anywhere this way." "Right," some of the others said. "Why not, FeUx?" "If they're wrong, it won't take any time to find out." "I don't get it, but what the hell?"
Surrounded by a rising chorus, Felix said angrily, *There is nothing in that safe. But if you insist on this charade . . ." He went to the comer behind him and pushed aside a large painting. He dialed the combination and swung the door open without bothering to glance inside. "As you see. Except for one or two documents relating to the purchase of this house— *'
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"What's that envelope?" Thomas asked. He was standing, and looking straight into the safe.
"What?" Felix asked.
^There's a rather sizable envelope in there. At the back, under some papers. I'd say it's more than one or two documents."
Unthinkingly, Felix yanked the door wide open and, reaching to the back of the safe, pulled out a thick envelope. Those sitting close to him could see, across the front of it, in a bold, black handwriting, Laura's name.
Felix recognized it. He stared at it as if it were alive. "It wasn't in there; it was thrown out with the trash, years ago— '* Abruptly, he stopped.
"Obviously not," Thomas said.
*That's Grandpa's handwriting!" Alhson exclaimed. "And it's addressed to Laura!" Bewildered, she looked at it in Felix's hand. "How did you get a letter addressed to Laura?"
Leni was watching Felix, frowning as she thought back. "Laura told us about a letter from Owen, a long time ago. She went to get it, to show it to us, but she couldn't find it." Still frowning, she looked around the room.
"Is that the letter?" Barbara Janssen asked.
Laura held out her hand. "May I see it, please?"
Felix's head felt as if something were being screwed tighter and tighter around it; he was having trouble breathing. In his own house: things happening he didn't know about. The envelope dropped from his hand. There was no way he could fathom its journey from Owen's study to his locked safe.
"Please," Laura repeated.
Felix looked at her with a dullness so unusual in him that everyone stared in shock and dismay. In the silence, Thomas reached to the floor and picked up the envelope. He walked across the room and gave it to Laura.
She closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the heavily textured envelope, remembering how Owen always hated flimsy stationery. One comer was slightly torn. It was a thing of wonder to her that she held it in her hands again, as she had seven years earlier, when she had asked Owen to keep it for her. Beneath her closed lids, tears filled her eyes. She opened them to see Paul holding out a handkerchief. She smiled at
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him as she took it. To the others, she said, "If you*ll excuse me . . .
It had been opened, she saw; someone had read it. Everyone was watching, except for Felix, who stared at the floor, the safe, the desk, and then back again. Laura took out the letter, many pages, closely written in Owen's bold, slanting strokes, and ran her trembling fingers over it; she could almost believe he was there, sitting at his desk, looking up now and then to smile at her as he filled pages and graph sheets with his notes.
"Perhaps you'll read it to us," said Paul.
"It's very long," Laura said. "And I think most of it is about renovating the hotels."
"Read us some of it," said Allison. She was crying. "Fm so ashamed. So ashamed. I didn't beUeve in it; I thought you were making it up. I don't know how you can ever forgive us. We were so incredibly cruel; I don't think we're usually like that; how could we do that to you?"
"I'd lied to you," Laura said
sofdy.
"Well, we can all apologize to each other later," said Leni. "Right now, I'd like to hear Laura read that letter, at least some of it. Unless you feel it is too personal, my dear."
"I don't know; I've never read it." Laura looked at the salutation. "But I don't mind."
"Please," Paul said, and she began to read. •
"Beloved Laura, it is a fine day outside, as fine as I feel. But at my age a prudent man contemplates his mortality, and the things he may never have a chance to finish, and so today, while my mind is clear and my hand still strong, and my heart perhaps steadier than ever, I am writing to put in concise form the plans you and I have made together, for my hotels, because you know better than anyone what they mean to me. But first I want you to know that I am planning to change my will, leaving to you a small part of the family company —"
Voices were raised. "Felix, when did you read this?" Barbara Janssen demanded.
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Felix said nothing; his gaze was fixed hypnotically on Owen's letter.
"Go on," Paul said to Laura.
"— a small part of the family company, and this house, and all of my own corporation. This means the hotels will be yours when I die, and therefore you will be the one to oversee their rebirth if I cannot "
"And you*ve done just that," Leni said. "So wonderfully. He was right to trust you."
Laura was skimming the letter, going through the pages. 'These are the plans we made; I'd remembered most of them. Oh, he wanted to change those outside lights; I'd forgotten that." The room was silent; no one wanted to interrupt. Then she drew in a sharp breath.
"What is it?" Paul asked.
Laura looked at him. "He knew. . . .**
She bent her head and read from the last page, her voice low.
"/ have respected your privacy, dearest Laura, but I must tell you 1 found it trying at times. I have known about your youthful peccadilloes for quite a while, including your conviction and probation for burglary. I thought you knew me well enough, my dear, to know that I am not happy with mysteries; I like a world where I know the answers. I did some checking with the New York Police Department, which is many years behind in cleaning out old files, and I found your secret. It seems very sad to me that you cannot trust me with it, even now, after all our years together. It tells me the depth of your fears that you cannot tell the truth and get the past over with. I hope, when you find your own triumphs as a wise, strong, very lovely woman, you will be able to deal with your past and make it part of your future. I'm afraid the chances are I won't be around to see that, but I feel sure it will happen. I'm so proud of you, dearest Laura; for a long time I have thought of you as the daughter Iris and I never had. And so I leave you something else in
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addition to those legacies I am adding to my will: my great pride in you, and my love, to carry with you after I am gone."
The last words were muffled. Laura was crying. Paul put his arm around her. 'There was a greatness to Owen," he said softly. "Someday, if I work at it, I may be almost the man he was."
There was a silence in the room. It wasn't only revenge I wanted, Laura thought through her tears. It wasn't to take on any opponent and win. It was to be worthy of Owen's love and trust and faith in me. I knew I wanted to fulfill his dream, but I didn't know how much I wanted to be worthy of him.
"I don't understand," Asa's wife, Carol, said. "If Fehx had the letter when Laura was looking for it, why didn't he show it to us? Why didn't you, Felix?"
"He didn't want to," one of the cousins said impatiently.
"Is that true, Felix?" asked another cousin. "You didn't want Laura to inherit?"
"That's an awful thing to say," objected a third cousin. "That would be . . . what would that be?"
"Fraud," said Thomas Janssen quietly.
Felix's head shot up. As if he were just awakening, he shook himself and focused his look on Thomas. "What was that?"
"Fraud," Thomas repeated. "It is fraud to withhold a document pertinent to a court case. The jury never would have found for you had they known about this letter."
"I didn't withhold it," Felix said shortly. "I never saw it."
"But you said it had been thrown out with the trash," Cole Hatton recalled. "How did you know that?"
There was a pause, then Felix shrugged. "I did see it, ear-Uer. It was on my father's desk."
"On it?" Thomas asked.
Once more he shrugged. "What difference does it make? It was in the drawer. I was looking for something and I found it. When I went back later, it was gone. I assumed, when"—he gestured toward Laura—^"didn't show it to the family, it had been thrown out. Evidently someone else had taken it. And planted it in my safe. That's a criminal act, planting evidence that incriminates someone."
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"It would be if you could prove it/* said Hatton. "Can you?"
"Is this an inquisition? That letter was planted! Someone wanted it to look as if Fve had it all these years. I did not have it! And that's all there is to it!"
*Tell me one thing," Thomas said. "If you saw it in Owen's desk, why didn't you tell us that when Laura said there had been a letter? I remember we all waited in Owen's library while she went to look for it. Why didn't you say anything then? And later, why didn't you tell the court? As a matter of fact, why did you even go to court? You knew, from the letter, that Owen was perfectly healthy when he decided to change his will, but you didn't say anything at the will reading, and you brought that suit to invalidate Laura's inheritance when you knew Owen wanted her to have it. I think we deserve an explanation of this; you took us into a painfiil lawsuit, with considerable publicity, and made us believe we'd been cheated by someone we cared for. We've been influenced by what you've done, Felix, and we deserve an explanation."
"Daddy?" Allison demanded. Her eyes blazed. "You hid it? You lied to us?"
"Shit," one of the cousins said and another said, "I wouldn't have believed it, you know?" and another called out, "What the hell for, Felix? I mean, she wasn't taking all that much from you."
"Daddy," Allison repeated furiously, "you stole! You blamed Laura for steahng, but you were the one who stole her inheritance! And you ruined what we had. We were all so happy! Why did you do it?"
Felix glared at all of them. "I am not required to explain anything. That document was placed in my safe illegally. She did it!" he roared, pointing at Laura. "She snuck in here— she's always been a thief—snuck in and planted it, and now she sits there, smirking, trying to make a fool of me. I can't believe you're taking her seriously!"
"I'm quite sure Laura did nothing of the kind," Thomas said. "But the fact is, it doesn't matter how it got there. It might have flown by itself into your safe, for all I care. What's really important is that you've admitted you saw it and concealed your knowledge of it. At the least, that's withhold-
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ing evidence. At the worst, it's fraud, and Laura could sue you, with all of us as witnesses. That would be bad for the hotels and therefore bad for all of us. Are you going to sue him, Laura?"
She shook her head. '1 don't know. Can I? After all these yearsT'
"Absolutely. There is no statute of limitations on fraud.**
Felix's face was contorted. 'There will be no lawsuit. This company has enough problems without— ** He took a sharp breath. "No one is going to sue anyone. We can all—work together— " The words were wrenched out of him.
"Laura?" Hatton said.
"I don*t know yet. I have to think about it.** That's what Clay knew. It was his joke on Felix. Maybe that's why he came back, to tell me he knew it was in the safe.
"But even if Laura doesn't do anything," Carol said hesitantly, looking at Asa, beside her, and then at Thomas, "what happened was wrong, wasn't it? Shouldn't something happen when something is wrong?"
"You mean, should someone be punished?" Thomas asked. Slowly, trying to understand, she nodded. "It's not for us to punish Feli
x," he said. "But the whole business certainly makes me wonder if I want him to continue to lead the company."
"I agree," Hatton said. "It doesn*t suggest wise leadership. Which is what we*ve been worried about for a long time, even before this affair of withholding evidence.*'
*That's why this meeting was called,** Thomas went on. "Felix, for some time the consensus has been that you should step down as president and chairman of the board— '*
"I will not," Felix said instantly. "You're using this illegal maneuver, this sham—^"
"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. For some time the consensus has been that you should step down. There are a number of significant problems in the company—you said so yourself, just now—and we don't think you can solve them."
"I will not have this discussed today. It was not on the agenda—we had no agenda. You gave me no warning—^"
"You're wrong. I told you we'd be discussing your position in the company when I called you about the meeting."
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"I don't remember. It*s irrelevant, in any case. You can*t push this through; you don't have the votes.'*
"I could make a motion," Hatton said. "But first, I think we might just go around the room and find out how the shareholders feel. We all know about the problems in the company; we've been talking about them for the past few weeks— months, in fact—and now, since Owen's letter was found, we have additional information. So I'd like to get everyone's opinion on the motion I intend to make to elect Thomas Jans-sen chairman of the board and Ben Gardner president— "
"You son of a bitch! You'll never do it! You and your gang are a minority, goddam it! You don't have the votes!"
"Oh, yes, we do," Asa said, very clearly, and for the first time anyone could remember, he did not stutter.
There was a dead silence in the room. The color had drained from Felix's face. "Before we ask everyone for an opinion," Hatton said, "I want to add that we are also discussing a merger of two hotel chains. If—and only if—^Ben is elected president, and Thomas chairman of the board, Laura has agreed to discuss a merger of the Salinger and Beacon Hill hotels." Questions and conMnents rose in a flurry throughout the room and he went on, above them. "Each would retain its individuality, and the Beacon Hill name would remain, but we would be one company."
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