The Sweet Life

by Francine Pascal

  Colton knew that Warner and Patman had been fighting over the same piece of land. Warner had hinted that, should Patman be tied up with legal proceedings, Warner might have the time then to throw three or four more fund-raiser dinners for Colton. Hinted, of course, not promised. Promising would be illegal. Hinting was perfectly fine.

  Colton knew he couldn’t let Warner influence him. But he also worried if he went too soft on Patman, he wouldn’t lose just a few fund-raising dinners. He’d also hand Jill Gray the fodder she’d use to beat him in November. She was already saying he didn’t pursue charges against celebrities like he should. This could be a problem.

  Colton sat behind the mirrored glass and listened, hoping Jane Doe would give him something more to use. Either way, he knew he had to decide soon. He also knew that whatever he went with, he hated this case.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Bruce Patman paced the empty study of his mansion, waiting for word from Annie Whitman about whether he’d officially be charged with attempted rape. Annie told him she’d call as soon as she heard. In the meantime, she had a couple of court appearances to make and had promised she’d come over as soon as she finished.

  He was so grateful for her support, but it was times like these, when he was all alone in his enormous mansion, that the loneliness of being without Elizabeth felt like it might choke him.

  He glanced at the small business card he kept in his desk, with the number of his therapist on it. He considered calling, but hesitated. He hadn’t been to see him for almost three years.

  He knew most of the kids he went to school with would be shocked to hear that the Bruce Patman needed a therapist. But he’d been at his wits’ end when his parents died. Their tragic deaths when he was still in college had turned his world upside down.

  He began therapy to get over the grief, and he had stayed to work on himself. But it was falling in love Elizabeth that had really changed his life. He understood for the first time how careless he’d been with people—his friends and girlfriends—throughout most of high school and college. Some of the things he’d done and said in high school he simply couldn’t imagine doing now.

  He’d been going—on and off—to the same therapist for years, stopping only once Elizabeth had moved in with him. He was so happy, so perfectly content, he just didn’t see the need for counseling anymore. His life was as perfect as it could get. He was a new person and he’d won Elizabeth. That was all that mattered.

  He thought Elizabeth was one of the few people who understood just how he’d fundamentally changed. How he had clarity for the first time ever. Bruce had shared details of his life with her that he’d never shared with anyone.

  Like his mother’s condition.

  After his parents died, he discovered his mother had been bipolar. Apparently, she’d been on medication for years and had never told him. It explained a lot: why sometimes she’d seem upbeat, with nearly unstoppable energy to do almost anything, and then other days, she’d have trouble getting out of bed. It also explained her sometimes unprovoked fits of anger. She could fly into a rage over the smallest things. It was only later he learned that she had been emotionally unstable.

  And now, he had to ask himself, was he, too?

  Was Elizabeth right? Was he suffering from the same illness as his mother?

  The very comparison made him furious, and yet maybe it made him so angry because he was really afraid it was true.

  Bruce walked to the minibar built into the wall across the room and poured himself a glass of scotch. He took a swig and then ran a hand through his dark hair in frustration.

  Bruce thought back again to that night he’d seen Robin Platt at the bar. He could’ve sworn she’d been the one upset; he’d been comforting her. He’d had only one drink…that he remembered.

  Then he’d gotten dizzy. But what if he didn’t remember because he’d had more to drink? What if he was just as crazy as his mother?

  Bruce clutched his cocktail tightly. No, he couldn’t be like her. He always thought he was more like his father, anyway. After all, it had been his father, Henry, who also spent half his life in love with a Wakefield who didn’t love him back. Henry Patman had been engaged to Jessica and Elizabeth’s mother until she left him for Ned Wakefield. Now Bruce finally understood the hell his father must’ve gone through all those years ago.

  Bruce desperately wished his father were here now. Maybe he would have some good advice for him.

  But no advice could change the fact that Elizabeth didn’t believe in him. And strangely, of all people, Jessica did.

  “There’s nothing wrong with you, Bruce,” Jessica had said yesterday when he’d confessed he was starting to doubt his own innocence; that he wondered if he was going crazy.

  “You did not do this. Don’t imagine for one second that you did.” Nothing seemed to shake her confidence in him.

  Bruce glanced at the glass of scotch in his hand. He wasn’t so sure anymore that it mattered if he had or hadn’t done it. Already, public opinion had turned against him. All he had to do was read the screaming headlines of the morning paper.

  More Damning Allegations in Billionaire Rape Case.

  They weren’t even bothering putting in “attempted” anymore.

  Bruce walked over to cabinet that hid the wall safe, flipped the door open, and dialed the combination. He pulled the handle and the metal door swung open, revealing a stack of documents, a jewelry box, his passport, and about twenty thousand dollars in cash. He always kept cash around. You couldn’t be too careful.

  Bruce knew all he needed to do was make one call to the pilot he kept on staff to fly his jet. Within an hour, he could probably be in the air, ready to fly to any number of foreign countries that didn’t have extradition treaties to the United States. Then there were the half a dozen Swiss bank accounts in the Patman family name. They could seize all of his American funds, and he’d still have plenty to live on, thanks to the Patman fortune.

  He picked up his leather-covered passport, held it in his hand, and wondered, again, what his father would say. Would he think it cowardly that his son was thinking about running? Or would he encourage him to get out while he could?

  Bruce dropped his passport back into the safe. Running is what the old Bruce would’ve done: the conceited, selfish Bruce of high school, the one who always thought about himself first and everyone else second. He closed his eyes and thought for a second about the mess he’d leave behind for his friends…for Jessica and Annie. And Elizabeth. They’d have to clean up for him. Could he do that to them?

  Or, could he prove to himself that he really had changed, that he wasn’t that egocentric, entitled boy from high school?

  He was afraid of what was coming. Yet maybe he still had a choice.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After she finished up her hearing at the courthouse, Annie Whitman walked to the lobby, checking her phone, hoping to hear news from the D.A.’s office about Bruce’s case. As she’d told Bruce, they had to hope he didn’t go with felony charges, but given that it was an election year, they had to be prepared for anything. Prosecutors were always particularly tough on crime when their jobs were up for a vote.

  Annie’s phone lit up. She got the official word: Tom Colton planned to file felony aggravated assault and attempted sexual assault charges.

  “Damn it,” Annie cursed under her breath as she scrolled through the message. “Felony sexual assault!”

  A few lawyers huddled together in the lobby of the courthouse, looked up, startled. She shrugged and then went back to her phone.

  She took a deep breath. Calm down, she thought. Maybe this is a good thing. Because Tom Colton was crazy if he thought he could prove felony sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt. No jury would convict, especially after she got through with them.

  “Colton, you just overplayed your hand,” she murmured under her breath.

  She walked past the metal detectors and out the courthouse door. There could be ano
ther way to play it: If they laid low, and Bruce didn’t do anything crazy between now and election day, they might even get a plea deal together well before trial. If she worked it just so, Bruce would probably get a slap on the wrist, no more than community service.

  She tried to call Bruce’s number, but got no answer. She dialed Jessica, but that also went straight to voice mail. Where was everyone?

  Annie got into her car and decided to drive to Bruce’s house. She needed to talk to him and calm him down. Plus, at a time like this, he’d need a friend.

  She was glad he called her one.

  On the way over, she decided she’d have to tell him how important it was that he keep a low profile. If he kept a stellar record—not getting even so much as a speeding ticket—this could all still work out. They just had to play it smart and wait. Nothing crazy between now and trial time—nothing that would make headlines that could push Colton into a corner—and Bruce would walk.

  The more she thought about it, the more upbeat things seemed. Annie grinned to herself. She loved that she could really help Bruce.

  Annie arrived at Bruce’s front gate and slid through the paparazzi bunched up at the property line. She was sure it would jam up even more when word got out that the D.A. was pursuing sexual assault charges.

  Annie buzzed Bruce’s gate and waited to be let in. As she drove up the drive, she noticed his black Porsche was gone.

  She parked her car and walked up to his driveway, ringing the bell.

  Mme Dechamps answered, looking surprised.

  “Where’s Bruce?” Annie asked the cook.

  “So sorry, madame,” Mme Dechamps muttered in her broken English and then paused, searching for the right words. “He…” She trailed off and then gave up, making a motion with her hands like a plane taking off.

  Annie wasn’t sure she understood. Bruce in a plane? Her stomach dropped.

  Just at that moment, Annie’s phone lit up with a message from Bruce:

  SORRY TO LEAVE YOU WITH A MESS, ANNIE. I JUST COULDN’T TAKE THE RISK. TELL JESSICA I’M SORRY, TOO.

  “He left the country?” Annie muttered, the enormity of what he’d just done only beginning to sink in. That would mean…Oh, no. No, no, no. Please. Not that. Her hopes of a plea deal vanished before her eyes.

  “Country…yes,” Mme Dechamps nodded. “On his plane, yes? Far, far away!”

  All the air went straight out of Annie’s sails. Oh, God, Bruce, you don’t know what you’ve done, Annie thought. He’d committed the worst mistake a criminal defendant could possibly make.

  Because everyone knew this simple fact: Only guilty men run.

  Also by Francine Pascal

  Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later

  SERIES

  Sweet Valley High

  Sweet Valley Twins

  Sweet Valley Kids

  Sweet Valley University

  Fearless

  YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

  Hangin’ Out with Cici (My Mother Was Never a Kid)

  My First Love and Other Disasters

  Love and Betrayal

  Hand-Me-Down Kid

  The Ruling Class

  ADULT NOVELS

  Save Johanna

  If Wishes Were Horses…(La Villa)

  Little Crew of Butchers

  NONFICTION

  The Strange Case of Patty Hearst (with John Pascal)

  THEATER

  George M! (with Michael Stewart and John Pascal)

  About the Author

  © Ben Asen Photography, 2010

  Francine Pascal is the creator of Sweet Valley and is one of the most popular fiction writers of all time. As a theater lover and Tony voter, Ms. Pascal is on the Advisory Board of the American Theatre Wing. Her favorite sport is a monthly poker game. She lives in New York City and France.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE SWEET LIFE #3: TOO MANY DOUBTS. Copyright © 2012 by Francine Pascal. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  Sweet Valley ® is a registered trademark of Francine Pascal.

  www.stmartins.com

  Cover design by Elsie Lyons

  Cover photograph by Jason Stitt/Shutterstock

  e-ISBN: 978-1-4299-5835-6

  First Edition: July 2012

  Everyone wants a taste of

  THE SWEET LIFE

  New this summer from FRANCINE PASCAL, get ready for the exciting SIX-PART e-serial, THE SWEET LIFE, publishing every week!

  Follow the continuing drama of Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, the beautiful, blonde twins from Sweet Valley in this new adult series…

  Three years after the events of the New York Times bestseller SWEET VALLEY CONFIDENTIAL families have been made, hearts have been broken, and a scandal of epic proportions will rock Jessica and Elizabeth’s perfect world.

  Don’t miss a moment of this brand new chapter of Sweet Valley—to sign up for email reminders and to get the insider scoop visit: WWW.THESWEETLIFESERIES.COM

  On Sale Summer 2012

  This time the secrets are

  MORE SCANDALOUS THAN EVER!

  With Bruce on the run, how will Elizabeth pick up the pieces?

  Has Jessica given up the fight for Todd…for good?

  Find out in SECRETS AND SEDUCTIONS

  To sign up for e-mail alerts and to watch the video teaser visit WWW.THESWEETLIFESERIES.COM