She reached over and took my hand. “I’m sorry, Ariel. I am. I’ve been sorry ever since I came home from work and found you were gone.” Her voice broke. “I—I thought you’d come back, you know? I didn’t think you were gone for good. It never even crossed my mind you wouldn’t come back, that we wouldn’t be able to work things out somehow. I kept hoping. Even after you got the apartment in the city and went back to work, I kept thinking you’d come back, and kept thinking, because I wanted to believe it, that you didn’t come back because I was right. I’ve been so miserable, Ariel, so lost and lonely. And the other day, when I saw you there by the maze, I was so excited to see you—”
“You didn’t act like it.”
She laughed. “This is literally the worst time you could have come back, Ariel. With everything that’s going on with the company, that was all I meant, that I couldn’t give you the attention you deserved. Until we beat back this takeover bid, I have to give that my full attention. But once that’s over, and all this mess with Angus being killed, I want us to sit down and figure this out, Ariel. I’ve never stopped loving you.”
“What about Lindsay?”
“Lindsay?” She was clearly startled, not sure what I meant. “I’m not interested in Lindsay.”
“Haven’t you had a couple of dates?”
She laughed. “I’ve had dinner with her a couple of times, Ariel. That’s all. And it was two friends who’ve known each other a long time having dinner, nothing more than that. Lindsay and I have been over for a long time. She has control of a small block of Swann’s stock, and I need to make sure that she votes with the family. Are you still jealous of her? You never had a reason to be, you know. I’ve not felt that way about Lindsay for years before I even met you.”
“Well, I wasn’t exactly the most mature person in the world back then.” I sighed. “I should have talked to you, we could have figured out how to make things work. You didn’t ask me to give up my career, I did that on my own.” If I was going to be honest…might as well go all the way. “The truth is, I was bored. If I’d just kept working, kept myself busy…”
“No.” She took my hand in hers. “You shouldn’t blame yourself. It was just as much my fault as it was yours.” She kissed my cheek. “I spend too much time focused on my work. I always have. I didn’t make enough time for you, didn’t listen to you—I mean, clearly my friendship with Lindsay bothered you. And she was a bitch to you.” She gave my hand a quick squeeze and let it go. “I just thought it was all something that would blow over. I loved you, and cared about Lindsay”—she raised her hand to stop me from responding—“as a friend, and thought you two would become friends on your own. You have a lot in common.”
“Besides you?”
She smiled faintly. “Besides me. But I should have realized how it made you feel, and taken you more seriously. That’s on me. The last two years without you have been so lonely, so empty. You have no idea how many times I wanted to call you, wanted to stop by your office or your apartment, but you were doing so well with your career…”
“I love what I do, Charlotte, but I also love you.” There. I’d said it.
“When I heard you scream, and saw you hanging there”—she went on like I hadn’t said anything—“all I could think about was how awful life would be if you weren’t around. I’ve been a fool. I shouldn’t have let things go on this way for so long.”
“We were both fools.” I took her hand again. “God, I’m afraid I’m going to open my eyes and this whole thing will turn out to have been a dream.”
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” She put our linked hands on my knee.
“I can always blame it on hitting my head later,” I joked. “But yes, I do still love you, Charlotte. I’d like for us to figure out a way to make this work. I don’t want a divorce. I want us to work this all out. I’m not giving up my job, and I won’t be an idiot like I was again, okay?”
She pulled in to the parking lot of the hospital and parked in the first open slot. She turned off the engine and leaned over the console and kissed me.
I kissed her back and put my arms around her. The tears I’d been holding back began falling down my cheeks. Even though every muscle in my body ached, despite the dull throb in my head, my heart was swelling with joy.
I hadn’t dared dream this would be possible.
And yet it was. She loved me, she really loved me, and we were going to make it through everything.
“Let’s get you inside and checked out,” she whispered, pulling back from me and smiling. “So we can get you back home. And I’m never letting you go again, do you understand me?”
Chapter Twelve
Charlotte stayed with me the whole time, holding my hand. It seemed like we were at the hospital forever—my cuts and abrasions being treated and bandaged, my entire body being x-rayed before being pronounced okay. I balked at going to another hospital for a CAT scan to see if I had a concussion, but agreed to come back if I started vomiting or having dizzy spells.
The sun was coming up when we finally walked out of the emergency room doors, hand in hand, on our way to her car.
She hugged and kissed me before unlocking the doors. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she said, “but if this was what it took to get us back together…”
“Hopefully the next time we have a fight I won’t have to almost die to patch things up,” I replied.
“You’re sure you want to do this?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She’d tried to explain to me in simple terms what was going on with Swann’s between my X-rays and other tests, pausing whenever a nurse or a doctor came by to check on me or do another test.
Before we’d met, there had been a bit of crisis with the company’s finances. Swann’s was still going strong, but surviving the last economic downturn had left the company with very little operational cash. There was also an opportunity for Swann’s to expand into the Eastern European market, to take over another department store chain that was about to shut its doors, but there wasn’t any cash to buy the other chain. After consulting with Roger and the lawyers, Charlotte decided the best way to handle the expansion was to take the company public. She was able to get the trust dissolved relatively quickly—she only needed Bast’s agreement—but she and Bast maintained enough shares in Swann’s to keep an unshakable majority in the company, and therefore control. The stock sale had gone better than they ever could have imagined, and everything was fine.
“Until I was alerted that a dummy corporation was buying up shares of Swann’s last year,” she said grimly. “At the time, this was just an annoyance. I felt that Swann’s was safe—even if someone bought up all the outstanding shares, they wouldn’t be able to take control. In retrospect, I should have liquidated some assets and tried to buy back as much of the stock as I could. But I thought I could count on Bast.”
Always a mistake, I thought, but didn’t say out loud. I was going to have to figure out how to be around Bast—he was family, no matter what had happened in the past. If Charlotte and I were going to work out, I was going to have to work things out with Bast, too.
Hopefully, Kayla would be sticking around for a while. I had a feeling she’d be good for him.
“And me,” I said instead.
She gave me a look. “What do you mean?”
I laughed at her expression. “We didn’t sign a prenup. If I divorced you…” I laughed even harder when I realized that had never occurred to her. That was also reassuring. She wasn’t trying to use me to protect her stock.
“Oh my God.” She moaned. “You didn’t think—”
“It did cross my mind once I found out about the stock mess,” I admitted. “Well, keep that in mind the next time we disagree about something—I could end up with half your stock.”
“I’ll give it to you, if you want it,” she said, kissing my hand. “I’d give you anything to make you happy, to make sure you never leave my side again.”
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“Yeah, well, the stock is pretty good leverage,” I joked.
“I’ll keep that in mind, believe me. Anyway, Bast had this great opportunity to invest in a dating app”—she made a sour face—“whatever that means.”
I laughed. Charlotte’s smartphone was wasted on her. She wouldn’t know or care what an app was.
She frowned at me. “Well, I read the prospectus and told him he was crazy to invest in it, and I also refused to release money from the trust for him to use toward it. It never occurred to me that he would borrow against his Swann’s stock to get the money he needed.” She shook her head. “And of course, the app didn’t quite turn out right and he lost all the money and is defaulting on the loan. I’ve been making the payments for him, but I don’t know how long I can keep it up.”
“Can’t you both just release the money from the trust to pay for it?”
“There isn’t enough money in the trust to cover how much he lost.” Her face was grim. “Yeah, it’s that bad. I don’t know what he was thinking. This isn’t one of his little scrapes where Peggy or I can write a check and make it all better. He could lose his stock, and if he does, we’ll lose control of the company. I am very close to finding out who is behind this takeover attempt. Lindsay is actually helping me, but we just haven’t been able to get to the bottom of it.”
Typical Lindsay, I thought, what could she possibly do to help? But anything to get closer to Charlotte.
“And I’m running out of time,” she went on. “I don’t know, maybe I should just sell my stock and stop fighting, retire and let Swann’s go. But I’m afraid that new management would just strip the business and sell off its assets and close it down. And I can’t let that happen. I can’t just let Swann’s go down the drain.”
“Do you think whoever killed Angus has something to do with this?”
“I don’t know how.” She shook her head. “Angus wasn’t involved with anything other than the grounds, and the maze mostly. I can’t make sense of his death.”
Whoever had tried to throw me off the roof was probably the same person who’d killed Angus and thought I was a witness or might figure out who it was—even though my pictures were basically useless. But why kill Angus? It didn’t make any sense.
The truth’s at the center of the maze, Miss Ariel, remember that—at the center of the maze.
But what did the maze have to do with anything?
I yawned as she started the car and revved the engine. I fell asleep as we drove out of the parking lot and didn’t wake up again until she stopped at the foot of the stairs. I got out into the chill of the morning, the grass wet with dew, but at least the clouds were clearing and we were finally going to have a sunny day. I waited for her to park the car and we went up the stairs together. She helped me up the stairs, and hesitated when we got to the flight to the third floor. “You could move back into our old room,” she said hesitatingly.
I kissed her on the cheek. “As much as I would like that, let’s slow down a bit,” I replied. “It makes me really happy that you want me to, though.”
She smiled back at me. “Okay, let’s get you upstairs.” She helped me into bed, and as I laid my head back against my pillows, she asked me if I felt okay. They’d given me painkillers at the hospital and so nothing hurt anymore.
“Good.”
“I’ll have someone get your prescription filled as soon as the CVS in town opens this morning,” she said from the door. I heard the click as she locked it, and then the door shut behind her.
I woke to bright sunshine and hurting everywhere a few hours later. I sat up in the bed—it was just after ten—and there was a brown prescription bottle sitting on my nightstand that hadn’t been there the night before. It was my pain pills, and as I shook one out I wondered how they’d gotten into my room, since Charlotte had locked the door when she left. Peggy must have keys, I realized as I ran the tap to get some cold water in the bathroom. Of course she does. So locking the door is pointless. My head still ached, and once I took the pill and emptied the water glass, I stared at myself in the mirror. My hair looked horrific, my eyes were bloodshot, and the bags under my eyes were enormous, purple and bruised looking. My arms were covered in bandages, and my fingers were throbbing from hanging on to the side of the roof. My palms were scratched up, painted orange with antiseptic over the scrapes and gouges.
Gingerly and carefully I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then put on a pair of jeans and an NYU sweatshirt before heading down the back stairs in search of some much needed coffee.
Maeve was in the kitchen, and Kayla was sitting at the kitchen table staring off into space like a zombie. I helped myself to some coffee, as Maeve clucked and hovered over me, trying to make sure I was okay and babying me, which I gently refused. I sat down next to Kayla, who blinked at me a couple of times before her eyes seemed to focus and she saw me.
“I haven’t slept,” she mumbled, barely audibly. “I couldn’t fall back asleep after you went to the hospital and I was afraid to take another pill and so I’m drinking coffee to try to stay awake so I can sleep tonight.” She gave me a sheepish smile, as Maeve grunted derisively. “I wanted to talk to you. Can we go back up to your room and talk?”
“Sure. Maeve, would you mind bringing up a breakfast tray?” Maeve nodded, and I followed Kayla back up the stairs to my room.
Even without sleep, even though she wasn’t my type, I had to admit she was stunningly beautiful. Loose strands of hair floated around her face, and her skin, even without makeup, glowed like it was lit from within, like one of the movie stars from the old black-and-white days.
She yawned sleepily.
“You’re not going to make it till tonight,” I said.
She shrugged, her slender shoulders barely moving. “I’m trying to get on a better sleep schedule,” she said with another yawn. “Once Bast and me are married, we’re not going to be doing the nightlife thing anymore. I want to have kids.”
The thought of Bast as a father was terrifying. “Has he asked you?”
She shook her head. “Not yet, but I know he will. He loves me.”
I felt bad for her. How many women had Bast gone through during my year at Sea Oats? Too many to count. Much as I liked Kayla, I didn’t see Bast settling down with any woman, not just her. But it wasn’t my place to tell her, was it?
But stranger things have happened. Maybe this mess with the stock was just the thing to make Bast get his act together and settle down.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” I asked, just as Maeve knocked on the door and brought in the breakfast tray. She set it down and closed the door behind her. I poured us each a cup of coffee.
“I wasn’t completely truthful last night—this morning—when I said I didn’t wake up until you screamed.” She yawned. “I took a sleeping pill but I couldn’t sleep. I was awake.”
“Wasn’t Bast with you?”
She giggled. “You know Peggy doesn’t let Bast and me share a room—she’s kind of old-fashioned about that sort of thing, and besides, I always have trouble sleeping.” She made a sour face. “I don’t want to keep him up, so…” She shrugged again. “So he went downstairs to his room to go to sleep after we, you know”—she winked—“and I took a shower and took a pill and turned the television on and I heard something out in the hall. I opened my door and I looked out and I saw someone go up the attic stairs.”
I blinked at her a few times. “Wait, you mean to say you saw who it was? You’re going to have to tell the police! Who was it?”
“I don’t want to talk to the police, do I have to?” She pouted. She really was just a child. “And I didn’t really see who it was, you know? I just saw someone go through the doorway from behind. It was a man,” she amended, “and he was wearing jeans and a dark long coat, and he had a hat on, so I couldn’t recognize him, and I don’t know if I would know him again. I just thought you should know.” She took a drink of her coffee and smiled at me. “You should kn
ow someone is trying to kill you.” She put her hand up to the side of her face. “You’ve got to be careful, Ariel. These people here aren’t what they seem.”
“That’s an understatement,” I replied with a slight smile.
“You can’t trust anyone here,” she whispered, leaning closer to me. “Not even me. No one here can be trusted.”
She was falling asleep, so I got her up and helped her as much as I could to her room, and she was asleep before her head hit the pillow. I limped back to my room and slipped back into bed. The pain pill was making me groggy. I ate the breakfast and put the tray down on the floor, getting back under the covers and lying down. My aches and pains began to slowly leave my body, and it felt like I was becoming one with the bed, which was kind of lovely and nice. I was vaguely aware of calling out when someone knocked on the door, and then Peggy let herself in with a key.
You can’t trust anyone here.
The truth’s in the center of the maze.
None of it made sense.
Peggy smiled at me, and stroked my forehead gently. “Shhhhhh,” she said as I tried to talk, and I didn’t know what was wrong with me. Everything was fading in and out of focus. This was more than the pain pill making me loopy and I wondered about Kayla and her falling asleep so quickly and easily, when she claimed she had insomnia and I remembered the tray Maeve had brought up and maybe…maybe there was something in the coffee?
Peggy and Maeve have access to all the keys.
One of them could have searched my room, easily.
A Lamentation of Swans Page 18
