“A week at the outside. I’d start looking for another place to live, because your social security check won’t cover the rent on this house, and maybe a part-time job you can do in your retirement. Oh, and if you call my agent’s office—I’ll leave you a card—her assistant can recommend a good real estate agent. I doubt that producer who’s renting your house in Beverly Hills can afford to buy it.”
He signs the document and I stuff it back in my briefcase before he changes his mind.
“So you’re a successful, big-time artist now, eh?”
“It seems as though I am, if you ask Google anyway. And thanks to you, I’m about to be even bigger.”
There’s nothing left for us to say to each other, and I simply stand and walk out. I feel a rush of victory beyond what I imagined. As soon as I drop this sale document off with my accountant, I think I’ll fly to New York for a couple of days and tell Nan the news in person.
21
Amanda
Margot has been stayingwith me since she came back from Maui, even though Stirling and the girls are home now too.
She doesn’t think she’d be able to focus as well if she went back home. Plus, this way we can work around the clock if we need to. We really are getting through this together, and I’m grateful. When the business is all wrapped up, I’ve promised that, in addition to having Cammie over for a weekend, I’ll come to Margot’s house and tell her everything that went on between me and Damon, including that last day in the garden.
The days all run together, and they all seem to start out with Margot and me having coffee and croissants in my breakfast nook and planning out our day. And today is a very important one, because Clark thinks he may have found a buyer. If that’s true, then we have to move before Father sways any more of the Board over to his side. We’re still holding a majority, but not by much. And we can still win if Father and the minority sue us, but it will be expensive and could dissuade buyers.
My phone buzzes and my heart leaps.
“It’s Clark!” I say. “I’ll put him on speaker…Clark! Good morning. Please tell me you’ve found a buyer.”
Margot leans in, but all we can hear is Clark taking a breath as if to speak, and hesitating.
“Clark? Is everything okay?” asks Margot. “Spit it out. We’ve come too far for mysteries.”
“Yes, we have a buyer.”
“And? Is it the one you’ve had your eye on?”
Now both Margot and I are hunched over my cell phone like we’re WWII spies or something.
“No, it isn’t. And I have bad news. The buyer has already completed the purchase. Apparently, it was a private deal with your father, and he signed the document of sale without hesitation.”
Now it’s Margot and I who are at a loss for words, but I venture the next question.
“But why is this bad, I mean, the hard part is already done, right?”
“The deal leaves almost nothing for your father or the family. That’s the real mystery.”
“Okay,” says Margot. “Who would our father make such a deal with? Who’s the buyer?”
We hear Clark gulp on the other end of the line.
“Damon Chamberlain.”
The hits just keep on coming, and I honestly don’t know how many more I can take. A wave of nausea ripples through me when I remember how quickly Damon made plans to leave Kauai. How he was grinning like a fox that had just robbed a hen house. Dear God, he was planning this all along. All because he thought I had betrayed him again. Leaving us with nothing indeed.
This is all the more reason why I should tell Margot what happened in the garden that last day, but there isn’t time now. And even though we probably can’t talk our way out of this one, or reverse the sale, we have to confront Father.
“Unbelievable,” says Margot. “He’s always got to win.”
I don’t want to tell her that I really don’t care any longer. I just want this all to be over. Then maybe I can find peace. Start over. Without Damon, and without Father. I don’t know where I’ll ever be able to go that Damon won’t haunt me. Maybe Europe. Maybe Scandinavia. For now, though, Margot and I get dressed in record time. We take my car, and with Margot driving, we make it to Palm Springs in record time.
I’m truly afraid Margot is going to break the door down. But Father answers it before she does. He doesn’t seem surprised to see us, and he doesn’t say a word. He just leaves it open and walks into the living room with us following in his wake, and Margot firing questions at him.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she shouts. “One minute you fire Amanda and threaten me for trying to sell the company and fade out with a little bit of decency to our family name, and the next minute, you’re cutting a private deal, withDamon Chamberlain?! That is sowrong, in about a thousand different ways—”
