Web sat back. “Okay, let’s get into that. Exactly whatdidI do?”
“You were recklessly driving that motorcycle,” Jonathan snapped, eyes flying to Web’s for the first time.
Web felt a small victory in that he’d been acknowledged as a person at last. “Is that what the police said after the investigation?”
“Ethan would never havebeenon a motorcycle had it not been for you.”
“I didn’t force him to get on it. He wasn’t some raw kid of fourteen. He was a man of twenty-five.”
“You were a bad influence that entire summer!”
“That’s what you assumed, since I was only an employee at the Inn. Did Ethan ever tell you what we did together? Did he tell you that we spent hours talking politics, or philosophy, or psychology? Or that we discussed books we’d both read, or that we played chess? I loved playing chess with Ethan. I beat him three times out of four, but he took it with a grin and came back for another game more determined than ever to win. There was nothing irresponsible about what we did, and I was probably a better influence on him than the spoiled and self-centered characters he would have been with otherwise. You really should have been proud of him. He chose to be with me because the time we spent together was intellectually productive.”
Marni wanted to applaud, but her fingers were too tightly intertwined to move.
Jonathan wasn’t about to applaud either. Choosing to ignore what Web had said, he turned his attention back to Marni. “What were you intending with the song and dance you’ve been doing for the past two weeks? Did you hope to pull the wool over our eyes? Did you think we were that foolish?”
“I had hoped that you’d see Brian as he is today. Aside from his profession, which you’re unfairly biased against, he’s everything I’d have thought you’d want in the man I decided to marry.” She turned to her mother. “What did you find out? I’m sure you made calls.”
“I did,” Adele sniffed. “It appears he’s fooled the rest of the world, but we know him as he is.”
Marni scowled. “You don’t know him at all. You may have met him in passing once or twice that summer, but you never spent any time talking with him, and you certainly never invited him to the house. Don’t you think it’s about time you faced the fact that Ethan’s death justhappened?”
“You wouldn’t say that if you were a mother, Marni. You’d be angry and grief-stricken, just like we were, like we are.”
“For God’s sake, it’s been fourteen years!”
“Haveyouforgotten?” Adele cried.
Marni sagged in her seat. “Of course not. I adored Ethan. I’ll never forget him. And I’ve never forgotten the sense of injustice, the anger I felt that those two cars had to collide right in Web’s path. But you can’t live your life feeding on anger and grief. Ethan would never have wanted it. Have you ever stopped to consider that? Web was his friend. Whether you like it or not, he was. He suffered in that accident, both physically and emotionally.” She suddenly sat forward and rounded on her father. “Your response when Web called you from the hospital wasinexcusable!How could you have done something like that? He’s a human being, for God’s sake, a human being!” She took a quick breath and sat straighter. “Web mourned Ethan just as we did, and he suffered through his share of guilt, though God only knows he had nothing to feel guilty for. But that’s all in the past now. There’s nothing any of us can do to bring Ethan back, and I refuse to live my life any longer trying to make up to you for his loss!”
“What are you talking about, girl?” Jonathan snarled.
“Marni,” Web began, “you don’t have to—”
“I do, Web. It’s about time the entire truth came out.” She faced her parents, looking from one to the other. “I felt guilty because I’d loved both Ethan and Web. Ethan was dead. Web was as good as dead to me because you never let up on the fact that he was to blame, and if he was to blame,Iwas to blame, too.” She focused on her father. “Do you think I wasn’t aware that you’d been grooming Ethan for the corporation presidency? And that you practically lost interest in the business after he died? Why do you think I buckled down and whipped through Wellesley, then Columbia? Didn’t it ever occur to you that I was trying to be what Ethan would have been? That I felt I could somehow make things easier for you if I joined the corporation myself?” She tempered her tone, though her voice was shaky. “I’m not saying that I’d had my heart set on something else, or that I’m unhappy being where I am, but I think you should both know that what I did I did for you, even more than for me.”
“Then you were a fool,” was Jonathan’s curt response.
“Maybe so, but I don’t regret it for a minute. I did make things easier for you. You won’t admit it, any more than you’ll admit that I’ve done a good job. You never did that, Dad. Do you realize?” Her eyes had grown moist and her knuckles were white as she gripped the arms of the chair. “I tried so hard, and you promoted me and gave me more and more responsibility until finally I became president. But not once,not oncedid you tell me you were proud of me. Not once did you actually praise my work—”
Her voice cracked, and she stopped talking. She was unaware that Web had risen from his seat to stand behind hers until she felt his comforting touch on her shoulder. Her hands left the arms of the chair and found his instantly.
Jonathan’s expression was as tight as ever, though his voice was quieter. “I assumed that actions spoke louder than words.”
“Well, they don’t! I beat my tail to the ground trying to win your approval, but I failed, I failed. And now I’m tired.” Her voice reflected it. “I’m tried of trying to please someone else. I’m thirty-one years old, and it’s about time I see tomybest interests. I have every intention of continuing on as Lange’s president, and I’ll continue to do the best job I can, but for me now, and for Web. I’m going to marry him, and we’re going to have children, and if you can’t find it in your hearts to forgive, or at least forget, then I guess you’ll miss out on the happiness. It’s your choice. I’ve already made mine.”
There was a moment’s heavy silence in the room before Jonathan spoke in a grim voice. “I guess there’s not much more to say, then, is there.” It wasn’t a question but a dismissal. Pushing himself from the sofa, he turned his back on them and walked toward the window.
Web addressed Adele. “There’s one last thing I’d like to say,” he ventured quietly. “I’d like you to consider what would have happened if Marni—or Tanya—had had Ethan for a passenger when her car crashed, killing him but only injuring her. Would you have ostracized one of your daughters from the family? Would you have held a permanent grudge? You know, that’s happened in families, where two members were in an accident, one killed and the other survived. I don’t know how those families reacted. Regardless of guilt or innocence, it’s a tragic situation.
“Ethan and I were innocent victims of that accident fourteen years ago. Once those cars started spinning all over the road, the motorcycle didn’t have a chance in hell of escaping them. If I had been the son of one of your oldest and dearest friends, would you still feel the way you do now?”
“You arenotthe son of one of our oldest and dearest friends,” Jonathan said without turning. “And I thank God for it!”
Marni and Web left then. They’d said what they’d come to say and had heard what they’d suspected they’d hear. They felt disappointed and saddened, hurt and angry.
“That’s it, Web,” Marni stated grimly as they began the drive into the city. “We know how they feel, and they’re not going to change. I think we should get married, and as soon as possible.”
