“Exactly,” Marnie said softly. She glanced over at Tom, resting her eyes upon him sternly. “The only people who have the full story are Tom and Ari. And so we’re going to let them tell it.”
“Ari might be ages putting Reine to bed yet and Luis—”
“Oh no,” Marnie interjected quickly, her eyes never leaving Tom’s. “We aren’t going to make them tell the story to us. They’re going to talk to each other.”
“Mom,” Tom said, his voice hoarse, “I don’t know that I can. I don’t know if I can.”
Marnie stood, coming across the room to stand next to Tom. She laid a hand on his shoulder comfortingly. “You owe that girl the truth, Tom. You owe her that, at the very least. You need to talk with her.”
“She’ll hate me,” Tom whispered brokenly.
“She probably already does,” Marnie answered honestly, “And she has good reason to. At this point, you’ve got nothing to lose.”
Sebastian, on the other side of the room, threw up his hands. “What? We’re just supposed to... let them talk? While we, what? Have dinner and make small talk withSasha?”
“No,” Marnie said firmly. “Sasha is Tom’s fiancée, and he owes her the truth too. He also promised her the pleasure of hiscompany at dinner. He’s going to show her the respect she’s due. I may not like that woman, but I won’t have her treated with callousness. There’s been enough of that in this family already.”
Tom winced.Callous.He’d treated Ari callously. Once again, he ran a hand over his face, hearing the truth and sense in his mother’s words, even while he shuddered at the thought of them.
“Sasha will want to talk about the wedding,” Tom muttered, “she’ll want to talk about the wedding over the dinner table with...” he swallowed hard “. . . with Ari right there.”
“Yes,” Marnie agreed, “most likely. And you’re going to listen and nod and smile and then, afterwards, put it right with both of the women in your life. Your fiancée... and the mother of your child.”
“Your child,” Sebastian repeated loudly. “Yourchild. The fruit of your loins. Of your cheating, lying, no-good loins.”
“Stop saying loins,” Tom snapped. “I get it. I know I need to think about... aboutheras well—”
“Not her,” Sebastian snapped back. “Reine.She has a name, and Luis and I worked damn hard to give it to her, so can you use it please?”
“Wait a minute... you named Reine?” Marnie cut in. “I thought it was Ari.”
At that, Sebastian rolled his eyes. “No woman full of hormones and heartbreak should be entrusted with naming a child. Ever. I kid you not, Ari wanted to name Reine ‘Millie’ when she was born.Millie.Like Vanilli,” his eyes narrowed, “or like her absent, cheating, lying and no-good father’s fake surname. Well, thank God, we got her to dodge that bullet. We had to sit her down and explain that if her mysterious Tom ever did return for her — and make no mistake, Tom, she truly believed you would — her baby would end up with the nameMillie Miller. Millie Miller.” Sebastian shuddered. “Reine was the much better choice.”
“Reine is a beautiful name,” Marnie nodded approvingly. “A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
“Damn right, and it’s time your son started using it.” He gave Tom a long, piercing stare. “If in my presence I hear you refer to Reine asherorsheor, heaven help you,it, I will personally have you taken out by the nearest available assassin.”
“Are assassins easy to come by in your world?” Marnie asked wryly, and Sebastian turned to her.
“My dear, I work thewedding circuit,” he replied easily. “After hair and make-up, they’re next on my contact list.”
“I would never call her...” Tom paused “. . . I would never call Reineit. Never. Fuck, do you think if I’d known about her I would have stayed away? Do you think if that day when I saw her as a baby I’d thought she was mine, I wouldn’t have done anything to be in her life? Of course I would, of course I would have done everything in my power—”
“Hold the phone, Somerset, there’s a good chap,” Sebastian interrupted, holding out his empty tumbler to Marnie, who diligently poured another measure into it. “What did you mean just then, when you said ‘that day when I saw her as a baby’?”
Tom paused. There was a loaded silence in the room, and Tom had to take a deep breath before speaking.
“I saw her... I mean, Reine. I saw her. As a baby,” he confessed, “but I... I didn’t think she... I didn’t believe Reine could be mine.”
“When did you see Reine? Where?” Sebastian asked icily, and Tom shifted in his seat. He was reminded suddenly of the time he’d cheated on an assignment at elementary school and been dragged before the irate assistant principal to explain himself. He’d wondered at the time where the actual principal was, before deciding that the level of fraud committed on thegrade five Westward Expansion topic was so great the principal no longer bothered with reprimanding the many youngsters who did it. Still, even as the assistant principal railed at him, the threat of being taken to stern Miss Abbott — with her lined face, thin lips and wire-framed glasses — was enough to make him sweat the entire time.
It was the same feeling today. Sebastian was going to rail at him about Reine, Tom knew. But he also knew he had to face Ari too. And that was the meeting he was really worried about.
“At Ari’s apartment,” Tom said, clearing his throat. “I came to see her.”
Sebastian inhaled sharply. “You went to her flat? When?”
“A little over two years after I’d left her in Germany.”
