“We’re not getting an annulment,” Jack said grimly. “Or a divorce. So just relax.”
Abe turned to look at Belinda.
“Jack is my husband,” she repeated. “I love him. He loves me. End of that topic. How are you feeling, Abe?”
Abe’s eyes popped. “What the fuck’s wrong with you?” He snapped. “You’re thinking with your cunt again! You heard the tape! He’s only using you to get at me!”
“Jack was using me,” Belinda corrected her father, calm despite the provocation.
“I was pushed into your game, and I was playing by your rules,” Jack interjected. “But that’s not my style. And even while I was playing, I was in love with your daughter. Your game is over. Now I’m making the rules. And the rules say I can take you on and still love my wife. It’s going to be hard, but I’m not going to make a sacrifice of my own integrity. And I intend to keep Belinda out of this as much as is humanly possible.”
“You marry my daughter and think you can get away with it? You got another think coming!”
Jack leaned over the bed railing. “I’m not a fresh-faced kid anymore, Abe. If I were you, I’d think about that. I’m not afraid. And I’m not going to run. You’ve pushed me one time too many. So watch out—you’re in for the fight of your life.”
“Good!” Abe grinned. “ ’Cause I love a fight.”
“Are you ever going to grow up, Abe?” Belinda demanded. “For my sake—could you give up this obsession with destroying Jack? For my sake.”
“Just what have you done for me?” Abe shouted. “You’ve done everything you could your whole life, to resist me. Living out in California, writing, for crissake, like some fucking hippie! What have you done for me?”
She couldn’t believe how calm she was. “Abe, don’t you care that when you cancelled Outrage to get at Jack, you hurt me too?”
Abe laughed. Disbelieving. “Sometimes you’re not so smart, Belinda. Your career is the last thing I wanted to see happen, so it all worked out for the best.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe me. How in hell am I ever going to get you to settle down if you’re some hotshot writer? Settle down and give me my heir? Huh? I got enough problems keeping you in line without that added kink. And now this—now him. Jesus!”
“Then if you can’t give up this obsession for my sake,” Belinda said, “can you give it up for my baby—your grandchild?”
Abe blinked.
“Our baby.”
Abe stared.
Nervously Nancy interjected, “Belinda’s pregnant, dear.”
“Shut up!” he snarled, livid. He jammed his thumb at them. “Never! I don’t fucking believe it!”
Jack put his arm around Belinda, ignoring the furious man on the bed. “Let’s go, Belinda. He’s fine. There’s no point in staying.”
“One minute. You’re really going to hold onto this grudge against Jack—against the father of your grandchild?” She was disappointed.
“He thinks he’s won!” Abe shouted. “He got you pregnant just to get at me! Well, he hasn’t won—he’ll never win! Because I’m cutting you out of my will. You won’t get one red cent! And neither will the brat!”
“We don’t want a single penny,” Jack said, “although I know you won’t believe it.”
“I feel sorry for you,” Belinda said, overwhelmed with pity. “For cutting off your nose to spite your face. For being such a small man. For thinking only in black and white, in terms of winning and losing. This is my child—your grandchild—and no matter how much you hate Jack, you can’t change that fact.”
“Get out!” Abe roared. “Get out—now!”
“Abe,” Belinda said, “you’re my father. No matter what you do or what you’ve done, I can’t change that. And despite it all I love you. Even though you’ve never given me any love back. Love was all I wanted from you, ever—not the horse and the toys and the books. Just love. I do love you, but I love my unborn baby and Jack more. And when you see the light, when you become generous enough in spirit to forgive and forget, I’ll be waiting. And maybe then we can start over.”
Jack took her arm. They were out the door and in the hall when they heard Abe shout, “It’s you who’d better see the light, Belinda—and fast!”
Epilogue
March 1988
New York City
The sun was trying to pierce the thick layer of clouds.
It failed.
Belinda shivered despite her wool coat. Jack threw his arm around her. Even the ground was cold, frozen underfoot, penetrating the soles of her shoes. She stamped her feet; Jack pulled her closer. An icy blast of air touched their faces. “It won’t be much longer now,” Jack whispered. “Can you make it?”
“I’m only cold, Jack,” she whispered back, leaning against his warm hard body. “And I’m only pregnant. Not terminally ill.”
He wasn’t amused. “We’ll stop for a cup of coffee as soon as this is over. Decaf for you though.”
He was so serious. Belinda had to smile. The man was going to spend the rest of her pregnancy doting on her—that was very, very clear, because he hadn’t stopped since they’d been reconciled. Oh, well. She guessed she could take it.
They watched the casket being lowered into the ground.
Afterward when the funeral was over, Belinda’s gaze met her father’s from across the grave. He stared; she stared back. Jack was about to propel her with him back to the cab, but Belinda gripped his hand. “Let’s go say hello,” she said.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
It had been a month since their disastrous encounter at the hospital, and although Belinda was in frequent contact with her mother, she hadn’t spoken to Abe once. Holding Jack’s arm, she gingerly made her way over the frozen ground toward her parents. It had started to snow.
“Hello, Mom. Hello, Abe.”
Abe shot Jack a disdainful glance; then he looked at Belinda. “Hello, Belinda.”
“I’m sorry,” Belinda said. “I can’t believe Will is dead. What a freak accident.”
Abe shrugged. “Yeah, a real freak accident.”
“You sound like you don’t care. He was your oldest friend. He introduced you to Nancy.”
“Oh, I care,” Abe said with a slight grin. “But even I don’t have the power to bring him back from the dead.”
“Well,” Belinda said into the awkward silence, wishing hopelessly, she knew, that Abe would at least acknowledge Jack. “We just wanted to say hello.”
“How are you feeling?”
“What?”
“How are you feeling?” Abe repeated.
“Just fine. Ecstatic, in fact. Things couldn’t be better.”
Abe frowned. Then, gruffly, “So the baby’s okay?”
Time stilled. The silence of the winter day became unnatural. Jack said, “The baby is just fine.”
Abe looked at Jack. “You really got balls, to think you can break your contract.”
“I broke it,” Jack said.
“Don’t start,” Belinda said. “Please.”
“Sorry,” Jack told her, squeezing her hand.
Abe’s eyes had been gleaming during their brief exchange. Now they turned somber. “So.” He coughed. “Uh, when is the baby due?”
“Why?”
He shifted uneasily. “I got a right to know.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah, I do. After all, he’s your son—that makes him my grandson.”
Belinda smiled. “Mid-September,” she said. “A perfect month to have a baby, don’t you agree?”
“I decided,” Abe said, “that even if you’re out of your mind”—and he glared at Jack—“this is probably my only shot at an heir, so what the hell.” He pinned Jack again. “I figure,” he said to Belinda, “you’ll wise up eventually. You”—to Jack—“I’ll see in court.”
“Can you believe him?” Belinda asked a few moments later when they were snug in the warm taxi on the
ir way back to Manhattan.
“It’s a game,” Jack said, shrugging. “He wants to fight me. He wants to keep me an enemy. He enjoys this.”
“He does—he really does.” She smiled. “Jack, he’s accepting the baby.”
“Yeah, well, he’d be a real jerk not to. One thing Abe isn’t is stupid.”
“I didn’t think he’d ever come around,” Belinda said. “Don’t you see though? This isn’t the ending, it’s the beginning. He’s accepted your child—maybe eventually he’ll accept you.”
Jack put his arm around her. “I’m not holding my breath. And it’s not important, Belinda. You know what’s important?”
“Of course.”
“You and me and our child.”
“I already knew that.”
“It’s funny,” Jack said, “but I’ve been thinking about it. We’re closing the circle. It’s like a resolution.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s wanted an heir for seventeen years. Nancy miscarried his son when I was involved with her. Now you’re giving him a grandson—my son.” He smiled. “Sort of like fate, don’t you think?”
“Fate? Jack! I’m wearing off on you—you’re becoming metaphysical.”
“I don’t know about metaphysical”—he grinned and nipped her jaw—“but I’m definitely into the physical.”
Belinda snuggled closer. “And me looking like a pregnant sow.”
Jack chuckled, his hand cupping her hip, his mouth warm on her neck. “A pregnant sow? What does that make me?”
She turned to meet his lips. “A rutting boar.”
“Boar? Not bull?”
“What’s wrong?” she whispered as he nuzzled her jaw. “Can’t your ego handle the epithet?”
Jack groaned. “I think I need my dictionary—why did I marry a writer?”
“Because you love me?”
He laughed as his mouth closed over her ear. She gasped. “Completely. Belinda, there’s only one thing that needs handling—and it’s not my ego.”
Belinda turned so she could put her arms around him. “Why did I marry a superstud?” She gently probed the shell of his ear with her tongue.
“Because you love me?”
“Completely.” She ended the word with a long, open-mouthed kiss, her hand stroking the flat planes of his abdomen beneath his shirt.
He growled. “Are you trying to handle my ego?”
Silence.
Jack groaned.
Belinda whispered, “Of course. Do you think anyone else could?”
“Absolutely not.”
“You said the right words, Jack.”
“Do I get a prize?”
“Absolutely.”
“Do I get to pick my prize?”
“Maybe.”
“Belinda …”
“Say the magic words.”
“I love you—witch.”
“I guess that will have to do—stud.”
“Belinda, I don’t think my ego can take much more of this.”
“No?”
“I think it’s time for me to start fulfilling your epithets.”
“Which ones?”
He managed to laugh—just before they disappeared into the Midtown Tunnel.
Table of Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Prologue
Part One: Strangers
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Part Two: Lovers
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Part Three: Liars
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Part Four: Lovers
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Epilogue