Chapter 15

It was excruciatingly difficult for Bettina to tear herself away when it was time to leave, knowing that she wasn’t coming back, or not for a long time. She had to say goodbye to her parents, brothers, and sister. And even her grandmother was very tender with her, and wished her a happy life with Louis. Bettina promised to come home when she could, but she had no idea when that would be. She wanted her parents to visit her, but she knew they had responsibilities in San Francisco that made it hard for them to travel far away.

As the car pulled away from the house, they were all waving, and Uncle Angus was playing the bagpipes. She knew she would remember that sight of them, waving to her, and her wedding day forever. Their visit to San Francisco had been perfect, and everyone had behaved impeccably. Louis had no idea that there was anything unusual about the family or the house. And he had no reason to suspect.

“You warned me that they’re eccentric and like to play tricks on people,” Louis said on the way to the train station. “They don’t seem eccentric to me at all, and your grandmother was quite charming and almost forgave me for being French,” he laughed.

“That’s because you charmed her.” Bettina beamed at him. She was still sorry that he hadn’t met the Gregorys, but hopeful that he would in the future. “My whole family loves you,” Bettina said, sitting close to him with his arm around her.

They settled on the train, and she had asked the others not to come to see them off. It was too emotional and would have made her too sad to see her parents shrinking away on the platform as the train pulled away. Now Lili was in her compartment with the nurse, and Louis held Bettina in his arms as she watched her city disappear from sight, as they began their new life together.

The voyage back to Europe was delightful, and especially nice as Louis’s wife. Once in Paris, they moved into his parents’ old home on the Place François Premier, and Bettina tried to make it feel like their home now. The house was a bit gloomy, but with new curtains, moving things around a little, and fresh flowers, she thought she could improve it. She felt very grown up as she tended to her household and waited for Louis to come home every day. They made love more than she ever could have imagined, and she was so happy he didn’t want a baby and felt Lili was enough. Bettina would have hated to have another child, and he knew that and didn’t mind. He was a loving, caring husband and lover. And their three-week honeymoon in Venice and Rome was idyllic.

She wrote to her mother almost every day, and when Blake and Sybil and Charlie got back to San Francisco, Gwyneth told them all about the wedding.

“It was gorgeous,” she said dreamily, with tears in her eyes.

“I wish we had been here.” Sybil had been sad to miss it.

“So do I.” And even though Bettina had been gone for five months before that, and had been back for only a few weeks, the house seemed so empty now without her and Lili. Bettina had written that Louis had started the adoption process for Lili as soon as they got back to Paris. It meant that Lili would inherit a sizable fortune from him one day, and be safe for life, no matter who she married. Bettina would also be set till the end of her days, in addition to what she would inherit one day from her parents. She hated to think about it, but it was nice to know that her future was secure. And best of all, she and Louis were madly in love with each other, and everything about their life together felt right. It made up to Gwyneth for how much she missed her, knowing how happy Bettina was.

“You never know how things are going to turn out, do you?” Sybil mused, as she and Gwyneth walked in the garden. “You think you do, but there’s always a little surprise, or a big one, good or bad.” Bettina hadn’t expected to meet her husband in Paris, or to spend the rest of her life in France as she knew now that she would. Her home was no longer San Francisco. It was wherever he was. After the unhappy years before Lili’s birth, and her rash marriage to Tony Salvatore, destiny had taken the upper hand. No one could have predicted that. In some ways, it was reassuring that things turned out right in the end.

Andy had gone back to college in Edinburgh from New York before Blake and Sybil came back to San Francisco with Charlie. Quinne had been with Andy, and Caroline had flown back to Los Angeles in time to start her second year at UCLA. Charlie started school again in Marin County as soon as he got home. And Magnus was overjoyed to see him.

Sybil was working hard on her book. She had made good progress, and was trying to finish it by the end of the year. And Gwyneth did her artwork on the computer to fill her days after Bettina left. She had gotten very skilled at it and produced beautiful work.

Sybil was in her office when she heard Blake come home early one afternoon. She found him in their bedroom.

“What are you doing here?” She was startled to see him. He’d been sitting on their bed, with his head in his hands, and she was instantly worried. “Are you sick?”

“Maybe.” He stared at her, his face pale, and she could see that something was very wrong. She’d never seen him that way before.

“What is it?” She sat down next to him and took his hand in hers, and he had no choice but to be honest with her. He had never lied to her, and wouldn’t now.

“The business is in trouble. We took too many risky positions. Our two brilliant geeks who’ve made billions with their other ventures didn’t know what they were doing with this one. They started leveraging it heavily a few months ago. They figured they could cover it, but they can’t now. And I sank a lot of my own money into the business to try and save it. More than I should have.” He had always had money of his own set aside, to make investments with, sometimes risky ones. He had never taken chances with their joint investments, and he hadn’t this time. But his own money was in the business he had believed in, and the Titanic was about to go down, with all of it. “I talked to Bert about it, and he gave me some good suggestions a few months ago. I should have listened to him and pulled out then, but instead I put more money in, and we’re going to be up to our ears in lawsuits, personally and in the business, if we can’t cover our loans.”

“Could you go to jail?” she asked him, terrified, and he shook his head.

“I don’t think so. But I could lose everything we have. I might have done that already.” He looked panicked.

“What can I do?”

“I want to talk to Bert again, when he gets home from work.” He had already talked to his investment adviser too, but he wanted to go over it with Bert. “But, Syb, I want to warn you, we may wind up totally out of money.” She nodded, trying to understand just what that would mean to them and their children. What she made curating museum shows and writing articles wouldn’t make a difference. Even her book wouldn’t when she finished it. She had always had the luxury of not worrying about how much she was paid, because he made enough money with his work to support them.

“Do we need to sell this house?” she asked him quietly, although she would hate to lose it, and the whole family that came with it. They were part of that family now, their lives woven together like a tapestry of past and present. But Blake looked grim when she asked him the question.

“I think we have a decision to make,” he said honestly. “This is an unusual house and it could take time to sell, to find the right buyer. And we haven’t owned it long. Tribeca would be a faster sale, for more money, but I know how much you love it and the city.” It was like asking her to give up a kidney. But they knew that they could sell it well. Apartments in Tribeca sold for a fortune.

They both heard the front door close then, and Blake stood up. He knew it was Bert and he wanted to see him. Blake left Sybil alone in their bedroom, as she looked out the window and wondered what would happen now.

Bert spent hours with Blake that night going over the numbers and agreed that he had to sell the loft in New York or the house in San Francisco to give him the money to cover the shortfall of several million that he was on the hook for.

“I hate to sell it,” he said about the apartment. “Sybil’s money is in it too.”

“You might be able to get some of that money back later, but right now you have no choice.” Blake knew he should have listened to Bert months before, but he hadn’t. And now it might be too late to salvage anything. “The men you’re in business with are high-stakes players. Too high. The numbers don’t work, and their assumptions and judgment aren’t sound. Get out of it now, if you can. You can always do something else without them later. You’d be better off without them risking your neck.” Blake knew it was true. “You know what you’re doing.” Blake had been impressed with them, and he had been foolish and naïve, dazzled by them, and now he knew it. And when his gut had told him to get out, he hadn’t followed his instincts, and stayed.

He thanked Bert for the time he spent with him, and went upstairs with a heavy heart to discuss their options with Sybil. She had the right to make the decision too. But he had to sell something and cover his part of the debts.

Sybil was waiting for him in their bedroom when he walked in, and she said she had something to tell him.

“Me too,” he said grimly. “You first?” He was going to tell her that Bert agreed they had to sell the house or the apartment, but he knew that ultimately she wanted to go back to New York.

“I want us to sell the apartment in Tribeca,” Sybil said. “We’re not going back, even if the business fails. We love it here, and this house. The Butterfields are family now. And we’ll get more money for New York.” She looked totally calm as she said it, and he stared at her in disbelief. She had made the decision while he was with Bert.

“Are you serious? You won’t regret it?”

“I want to sell it. I don’t want to go back,” she repeated. “Let’s do it.” He put his arms around her, feeling like an utter failure, but selling their New York apartment would save him. The apartment would give him what he needed to swim free. There were tears in his eyes when he thanked her.

They called the realtor in New York the next morning and put it on the market at a hefty price, but it was worth it. Blake just hoped it would sell quickly. He wanted to get out of the business now while he still could.

The New York realtor was delighted to list their Tribeca apartment, and by sheer miracle, it sold in five weeks for a good price. Blake managed to keep a lid on things at work, and Bert helped him almost daily. Blake knew that Bert’s own downfall had come due to a national disaster, not through errors of his own. And with his advice, Sybil’s support, and the sale of their New York apartment, within two months Blake had managed to extricate himself from a potentially disastrous situation and leave the firm. He had lost a considerable amount of money, but he hadn’t lost everything, and they still had the house. And after some careful thought, he decided he wanted to start a business of his own. The damage he had escaped could have been infinitely worse. By Thanksgiving Blake knew he had much to be thankful for, and was enormously relieved. He and Sybil were closer than ever, and he and Bert were almost like brothers.

Blake told Bert again how grateful he was to him. He was going to let things cool off for a while, and then try something of his own, based on sound principles. He might not make as much as he could have with the geeks, but he wouldn’t lose as much either.

The apartment in New York was gone, so this really was their home now. Sybil had flown to New York and packed everything at the height of his crisis, and had shipped it all to San Francisco. She had never complained once about the mess Blake had gotten them into, and he was deeply grateful to her too. It had been a harrowing time for both of them. Spending Thanksgiving with the Butterfields was even more meaningful this year. Andy hadn’t been able to get home from Edinburgh since it wasn’t a holiday for them, but Caroline was home with Max, and Andy and Quinne were coming home for Christmas. And Blake was thankful they still had a home to come to. He had escaped total ruin by the skin of his teeth, with Bert’s advice.