CHAPTER FOURTEEN
IVORY HAD AN unexpected telephone call from Curry early on Monday morning. She was worn-out after spending the weekend escorting her mother from one side of New York to the other and buying her things that she couldn’t really afford. But the alternative to the spending was too dreadful to contemplate. That was, if her mother could do any more damage than she already had.
“How did your weekend go?” Curry asked, when she answered her phone. “Is your mother enjoying her visit?”
“I took her shopping,” she said in a toneless voice. She resented his assumption that her mother was the victim. It was the old story, but she’d never expected Curry to be taken in. If his own mother had been less compassionate, perhaps he wouldn’t have been fooled by Marlene. She had to remember that people who’d known Ivory all her life believed Marlene’s lies. That made it a little easier to bear Curry’s contempt.
“I’m sure she enjoyed it. If you take some time to get to know her, you may discover that her life hasn’t been a bed of roses, either. Sometimes we take our parents for granted. We shouldn’t. Mothers make tremendous sacrifices for their children.”
She wondered how anyone could have taken Marlene for granted, and Marlene had never made any sacrifices that weren’t to her advantage. But she didn’t say that. She didn’t say anything.
“I thought you might like Friday off, since it will be her last day in town,” he added. “We’re rushed, but I won’t begrudge you some free time.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you,” she said stiffly. “Thank you.”
“Don’t forget the talk show next Monday night.”
“I won’t. I’ll be fine,” she said through her teeth. He was ice-cold, but she had to try to reach him. “Curry, I want to explain...”
“What is there to explain?” he asked in a silky-smooth tone. “I knew everything the minute I realized who your mother was. You played me for a fool, Ivory.”
“I didn’t mean to,” she began. “I only wanted...!”
“You were looking for a boot up the ladder. After all, fame is all you really wanted, isn’t it? You’ve got it. You’ll get even more as you go along. By the way, you don’t have to worry about your job, if that was concerning you,” he added. “You’re worth a lot to the company. Although I hope you realize that your value to me personally has taken a nosedive, ‘rich little girl from Louisiana.’”
The tone cut. “I wanted to be somebody!”
“And you will be,” he said. “This television appearance almost guarantees it. You told me that you wanted to be rich and famous, Ivory. But you never told me why. I didn’t know you came from poverty.”
“You still don’t know everything,” she challenged.
“I know that you’re ashamed of your background, and of your mother, and that you lied about both to me,” he said icily. “That’s what I hold against you most. How could you be callous enough to turn your back on her when you became a success? She deserves to share in your good fortune. But you took her for granted, Ivory.”
“That will be the day,” she murmured.
“Don’t joke about it. You’re not the woman I thought you were. All of it was an act, wasn’t it? Your concern for me, the lovemaking, your work at the shelter—none of it was from the heart. You were playing a part to get you what you wanted. Well, you’ve got it. I hope it was worth the price you had to pay.”
What I wanted, she corrected silently, was you. Maybe I wanted protection against Marlene, too. But she didn’t say it. He wasn’t in a listening mood. He was wounded and he was going to withdraw like a wounded animal.
“I’m sorry you won’t listen,” she said quietly.
“I’ve listened once too often already,” he said coldly. He hung up, and she went back to her designs; but her heart wasn’t in her work. Her dreams of success had been nebulous, but they had included being with Curry and sharing it all with him. They also had included being able to use the money she earned to do things other than buy her greedy mother luxuries.
Mr. Johnson’s wheelchair was wearing out and she knew that the elderly couple couldn’t afford to replace it. That was one of her projects. She had other small projects going in the neighborhood shelter, such as organizing a small cooperative among the people at the shelter who could do crafts. Curry knew nothing about that. But he knew nothing about her, either, she decided angrily.
“Don’t forget you’re taking the buyer from the Chic Boutiques chain out to lunch,” Dee reminded her.
She caught her breath. “But I’ve got my mother...”
“Take her with you—Curry won’t mind. Use the company’s corporate card. You have yours, surely?”
“Yes, but...”
“He won’t mind. Trust me.” Dee paused by her desk. “You really are afraid of your mother, aren’t you?”
She looked down at the cost estimates on her desk. “Everyone believed her, the minute she opened her mouth. It’s been like that all my life. Back home, she convinced everyone that I was a tramp, a cheat, a liar.” She looked up into her friend’s concerned face. “I changed my name, I changed my voice, I changed my address...but I’m still me, Dee,” she said heavily. “I can’t change me.”
Dee laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Why should you want to? You’re a warm, kind, sharing person. I like you.”
“You believed her,” she accused tartly.
Dee chuckled. “Did I? Oh, Ivory, I saw right through her. She smirked when she told us you never wrote or called. I’ve known people like her before. She’s a good actress—she should have gone on the stage. But she didn’t fool me.”
“She fooled Curry.”
“He loves his mother,” Dee reminded her. “He’s got one of the really rare kind, the old-fashioned kind that every child longs for. My mother was a journalist. She never cooked or cleaned—I did. She went looking for new stories, and I took care of my little sister and did the housework. I’d have given my eyeteeth for a mother like Curry’s.”
“So would I,” Ivory said fervently. “She’s everything I dreamed of when I was little. But my mother isn’t like that. He won’t listen when I try to explain.”
“Give him time. He’s hot-tempered, but in the end, he’s reasonable.”
She remembered his mother saying the same thing. He’d know the truth one day, but it would be too late. Meanwhile, Ivory had to live with her mother’s demands and Curry’s contempt. She was painted as a gold digger who coveted nothing more than wealth and power. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
“I don’t know if he’ll ever believe me now,” Ivory said wearily. “How can I blame him? My mother has fooled plenty of other people over the years. My big mistake was trying to hide my past in the first place. You can’t run away, can you?”
“Not really,” Dee agreed. “You have to learn from the past and go on from there. We’re the sum total of our experiences, good and bad. But steel has to be tempered in fire, remember.” She smiled. “Good times never shaped anyone’s character.”
“I guess not. Mine should be sterling bright in that case, because I don’t remember any good times. My mother hated me from the day I was born. I’ll never escape her. Never!”
“Don’t talk like that. You’ll cope. You can do anything you have to. She’ll go back home, you know. Everything will be all right when she leaves. Curry will cool down and you can explain it to him.”
“No, I can’t. His mother loved him and sacrificed for him. He couldn’t imagine some of the things my mother did to me. I’m afraid of her,” she added, shaking her head. “I know it’s cowardly, but I can’t help it. She’s my worst enemy.” She looked up. “She drinks, and when she’s had enough, she does irrational things. I’m so afraid that she might try to go to the newspapers.”
“You’re not that well-known yet, thank God,” Dee chuckled. “Don’t borrow things to worry about. Take her out to lunch with you to meet the buyer. It will be an experience for her.”
“Okay,” she said. “I suppose I might as well.”
She gave in. She could just imagine how her mother was going to react to having lunch with one of the top buyers in the country.
Marlene was on her best behavior. She’d downed a goodly portion of her quart of gin in the three nights since she’d been in residence. But either she was able to hold it better than she had when Ivory was a child or she’d grown immune to its effects, because she hadn’t been staggering drunk, and she hadn’t been sick or hungover.
Marlene waltzed into the exclusive restaurant with her daughter to greet the young, elegant buyer from a chain of upscale boutiques and immediately took over the conversation, knowledgeably and with a sophistication that surprised her daughter. Even her drawl was less pronounced. It could be that she was almost sober, for a change.
“Of course my daughter doesn’t give me credit for any intelligence,” she told the other woman with a dewy smile. “But I know the clothing industry very well, in fact. I enjoy the fashion magazines.”
“You must be very proud of Ivory,” the buyer said. “She’s come up the ladder quickly at Kells-Meredith, and on the strength of real talent, too.”
Ivory thanked the woman politely, and Marlene seethed.
“Oh, you have the creative ability to go far in the industry,” the buyer continued. “We’re very impressed with your new collection. I understand that Saks and Neiman Marcus placed large orders.”
Ivory nodded. “Yes, they did. I was overwhelmed.”
Marlene made a noise, distracting the conversation to herself. “I think I’d like a cocktail.”
Ivory caught the eye of a waiter and ordered coffee for herself, leaving the drinks to the other two women.
“Don’t you drink, Ivory?” the buyer asked with a smile.
“No.” The word was flat and unapologetic. Marlene gave her a hard look, but she refrained from making any comments.
The conversation revolved, naturally, around high fashion, and Ivory managed to hold her ground despite her mother’s interference. Marlene gave the corporate credit card a hard look when Ivory brought it out to pay for their meal, but the comment about her status that Ivory expected was never made.
“If I’d had your chances when I was your age, I’d certainly have made more of them than you have,” Marlene said when they were on their way back to the apartment in the limousine Ivory had hired. That, too, was Curry’s idea.
“I make the most of my chances,” Ivory said. “I’m doing very well.”
Marlene sprawled back against the soft leather with a hard laugh. “And living in Queens?” she chided.
“Queens is the best place to live,” Ivory replied stiffly. “I have good neighbors and I feel safe where I am.”
“No men, of course.”
Ivory looked at her mother coldly. “You had enough for both of us.”
Marlene’s face hardened, and Ivory knew that if it hadn’t been for the driver’s glance in the rearview mirror, she’d probably have been slapped for the comment. It occurred to her, however, that this time she was willing to hit back. That reaction was as new as the self-confidence even Marlene hadn’t been able to shake.
“Brave, aren’t you?” her mother asked icily.
“Well, I don’t see much to be afraid of,” Ivory replied evenly with a look that clearly expressed her opinion of the older woman.
There was a sharply in-drawn breath. “You little tramp!”
Ivory managed a cool smile. “Temper, temper.”
“You’ll pay for that, my girl,” Marlene said under her breath. “Oh, but you will!”
“I’ve been paying all my life,” came the reply. “Emotionally and then financially.”
Marlene looked away. “You owe me!”
“No, I don’t,” Ivory said quietly. “It’s the other way around. Someday, the truth will come out, you know. And not everybody believes the lies you’ve told about me. What will you do if they ever dig deep enough to find out what sort of childhood I had? Or about that last night when your boyfriend came to the house and I ran screaming out the back door?”
Marlene actually went pale. She pushed back her hair nervously. “You asked for that!”
“I did not! I never did! You were both too drunk to care about my feelings, and I got away in the nick of time! Wouldn’t that be a sweet story to tell back home?”
Marlene glared at her. For a minute, she almost looked ashamed as she averted her eyes.
Ivory had won one battle, for the moment. Marlene had always been her enemy; but for the first time, Ivory had weapons of her own to fight back with. She wasn’t the downtrodden child she’d been when she left home.
Ivory went to work half-heartedly for the rest of the week. Marlene was rude to her neighbors, and she complained nonstop about the apartment and the lack of money to spend. Ivory had already gone to the limit of her budget and refused to spend any more on her greedy parent, but Marlene wasn’t one to give up easily. Unfortunately for Ivory, she stayed up late one night and dipped into Ivory’s purse for the corporate credit card. While Ivory was at work the next day, she practiced until she could forge Ivory’s name. Now, if the silly girl just didn’t miss the card, Marlene could get the things she really wanted, without her daughter’s interference.
Ivory didn’t discover that the card was missing. She used it only to entertain buyers, and she wasn’t in the habit of checking to make sure it was in her purse—a mistake that was to cost her dearly.
“You haven’t brought your mother over to see us again,” Dee remarked Thursday afternoon. “Why?”
“You wouldn’t enjoy the visit,” Ivory replied quietly. She looked up at Dee from her desk, worn and wan-looking. “And I don’t think I could stand having to work here if she’d seen my office.”
“You have a real phobia about her,” Dee said. “Don’t you?”
“Yes.” She clasped her hands in her lap and looked at her friend levelly. “The truth is, I had a pretty rough childhood. We were poor and I was scarcely literate. My father was a sharecropper. He worked until he dropped, and he finally died of it. After that, Marlene made life hell. She had one man after another, playing them for all she was worth to get things she wanted. She’s not pretty enough or young enough to get men anymore, so now she’s using me to get what she wants.”
“Using you how?”
“We share a dark secret,” Ivory laughed coolly. “Doesn’t that sound melodramatic? It’s true. She could cause me a lot of trouble if she wanted to, and I’m not certain I could get myself out of it unless I was really well-to-do.”
“You mean she’s blackmailing you?”
Ivory hesitated. “In a sense, I suppose she is,” she replied. “She’s greedy, Dee. I didn’t want her to know how successful I was becoming, but she found out anyway. When she came to the office and Curry saw her, he knew that everything I’d told him about my past was a lie. He raked me over the coals for being so ungrateful to my mother. He hasn’t the slightest idea what sort of person she really is. It’s the old story, I guess. Marlene always could make people believe that she was the victim and I was the villain. She’s good at it.”
“I can’t believe that Curry could be taken in that easily! Do you want me to talk to him?”
She shook her head. “He wouldn’t believe you any more than he believed me when I tried to explain. It would only make him put more stock in Marlene’s lies if you interfered. He’d be sure that I put you up to it, you see.”
Dee grimaced. She folded her arms over her chest and paced. “There must be some way. How long is your mother staying?”
“She leaves tomorrow, thank God,” she said. She shivered. “But I don’t think she’ll stay away. Now that she knows what a good job I really have, she’ll want more and more of my salary. She’ll go home and tell everyone that I’m living it up in the big city while I let her starve back home in Texas.”
“That isn’t true.”
“That’s what she’ll say, and they’ll believe her. They always have, even when I was little. Nobody ever believed I was being ill-treated, except one neighbor, a policewoman. She moved, though, and I have no idea where she went. She’s the only person who saw through Marlene.”
“Pity you couldn’t track her down.”
“I hope I never have to,” Ivory said. Her insides were clenched tight. “Dee, it’s like a nightmare ever since my mother showed up. I thought I was safe from her here.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yes, so am I. But that doesn’t help me. Even if I give up this job and move, she’ll keep coming. I’ll never get her off my back until I die...”
Dee had her by the arm. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
Ivory looked hunted, but she composed herself rapidly. “No, I won’t do that,” she said heavily. “I’m not suicidal. I’m just tired. I’m so tired.”
Dee could imagine that she was. Poor Ivory, with a career that was just starting to take off and a blackmailer for a mother. It wasn’t fair.
“I’ve got to get back to work,” Ivory said. “When I draw, I can block her out. I used to do it when I was little. It still works, but it’s more profitable now.”
“Yes, it is, for all of us. The latest sales figures are super. You’ve put us over the top.”
“I’m glad. I hope I can keep doing it.”
“Your kind of creativity doesn’t wear out,” Dee assured her.
But it wasn’t creativity that worried Ivory. It was her unpredictable parent.
She got home just after dark. Marlene’s bag was packed and she looked a little too pleased with herself for comfort. Still she seemed to be without malice for once as Ivory treated her to supper at a steak house downtown in Manhattan.
It was a restaurant frequented by the executives of Kells-Meredith, and Ivory wasn’t sparing her boss’s pocket one bit. He’d told her to take Marlene out on the town, and she was doing it—at his expense.
“Isn’t this nice,” Marlene remarked, looking around. She was wearing a black silk sheath that Ivory didn’t remember her mother bringing. It looked expensive, too.
“I don’t remember that dress,” Ivory began.
“It was under my night things. I’ve had it for ages,” Marlene said dismissively, looking around her. “Do you come here often?”
“No.” Ivory started to add to that statement when her eyes caught and held on a familiar tall figure in evening clothes. Curry! And on his arm was one of the new models, a striking brunette named Gaby, dressed in one of Ivory’s signature gowns. She felt the pain all the way up and down her body. How could he!
Marlene saw where her daughter was staring and followed the stricken gaze. “It’s your boss. Handsome devil, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Ivory said through her teeth.
Marlene smiled at him and lifted a hand. He saw her, turning to his companion and leading her over to the table occupied by the two women.
“What a pleasant surprise,” Curry said suavely, without mentioning that he’d tricked Dee into telling him about Ivory’s plans to bring her mother here tonight. “So we meet again, Mrs. Keene,” he said with a gentle smile.
“Mrs. Costello,” she corrected. “Ivory was so ashamed of me that she had her last name legally changed when she left home.”
Curry was stunned. He glanced at Ivory, who met his eyes bravely and without speaking. It was the truth, but Marlene twisted it.
“Keene is my mother’s maiden name,” Marlene continued.
Ivory remained quiet, although it cost her some effort.
“Won’t you join us?” Marlene added quickly, certain that if she could cajole him into it, Ivory wouldn’t miss the corporate card that Marlene still had tucked in her purse. “It’s my last night in New York, you know.”
Curry glanced at Ivory and then at his companion. “Do you mind, Gaby?” he asked the other woman.
“Not if you don’t, Curry, dear,” she purred.
He stiffened, but he didn’t correct the assumption that they were more than just companions. Ivory seemed frozen in place and, in Curry’s view, her mother was very obviously hurting from her daughter’s treatment. He was surprised at Ivory’s lack of compassion for her mother. It gave his suspicions even more substance.
“Sit down, then,” Marlene coaxed again. “The more the merrier.”
Curry seated his companion and then himself. “How do you like New York?” he asked pleasantly.
“It’s just so exciting,” Marlene enthused. “All these lovely stores...a little old country girl like me could go crazy. Of course, it’s very lonely when you have to spend your holiday by yourself. Ivory’s been too busy to come home for years...”
She let her voice trail off. Ivory’s jaw clenched and Curry glanced at her accusingly.
“I gave her tomorrow off,” he volunteered, “so that she’ll have some free time to spend with you.”
“And I appreciate it, really I do,” Marlene said with a sigh, “but I’ve arranged to change my ticket so that I leave first thing in the morning. I know I’m a burden to Ivory. She’ll be so much happier when I’m gone. She doesn’t like remembering the past, you see. We were dirt-poor and she hated school, poor child. She could hardly spell her name when she went off to design school, and she talked Southern talk, just like her mama! And here she is speaking so well, knowing which of these fancy forks to use. Remember how you tucked your napkin right under your chin the first time we went out to eat?” she added with just the right touch of motherly affection.
Curry was learning things he didn’t want to know about Ivory. Illiterate and unsophisticated and dirt-poor, that was the description her mother gave of her background. He wondered what else she’d kept from him, and if she’d really only used him to get where she was. Everyone from Harry Lambert to his own mother had warned him that she was climbing up his body to fame and fortune, but he hadn’t listened. Now he was sorry. He’d been badly hurt to find out the truth about Ivory, just when they seemed destined for a future together. But how could he live with a woman whose whole identity was a lie?
“Please, Mother,” Ivory said under her breath.
“Now, dear, you mustn’t worry. I’m sure Curry won’t think less of you. After all, he’s a man of the world. She had so many boyfriends,” Marlene added on a laugh. “Why, after I was widowed, she even stole away some of mine!”
Curry’s expression was suddenly explosive. He wasn’t thinking straight at all, Ivory saw, and she wondered if he’d think she had pretended to be innocent that first time. But how could he, when all the signs were there for him to see? she thought, panicking.
More sophisticated than Ivory, Curry knew that innocence could be faked, and how. His good eye narrowed as he stared at her, and she could see the wheels turning.
She flushed, lowering her eyes. It looked to the man beside her like an admission of guilt.
“She wouldn’t ever get serious about a boy, though,” Marlene continued gaily, after the waiter had taken their order and departed. “She said she was going to get rich, no matter what it took or how far she had to go. And it looks as if she has, doesn’t it?”
“Yes,” Curry said tightly. “It does.”
“Fame and glamour, that’s all she ever wanted. My goodness, isn’t it a long way from the farm, Ivory?” She laughed again. “Can you see Ivory barefooted, slopping hogs? She did hate those pigs!”
Ivory felt her carefully constructed actions falling around her like paper walls. Marlene was stripping her soul naked and insinuating things that weren’t true. There was no defense, though. If she denied it, she’d look even more guilty. And Curry was sitting there, angering his glass, drinking in every word.
“Well, she won’t have to feed the pigs ever again. Now she can ride around in limousines and eat at the best restaurants and afford designer clothes, can’t she?”
“Excuse me,” Ivory said huskily, getting up. “I have to go to the ladies’ room.”
“Certainly, dear. Are you ill?” Marlene asked with assumed concern.
“I’ll be fine in a minute, Mother.”
Marlene watched her retreating back with a tiny smile before she turned back to Curry. “Such a kind girl,” she said with a sigh. “And so generous! Why, would you look at this dress? She bought it for me at Neiman Marcus, and these shoes to go with it! And a fur coat...oh, I just feel like Cinderella! I had no idea that she was that well-to-do, and I did try to stop her, you know, but she insisted that I have the very best. Isn’t she a kind child?”
Curry’s brow furrowed. He knew the designer of the dress Marlene was wearing by the lines; it was Chanel. That was a model, and worth thousands. The shoes weren’t as expensive, but she’d mentioned a fur. He knew what he paid Ivory, and even with her bonus she couldn’t afford such things. He’d have to ask her how she managed it. Perhaps in time. But why would she spend those amounts on a mother she admitted that she didn’t like?
Ivory rejoined them a few minutes later, still sick to her stomach but feeling more able to cope. She’d thought she was all grown up, but her mother had a way of making her feel gauche and inferior. It wouldn’t have worked, except that Curry was sitting there, weakening her defenses. She looked at him and ached all over for his arms around her, but he wasn’t feeling anything similar; she could tell by that thunderous expression. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of making any sort of defense now. If he wanted to believe Marlene’s lies, let him. But it didn’t help her feelings when he slid an arm around the back of the chair his companion was occupying and let his long, lean fingers trace her shoulder affectionately.
Ivory ate exquisite cuisine that tasted like wax paper and refused dessert. Marlene held sway, talking about the little town of Harmony where she kept up such a brave front when her daughter never came to visit, never wrote except to send a check. She sounded so pathetic that even Ivory wanted to weep for her. It was useless trying to protest. No one would listen. Marlene even managed two tears. They rolled down her cheeks and she wiped them away quickly, with the precision of a skilled actress.
“You must forgive me,” she said huskily, glancing at Ivory, who was sitting like a stone woman. “Sometimes it hurts very badly that my only child doesn’t want me in her life.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Curry said firmly. He looked at Ivory, too. “And that things will change for the better, very soon.”
“I do hope so,” she sighed.
Curry glanced at his watch. “I have to leave. I have to be up early to take my mother in for her chemotherapy.”
“Is your mother ill?” Marlene asked.
“She has cancer,” he replied, glancing curiously at Ivory, whom he would have expected to tell her mother about his circumstances. “They’ve increased the chemotherapy in one last effort to stop the spread.”
“I do hope it’s successful. Do give her my best,” Marlene said.
“Thank you.” He stood up, helping his companion back into her expensive fur stole. His hands lingered on her shoulders as he looked down at Ivory. “You’ll take your mother to the airport, I’m sure.”
“Of course,” she said. She averted her eyes. It hurt to see him handle the other woman.
He knew it. It gave him a bitter pleasure. She’d kept things from him, deceived him, and she had no feeling at all for her own mother. He was hurting, and he’d convinced himself that she felt nothing for him. Gaby was a very casual date, nothing more, but Ivory wouldn’t know that. He despised himself for caring that he was hurting her.
“I’ll say good night, then. I hope you have a pleasant trip home, Marlene,” he added with a smile.
“Thank you, Curry. It was a pleasure to meet you.”
“Same here. Don’t worry about the check,” he added, as Marlene had known he would. “I’ll sign for everything before I leave. My treat.” He nodded curtly at Ivory and, sliding his hand into the brunette’s, led her away. She almost ran to keep up with his long strides, laughing up at him as if she loved him to distraction.
“What a lovely man.” Marlene sighed. “You know, I’m sure he was attracted to me. If only I were pretty, like I used to be.” She turned her attention back to Ivory. “Well, it’s obvious that he has no use for you, isn’t it?”
“Thanks to you,” she choked.
“I didn’t do anything. He had the other woman in tow first, didn’t he? I’ll bet they’re sleeping together. She has that well-loved look. I’ll bet he’s great in bed...”
“Shall we go?” Ivory snapped, rising.
Marlene got up lazily and smoothed down her dress. “If we must. I do want to get an early start tomorrow.”
It didn’t occur to Ivory to ask why her mother was in such a hurry to go home. She was too preoccupied with remembering how Curry had looked at her, and how easily he’d fallen for all her mother’s lies. He’d never believe anything she told him again. He’d made that clear without a single word.