Chapter 12

It was the first really hot weekend of the summer, a broiling hot Sunday in June, and Sydney was catching up on her reading. She had a stack of Women’s Wear Dailys to get through, the Sunday Times, a copy of The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. She knew she couldn’t read all of them, but she had to keep up with Women’s Wear Daily for work, and she picked up the New York Post just for fun, and first turned to the gossip column on page 6. She scanned it for anyone familiar and stopped halfway down the page, riveted.

“Heiress Kellie Wells Madison, heir to the fortune of her father, Andrew Wells of the investment banking firm of the same name, is being divorced by her husband, Geoff Madison. The man-about-town recently seen with two well-known actresses and a brand-new divorcée left the family home six weeks ago, a source close to the couple assures us. He’s allegedly suing her for a $100 million settlement and spousal support. House rich and cash poor (she and her twin sister, Kyra, now own the family estate), Kellie is selling the exceptional Connecticut home and extensive grounds for a mere $70 million, in order to give her twin her share and satisfy Geoff’s demands in the divorce…and do we hear wedding bells in the distance for Geoff? We think so. Sorry, Kellie. Hope someone buys the house soon!”

Sydney read the piece three times to make sure she got it right, and felt her stomach turn over while she did. They were selling the house that she and Andrew had loved so much, and done so much to improve. First they threw her out, and now they were selling it a year after his death, to pay off Kellie’s cheating greedy gigolo husband. She knew Andrew would have been sick about it too.

She called Sabrina immediately. She was in the Hamptons with Steve for the weekend, but she answered her cell when she saw her mother’s name come up.

“I just read last Thursday’s edition of the Post, Page Six,” she said as soon as she heard Sabrina’s voice. “See if you can Google it. Kellie is selling the house. Geoff is divorcing her, and she needs the money. He wants a hundred-million-dollar settlement and spousal support, and they’re intimating that he’s marrying someone else. The guy’s a pro.” Sabrina wasn’t sure how to react to the news, except that in a way she felt that they didn’t deserve to keep the house, but she knew that whatever happened, it would upset her mother. She had loved the house. But Sabrina also loved the idea that Geoff was dumping one of the twins.

“It serves her right,” Sabrina gloated. “But I’m sorry about the house, Mom.”

“So am I,” she said sadly. “Andrew would be heartbroken.” But Sabrina was more so that the girls had thrown her mother out, and she was still angry at Andrew for not protecting her mother from that and his rotten daughters. “I can’t imagine they’ll get that kind of money for it,” Sydney continued.

“It depends on who buys it. They will if it’s some Russian oligarch, or new Chinese money. Look at the bright side, even after they sell it, if they get their price, she’ll still owe Geoff another sixty or seventy million dollars. Kellie must be mortified that he’s leaving her for someone else.” They both knew that Kyra wouldn’t care about selling the house. She hated living in the country, and would probably rather have the money.

“I guess it’s what Sophie said before. Karma,” Sydney said, mourning the house again. “And Veronica said they poured a fortune into it in the remodel.” Not that any part of it had needed to be redone. It had been in pristine shape when Sydney had turned it over to Kellie.

“Try not to think about it,” Sabrina told her. “It won’t change anything now.” They talked for a few more minutes, and afterward, Sabrina called Sophie to tell her. She and Grayson were lying on the roof of her building in bathing suits, frying. He hated the beach and didn’t like the country. He felt safer in the city. Sophie couldn’t believe the story when Sabrina sent it to her from her iPhone.

“How’s Mom taking it?” Sophie asked, worried.

“She sounds sad. It’s such a waste. They throw her out, so they can move in supposedly, ruin her life, and sell it a year later. Geoff is such a greedy little bastard. But the whole thing serves Kellie right.”

“She must be ready to kill him,” Sophie said in amusement. “Where are you, by the way?”

“Sag Harbor, with Steve,” she said happily.

“Say hi to him for me,” Sophie said wistfully. She wished she could get Grayson to the Hamptons. They’d had dinner a few times with Steve and Sabrina, but with Grayson’s social anxiety, he didn’t like going out to dinner either. Sophie was trying to help him work through it. But it was hard sometimes being with someone so badly scarred by his childhood. She felt more like his therapist than his girlfriend at times. And they missed out on so many things that would have been fun. Sabrina had been telling her for months that she ought to break up with him, but Sophie felt sorry for him and didn’t want to hurt him. But seeing her sister with Steve made her realize what she was missing.

Sydney put the Post aside to show it to her daughters, and worked through the stack of WWDs that she had neglected all week. And like clockwork, halfway through her reading, Veronica called.

“How are you?” Veronica said cheerfully. “I’ve been meaning to call you all week.”

“I’ll bet you have,” Sydney said ironically. “Probably since Thursday,” she said, glancing at the New York Post on the coffee table.

“Why? Did something happen on Thursday? Did you get that problem with the stolen bags worked out?” she asked innocently, hoping for a juicy tidbit.

“That’s all taken care of,” Sydney lied to her. She wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of telling her she was going to trial. Veronica was a gossipmonger. And Sydney had heard from none of her other friends in a year, and no longer cared. She had gotten over it. “I started a new clothing line with a friend six months ago.”

“That’s so exciting!” she said, pretending that she gave a damn, which Sydney knew she didn’t. “That’s so wonderful that you’ve gotten back into designing. Who’s the friend?”

“No one you know. He’s from Hong Kong.” Veronica’s ears picked up at that. She smelled money.

“I thought you’d want to know the house is on the market. For seventy million. I doubt they’ll get it.”

“I heard about it. They might get their price from the right buyer.”

“They screwed it up with the remodel,” Veronica said dismissively. “Geoff’s divorcing her.”

“I know that too. I read it in the Post. I guess you did too. What would we do without Page Six to keep us informed?” Veronica liked showing that she was in the know.

“I just thought you’d want to hear. I know how you loved that house.”

“Actually, I still do,” Sydney said honestly. “And tell me something, were you hoping to make me feel better or worse telling me that they’ve put the house on the market?”

“I thought you should know, that’s all.” Veronica sounded instantly defensive.

“I tell you what, let’s make a deal. When something really bad happens to me and I’m really down about it, I’ll call you. That way you’ll have the jump on everyone else and can tell them the gossip. You don’t need to call me with bad news to make me feel bad, because I read it in the papers, just like you do. How does that sound to you? You don’t have to call me anymore, Veronica. I don’t think we have anything left to say to each other, do you?” She felt a weight lift off her heart as she said it.

“I don’t know why you’re being so nasty about it. I just thought you’d rather hear it from a friend first, instead of reading it in the papers.”

“Theoretically, that’s true. I would rather hear it from a friend. But I don’t think you qualify these days, do you? When was the last time you called just to say hi, and see how I am? I can’t remember the last time. I don’t need a bad news bulletin, Veronica, so you can revel in my miseries and pretend to be sympathetic. To tell you the truth, that’s gotten really old. And I’m more interested in good news these days. Maybe you should try calling Kellie. I’m sure she has a lot to say about Geoff and the divorce. My life is pretty boring now. No one has died. I’m not getting divorced. I think my new venture is going to do very well. We might even make some decent money. So you can stop the news bulletins now. I’m over it. Thanks for calling.”

Without waiting to hear her answer, Sydney hung up and felt great when she did. She was just sorry she hadn’t done it sooner. And at least if she went to prison in September, Veronica wouldn’t be able to call her to find out how she was doing, and spread the gossip among the neighbors. Sydney sat on the couch, smiling to herself. She was back in fighting mode, and she wasn’t going to let someone like Veronica pull her down. She didn’t want people like that in her life anymore.

Sydney had recently turned fifty but had refused to celebrate it. She wasn’t in the mood for celebrations these days either, with the trial looming closer, but she had allowed her daughters to take her to a quiet dinner. She was much happier with them than phony friends.

She went back to reading Women’s Wear then, and had finished all of them by the end of the afternoon. The apartment was still stifling, and she lay on her bed, when the phone rang. It was Bob Townsend calling her from Hong Kong. He called about once a week now, just to catch up on what they were both doing, and find out how she was. He said he was coming back to New York in a few weeks and he wanted to know if she would be there. She and Ed weren’t going anywhere that summer. They had too much work to do before September.

He was going to visit friends in the south of France before that, and his daughter in England, and then he’d see her.

“Any news from Steve?” he asked.

“Nothing. I think Paul covered his tracks completely,” Sydney said in a subdued tone.

“It’s not over yet. Wait and see what happens.” He still believed that evidence would turn up to exonerate her. She thought it was wishful thinking, but his unshakable faith encouraged her.

She told him about Kellie selling the house and her mega-million-dollar divorce. He could hear that she was sad about the house, and he didn’t blame her. It had been her home, and with her exquisite taste he was sure it had been beautiful and a painful contrast with her uncomfortably small apartment.

“See you in a few weeks then,” he said as he hung up, and she thought about him for a long time after he called. Starting a relationship with him didn’t make a lot of sense. He lived in Hong Kong, and she lived in New York, but she was very tempted nonetheless. No man had appealed to her as much since Andrew. Bob was very kind to her. He had said several times that he wanted her to meet his children, which she wasn’t enthused about. Kellie and Kyra had cured her forever from wanting to create a relationship with other people’s children, whatever their age, even if Bob’s would be infinitely better behaved and kinder people, if they were anything like their father.

She worked on some sketches that night, and was back at work in the morning. The arctic temperature they kept their air-conditioning on in the office was sheer heaven and kept her working day and night.