Chapter 8

The arraignment on Monday morning was just as Steve Weinstein had told her it would be. It was uneventful, and there were no surprises. Sydney wore her own clothes to court. She pleaded not guilty to the charges of trafficking in stolen goods and attempting to import them. Steve first tried to get the case dismissed, but with her signature on all the importation documents, the evidence was too strong against her. And when Steve tried to get her released on her own recognizance, the federal prosecutor objected, and the judge refused. He set bail at fifty thousand dollars and moved on to the next case. Steve Weinstein’s worst fear was confirmed, that they wanted to make an example of her. The judge could easily have let her out on her own recognizance. She wasn’t a flight risk, but instead he had set bail. Sydney stood staring at the judge in despair for a minute, and then spoke to her attorney.

“I’ll have to stay in jail,” she whispered. “I can’t pay the bail.”

“It’s already been taken care of,” he answered quietly. “Your daughter Sabrina set it all up for you. As soon as I notify the bail bondsman you’ve been arraigned, and the amount of bail, you’ll be free to leave.” Tears rushed to Sydney’s eyes immediately.

“I can’t let her do that. It’s not right.”

“She also gave me a check for twenty-five thousand dollars for my initial fee, until we know if it’s going to trial.”

Sydney was horrified by what she was costing her daughter, and she was out of a job too. She didn’t want to be a burden to Sabrina. The whole situation was mortifying. Steve tried to reassure her.

“Let’s just get you out on bail, and we can worry about the rest later.” She looked even worse than when he’d seen her on Friday, and he knew she wouldn’t survive it for a year, if she didn’t let Sabrina post bail. And Sydney knew that too. Now she really had to sell the Paris apartment. It was all she had to sell to pay Steve’s fee for the trial. And she wanted to pay Sabrina back as quickly as possible.

A guard led her away, and Steve went to post bail for her. Sabrina had already taken care of the financial details that morning, and half an hour later, Sydney was on the street with him, in her own clothes, and she let him take her home. She felt shell-shocked from everything that had happened. Glancing around at all the trees and buildings and people walking in the streets, she felt as though she had come back to earth after being terrified she was never going to be free again. They had been the four most frightening days of her life. And the guards and criminals were like actors in a bad movie. Only it was real.

She walked into her apartment, sat down on the couch, and looked around as though seeing it for the first time. She called Sabrina and thanked her for posting bail, and promised to pay her as soon as she could. She was ashamed that her daughter had had to use her apartment as collateral.

“What are you going to do now, Mom?” she asked her quietly.

“I don’t know. Look for another job, I guess.” And she couldn’t even use her one recent job as a reference. “What about you? Have you heard back from any of the places where you interviewed?” She was worried about Sabrina now too. Everything was in a mess again.

“Not yet.” They both tried to keep the conversation normal, and not mention the fact that she’d just been in jail. Her life had become a sordid tale of losing her husband, her home, her money, being arrested, and going to jail. And what if she was convicted and went to prison? She couldn’t even let herself think about it. She had an appointment at Steve Weinstein’s office the next day to discuss the grand jury and what lay ahead. Sabrina promised to bring dinner over that night, and said Sophie was coming too. Sydney said she was too tired to go out. She had hardly slept in four days.

And as though on cue, the phone rang again when they hung up. She hadn’t bothered to look at who was calling, and almost groaned when she heard Veronica’s voice. It was laughable. She had called to tell her that the twins were selling some of her favorite paintings at Sotheby’s. Veronica had seen them in the catalog and recognized them immediately.

“I thought you should know,” she said sympathetically, and this time Sydney was in no mood to be polite to her.

“Why? Do you think I’m going to buy them back?”

“Of course not, I just thought…”

“That it might upset me more than I already am? As a matter of fact, it does. Why don’t you call me with good news sometime? That would be a lot more fun.”

“Fine. I’ll do that,” she said brusquely and hung up a minute later. Sydney was totally fed up with people who wanted to take advantage of her, like Paul, or wanted to make her feel bad, like Veronica. She felt better after she had brushed her off. Ed called her after that. On the spur of the moment, she invited him to join them for dinner that night.

“After all this, I want you to meet my girls.” He sounded hesitant, not wanting to intrude, but he agreed to come, and she thanked him again for finding Steve Weinstein for her.

“I’m seeing him tomorrow to discuss the case,” she said.

“They should be putting Zeller in jail, not you,” Ed said angrily.

“Steve said he wants to hire a detective to see if he can get someone to admit that Paul knew they were stolen goods.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” She told him to come at seven, and he arrived before the girls. He brought her a bunch of flowers to cheer her up, and a bottle of wine to share with her daughters. And he invited her to lunch the next day.

When they arrived, the girls were startled to see someone in the apartment they didn’t know. Sydney introduced them, and they were all shy at first. Ed was nervous that they would hate him because of where he’d worked. And the girls were uncomfortable for the first few minutes. They had brought Thai food and sashimi from downtown, and by the time they set it out on their mother’s small dining table, they were talking about fashion with Ed and had found common ground. Sydney smiled as she listened to them, and life began to seem normal again. They didn’t bring up the court case until the end of dinner, and by then they were into their second bottle of wine, and everyone had relaxed. Ed liked both of Sydney’s daughters, and they all agreed that they hated Paul Zeller and what he had done to her.

It was after midnight when they all left. It had been a nice evening, and Sydney sat in her living room, thinking of where she had been the night before. She still couldn’t believe she had been arrested and now she had to go to trial. And she was embarrassed that her daughter had had to post bail for her. But if she hadn’t, Sydney would still be in jail. It was the first time she had ever been dependent on her children, and it wasn’t a good feeling. She felt like an utter failure, and things had been going so much better for a while.

Sydney was up early the next morning to go to Steve Weinstein’s office, downtown near the federal courthouse. They spent two hours going over every detail of the case. She agreed to let him hire a detective to see what they could find out about Paul. She didn’t know how she was going to pay for it, but she knew she had no choice. And they discussed the grand jury investigation that would be conducted in secret and would determine if the case went to trial.

Sabrina called her as soon as she left the lawyer’s office, with good news for a change. She had gotten the job she wanted, for a higher salary than she’d had before. Sydney hoped it meant that their luck had changed. At least something wonderful had happened to her daughter. It buoyed her spirits as she rode the subway back uptown. Sophie called her as soon as she got home.

“Guess who’s on Page Six today,” she said, almost chortling as her mother groaned.

“Please don’t tell me I am for going to jail.”

Sophie read her the piece. It intimated that Kellie’s husband was having an affair. The woman he’d been seen with at a hotel recently was a well-known heiress around town, his specialty apparently. And Sydney smiled as she listened.

“It’s karma, Mom,” Sophie said. “She deserves it.” And Sydney hated to admit it, but she agreed with her.

She met Ed for lunch shortly afterward at a restaurant they both liked, and he told her he was going to Hong Kong.

“For good?” She looked devastated. He had become her closest friend, her only friend now. And she had hoped he’d stay around and get another job in New York.

“No, just for a week. I want to talk to my father.”

“About going into the family business?” Now that he had quit his job, she realized that he was likely to go back and go to work for them. He had gotten all the experience he needed in Europe and New York. But he surprised her with what he said.

“I want to start my own line. I think I’m ready. I want to know if they’ll help me do it here. I want to stay in New York.” And then he looked at her seriously. “Would you work on it with me, Sydney? It’ll probably take me six months or a year to get it off the ground. But I want to start setting it up right away. I looked at a space in Chelsea this morning. What do you think? Would you do it with me?”

“You know a lot more than I do about running a business. I’m just a designer.” But she had learned a lot at Lady Louise too, mostly from him. “And a year from now, I might be in prison,” she said, looking grim for a minute.

“Not if Steve Weinstein is worth what you’re paying him,” he said soberly, and she gave him a small, wintry smile in response.

“I’m not paying him. Sabrina is. I want to pay her back as soon as I can. I can’t until I sell the apartment in Paris. And I still have a tenant there for now.”

“I could give you stock in the company, so you’d have equity. I want to keep it small at first. I want to start with casual day wear. I don’t want to get too grand.” She loved the idea, and they took a long walk after lunch to talk about it. He was leaving for Hong Kong the next day. He had already told his mother about the project, but he wanted to discuss it with his father face-to-face. He would be harder to convince. He still wanted his son to come home and join the family business with him and his uncles. But Ed didn’t want to live in Hong Kong yet. “I’m happy here,” he told her. She was excited about his project, and smiling when she went home. If he convinced his father to help him back it, she would have a job again, doing work she could respect this time, working for an honest man. She was in a good mood all that night, until Sabrina called her the next day.

The story of her arrest was in Women’s Wear Daily, and they had quoted Paul Zeller talking about how severely disappointed he was that a designer of such great talent would stoop to illegal activities. It made him sound like the injured party, and her like a criminal. It was mortifying, and she was worried about Sabrina immediately.

“Do you think this will impact you in your new job?”

“I don’t think so, Mom,” she said quietly. “I called them about it this morning, and they were very nice and felt terrible for you. Paul Zeller doesn’t have a lot of fans. I think most people will know you didn’t do it and took the rap for him. But in any case, they weren’t upset with me, and assured me it wouldn’t affect my job.”

Sydney was relieved to hear it. “When do you start?”

“In a week. It gives me a little time to get organized and catch my breath.” Sydney was especially happy that Sabrina would be employed again, since she had spent most of her savings on her mother’s bail and legal fees.

Things were slowly turning around for them. Sabrina had a new job she was excited about at an even better firm. Ed wanted Sydney to start a business with him, if his family agreed to help him financially. And hopefully Steve Weinstein would be able to help her with the legal proceedings, and keep her out of prison.

She was still living on a shoestring, and she had criminal charges against her, but at least some good things were happening. She could see daylight slowly streaking across the sky. The dawn hadn’t come yet, but Sydney had hope again. It was a start.