Family Reunion, Nancy Thayer [the kiss of deception read online .txt] 📗

you’ve heard what I have to say,” Eleanor told her daughter. “I’ve spoken with my lawyer, and I’m dividing the money into five, not four parts—”

“Oh, you’re counting Phillip, too, of course!” Alicia said. She glanced at her husband. “That’s eight million for you and me!”

“No, Alicia. Let me speak.” Eleanor felt a blush of excitement rise up her neck and onto her cheeks, not unlike the blush she’d felt yesterday when Silas kissed her. “I’m giving three million each to Cliff, Alicia, and Ari, and keeping three million for myself. I’m going to buy a small house in town, on Fair Street. If I live prudently and keep receiving my annuities, I’ll be fine for the next twenty years.”

“But the other three million—” Alicia looked as if she wanted to bite something.

“The rest of the money,” Eleanor said, “is going to Beach Camp. I’m establishing the Eleanor Sunderland Beach Camp Foundation. Cal Wallace, his cousins, Poppy and Cleo, and I have met with a lawyer and are in the process of drawing up papers. We’re going to buy a small building on Amelia Drive that will be the headquarters of the camp.”

“You don’t mean it,” Alicia whispered.

“Poppy Marshall will be the full-time office manager, working from Amelia Drive and from Boston, where she lives in the winter. Cleo and her husband will live in the apartment above the Beach Camp offices. After Cal is ordained as an interfaith minister, he will live on Nantucket. He’ll direct the camp and begin a fundraising and development campaign.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Alicia was no longer whispering. “I’m your daughter. Don’t I mean anything to you?”

“Alicia. You are married to a surgeon. You have one child, who is grown. You will have three million dollars to take all the cruises you want. You mean a great deal to me, but so do the children whose parents work two jobs just to keep living in a basement and eating. They are the ones who need my money.”

“They are the ones who have your love,” Alicia shot back.

“If you measure love with money,” Eleanor said calmly, “then I’d say I love you as much as I love those children, and the children who will come after them. Besides,” Eleanor added, “I have something special for you.”

Eleanor reached behind a lamp on the side table and brought out a black velvet box. She handed it to Alicia. “This is for you.”

Alicia quickly opened it. “Oh,” she gasped. The emerald and diamond necklace lay glittering in the satin. “Mom, you used to take this out and show it to me when I was a little girl. I always wanted it.” Alicia rose from the sofa to embrace her mother. “Thank you. Thank you.”

“It was my mother’s,” Eleanor said. “Your grandmother passed it down to me. I don’t know how much it would bring if you sold it—”

“I would never sell it,” Alicia swore. “It’s part of our family.”

“No one else has anything like it,” Eleanor said. “It’s special. Like you.”

Alicia nodded, tears in her eyes.

“Put it on,” Ari suggested.

Alicia shook her head. “No. I want to look at it.” She touched the gems with her fingertip.

Cliff coughed into his hand. “What realtor are you using to buy the office on Amelia Drive?”

Eleanor burst out laughing. “Oh, my children!” Calming down, she said, “I want to use you, of course. Now, I’d like to toast with champagne. Cliff, will you get it from the refrigerator? Ari, will you bring glasses?”

Ari said, “Gram, I think you’re absolutely magnificent.”

Eleanor replied with a quirk of her mouth, “It’s easy to be magnificent when you have fifteen million dollars.”

Ari and Cliff went around the room, giving everyone a glass of champagne. Eleanor raised her champagne flute and opened her mouth to toast, when a knock came at the front door.

“Did you invite Silas?” Alicia asked.

“No,” Eleanor answered, puzzled. “Labor Day is only for family.”

“Well, this is family, for sure,” Cliff said, with a dazzling smile. He went to the door.

“What is he talking about?” Eleanor asked the others.

The group heard Cliff say, “Judith. Just in time.”

Cliff returned to the living room with a beautiful blonde at his side. She was about thirty years old, extremely poised and posh-looking, wearing a floaty red dress that didn’t disguise her rounded belly.

Eleanor nearly dropped her glass.

Phillip, always proper, came to his feet as the lady entered the room.

“Everyone,” Cliff announced, “I’d like you to meet my wife, Judith. Judith Crosby, now Judith Sunderland.”

Eleanor was speechless.

Alicia smiled smugly. “Hello, Judith.”

Eleanor stared at her daughter. “You know Judith?”

“I don’t know her,” Alicia answered, very pleased with herself. “But I know about her. Cliff told me about her on our cruise.”

With a cry of joy, Ari jumped up from the sofa and ran across the room. “Aren’t you the quiet one!” she said to her uncle. Ari embraced Judith in a warm hug, then stood back to look at her. “And aren’t you gorgeous? And you’re pregnant! I am, too! You are the answer to my dreams!”

“Really,” Cliff interjected dryly, “she’s the answer to my dreams.”

Ari insisted, “I mean we can discuss gas and swollen feet—”

Eleanor rose to her feet. “Perhaps another time. Judith, I’m so happy to meet you. And, I admit, I’m shocked. When did you marry my mischievous son?”

Judith crossed the room with grace, her head held high, while Cliff followed, looking a bit like an adoring puppy. “Two weeks ago,” Judith said, answering Eleanor’s question. She held out her hand and Eleanor took it, and they didn’t so much shake hands as simply hold hands for a moment, in a kind of tactile understanding.

“But how did you meet?” Ari asked. “How long have you known each other?”

Cliff put his arm around Judith’s waist. “Judith is a lawyer specializing in real estate. I’ve worked with her for almost a year. She’s brilliant and clever and unnervingly patient. Never play poker with her.”

“We’ve worked together on real estate sales for months, but this spring—” Judith