Wellesley Wives (New England Trilogy) (13 page)

Sandra didn’t believe what she was hearing. It was a practical joke. She was the pretty, younger woman with the older man. If anyone was going to have an affair, it was supposed to be her. “What are you saying, Jack Boy?” She used her pet name for him while she grasped the soft wool upholstery on her criminally expensive sofa.

“I’m telling you the truth. I’ve fallen in love with another woman,” he repeated. “I’m afraid it’s out. What I mean is, it’s been made public, so I wanted to tell you as soon as possible. I’m going to move out now and take some things with me. I’ll come back in a couple of days to take the rest.”

“What? That’s it? You’re just walking out? Just like that? Don’t you think we should at least try to—oh, I don’t know—talk? Do you even love me a little bit? Jack?”

“I do love you, Sandra, but this was just so overwhelming. I—we couldn’t fight it.”

“One question, Jack.” Her voice was dangerously calm. “Just one question. How old is she?”

He shook his head by way of an answer.

“That young? Really? I’m guessing early thirties?” Sandra’s voice was cold and angry now.

Jack didn’t respond.

“What? Even younger? Jeez, not in her twenties? Is that even legal? You know, my brother said you’d do this. Fourteen years ago when we got engaged, he told me to be careful. If you did it once, you might do it again. And he was right.” She stood and walked over to him. “You bastard. You fucking bastard.”

She slapped him across the face with all her strength. He took it and stood his ground.

“All these years and you wouldn’t let me have kids, and now, just as I begin to get a little old myself, what do you do? You trade me in for a kid? You bastard! I’m going to take you for everything you’ve got, and let’s see if she still likes you when you’re broke.”

Jack met her glare. “I’m afraid there’s more, Sandra. Please sit down.”

“No, I fucking well won’t. What in hell could you add to that crap that could make it any worse? No, wait a minute. Let me guess. Your new lover is a guy.”

Jack rubbed his brow and looked tired. “Sandy, don’t be silly.”

“Silly? Me, silly?” She was shouting now. “I’m not the one screwing a teenager!”

“She’s not a teenager.”

“Oh, excuse me. Am I splitting hairs? Well, okay then. I’m not the one who feels the need to dip my wick into every post-pubescent bitch in heat that comes onto my horizon. Don’t call me silly. You’re the absolute asshole. You—”

“We’ve been wiped out!” he shouted.

She stopped her rant for a moment, not quite understanding this new development.

He brought his voice back down to a normal level. “Financially, I mean. Last Friday the banks told us they were calling in our loans. We got them to give us the weekend to come up with a rescue plan, and those Euro investors were our last hope, but it didn’t work out. That’s it. I’m ruined. I’ll start again and I’ll try to support you, but as of today, we’re ruined.” He looked like he might cry.

“Please, spare me the histrionics. If you think I’m going to believe that crap, you must really think I came down in the last shower of rain. But I’m the old one, remember? I know bullshit when I hear it, and I’m hearing a hell of a lot of it right now. Jack, I know you have funds off every shore in this country and quite a few in the Caribbean, too, and if you think you can tell me you’re out of here with all our money—make that
my
money—you’re sadly mistaken.”

He raised his hands as if to say he was beaten. “Okay, okay, but at least I’ve told you the truth.” He sighed. “But there’s something else I need to tell you.”

“Jesus, Mary, and sweet Saint Joseph! What more can you add to this?” Sandra desperately craved the cigarette she’d been denying herself for the fourteen years since Jack first told her he didn’t like them.

“Peter Power had a heart attack a little while ago. Now, he’s going to be all right. It was just a small turn. But the thing is—well, he was trying to hit me at the time because he’d just discovered that the woman I’m in love with is his daughter, Lily.”

Sandra looked at him for a moment without blinking or moving. “Even Ben’s mind didn’t go that low.” She wasn’t sure if she was more angry or repulsed at her husband’s words. “I don’t know whether to hate you or pity you. Jesus! What incredible stupidity, what vanity, what utter immaturity . . .” She looked around her as if looking for help. “But I do know one thing, Jack Boy, my heart is a little stronger than Peter Power’s,” she said as she turned and picked up the immense Waterford glass vase that was resting on the table beside her.

It was full of water and late-blooming irises, making it a heavy weight. But with the supernatural strength she had at that moment, it felt feather-light as she threw it at her husband’s head with enormous force.

He raised his arms to protect his skull, and it bounced off his forearm before hitting the ground. There, the prohibitively expensive jade glass lay smashed into several not-so-expensive pieces.

“You wanted a break?” She sneered at him as she wiped her forehead. “You got a break. Now get out of
my
house, you bastard!”

Chapter 11

Lily

Lily threw open her front door to welcome Jack home. “Come in, darling. How did it go?”

    Things were happening so fast, probably too fast, but all she could really do was hang on and let the cards fall where they would. She’d had an appalling evening. In truth, a terrible twenty-four hours, and now she was totally wrung out. Ever since Rosie found out about Jack, Lily figured it was only a matter of time before the whole thing blew up.

Jack was a lot more sanguine. Of course, he had a lot more experience with this kind of thing. He’d already been through one divorce and knew what was involved. But this time it should be a good deal easier. There were no children involved. Sandra was incredibly strong, and Jack had insisted that he and his wife had been growing apart for years. The relationship was breaking up even if Lily hadn’t been in the picture. This didn’t help Lily right now, though. She’d seen the look of disapproval on Rosie’s face the night before. She knew deep down that she was now “the other woman”—something Lily never thought she would be. Before it happened to her, she’d been very intolerant of such women. Now life had taught her to be less judgmental.

But by far the worst of all was her father’s heart attack. Why now, of all times? If it was a week earlier or later, that would have been bad enough, but just at that moment? Was God punishing her already?

She’d never done anything bad in her entire life, and now her only sin was falling in love with a man in a bad marriage. The problem was that Jack was so connected to her family. Everybody thought they had a claim on him. Her father considered him his best friend and business partner. Her mother thought of him as her best friend’s husband. Even her sister claimed Jack as her godfather. If people would just leave them alone to live in peace, things would be okay. But what about her father? When he did get better, which by all accounts he would, would he ever forgive her? Would he cut her out of his life? That would be a dreadful price to pay.

Lily and Jack had talked a great deal about how their relationship could move forward. The plan had been for Jack and Sandra to break up first and then slowly, he and Lily would bring their relationship out into the open. It would have been a whole lot smoother than what had actually happened, but there was no going back now.

That said, Lily had been getting impatient. They’d just celebrated what she called their “first anniversary.” It was twelve months since they’d started their affair, and still Jack had made no moves toward leaving Sandra. He’d stopped sleeping with her, this much she knew, but Lily was getting just a little annoyed. Time was ticking by, and she was beginning to think about marriage and babies. She wasn’t getting any younger. She’d decided that twenty-nine was a good age to get married, and that meant an engagement soon. Which would be a little difficult with Jack still married to someone else.

Last year had been the fastest of her life. A new gym had opened in Boston’s financial district, and she’d gotten an invitation to try it out through her work. Naturally, she didn’t know anybody at first, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to bump into Jack the second time she visited. She was surprised to see him at first because she knew there was an amazing gym in The Celtic Crowne Plaza, but Jack said he always preferred the newest game in town.

Lily had always loved Jack—in an uncle kind of way—but somehow in this new environment, their dynamic shifted slightly. She’d never thought of him as a man, but watching him exercise altered her perception.

Many months later, he explained that for him it was the same. At first he was appalled that he could think of her like that. He remembered her birth. He couldn’t believe how one minute she was little Lily with platinum pigtails and dolls, and now all of a sudden she was this fully developed, drop-dead-gorgeous hedge fund manager.

In the beginning, as soon as they each privately realized how they felt, they both tried to ignore it. But it was as if fate was conspiring to get them together. They kept bumping into each other at the gym. Out of politeness, they would stop for a short chat, but with firm resolve, they both walked away.

Lily was the first to crack. She went to the gym at times when he was more likely to be there. If he didn’t show, she hung around and did even longer stretches on the treadmill until he arrived.

He said he’d tried to avoid her after he realized he was developing strong feelings for her, but she’d wind up being there whenever he went.

Then one night, when the gym was almost empty, Lily told him that her muscles were sore and she was going to grab her swimsuit and sit in the hot tub for a while. She had earned it. She asked Jack to join her.

By the time they were in the hot tub, they had reached the point of no return. She made the first move. Jack was sitting on the plastic bench beside her. They were up to their chests in frothy bubbles, and Lily simply reached over and kissed him. She had been kissing him all her life but this time she kissed him like a woman—not a niece.

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her with passion. Within minutes, it was clear they needed some privacy. Either that or they were going to get kicked out of the gym.

“Come back to my place,” Lily had whispered.

“I can’t. This is nuts,” Jack said, but his conviction was feeble.

“Yes, it’s nuts, but come back anyway.” She jumped out of the water and ran for the locker room.

“Wait, come back, Lily. We have to talk.”

She ignored him and left. At the time, Lily couldn’t believe it was happening, but she was also thrilled that it was. She’d thrown her clothes on over her swimsuit and rushed out to her car. As she did, it occurred to her that Jack didn’t know where she lived, so she scribbled her address down on a piece of paper and stuck it on his windshield. Then she went home and waited.

A half hour passed and then another. Lily began to panic. What if he didn’t come? She was so fired up for him. The old Uncle Jack of her youth was gone.

Her parents had great taste in friends. He was an exciting, dynamic, good-looking man—okay, a few years older than her, but so what? He was a ten out of ten, and she wanted him.

In the time she was home, she managed to light the fire, throw a bottle of champagne in the fridge, and take a shower, but she was running out of steam. What could be taking him so long?

She thought about calling him but decided it was too desperate, so she paced the floor instead. At last her buzzer sounded, and she let him up. There was no way it would be anybody else at almost midnight. She also knew that the next door neighbors were away, so she felt perfectly safe opening the door to him, naked.

“Lily, we need to talk—” He looked up and saw her with nothing on but an inviting smile. “Oh dear Lord,” he whispered as she took him by the hand and closed the door behind him. He really didn’t have a chance.

She led him into the drawing room and slowly undressed him in front of the fire. They made long, slow love. He was patient with her and treated her like a china doll. He stroked and held her. He was gentle, watching her all the time to be sure he was doing what she wanted. She loved being cherished. Men her age were too fast and furious. Jack had years of experience.

And so their affair began. It was very physical for the first few months. The secrecy added an excitement that Lily loved, too. Dinner at her parents’ house was always thrilling for her. She could see Jack’s heightened sense of worry, and it gave her a feeling of power over the man that liked to dominate.

In the gym or anywhere else their paths crossed, Jack was very serious about keeping a distance between them, but she liked pinching his bottom when nobody was looking. It scared him, which excited her. He would try to chastise her when they were alone in her apartment, but she would seduce him and bring him close to tears with what he called her “perfect body.”

She got everything she needed from Jack. She wanted a man with whom she felt safe and protected. He took care of her in a paternal way, but he also satisfied her in bed—and on the drawing room floor . . . and on the kitchen counter. Everywhere in her apartment, actually.

They’d even managed to get a couple of weekends away, which was bliss.

Jack had surprised her for her birthday the previous year with a weekend in New York. It was just before Christmas and the affair was still very new. He’d booked a suite in the Pierre Hotel. The luxury was at a level even Lily hadn’t experienced before, though she’d led quite a charmed life in the Power home.

Jack spared no expense. He flew her in on a private leer jet and they were met by their personal driver who drove them to their hotel in a large black limo. She felt like a rock star or foreign dignitary. All they were missing were the little diplomatic flags on the front of the car. The hotel suite was exquisite, too. Overlooking a snow covered Central Park, it was much too big for two people who were going to spend their entire weekend in bed, anyway.