Sidney Sheldon - Mistress of the Game

“How did you know I was here?”

Gabe told her how he’d jumped on a plane in Cape Town, desperate to see her. “I was going to my hotel, but I changed my mind at the last minute and swung by the old Templeton office.”

“Kruger-Brent,” Lexi said weakly.

“I know. I hoped you might have moved there, but I wasn’t sure. Then I ran into August Sandford in the elevator. As soon as he saw me, his face changed. I knew there was something terribly wrong.”

“August told you?”

“Don’t be mad. I forced it out of him. I got here as fast as I could, but they told me you were already in the operating room. My God.” Gabe shook his head. “If I’d been thirty seconds later…Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”

Lexi reached out and touched his face.

“I didn’t want to hurt you. I’d already hurt you enough. I knew I couldn’t keep it.”

Gabe’s voice trembled. “Why not? What are you so afraid of, Lexi?”

At last, it all poured out. Her terror of giving birth. Her certainty that, even if she lived, she would make a terrible mother.

“I’m not like you,” she sobbed. “I’m different. Max and I, we were both different. We were born with this… thing . Obsession, I suppose you’d call it. Max wanted Kruger-Brent as much as I did. I killed him, Gabe.” She put her head in her hands. “When I took the company away from him, I signed his death warrant.”

All the grief she’d been suppressing burst out of her like an exorcised demon. Lexi had hated Max for so long, she’d convinced herself that all the love was gone. But it wasn’t. Max’s death was like a part of herself dying. She knew that now.

Gabe let her finish.

Once she’d cried herself out, he said gently: “You didn’t kill Max Webster. The man was ill. He killed himself.”

“But, Gabe, you don’t know. You don’t know me. I’ve done some terrible things. Unforgivable things.”

“Nothing is unforgivable.” Gabe stroked her hair. “That’s why I got on the plane. Whatever you’ve done, Lexi, I don’t care. I love you. I love you as you are.”

“But, Gabe, you don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve done.”

“No, and I don’t care. I thought I wanted the truth, but I don’t. The past is the past and it can’t be changed. It’s the future I’m interested in.” He reached down and stroked her belly. “Our future. Have the baby, Lex. Marry me. I know Kruger-Brent will always come first. But I’ll take second if that’s what it takes to be with you.”

He opened his arms. Lexi fell into them, clinging to him for dear life. She loved him so much, it terrified her. As for the baby…

“I’m frightened, Gabe,” she said at last, pulling away. “My mother died giving birth to me. My grandmother died giving birth to her . It’s not even death I’m afraid of. It’s dying before I’ve had a chance to make Kruger-Brent great again.”

Gabe looked at her with a mixture of wonder and pity.

The tragedy is, she means it.

“You’re not going to die, Lexi. Marry me.”

I can’t. It will never work. There’s so much you don’t know about me. So much you must never know.

“Yes.”

Gabe’s face lit up. “Seriously? You will?”

“Yes!” Lexi was crying and laughing, touching and kissing him everywhere, unable to let him go. “Yes, I’ll marry you. I love you so much, Gabe.”

She knew she didn’t deserve a happy ending. But she wanted one so badly.

Kruger-Brent. Gabe. A baby.

At last, Lexi Templeton was going to have it all.

Eve knew the end was coming. She could feel death all around her, a smothering blanket she could not shake off. Panic surged up in her throat like vomit.

No! Not yet! It’s not my time. Please! I haven’t finished.

She was young and beautiful, far more beautiful than Alex. Men fought one another for the privilege of going to bed with her. She was a goddess, rich, blessed, untouchable. Then the ghosts came in and spoiled it all.

Kate Blackwell, her grandmother. You’re a wicked child, Eve. Alexandra shall inherit Kruger-Brent. You will get nothing.

Keith Webster. It’s just a minor operation, to get rid of those fine lines around your eyes. You mustn’t worry, darling. I’ll take care of you.

Max, her gypsy boy, her savior. We’re going under, Mother! Someone’s short-selling our stock. There’s nothing I can do.

Fools, all of them. Thieves, liars and fools!

Kate Blackwell was pressing the blanket down over Eve’s face. She couldn’t breathe. Overwhelmed with terror, Eve felt her bowels opening. She caught the rancid smell of her own filth, felt the sticky wetness on her legs and back.

No! Not now! Not like this!

With her last ounce of strength, Eve pushed her grandmother off. She reached into the bedside drawer, her gnarled fingers scrabbling desperately for pen and paper. She started to write, a frenzied, barely legible scrawl. Folding the paper over, she wrote a name on the back.

Almost there…

Keith Webster snatched the pen from her hand. George Mellis held her down. The last thing Eve saw was Kate Blackwell walking toward her with the blanket of death in her hands.

The old bitch was smiling.

LEXI TEMPLETON’S WEDDING TO GABRIEL MCGREGOR WAS the society event of the decade. Held at Cedar Hill House in Dark Harbor, it was attended by prime ministers and kings, billionaire tycoons and movie stars. But the most important guest was none of those illustrious figures. It was a newborn baby girl-Maxine Alexandra Templeton McGregor. As the sole heiress to Kruger-Brent, Lexi’s daughter was already the richest child in America. Her photograph, however grainy, would be worth a fortune to the lucky paparazzo who snapped it first.

But no one was going to get her picture at the wedding. Security was so tight, not even a housefly got into the estate grounds without a permit. For today, at least, little Maxine could sleep peacefully, untroubled by the prying eyes of the world.

“Isn’t she beautiful?”

Lexi bent low over her daughter’s crib. The terror of Maxine’s birth already felt like a distant memory. Nothing had gone wrong. Lexi had been worrying over nothing.

“You’re beautiful.” Robbie Templeton kissed his sister on the cheek. As Gabe’s best man, he was supposed to be having a pre-ceremony drink with the groom. But he couldn’t resist snatching these few final moments with Lexi and his niece. Little Max already had her famous uncle wrapped around her finger.

“You’re biased. I’m still fat.” Lexi patted her nonexistent belly through the white lace of her wedding dress. “Do you think it’s ridiculous to wear white at my age?”

“Not at all,” said Robbie. “It’s the color of new beginnings.”

New beginnings. Yes. A fresh start.

Lexi still found it hard to come to terms with her new happiness. Under her direction, Kruger-Brent was once again thriving. They were smaller than they had been in Kate Blackwell’s heyday. But they were on their way back to the top, and the climb was exhilarating. With every passing month, Lexi worried less and less about being exposed for what she and Carl had done. The SEC hadn’t so much as sniffed at either of them. They were in the clear.

Better yet, she had Gabe to share her happiness. Gabe and the miracle that was their daughter. It was hard to tell who Maxine looked like. Being so tiny, her eyes were still baby blue, and her hair was a shock of chimpanzee black. Gabe said she looked like Lexi, but that was only because she clenched her fists and pouted a lot, and screamed blue murder when she didn’t get her way.

Paolo put his wrinkled, old man’s face around the door.