Danielle Steel - Betrayal

“Have a nice day, Mom,” she said cheerfully after a few minutes, and they hung up, and then Tallie remembered to tell Brigitte about the audit for their Japanese investor. Tallie asked her to call Victor Carson, their accountant, and ask him to cooperate fully with them, and give them whatever they wanted.

“At least you don’t have to do the work on it,” Tallie said to her, looking relaxed as she pulled out the script.

“I’ll give Victor whatever he wants, if he needs anything from me.” Brigitte was good with figures and kept impeccable track of all of Tallie’s bills. There was never a problem about not having bills or receipts for whatever she paid for. After the first several years of chasing Tallie around to sign the checks, they had set up an account where Brigitte could sign them to pay all her bills. It saved Tallie the time and headache, and Brigitte kept meticulous accounts of everything. She had a charge card she used for Tallie’s expenditures as well, and she handled everything for Max, who lived in the apartment Tallie owned in New York.

She and Victor worked well together, and Tallie counted on both of them to keep her financial life in order. With Brigitte at the helm, it ran like a Swiss clock. Hunt always said he was envious of her and wished he had an assistant like Brigitte. She was even helpful to him too, and never minded assisting him with anything.

Tallie read the script changes on the way back to Palm Springs, and they had faxed several more to Brigitte at midnight the night before. She had brought those with her too, and Tallie went over all of it, while making copious notes. She wanted more changes when they got to the set, which did not surprise Brigitte. That was how she worked, vigilant about the tiniest detail.

“So what did you do last night?” she asked her assistant as they approached Palm Springs.

“Nothing much. Took a bath, read, answered some e-mails. I went to bed pretty early. I need my beauty sleep,” Brigitte said innocently. The one thing she never told Tallie about was the actors she got involved with on the set. Once in a while Tallie found out, and she didn’t say anything about it. She had a don’t ask, don’t tell attitude, and figured that it was one of the perks of Brigitte’s job, if that was what she wanted, and it seemed to be. Tallie didn’t think it was worth the trouble commenting on it since Brigitte’s on-set romances never lasted longer than the making of the film. It was fine with her, as long as she didn’t put Tallie in a compromising position of some kind, or promise favors she couldn’t deliver, but Brigitte was too smart for that, and never stepped over that line. So Tallie figured that whoever Brigitte slept with was none of her business. She looked a little too innocent to her employer and old friend as they drove along, and Tallie smiled, wondering who it was. Undoubtedly someone very young, one of the extras or young actors. That was always Brigitte’s style.

Tallie’s day on the set was as busy as the one before. Brigitte stuck around and brought her cold drinks and hot ones, and saw to it that she got something to eat. Otherwise Tallie never took the time, she was too impatient and had too much to do to stop for meals. It was the same reason why she didn’t bother to dress decently and comb her hair. Tallie was obsessed with her work, and hated anything that distracted her from it or took a moment of her time away.

Brigitte answered e-mails, and made several calls for her. She called Victor Carson and told him about the audit, and when she had nothing else to do, she sat and watched the action on the set. She often gave Tallie very valuable critiques. She had a great eye, and she always knew exactly the nuance and impact that Tallie was trying to get. Tallie respected her candid opinions much of the time. Brigitte had learned a lot about the business over the years.

It was another good day, and Tallie talked to Hunt when she finished work. He was on his way to a meeting at the Polo Lounge, and told her about what he’d done all day. He said he missed her, and after a few minutes they hung up. She liked that neither of them felt they had to be together all the time, like Siamese twins. They lived together but had their own lives, with joint projects as a common bond. But he never got antsy or jealous when she was away, and she didn’t worry about him. After four years they trusted each other and knew each other well.

Hunt was an entirely different kind of man from the ones she’d been involved with before, all of whom had eventually cheated on her. Her second husband had been the most glaring case of that, but the others hadn’t behaved much better. It was the kind of men she met in the film business. She liked the fact that Hunt was honest, true, and solid. He wasn’t as exciting as the other guys in some ways, but she wasn’t looking for excitement, she wanted a man she could love and trust. Otherwise, why bother? She had come to that conclusion a long time ago, and had learned it the hard way, after being burned too many times. He was essentially and profoundly a kind man. He mentioned to her before he hung up that everything had gone fine when he took her father for his tests, although he thought he was looking a little thin.

“I know. His housekeeper says he doesn’t eat enough,” Tallie said, sounding worried.

“I should go over and cook for him sometime,” he said thoughtfully.

“As though you have nothing else to do,” she said.

“I can make time. I love your dad, he’s a great guy. We had a good time today. I think he was a little nervous before we went. I told him all my new jokes, and he was fine by the time we got there.”

“Thank you for doing that,” she said, genuinely touched. These were the things that made her love Hunt, and there were a lot of them. He was an extremely thoughtful person, and he had always been equally good to Max. The two of them got along very well. Max had been fourteen when Tallie started dating him, and after a little initial resistance, she had relaxed. And by the time Hunt moved in a year later, it seemed like a natural evolution to all of them, even Tallie’s father, who was a little more old-fashioned about things like that. He called Hunt his “son in love.”

Tallie settled in at the hotel in Palm Springs that night. She was happy that things were going well on the film. None of the usual nightmares had happened, like problems with insurance, investors, actors who got sick or tried to break their contracts, hated each other, or got injured on the set. Those things didn’t happen to her often, but when they did, it was a mess. Tallie always tried to avoid problems by hiring actors with reputations for being reliable, and getting all the kinks in their contracts worked out beforehand. Hunt was brilliant at handling those details, which was why their joint productions were such a success. She loved working with him. He was the best producer she’d ever had. And Tallie drove herself hard, was tireless in her efforts to get the best performance possible out of each actor, and the best writers and scripts she could. She deserved the remarkable reputation she had.

And she was content relaxing at the hotel that night. She and Brigitte went for a swim at the pool, and Brigitte had arranged for a massage for Tallie in her room, which Tallie said afterward was heavenly. She suggested Brigitte get one too, which was a perk Brigitte thoroughly enjoyed. The lifestyle that Brigitte shared with Tallie, and benefited from because of her, suited her to perfection. Thanks to Tallie, she led a star’s life.

Victor Carson was staring at a mountain of papers, files, and spreadsheets on his desk. He had been Tallie’s financial adviser for fifteen years, and other than the details Brigitte handled, his firm did all the accounting for her. And when Brigitte called to tell him about the audit for the investor, he almost groaned aloud. It was a headache he just didn’t need. His life was complicated enough as it was. His own problems were precluding everything else. He didn’t know why they were requiring an independent audit. All he needed were a bunch of hostile auditors taking all his records and files apart and demanding explanations for them. Tallie’s affairs were in good order, but an audit would be incredibly time-consuming, even with someone else doing it, and possibly more so, if he had to explain everything to them. Normally, he and Brigitte handled everything and it was smooth as silk. He just didn’t have the time to spend on this, but there was no way he could say that to Hunt or Tallie. He was having personal problems, although he would never have admitted it to them. He now handled Hunt’s taxes as well as Brigitte’s. But right now, he had his hands full at home.