Danielle Steel - The Apartment

“My mom’s not like that,” he said gently. “She’ll probably want to adopt you. She was really sad when Ben and Angela broke up. She always wants us to have the kind of relationship she has with my dad. They’re good together.” He said it warmly, and as he did, Sasha realized that she had never seen a marriage like that. Her father was nice to her stepmother and protective of her, but they were by no means intellectual equals, and sometimes he acted like she was stupid and couldn’t think for herself. She treated Sasha’s dad like her father, and relied on him for everything, and all decisions. She had no mind of her own, and participated in none of their important plans. And her mother had been too hard on their father, and verbally brutal with him at times. She had always considered him beneath her because he wasn’t as educated as she was, but he had been very successful in spite of it. He had a good head for business and was a bright guy. Her mother dismissed his business acumen as luck, and being in the right place at the right time, which Sasha knew wasn’t true, and was a mean thing to say about him, along with all the rest of what she still accused him of, including being a lousy father, which Valentina agreed with, and Sasha didn’t. Valentina thought their mother was a legal genius, while Sasha thought she was smart, but a bitch, which she certainly was to her. And their mother had more respect for Valentina’s modeling career and international stardom than for Sasha’s medical career, where she warned her she’d never make a dime thanks to the rigors of modern medicine and HMOs. Money mattered a lot to her, except Sasha’s father’s, which she dismissed, because it was his. And Valentina had the same profound worship of money as their mother.

“My parents were so mean to each other, and so unhappy,” she said honestly, “that I never wanted to get married, and I still don’t, if that’s how it ends up. It was kind of a relief when they got divorced. Until he remarried and my mother went nuts about it, and she still is. They refuse to be in the same room, and only one of them could be at my graduation.” She had never admitted that to anyone before.

“Which one came to your graduation?” Alex asked with interest.

“My father. My mother was trying a landmark case. She won, which justified not being there, to her. I think if I ever told her I was getting married, she’d kill me. Recidivists, as she calls them, are the mainstay of her business. She’s handled two or three divorces for some of her clients. They always come back to her because she does such a good job, and gets them a ton of money from the other side. She usually represents women. She doesn’t believe in marriage, and always told me and Valentina not to even think about it, just to have fun. Valentina took her seriously.” She smiled at him. “And she likes rich guys, no matter how they make their money.” As she said it, she thought of Jean-Pierre, who would have terrified her. There was something deeply unsavory about him, but Valentina didn’t care or even notice. “It’s hard to imagine people like your parents, who’ve done it all right. No one in my world ever has. All I ever heard about were the disasters, and all my friends’ parents were divorced, growing up.”

“A lot of my friends’ parents were too,” Alex said quietly. “My parents married very young. Maybe that helps. They just kind of grew up together, had us when they were young, and expected it to work.” His father had just turned sixty, and his mother was fifty-nine, she knew. Her parents were almost the same age, but had a very different life experience. It was hard for Sasha to imagine. Her mother was always telling her about marriages that fell apart in a year. And the high divorce rate nationally supported what she said, that marriage just didn’t work, and was an antiquated idea. According to her, women no longer needed to get married if they had careers, and to some extent Sasha believed her. And in her own way, Valentina did too. She had never gone to college and had started making big money at eighteen as a model, and she still made a fortune at what she did, more than Sasha ever would using her skill and brain. But her job had longevity, and Valentina’s didn’t. One day she’d be too old to model. But she’d made a few good investments, with their father’s advice, so maybe she’d be okay, and Sasha knew he would always help them.

They pulled into the Scotts’ driveway at six o’clock. All the lights were on, and his mother’s Mercedes station wagon was in the garage. And feeling acutely nervous again, Sasha followed him into the house. She was standing just behind him in the front hall, when his mother came down the stairs with a broad smile and ran to hug him. She was a very pretty woman, wearing a simple dark gray suit and high heels, straight dark hair she wore pulled back, and a string of pearls on her sweater. She was everything he had described, except younger, prettier, and warmer. She didn’t look old enough to have a son his age, let alone Ben’s, and she still had a trim figure. She played golf and tennis on the weekends with friends. And Alex said she’d played touch football with them when they were young. She was athletic and in good shape, and her eyes widened with pleasure the minute she saw Sasha over Alex’s shoulder while she hugged him. And a moment later, she was hugging Sasha as though she had known her all her life.

“We’re so happy you came home with Alex!” she said, and sounded as though she meant it. “Has he been dragging you around downtown all afternoon? You must be freezing. We just lit a fire in the den. Would you like a cup of tea?” Sasha nodded, a little dazzled by the experience of this friendly, open woman who seemed genuinely kind and nice, and was so warm to her, even as a stranger.

“I’d love one,” Sasha said, and followed them into the study, lined with beautiful leather-bound books, some of them first editions. They bought them at auction whenever they found them. And there was some very handsome art on the walls, much of it English, of horses and landscapes, and several of boats. The whole family loved sailing.

Sasha sat down on a comfortable couch, and a moment later the housekeeper brought them all tea on a silver tray. Their lifestyle was more elegant than Sasha had expected, and Helen Scott took obvious pride and pleasure in her home. She seemed to be the perfect wife and mother, and had a major career as an attorney too. It was impressive. Her mother had the law career, but had never cared about their home. She hated to cook, and had sold their family home and bought a small apartment without a guest room six months after the divorce. She was a great lawyer, but not a homemaker by any means. Helen seemed to manage to do both well, and had recently heard rumors about a possible appointment to the Superior Court bench, which had always been her dream. She would readily give up her antitrust practice for that, if it happened. She wasn’t counting on it, but the prospect was exciting.

“So what did you see this afternoon?” Helen asked Sasha warmly. “We have some wonderful galleries and cultural events here. It’s a shame you don’t have more time. And the lake activities are a lot of fun in summer, before it gets too hot. And whatever you do, don’t let the boys take you out in the boat now. You’ll freeze!” she warned her, and they laughed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home when you got here,” she said to Alex. “I was trying to clear some things off my desk.” The things on her desk were always fairly major, he knew, but she never made an issue of it, and made more fuss about his father’s practice. She was fascinated by medicine, and always said she was a frustrated doctor, but hadn’t had the patience for all the years of medical school and residency. “I know you’re doing your residency too, but I don’t think Alex told me in what.” She turned her attention to Sasha with interest.