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STUART WHITMORE
Pausing in
that recitation that had Stuart trapped somewhere between
amazement and anger, Farrell gestured to the sofas near
the windows, and Stuart picked up the documents and his
drink and followed him there. When he was seated across
from him, Farrell said blandly, “Did I leave anything
important out?”
“Yes,”
Stuart replied with a sardonic smile as he lifted his
drink in a mocking toast, “what’s my favorite color?”
Farrell
looked him straight in the eye. “Red.”
Stuart
choked. “You’re right about everything but my
thoroughness. Obviously you were better prepared for this
confrontation than I was. I’m still waiting for the
background check I ordered for you, and it won’t be half
so complete. I’m amazed and reluctantly impressed.
Farrell
shrugged. “You shouldn’t be. Intercrop owns a credit
reporting bureau as well as a large investigative agency
that does a lot of work for multinational corporations.”
“How did
you know what my favorite color is?” he asked finally,
ready to try again to get a better reading on Farrell. “You
don’t get that off a credit report.”
“That was a
guess,” Farrell said dryly. “Your briefcase is maroon and
so is your tie. Also most men like red. Women like blue.”
For the first time, Farrell actually let his attention
stray to the document Stuart had put on the table.
“Speaking of women,” he said casually, “I gather Meredith
signed that.”
“She added
some conditions,” Stuart replied, watching him closely,
noting the imperceptible tensing of his adversary’s jaw.
“She wants the days you mentioned stipulated in the
document and she wants it clarified that if you miss one,
you can’t make it up.”
Farrell’s
expression softened, and even in the subdued lighting
Stuart saw amusement glinting in those gray eyes. “You’ll
see that she also wants it agreed that you will not
publicly reveal either this marriage of yours or the
eleven-week trial dating period to anyone.”
“Was
secrecy your advise, or Meredith’s idea.?”
“Hers. If
she’d had taken my advise, she would have thrown this
agreement in the trash.”
“If she’d
done that, she’d have risked her father’s health and his
good name.”
“She
wouldn’t have risked anything. You were bluffing. What
you’re doing is unethical and extreme. Either you’re a
world-class bastard, or you’re insane, or you\’re in love
with her. Which is it?
“Definitely
the first, possibly the second. Possibly all three. You
decide.”
“l already
have.”
“Which is
it?”
“The first
and the third. What do you know about Meredith?”
“Only what
I’ve read in the magazines and newspapers in the last
eleven years. I’d rather find out the rest by myself.”
“Then you
don’t know the little things about her, like the fact that
in the summer after her freshmen year in college there was
a rumor going around that she’d had some sort of a tragic
love affair, and that’s why she wouldn’t go out with
anyone. You, of course, were probably inadvertently the
cause of that. And of course, you wouldn’t know that in
her junior year, a rejected fraternity boy started a rumor
that she was either a lesbian or frigid. The only thing
that stopped the lesbian thing from sticking to her was
her friendship with Lisa Pontini, who was dating the
president of the kid’s fraternity. Lisa was so far from
being a lesbian, and so loyal to Meredith, that she made
the kid a laughingstock with the help of her current
boyfriend. The part about being frigid stuck though. They
nicknamed her the “ice queen” at school. When she finished
grad school, and came back here, the nickname got
whispered, but she was so damned beautiful that it added
to her allure because it made her a challenge. Besides,
showing up with Meredith Bancroft on your arm, looking at
that face of hers across a restaurant table, was such an
ego boost that you didn’t much care that she wouldn’t
sleep with you. Can I ask you something?”
“You can
ask?”
“What made
you decide to double-team her today with two attorneys,
particularly two attorneys whose methods are notoriously
heavy-handed?”
“That was a
tactical error on my part. In my haste to get the
agreement drawn up in time for this meeting, I failed to
make Levinson and Pearson understand that I wanted her
convinced to sign, not bludgeoned to death. “
“That was
more than a mistake, it was a kiss of death. Beside
bullying and coercing her, you betrayed and humiliated her
by letting Levinson tell us all that she’d slept with you
last weekend. She’s going to hate you for that for a lot
longer than eleven weeks. If you knew her better that you
do, you’d realized that.”
“Meredith
is incapable of lasting hatred. If she weren’t incapable
of it, she’d hate her father for spoiling her childhood
and for belittling her success at work. She’d be hating
him now for what she’s just discovered he did to us eleven
years ago. Instead, she’s trying to protect him from me.
Rather than hating, Meredith looks for ways to excuse the
inexcusable in people she loves – including me, by telling
herself I was justified in leaving her because I’d been
forced to marry her in the first place. Meredith can’t
stand to see people hurt. She sends flowers to dead babies
with notes to tell them they were loved; she cries in an
old man’s arms because he’s believed for eleven years that
she aborted his grandchild, and then she drives four hours
in a storm because she has to tell me the truth right
away. She’s softhearted, and she’s overly cautious. She’s
also smart, astute, and intuitive, and those things have
enabled her to excel at the department store without being
devoured by back-biting executives or turning into one
herself. What else could I possibly need to know about
her?”
“I’ll be
damned. I was right, you are in love with her. And because
you are, you wouldn’t do a damned thing to hurt her by
prosecuting her father.”
“You think
that, but you aren’t sure enough to risk having Meredith
put me to test. You aren’t even sure enough to broach the
subject with her again, and if you were sure, you’d still
hesitate to do it?”
“Really?
What makes you think so?”
“Because,
from the moment you realized Meredith slept with me last
weekend, you haven’t been completely certain about
anything – particularly how she feel about me.”
“I’m her
lawyer – it’s my job to tell her what I think, even when
it’s a hunch.”
“You’re
also her friend and you were in love with her once. You’re
personally involved and because you are, you’re going to
hesitate and contemplate, and in the end you’ll decide to
let this run its course. After all, if nothing comes of
this, she’s lost nothing by doing what I’ve required of
her, and she gains five million dollars.”
“Are you
planning to keep that picture there while you’re trying to
court your wife?”
“Absolutely.”
“Who is
she?”
“My
sister.”
“Nice
smile. Nice body, too.”
“I’ll
ignore the last part of that and politely suggest that the
four of us have dinner when she’s in town next time. Tell
Meredith I’ll pick her up tomorrow night at seven-thirty.
You can phone my secretary in the morning and give her the
address.”
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