Legacy of Secrets by Elizabeth Adler Read Free Book Online Page A

Shannon. Her pale hair gleamed in the lamplight as she tapped ash from her cigarette with an immaculately manicured fingernail. Her voice was level and calm and she might have been discussing the menu for the next dinner party with the cook.
    Shannon watched numbly as she went on. “Thank God I had the sense to protect myself with my marriage settlement. At least they can’t take that,” she said, satisfactioncreeping into her voice. “And my jewelry, of course. That was always put into my trust.”
    Shannon knew all about the marriage settlement, her father had always considered it a good joke. With a million each year, plus the first million, and all of it invested well, Buffy was probably sitting on a lot more than fifty million dollars now, as well as jewelry worth several more. Buffy was a very rich woman.
    The maid came in with coffee, depositing it on the small table next to her mistress. Buffy picked up the silver pot and poured two cups, handing one to Shannon, who placed it quickly on the floor by her feet. Her hands were still shaking and she felt as though a deep well had opened up inside her, a yawning gap where there used to be a heart and warmth and love. She was sitting here with the woman who had been her stepmother for sixteen years. Her father’s wife. And she was talking as though their lives together amounted to a bunch of dollars.
    “You’ll have more than enough to live on, Buffy,” she said worriedly. “You could even buy back this house, and the penthouses, then nothing will change.”
    Buffy laughed, a small, tinkling, mirthless sound. “Shannon, when will you realize that
everything
has changed? Your father is dead. His business is in ruins and he has left us to pick up the pieces. Well, I, for one, refuse to do that. I’m leaving tomorrow for Barbados. I’m going to stay with Janet Rossmore until all this dies down. And then maybe I can get on with my life again.”
    “But what about me?” As soon as she said it, Shannon wished she hadn’t. The childish words hung in the silence between them and her stepmother turned her head away, avoiding her anxious gray eyes.
    Buffy shrugged, a delicate movement that barely lifted her thin shoulders. “I scarcely think that is my problem now, Shannon. After all, you are a big, grown-up girl. You should be grateful for all I’ve done for you. I saw you through school and college. I made sure you met the rightpeople. And now you are engaged to Wil, I consider you his responsibility.”
    She stood up, straightening her skirt. “Quite honestly, Shannon,” she said, allowing the anger to flood her voice again, “your father has turned out to be nothing but a cheap thief. After what he’s done to me, I’m finished with the Keeffe family. For good.”
    Viciously stubbing her cigarette in a large crystal ashtray, she turned on her heel and walked briskly to the door. Shannon’s stunned eyes followed her but Buffy did not turn to look back. “I’m going to pack,” she called over her shoulder, her voice growing fainter as she strode, high heels clicking, across the marble-tiled hall. “I suggest you do the same, Shannon. The bailiffs will be in here before you know it.”
    Shannon stared uncomprehendingly after her. The scent of Gauloises Blonde cigarettes mingled with Shalimar perfume trailed in her wake. And though Buffy had not yet actually departed, Shannon knew she was as good as gone. And she was on her own.

S IXTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Brad Jeffries had been Bob’s partner and president of Keeffe Holdings for seventeen years. He had started as an on-the-line construction supervisor and worked his way up.
    He was addressing a meeting of the representatives of five major American banks and four international ones. He coughed and straightened his tie nervously. Fiddling with his reading glasses, he read the prepared statement, asking that they give Keeffe Holdings more time to sort out the tangled corporate and financial web Bob Keeffe had left