Morning Noon & Night by Sidney Sheldon Read Free Book Online Page B

It should be interesting,” he said. “Harry Stanford’s children are coming here to celebrate their father’s death. Tyler, Woody, and Kendall.”

Chapter Eight
    J udge Tyler Stanford had first seen the story on Chicago’s station WBBM. He had stared at the television set, mesmerized, his heart pounding. There was a picture of the yacht Blue Skies , and a news commentator was saying, “…in a storm, in Corsican waters, when the tragedy occurred. Dmitri Kaminsky, Harry Stanford’s bodyguard, was a witness to the accident, but was unable to save his employer. Harry Stanford was known in financial circles as one of the shrewdest…”
    Tyler sat there, watching the shifting images, remembering, remembering.…
    It was the loud voices that had awakened him in the middle of the night. He was fourteen years old. He had listened to the angry voices for a few minutes, then crept down the upstairs hall to the staircase. In the foyer below, his motherand father were having a fight. His mother was screaming, and he watched his father slap her across the face.
    The picture on the television set shifted. There was a scene of Harry Stanford in the Oval Office of the White House, shaking hands with President Ronald Reagan. “…One of the cornerstones of the president’s new financial task force, Harry Stanford has been an important adviser to…”
    They were playing football in back of the house, and his brother, Woody, threw the ball toward the house. Tyler chased it, and as he picked it up, he heard his father, on the other side of the hedge. “I’m in love with you. You know that!”
    He stopped, thrilled that his mother and father were not fighting, and then he heard the voice of their governess, Rosemary. “You’re married. I want you to leave me alone.”
    And he suddenly felt sick to his stomach. He loved his mother and he loved Rosemary. His father was a terrifying stranger.
    The picture on the screen flashed to a series of shots of Harry Stanford posing with Margaret Thatcher…President Mitterrand…Mikhail Gorbachev.…The announcerwas saying, “The legendary tycoon was equally at home with factory workers and world leaders.”
    He was passing the door to his father’s office when he heard Rosemary’s voice. “I’m leaving.” And then his father’s voice, “I won’t let you leave. You’ve got to be reasonable, Rosemary! This is the only way that you and I can…”
    “I won’t listen to you. And I’m keeping the baby!”
    Then Rosemary had disappeared.
    The scene on the television set shifted again. There were old clips of the Stanford family in front of a church, watching a coffin being lifted into a hearse. The commentator was saying, “…Harry Stanford and the children beside the coffin…Mrs. Stanford’s suicide was attributed to her failing health. According to police investigators, Harry Stanford…”
    In the middle of the night, he had been shaken awake by his father. “Get up, son. I have some bad news for you.”
    The fourteen-year-old boy began trembling.
    “Your mother had an accident, Tyler.”
    It was a lie. His father had killed her. She had committed suicide because of his father and his affair with Rosemary.
    The newspapers had been filled with the story. It was a scandal that rocked Boston, and the tabloids took full advantage of it. There was no way to keep the news from the Stanford children. Their classmates made their lives hell. In just twenty-four hours, the three young children had lost the two people they loved most. And it was their father who was to blame.
    “I don’t care if he is our father.” Kendall sobbed. “I hate him.”
    “Me, too!”
    “Me, too!”
    They thought about running away, but they had nowhere to go. They decided to rebel.
    Tyler was delegated to talk to him. “We want a different father. We don’t want you.”
    Harry Stanford had looked at him and said, coldly, “I think we can arrange that.”
    Three weeks later, they were all shipped off