Now and Forever by Danielle Steel Read Free Book Online

Wald arrived at five-thirty. His face wore an expression of grave concern and his eyes were tired.
    "Did you see him?" Jessie could feel her eyes burn again and had to fight back the tears.
    "I did."
    "How is he?"
    "He's all right. Shaken, but all right He was very concerned about how you are."
    "Did you tell him I'm fine?" Her hands were shaking violently again and the coffee she'd been drinking all day had only made matters worse. She looked a far cry from "fine."
    "I told him you were very upset, which is certainly natural, under the circumstances. Jessica, let's sit down." She didn't like the way he said it, but maybe he was just tired. They'd all had a long day. An endless day.
    "I spoke to Martin Schwartz," she said. "I think he'll take the case. And he said he'd call you this afternoon."
    "Good. I think you'll both like him. He's a very fine attorney, and also a very nice man."
    Jessica led Philip into the living room, where he took a seat on the long white couch facing the view. Jessica chose a soft beige suede chair next to an old brass table she and Ian had found in Italy on their honeymoon. She took a deep breath, sighed, and let her feet slide into the rug. It was a warm, pleasant room that always gave her solace. A place she could come home to and unwind in ... except now. Now she felt as though nothing would ever be all right again, and as though it had been years since she had known the comfort of Ian's arms, or seen the light in his eyes.
    Almost instinctively, her eyes went to a small portrait of him that she had done years before. It hung over the fireplace and smiled at her gently. It was agonizing. Where was he? She was suddenly and painfully reminded of the feeling she had had looking at Jake's high-school pictures when she'd gone through his things after they'd gotten the telegram from the Navy. That smile after it's all over.
    "Jessica?" She glanced up with a shocked expression, and Philip looked pained. She seemed distraught, confused, as though her mind were wandering. He had seen her staring at the small oil portrait, and for a moment she had worn the bereft expression of a grieving widow ... the face that simply does not understand, the eyes that are drowning in pain. What a ghastly business. He looked at the view for a moment, and then back at her, hoping she might have composed herself. But there was nothing to compose. Her manner was in total control; it was the expression in her eyes that told the rest of the story. He wasn't at all sure how much she was ready to hear now, but he had to tell her. All of it.
    "Jessica, you've got trouble." She smiled tiredly and brushed a stray tear away from her cheek.
    "That sounds like the understatement of the year. What else is new?" Philip ignored the feeble attempt at humor and went on. He wanted to get it over with.
    "I really don't think he did it. But he admits to having slept with the woman yesterday afternoon. That is to say, he ... he had intercourse with her." He concentrated on his right knee, trying to run the distasteful words into one long unintelligible syllable.
    "I see." But she didn't really see. What was there to see? Ian had made love to someone. And the someone was accusing him of rape. Why couldn't she feel something? There was this incredible numbness that just sat on her like a giant hat. No anger, no anything, just numb. And maybe pity for Ian. But why was she numb? Maybe because she had to hear it from Philip, a relative stranger. Her cigarette burned through the filter and went dead in her hand, and still she waited for him to go on.
    "He says that he had too much to drink yesterday at lunch, and you were due home last night. Something about your being away for several weeks, and his being a man--I'll spare you that. He noticed this girl in the restaurant, and after a few drinks she didn't look bad."
    "He picked her up?" She felt as though someone else were speaking her words for her. She could hear them, but she couldn't feel her