Sidney Sheldon's After the Darkness by Sidney Sheldon Read Free Book Online Page A

mother through hell. If it hadn’t been for the enablers, the friends who bailed him out time after time, the nightmare might have ended a lot sooner. As it was, he lost the money that could have paid for Ma’s medical treatment.”
    Jack tried to keep his cool. “With all due respect, Lenny, I don’t think I have much in common with your father. I’m a United States senator. I’m good for this money, you know that. It’s just a small cash-flow problem.”
    Lenny smiled amiably. “In which case I’m sure you’ll solve it on your own. Now, was there anything else?”
    Patronizing bastard! It wasn’t just a refusal. It was a dismissal. Jack Warner would not forget the slight as long as he lived. His first thought last night had been to tell Lenny Brookstein to stick his invitation to Nantucket where the “moon don’t shine.” But on reflection, perhaps that was a mistake. The truth was, he was still in urgent need of a significant injection of cash. Honor and Grace were close. Maybe if Honor worked on her little sister, Grace could make her besotted husband see sense? Of course, such a policy would mean Jack coming clean to Honor about his gambling debts. Not an appealing prospect. But at the end of the day, what was she going to do? Leave me? I don’t think so.
    Turning to Ilse, he said, “We’ll leave for Nantucket first thing Monday morning. Please make sure the girls are packed and ready.”
    Bobby shot her au pair a look of purest triumph. “See. I told you we were going.”
    â€œYes, sir. Is there anything… special …you’d like me to pack?”
    Ilse gave him a lascivious wink. Her meaning could not have been clearer.
    Neither could Jack’s.
    â€œNo. You won’t be coming with us. As of Monday, you’re fired.”
    Grabbing the Alka-Seltzer from the kitchen cupboard, he went back upstairs to bed.

F OUR
    C ONNIE G RAY STOOD IN THE PLAYGROUND, watching her sons on the monkey bars.
    Look at them. So innocent. They have no idea their world is crumbling around them.
    Cade was six and the spitting image of his father, Michael. Dark-haired and olive-skinned, he had the same open, happy, guileless face as Mike. Cooper had more of Connie in him. His coloring was fairer, his features more feminine. And he was altogether a more complex child. Sensitive. Anxious. Both the boys were highly intelligent. With parents like Connie and Michael, how could they not be? But four-year-old Cooper was the deeper thinker.
    I wonder what he’d think if he knew what his mommy has been up to? Perhaps one day, when he’s older, he’ll understand? How desperate times called for desperate measures?
    Â 
    T HE ELDEST OF THE K NOWLES SISTERS, Connie had been a straight-A student since first grade. Her mother’s pride and joy, Connie had had to make do with her father’s respect and affection. Cooper Knowles’s heart was already spoken for. It belonged to his youngest daughter, Grace.
    Like Honor, Connie recognized early on that the baby of the familywas “special,” a uniquely compelling, lovely child. Unlike Honor, however, Connie had no intention of taking a backseat to little Grace, or of giving up the limelight. She played her role as the brains of the family brilliantly, graduating top of her class in high school and getting accepted into all the premier Ivy League colleges. Though she feigned a lack of interest in beauty and fashion, Connie knew she was attractive, albeit in a strong-featured, masculine sort of way. She did all she could to maintain her flawless alabaster complexion and the trim, long-legged figure that men so admired. She might not be able to compete with Grace in terms of looks, but being eight years older, she didn’t have to.
    By the time Grace is old enough to come out in society, I’ll be happily married. She’ll be Honor’s problem then.
    And of course, she