And Eve had blamed Alexandra.
Kate started to remember the accidents. The fire, when Alexandra almost burned to death. Alexandra’s fall from the cliff. Alexandra being knocked out of the boat Eve was sailing, and almost drowning. Kate could hear Eve’s voice recounting the details of her “rape” by her English teacher. Mr. Parkinson said he wanted to discuss my English work with me. He asked me to come to his house on a Sunday afternoon. When I got there, he was alone in the house. He said he wanted to show me something in the bedroom. I followed him upstairs. He forced me onto the bed, and he…
Kate remembered the incident at Briarcrest when Eve was accused of selling marijuana and the blame had been put on Alexandra. Eve had not blamed Alexandra, she had defended her. That was Eve’s technique—to be the villain and play the heroine. Oh, she was clever.
Now Kate studied the beautiful, angel-faced monster in front of her. I built all my future plans around you. It was you who was going to take control of Kruger-Brent one day. It was you I loved and cherished. Kate said, “I want you to leave this house. I never want to see you again.”
Eve had gone very pale.
“You’re a whore. I think I could live with that. But you’re also deceitful and cunning and a psychopathic liar. I cannot live with that.”
It was all happening too fast. Eve said desperately, “Gran, if Alexandra has been telling you lies about me—”
“Alexandra doesn’t know anything about this. I just had a long talk with Mrs. Collins.”
“Is that all?” Eve forced a note of relief in her voice. “Mrs. Collins hates me because—”
Kate was filled with a sudden weariness. “It won’t work, Eve. Not anymore. It’s over. I’ve sent for my lawyer. I’m disinheriting you.”
Eve felt her world crumbling around her. “You can’t. How—how will I live?”
“You will be given a small allowance. From now on, you will live your own life. Do anything you please.” Kate’s voice hardened. “But if I ever hear or read one word of scandal about you, if you ever disgrace the Blackwell name in any way, your allowance will stop forever. Is that clear?”
Eve looked into her grandmother’s eyes and knew this time there would be no reprieve. A dozen excuses sprang to her lips, but they died there.
Kate rose to her feet and said in an unsteady voice, “I don’t suppose this will mean anything to you, but this is—this is the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do in my life.”
And Kate turned and walked out of the room, her back stiff and straight.
Kate sat in her darkened bedroom alone, wondering why everything had gone wrong.
If David had not been killed, and Tony could have known his father…
If Tony had not wanted to be an artist…
If Marianne had lived…
If. A two-letter word for futility.
The future was clay, to be molded day by day, but the past was bedrock, immutable. Everyone I’ve loved has betrayed me, Kate thought. Tony. Marianne. Eve. Sartre said it well: “Hell is other people.” She wondered when the pain would go away.
If Kate was filled with pain, Eve was filled with fury. All she had done was to enjoy herself in bed for an hour or two, and her grandmother acted as though Eve had committed some unspeakable crime. The old-fashioned bitch! No, not old-fashioned: senile. That was it. She was senile. Eve would find a good attorney and have the new will laughed out of court. Her father and grandmother were both insane. No one was going to disinherit her. Kruger-Brent was her company. How many times had her grandmother told her that one day it would belong to her. And Alexandra! All this time Alexandra had been undermining her, whispering God-knows-what poison into their grandmother’s ears. Alexandra wanted the company for herself. The terrible part was that now she would probably get it. What had happened this afternoon was bad enough, but the thought of Alexandra gaining control was unbearable. I can’t let that happen, Eve thought. I’ll find a way to stop her. She closed the snaps on her suitcase and went to find her sister.