They were identical.
Woody was the first to speak. “They’re…the…same.”
Kendall was looking at her with a mixture of feelings. “You really are our sister, aren’t you?”
She was smiling through her tears. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
Everybody was suddenly talking at once.
“It’s incredible…!”
“After all these years…”
“Why didn’t your mother ever come back…?”
“I’m sorry we gave you such a bad time…”
Her smile lit up the room. “It’s all right. Everything’s all right now.”
Woody picked up the fingerprint card and looked at it in awe. “My God! This is a billion-dollar card.” He put the card in his pocket. “I’m going to have it bronzed.”
Tyler turned to the group. “This calls for a real celebration! I suggest we all go back to Rose Hill.” He turned to her and smiled. “We’ll give you a welcome home party. Let’s get you checked out of here.”
She looked around at them, and her eyes were shining. “It’s like a dream come true. I finally have a family!”
Half an hour later, they were back at Rose Hill, and she was settling into her new room. The others were downstairs, talking excitedly.
“She must feel as though she’s just been through the Inquisition,” Tyler mused.
“She has,” Peggy replied. “I don’t know how she stood it.”
Kendall said, “I wonder how she’s going to adjust to her new life.”
“The same way we’re all going to adjust,” Woody said dryly. “With a lot of champagne and caviar.”
Tyler rose. “I, for one, am glad it’s finally settled. Let me go up and see if she needs any help.”
He went upstairs and walked along the corridor to her room. He knocked at her door and called loudly, “Julia?”
“It’s open. Come in.”
He stood in the doorway, and they stared silently at each other. And then Tyler carefully closed the door, held out his hands, and broke into a slow grin.
When he spoke, he said, “We did it, Margo! We did it!”
NIGHT
Chapter Fifteen
He had plotted it with the ineffable skill of a chess master. Only this had been the most lucrative chess game in history, with stakes of billions of dollars—and he had won! He was filled with a sense of invincible power. Is this how you felt when you closed a big deal, Father? Well, this is a bigger deal than you ever made. I’ve planned the crime of the century, and I’ve gotten away with it.
In a sense, it had all started with Lee. Beautiful, wonderful Lee. The person he loved most in the world. They had met in the Berlin, the gay bar on West Belmont Avenue. Lee was tall and muscular and blond, and he was the most beautiful man Tyler had ever seen.
Their meeting had started with, “May I buy you a drink?”
Lee had looked him over and nodded. “That would be nice.”
After the second drink, Tyler had said, “Why don’t we have a drink over at my place?”
Lee had smiled. “I’m expensive.”
“How expensive?”
“Five hundred dollars for the night.”
Tyler had not hesitated. “Let’s go.”
They spent the night at Tyler’s home.
Lee was warm and sensitive and caring, and Tyler felt a closeness to him that he had never had with any other human being. He was flooded with emotions he had not known existed. By morning, Tyler was madly in love.
In the past, he had picked up young men at the Cairo and the Bijou Theater and several other gay hangouts in Chicago, but now he knew that all that was going to change. From now on, he wanted only Lee.
In the morning, while Tyler was preparing breakfast, he said, “What would you like to do tonight?”
Lee looked at him in surprise. “Sorry. I have a date tonight.”
Tyler felt as though he had been hit in the stomach.
“But, Lee, I thought that you and I…”
“Tyler, dear, I’m a very valuable piece of merchandise. I go to the highest bidder. I like you, but I’m afraid you really can’t afford me.”
“I can give you anything you want,” Tyler said.
Lee smiled lazily. “Really? Well, what I want is a trip to St.-Tropez on a beautiful white yacht. Can you afford that?”