Read Online I've Got You Under My Skin by Mary Higgins Clark - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mary Higgins Clark
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as he collected the luggage from the pilots. He was back for them within five minutes. “The car’s right outside,” he said as he helped Rod with his wheelchair.
A shiny black Bentley was waiting at the curb.
When Damiano helped Rod out of the wheelchair and into the backseat, Alison felt her heart wrench.
He’s in so much pain, she thought, but he never complains, and he never talks about the football career he would have had . . .
The big car began to move. “The traffic’s light,” Damiano told them. “We should be at the hotel in about twenty minutes.”
They had chosen to stay at the Crowne Plaza in White Plains. The town was near enough to Salem Ridge, but far enough away from the hotels where the other three childhood friends who were on the program were staying. Laurie Moran made sure of that.
“You two okay?” Damiano asked them solicitously.
“I’m very comfortable,” Alison assured him as Rod murmured his assent.
But then Rod leaned over and whispered, “Alie, I was thinking, when you’re on camera, not a word about sleepwalking and possibly being in Betsy’s room that night.”
“Oh, Rod I never would,” Alison said, horrified.
“And don’t volunteer that you’re hoping to go to med school unless they ask. It will remind everyone how disappointed you were when you didn’t get the scholarship to medical school, and how furious you were that Robert Powell got the dean to throw it to Vivian Fields.”
The mention of her heartbreak the day of her graduation from college was enough to make Alison’s face contort with pain and rage. “Betsy Powell was trying to get into the Women’s Club with the top-of-the-line socialites, and Vivian Fields’s mother was the president of it. And of course Powell had leverage—he’d just donated a dormitory to the college! The Fieldses could have afforded to pay Vivian’s tuition one hundred times over. Even the dean looked embarrassed when he called out her name. And then he muttered something about Vivian’s academic brilliance. Right! She dropped out in her second year. I could have scratched Betsy’s eyes out!”
“Which is why if they ask you what you’ll do with the money, just say that we’re planning to take a round-the-world ocean cruise,” Rod counseled.
• • •
Glancing into the rearview mirror, Josh Damiano observed Rod whispering something to his wife and watched her shocked reaction and how upset she instantly became. He could not hear what they were saying, but he smiled inwardly.
It doesn’t matter whether I can hear them, he thought. The recorder picks up everything that’s said in this car.
14
R egina Callari’s initial response upon learning that, between Fisher Blake Studios and Robert Powell, she would net three hundred thousand dollars for appearing in the program was one of relief and elation.
The crushing burden of living paycheck to paycheck, which translated to house sale to house sale in a terrible real estate market, had been lifted from her shoulders.
It almost gave her that warm, secure feeling she had felt in early childhood, until the day she found her father’s body hanging in the garage.
Over the years she had had the same dream about her early life. In it, she woke up in her big bedroom, with the pretty white bed that had a spray of delicate pink flowers painted on the headboard, the night table, the dresser, the desk, and the bookcase. In the dream she could always vividly see the pink-and-white bedspread, the matching draperies, and the soft pink rug.
After her father’s suicide, when her mother realized how little money they had, they had moved to a three-room apartment, where they shared a bedroom.
Her mother, who loved fashion, had gotten a job as a personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, where she had once been a valuedcustomer. Somehow they’d gotten by, and Regina had proudly graduated from college on a financial-aid scholarship.
After Alison’s wedding and all the gossip
A shiny black Bentley was waiting at the curb.
When Damiano helped Rod out of the wheelchair and into the backseat, Alison felt her heart wrench.
He’s in so much pain, she thought, but he never complains, and he never talks about the football career he would have had . . .
The big car began to move. “The traffic’s light,” Damiano told them. “We should be at the hotel in about twenty minutes.”
They had chosen to stay at the Crowne Plaza in White Plains. The town was near enough to Salem Ridge, but far enough away from the hotels where the other three childhood friends who were on the program were staying. Laurie Moran made sure of that.
“You two okay?” Damiano asked them solicitously.
“I’m very comfortable,” Alison assured him as Rod murmured his assent.
But then Rod leaned over and whispered, “Alie, I was thinking, when you’re on camera, not a word about sleepwalking and possibly being in Betsy’s room that night.”
“Oh, Rod I never would,” Alison said, horrified.
“And don’t volunteer that you’re hoping to go to med school unless they ask. It will remind everyone how disappointed you were when you didn’t get the scholarship to medical school, and how furious you were that Robert Powell got the dean to throw it to Vivian Fields.”
The mention of her heartbreak the day of her graduation from college was enough to make Alison’s face contort with pain and rage. “Betsy Powell was trying to get into the Women’s Club with the top-of-the-line socialites, and Vivian Fields’s mother was the president of it. And of course Powell had leverage—he’d just donated a dormitory to the college! The Fieldses could have afforded to pay Vivian’s tuition one hundred times over. Even the dean looked embarrassed when he called out her name. And then he muttered something about Vivian’s academic brilliance. Right! She dropped out in her second year. I could have scratched Betsy’s eyes out!”
“Which is why if they ask you what you’ll do with the money, just say that we’re planning to take a round-the-world ocean cruise,” Rod counseled.
• • •
Glancing into the rearview mirror, Josh Damiano observed Rod whispering something to his wife and watched her shocked reaction and how upset she instantly became. He could not hear what they were saying, but he smiled inwardly.
It doesn’t matter whether I can hear them, he thought. The recorder picks up everything that’s said in this car.
14
R egina Callari’s initial response upon learning that, between Fisher Blake Studios and Robert Powell, she would net three hundred thousand dollars for appearing in the program was one of relief and elation.
The crushing burden of living paycheck to paycheck, which translated to house sale to house sale in a terrible real estate market, had been lifted from her shoulders.
It almost gave her that warm, secure feeling she had felt in early childhood, until the day she found her father’s body hanging in the garage.
Over the years she had had the same dream about her early life. In it, she woke up in her big bedroom, with the pretty white bed that had a spray of delicate pink flowers painted on the headboard, the night table, the dresser, the desk, and the bookcase. In the dream she could always vividly see the pink-and-white bedspread, the matching draperies, and the soft pink rug.
After her father’s suicide, when her mother realized how little money they had, they had moved to a three-room apartment, where they shared a bedroom.
Her mother, who loved fashion, had gotten a job as a personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman, where she had once been a valuedcustomer. Somehow they’d gotten by, and Regina had proudly graduated from college on a financial-aid scholarship.
After Alison’s wedding and all the gossip
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