Read Online New York Echoes by Warren Adler - Free Book Online Page A

fools.    
    Between Carol and
Charlie, they made a good living and had an apartment on the Upper East Side,
with appreciating art on their walls, a well-stocked library featuring
leather-bound sets that Charlie had lovingly collected, and a large dining room
that could seat fourteen. Carol entertained frequently, and to all appearances
they were a typical successful Manhattan couple with a wide circle of friends
and an accurate image of being a loving, compatible couple with a bright,
attractive, and devoted daughter. They were, indeed, and Charlie had no clue or
premonition that this image was about to implode.
    â€œYou can’t be serious,” Charlie had
replied to the sudden pronouncement, after he had recovered his equilibrium.
Carol had chosen the moment right after Charlie had refreshed himself from the
long plane trip, had showered, and gotten into his pajamas and robe.
    â€œI know this comes as a shock, Charlie.
I’m sorry, really sorry.”
    Quite obviously, she had rehearsed this
necessary confrontation over and over again in her mind. Knowing her
intimately, he knew she needed to get this over with quickly, having made the
decision some time ago. This was not a situation that one activates without
long deliberation.
    â€œIs there someone else?” Charlie asked,
opting to cut to the chase. What other reason could there be?
    â€œYes there is,” Carol admitted with
unflinching candor. It was as if she had predicted his responses and had
studied her lines.
    â€œMay I ask who?”
    â€œJohn Fletcher, a business associate.
You’ve never met him.”
    â€œFor how long?” Charlie said, finally
feeling the blow, his voice constricting.
    â€œMore than a year.”
    Charlie felt the blood rise. He knew his
face had flushed and that if he held out his arms, his hands would be shaking.
He had, of course, encountered defeats and disappointment in his life, but
nothing more cataclysmic than this. There was no game plan in his arsenal of
reactions. He was, quite literally, emotionally crushed. Worse, he felt
foolish. How could he have not known?
    â€œThe heart has its own agenda, Charlie,”
Carol said. She had, he decided, worked long and hard on finding that response.
How else to justify such a life-changing decision? Blame it on the unknown, the
profound mystery.
    â€œNo second thoughts?” he asked, taking
refuge in politeness. Although he desperately wanted to show his rage, he had
suddenly decided that such a reaction would imply weakness and loss of dignity,
something he could not bring himself to display in front of her. He had been
cuckolded. There was no other word for it. She had come to his bed after wallowing
in the embrace of her lover, the remains of his sperm in her body. The image
was beyond awful.
    â€œAnd Sharon? Does she know?”
    Carol nodded.
    â€œYou could have at least told me first,”
Charlie said, feeling all self-respect drained, his pride demolished. He sensed
the first tiny stirrings of hatred.
    â€œI think it needed to be a
mother-daughter thing,” she shrugged.
    She had worked that out as well, Charlie
thought, a ploy to gain sympathy and justify her betrayal of the child’s
father. 
    â€œWe cried together.
She needs to talk with you. I told her that I would be telling you tonight. She
loves you, Charlie, and she needs us both.”
    Apparently she had won her point.
    â€œMy God . . .” he began but he couldn’t
go on.
    It would soon be time to go to sleep,
and he found himself worried about the sleeping arrangements. Perhaps as a
distraction his mind began filling with the technicalities of separation and
divorce, domicile arrangements, property divisions, legal details. The turmoil
ahead seemed daunting.
    â€œWe have got to be civilized and
sensible about this, Charlie.”
    Charlie shrugged. The “civilized and
sensible” cliché seemed the least important item on his emotional