Magic (12 page)

“You have a
boyfriend
?” she shrieked into the phone.

“News travels fast.” She sounded calm. “I'm dating someone. I'm not marrying him.”

“Paul says he's young enough to be your son.”

“Not quite, but close. Is that a problem?” She took the bull by the horns, and was ready to do so. “What business is it of yours or your brother's who I go out with, and how old he is? He's intelligent, employed, and treats me well. I don't see the problem.”

“You could at least tell us.” Charlotte sounded hurt that her mother hadn't.

“Who knows if I'll be dating him a month from now? Why worry about it?”

“You should have told me while you were in Hong Kong, Mom.” She still sounded hurt.

“You never asked me anything about me. We talked about your wedding.”

“Why didn't you bring him?”

“I wanted to be alone with you.”

“Are you bringing him to the wedding?”

“I have no idea if I'll be dating him nine months from now. That's a long way ahead. Let's not worry about it now. And if I do decide to bring him, I'll talk to you about it. I'm not going to do anything to upset you and embarrass you.” Charlotte was relieved to hear it. But Xavier was too young to be presentable as her mother's date, in her opinion.

“Paul made it sound like he's fourteen years old.” Charlotte chuckled, and so did Chantal.

“That would be your brother and his girlfriend. They look like kids at camp. Xavier is a grown-up, and an attorney. I hope you'll like him if you meet him.” It was the most adult conversation they'd had, and Chantal found it refreshing to put her cards on the table with her and be direct.

“I was just shocked when Paul called,” Charlotte admitted.

“I understand, but you don't need to worry about it.” Their mother sounded sensible, and Charlotte was still surprised. It was just a whole new concept to them. And she was right, they never did ask her questions about her life. It never occurred to them to do so. From now on they would, to avoid surprises like this one. But at least Paul said he was a nice guy.

“What do you think of Paul and Rachel's baby?” Charlotte asked her then, and Chantal hesitated.

“I think it's fine if they can handle it. Your brother has an irregular income and I help him, and Rachel is supported by her parents. That doesn't sound like an ideal way to bring up a child, while you're dependent on people other than yourselves. I'm not sure either of them thought of that.” Although Chantal had the night before. She was still subsidizing him, so now she'd have to support their child? That didn't sound grown-up to her, but she hadn't wanted to embarrass him in front of Rachel and ask him. But the subject would have to come up before the child was born. Children having children. She was twenty-eight, and Paul was thirty-one. It was a little odd, and irresponsible, to be dependent on your parents and then get pregnant without thinking it through.

“I'm sure her parents will support them. They have a ton of money.” Rachel was an only child and they spoiled her rotten. But Chantal didn't want her son and grandchild to be supported by Rachel's parents. She would have to talk to him about getting a job other than his indie films, to make a salary they could live on. That would come as a shock to them too. “Rupert and I don't want children for a few years,” Charlotte added, and Chantal was relieved to hear it, although they could afford it. And it was a more sensible plan than a water birth at home, a baby out of wedlock, and two people with unstable incomes.

“That sounds reasonable,” Chantal said about Charlotte and Rupert's plan. She had heard from Eric earlier, Paul had texted him about the baby, and Eric had texted her that they were crazy.

They talked for a few more minutes and then hung up, and the subject of Xavier was no longer an issue. A surprise, but not an issue. She wasn't marrying him, and she sounded so relaxed about it that Charlotte calmed down, and Paul decided that he really liked him by the end of the trip. They went out to dinner almost every night, at Paul and Rachel's favorite restaurants, and barbecued at their house in West Hollywood one night. They would have to move to bigger quarters when the baby came. Rachel was trying to talk him into the Valley, and Paul wanted to stay in town. They had a whole lot of decisions ahead of them, more than they could imagine.

By the time Chantal and Xavier flew back to Paris, she had almost made peace with the fact that she was having a grandchild. Almost, but not quite. But the visit with Paul had been great. They invited her to be at the water birth with them, and she told them she'd wait until afterward, or meet the baby in Hong Kong at Charlotte's wedding in May, when he or she would be two months old. The whole idea was still shocking to her. Her son was having a baby. And just as surprising to them, their mother had a thirty-eight-year-old boyfriend. It was a brave new world for them all. But at least now it was a two-way street for the first time.

W
hile Chantal was in Hong Kong visiting Charlotte, Jean-Philippe, Valerie, and their children left for Maine to share the vacation home that she and her brother had inherited from their parents after their mother died two years after their father. They had spent their childhood summers there. They coordinated their vacations every summer so that her brother's two children and their three could spend their summer holiday together and the cousins could enjoy each other. They stayed for the month, and for Valerie and her brother, it always brought back happy memories of their childhood and the vacations they had spent there growing up. The house had deep meaning to them, and they loved that their spouses enjoyed it too and were willing to spend time there.

Valerie's brother was five years older, a banker, and his wife was a pediatrician in Boston, and she and Valerie had always gotten along well. Their children were slightly older, but not enough to make a difference, and Jean-Louis, Isabelle, and Damien loved their cousins.

This year Valerie was hoping she'd find peace there, as she always did. There had been so much tension between her and Jean-Philippe recently that she longed for the nights of fireflies and crickets chirping and falling stars in a summer sky, and sailing on the little sailboat they kept at the house to use in the summer.

It was an idyllic place where normally they could forget their cares and disengage from the world, except this year Valerie felt as though their problems were attached to them like a trail of tin cans rattling behind them. And once they got there, the tension with Jean-Philippe was as acute as it had been in Paris, and a sense of well-being was as elusive as it had been there.

“What's happening with you two?” her sister-in-law Kate finally asked her, and Valerie told her the whole saga of the decision they had to make about Beijing.

“Wow! That's a bitch,” Kate said sympathetically. “Your career or his. I'd hate to be dealing with that one. We went through something like that during my residency, but your brother worked it out. He got a job at a bank in Chicago, and we made it through my residency and then came back to Boston. But this sounds a lot more complicated.”

“Yeah, and I'm not a doctor,” Valerie said mournfully. “My job means a lot to me, and I've worked hard to get there. I'm in line for editor-in-chief in a couple of years, but it's a great career move for Jean-Philippe, and I will never make the kind of money he can make in China. If money is the deciding factor, I lose hands down. But I'm not ready to give up my career to move to Beijing. And I won't have a career by the time we come back if I go with him.”

“I wouldn't want to move to China either,” Kate said honestly. “I had a chance to teach in Scotland for a year, and we turned it down. The weather is too depressing. And living in Beijing with three small children would be damn hard. I'm sure some people do it, but I wouldn't want to.” It reinforced how Valerie was feeling about it, and she managed to avoid the subject with her husband for the first two weeks, but they couldn't dodge it any longer. He was getting insistent emails from the firm making the offer, and the deal was going to come off the table shortly. And he didn't want that to happen and lose his chance to make the decision.

He and Valerie were sitting on the dock while their children were down for naps, her brother had gone fishing, and her sister-in-law had driven into the small town with her children to buy groceries. Jean-Philippe looked at his wife unhappily. It hadn't been their best vacation.

“I don't want to pressure you, Valerie, but we have to make a decision.”

“I know we do,” she said sadly. “I've just been stalling. I didn't know what to say to you. I don't want to lose you, or our marriage, but I just can't go to Beijing. It's too much for me, the kids are too young, and my career will be finished when we get back. Once I get out of the lineup at
Vogue,
they'll pass me over. That's how it works. And I know there are other magazines, but I've worked so damn hard at this one. This has been my dream since I was in high school.” He nodded, as sad as she was. He had expected her to say that, and he wasn't surprised.

“I've thought about it a lot too. I think it would be wrong for all of us as a family if I gave up on this. I'm going to take it, and make a deal with them to send me home every two months for a week or two so I can see you. We can't do it forever, but I'll try it for a year. Maybe that'll work, and if I make serious money there, maybe you'll reconsider.” In the meantime, he was buying them a year of her continuing her work at
Vogue,
while he seized the opportunity to make fabulous investments in Beijing. It was going to be the best of both worlds, or the worst, but he was willing to try it, and so was she. It was the only solution they could come up with.

“Do you hate me for not going with you?” she asked solemnly, and he shook his head and put his arms around her.

“I love you, Valerie. I don't hate you. I wish I could come up with a better solution that works for both of us.” But this was the best he could do. And not having his family in Beijing would give him time to work harder. He would have no distractions and not have to worry about them in an unfamiliar country and how they were adjusting. In some ways, this might be better, if his bosses would let him do it. He still had to negotiate the deal with them. And he sent them an email that night outlining his plan, and much to his relief, they sent their approval the next day. Jean-Philippe was smiling when he told Valerie.

“They agreed. That's something at least.” It wasn't cause for celebration, but it was a valid compromise, and took a lot of the pressure off him.

“When do you leave?” Valerie asked, feeling nervous. She was sad to think that her husband would be living in China, while she and the children lived in Paris, and she couldn't help wondering how heavily it would impact their marriage. But it was only for a year, and after that they would examine the issues again.

“Sometime in September. I have a lot of prep work to do before I leave.” And he had to give notice at his current job. He wanted to give them four weeks to replace him, as soon as he got back to Paris.

They left Maine earlier than usual, so he could get all his ducks in order, and his brother-in-law and sister-in-law wished him luck in China.

In the plan he had outlined, he would be coming home for Thanksgiving, which was important to her, though not a holiday in France, and Christmas, and in February, April, June, and August, as long as there was nothing crucial that required his presence in China to close a deal, but it was something for Valerie and the children to look forward to.

Jean-Philippe told Chantal about it when they had lunch after she and Xavier got back from L.A., and she warned him that being gone so much for a year could have a disastrous effect on their marriage.

“If that happens, she says she'll quit her job and come over.”

“She says that now, but what if she doesn't want to?” Chantal was worried about him. He was making a tough decision.

“Then it's up to me at that point if I want to quit and come home.” Their life had been so easy until then, for seven years, and now it was so complicated. Chantal hated to see that happen to them. And it was impossible to predict the toll it would take on either or both of them. “What about you?” he asked her then. “How did the vacation in California go? Did the romance with Xavier survive it?” He smiled as he asked her, and so did she.

“Yes, it did. I went to Hong Kong alone to see Charlotte. But he came to L.A. with me to visit Paul. He and his girlfriend are having a baby, unmarried of course. I'm going to be a grandmother,” she said, making a terrible face, which expressed how she felt about it. “That's just what I need, a grandchild when I have a twelve-year-old boyfriend.”

“What does he say about it?” Jean-Philippe asked her.

“He doesn't seem to care,” she said, still surprised.

“He sounds like a good man.”

“He seems to be.” And Jean-Philippe could see easily how happy she looked. “I'm still worried he'll run off with someone younger. But there's no sign of it yet. And you'd better Skype me when you're in China!”

“I promise.” He smiled at her. He was going to miss her, and his family.

“When are you going?” she asked, sad about it already.

“In about three weeks. I have a lot to do before that.”

Chantal thought about him all afternoon after their lunch. She wondered if commuting from Beijing every two months was really going to work. But like everything else in life, only time would tell.

Benedetta had spent most of the summer unraveling her business, restructuring it, and disengaging Gregorio's interests from hers. It was a complicated process, and she had spent hours every day with lawyers, but by the beginning of September she had made progress. Gregorio's lawyers were working closely with them, and he was shocked by how cutthroat she had been. All she cared about was salvaging their business while removing him. She wanted him to have no toehold in her business and wanted nothing to do with him. She communicated with him only through attorneys, and she was forming an entity that she felt she could run efficiently on her own. She had eliminated certain departments, streamlined the staff, and shut down all use of his family's textiles. It had been a severe blow to their business, and his brothers weren't happy with him. His oldest brother had come to see her to try to reason with her, but she was merciless. She wanted all ties severed between the two family empires. She wanted no link to her ex-husband, neither personally nor through the business.

“You can't do this to him, Benedetta, and to us,” his brother implored her. “Gregorio made a mistake. You know how he is. He's childish.” Her face was set in stone when she answered.

“He's more than childish. He abandoned me with a business to run, and left me with all the responsibility and decisions, while he ran off with that girl and had their babies. He told me he wanted out of our marriage after I waited for him and made excuses for him. Now I want him out of my business. He doesn't belong in it anymore. And I'm sorry if it hurts you and your brothers, but he should have thought of that before. He hurt all of us, he made a fool of me, now he has what he wanted. That girl and their baby. Give him a job at one of your factories. I won't work with him anymore, or with you,” she said as she stood up. “The bond between our two families has been severed, and you can thank Gregorio for it.” All of Gregorio's brothers were livid with him for pushing Benedetta to this point. Separating the two entities and canceling her orders from their mills had already cost them millions, not to mention what she wanted in the divorce. She didn't need the money, but she wanted to punish him for what he had done to her, and not just this time but all the times before. He had humiliated her publicly repeatedly, and it was going to cost him.

“You don't need to divorce him,” his older brother pleaded with her. “You can stay married and lead your own life.”

“Why would I stay married to a man like him? This isn't the old days where people stayed married, while the men lived with their mistresses. He lives with her, they have a child, he should do her the honor of marrying her. I won't be his wife. I want nothing to do with him anymore.”

His brother left her office on the verge of tears, and Benedetta was proud of everything she was doing. And no one on her side disagreed with her. Gregorio deserved it.

Dharam had called her several times in August, to see how she was. He was busy working in Delhi. And at the beginning of September, he called and invited her to what sounded like a fabulous event in London. It was very tempting, but there was no way she could get away. She still had things to work out for the divorce, the rest of the division to implement, and she was getting ready for Fashion Week, and to show their new line at the end of the month. She couldn't leave Milan for a minute.

“I'm so sorry,” she said apologetically. “I've spent the whole summer restructuring my business.”

“I completely understand. I just want you to promise me that when things settle down, you'll have dinner with me.” He was as warm and understanding as ever.

“Just let me get through Fashion Week, and then I'll have time, I promise.”

“I'll be back in Europe in October. I'll call you then.”

“That will be perfect.” She had barely had time to think of him since she filed the divorce and took apart the business. It had been a mammoth undertaking, and she wasn't finished yet. And at the same time she was getting ready for their fashion show. Her plate was overflowing.

Gregorio called Jean-Philippe in Paris a few days later. It was the first time anyone had heard from him since June, it had been three months, and he told his friend that the last months had been rugged.

“Benedetta is divorcing me,” he said, sounding sorry for himself.

“I've heard that,” Jean-Philippe said, trying to appear neutral, although he was far from it. His sympathy was for Benedetta and all she'd been through.

“She kicked me out of the business. I'm fighting it legally, but my lawyers say we won't be able to stop her. My brothers are ready to kill me. I've been in the hospital with Anya and the baby for the last three months, I haven't seen anyone. We're going back to Rome next week, with the baby. Would you like to have lunch before I leave?” He seemed lonely when he asked him. He had been out of touch and isolated for so long. Jean-Philippe had taken the call out of politeness, but he disapproved of everything he'd done, and how he'd done it.

“I wish I could, but I'm moving to Beijing next week. It's been a crazy three months for me too since the White Dinner,” which was the last time they had seen each other.