The Secret Heiress

by Judith Gould

  “Until I came along?” His smile revealed even white teeth.

  “It’s okay,” she said.

  Matt gazed at her longingly. “I think you’re amazing, Ariadne. The way you’ve handled all this information you’ve been given. A lot of people would be mental cases if they’d been through what you have.”

  “Maybe I am,” Ariadne said. “I’m still so confused and . . . oh, I don’t know. Just mixed-up about it all.”

  “Of course you are,” he said. “That’s natural. I think you’re handling it all amazingly well.”

  “Thank you, Matt.” His words seemed genuine, and she found her anger difficult to maintain.

  “You’re very strong,” he said. “I can see that already.”

  She looked at him seriously. “Do you really think so?”

  He nodded. “Oh, yes. And I admire that very much.”

  She blushed slightly. “You know so much about me,” she said. “In fact, you know almost as much about me as I do myself, since you were there to hear everything.”

  He nodded again. “Yes. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

  “I don’t know,” she said honestly. She sighed, then gazed directly at him. “Maybe it does a little because I know so little about you.”

  “I really don’t think you want to hear about me,” he said. “We’ve already talked about me a lot.”

  “Oh, cloak-and-dagger stuff,” she said lightly. “Up at your cabin, you told me you’d worked for the CIA, and I’ve read about it. But I don’t really know much about it.”

  “You don’t want to know more than you already do,” he said.

  The expression on his face was troubled, and Ariadne realized that she had hit upon a sensitive subject. Still, she wanted to know everything she could about him. “Why wouldn’t I want to know?” she asked.

  “Let’s just say that my work for them was very unpleasant. Worse. It was like living in a kind of hell.” He gazed into her eyes. “Why don’t we talk about it another time?”

  “Of course,” she said, realizing that he really found his CIA work in the past a painful subject. As angry as she’d been, she wished more than ever that she could reach out to him. She wanted to feel his powerful arms about her again, to feel his flesh against hers, to inhale his masculine scent. But she couldn’t allow that to happen again. She couldn’t bring herself to trust him again. Not after what had happened.

  If only I could turn back the clock, she thought, and things could be the way they were before he brought me to this place. Before I discovered that he’d deceived me.

  In the library, Angelo paced back and forth in front of the fireplace, a cell phone at his ear. Although he was making an effort to speak sotto voce, the conversation was a heated one, and his reddened face and extravagant gestures contradicted the volume of his voice.

  At the far end of the large room, Adrian went to one of the French doors that led to the terrace. “She’s been gone for hours,” he said to Sugar quietly so as not to interfere with Angelo’s conversation. He parted the draperies and looked out the window. “What if she doesn’t come back?”

  “O ye of little faith,” Sugar said lightly. “Why don’t you settle down and relax? Look at the newspaper or something. We’ve got to give the poor thing a little time to spread her wings, Adrian. Don’t you see? Besides, I don’t think Matt Foster is going to let her out of his sight.”

  “Well, no. He certainly won’t, and he does come with impeccable credentials,” Adrian said. “I just don’t like it that she’s been gone for so long without telling us.”

  Angelo flipped his cell phone shut with a loud metallic click. “Goddamn it!” he cursed.

  “What’s wrong?” Adrian asked.

  “Everything and more.” He turned to face Adrian and Sugar. “That was Nikoletta. The new PPHL International Headquarters is having its official grand opening in eight weeks. Eight weeks. Nikoletta’s already complaining about all the media attention, the publicity blitz, the parties, the photographs needed for the new ad campaign. She never fails to amaze me. She seeks out publicity for all kinds of nonsense, but she’s suddenly complaining about this.”

  “She’s micromanaging,” Sugar said. “This is a huge affair, and she’s trying to keep her finger on every little thing. That’s the problem. If she delegated more of the detail work instead of insisting on being consulted about everything, she wouldn’t be having this problem. The trouble is, she trusts almost no one.”

  Adrian was tapping his watch. “You know what? With so many things going on at once, that might be the perfect time to make the switch. If Ariadne is willing.”

  Angelo shook his head. “It’s much too soon. Ariadne isn’t ready to face the public, especially not on this kind of scale. For God’s sake, the girl has been so sheltered. She’s not prepared to imitate Nikoletta Papadaki. She doesn’t have her gestures and nuances. All those things that could be dead giveaways. She doesn’t even have her accent, and that’s going to take some work. And what about Nikoletta’s clothes? Do they fit her? And what about the photos and videos we’ve gotten together? Ariadne has only begun to look at them, and she certainly hasn’t begun to really absorb them. She wouldn’t even be able to recognize Nikoletta’s friends. There are a thousand and one things to work out.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting a little something?” Sugar interrupted.

  “Like what?” Angelo groused.

  “Like not putting the cart before the horse. Ariadne still hasn’t agreed to be a part of this scheme.”

  Angelo sighed glumly and nodded. “You’re right. It’s a big decision for her, and we dare not rush her into making it. It has to be her choice, or it won’t work.”

  “A nice sentiment, Angelo,” Sugar replied, “but we haven’t got time now. She’s going to have to make up her mind today.” She brushed errant hair away from her face. “And if she says yes, then she’s going to have to work double time. But you know what?”

  “What?”

  “She can do it. I’m sure of it. Ariadne’s sharp, a quick study. She’s attending Williams College, for God’s sake. Underneath that unsophisticated exterior we see, I suspect, there’s a brilliant mind at work.”

  “Thank God!” Adrian exclaimed in relief as he peered out the window again. “I see her coming.”

  Sugar rolled her eyes. “What did I tell you? You have to have a little faith.”

  Later that day, Ariadne sat in the library alone, shuffling through a stack of magazines, when she found a Paris Match. Staring at the cover, she let out a groan, and let the magazine drop as if she’d been defeated.

  Sugar, who walked into the room at that moment, came over and sat down beside her. “What is it, darling?”

  Ariadne pointed a finger at the floor. Staring up at them was a glamorous cover shot of Nikoletta Papadaki.

  “It’s me . . . and yet it isn’t me!”

  “Only on the surface,” Sugar said. She gestured at the magazine cover with disgust. “Believe me, she may be your twin, but Nikoletta is totally unlike you, Ariadne. We’ve told you before, but I can’t emphasize it enough. She has no heart and no soul, and no sense whatsoever of right and wrong. Zilch. It’s amazing. It actually stuns me when I encounter it.” Tapping a hand on the coffee table for emphasis, she added, “Someone who can live without a conscience.”

  She looked into Ariadne’s eyes. “Think about it. Without a conscience.” Sugar sighed. “Nikoletta actually believes the entire world revolves around her. And you know something? In many ways, it does. At least the part of the world she encounters.” Sugar rose to her feet. “Why do you think we’re so desperate to replace her? And why do you think you have to say yes?” Without waiting for an answer, she excused herself and left the library.

  For a long time Ariadne stared at the Paris Match cover. Finally, with trembling hands, she picked it up and turned to the cover article inside.

  It consisted mostly of glamorous photographs of Nikoletta interspersed with s
ome more serious shots to illustrate the text’s message. On one page was Nikoletta swirling and laughing on a ballroom floor, wearing a gown that exposed a generous portion of her ample breasts and the full length of one shapely leg. On the page opposite was a grim picture of a toxic-waste dump. Ariadne flipped the page. Once again Nikoletta was glamorously posed, entertaining friends at her various apartments and country houses around the world. Opposite the spread was a black-and-white aerial photograph of a huge steel plant that belched smoke into the air. The picture had been taken in Belarus, the copy noted.

  Ariadne was repulsed, but she flipped the page yet again. Nikoletta was posed in her pinks, riding to the hounds, and opposite that, again in stark black-and-white, big-eyed children, some with injuries covered in filthy-looking bandages, were depicted working in deplorable factories. Then a series of small photos of Nikoletta hobnobbing with high society, leaders in government and industry, and movie stars.

  Ariadne put the magazine down. She had seen countless images of her sister at this point and listened to the horror stories that Sugar and the others had told her. But the photographs and scant copy in this magazine summed everything up in a very powerful manner. The article was a sobering indictment, and the full import of what Sugar, Adrian, Angelo, and Yves had been telling her finally struck home as it hadn’t before.

  She forced herself to pick the magazine up again and flipped to the next page. It was a montage of old photographs of Nikoletta at various stages in her life. In one she was shown coming down the boarding ramp of a yacht, followed by her parents.

  Her parents. My parents.

  Ariadne studied the picture closely, then placed the magazine on top of the stack on the floor. She sat there for a long time lost in thought, considering her alternatives. Later—much later—she heard someone stirring about in the kitchen.

  She was close to a decision, but she had one more important question she had to ask.

  The next day Ariadne asked Sugar to tell Adrian, Yves, and Angelo that she wished to speak to all of them in the library. Now, gathered there, they all suspected that the young woman had decided what to do, but they had no idea what that decision would be.

  “I have never had riches, nor have I exercised power,” Ariadne began slowly. “And I can’t say that I hunger for either.”

  “Yes, but just think, Ariadne,” Adrian interrupted, “you have a one-in-a-billion chance to become richer and more powerful than many world leaders. This is your opportunity to have those things you’ve never had before.”

  “Adrian, I think that you’ve failed to understand what Ariadne is all about,” Sugar said, exasperation evident in her voice. “In fact, you missed the point of what she just said. She doesn’t hunger for riches or power. What she’s trying to say is that she needs a valid reason to replace Niki. Something more than money and power.”

  Adrian stiffened. “I was merely pointing out the facts.”

  “And what happens to Nikoletta if I should trade places with her?” Ariadne asked hesitantly. “She certainly doesn’t sound like the passive type. How would you take her out of the picture? I mean, she is my twin sister, after all.”

  “Our best choice, Ariadne . . . our only choice as we see it, is to have you, posing as Niki, commit her sister, Ariadne, to a private clinic. One where escape is impossible.” Adrian paused, choosing his words carefully. He knew that their solution would horrify Ariadne, and he wanted to soften the blow as much as possible.

  “There are a number of places where wealthy people park their relatives,” he went on. “The clinics are enormously expensive, as you can imagine, and they are quite luxurious, like the best resorts.”

  “What kind of people are in these places?” Ariadne inquired.

  “Sometimes they’re mentally ill, or troubled in some way or other,” Adrian replied. “Friends of mine have a lovely daughter who suffers from manic depression, and so far doctors haven’t been able to control it with drugs or anything else. When she goes into a deep depression, they check her into one of these clinics to protect her from herself until her mood swings back up. There are all sorts of situations.”

  “And Nikoletta? What would the clinic be told?”

  “That Niki—or Ariadne, in this case—has been kept a family secret because of her psychotic states, but that unfortunately the Papadaki family can no longer take care of her at home because she’s become so dangerous to herself and others. She would be extremely well taken care of, but held incommunicado and unable to stir up trouble. The staff, which is accustomed to delusional behavior, would ignore all of her attempts at bribery and ascribe any tales she might tell as fiction.”

  Ariadne looked mortified.

  “I know, I know,” Sugar commiserated, stroking Ariadne’s back. “It’s not a pleasant solution, but it’s the only viable one.”

  “So I’m to imprison her.”

  “There’s no use pretending,” Sugar replied. “That’s more or less what it amounts to.”

  The ensuing silence was long and drawn out. Finally Ariadne spoke. “You’ve given me a lot to think about, and I need to search deep within my soul and think this through. I’m going outside to take a walk, if you don’t mind, and I’ll talk to you later.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Ariadne ventured out into the fields and on into the woodland. Without seeking it out, she wound up at the same clearing where she had been before, where the huge hemlock had fallen, providing a perch for her to sit down and think. Shafts of light that were filtered through the trees angled across the clearing, making it look like the interior of a church.

  Sitting on the moss- and lichen-speckled tree, she drew her feet up and leaned back against the natural rest created by the curve of the tree’s uprooted base. Staring up into the treetops, she tried to focus on the awful choice that she faced. It’s all so complicated, she thought, and there is no simple solution. The ethereal quiet of the woodland was interrupted by the crunch of someone’s boots on the path, and Ariadne jerked up, although she knew at once that it must be ever-watchful Matt.

  He stopped in his tracks when he saw her, his expression tentative. Once again, she was struck by his physical appeal, the fit body that his clothes seemed barely able to contain.

  “I should’ve known that you would stop here,” he said guiltily. “I’ve disturbed you again.” He had hoped that she would stop here and had deliberately stumbled across her, but he didn’t want to tell her that.

  Ariadne heard the guilt in his voice. “It’s . . . all right,” she said.

  “I’ll leave you alone,” he offered.

  “You’re here, aren’t you?” she said in a matter-of-fact voice. After a pause, she added, “Actually, I could use somebody to talk to.” As angry as she’d been with Matt, she was glad he was here. In her loneliness and confusion, he was a comforting presence.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, tentatively taking another step in her direction.

  She nodded. “Yes. I’m positive.”

  Matt heaved himself up onto the tree and sat down. “I’ve missed being with you,” he said. “I’ve missed you more than you’ll ever know.”

  “But you have been here,” she replied in a slightly tart tone. “We’ve both been here.”

  “You know what I mean, Ariadne,” he said impatiently. “I want it to be like it was before.”

  She looked into his eyes and saw the truth that they expressed, then gazed down into her lap. Their familiarity had been an easy one, and besides, she was as drawn to him as ever. “I . . . I wish it could be like it was before, too, but it’s all so complicated.”

  He nodded. “You’re in a real fix.”

  “Do you mind telling me what you think?” she asked.

  “I think that most people in your situation wouldn’t hesitate to take them up on their offer. After all, Nikoletta Papadaki is very rich and powerful. She can have anything in the world that she wants, and that means that you could have all the same things.” He began ki
cking the trunk with his heel. “I don’t think most people would even see this as a dilemma. They would go straight for the power and money without giving it a second thought. But you’re different, and you’re in a real moral dilemma.”

  “Yes,” she admitted. “At least that’s the way I feel.”

  “On the other hand,” Matt said, looking down at his clasped hands, “think about the good you could do if you did take Nikoletta’s place. What you could do for the world would be immense. There’s no question about that. As it is, she’s a destroyer, and she’ll stop at nothing to get richer and richer and more and more powerful.” His kicking had become more insistent. “You could change that, Ariadne. In one fell swoop. You could do so much good for the world through the company instead of handling things the way your sister is. But remember, you have to follow your own heart, Ariadne.” He paused and reached over and touched the hand she had placed on the tree. “You have a good heart. Listen to what it’s telling you.”

  Ariadne remembered the last time they had touched. Now, as then, she felt excitement course through her body, and she wanted him again. Despite what had happened, she discovered that she wanted him more than ever.

  “I—I will,” she said, looking down at their hands.

  He followed her gaze and gently squeezed her hand in his. “I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me, Ariadne. I meant it when I said that I care for you, regardless of what’s happened, and now I feel more strongly than ever, if that’s possible.”

  He scooted next to her, and she immediately felt a kind of power emanating from his close presence. That and his masculine scent created a stirring within her that she couldn’t deny.

  “I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind,” he continued, “and being here with you has been . . . well, it’s been a real trial.”

  “A trial?”

  He nodded. “Because I’ve wanted you so much.”