Against All Odds

by Danielle Steel

  —

  Izzie and Zach had a blissful honeymoon in Aspen. The house was enormous and very luxurious, and had a large staff. His father lived well off the family trust, a lot better than Zach did, who had nothing. It angered Izzie when she saw it. Why were they unkind to him? It wasn’t fair.

  They went for long walks, made love all the time, fished in a stream, went on hikes, and browsed through the shops in town. The restaurants were excellent, but she had to pay for every meal, and she thought it was embarrassing for him, so they cooked at home most of the time, when the help left at night and they were alone in the kitchen. Sometimes they ate naked after they made love.

  They came back from their honeymoon happy and relaxed, and Izzie had to leap straight into two big projects and work late almost every night. The honeymoon was over and Zach complained about it every night when she got home. But there was nothing she could do about it. She had to work. She used it as an opportunity to try to convince him to find a job, but he didn’t like that idea either. He wanted her to stay home and play and she couldn’t.

  “We’re married now, but I never see you anymore,” he said plaintively, and as the days went by, he got more and more bored and restless, and he was beginning to worry her.

  She was in an important meeting with the managing partner of the law firm on one of their big projects when Zach called her one afternoon. Her secretary said it was urgent, so she left the conference room and took the call. It was Zach, in tears. He’d been arrested, and was in jail. Her heart started pounding the minute he said it.

  “I’m still on probation. They’ll send me to prison for a probation violation. You have to do something.”

  “I can’t right now,” she said in a low voice so no one would hear her. “I can’t leave the meeting I’m in. I’ll come as soon as I’m through. Have they set bail?”

  “No,” he said, crying like a child on the other end.

  “What are the charges?” She hoped it was something minor, or he was going to be in serious trouble, and there would be nothing she could do.

  “Possession,” he said in a choked voice.

  “Of what?”

  “Coke.” He was still crying.

  “With intent to sell?”

  “I think so,” he said miserably. “But it was very little.”

  “For chrissake, Zach, what did they book you for? You know damn well what the charges are.”

  “Okay, yes, with intent to sell. I never see you anymore. I was bored. I bought some coke from a guy I know. I wasn’t going to sell it.” No, he was going to use it, out of boredom, which was almost as bad.

  “How did you get caught? Did someone squeal?”

  “No, I ran a red light, and they stopped me. They ran my license and saw that I’m on probation, so they searched the car for drugs and weapons. And they found it. I had it sitting on the front seat.” He had driven one of the cars his grandmother kept in the garage.

  “How could you be so stupid?” she said in a tone of pure fury. “You know that you risk prison if you get in trouble again. Shit, I don’t even know if I can get you out this time. I have to go back to the meeting. I’ll be there as soon as I can. But they may not let me bail you out until tomorrow if they haven’t set bail yet, and if they put a hold on you because you’re on probation, we’re screwed.”

  “Get me a lawyer, then,” he said, starting to get angry.

  “I am a lawyer, you idiot. I represented you last time. I’ll see you in a while,” she said and hung up and went back to the meeting. It lasted until seven P.M. and as soon as it ended, she flew out of the building and got a cab, and went to the jail. And just as she had suspected, they hadn’t set bail, so he had to stay there for the night. She saw him in a little cubicle, and told him she’d be back in the morning. But she had a client meeting at eleven and had to prepare for it. This was a nightmare in her life.

  She lay awake all night, thinking about him and wondering what they could do, so the court would keep him on probation. She’d have to pull out all the stops, call in every favor, and try all the bells and whistles she could think of to keep him out of jail, and she was not sure she could. She’d been able to pull a rabbit out of a hat before because it was his first arrest. This was different.

  She was at the jail at eight o’clock the next morning, and a hearing had been set for nine A.M. to set bail. She put down her name as the attorney of record representing him and disclosed that they were married to be totally aboveboard, and they allowed him to walk into court with her. They had different names, since she hadn’t had time to change any of her ID yet, so that helped her seem more credible. And thank God they hadn’t put a probation hold on him yet. She was hoping to bail him out before they did.

  He was established in court as not being a flight risk once again. Bail was set at fifty thousand dollars, and she had to pay five thousand of it in order to have him released, and then the judge noticed that he was on probation and asked the bailiff if there was a hold on him, in which case he couldn’t leave. Izzie held her breath while they checked, and miraculously they hadn’t issued one yet, and forty-five minutes later, she had bailed him out, and they were in a cab to go back to the apartment. She read him the riot act when they got there. She told him he couldn’t do it again, ever, and that he would ruin her life and his own if he did.

  “I know, I know, I was stupid…I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,” he promised, and looked deeply remorseful.

  “Great. I buy it, but the judge won’t.” Zach went to take a shower then, and she called the assistant DA assigned to his case before, and was straightforward with him and begged him not to revoke Zach’s probation. She thought it was best to be honest with him, so a sheriff didn’t show up at their door.

  “You’re still representing him?” the assistant DA asked her, surprised. “I thought you were assigned to it pro bono last year.”

  “I was,” she confirmed.

  “So why are you back on the case? Are you a glutton for punishment?” He was laughing as he said it.

  “Apparently. I married him a month ago.”

  “Oh, God, and you’re acting as his attorney on the case?”

  “I am.” They both knew it was legal to do so, although unusual.

  “Tell me why I shouldn’t revoke his probation and send him straight to prison?” He was serious about that and not laughing anymore. He felt sorry for her, but he wasn’t going to get in trouble to help her. And whatever he did, he’d be doing for her, not the defendant. She was a straight shooter and a good attorney, and he liked her.

  “Because I’m begging you not to,” she said in a choked voice. “Sending him to prison is not going to help anyone. He’s an idiot, not a criminal.” They both knew that was true too. There was a long pause at the other end. “He’s willing to go to rehab,” she volunteered in a moment of creativity, sounding desperate. “He’s never done that before. This was a slip. Give me time to find a program. He’ll stay as long as you want.” The DA was quiet as he listened.

  “All right, I won’t make any moves on his probation for now, while you find a rehab for him. I’ll consider it, but you’ve got a mess on your hands.” The assistant DA had brought the charges up on his computer, and he could see that the amount of cocaine was small and probably for personal use. The charge of intent to sell wouldn’t stick. “They’re going to send him away this time, unless you can do some mighty fancy footwork to convince the judge,” he warned her. “You did a good job for him last time, getting him to plead and getting him probation. You’re going to need a sympathetic judge to keep him out of prison and send him to rehab.” Izzie fervently hoped the judge would let Zach do that. Rehab was their only hope.

  “Do you have a time for the arraignment yet on your computer?” she asked him.

  “Tomorrow. Four P.M. Can you be there?”

  “I’ll have to be,” she said seriously. She wasn’t going to ask him to change it and annoy him further.

  �
�Good luck, counselor. I’ll see you in court, if they assign me to the case.”

  “Thank you,” she said, sounding very subdued, and when Zach came out of the shower, she told him not to leave the apartment, and that if he got in trouble again, she’d kill him, and almost meant it. She told him that he would have to go to rehab, if the judge agreed to keep him on probation and out of prison. Zach looked horrified at the thought.

  “You mean like for thirty days?”

  “Could be six months or a year. However long they want. It beats three to five years in prison for a second offense.”

  “I can’t do that,” he said as tears filled his eyes again.

  “You should have thought of that before.” She felt sick and livid, and she was about to be late for her client meeting. “And if you do it again, after this, they’ll put you away for good,” she told him. This was no joke.

  He looked badly shaken, and she didn’t say another word to him. He lay down on the bed, and turned on the TV with the remote when she left. He hadn’t said a word, as Izzie closed the door firmly behind her and rang for the elevator. She just prayed the judge would agree to Zach going to rehab. If not, her husband was going to prison for several years. And she could just imagine what her family would say. She was half an hour late for her meeting, had a long day at the office after that, and when she got home that night, she expected him to be subdued, but he wasn’t. He’d been drinking all day, and he was drunk and surly with her. She was angry at him for the rest of the evening, and she stayed out of their bedroom, and when she went back in he had passed out and was sound asleep. She lay awake for hours, worrying about the arraignment the next day. She needed Zach to make a good show, and she wasn’t sure he was up to it.

  She left for the office in the morning without saying goodbye to him, but she had already told him that she would pick him up for the arraignment. She would be there for him at three, and it was a formality for him to plead guilty or not guilty, and she was going to propose rehab to the judge. The faster they got him there, the better it would look, and it would impact if he was found in violation and sent to jail.

  Izzie spent the morning in her office at her computer, looking up rehabs instead of working. There was a great one in Arizona, others in Minnesota and Michigan, a good one in New Hampshire, one in Connecticut, and one in Queens that looked grim but was close. The one in Arizona looked like a country club. But it was still rehab, which would sound like jail to Zach.

  She got back to the apartment on time, and was relieved to find Zach awake, clean, shaved, and wearing a suit. And he looked scared stiff. The prospect of prison had woken him up. At last.

  They rode to the courthouse in a cab, and were in the courtroom on time. Izzie was the attorney of record, and the assistant DA she had called had gotten himself assigned to the case, as a favor to her.

  The arraignment was routine. Zach pleaded not guilty. And she managed to get the “intent to sell” charge dropped, because the quantity was minimal. So all he was charged with was possession of a small amount of cocaine. But it was still enough to get his probation revoked, and for him to be sent away. Zach had admitted to her that he had already used most of the coke when he got caught. The judge warned Zach that he could revoke his probation and send him straight to prison then and there. And then Izzie suggested rehab, and submitted the name of the one in Queens. She had called them that morning. They had a bed for Zach, and had several court-mandated cases. They had told her they could take him that night and she relayed the information to the judge, along with the fact that Zach had never missed an appointment with his probation officer. The assistant DA made no objection to rehab. Zach was given a court date for his case two months later in August, which Izzie planned to get postponed, and the judge mandated Zach to the rehab in Queens for three months, with a possible extension for another six to nine. Izzie felt relief wash over her like a tidal wave, as the judge banged his gavel hard and called the next case. Izzie strode across the courtroom to thank the assistant DA and he told her he was satisfied for now. He assumed that Zach would eventually plead guilty when his case came up. And then she went back to where Zach was standing, picked up her briefcase, and he followed her out. She didn’t stop until they were on the steps, and he looked confused.

  “Okay, explain it to me in plain English. What just went on in there?”

  “You’re going to rehab,” she said coldly.

  “When?” He looked terrified.

  “Tonight.”

  “For how long?”

  “Three months. Could be longer, up to nine months or a year. You got damn lucky in there,” she said as they started down the steps to hail a cab.

  “Are you crazy? Three months in rehab, and maybe a year? That’s like going to jail.”

  “Great,” she said in a fury, as they stopped a taxi and she turned to him. “Then go back inside and enlist for three to five years in prison. But don’t come back to me when you’re done. You need to clean up your act so you don’t do this again. I can’t do this with you every six months. If you don’t go to rehab, I’m done, and so are you.”

  They rode back to the apartment in silence. She called the rehab facility and then helped him pack. He didn’t want to go that night but he had no other choice. If he wasn’t there by the next morning, the judge could revoke his probation and send him to prison after all.

  At nine P.M., they were at the grim rehab program in Queens. Zach was looking daggers at Izzie, but by ten o’clock he’d been checked in and had a room assignment with three other men. When Izzie was informed that she couldn’t see or communicate with him for thirty days, Zach looked shocked at the news. This was no country club facility, but it was an acceptable alternative to jail.

  “She’s my wife,” he insisted.

  “I don’t care if she’s the Virgin Mary. No calls or visitors for thirty days,” they told him. Zach gave Izzie a forlorn kiss goodbye and then, with his backpack over his shoulder and a woebegone expression, he disappeared through a door. She walked out to a waiting cab and burst into tears the minute she got in. It had been a hellish forty-eight hours, but she had saved his ass. Again. And she had a lonely few months ahead of her. After a month, he could come home for visits. But until then, she would be alone. And the final blow was that the judge had sent an additional order to the rehab program, ordering Zach to wear an electronic bracelet on his ankle for the next year, so the police could monitor his whereabouts at all times.

  When she got back to the apartment, she lay on her bed thinking about him, and knew she had rough times ahead. And when he got out of rehab, the probation department would want him to get a job and go to work. Zach Holbrook was about to enter the real world. But at least he wasn’t in jail.

  She didn’t hear from Zach for a month after he entered rehab, and in some ways it was a relief. She saw him for the first time for an hour on a Sunday afternoon at the rehab with all the other visitors, and he took her in his arms and held her. He kept apologizing profusely for everything he’d done and telling her how much he loved her. They were going to let him come home for an afternoon the following weekend.

  Izzie had avoided her family for the past month claiming she was busy working on a big merger, so she wouldn’t have to explain Zach’s absence. It had been a miserable month for both of them. But she believed him when he said he’d never do it again. Their joint life, their marriage, and her sanity depended on it.

  Chapter 15

  Grandma Lou left on her long-awaited trip to China with her friend Frances on the first of August. Their first stop was to be Hong Kong. Kate and Julie took them to the airport, and Louise was so excited she could hardly contain herself, while Frances was as calm and passive as ever, and might have been going to Boston for the weekend. They took one suitcase each, and each of them carried a backpack with what they needed on the plane. Kate knew that Frances always took an extensive supply of medicines with her, in case one of them got sick. Louise thought it was unnec
essary and ridiculous. But they both looked spry as they strode toward the plane after they went through security.

  “Grandma really is brave, isn’t she?” Julie commented admiringly. She wouldn’t have had the courage to travel so far away at that age, and Kate said she wouldn’t either, but these trips were the greatest joy in her mother’s life.

  Julie and Kate chatted on the ride back into the city, and Julie said that she and Peter were going to Maine for the weekend to stay with friends of his who had a sailboat. She was sorry they weren’t driving, but were flying to Bangor. She would have liked to stop and see Justin on the way. The baby was due in less than four weeks.

  “How’s she doing?” Kate asked, referring to the surrogate.

  “Justin says she’s huge, and can’t wait to have it. This one is bigger than all her other babies.”

  “I still can’t understand how a woman can do that,” Kate said with a stern look. “Rent her body out to have someone’s baby, for money, and just hand it over when it’s born.”

  “I guess the money she gets makes a big difference for her own kids.” Julie thought it was strange too, but she was happy for her brother that it was working out so far. The two boys were wildly excited, and had been decorating the nursery for weeks. Richard had painted it three shades of pink. Justin and Richard had found out at the five-month sonogram that it was a girl, and they were thrilled. Neither of them was into ball sports or rugged activities and they had said they didn’t know what they’d do if it was a boy.

  “How’s Peter?” Kate asked her.

  “He’s fine, busy, he just got a big promotion, so he’s happy.” She looked peaceful and content in the relationship. They had been going away on weekends since the beginning of the summer. Julie’s whole life had changed because of him. She was much more open and social, willing to meet new people and do new things, and she wasn’t constantly at work or isolated in her apartment.

  “How’s your French friend?” she asked her mother. She hadn’t heard Kate talk about him in weeks. And in fact, Kate hadn’t seen him in just over two months. They were both busy, and she was still angry about his summer vacation. He had planned to come to New York in June, but had to cancel at the last minute. She got the feeling he was avoiding her, and she needed a break, now that she realized he still spent his holidays with his wife.