Fall from Grace

by Danielle Steel

  “Guess who’s on Page Six today,” she said, almost chortling as her mother groaned.

  “Please don’t tell me I am for going to jail.”

  Sophie read her the piece. It intimated that Kellie’s husband was having an affair. The woman he’d been seen with at a hotel recently was a well-known heiress around town, his specialty apparently. And Sydney smiled as she listened.

  “It’s karma, Mom,” Sophie said. “She deserves it.” And Sydney hated to admit it, but she agreed with her.

  She met Ed for lunch shortly afterward at a restaurant they both liked, and he told her he was going to Hong Kong.

  “For good?” She looked devastated. He had become her closest friend, her only friend now. And she had hoped he’d stay around and get another job in New York.

  “No, just for a week. I want to talk to my father.”

  “About going into the family business?” Now that he had quit his job, she realized that he was likely to go back and go to work for them. He had gotten all the experience he needed in Europe and New York. But he surprised her with what he said.

  “I want to start my own line. I think I’m ready. I want to know if they’ll help me do it here. I want to stay in New York.” And then he looked at her seriously. “Would you work on it with me, Sydney? It’ll probably take me six months or a year to get it off the ground. But I want to start setting it up right away. I looked at a space in Chelsea this morning. What do you think? Would you do it with me?”

  “You know a lot more than I do about running a business. I’m just a designer.” But she had learned a lot at Lady Louise too, mostly from him. “And a year from now, I might be in prison,” she said, looking grim for a minute.

  “Not if Steve Weinstein is worth what you’re paying him,” he said soberly, and she gave him a small, wintry smile in response.

  “I’m not paying him. Sabrina is. I want to pay her back as soon as I can. I can’t until I sell the apartment in Paris. And I still have a tenant there for now.”

  “I could give you stock in the company, so you’d have equity. I want to keep it small at first. I want to start with casual day wear. I don’t want to get too grand.” She loved the idea, and they took a long walk after lunch to talk about it. He was leaving for Hong Kong the next day. He had already told his mother about the project, but he wanted to discuss it with his father face-to-face. He would be harder to convince. He still wanted his son to come home and join the family business with him and his uncles. But Ed didn’t want to live in Hong Kong yet. “I’m happy here,” he told her. She was excited about his project, and smiling when she went home. If he convinced his father to help him back it, she would have a job again, doing work she could respect this time, working for an honest man. She was in a good mood all that night, until Sabrina called her the next day.

  The story of her arrest was in Women’s Wear Daily, and they had quoted Paul Zeller talking about how severely disappointed he was that a designer of such great talent would stoop to illegal activities. It made him sound like the injured party, and her like a criminal. It was mortifying, and she was worried about Sabrina immediately.

  “Do you think this will impact you in your new job?”

  “I don’t think so, Mom,” she said quietly. “I called them about it this morning, and they were very nice and felt terrible for you. Paul Zeller doesn’t have a lot of fans. I think most people will know you didn’t do it and took the rap for him. But in any case, they weren’t upset with me, and assured me it wouldn’t affect my job.”

  Sydney was relieved to hear it. “When do you start?”

  “In a week. It gives me a little time to get organized and catch my breath.” Sydney was especially happy that Sabrina would be employed again, since she had spent most of her savings on her mother’s bail and legal fees.

  Things were slowly turning around for them. Sabrina had a new job she was excited about at an even better firm. Ed wanted Sydney to start a business with him, if his family agreed to help him financially. And hopefully Steve Weinstein would be able to help her with the legal proceedings, and keep her out of prison.

  She was still living on a shoestring, and she had criminal charges against her, but at least some good things were happening. She could see daylight slowly streaking across the sky. The dawn hadn’t come yet, but Sydney had hope again. It was a start.

  Chapter 9

  Ed came back from Hong Kong a week before Christmas. And as soon as he landed, he called Sydney with good news. He had met with his father and uncles, and after some debate, they had agreed to finance his clothing business. He had an excellent track record, and had held design jobs with important, responsible firms. He knew the business and was capable of pulling together a talented design team. He had presented Sydney’s CV and credentials to them as well. They had given him the green light, and he wanted to get started as soon as possible. His goal was to have his first fashion show on the runway during Fashion Week in September, nine months from now.

  “It’s a go!” he said when he called Sydney, and then told her all the details. He wanted to look at the Chelsea location with her in the next few days and rent it immediately, if she liked it as much as he did and thought it could work as a home for their fledgling business. It was an exciting time for him. At last he wouldn’t be working for someone else, and could do everything the way he wanted. He had no investors to satisfy, only his family. “Do you have time to look at the Chelsea location with me tomorrow?” he asked her, and she said she did.

  “This is so wonderful!” She was as thrilled as he was. He sent the realtor an email that night, and they made an appointment for ten o’clock the next morning. When Sydney got there, he was relieved to see that she looked much better and more relaxed than when he’d left. Her four days in jail had been harrowing and taken a toll on her.

  They went over every inch of the location, and tried to envision where they would put everyone and how it would work, and by their estimation it was perfect. The realtor promised to have the lease to him by that afternoon.

  “Let’s go to IKEA tomorrow and buy furniture,” Sydney said enthusiastically. The place had been freshly painted, and there was no construction work to do. It was in move-in condition. Ed wanted to start hiring people as soon as possible. He had already made a list of his dream design team, with Sydney and himself as the lead designers. But they needed design assistants too, preferably recently out of school so they wouldn’t be too expensive, or too inflexible, and would have fresh, innovative ideas.

  They went to buy desks, tables, chairs, file cabinets, and shelving the next day, and outfitted a small kitchen. They bought comfortable desk chairs, and Ed was going to buy the computers. They had rented a truck to bring everything back from IKEA, and unloaded most of it themselves when they got back to Chelsea. They had hired someone to put the furniture together. They sat back and admired the results at the end of the day, and then Sydney got ready to leave to buy a small Christmas tree for her apartment.

  “What are you doing on Christmas Eve, by the way?” she asked him before she left.

  “Nothing much. I haven’t had time to think about it.”

  “Why don’t you come to dinner with me and the girls? Just casual, at my place.” Sophie had already said that her boyfriend would probably join them, if he was up to it, and there was room for six people at her table, if they kept their elbows close to their bodies and used her narrow chairs.

  “I’d love it,” Ed said, smiling broadly. After that, she went to buy her tree, which took up a corner in the living room, but looked festive, and she had bought decorations. She didn’t allow herself to think of the fourteen-foot tree they’d had in the living room in Connecticut every Christmas, or the garland of white flowers over the main doorway, or the wreath on the door. She had bought a tiny one with bells and pinecones on it, and attached it to the front door. And even though the tree was small, it smelled like Christmas, and filled the apartment with the scent of pine. The orna
ments she’d bought for the tree were all red and gold, with some tiny teddy bears and toy soldiers. It looked cheerful and happy when she was finished.

  Steve Weinstein called her after that, to give her the date of her next court hearing in April. It was months away, but would give them time to pursue their investigation of Paul Zeller and what he might have known about the stolen purses. And the grand jury investigation would go on during that time. After Steve had told her about her hearing date, she decided to invite him to dinner on Christmas Eve too.

  “I usually go home to Boston for the holidays,” he told her, touched to be asked to their family Christmas dinner. “But this year, my brother and sister are with their in-laws, and my parents are in Florida. They might be moving there.” The invitation sounded warm and friendly to him, and he liked his new client and the idea of getting to know her better. He had already told her that he had never been married, had no children, and was thirty-eight years old. And she thought her girls would like him. “My family is Jewish,” he added, “but we’re not religious, and we always celebrate Christmas. We get the best of both worlds that way.”

  “I love Christmas too.” She sighed softly then. “It’s our first one without my husband.” She was trying not to dwell on it, but the memories haunted her, especially late at night, which had become her least favorite time of day. Her worries loomed large at that hour.

  “Your children’s father?” He was curious about her, and sensed heartaches she was too polite to mention.

  “No, he died twenty years ago, after we divorced. He had moved to Texas with a new wife and they didn’t see much of him, but he was still their father. I remarried sixteen years ago, to a wonderful man. He died in an accident this summer. It’s been a big adjustment.” In more ways than she was willing to disclose to him. “There have been some complications with the estate.” Two greedy, nasty stepdaughters, and nothing for the widow. She was still angry at Andrew about it at times. It was hard not to be, for dying, and for not taking care of what he should have. If he had, everything would have been different. She wouldn’t have had to work and she wouldn’t be facing jail. But, on the other hand, she had met Ed Chin and was going to have the thrill of starting a business with him. She tried to maintain a glass-half-full outlook, except in the wee hours when she was terrified of running out of money and going to prison. “It’s been a difficult year,” she acknowledged, topped off by her recent arrest for trafficking in stolen goods. “You really never know what’s going to happen in life. The last six months have taught me that.”

  “That’s true in a good way too,” he reminded her. “You never know what fantastic event or person is going to come along and change your luck and life forever. Is your daughter going to be there for dinner, by the way? I had a nice conversation with her, when you were…being detained,” he tried to find a gentle way to express it without saying “when you were in jail.”

  He knew how shaken she still was by it, and frightened of the future. The possibility of prison was horrifying. And once or twice she wondered if she had the right to start a business with Ed. What if she was convicted and went to prison? She didn’t want to leave him in the lurch, nor miss the opportunity he was offering her.

  She brought it up with Ed that night, when they were talking on the phone about their plans. He had texted her all evening before that, every time he had an idea or a name to share with her. They’d been trying to come up with a name for their business and were leaning toward Sydney Chin. It was distinctive, and she wanted it to have an Asian feeling to it, out of deference to him and his family, who were making their new venture possible. She was grateful for their willingness to include her in the plan, despite her current problems.

  “What if I go to prison? Have you thought of that?” she asked him seriously. Steve had told her it was a real possibility if things went badly for her at the trial. And he assumed there would be one. There was too much evidence against her for the charges to be dismissed. Paul Zeller was a powerful man, and had covered himself well. He had begun lying to everyone, and the press, from the moment it happened. He had spoken to the U.S. attorney, who had made it clear they were not going to go easy on her, and they wanted to question her in depth about Paul Zeller.

  “You can’t just sit there for the next year, waiting for the other shoe to drop,” Ed admonished her. “You have to go on living. I don’t think they’ll convict you, but if they do, we’ll deal with it when it happens. I’m not going to miss out on building something really important with you because Paul Zeller is an asshole and we’re scared. I’ve waited my whole life to do this. And I want to do it with you.” He had profound respect for her after working with her. In fact, he’d been waiting seven years to start his own venture since he graduated from design school.

  “Does your family know about the case against me?” She hoped he’d been honest with them about her arrest.

  “I told them what happened. They were very sorry to hear about it, but it didn’t scare them off. They checked out your lawyer again, by the way, and he has an excellent reputation.”

  “I like him.” She was grateful to Ed and his family for that as well. “He’s coming to dinner on Christmas Eve too. He’s smart and seems like a really nice guy.” And then she thought of something. He never talked about it much, and was alone most of the time, and working, but she thought he might like to bring someone with him to dinner, so she asked him.

  “You’re sweet to ask. I’ve seen someone a few times, but there are no major heartthrobs in my life. I don’t have time for that. I’m too busy to engage in a relationship and do it justice. Maybe in a few years when we get our business off the ground, but not now. Thanks anyway.”

  “You sound like Sabrina. She says exactly the same thing. And Sophie has a boyfriend, officially anyway, but they hardly see each other and he’s very eccentric. Fashion isn’t fertile ground for romance. No one has the energy or the time.”

  “How did you manage to design and date and marry Andrew?” He had wondered about that for a while.

  “It was a race against time every day, with work, him, and two little girls. He convinced me to give it up when we got married. He wanted me free to travel with him. And not working gave me a chance to be with my kids. I missed working for a few years, but then I was glad I’d done it. I enjoyed the time I could spend with him and my girls. Your family life is very different when you’re working full-time. There’s never enough of you to go around, and do a good job at work too.”

  “Well, just make sure you don’t do that again,” Ed said, sounding worried. “I mean get married and quit your job with me.”

  “You have nothing to worry about. I’m not planning to get married again, and I don’t have young kids at home anymore,” she reminded him. “My girls don’t have time to see me either. They work as hard as we do, and Sabrina is crazy. She loves what she does more than she’s ever loved a man.”

  “That’s how I feel about it,” he said comfortably.

  “And I’ll never give up my work again for a man,” Sydney said with determination. She couldn’t imagine being with another man now. She’d had what she considered the perfect relationship and a great marriage with Andrew. It was only now that he was gone that everything had fallen apart and cast a shadow on her memories. But when he was alive, she’d been happy. They had rarely argued, were kind to each other, and shared many of the same interests, and he’d been wonderful to her girls. But after the way it had ended, she never wanted to be dependent on a man again.

  “Just make sure you stick to that,” Ed warned her. “If Prince Charming comes along after we start the business, tell him you’re a working woman, and you won’t give it up.”

  “I promise,” she said fervently, and meant it.

  They said good night to each other then, and she knew they’d be texting and talking constantly in the coming days and months. They had a lot of decisions to make, and she already had some ideas for sketches and designs for th
eir show in the fall. She wanted to do a predominantly white collection, since the clothes they would be showing to the trade would be in stores for the following summer.

  —

  The guests arrived on Christmas Eve at seven-thirty. Sydney offered them a choice between hot toddies and eggnog laced with rum. It was one of their Christmas traditions. The apartment looked pretty with the Christmas decorations she’d bought, and there were candles lit everywhere. There was just enough seating for the six of them, with some effort, and it was very cozy. Sydney was wearing a long plaid wool skirt and a red sweater, which she’d worn on Christmas before and had brought with her, with her hair straight down her back. Sabrina came in a short black cocktail dress of her own design, which showed off her long, sexy legs. Her dark hair was shining and she’d worn it down like her mother. She was wearing bright red lipstick and high heels and looked beautiful as she hugged her mother. She was the first to arrive and had brought two bottles of good French wine. She was in a celebratory mood about her new job. She had only been employed there for a week, and already loved it. Her previous boss’s impulsive reaction to fire her, over the knockoffs of her designs by Lady Louise, had proved to be an extraordinary blessing. She had leapt in at full speed at her new job and was designing additions to their collection for February’s Fashion Week, she was working harder than ever and had never been happier.

  “Who else is coming, Mom?” she asked, as she followed her mother over to the kitchen counter. She could smell a turkey in the oven, and she peeked at the vegetables on the stove. Sydney had been working on the meal all day with her only cookbook, and it had turned out well. She had made all their favorites. The dishes that came with the apartment weren’t pretty, but she had managed to set a nice table anyway, with candles, a few gold angels, and some pinecones. The whole apartment was fragrant and smelled like the holidays.

  “I told you I invited Ed Chin,” whom she and Sophie had met once. “Sophie is bringing Grayson, making a rare cameo appearance.” They both laughed at that. He was phobic about families and commitment, and said he hated holidays but had agreed to come after Sophie had begged him to for weeks. He was a talented graphic designer, and an unusual person. He had lost his parents as a child and had grown up in foster care, and had moved around a lot. He and Sophie loved each other, but he didn’t want marriage, children, or long-term commitment. Sydney thought Sophie was young enough to put up with his limitations, but she didn’t think the relationship would go far. They had been dating for a year, and anytime he thought the relationship was getting too serious, he stopped seeing her for a while, and then wandered back when things had cooled off. Her mother and sister were surprised she was still with him, but Sophie insisted he was a good guy, and saw virtues in him that others didn’t. He was a prickly porcupine at times.