The Sins of the Mother

by Danielle Steel

  They went to the family plot afterward and had a small service with only the family present, and then they went home to the two hundred people who had gathered there to mingle and lend their support. Peter stood close to Olivia most of the time, without intruding, and she was grateful for his comforting presence. Her children saw people they hadn’t seen in years, and Cass was welcomed back by all who knew her. Amanda had been at the funeral in a serious black Chanel suit, but had had the good taste not to come to the house. Phillip thanked her for coming on the way out, and she looked moved by the service too. She was human after all.

  And when everybody finally left, the family collapsed into chairs. They looked exhausted. It had been an emotional few days, and a beautiful funeral for the mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother they all loved so much. There had been a lovely photograph of her on the funeral program, she was laughing and looked as joyous and mischievous as she had been. They all looked worn out. And Liz was organizing a big pasta dinner, left for them by the caterer for that night. They had served champagne and hors d’oeuvres after the funeral, but Phillip admitted that he was starving now.

  “Let’s get out of our black clothes,” Olivia suggested. “We need to lighten up a little. Granibelle wouldn’t like us being so sad.” Peter had left with the others, and Phillip had spoken to Taylor dozens of times in the past few days. He couldn’t wait to see her now. They were all leaving in the morning, after one last night together, and the next day, Olivia, Phillip, and John were going back to work, and Cass, Sophie, and Carole were leaving to go back to the cities they had arrived from. It had been an intense family time.

  And dinner that night had all the exuberance and excited chatter that had been so typical of Maribelle herself. The pasta was delicious and the wine and conversation flowed.

  They all toasted Maribelle, and then Phillip tapped his glass with a spoon and said he had an announcement to make. All heads turned toward him, wondering what it was. He was a little tipsy from the wine, but they all were. It had been an intense few days and they needed relief from it now.

  “I’m in love with a wonderful woman and I’m going to marry her when I get divorced.” A cheer rose from the crowd, and Liz said loudly, “Goodbye, Amanda!” and they all laughed, and then she went next. It reminded Olivia suddenly of when they were children and made outrageous announcements at the table. She had an instant sense that her mother would have loved this and would have joined in with some outrageous announcement of her own. They were a lively group and carried away in the moment, with love for each other.

  “I sold my book for a fortune,” Liz announced, and Sarah managed not to roll her eyes although she looked momentarily pained, “and I think I’m dating my agent, although I’m not entirely sure. He’s British and very handsome and aristocratic. But I am sure I sold the book!” she said, and they all laughed. Her not being certain if she was dating Andrew was so typical of her.

  “Tell us when you know,” Phillip shouted across the table, and they all laughed again, with her but not at her. Liz was rarely sure of anything, for most of her life.

  Alex got in the spirit of it then, looked around at his family, and spoke up in a clear voice. “And I’m gay. And I am sure,” he said, laughing, as even his mother smiled, and everyone else chuckled, and both his cousins, seated on either side of him, patted him on the back for being so brave and coming out. No one at the table looked upset, not even his parents, and Alex looked pleased.

  And then Cass stunned them all. Her return to the fold had been heartwarming and surprising enough. She could have flown in for the funeral, kept to herself, and left right afterward. Instead she had been with them for three days, like everyone else. And she seemed to have enjoyed it too. She had spent hours talking to her sister and mother, and trying to get to know her nieces and nephew, and had been a good sport about her two older brothers teasing her, as they always had.

  Cass’s announcement topped them all.

  “I’m having a baby. I’m pregnant. I just found out. And I’m keeping it. And I’m not marrying Danny Hell. He’s the father. I’m having it in June. And I’m sure too.” They all stared at her openmouthed for a minute, and then the conversation at the table exploded again as they all congratulated her, and her mother looked at her with a long, slow smile of approval. She didn’t care that she wasn’t getting married, she had come that far into modern times. She was just happy that her daughter had healed enough from the wounds of her childhood to want a child of her own.

  “I’m thrilled,” Olivia said in a clear, strong voice, raised her glass to her daughter, and blew her a kiss.

  “And as the oldest of the grandchildren,” Sophie said, taking over the floor, “we love you, but we think you’re all a little nuts. You’re supposed to be our role models, Uncle Phillip is getting divorced and remarried five minutes later, Mom can’t figure out if she’s dating her agent or not, which is pretty typical of her, and means she probably is. And Aunt Cassie is having a baby and not getting married, and it will probably be born with a tattoo. You’re terrific, guys, and we love you. Thank you for being our family.” They laughed uproariously, and everyone talked at once to Cass about her baby and congratulated her again. Olivia wondered what had changed her mind and made her decide to have a baby, but whatever it was, it seemed like a good thing to her, and she knew her mother would have been thrilled.

  And as a final tribute to Maribelle, they all played cards until three o’clock in the morning, drank a lot of wine, and reluctantly went to bed.

  They were a sober group the next morning at breakfast, ready to go back to their own lives, but in the bittersweet way of real life, the three days they had spent together had been wonderful and beautiful, happy and sad. And before they disbanded, Olivia invited them all to return for Thanksgiving. It would be sad for all of them this year without Maribelle, but Olivia wanted them to be together.

  “And that means your significant others too,” Olivia said precisely. “Phillip, you’re welcome to bring Taylor. Liz, if you decide you’re dating your agent, you can bring him. And Cassie darling, I would be honored if you bring Danny. He’s the father of my next grandchild, after all.” There were tears in her eyes when she said it, and Cass hugged her mother before she left.

  “Thank you, Mom, for everything.”

  “Thank you, and take care of yourself and the baby.”

  “I will. I just hope I don’t screw up his or her life. I’m as busy as you were.”

  “You won’t make the same mistakes I did,” she said gently. “You’re going to be a wonderful mother.” Cassie hugged her again, and then went out to the limo that was waiting to take her to the airport. The tour had moved on to Houston, and she was meeting Danny there.

  They had all agreed to come back for Thanksgiving, and it was only six weeks away. When everyone had left, Olivia rode into the city, to go to her office. She felt as though she’d been away for a year. And she already missed her mother. She had so much to tell her. So much had happened in the past few days, but somehow she had the feeling that her mother knew it already, and wouldn’t have been surprised. They were the children she had brought up, to be their own people, and follow their hearts, use their heads, and always be honest and brave. They were the same lessons she had taught Olivia, and they had served her well.

  Chapter 23

  The weeks before Thanksgiving were full for all of them. Phillip was in constant contact with his lawyers over Amanda’s increasingly unreasonable demands. She was still threatening to try and overturn their pre-nup, although his lawyers insisted she didn’t have a chance. She was using the threat to try and increase the settlement and alimony he gave her, and he finally gave her the city house just to move things ahead. He didn’t want to live there with Taylor anyway, but he was keeping the cottage in the Hamptons. His lawyers were telling him the divorce would take about a year. And he and Taylor were happy in the meantime. All was going well with them.

  John had his ar
t show shortly after Maribelle’s funeral and Liz, Phillip, and Olivia went. He had chosen some of his best work, and by the end of the evening, everything had sold.

  And after she got back from her grandmother’s funeral, Liz had had dinner with Andrew Shippers several times. They alternated her coming into the city for dinner, with his coming out to the farmhouse in Connecticut, which he was slowly helping her to fix up. He enjoyed working on it with her when he spent weekends with her. They were sliding into a relationship that worked well for both of them. And news of her girls was good. Sophie was excited about getting her degree and moving back to the city, and Carole was working on her father’s latest movie and had decided to stay in L.A. She had finally found herself, and was a total West Coast girl. She had discovered her niche, and sounded as though she had grown up a lot in the past three months.

  The relationship Liz was building with Andrew was exciting and fun for both of them. They were exactly the same age and had the same birthday, which he insisted was a sign that they were meant to be together, and for once in her life she felt confident and sure, and didn’t feel she was making a mistake. The sale of her book had given her new faith in herself as a writer, and being with Andrew gave her self-confidence as a woman. And the week before Thanksgiving, the dramatic agent he’d been talking to for months finally came through. They wanted to make a movie of her book. He waited until the weekend to tell her, and she screamed when he told her. She was hard at work on her new book, and now she was selling a movie. And as soon as he told her, they went straight to bed and made love, which they usually did as soon as he arrived. The sex between them was extremely good, but she had fallen in love with him too.

  He lay propped up on one elbow afterward, looking at her and loving what he saw. He had never been as happy with anyone, and they had a lot in common, and enjoyed sharing the literary world.

  “Tell me something. Are you sleeping with me because I sold your book, and now a movie, and you’re going to be very, very rich and famous because of me? Or because you find me irresistible?” he asked, teasing her as he always did. She loved that about him too.

  “Both,” she said with a grin. “Today, probably because of the movie, usually because of the book and the money. And,” she added for good measure, “you’re a terrific handyman, and you’re going to keep my house from falling down around my ears.”

  “That’s a good point. I’ll admit, my carpentry is excellent. I hadn’t thought of that, although I’m not sure I love the idea of your sleeping with the handyman. Have you ever done that before?”

  “Never,” she said with a grin, “but you’re really good.”

  “True, I am. So tell me, how much is your family going to hate me when I meet them at Thanksgiving? How much interrogation will I have to endure? Quite a bit, I imagine. For all they know, I’m just out of prison, which might be a bit unsettling for them.” They had been dating for three months, and he had met Sophie, but not Carole, when she came home for a weekend. Sophie loved him, and Carole was sure she would from everything she’d heard.

  “My family is going to love you,” Liz reassured him. Andrew was never insecure, but he was nervous about them. He knew all about The Factory and its remarkable history, and he was curious to meet her mother. He thought she should write a book about her life, although Liz said she would never do it. She was much too discreet and modest to write about her own life. He told Liz that she should do it in that case, but she didn’t think her mother would like that either. “Besides, my sister’s boyfriend is going to upstage you,” she said about Thanksgiving, “He’s twenty-four years old, a rock star, and they’re having a baby in June.”

  “What a fascinating group of people you are,” he said, intrigued by her, and the stories she had told him about her life and youth. “I can hardly wait to meet them, although it’s disappointing that the rock star will upstage me. Maybe I should get a tattoo,” he said, musing, and then he pulled her toward him, and suddenly they were both laughing, and he was kissing her and they made love again. She always laughed a lot with him, and she loved his sense of humor.

  And when they all assembled for the Thanksgiving weekend, it was like Maribelle’s funeral without the sadness. They were happy to be together and they missed her, but they chattered constantly, and the house was bulging at the seams. It was the first time anyone had met Taylor, and they were all interested in her. She was a little overwhelmed at first, but she was genuinely nice to everyone, and obviously madly in love with Phillip. She stayed close to him, and they held hands most of the time. And after talking to her for a while and walking with her in the garden, Olivia came back beaming and it was obvious that she approved. She was everything Amanda wasn’t and everything Olivia had always wanted for him.

  Liz and Andrew were the next arrivals from the city, and he charmed everyone with his quick wit and very dry sense of humor. He regaled them with stories about allegedly ghastly hunting weekends in England, and his misspent youth. And he assured them all that Liz was a very, very talented writer, and he was sure that she would be famous one day. It was music to Olivia’s ears.

  And the hit of the weekend was Danny Hell. He was funny, irreverent, and outrageous, he had a cockney accent an inch thick that Andrew imitated to perfection, and the two of them bantered endlessly in slang no one else could understand. He was young, talented, and hip, and it was obvious he was crazy about Cass, and he said he was thrilled about their baby, and played guitar with the kids while the adults stared in amazement. It was an utterly perfect time, as Cass watched Danny like a mother hen. Cass and her mother got a little quiet time together, and she stunned Olivia by asking her if she’d come to the birth.

  “To be honest, Mom, I’m scared to death. Of the delivery and everything else. Danny keeps saying everything’s going to be fine, but what does he know? He’s twelve years old,” she said with damp eyes, and her mother was deeply touched. She gave her a warm hug.

  “He’s right, it will be fine. And I’d be honored to be there.” She couldn’t believe that after all this time, Cass wanted her at her child’s birth. It didn’t get better than that. And Maribelle had been right. It had all worked out in the end. “I’ll come and see you before then. There’s a château in Provence I want to check out this spring, for next summer’s vacation. We’re going to need a very, very big place this year, with all of these new faces.” She was expecting Liz to bring Andrew, if he was willing. Taylor would be with Phillip instead of Amanda, and Cass was finally joining them, with Danny, the baby, and a nanny.

  “I’ll be in New York a few more times before the baby,” Cass told her, and they went back to the others, excited about their plans. Cass felt much better about the delivery knowing her mother would be there. But she was still terrified she’d never learn how to be a mother. Labor and delivery seemed like the easy part to her.

  Olivia told Peter all about it when he called to wish her a happy Thanksgiving. She was full of news about her family and described the newcomers to him, including the exuberant and exotic Danny Hell, who was basically just a lovable child. She could see why Cass had fallen in love with him, although it was hard to imagine him as a father. Cass would have to be adult enough for them both, which scared Cass even more.

  Peter was with his own family for the weekend, as he always was for holidays, which was the downside of dating a married man. Holidays were not included, but she was busy and happy with her own clan.

  “I’d like to come and see you on Monday,” he said before they hung up, sounding unusually official.

  “Is something wrong?” She was instantly worried.

  “No, I just want to have a quiet evening with you, after everybody leaves. I miss you.”

  “I miss you too,” she said softly. He was always the unseen person in the room. They all knew he existed, but he was never there when they were.

  “See you Monday,” he said, and they hung up, and she went back to her children and grandchildren. Danny and Andrew were
singing a cockney song that Olivia suspected was profoundly rude if they could have understood it. It amused her to see the aristocrat and the wildly successful cockney boy arm in arm, and all the others laughing with them. It made her miss her mother all over again, and before they knew it, it was the end of the weekend. It had been a huge success, and as they left, they agreed that the new additions had made it even better. Everyone was happy for Phillip and loved Taylor as they got to know her, and Andrew and Danny were a huge hit with old and young alike. And Andrew had enjoyed finally meeting Carole. They had spent a good two hours talking about the movie business, about which she was learning a great deal. She had found her niche at last.

  Olivia stood waving at the door as they all left, more excited than ever now about their summer plans, and the baby who would be born six weeks before that, if it arrived on time. Unfortunately, all of them had separate Christmas plans, so Olivia wouldn’t see any of them for Christmas. Liz and Andrew had agreed to rent a house in Stowe with John and Sarah, and Alex and Sophie were going with them. Carole was staying in California with her father. Phillip was taking Taylor to St. Bart’s. And Cass and Danny were staying in England for Christmas—they hadn’t been home in months, and Cass wanted to take it easy. But at least the following summer they’d all be together, and Olivia knew she’d see them individually between now and then.