learn of me through their friends or from girls who have been here. When they come to me, I urge them to go to their parents immediately. I tell them all the reasons that would be preferable to staying here. I’m proud to say most of them do go home. Two have come back afterward, but most found their parents were more supportive than they expected. Mostly the girls fear their parents will hate them for what they’ve done.”
“Don’t think you’re going to convince me Cynthia thinks I’ll hate her. We don’t always agree, but she—”
“Cynthia believes your work comes before her.”
“It keeps me away from home a lot, but nothing is more important to me than Cynthia. Why do you think I hired so many people to take care of her?”
“I imagine what she wanted and needed was you, your time and attention, your assurance that she was more important than your work.”
“She knows that.”
“She told me she came here because she doesn’t want her having a baby to get in your way.”
That was such a ridiculous statement he could hardly believe his daughter made it. He wasn’t even sure what it meant. “Cynthia couldn’t possibly get in my way. I’ve hired four people to take care of her. If she wants anything, she only has to ask for it.”
“She still doesn’t believe she’s as important to you as your next merger.”
“Of course she is. If she wants, she can go to Switzerland with me as soon as school is out.” He realized with a terrible sense of guilt he hadn’t even considered that until the words came out of his mouth. If she had wanted to go vacationing with one of her friends, he’d have been happy to let her.
“She wants to stay here. She doesn’t want to hurt you or the baby’s father.”
“That’s something else I want to know. Where can I find the boy who did this?”
“I have several rules. One is I never ask the name of the father. Another is even if I know it, I never reveal it.”
“You’re a regular paragon of virtue, aren’t you?”
She must have a difficult time with her shelter. He didn’t imagine many fathers would have been as calm as he had been so far, but he couldn’t work up the will to rant and rave at Kathryn. He intended to take Cynthia home, but he didn’t think Kathryn was an evil person. She was just a well-meaning busybody who couldn’t keep her nose out of other people’s business.
“My only purpose is to help these girls. I want to give them a safe place to stay where they can continue their education, have their babies, then decide what to do with the rest of their lives. I don’t provide a permanent solution, just a temporary refuge from all the pressure.”
“All that sounds fine and noble, but what are you getting out of this?”
“I beg your pardon!”
“People don’t do things like this without a reason. You’re rich. I imagine your friends are building careers, going to parties and having children. There’s got to be some reason you’d give all that up to baby-sit pregnant teenagers. And there’s no point glaring at me. I don’t intimidate.”
“Neither do I.”
“Good, then answer my question. Why are you doing this?”
“Because something like this happened to my sister,” she said after a pause. “I saw the damage it could do when it was handled badly.”
She meant it happened to her, he thought. People always put traumatic events off on a relative, a friend, even a neighbor. They only reacted like Kathryn Roper when it really happened to them. She didn’t seem like the kind of woman to let her emotions get the better of her. But then who better to learn to control her emotions than someone who had failed to do so and paid the price?
He looked at her, sitting so stiffly in the chair opposite him and felt some of his aggravation melt away. It couldn’t be easy. She must relive what happened to her every time a girl came to her for help. Most people would want to put it behind them, to forget, pretend it never happened, but she’d had the courage to turn her personal tragedy into a benefit to the community. He had to admire her for that. And it was a real community service.
He wondered what had happened to her baby.
What did Cynthia mean to do with her baby? For the first time it hit him that he was about to become a grandfather. He had just turned forty.
“I want to see Cynthia.”
“As I told you before, she’s in bed.”
“I heard you the first time, but you can’t really think I’ll just get up and walk out that door.”
“It would be better if you waited until the morning.”
“It would be better if this had never happened, but it has and I’ll deal with it. Now I want to see my daughter.”
Kathryn didn’t move.
“You can get her for me, or I’ll get her myself. It’s your choice, but I’m going to see her.”
“I won’t let you yell at her, and I won’t let you force her to leave.”
“I hope I won’t yell at her. I imagine she’s extremely upset already, but I can’t make any promises. How would you feel about leaving your only child in the hands of a stranger?”
“I wouldn’t do it, but you’ve been doing that all her life.”
This female didn’t fight fair. “My work makes it impossible for me to be at home all the time. My staff has been with Cynthia for more than ten years.”
Kathryn got to her feet. “I’ll ask Cynthia if she wants to come down.”
She left the room before he could make it plain that in this instance, at least, the decision wasn’t up to Cynthia.
He was extremely tired, but he was too full of nervous energy to sit still. He got up and walked about the room. It was impossible not to notice that even though the furniture looked extremely comfortable and well used—the window treatments subtle, the carpets not new—everything had the look of being quite expensive. It was the kind of furniture that said I’m so expensive and well made I don’t have to look expensive. Ron had studied such things. The trappings of success he made sure he acquired. He hadn’t had anything when he was a kid. He was determined everybody would know that wasn’t the case any longer. He finished his water and set the glass in what looked like a candy dish.
He wondered how things had gone with the meeting in Geneva. He was sure his colleagues Ted and Ben would do an excellent job of explaining why the two companies would do better under new management. It was just that he’d never before left the start of negotiations to anyone else. It was essential to know people’s starting positions, prejudices and all, if he was going to bring them together in the end. Part of his reputation had been built on personal attention to every detail. If Ron Egan came after your company, you knew you were going to be meeting with Ron Egan all the time. He wondered what his absence now would do to his reputation.
