The Promise - By Danielle Steel Page 0,74
nice thing offering to pay for the surgery. Hell, if they'd loved each other so much, neither one of them would have accepted that.”
“You don't understand, George.” Her tone was icy now. But her anger was against herself, not George. “I wasn't honest with either of them. I told Michael she was dead, for God's sake, and I knew damn well that she never expected Michael to honor the agreement That's probably why she agreed to it. That and the fact that she had no choice. She had nothing left. Except me—offering her a deal with the devil, as she herself put it today. George, you know Michael never would have accepted that agreement either, if he'd known the truth. He'd have gone back to her in a moment.”
“He hasn't suffered in the interim. He's recovered. Maybe they wouldn't even like each other now.” He was desperately looking for balm for her wounds, but he had to admit that it was a pretty nasty wound, and it must have been damned hard to live with. He knew Marion had thought she was acting in Michael's best interests, but she had played a very serious game with his life. “That's true, you know, they've probably grown to be quite different. They might not even want each other now.”
“I realize that.” She leaned back, with a sigh. “Michael is obsessed with his work. He has no love, no gentleness, no time, nothing. There's nothing left, and I know it better than anyone. And she.…” She thought back painfully to that afternoon, “She's exquisite. Elegant. Beautiful. And bitter, angry, filled with hate. They'd make a charming couple.”
“And you think you did all that?”
“Knowing what you know now, don't you agree?” In spite of herself, her eyes filled with tears again. “I was wrong to come between them, George, I know that now.”
“Maybe the damage can be repaired. And in the meantime, you've given the girl her life back. A better life, in some ways.”
“And she hates me for it.”
“Then she's a fool.”
Marion shook her head. “No. She's right. I had no right to do what I did. And if I had any courage at all, I'd tell Michael.” But in spite of himself, George hoped she would not do that. Michael's anger would destroy her. Her son would never feel the same about her again.
“Don't tell him, darling. There's no point now.”
Marion saw the fear in his eyes, and she smiled.
“Don't worry. I'm not that brave. But he'll find out. In time. I'll see to that. He has a right to know. But I hope he'll hear it from her, if she takes him back. Maybe then he'll forgive me.”
“Do you think there's a chance of that? That she'll take him back, I mean?”
“Not really. But I must do what I can.”
“Oh God—”
“I started this. Now I owe it to both of them to do something. Maybe nothing will come of it, but I can try.”
“And you've kept in touch with her during all this time?”
“No. I saw her again for the first time today.”
“Now I understand. And how did that happen?”
“I arranged a meeting. I wasn't even sure it was she, but I suspected. And I was right.” She sounded pleased with herself, and he smiled for the first time in half an hour.
“It must have been quite a meeting.” Now he understood the fresh seizure. It was a wonder it hadn't killed her.
“It could have been worse.” Her voice grew gentle, and her eyes filled with tears again. “It could have been much worse. All it really did was show me how wrong I'd been, that I'd destroyed her life as well as his.”
“Stop that. You didn't destroy either one of them. You've given Michael a career any man would give his life for, and you've given her something no one else could have.”
“What? Heartbreak? Disillusionment? Despair?”
“If that's how she feels she's an ingrate. What about a new face? A new life? A new world?”
“I suspect it's a very empty world, except for her work. In that sense, she's very much like Michael.”
“Then maybe they'll build something together again. But in the meantime, what's done is done. You can't punish yourself forever over this. You did what you must have thought right at the time. And they're young, darling. They have full lives ahead of them. If they waste them, it's their own doing. What we mustn't do is waste ours.” He wanted to say “we have so little time left,”