Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,19

was older. She didn’t intend to change anything about the way they lived. They had always been modest and discreet, and she wanted to keep it that way.

“I went to Dad’s office today, to see Phil. He’d like to buy the business and run it with his son. He thinks it would be a long time before you go to work there, and he thinks it might make more sense if we sell it now.”

“I will never work there,” Aden said. “I told Dad that when we talked about it. I don’t think he believed me, but I mean it. Maybe you should sell it, Mom.” She nodded, not sure what to do. The idea was new to her and she needed to digest it. “Did Dad leave you enough to get by? Do we need to sell the house?” He had been worried about that since his father’s death, but hadn’t wanted to ask her and upset her. He wasn’t sure what the situation would be with college if he didn’t get a full ride.

“He left us enough,” she answered softly. “We’re fine. We don’t have to sell the house, or the business if we don’t want to. I don’t want to do something your father would have hated, or that would have broken his heart. He loved the business and the fact that your grandfather started it. Maintaining it and making it grow was like a sacred mission to him.”

“He was pretty practical, though, Mom. If you can’t run it, and I don’t want to, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to keep it. Maybe you should sell it and invest the money. Maybe that’s what Dad would have done,” he said sensibly. It was the most adult conversation they’d ever had.

“I’ll think about it,” was all she said, and intended to.

The icing on the cake came after she called the airline two days later. She finally got up the guts to call them. She had been called by their legal department, the team assigned to settlements. They requested a meeting, and she wanted to put it off, but they said they needed information from her to better assess what had happened, so she felt obliged to meet with them the week after she’d gone to Brad’s office.

They came to the house at ten o’clock in the morning the following week, and she met them in the living room. There were four of them. Three men and a woman, all lawyers. They told her very frankly that they had a clearer picture now of the circumstances of the crash. They had suggested to her that she have an attorney present, but she said she didn’t need one. She didn’t tell them, but she didn’t intend to sue them. Whatever she or they did, it wouldn’t bring Brad back, so she was going to listen but not file a claim against them, which was one of the things they wanted to know from her during the meeting.

They explained that on the night of the flight, whether or not it should take off had become debatable, given weather conditions in New York. It could have gone either way, and the snowstorm could have let up once they took off, or worsened, which was what had happened. But there was a strong suspicion before takeoff that LaGuardia would be closing shortly, and the deciding voices at the airline had decided to make a run for it. They had assumed they’d get to New York in time to be the last plane in. The pilot had thought he could make it safely, but they realized now, in hindsight, that they should have canceled the flight, to be completely safe. He was a seasoned pilot and had been part of the decision, and they trusted his experience and his judgment. The storm had gotten much worse after takeoff, and they had all been wrong. It was public knowledge and had been in the media, so they weren’t sharing secrets with her. They expected numerous lawsuits for wrongful death to be filed, in which they would be accused of making irresponsible decisions. They were intending to shoulder the consequences.

At fifty-two, Brad had still been at the height of his earning power, and had a family to support. Maggie had been on the flight with him, and had suffered physical and mental consequences that might stay with her for years, or mark her forever. She had been clearly assessed with post-traumatic stress