Watching Amanda (15 page)

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Authors: Janelle Taylor

BOOK: Watching Amanda
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“That has nothing to do with feminism and everything to do with need. You're human, period.”
She offered him a bit of a smile and stared out the window. Ethan felt eyes on him and glanced around and found himself looking into Tommy Sedgwick's round blue eyes. The baby smiled and then grabbed one of Ethan's fingers.
“Whoa there, little guy,” Ethan said, his chest constricting.
“He's got some grip, huh?” Amanda said, laughing. “Sometimes I can't pry his hold off.”
Suddenly Ethan felt his air supply dwindling. The eyes staring at him, the chubby fist around his finger.
“Ethan, are you okay?” Amanda asked. “You look pale all of a sudden.” She removed Tommy's hand from his finger. “Was he cutting off your circulation?” she said, half-jokingly.
Ethan smiled and shook his head, but the truth was that the baby had done just that, figuratively if not literally.
CHAPTER 15
As Amanda wheeled Tommy in his stroller up Seventy-fourth Street toward the brownstone, Ethan tapped the little spiral notebook he held. “We have a lot to go over,” Ethan said.
“I don't even know where to begin. If I even want to begin,” Amanda said. “Do I really want to dig into my father's past? His affairs? His many affairs? His possible children? My possible half brothers or sisters?”
“I know it must be hard on you, Amanda,” he said. “But we're not looking into his private life for salacious reasons. We're just trying to find out who tried to hurt you so that it doesn't ever happen again.”
“I know. You're right. I just have to keep remembering that.”
“So you're in?” he said. “You're staying?”
“Oh God,” she said. “My head was so full of what Nora told me that I didn't even think about the brownstone and the stupid rules. I definitely can't stay there alone.”
“You don't have to,” Ethan said, holding her gaze. “I think I've proven you can trust me.”
She looked at him, wanting to believe him, needing to believe him, but how was she supposed to trust anyone?
You can trust yourself
, a voice inside her said.
That's the only person you need to trust. And your gut says this guy is on the up and up. For whatever reasons—and they don't seem to have anything to do with you—he's willing to see this through.
“Amanda!”
She whirled around to find Jenny and Lettie walking up the block, waving and beaming. “I am so glad to see you two!” she called. As the two women caught up, Amanda kneeled down next to Tommy's stroller. “Tommy, look who's here! It's Aunties Jenny and Lettie!” Tommy smiled and laughed and tried to grab the pompoms hanging off Jenny's coat's zipper. The two women eyed Ethan, gave each other knowing looks, and grinned at Amanda. She cleared her throat. “Um, this is Ethan Black. He was retained by my father.... Ethan, this is Jenny, who I've known since high school, and this is Lettie, who I used to live near. Lettie took great care of Tommy while I was at work.”
Ethan smiled at the women. “Very nice to meet you.”
Jenny and Lettie could barely contain their smiles and curiosity, and Amanda's cheeks colored in embarrassment. “We actually came by a little earlier,” Jenny said, “but you weren't home. I stopped by Lettie's this afternoon to see if she wanted to join me in surprising you with a little visit.”
“And you did!” Amanda said.
“From the outside, the brownstone is gorgeous,” Jenny said. “I can't wait to see the inside, but I'm going to have to come back for a tour another time.” She glanced at her watch. “I have to get to work. I just couldn't resist stopping by. We both had to see your face and our little munchkin!”
“I'm so glad you did,” Amanda said, wrapping her two friends in hugs. “It's so good to see you.”
“So everything's okay? You're settling in fine?” Jenny asked.
Amanda glanced at Ethan. “Um, yeah, I'm settling in.” She wasn't about to frighten her best friend when there was nothing Jenny could do.
“Sweetheart,” Lettie said, “I wanted to come with Jenny so that I could offer to take Tommy for a few hours. If you need some time to yourself, I'd love to babysit while my kids are with their father.”
“Lettie that's so sweet,” Amanda said. And if Lettie babysat Tommy, Amanda and Ethan could pay a visit to that Mimi person or Sally's son. “It actually would be a big help.”
Lettie beamed. “Great. I'll take him to the Children's Museum. They have a wonderful play area for babies his age.”
Jenny wrapped Amanda in a hug. “Call me soon,” Jenny said. “Nice meeting you, Ethan,” she added, winking at Amanda and completely mortifying her.
Ethan smiled back. “You too.”
After Jenny headed up the block, Amanda explained Tommy's schedule, that he'd had his nap and was ready for lunch, and Lettie smiled. “You leave it to me. I'll bring him back when, say, six?”
“Perfect,” Amanda said. “Thanks so much, Lettie. This will give me a chance to get some things done.”
“My pleasure,” Lettie said. And with kisses and hugs, Lettie was off, Tommy playing with his new miniature Big Bird that Jenny had brought.
“I assume you can absolutely trust her,” Ethan said as they watched Lettie walk up Seventy-fourth Street toward Columbus Avenue.
Amanda nodded. “I've lived next door to her for a long time, and she's taken care of Tommy since I returned to work. She can definitely be trusted.” That was the one thing, aside from Jenny's friendship, that she was absolutely sure of.
“Why don't we head in, then, and make a plan,” Ethan said, aware she'd been fired recently.
Amanda nodded, and as she climbed the steps to the brownstone, she felt funny. Not humorous funny. Strange funny. As in something didn't feel right.
It was Tommy, she realized. It wasn't often that she left Tommy with his sitter, except for the times she was at work.
“Amanda?” Ethan asked.
She blinked and realized she was staring down the street, at the distant figure of Lettie. Amanda could just make out the stroller. He was in the best possible hands other than her own, Amanda reminded herself.
“I'm okay,” she told him and for the moment, she meant it.
They decided to start with Mimi Farthwell, William's weekday lady friend
.
Her address and telephone number were listed, and when Amanda introduced herself over the phone, the woman insisted she come over before Amanda could even get a word out.
“I'd come to you, dear, but Pashmina doesn't travel well,” she said cryptically before confirming Amanda had the right address.
When Ethan and Amanda arrived at Mimi's, they were surprised to discover that she lived in a modest apartment, not even a doorman building. Amanda had expected a luxury skyscraper, but Mimi's building was a five-story brick tenement between a deli and a cell phone shop. The one-bedroom apartment looked the part, though. The walls were painted gold, and luxurious touches were everywhere, from velvet settees to the gorgeous oriental rug in the living room to the huge sunflowers in a vase on the upright piano. And Mimi herself, a very attractive woman of forty-something, wore a flowing black silk outfit with a small black feather boa around her neck.
“I'm so glad to finally meet one of William's daughters,” she said, her eyes brimming with tears as she gestured for Amanda and Ethan to come in. “And it's nice to meet you,” she added to Ethan. “Are you married?”
Amanda felt her cheeks pinken. “No, Ethan is a friend.”
“It's important to have those,” Mimi said. “Ah, how rude of me. This is Pashmina,” she said, kissing the head of a tiny white dog in her arms. “She doesn't like taxis.”
Amanda smiled at the dog. Mimi set her on a red velvet pillow on the floor and the dog immediately put her head on her paws and closed her eyes.
Mimi insisted on serving tea and scones. When cups were poured and everyone was seated, Mimi started to cry. She dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “I was madly in love with William,” she said. “We were planning to marry.”
“I didn't know,” Amanda said. “I'm so sorry.”
“He was a very private man,” Mimi said. “Well,” she added with a flourish. “I think I'm ready now.”
Amanda glanced at Ethan. “Ready?” Amanda asked.
Mimi's nose wrinked. “Oops. You have to forgive me. I'm known for being forthright. It's one of the things William loved most about me.”
I have no idea what you're being forthright about
, Amanda thought. She figured if she waited, the woman would just say it.
Mimi leaned forward. “I hope it's not too indecent a sum,” she whispered. “I always told William that his money didn't mean a thing to me, but he was always so generous.”
“This indecent sum,” Ethan said, “are you referring to what William left you in his will?”
“Is it terribly large?” Mimi asked. “Because just a small remembrance is all I really want.”
“Mimi,” Amanda said. “We have no idea what William might have left you in his will.”
“Might?” she said. “You don't know if he left me something?”
Amanda shook her head. “I wouldn't have any idea.”
“Then why are you here?” she asked.
“I do know that you and my father were ... close,” Amanda said. “And I was hoping you might be able to tell me more about him. We weren't as close as I wished we were when he was alive, and I guess I'm hoping to get to know him better now. I know that must sound strange.”
The woman looked down her nose at Amanda. “Yes, it does.”
“I didn't come here to judge you,” Amanda said. “And I'd appreciate it if you didn't judge me.”
“I'll do what I please,” Mimi said. “It's your own fault if you weren't close to your father. Are you the one who got the brownstone?”
Amanda glanced at Ethan. Was Mimi pretending not to know who she was? “Yes.”
“The reading of the will as far as his daughters were concerned was more than a week ago,” Mimi all but hissed. “I've been waiting for a call from his lawyer about coming in to hear what I've been left—that's the real reason I don't like to leave the apartment—but the lawyer hasn't called. When you did, I was sure you were coming to give me my check.”
“I'm sorry to have to disappoint you,” Amanda said. “It is possible that William's will hasn't been entirely sorted through. He knew many people—”
“I read in
New York News
that his three daughters were his sole beneficiaries.” Mimi said. “Of course, I still expected the phone to ring with news of what I was left. I mean, I didn't expect to read of my inheritance in the paper.”
“Why?” Ethan said. “You were his girlfriend, weren't you?”
Whoa there, Ethan
, Amanda thought.
Do you really want to make this woman angry enough to kick us out? We haven't even gotten to the attack yet!
Mimi bristled. “William was a private man. He didn't flaunt our relationship.”
“So he didn't tell anyone the two of you were engaged?” Ethan asked.
Mimi lifted her chin. “No, he wanted it to be a secret.”
Amanda doubted there was any such engagement, except in Mimi's dreams.
“Mimi,” Ethan said. “I think you're right. I think the fact that more than a week has passed since the reading of the will might mean that you were left nothing.”
Mimi stood so abruptly that Pashmina jumped off her little pillow. “That cheap son of a bitch. I've known it in my gut for days now that I wouldn't be getting a call. Why would he leave anything to you selfish girls. You weren't even in his life! I was! I was in his godamn bed!”
“I wanted to be in his life,” Amanda said. “He wasn't interested in being a father. He never was.”
“I know,” she said. “I tried for the past two years to get him to make me pregnant before my clock tick-tocked out of business, but he kept telling me he had a vasectomy and that he never wanted to have another child. I didn't believe him about the vasectomy, and I tried to trick him into knocking me up, but it never took.”
Vasectomy. Amanda filed that piece of information away. And she tried to mentally erase any thought of how Mimi tried to trick her father into getting her pregnant. Poking holes in condoms?
“I'll bet that Prune Face was left something,” Mimi said, pacing. “She was, wasn't she?”
“Prune Face?” Ethan asked.
“That sneaky housekeeper, Carol or whatever her name is.”

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