I'll Walk Alone - Mary Higgins Clark [71]
Neither Collins nor Dean showed any emotion. Then when Zan, her tearstained face buried in her hands, managed to stifle her anguished reaction to the relentless questions, Jennifer Dean said, “Ms. Moreland, this is a new twist on your story. You never once referred to Bartley Longe as having come on to you sexually.”
“I didn’t because I didn’t think it was that important at the time. It was only a part of the pattern.”
“Zan, how often did you suffer fainting spells and memory lapses after your parents died?” Collins asked. Now his voice was concerned and kindly.
Zan tried to brush away tears, realizing that he, at least, was not openly antagonistic to her. “Everything was a blur for those six months,” she said. “Then I started to be able to think clearly and realized I had been so unfair to Ted. He was putting up with my crying spells and my spending days in bed and he was giving up evenings to be with me when he should have been out at clients’ events and openings, and endless awards events. When you run a public relations firm, you just can’t neglect that.”
“Did you tell him you were leaving as soon as you decided?”
“I knew he would be too worried about me and try to talk me out of it. I looked around and found a small apartment. My mother and father had insurance policies, no fortune, fifty thousand dollars in all, but it gave me a safety net to get started. And I took out a small loan.”
“What was your husband’s reaction when you finally told him you were leaving and wanted a divorce?”
“He had to go to California for the premiere of Marisa Young’s new movie. He was planning to get a nurse to stay with me. That was when I told him that I was eternally grateful to him, but I couldn’t be a burden to him any longer, that our marriage was a total act of kindness on his part, but now I knew I could go it alone and give him his life back. I told him I had decided to move out. He was kind enough to get me settled.”
At least they’re not accusing me when they ask me about Ted, she thought.
“At what point did you realize you were pregnant with Matthew?”
“I didn’t have a period for several months after my parents died. The doctor told me that wasn’t unusual in cases of extreme stress. Then my periods were irregular. So it was a few months after I left Ted before I realized that I was expecting Matthew.”
“What was your reaction to finding out you were pregnant?” Dean asked.
“Shocked, then very happy.”
“Even though you had taken out a bank loan to start your own business?” Collins asked.
“I knew it would be hard, but that didn’t bother me. Of course I told Ted, but I told him that he should not feel any financial responsibility.”
“Why not? He was the father, wasn’t he?”
“Of course he was,” Zan said heatedly.
“And he has a very successful public relations firm,” Dean pointed out. “Weren’t you as much as telling him that you wanted no part of him having anything to do with your child?”
“Our child,” Zan said. “Ted insisted that until I got my business going that he would pay for the nanny I would need to hire, and that if I didn’t need his financial help, he would put the money he would normally pay for support into a trust fund for Matthew.”
“You paint a rosy picture, Ms. Moreland,” Jennifer Dean observed sarcastically. “Wasn’t it a fact that Matthew’s father was concerned over the amount of time you left Matthew with the nanny? In fact, didn’t he indicate that he was willing to take over full custody of Matthew when you became more and more involved in your business?”
“That’s a lie,” Zan shouted. “Matthew was my life. In the beginning I only had a part-time secretary and unless I had a client in the office or was outside on appointments, Gretchen, the nanny, would bring Matthew to the office on her way to and from the park. Look at my appointment books from the time he was born till he disappeared. I was home almost every night with him.