The last secret_ a novel - Mary McGarry Morris [112]
“Such noble sentiment, my dear. Stay vigilant, though, and protect thyself.”
“I know, but—”
“No! No buts. Protection, that's the most important thing here. From this point on it's all about”—he rubs his fingers together—“who gets what.”
“Yes, and Ken and I will—”
“Ken's an ass. Start with that and the rest'll be easy.”
“Stephen,” she warns, looking toward the door: her children.
“Nora,” he says, in the same intonation. “This is more than a marriage on the rocks. It's not just you and Ken, it's Oliver and me, it's the paper.”
“Well, those are things Ken and I have to work out. I know it's complicated, and I appreciate Oliver's concern, but it's not going to be like that. Believe me.”
Stephen finishes his drink and sits back, his lean face grooved in shadows. He begins by saying that he doesn't want to hurt her. He's here because there are things she has to know, certain facts that Oliver is unable to articulate. Three years ago Ken asked his brother to buy out his share in the paper. He wanted to get a divorce and marry Robin, and he needed money to support the two families. Oliver refused, so Ken took the same offer to Stephen, who also turned him down. A few weeks later, Ken returned with another proposal. Or threat, as Oliver saw it. If they wouldn't buy him out, then he intended to file a lawsuit contesting their father's trust that prevented him from selling his share to anyone but his brother or cousin. Oliver laughed him out of the office and then called Robin Gendron to tell her in no uncertain terms what he thought of her. This caused a breach between the brothers for months. It was right around that time that Nora returned to work at the paper. A good move, Stephen says, because it forced the brothers to at least be civil to each other. And also because Oliver was counting on her presence to keep Ken on the straight and narrow. But Ken persisted in wanting to be bought out. It was Stephen who finally got them to agree that at the end of two years a sale would be negotiated. In the meantime, though, Ken had to do the right thing: a promise Oliver thought Ken had kept.
“What do you mean, a promise?” Nora asks. She feels short of breath.
“That he'd stay with you.”
Stephen's voice plays like a recording, deaf, blind, heedless.
“Oliver figured by that time he'd be over Robin, that it'd be just one more affair.”
“One more?”
“Oh, come on, Nora.” He leans closer, his sibilant whisper, little whips lashing her face. “You can't be serious.”
Stop it! she wants to scream. Why are you telling me this? It's too much. I can't do this anymore.
“Oh my God, you are, aren't you? I can't believe this. Some kind of detective! Where do I start? I mean, it'd be quicker telling who he didn't f—” He catches himself.
She stares as he lists the affairs, wondering how many times this practiced little riff's been recited at parties, all the friends, women at the paper, names she's never heard before. Bibbi Bond. “Annette even. One time she was here doing the kids' portraits and he came on to her. Kay, your friend. She finally had to sic Oliver on him. But what'd she expect? I mean, she let it go—”
“Don't.” She holds out her hands. “Please.”
“Well, probably won't make you feel any better, but that kind of crap's been over for a while now.”
Because through the years of Ken's forced union with Nora, he stayed faithful to Robin by not sleeping with other women. Actually, the ideal arrangement, Stephen says, for spineless Kenny who couldn't bear confrontations. His family was intact and he still had Robin, who had little choice except to wait it out. But it was becoming an increasingly expensive arrangement for Ken with Bob's chronic unemployment. At the end of the two years, Robin wanted out of limbo. She began putting pressure on him. Back he went to Oliver with the same proposal, still never mentioning the child. However, with profits at the paper slipping, his brother managed to put him off, for almost another year. Apparently, though, Robin had had enough. She didn't care about money or shares in the paper,