Part 2 (2/2)

”I understand. But without a compelling medical reason to keep her in the hospital, we don't have many options. We also need the s.p.a.ce for other patients.”

”I see. Is there anything else we can do to... bring her up to date?”

”She is gradually building her view of the world, incorporating details from things you say, trying to fill in the missing pieces. So anything you can tell her that can help with that, about the current lives of family or friends, would be great. If she resists, if she refuses to believe something? Right now, let the subject drop. It'll sink in eventually and-”

He broke off as Jill's phone chimed and she pulled it from her pocket to silence it, a bit red-faced. Signs asking people to turn their phones off were hung several places nearby.

”Um, I have to go make a call,” she said. She hurried toward the exit.

As soon as she was out of sight, I pressed Dr. Mukherjee on the issue. ”Will Mom eventually start believing that Jill's Jill, though? I mean, it's one thing to act like I haven't broken up with the boyfriend she liked and keep asking about him six months later, and entirely another thing to not recognize your own daughter.”

”Well, I am a neurologist, not a psychiatrist,” he said. ”I think she may know that Jill is your sister, but something doesn't seem right to her so she's coping by sort of faking her way through. Do you see what I mean? Because of her confusion, there are various things about her world she hasn't incorporated or doesn't accept. Give it time. Try to be patient. Do you have any other questions for me before we go back in?”

I didn't. I went back into the room with him and sat on the other side of the room watching while he examined my mother.

I looked up suddenly as a snippet of a familiar song played from the television mounted on the wall above my head. I turned to see a Lord Lightning video on the screen. My breath caught. He was wearing a mask over his eyes, but the curve of his ear and his long, graceful neck were recognizable as James. I wanted to nibble the muscles of that neck, lick the sweat glistening there.

I cursed myself for reacting that way to a mere glimpse of him. What would happen when we were in the same room, together? Was I going to roll over and beg if he told me to? It was like he had me trained.

Yes, Karina, trained, I reminded myself. But I was the one who walked away this time. I wasn't going to come if he called.

The image cut to a female news anchor or talk show host. I wasn't sure which.

”Rumor has it that Lord Lightning may not be done after all,” she said. ”Word from our sources is that the mysterious rocker might perform again, despite previous claims of retirement.”

The screen then showed Chandra, the willowy African American woman I recognized from the time I had met her at James's doctor's office, who as far as I knew was a member of James's staff. The camera crew had ambushed her on the street outside Rockefeller Center. ”No, no,” she was saying. ”At this time our only plan is for the release of the greatest hits alb.u.m. Lord Lightning is retired.”

”But what about reports that LL Productions has secured a Las Vegas theater? The same one where Bride of the Blue was perfor-”

”I don't know anything about that,” Chandra said coldly. ”Now if you'll excuse me-”

They cut to another excerpt from a video while the host talked about Bride of the Blue. This one had him stalking directly toward the camera, through a large group of dancers miraculously parting as he went, then falling to the ground behind him, into moves done in pairs that were artful imitations of s.e.x. As he reached the front of the stage, his face filling the screen, he tugged down the gold-lensed sungla.s.ses he was wearing and stared into the camera.

I felt that stare go straight down my spine. Meanwhile, in the back of my head, I wondered who his ch.o.r.eographer was. Bride of the Blue? In the rush to leave England to get here, I hadn't had time to talk to Becky. I needed to get her take on the whole Ferrara Huntington/LeStrange thing. This had to be part of what James had alluded to in his letter, about thinking his business was done, but it wasn't.

All I knew for sure was that there was a woman claiming to be James's wife chasing him through the streets of London, and that Stefan hadn't hesitated to get James away from her as quickly as possible. Paulina and Michel had been skeptical of the marriage claim, but there hadn't been time to find out everything they knew or suspected before I had to rush here.

I wished I could talk to Stefan. He would surely know the entire story.

Wait. Hadn't James said that Stefan still kept his old phone? I pulled out my own and texted: Stefan? Are you there?

My heart sped up when almost immediately the phone vibrated in my hand.

Yes, Karina. I am here. Call me if you need anything.

Dr. Mukherjee didn't seem to notice I was using my cell phone. They probably didn't mean to keep people from texting, I rationalized. Perhaps it was only in relation to people talking on the phone, disturbing the patients.

I texted back. I'm in Ohio. My mother had an accident and I had to fly straight here. Are you still in England?

No. We arrived in New York this morning.

I hit him with one more question. Are you alone? Can you talk?

Stefan knew exactly what I meant by my questions. He is not here. He is in a meeting and I am in the car.

I slipped out of the room. I went down the hall and out the door. Apparently, Jill had gone out a different exit to make her phone call because she was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she was in the car.

I dialed Stefan.

He picked up on the first ring. ”Karina. Are you all right? Is your mother all right?”

”I'm fine. My mother is recovering, at least. Hey, you must be jet-lagged.”

”Coffee is my friend,” he said. ”But you didn't call to discuss my lack of sleep.”

”No. I called to discuss Ferrara Huntington.”

There was silence on his end of the line.

”Come on, Stefan. You took off like a bat out of h.e.l.l when you saw her outside the gallery in London. What's her deal? Why is James so afraid of her?” Please tell me it's not the same reason he was afraid of me, I prayed suddenly. Why could I see now so clearly that I had asked him the one thing that was guaranteed to make him run away? When at the time it had seemed like the only reasonable thing to do?

Because if he wouldn't tell you who he was, then it was time for you to walk away, said a little voice in my head. But you know now...

”That woman is a snake and a terror,” Stefan said, almost whispering. ”She's the wife of... well, the ex-wife, I mean, of the record company executive who signed him to his first recording contract. They were a sort of notorious couple. She was supposedly the one with the eye for talent. Her husband was the one with the business ac.u.men.”

”So she's the one who made James famous?”

”That's one way to put it, yes.”

”Then, what's up with her claiming they're married?”

”That... is a problem.”

”So they are married?” My voice went up a notch.

Stefan sounded offended. ”He certainly claims that they are not! And I will give you one guess which one of them I believe!”

”All right. But he said he was hiding from her. If her claims are spurious, why hasn't he come out and said so?”

”You know how he is, Karina. Can you imagine if they had to go to court? His face would be everywhere and all kinds of private details would come out. Depositions enter public record. I think she's blackmailing him, plain and simple.”

”What does she want?”

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