Deadly Embrace Jackie Collins (the reader ebook .TXT) 📖

Fresh back from L.A. and an exciting assignment interviewing a powerful super-agent, Madison lunched with Jamie in a Manhattan restaurant.

She was at the top of her game now. Profiles in Power by Madison Castelli was a big deal. Publicists were clamouring for her to sit down with their clients. In the magazine-publishing world she was a star.

Jamie leaned across the table. ‘What’s the best sex you ever had?’ she asked.

‘Huh?’ Madison said.

‘You know,’ Jamie said. ‘Mind-blowing, down and dirty sex. The kind where you never want to see the guy again, but at the exact moment you’re doing it, anything goes. And I do mean anything.’

‘Well…’ Madison wondered where Jamie was heading with this. ‘Miami,’ she said at last. ‘Remember that weekend I spent with my dad when I was sixteen? Well, I met this guy, a forty-something major playboy with all the toys–penthouse, Porsche, and an oversized waterbed covered in rose petals. Also…’ she paused for effect ‘…an extraordinarily talented tongue.’

‘Damn!’ Jamie exclaimed. ‘You never told me.’

‘It was my secret,’ Madison said, laughing. ‘His name was Frankie Medina. I’ll never forget him. He taught me plenty.’

‘You sly one,’ Jamie said. ‘I didn’t know we kept secrets from each other.’

‘Just one.’

‘Ha!’

‘What’s with all this sex talk anyway?’ Madison asked.

‘I think Peter might be having an affair,’ Jamie blurted, mentioning her husband.

‘You’ve only been married a few years,’ Madison pointed out. ‘Give the guy a chance to get bored.’

‘Thanks a lot,’ Jamie said huffily. ‘What makes you think he’d ever get bored?’

‘Anyway, don’t talk to me about unfaithful men,’ Madison said. ‘They’re all dogs.’

Recently she’d broken up with her live-in boyfriend of two years, David, a TV producer. She suspected that he had got uptight because he’d discovered she made more money than him. One day he’d informed her he was going out for cigarettes, and failed to return. A few weeks after his abrupt departure, she’d heard he’d married his childhood sweetheart, a vapid blonde with fake boobs and an annoying overbite. So much for good taste.

David had been her longest relationship–she wasn’t looking for another, although she’d recently met Jake Sica in L.A., and he was very attractive. Unfortunately he was hooked up with someone else.

‘Ever since David took a runner you’ve turned into a real cynic,’ Jamie remarked.

‘For your information, I’m glad he’s gone,’ Madison said. ‘I’ve discovered that work is more important than a man any day.’

Later that night they met up at a dinner party at Anton Couch’s house. Anton–a gay and extremely social man–was Jamie’s partner in her design business. During the course of dinner, Anton mentioned that Madison’s mother had called him.

‘My mother?’ she said, surprised.

‘You do have a mother, don’t you?’ Anton said crisply. ‘You didn’t just spring from the streets of New York with a pen in your hand?’

‘Why would she call you?’

‘To enquire about a design concept for their new apartment.’

‘What new apartment?’ Madison said, puzzled. ‘My parents live in Connecticut now.’

‘Apparently they’re moving back to the city.’

The moment she got home, she called Michael. He sounded half asleep. She didn’t care.

‘I do not appreciate hearing from Anton Couch that you guys are getting an apartment in New York,’ she said.

‘Hey, sweetie,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m asleep. Can we talk about this tomorrow?’

‘Sure,’ she said, slamming the phone down. She couldn’t stand it when Michael didn’t give her his full attention.

The next morning he was on the phone bright and early. ‘If you’re available I’ll drive into the city and we can go for brunch.’

‘You and Stella?’ she said, stifling a yawn.

‘No,’ he said shortly. ‘Stella can’t make it.’

An hour later he picked her up and they went to the Plaza where, after talking about a dozen other things, he finally told her that Stella had left him for another man.

‘What?’ she said, totally shocked. ‘You and Mom have always been so close.’

‘That’s what I thought.’

‘How did it happen?’

‘Who knows?’ he said evenly. ‘I’m merely the guy who got left. Came home one day and she was gone. I haven’t spoken to her since.’

‘So it’s her who’s getting the apartment?’

‘I guess so.’

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until Madison suddenly blurted out, ‘How can you let her do this to me?’

He laughed drily. ‘No one’s doing anything to you.’

‘You’re my parents,’ she said accusingly, knowing she sounded unreasonable, but unable to stop herself. ‘I don’t want divorced parents.’

‘What are you? Eight?’

‘No,’ she said heatedly. ‘But I’ve always looked up to you both as an example.’

‘Everything isn’t always what it seems,’ he said mysteriously.

‘Why hasn’t Stella called me?’

‘You were never exactly close.’

‘She is my mother. Don’t you think I should have heard it from her?’

He sighed. ‘The truth is that you didn’t always get the attention from either of us that you deserved, and that bothers me.’ He paused for a long moment. Was now the time to tell her the truth? Yes. He couldn’t procrastinate any longer. ‘Listen, sweetheart,’ he said, hesitating slightly, ‘there’s something else I have to tell you. Something that might help you understand things better.’

She felt queasy. What could be worse than them getting a divorce? Obviously it was something she didn’t want to hear.

‘Here’s the thing,’ he said, his eyes fixed firmly on hers. ‘Stella…She’s uh…well…she’s not your real mother.’

Her world began spinning out of control. Stella wasn’t her real mother? How could that be? It didn’t make sense. What the hell was he talking about?

Michael was still speaking, telling her a long, involved story about when he was single, and a girlfriend had his baby, then his girlfriend got shot because business people he was dealing with decided they had to punish him.

What kind of insane story was this? She felt as if she was in the middle of some crazy soap opera as she listened to him speak.

When he was finally finished there was another long silence.

Suddenly she had a blinding headache. For God’s sake, was this her life? Everything had suddenly changed. She was no longer the person she’d thought she