“Randall thought he was doing well by his son when he had him homeschooled,” Penny began. She looked down at her hands. “I know you’re friends with Lucy, but . . .”
“I can take the truth, whatever it is.”
“I think that at the beginning Randall believed he was in love with Lucy, but the truth was, he was in love with the idea of a family. He had visions of the two of them conquering the world together. He’d make the money, buy her a magnificent house, and she’d be the hostess who was renowned for her dinner parties. It would be like something out of a magazine.”
“From what I’ve seen of Lucy’s life now, that wouldn’t be for her. She likes to sew and stay with a few close friends.”
“Exactly,” Penny said. “And Randall likes to work. And besides, he hates dinner parties. He loved the thought of them, but couldn’t bear the boredom when he was there.”
Kim was beginning to see the whole picture. Two extremely mismatched people married to each other. Lucy bullied by her relatives, almost sold by them, to a man who had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove to the world.
It looked like Travis had been caught in the middle.
“What about you? Where do you come in?” Kim asked.
“I . . .” Penny hesitated. “I’m more like Randall than Lucy. I also grew up poor and was desperate to get out of it. I met Randall at a party. I liked him because he was talking business instead of hitting on the girls. I stood to one side and unabashedly eavesdropped. He was so intent on the deal he was trying to make that I didn’t think he even saw me. But when the other young men got bored and left, Randall turned to me and said, ‘Did you get all that?’ I said, ‘Most of it,’ and told him the numbers. He looked at me for a moment, then asked for my phone number and I gave it to him.”
“I guess he called you.”
“Yes,” Penny said, smiling, “and it was all business. It’s always been business between us.”
“Except once.”
Penny smiled broadly. “And that gave me Russell.”
“Was Mr. Maxwell married when you met him?”
“No,” Penny said. “He hadn’t even met Lucy back then, but he knew what he wanted and he went after it.”
“If you two were so alike, why didn’t he . . . ?”
“Look at me as a prospective mate?” Penny laughed. “You’d have to know Randall back then. Ambition ate at him. Consumed him. He had to get ahead of everyone else or he’d die.”
“And Lucy was part of that,” Kim said.
“She was indeed.”
“But there came a night . . .” Kim said.
Penny shrugged. “When I look back on it, I see that it was inevitable. Randall and I were always together. Travis was just a year old, and I have to say that I was quite jealous of Lucy. I never had time for an outside life and never did find a man who’d put up with my constant working. Anyway, Randall and I stayed late at the office, we had sex, and I was pregnant.”
“What did Mr. Maxwell say when you told him?”
Penny shook her head in memory. “He was thrilled. Lucy’s pregnancy had been complicated and she couldn’t have more children, so Randall was happy to have another child. He wanted to put the two kids together.”
“You are kidding, aren’t you?”
“Not at all. Randall doesn’t live by other people’s rules. But in the end I persuaded him to keep his mouth shut, but still Lucy always knew there was something going on between us. She always sneered at me and I never retaliated because I deserved it.”
“And you and Mr. Maxwell?”
“We never slept together again, if that’s what you mean. And he rarely slept with Lucy. He did what he was so good at and provided lavishly for all of us. I lived modestly but gave my son the best education there was.”
“And Russell knows who his father is,” Kim said.
“Always has. I never hid it from him.”
“Did they spend time together?”