‘He was never dear to me,’ she said swiftly. ‘I never knew him.’ She too drained her glass of wine, to ease some of the tension building up inside her.
‘You should count your blessings.’ He scrutinised her face. The green eyes staring steadily back at him were curious but interested. What was it about this woman? She was a good listener, he thought with a jolt of unease. She must be—or why else would he be feeling this irrational urge to start pouring out details of his private life? And she was compassionate. He felt a sudden, weakening spurt of jealousy at all those countless people who commanded her time out there in the wilds of Panama.
‘My father and your uncle knew one another. Once. When they were both young men. Felt Pharmaceuticals began its life as a joint venture between two men who’d graduated from the same university. My father was the brains of the partnership but old Abe had the flair.’ The interruption of their food arriving was an irritation that suspended his tale for a few seconds but, now that he had begun, he found that he couldn’t stop the tide. She dipped into her food, tucking her sun-bleached hair behind her ears as she ate.
‘What happened?’ she asked, glancing at him, then back to her food.
‘Their little venture took off. They both had money and my father invested everything in the scientific side of the company. Everything seemed hunky dory for a while, then something happened. Or at least that’s the story my mother told me years afterwards. Your uncle changed. He became greedy. Greedy and bitter.’
‘You mean he had a fallout with your father?’
‘None that my mother was ever aware of. He just changed. He became bitter with the world and my father was the first to feel it. He had sunk everything he possessed in building the company, only to find that Abe began working against him, pulling the ground from under his feet. In the end, of course, the politics became too much and the company began to run into financial trouble. Three years after it started, it folded. My father was left with debts he could never hope to repay. He discovered later that some creative accounting had gone on. Abe retreated with a huge amount of cash scattered everywhere, cash that couldn’t be touched. He drove my father out of the business and then restarted it under his own name and never looked back. My father spent the rest of his days trying to repay debts that should have been shared. He died a broken man and my mother was left having to raise a child in virtual poverty.’ He dug into his food and felt all the old resentment weighing him down like an anchor.
‘You mean you’ve spent your life looking forward to the day when you could get your revenge?’
‘When I could get back what was rightfully mine.’
‘But all of that…was history. How could it motivate you for so long?’
‘I saw it as evening the scales of justice.’
‘And now I’m the one you want to hurt? Because of my uncle? How could that be right? I haven’t done anything.’
‘I don’t want to hurt you. But I want the company, which is why I’m prepared to pay over the odds for it.’
‘And was Stephanie all part of your revenge?’ she asked quietly. ‘Did you see her as one more step in making my uncle pay his dues?’
‘Don’t be ridiculous.’
‘How did you meet her?’ Having done justice to her enormous plate of food, she closed her knife and fork and rested both elbows on the table, on either side of the plate.
Somehow the conversation had run away, and she was fully in control.
‘Why don’t we stop concentrating on me and start concentrating on you,’ he said, pushing his plate away and sitting back into his chair with his fingers resting lightly on the table.
‘Because my life isn’t as interesting as yours.’
‘Oh, please!’ He shot her a look of reproving disbelief.
‘Well, it’s not so full of complications and personal sagas.’ Which made his life sound, he thought, as if it had been lifted from a tawdry third-rate soap opera.
‘Because of course, everyone is brimming over with love and joy where you live.’
‘Because most of us don’t have the time to get embroiled in each other’s lives.’
‘Oh, don’t give me that.’ Now that she had managed to drag his confession out of him, he could feel himself growing resentful and defensive as he tried to claw back some of his self-assurance. What next? he thought. An outburst of weeping? Some ghastly cleansing of the soul? ‘You’re saying that all of you meander along in a saint-like fashion, smiling and thinking pure thoughts all the time?’ He glared savagely at her and she began to laugh. A maddening laugh which she tried to stifle. Tried and failed.