9.11 - 17. Chapter 17

July 15, 2001

I’d called my father three times this afternoon, and he still hadn’t answered, which was starting to annoy me. I waited for fifteen minutes, and then called again.

“Hello,” he said as he finally answered.

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all afternoon. Where have you been?” I demanded, so he’d know I was pissed.

“I forgot to take my phone with me when I went out onto the patio,” he said, like it was no big deal.

“Remember that the next time I forget my phone and you’re looking for me,” I said. He damn near lost it when he couldn’t reach JJ, Darius, or me immediately. We’d get these big long lectures about our safety, and how important it was for us to be accessible. He knew that, knew that he was busted, so he changed the subject.

“Did you call just to ask about the party?”

“No, you told me it was fun last night when you were drunk off your ass and slurring your words,” I said self-righteously. He’d actually been a riot. I had wanted to tell him about my big purchase then, but he was too hammered to understand it, and if I had, he’d really have lost it.

“Well it was a great party. Stef did an amazing job,” he said. “Everyone seemed to have a good time, and there weren’t any major problems, only minor shit. The band did a great job. You should have seen Justin Timberlake flirting with Nana,” he said. I laughed; that must have been hilarious. I let him ramble for a while, telling me some silly vignettes that he’d experienced or seen.

“Was Marie there?” I asked.

“No,” Dad confirmed. “She wasn’t there, and neither was Grandmaman or Aunt Claire. Why? Were you worried they would show up?”

“Not really. Grand said we couldn’t come, and he wouldn’t back down on his decision and leave me hanging out here,” I said honestly. I knew I could trust him.

“So why did you call?” Dad finally asked, as if just remembering that I told him indirectly that I’d had a reason.

“I need you to come back to Hawaii. Well, actually I need you or Stef, but I thought I’d ask you first.”

“Why? Are you in trouble?” His voice got a little panicked when he asked that.

“No. I bought a house, and I want you to come see it, and make sure I got a good deal,” I said, knowing that would freak him out, but also knowing there wasn’t much I could do about it. With him, you had to lay the deal out there, let him lose it, and then try to rationalize with him after he calmed down.

“You bought a house? A house?”

“Yeah. I bought a house,” I said. “The kind you live in. It’s big. Actually, there are two of them.”

“Will, why did you buy a house?” he asked me, clearly at the edges of his ability to remain calm. “Are you fucking kidding me?” His voice was getting louder with each sentence.

“I wanted a house near Hookipa beach, where we surf,” I said.

“We already have a house in Maui,” he objected. I heard voices in the background. “Just a minute,” he told me, and turned to talk to whoever was there. “Will bought a house in Maui.” I heard the other person talking, but I couldn’t hear what they said. “I don’t know,” he said, in response to that unknown question. “How much did it cost?”

“Two million dollars,” I said. I was being calm and pert, while he was totally freaking out, and to be honest, it was pretty fun. I guess this was when my shit-disturbing teenage side came out to play.

“Two million dollars!” he yelled into the phone. That pissed me off, and hurt my ear, so I hung up on him. He called back and I let the call go to voicemail. Five times he did that, and each time I refused to answer it, letting it go to voicemail. After that, the phone rang again, and I saw from the caller-ID that it was Stef so I answered it.

“Perhaps you are willing to talk to me about this two million dollar house you bought,” he said. He sounded very annoyed with me.

“I will be happy to talk to you about it, as long as you don’t yell at me,” I said.

“I will keep my volume at a respectable level,” he promised. I heard my dad say ‘fuck!’ really loudly in the background. I covered up the phone so Stef couldn’t hear me chuckling.

“Look Stef, we have this house in Kapalua and every time we go surfing, we have to drive an hour each way. The only reason I go to Hawaii is to surf, and that’s usually the only reason why Dad goes to Hawaii. Why should we spend all of our time commuting?”

“Perhaps because the neighborhood in Kapalua is nicer, and because it is not in the way of a major flight path, and because the restaurants are better,” he said.

“You mean because that’s where all the rich people are supposed to live,” I said, calling them all snobs again. He said nothing for a bit.

“So you signed a contract,” he said, changing the topic. “You have risked a lot of money.”

“Well, actually I’m only risking ten grand. I asked my realtor to put a clause in that said you or Dad have to approve the deal by July 20 or the seller gets to keep the cash and the deal is off.”

“Earnest money,” Stef interpreted. “Will you fax me a copy of this contract?”

“I already did,” I told him. They’d just been too busy to check their machines. I heard him saying something to someone, probably my father.

“You certainly are pushing the envelope with this one,” he said sourly.

“I figured that if nothing else, I could invest some of the money in those two trusts I control into the house,” I said. That was money that I had the ability to manage without any input or veto power from Stef or my dad. There was about six million dollars of combined value in them.

“Perhaps there is a different way,” he said, being grumpy.

“I’m not trying to get money from you,” I told him honestly. “If I didn’t have the money from those trusts, I wouldn’t have done this. The only reason I put that clause in was so I could have you check it out and make sure I wasn’t getting screwed.”

That seemed to mellow him out a lot. “I was chiding myself for not going over some of these financial details with you before, but now I am worried that if you know how much money you actually have in trust, you may try to buy the whole island.” I chose to treat that as a joke and laugh at it. “If it is a good deal, there is no reason we cannot gather the money from other sources.”

“I actually need more money than that,” I told him. I’d been just a little bit of a dick up until now, because I knew that with both of them, they’d get all upset, and until they calmed down, there was no reason to try to get them excited about the house, because they wouldn’t hear me. Now that they were done, the sales pitch could actually begin.

“There is something wrong with this home?” he asked. “It is falling off a cliff?”

“Hardly,” I said. “It’s not done yet. They got the basic house built, but none of the stuff is done inside. No tile floors, no bathroom fixtures, no countertops or cabinets or sinks.”

“That will be expensive,” he said, but I could hear his mind working.

“It’s a blank canvas,” I said, to tempt him.

He sighed. “Your persuasive abilities are well-honed. I will talk to the others and we will see if we can upset our schedules and our lives to come see this investment you have purchased.”

“Thank you, Stef. And you can tell Dad that next time he calls, I’ll answer it, but he’d better not yell, or I’m hanging up.”

“I will pass that on,” he said, trying not to snicker.

“Better still, have Grand explain it to him,” I joked, and that did make him chuckle.

July 15, 2001

Despite all my gloomy predictions and negative foreboding, the party had gone off remarkably well. *NSYNC had been a big hit, even with the older crowd. It certainly helped that the band members took time to flirt with older dowagers. And Stef’s celebrities and politicians had been just as popular. He’d actually appointed a chaperone to be with each of them, and that person guided them around so they could mingle without being overwhelmed by fawning fans. I thought that was a bit unnecessary, since the people we’d invited weren’t exactly your typical idolaters, but I kept my thoughts on that to myself. It appeared to work well, and the only one who seemed to need protection was Josh Hartnett, although since Stef had assigned Julian as his escort, I had wondered if the chaperone wasn’t the bigger threat.

The party had a completely different feel to it than it had in years past. This year it was much more of a spectacle, a big gala event, as opposed to a more relaxing and subdued garden party, as it had been in prior years. Without Claire and Isidore to set that tenor and with me unwilling to rein Stef in, that result had almost been pre-ordained.

These thoughts breezed through my head as I rode on Charger, with Wade next to me on Gunpowder. I had many people around me who were charming and polite, but besides Stef, I found myself most comfortable with Wade and Will. With Wade, it came from our similarities, which were so many, and a complete trust that existed between us. I knew that I could talk to him about anything, and his mind worked so much like mine, he could usually figure out what was bothering me before I did. It suddenly occurred to me that it didn’t bother me when he figured out what I was thinking, whereas in the past, I had found that had grated on my nerves, and sometimes still did. Jeff Hayes used to do that to me, I thought, and remembered him fondly. That was another change. Usually when I’d thought of him, I’d fall into a fit of self-flagellation. I pulled myself from my mental tangent and refocused on Wade. I recalled meeting him in the Great Hall shortly after he and Matt had started dating. It was strange that I had instinctively known what he was feeling, and could sense his insecurity about having so much of himself tied up in our family. He had been worried that if something happened such that he and Matt broke up, he would no longer be welcome here. As preposterous as that had been to me, I understood what he was thinking, and I’d told him that I would willingly adopt him if I could. I’m not sure if he knew that I meant it, but I did. He was a son to be proud of.

With Will, it was less about our similarities than about seeing the true potential in him and wanting to shape that potential. He was like a mound of clay that was trying to mold itself, and it was fascinating to see the iterations of the various ‘Wills’ his growth spurts produced. But he was also very bright, and a quick learner, so the teacher in me thrived on being able to guide him where I could, and to see that guidance actually yield results. I did not think he would ever be as cool and calculating as Wade and I were, because he had too much of his father in him. He yielded to the internal outrage, while I tried to control it. But I’d seen him do better as he matured, so it was possible that he’d end up as a much more placid individual than his father. It was possible, but not probable. But beyond all that, Will had a joie de vivre, much like Stef. He loved life, and embraced it with gusto.

We reined in our horses, pulling them back to first a trot, then a walk. “The party seemed to go off very well,” Wade said.

“I think it did. It was a bit flashier than in prior years, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.”

“A bit flashier?” Wade asked, chuckling as he did. “Even my father had a good time, and that is saying something.”

“I didn’t realize he got along so well with Senator Feinstein,” I noted.

“From what I can tell, the Senate is like a big club, and while people may throw rocks at each other once in a while, it’s basically a pretty friendly and civilized place. Unlike the House.”

“That would make sense,” I agreed.

“What do you think will happen now? I mean with Will, Claire, Isidore, and Marie,” Wade asked.

“I think that Will is going to ultimately make some efforts to restore his relationship with Isidore and Claire, and I think he will be successful,” I said.

“You don’t sound optimistic,” he probed.

“I think that attitudes will be pleasant on the surface, but the core issues will remain unresolved,” I said, even though it pained me to admit that. “I think that until Marie matures enough to understand that she is fallible and must answer for her errors, this thing will remain as a smoldering time bomb.”

“So you think they’ll end up fighting again?”

“I think that with Will and Marie both going to Menlo, it is almost inevitable. It remains to be seen how the adults in their world handle that future conflict. I am hoping they can provide constructive guidance instead of blindly defending bad decisions.” He didn’t say anything in response, because there really was nothing more to add. “Did you see your mother when you were in Virginia?”

Wade nodded. “Tiffany and I took Riley to see her. Nana refused to go, and I can’t say that I blame her, but I felt a bit like a traitor doing it. My father wasn’t around either. It’s pretty ironic that Goodwell, our family estate, has been passed down through generations of Danfields, yet as they go through this divorce, my mother has made that her home, at least temporarily. My father spends his time in the capital.”

That was odd. “Surely he won’t leave Goodwell to her as part of the divorce?” I asked. That made no sense at all.

“No. Actually, his strategy is to get sole title to it, and then sell it to me. He will be deprived of my mother’s bank account after they divorce. Besides, with Nana resuming control of all her own money, mother’s is depleted anyway. He’ll need the cash, and I want to make sure Goodwell stays in the family.” Family traditions were a very strong, guiding principle in Wade’s life.

“That would seem to be feasible, then, unless your mother figures out what he’s doing,” I noted.

“He has hopefully learned to keep his mouth shut when he’s around her,” Wade joked. “She and I really didn’t say much to each other. We both just focused on Riley.”

“Did you expect her to do something else?” I asked.

“I guess I was hoping that somehow she would change, and I’d get a truly sincere apology,” Wade said sadly. In a sense, he was in the same situation Will and I were in: we were dealing with strong women who were refusing to admit they made a mistake. Only what Wade’s mother had done was truly horrific, certainly not in the same league as the antics of Isidore, Claire, and Marie. “I keep resolving to give up on her, but part of me can’t.”

“I have not been in your situation, but it is possible I will end up there,” I said. “I am reminded of Pandora’s Box, where all the evils of the world were unleashed, such that the only thing left in the box was hope. I think that hope is a powerful force, and that is what propels us to give people second chances.”

“At some point, I will probably become hopeless,” he said morosely.

“I fear that our ride has made you somber,” I said, trying to get him out of his funk. “You will not want to accompany me in the future for fear I will depress you.”

“So you’re suggesting that hiding all of these issues and not thinking about them is healthy, the preferred course of action?” he asked, challenging my rationale.

I laughed at that. “I am not.” We rode down the drive and back, surveying Escorial and the damage the party had wrought. As I had predicted, there were several broken sprinkler heads, but Stef assured me, as did the gardener, that the repairmen would be out tomorrow to fix them. The grass was still matted down, but after the lawn was watered and mowed, it would bounce back to its normal condition, of appearing to be a well-manicured green carpet. We left our horses with the stable hands and walked into the house. The cleaning crews had come in today and gone through the house thoroughly, much to the relief of the maids, so as I walked through the corridors, it seemed as if everything was back in order.

I took a long shower and then got dressed for dinner. It was Sunday, so everything was more formal. It was a tradition that any family members in the area show up for dinner on Sunday, but I was wondering who would actually make it. I strode into the dining room five minutes early and took my seat at the head of the table, joining Darius and John, who were already there. They had been talking about various female conquests or plans for said conquests, but shut up as soon as I walked in. I smiled to myself when I thought about how Brad would have reacted to that, and how he would have jumped all over them, wanting to know all the details. He hated it when people kept secrets from him. Stef would not have been much better, but his motivation was to know what was going on simply for the salacious gossip it yielded. I was much less interested in the romantic lives of my grandchildren. As if, by thinking about Brad I had summoned him, he came walking in with Stef, with both of them seemingly in bad moods.

“Would you be able to go to Hawaii for a few days?” Stef asked me. It was summer, and although that was the time when I made the most progress on my research, my schedule was very flexible.

“I can go, but I am not sure if I want to. What is the purpose of our trip?”

“Will has evidently decided to buy a house,” Brad said in a very clipped tone, showing me how annoyed he was. I wasn’t annoyed, I was worried. I had hoped that we were alright, that he was happy here at Escorial, and that he would come back and live here when school started. I was concerned that would now not be the case, until I remembered the link to Hawaii.

“And where is this house?” I asked for clarification.

Brad and Stef both looked at me, as if I had betrayed them by not being as outraged by this as they were. Darius and John just looked down to hide their smiles, at seeing how badly Will had pissed off Stef and Brad. “It’s on Maui,” Brad finally said.

“When are we leaving?” I asked.

“We can fly out after dinner,” Stef said, picking up that I’d go, and jumping in to solidify our plans. “I will arrange it with the pilots.”

Robbie and JJ walked in and sat down, as did Claire and Jack. Wade, Matt, Tiffany, and Nana had flown back to Virginia with Wade’s father, so they weren’t here. I was wondering if Isidore and Frank would come back, or stay away and pout, but they were here as well. “I understand your party was a success,” Isidore said to me with as little warmth as possible.

“So it seemed,” I said. “Stef did a wonderful job, as did his staff.” Stef gave me a loving look to thank me for that compliment.

“That’s terrific,” Claire said insincerely, but I gave her credit for trying to at least sound like she cared.

“I want to thank John, JJ, and Darius for doing such a wonderful job with the younger crowd,” I said to everyone.

“No problem,” Darius and John said, almost in unison, making me smile. JJ uttered a much snippier “you’re welcome,” since he certainly hadn’t come up here willingly.

“How long will you be in Hawaii?” Darius asked.

“I would think less than a week,” Stef said. “Why?”

“Maybe I’ll go with you,” he said. “You want to tag along?” he asked John.

“Sure,” John said enthusiastically.

“JJ and I are heading back to LA,” Robbie said, and looked at Brad with a worried expression.

“That’s fine,” Brad said. “You’ll miss seeing your old friend Keenan, though.” Robbie blushed, but the rest of us said nothing, since we had no idea what they were talking about.

“Were you planning to ask me before you went?” Claire asked John in her iciest manner.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I assumed it would be OK with you since there’s nothing going on. I should have asked you first.”

“That’s fine, John,” Jack said, intervening. “You’ll have a good time.”

“And just why have you decided to suddenly go to Hawaii for a week?” Isidore asked.

“Will bought a house on Maui, and I want to see the property and review everything before the deal goes through,” Brad told her.

“Your not-quite-fifteen-year-old son has bought a house without your input?” Isidore asked, and then laughed. “It seems you are reaping what you sow.”

“And just what is that supposed to mean?” Brad asked, only he was angry now. He’d gone from being annoyed, to being relatively pleasant, to being on the verge of an explosion.

“It means that you have given him too much freedom, more than he can handle. That is why he runs off and does crazy things like buying a house,” she said, much more forcefully than normal. “He is challenging you, and flaunting your lack of control over him.”

“How much does this house cost?” I asked, trying to focus on hard facts before Isidore really caused Brad to lose it.

Brad and Stef looked at each other uncomfortably. “Two million dollars,” Stef answered.

“That’s an expensive house,” Claire said, and it was almost possible to discern her snickering beneath her façade. Almost.

“Why’s he want a two million dollar house?” Darius asked.

“It’s close to the best surfing beaches,” Brad answered. “The house we have now is an hour’s drive away from them.”

“Makes sense,” Darius said. It made sense to me too, although I knew that wasn’t the issue. The issue was Will going off on his own and possibly making a major financial commitment without talking to anyone.

“Has he signed any agreements yet?” I asked.

“He signed a sales contract, but it has a clause that says the purchase is contingent on my approval,” Brad said.

“So while he did do this without consulting you first, he made sure there was an escape clause in there so he could get out of the deal if it was bad,” I summarized. I knew how that worked, and knew that if he did that he’d lose some earnest money, but there was not actually two million dollars on the line.

“JP, he agreed to buy a property for two million dollars without consulting anyone, and you are defending him?” Isidore asked loudly, just barely staying under the acceptable volume threshold.

“I see no reason to defend him when we don’t have any reason to believe it was a bad decision,” I said calmly.

“He is much too young to go off and do this sort of thing,” she said dismissively.

“He is legally an adult,” Brad said, but he had his teeth clenched. It was like we were watching him slowly lose control, as if we were watching an explosion in slow motion. “It annoyed me that he didn’t talk to me first, but I’m wondering what right you think you have to even enter into this discussion?”

“If you do not want my opinion, I will not say anything,” Isidore said succinctly, even though we all knew she would be unable to do that. “But if you raise the issue at the dinner table, you are inviting a discussion.”

“Only with you it’s not a discussion, it’s an automatic condemnation,” Brad said, his voice getting louder. “You’re only too thrilled to jump in and criticize him for a decision which may or may not be a bad idea.”

“Bradley, I think what Mother is saying is that it would have been more appropriate for someone like him, who is inexperienced about such transactions, to get insight from you or Stef, or even Daddy, before he entered into an agreement,” Claire said smoothly, making the exact point Stef and Brad had been trying to make when they first expressed their annoyance to me.

“And that is exactly what I am annoyed about, Claire, but that is not what Mother is doing,” Brad said. “She’s jumping to conclusions, and assuming that Will made a mistake, an error in judgment, before she knows if he even did.”

“Now you are just splitting hairs,” Isidore said dismissively.

And then Brad lost it. He turned his body toward Isidore and glared at her, almost snarling. “No, what I’m seeing is that you are doing the same thing to my son that you did to me. He relied on you as one of the few positive female role models in his life, just like I did. And just like you did to me, when he needed your support and your help, you sold him down the river.”

“I did no such thing!” she objected strenuously.

“Will was mad at you for not having his back when you were planning the party. He was upset because you treated him as a disposable part of the family. And he was hurt that you so cavalierly tossed him, and his issues, aside. Sounds awfully damn familiar to me!” He threw his napkin on his plate. “You told me that you got it, that you understood why I felt so betrayed by you when you jettisoned me without even blinking. Remember that conversation? And like an idiot, I believed you. Only you did the same damn thing to my son. The same damn thing!” He was yelling by the time he was done, but he was also standing up in preparation to leave, so no good would come of chiding him about it. “That just shows me how insincere you were. You didn’t mean what you said to me, and that means that neither one of us matters much to you!” Brad glanced at Stef, and just that visual exchange seemed to calm Brad down. “I’m not hungry. I’ll be in my room. Notify me when you’re ready to leave.” Then he stomped out of the room.

“This is becoming a bit ridiculous,” Isidore said, outraged. “I am constantly being assaulted in my own dining room, and treated with a distinct lack of respect.”

Stef dabbed his mouth, then put his napkin down deliberately. “You treat people badly, and then you are offended when they respond in a negative way. A better approach would be for you to evaluate your initial behavior in the first place, rather than condemning them for their reaction.” Stef had this very cold and unwavering business voice, one that was all the more intimidating since it contrasted with his normally effervescent personality. He used that voice now, and it had an impact on everyone but Isidore.

“I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea for you to go to Hawaii,” Claire said to John.

“You just said I could go!” he objected. Now he was getting angry, something that was pretty rare.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Jack said soothingly, recognizing that banning John from our trip would significantly escalate the tensions.

“I have lost my appetite,” Isidore said, and left the room with more commotion than normal. The rest of us finished up our dinners, took an hour to pack and get ready, and then headed to the airport for our flight to Hawaii.