She made the girls little thin chicken sandwiches, and they ate them at the kitchen table, then they went to their rooms. She had to call her lawyer then and cancel her appointment. With no sitter, and her children in a panic, she couldn’t get to the appointment, and would have to reschedule it later. Then she called Nicolas on his cell.
“Where are you?” she asked when he answered.
“Why? Is something wrong? I’m on my way to see my editor.”
“Yes, something is wrong. The guardian’s wife told the girls about Pascale and the baby. They’ve been crying for the last two hours. You need to talk to them. It’s face-the-music time.” He groaned at the other end.
“Christ, why did that have to happen now? How did she get her hands on them?”
“I needed her to babysit this morning. They looked like they’d been shot when I got home. I’ve done what I can to calm things down. It’s your turn now. Get your ass over here, and deal with it.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes. Nadia, I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” For once, she didn’t sound gentle.
He got there precisely as he said, fifteen minutes later, and she left the girls alone with him, and went to her office in the apartment. She answered emails to distract herself from what was happening. But Nicolas and Pascale had crossed another line, and her kids were paying the price now, not just her, or Nicolas. All she could think of was their ravaged faces in the living room when she got home. She felt sick. And this time, she did hate him for what he’d done.
* * *
—
The girls were very subdued when their father left the apartment. He explained the situation very much the way their mother had. And after he spoke to them, he made a decision to spend two weeks at the château with them. He needed to get his house in order. He invited Nadia to come, and she said she preferred to stay in the city. They should be with him now. He realized at last how serious this was for them. He was quiet and somber when he called Nadia and told her his plans and that he’d pick them up the following morning.
“Will Pascale be there?” she asked in a tense voice.
“No. I want to be with them now, without her.” At least he had figured out that much. He knew that Nadia’s family was coming out mid-August, and told her that he would give her back the girls then, and she could use the château for the rest of their vacation, until the end of August. “They should probably meet Pascale, but she’s going to Brittany in September to stay with her mother until she has the baby. She’s having it there.”
“Maybe she can meet them after the baby,” Nadia suggested.
She packed their suitcases that night, and Nicolas picked them up in the morning. They were happy to see him, and to be spending two weeks with him at the château. He thanked Nadia quietly before he left.
“Thank you for not making it any worse than it already is.”
“I’m doing it for them,” she said in a whisper. He nodded and after she kissed the girls goodbye, they took off with their father.
She called her lawyer again after they’d gone, for another appointment, and was told by his secretary that he had left on vacation that morning, and would be gone until the first of September. The legal arrangements would have to wait. She didn’t want to start from the very beginning with a new lawyer and she liked the one she had. They were physically separated for now anyway, so the meeting with the lawyer wasn’t crucial and could wait a month.
And then she called her sisters and told them what had happened. She called Venetia first.
“Oh shit. You were afraid of someone telling them.”
“All of France is talking about them. It’s not surprising.” There were pictures of Pascale pregnant on the front page of every tabloid. And several of them with Nicolas beside her in Saint-Tropez.
“Are the girls okay?” Venetia asked her.
“Relatively. This is a huge blow to them, and a hell of a surprise. They’ve never even met her. I hope he handles this intelligently while he has them.”
“I’m sorry, Nadia. They’ll be okay. Kids come through worse. They’re resilient.” Nadia hoped her sister was right. Athena said pretty much the same. Nadia was glad they’d had a nice vacation before this happened.
Sylvie and Laure called her that night. They seemed happier than when she’d last seen them, and they’d had a nice day with their father. They’d gone for a long bike ride and swam in the pool, then cooked dinner together.
“Papa says he loves us and he loves you too,” Laure said as soon as she got on the phone.
“Of course he loves you, silly.” She tried to keep it light, but Sylvie sounded more serious and suddenly very grown up. She had been catapulted into instant adulthood by the past twenty-four hours’ revelations.
“Papa says he doesn’t want a divorce.” Sylvie sounded as though she was his emissary. He didn’t want a divorce, just a mistress and a baby and a wife.
“Why don’t you forget all that right now, and enjoy your time with Papa.”
“Are you going to divorce him?” She was pressing for answers now. Her whole world had come apart, and she wanted to put it back together as quickly as she could.
“We haven’t figured any of that out yet. Nothing is going to happen right now,” not with her attorney on vacation for all of August. Nadia was frustrated about that. She had missed her appointment with him on the last day before his vacation. But her kids had been hysterical and she had no sitter. Now Nicolas was telling them how much he didn’t want a divorce, so she would end up being the bad guy, and he the victim, in their eyes. “I want you to have fun with Papa for the next two weeks. Try to forget all the rest.” But Sylvie couldn’t, any more than she could.
Nicolas got on the phone after Sylvie finished talking to her, and Nadia spoke to him in a low angry growl.
“If you try to blame me for this, and make me look like the bad guy here, I swear, I will never speak to you again. This is all your doing, even yesterday, because you were never honest with them. You clean this up now, and don’t try to blame me. Is that clear?”
“Yes, of course, I’m sorry, I just thought…”
“Good. I’m glad we understand each other,” she said and hung up on him. Enough was enough. She was fed up with his self-indulgence, cowardice, and games.
Chapter 9
While Nicolas was at the château with the girls, Paris in August was peaceful and almost deserted. Everyone was gone. Stores, restaurants, and businesses were closed. It was a skeleton city. Nadia hadn’t been there in the heart of the summer for a long time, and she liked it. She walked everywhere. She went to her office and caught up on her files. Factories were closed, so nothing could be ordered, but she felt as though she were cleaning up her life and getting control of it before the fall, after three months of madness since May.