Blue Bloods

CHAPTER 16

Her parents were on their way out. Mimi stood in her bedroom and listened to the sound of her mother's heels on the marble floor, followed by her father's heavier footsteps. "Hi, baby," Trinity called, knocking on her daughter's door. "Daddy and I are leaving."

"Come in," Mimi said. She put her chandelier earrings on and scrutinized her image in the mirror.

Trinity opened the door and stepped inside the room. She was wearing a floor-length gown—Valentino, Mimi thought—and carrying a lush sable wrap around her shoulders. She cut an elegant, glamorous figure, her long blond hair curling around her collarbone. Her mother was often photographed for society columns and fashion magazines.

Her parents were going to some charity ball. They were always out. Mimi couldn't remember the last time either of her parents were home for dinner. Sometimes whole weeks would go by before she would see them. Her mother spent her days in the hair salon, the gym, her therapist's office, or Madison Avenue boutiques; and her father was always at the office, working.

"Don't stay out too late," Trinity admonished, kissing her daughter on the cheek. "You look lovely, by the way. Is that the dress I bought you?"

Mimi nodded.

"A little much with the earrings, though, don't you think?" her mother suggested.

Mimi felt stung. She hated being criticized. "I think they look fine, Mother."

Trinity shrugged.

Mimi noticed her father standing by the doorway, looking impatient. He was talking heatedly on his cell phone. Lately, her father seemed more distracted than usual. Something was bothering him, he was preoccupied and forgetful. The other day she'd arrived home hours after curfew, but her father, who had caught her sneaking in through the kitchen as he was refilling his brandy snifter, didn't say a word.

"Where's Jack?" her mother asked, looking around as if Jack could be hiding under the vanity table.

“Already there," Mimi explained. "My date's running late."

"Well, have fun," Trinity said, patting Mimi's cheek. "Don't get into too much trouble."

"Good night," Charles added, closing the door to her bedroom.

Mimi looked at herself in the mirror again. For some reason, every time her parents bid her good-bye for the evening, she felt bereft. Abandoned. She never got used to it. She removed the chandelier earrings. Her mother was right, they were too much for the dress.

Not long after her parents left, the Italian arrived. He was a distinctly changed man since the day they'd met at Barneys. His cocky demeanor was gone, as was the predatory smile. She'd sucked that out of him. It was Mimi who was in control. She'd almost had her fill of him—he was so easy. No one was a match for her.

"I'll drive," she said, taking the keys from his pocket. He didn't protest.

It was only a short distance to the American Society, but Mimi ran a few red lights on the way anyway, causing an ambulance to swerve to the side to avoid an accident.

She pulled up to the awning, where the doorman was waiting. They disembarked from the car, and Mimi threw the keys to the valet. The Italian followed her like a puppy. They walked into the mansion together.

Mimi looked devastating in a midnight satin Peter Som dress, with her hair in a high chignon, a triple strand of heirloom South Sea pearls as her only accessory. She tugged on her date's arm and steered him up the stairs. There, she confronted the sight of her best friend, Bliss Llewellyn, in a passionate lip lock with that loser wastoid, Dylan Ward.

"Hell000." Mimi's voice was icy in the extreme. When did this happen? Mimi didn't like being kept out of the loop.

Bliss disengaged from Dylan's tongue. She blushed when she saw Mimi. Bliss's lipstick was smudged and her hair was askew. Dylan smirked at Mimi.

"Bliss. The bathroom. Now."

Bliss gave Dylan an apologetic look, but she followed Mimi to the ladies' room without question.

Mimi checked the stalls and shooed the maid outside the lavatory. When she was satisfied there was no one inside, she turned to Bliss.

"What the hell is going on with you? You're with that guy?" Mimi demanded. "You could be with any guy you want."

"I like him," Bliss said defiantly. "He's cool."

"Cool," Mimi drew out the word so it had ten syllables. Cooooooollll.

"What's your problem?" Bliss asked defiantly.

"Problem? I don't have a problem. Who said I had a problem?" Mimi asked, looking around as if surprised to see no one there.

"Is it the Connecticut thing?" Bliss asked. "Because he had nothing to do with it."

"What are you talking about?" Mimi asked.

"I don't know, I heard there was some accident with some girl in Greenwich, and he was involved." Bliss said. "But anyway, it's not true."

Mimi shrugged. It was the first time she'd heard about it, but it didn't surprise her. "I just don't know why you're wasting your time with him."

"Why do you hate him so much?"

Mimi was taken aback. It was true—she reacted to Dylan with an outsize revulsion. Why did she hate him? She wasn't sure, but she recognized the gut feeling, and her gut was never wrong. There was something she didn't like about that guy, but she couldn't put a finger on it.

"What's up with your boyfriend, by the way? He's like a zombie," Bliss said, pointing to the corner. The Italian heir had followed them inside the ladies' room and was currently drooling on the doorway column. All of Mimi's guys seemed to be like that—brain dead.

"I'll deal with him later."

"I'm going to go back to my date," Bliss said pointedly.

"Fine. But you better be there on Monday for The Committee meeting."

Bliss had almost forgotten. She wasn't even sure she wanted to join some snotty social committee, but she had to appease Mimi somehow. "Sure."

Mimi watched her friend leave. What a waste. It bothered her that Bliss was exerting her independence. There was nothing Mimi disliked more than rebellion in a subordinate. She walked out of the bathroom, tugging on her date's tie to move him forward. And that's when she saw the second image that scorched her brain.

Her brother Jack, on the dance floor, with that Van Alen girl in his arms. Now Mimi really felt like vomiting.

When Schuyler was with Jack, it was like time and space stopped. She didn't even feel like she was in a room full of crowded, sweaty teenagers. They moved with the same rhythm, their bodies perfectly in tune with each other. Jack expertly kept her body close to his, leaning down to breathe lightly on her neck. It was strange how she could see him so clearly in the dark, when everyone else was a shadowy blur. She closed her eyes, and for a moment, saw the two of them—dressed differently. They were in the same ballroom at the mansion, except it was a hundred years earlier—and she was dressed in a long evening dress with a tight corset bodice and silk petticoats, and he was handsome and debonair in a white tuxedo with tails. The music ceased to be the sexy enchantment of the Muse song and became a gentle waltz.

It was like a dream, but it wasn't.

"What's happening?" she asked, looking at him as he twirled her around.

Around them, the ballroom was filled with light and soft music. The tinkling of champagne glasses, the gentle fluttering from the ladies' fans.

But Jack only smiled.

They continued to dance, and Schuyler found that she knew the intricate steps. At the end of the song, they clapped politely.

Schuyler looked around, and suddenly she was back in the present again, wearing her fifties prom dress, Jack in his blue blazer and red tie. She blinked. Had she imagined it? Was it real? She was confused and disoriented.

"Let's take a break," he said, as he took her hand and steered her off the dance floor. They walked out to the balcony. Jack lit a cigarette. "Want one?"

Schuyler shook her head.

"Did it happen to you too?" she asked.

Jack nodded. He took a puff and exhaled.

They looked out at Park Avenue. Next to Riverside Drive, Schuyler thought it was one of the most beautiful streets in the world. Park Avenue, with its regal array of prewar apartment buildings, fleets of yellow cabs streaming up and down along the median. New York was a magical place.

"What was it?"

But before Jack could reply, there was a scream from inside the mansion. They looked at each other, thinking the same thing. Aggie's death. Was there another? They ran back into the hall.

"It's fine," Mimi Force was saying. "He just passed out. God, get a grip, Kitty." Mimi's Italian date was splayed out on the landing, completely passed out, his face drained of all color. “Jack, a hand?" she snapped, seeing her brother in the doorway.

Jack hurried to his sister's side and helped lug the Italian to a sitting position.

Schuyler could see Jack saying something angrily to Mimi, and she overheard bits of his harangue, "stepped over the line … You could have killed him … Remember what the Wardens said…"

She stood there, not knowing what to do, when Bliss and Dylan appeared. Dylan took one look at the compromising tableau. "Let me guess, he was with Mimi Force?"

Schuyler nodded. "I think it's time we blow this joint."

“I couldn't agree more," Bliss replied.

Schuyler gave Jack one last look. He was still arguing with his sister. He didn't even notice that she was leaving.