I've Got You Under My Skin

Epilogue

Six months later, there was another reunion of the graduates-this time on a much happier note.

It was Alex who suggested they get together at his apartment on New Year’s Eve. The developments in their lives had been extraordinary, and he said it was time to share them.

They sat together and compared notes over cocktails while Ramon prepared dinner.

Claire had gone to a therapist, able at last to talk about what Robert Powell had done to her. “It wasn’t my fault,” she was now able to say with conviction. She had started to use makeup again and was quietly content to no longer conceal her resemblance to her mother. Now she sat, a very pretty woman, laughing with her old friends and telling them about her new social life.

Regina’s first action when she received the money from the Gala Reunion had been to return the commission Bridget Whiting had paid her. The real estate business had picked up, and a bigger home with an office attached was within her grasp. It gave her enormous pleasure to know that her ex-husband and his rock-star wife were in the midst of a bitter divorce. Zach spent almost all of his free time with her.

Nina was engaged to Grant Richmond. She had willingly turned over her share of the Powell and production company money to her mother, with the proviso that they never have any contact again. Muriel, typically, was telling everyone how much Robert had loved her, and that they had planned to be married before the dreadful accident that took his life.

Alison was attending medical school in Cleveland, commuting from home. She joked that it was hard to keep up with her fellow twentysomething students. She shared the joyous news that she was three months pregnant. Rod had stunned her by saying he was going to be her fellow student. For years, it turned out, he had wanted to become a pharmacist himself.

The four graduates were all saying that Robert Powell was shot before completing his final attempt to make up for what he had done. They were asking each other whether, if he had lived, they would have taken his money. They admitted to each other that they would have accepted it after all they had been through.

George Curtis had been invited to the party, too. Listening, he realized he had gotten off easy. Robert Powell had never suspected his relationship with Betsy. Isabelle had forgiven him. He could have saved twenty years of anguish, but had been too much of a coward to do so.

At the dinner table George smiled as he thought about the announcement he was about to make. Robert Powell had promised to give the graduates five million dollars but had died before he could change his will. George was going to give each of them the five million that would have come from Powell. George knew in his heart that he was trying to make up for the damage his twenty years of silence had inflicted on them.

Three of the graduates had gone to Chief Penn with the recorded threats from Josh, who was now out on bail, awaiting trial. A search warrant had revealed the jewelry Jane had stolen in his apartment. Since Jane had taken it from Betsy, it was now part of Betsy’s estate. When Josh’s trial and his appeals were over, it would be released for Claire to dispose of as she wished.

Alex, listening to the four graduates, marvelled at their resilience, and then he looked at Laurie. For the first time in the nearly six years since Greg’s death, she and Leo had left Timmy with a neighbor who was a babysitter. He saw how their faces now were transformed by the easy laughter they shared with the others. It had been incredible for them to learn that a seemingly routine DUI arrest Leo had made as a young patrolman had been viewed by Blue Eyes as the event that had ruined his life-driving him to Greg’s murder and forcing them all to live under the threat of violence for so long.

The Under Suspicion series had taken off, as Laurie had predicted.

Alex knew it was too soon to let her know how deeply in love with her he was. She still needed time to heal.

I can wait, he thought, as long as it takes-however long that is.