“Wow, that’s awful. Is she going to leave him?” Athena sounded worried about her.
“She hasn’t figured it out yet. I think she’s in shock, and he’s still involved with Pascale.”
“How terrible for her….Stanley, what did I just say?” Talking to Athena was always a three- or four-way conversation, which included several dogs, workmen, and people delivering groceries. Rose could never understand how four women could be so different. Athena’s world had nothing in common with her sisters’. They didn’t even like dogs. But Olivia, Nadia, and Venetia all had children, and Athena didn’t want any. At forty-three, she was perfectly content with her life as it was with Joe. He was a respected chef too, although he was less well known than Athena. She always seemed larger than life, and she lived in friendly chaos. “Maybe she should come here with her girls for a visit. I’ll suggest it to her. What’s happening with them this summer? Will he be with the girlfriend or with her?” Just asking the question turned her stomach. Athena didn’t like the situation either.
“I didn’t even think to ask,” Rose admitted. “The whole story is so unnerving, and I feel so sorry for her.”
“Maybe they should try couples therapy. We did a few years ago, when we started fighting about the restaurants, mine and Joe’s. The therapy really helped.”
Her mother smiled at the idea. “Nicolas is French. Can you really see him going to therapy? Men don’t rush into that in France, or even here sometimes.”
“Yeah, but I can see it if he wants to save his marriage.”
“Maybe he doesn’t,” Rose said. “He’s not promising to break it off anytime soon. He wants Nadia to give him time.”
“For what? So he can continue sleeping with the girl? I don’t think so. She ought to lower the boom on him now, and see what he does.” It was a simple, direct approach. Rose didn’t disagree with her, but it didn’t sound like Nadia was willing to do that. For now, with Nadia still off balance, he had the upper hand. She hoped that would change soon.
“I’ll text her later. I don’t have time now. I’ll tell her to come out this summer. It would be fun, for me too.” Rose was touched by Athena’s and Venetia’s reactions of unequivocal support for their sister. Particularly Athena, whom her sisters referred to as Mother Earth.
* * *
—
Olivia was more vehement when Rose got hold of her after Athena. They had just finished dinner at nine o’clock. She and Harley both worked long days on their court cases.
“She should divorce him. Immediately,” Olivia said without hesitating. She was the toughest and most hardline conservative of the four sisters. She saw everything in black-and-white, according to the letter of the law. They had a fourteen-year-old son, Will, who was a brilliant student, and Olivia treated him like an adult, and always had. It had seemed odd to Rose when he was younger. “She needs to contact a lawyer, now. I don’t know if they have no-fault divorce in France, but she needs to take action, protect her separate property, and go after him for whatever she can. Does he own any other property in France? Do they own the château jointly?”
“I doubt it. He inherited it when his parents died.” As an only child, he had inherited everything. “I think inherited wealth is separate,” Rose said.
“Well, she needs to divorce him as soon as possible. She has her own income and he needs to be accountable for his actions.” Everything she said made sense, but Rose could tell from talking to Nadia that she was too stunned to make a move, although Rose was sure she would eventually. The situation was untenable. Nicolas was having his cake and eating it, while Nadia’s heart was breaking.
Olivia reported the conversation to her husband, Harley, after she hung up, and he agreed with her. He was just as tough with his opinions as Olivia. They were a good match and had an excellent marriage. Their careers were similar and complemented each other, and they agreed about most things, even about their son. It had given Olivia a somewhat skewed view of the world. She assumed that most “normal” people were as conservative as they were, or should be. She was rarely tolerant of people with a different point of view. It worried her mother at times that she had such a narrow perspective.
Being married to a much older man had suited her, from the moment she and Harley had fallen in love while she was in law school. He had been married and widowed years before, and never remarried until he met Olivia. He was inordinately proud of Will, their only son, who was a straight-A student. They shared their opinions with him liberally, and he didn’t always agree with them, but rarely said so. He knew what was expected in their home, and who you had to be to get along. His parents would never have tolerated it if he voiced his differences, so he didn’t. Rose worried about him and thought him almost too compliant and accommodating, and couldn’t help wondering at times if that was who he really was, or if it was a persona he pretended to be in order to please his parents. They made it very clear that no straying off their path would be acceptable to them. Olivia was almost more rigid in her ideas than her husband, despite the difference in their ages.
* * *
—
Rose lost the battle for the cover, and conceded regretfully, in June. She called Nadia as soon as it was decided, to warn her. She still hated the idea of putting Pascale Solon on the cover of the September issue. It tacitly endorsed behavior which she found abhorrent. Others were caught up in the romance of it, swayed by how in love they seemed, and how physically attractive Pascale and Nicolas both were. Rose almost wondered, if they had been less beautiful, would people have been less tolerant of the fact that he was still married, living with his wife, had cheated on her, and fallen “madly in love” with someone else?
Charity Bennett almost crowed over her victory when Rose backed down and gave in about the cover. Pascale was the girl of the hour, and they were the “It” couple. Their love affair was out in the open by then, and Nicolas wasn’t even publicly apologetic about it. He was more so to his wife, privately, and insisted he didn’t want to lose her, which enraged his mother-in-law, given his flagrant behavior and the pain it was causing Nadia. It was as though he and his fans had forgotten that he was married, Nadia existed, he had children, and that his passion for Pascale was forbidden fruit. He was living out every man’s fantasy, to have a beautiful young woman at his feet and a wife to meet his more practical needs at home.
Within days of their deciding to put Pascale on the cover of the September issue, Pascale admitted publicly that she was pregnant. It upset Rose even more that Nadia had to deal with that too. Nadia made no comments to the press, and was unavailable to discuss it with anyone. As soon as the news was out, Rose made a reservation to go to Paris and spend the weekend with her daughter. She couldn’t think of anything else to do except be there for her. And Rose also felt that it made the magazine seem less than respectable to endorse their affair with a cover story.