Beautiful Day(110)

Doug pulled Edge out a flap in the back of the tent into the driveway, where they stood between Margot’s Land Rover and Doug’s Jaguar. It was dark and fairly quiet, although the caterers hustled in and out of the house, letting the back screen door slam each time. The noise seemed to startle Edge.

“You’re jumpy,” Doug said.

“Are you going to shoot me?” Edge said. “Throw me in the Jag, fill my pockets with stones, dump me in the harbor?”

“It’s not funny, Edge,” Doug said.

“I know it’s not, Doug,” Edge said.

“It’s my daughter.”

“What did she tell you?” Edge said.

“Everything,” Doug said. “She told me everything.”

“I’m sure she blew things out of proportion,” Edge said. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned in this business, it’s that there are three sides to every story, right? You’ll hear me out?”

“She didn’t blow anything out of proportion,” Doug said. “She didn’t exaggerate, she didn’t lie. Margot is as quality a human being as exists on this planet. She is smart and capable and strong. But—and you’ll appreciate this because you have Audrey—she is my daughter. She is my daughter, Edge.”

“I realize that,” Edge said. He ran his fingers through his clipped silver hair, then rattled his watch on his wrist. “I never meant for you to find out.”

“You put your disgusting hands on her,” Doug said. Edge had been married three times, and there had been dozens of women on the in-between. He was a player. Doug had always secretly admired this about him, if only because it was novel to Doug. It had been fun to sit down after a round of golf and a couple of beers and maybe a shot or two of good tequila and listen to Edge tell stories about the stewardess in first class on his flight to London or the gorgeous Filipino sisters who worked at the dry cleaners. There had been relationships with clients, too—Nathalie the most notable—but others as well. There had been that delivery girl from FedEx; there had been a first-year associate from a rival firm. There was Rosalie.

“Doug, you have to listen to me. I know you think I was some kind of predator. But believe me when I say, Margot came after me. She pursued me. There were texts from her day and night, sometimes so many texts I couldn’t answer them all. I tried to keep it casual, but Margot constantly pressed for more.”

“Yes, I know,” Doug said. “She got sucked in, she said. She fell for you, Edge, and you took advantage of that.”

“I never promised her anything,” Edge said.

“What about the favor you asked of her?”

Edge tilted his head. “Which favor?”

“You know damn well which favor. The favor you asked her to do at work,” Doug said.

“I wanted to see if she could help Seth out,” Edge said. “He was having a god-awful time, and she was in a position to save him. All I did was ask. She could have refused.”

“She said you took her to Picholine,” Doug said. “Plied her with good champagne and an expensive bottle of wine, and then you asked her to stay over at your apartment for the first time ever. It was intoxicating for her, she thought the two of you were finally getting serious. Of course after a night like that, she would have done anything you asked. You knew exactly how to play it.” Doug cracked his knuckles; he wanted to sock Edge right in the mouth. This kind of violent urge was foreign to Doug. Despite the thrill he got from beating someone verbally in the courtroom, he had never wanted to hurt anyone physically, much less his own partner, his closest friend. “You’re no better than the creeps we see in the office.”

“Come on, Doug.”

“I’m not even angry about the relationship,” Doug said. “If it had worked out, if the two of you made each other happy, I mean, I might have been a little uneasy at first, but I would have gotten over it. But the fact that you disrespected my daughter, that you used her, that you two-timed her with Rosalie, that you brought Rosalie here without telling Margot about it, that you hurt her, Edge, you hurt my daughter: that I cannot excuse.”

“Doug,” Edge said. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re not sorry,” Doug said. “You have preyed on women for the thirty years that I’ve known you, and I didn’t judge you. I let you go about your business. I watched you divorce Mary Lee and marry Nathalie and divorce Nathalie and marry Suki, and divorce Suki. I stood by your side, I gave you good counsel, I was your friend. But today your victim is my child, and you’re lucky I don’t beat the crap out of you right here and now.”