The Apartment

Chapter 12

Claire and Abby shared a cab to Kennedy Airport, since their planes were leaving at almost the same time, Claire’s to San Francisco, and Abby’s to L.A. Claire thought that by the time her flight left, George might have landed in Aspen, but she hadn’t heard from him yet. She was going to have a quiet Thanksgiving holiday with her parents, as she always did. She no longer saw her old friends when she went home for a few days. She had been gone for ten years since she left for college, their lives were too different now, they had nothing in common, and she was closer to her roommates in New York. Sometimes she ran into her high school friends when she went out with her mother, and she was always surprised by how little their lives had changed. They had married the people they had dated, or were living with them. A few had children now. Some worked for their parents, or at unexciting jobs. It was a small city, and other than the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, there were very few interesting opportunities. Her more enterprising friends had moved to New York and L.A. And there was no fashion milieu to speak of, so there would have been no jobs for her. She was glad she had gone to design school in New York, and stayed. And even though she missed her, her mother was pleased that she had opted for a life in New York. Her father never understood why she didn’t move back to San Francisco and find something to do there. She no longer tried to explain.

Abby and Claire chatted on the way to the airport. They had hardly talked since her breakup with Ivan. She had been plunged in her writing night and day. It was as though freeing herself had fueled her, and she had a lot to talk about with her parents. They had always given her good advice in the past, and she needed to decide where to go from here. All she wanted was to finish her novel. It was going well.

Ivan had called a few times to make weak excuses for his behavior, and told her he was all alone. She stopped taking his calls, and he gave up calling quickly when he realized she wasn’t sympathetic to his cause and hadn’t changed her mind. He wanted her to feel sorry for him, but she didn’t. She was just angry at herself for the time she had wasted, and for being such a fool. It had taken her years to realize what a loser he was, while he pulled her into the swamp with him, and used her in every way he could, and she had let him.

“See you on Sunday,” Claire said as they hugged each other outside the terminal. Claire was going to check her bag at the curb, and Abby only had carry-on. Claire always took too much with her. And Abby disappeared into the terminal a minute later. Claire glanced at her phone while she checked her bags. George hadn’t called her yet, so they probably hadn’t landed. She hoped the weather was decent. George had told her that the airport was dicey in Aspen, coming in over the mountain for a sharp landing, but she wasn’t worried about it. His pilot had been there with him many times before.

Alex and Sasha’s flight to Chicago left two hours later, and she had packed even more than Claire for their four days in Chicago. She wasn’t sure what to wear, so she had brought a multitude of options, mostly borrowed from Morgan and Claire, in varying degrees of dressy to casual, and conservative, which Morgan had for work. Sasha wanted to make a good impression on his parents, and every time she asked him, Alex said they wouldn’t care what she wore. He described their dress code as preppy, which was what he wore too when they went out. His father and brother would wear suits for Thanksgiving and he would do the same, otherwise a blazer and slacks, and his father always wore a tie and looked like a banker. He said his patients expected it of him. And as a surgeon, his brother wore scrubs most of the time. Sasha informed Alex proudly that she hadn’t brought hers, nor clogs or Crocs. She packed sneakers in case they went sailing on his brother’s boat, since they were die-hard sailors, but he said it was probably too cold for her. She could stay home with his mother, or explore the city on her own. His parents’ home was on the lakefront, and his brother lived in the Wicker Park district, comparable to lower downtown New York. He said his brother was doing very well. He said it without envy, only pride, and she knew they were very close.

They landed at O’Hare Airport at one o’clock local time, which was an hour earlier than New York. His parents would still be at work, and his brother was coming for dinner that night. Alex knew they would all be curious to meet her, but he didn’t make an issue of it to Sasha—she was nervous enough as it was.

The airport was jammed, and it took them an hour to get their luggage, and another hour to get home. A housekeeper let them in, and threw her arms around Alex the minute she saw him, and glanced at Sasha with curiosity and a polite smile. The house on Lake Shore Drive always looked the same to him, and was his boyhood home. It was elegant and traditional, with serious antiques and warm-colored fabrics. There were flowers in the living room, and a comfortable country-style kitchen, where the family often gathered. And then he showed her his boyhood room, filled with sports trophies and mementos of his school years. His diplomas from Yale and Harvard were on the wall as she looked around and smiled at him. And his brother’s room looked much the same right next door. The two boys shared a bathroom. Their rooms were done in navy and plaids with a view of the garden, down the hall from their parents’ big sunny bedroom. And he led her to a guest room across from them, where he and Sasha would be staying. His old room had a narrow single bed, and he would have felt strange staying in that room with her anyway, even with a bigger bed. The guest room was neutral ground, and he had never stayed there with anyone. He set her suitcase down. The room was done in blue and yellow floral chintzes. And she could tell they had used a decorator, unless his mother had decorating talent, and it was very pretty. The style was somewhat English, and the walls were a pale yellow, which made the room look sunny even in Chicago winter weather. They were predicting snow for the weekend.

They stopped in the kitchen and made a sandwich, and Alex suggested they go downtown and look around. He wanted to show her the city. He still had an old Toyota in the garage, which he kept there, and hadn’t let his parents sell. He used it when he came home, and the housekeeper drove it for errands and to buy groceries. It started easily, and they headed from Lake Shore Drive to Michigan Avenue, on the scenic tour he had been planning for days. He was excited to have her with him, in his native city, and she had never been to Chicago before.

“There’s the Wrigley Building and the John Hancock Center. My mom’s office is in that tower, and my dad’s is at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the Hyde Park area. Ben’s in the same building, on another floor.” It was the medical building where most of the high-end doctors were. Ben had joined a practice there as soon as he finished his residency.

They drove around the city, which seemed smaller than New York but had the same electric buzz. It was very different from Atlanta, where she grew up. And the shops on Michigan Avenue all looked sophisticated and were the same big-brand names and luxury stores as in New York, which was true of most cities today. But there was still a distinct flavor to the city, the buildings were even taller than in New York, and he explained that they were designed to accommodate the weather, so one had to brave the elements as little as possible. An office building would occupy the first twenty floors, topped by four floors of a department store, with possibly a restaurant above it, and then thirty or forty floors of apartments, so one never had to go out in the freezing cold or snow.

“It’s one-stop living,” he said, smiling. “It’s very convenient, especially in the winter.” Sasha found herself thinking that she wouldn’t like living on the sixtieth floor in any city, but it did make sense.

They parked the car and got out and walked for a while. They wandered into a bookstore, and an art gallery, and it struck her immediately how friendly people were. Salespeople were pleasant, anxious to help them, and chatted with them.

They headed back to the house around five-thirty. Sasha started to fidget in the car, and Alex smiled at her and leaned over and kissed her. He understood why she was nervous, although he was certain that her fears were unfounded—he knew his parents and how kind and welcoming they were, and his mother had been pleased he was bringing someone home.

“They’re going to love you,” he repeated to Sasha for the thousandth time, and she looked worried and unconvinced.

“What if they hate me?” she said miserably. She had never been as anxious about meeting anyone. She loved him, and didn’t want to screw it up somehow.

“If they hate you, I’ll stop seeing you immediately, and you’ll have to go to a hotel,” he said with a straight face, and she looked panicked, and he laughed. “Will you stop it? First of all, they’re going to love you. Second of all, I’m thirty-two years old, not sixteen. I make my own decisions, and you’re the best thing that ever happened to me. And my parents are smart enough to know it. You’re the prize here, not me.”

“You’re their son. They want to protect you from bad people and conniving women,” she said, smiling at him.

“Are you conniving? How did I miss that? Listen, as long as you don’t dress and act like your sister, everything will be fine. And knowing them, if I said I loved her and she showed up in a bikini and high heels, they’d be fine too. They’re very open people, even if they look conservative. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself. You’ll see what I mean when you meet them. My mother is the nicest woman alive. She loves everyone. If you introduced her to a serial killer, she would explain to you about his terrible childhood, and say that he was probably having a bad day.”

“I wish I could say the same about mine,” Sasha said wistfully. “My mother hates everyone, and sees the dark side in every situation. She’s the toughest divorce lawyer in Atlanta, and assumes the worst about everyone, including her clients. There’s a good person in there somewhere, but she’s gotten very hard with time. And she has nothing but bad things to say about my father and his wife. Charlotte’s not a very interesting person, but she’s a sweet girl and she makes him happy, and they have cute kids. My mother nearly went over the edge when he had them, and never stops telling Valentina and me how little he cared about us when he was setting up his business.” He owned the most profitable department stores in Atlanta, and malls throughout the South. “I don’t know how my mother got so angry and bitter, but she is, and she’s getting worse with age. She gets along better with Valentina, because my sister doesn’t take any guff from her. Every time I see my mother, I feel like I’ve been run over by a train.”

“My mom’s not like that,” he said gently. “She’ll probably want to adopt you. She was really sad when Ben and Angela broke up. She always wants us to have the kind of relationship she has with my dad. They’re good together.” He said it warmly, and as he did, Sasha realized that she had never seen a marriage like that. Her father was nice to her stepmother and protective of her, but they were by no means intellectual equals, and sometimes he acted like she was stupid and couldn’t think for herself. She treated Sasha’s dad like her father, and relied on him for everything, and all decisions. She had no mind of her own, and participated in none of their important plans. And her mother had been too hard on their father, and verbally brutal with him at times. She had always considered him beneath her because he wasn’t as educated as she was, but he had been very successful in spite of it. He had a good head for business and was a bright guy. Her mother dismissed his business acumen as luck, and being in the right place at the right time, which Sasha knew wasn’t true, and was a mean thing to say about him, along with all the rest of what she still accused him of, including being a lousy father, which Valentina agreed with, and Sasha didn’t. Valentina thought their mother was a legal genius, while Sasha thought she was smart, but a bitch, which she certainly was to her. And their mother had more respect for Valentina’s modeling career and international stardom than for Sasha’s medical career, where she warned her she’d never make a dime thanks to the rigors of modern medicine and HMOs. Money mattered a lot to her, except Sasha’s father’s, which she dismissed, because it was his. And Valentina had the same profound worship of money as their mother.

“My parents were so mean to each other, and so unhappy,” she said honestly, “that I never wanted to get married, and I still don’t, if that’s how it ends up. It was kind of a relief when they got divorced. Until he remarried and my mother went nuts about it, and she still is. They refuse to be in the same room, and only one of them could be at my graduation.” She had never admitted that to anyone before.

“Which one came to your graduation?” Alex asked with interest.

“My father. My mother was trying a landmark case. She won, which justified not being there, to her. I think if I ever told her I was getting married, she’d kill me. Recidivists, as she calls them, are the mainstay of her business. She’s handled two or three divorces for some of her clients. They always come back to her because she does such a good job, and gets them a ton of money from the other side. She usually represents women. She doesn’t believe in marriage, and always told me and Valentina not to even think about it, just to have fun. Valentina took her seriously.” She smiled at him. “And she likes rich guys, no matter how they make their money.” As she said it, she thought of Jean-Pierre, who would have terrified her. There was something deeply unsavory about him, but Valentina didn’t care or even notice. “It’s hard to imagine people like your parents, who’ve done it all right. No one in my world ever has. All I ever heard about were the disasters, and all my friends’ parents were divorced, growing up.”

“A lot of my friends’ parents were too,” Alex said quietly. “My parents married very young. Maybe that helps. They just kind of grew up together, had us when they were young, and expected it to work.” His father had just turned sixty, and his mother was fifty-nine, she knew. Her parents were almost the same age, but had a very different life experience. It was hard for Sasha to imagine. Her mother was always telling her about marriages that fell apart in a year. And the high divorce rate nationally supported what she said, that marriage just didn’t work, and was an antiquated idea. According to her, women no longer needed to get married if they had careers, and to some extent Sasha believed her. And in her own way, Valentina did too. She had never gone to college and had started making big money at eighteen as a model, and she still made a fortune at what she did, more than Sasha ever would using her skill and brain. But her job had longevity, and Valentina’s didn’t. One day she’d be too old to model. But she’d made a few good investments, with their father’s advice, so maybe she’d be okay, and Sasha knew he would always help them.

They pulled into the Scotts’ driveway at six o’clock. All the lights were on, and his mother’s Mercedes station wagon was in the garage. And feeling acutely nervous again, Sasha followed him into the house. She was standing just behind him in the front hall, when his mother came down the stairs with a broad smile and ran to hug him. She was a very pretty woman, wearing a simple dark gray suit and high heels, straight dark hair she wore pulled back, and a string of pearls on her sweater. She was everything he had described, except younger, prettier, and warmer. She didn’t look old enough to have a son his age, let alone Ben’s, and she still had a trim figure. She played golf and tennis on the weekends with friends. And Alex said she’d played touch football with them when they were young. She was athletic and in good shape, and her eyes widened with pleasure the minute she saw Sasha over Alex’s shoulder while she hugged him. And a moment later, she was hugging Sasha as though she had known her all her life.

“We’re so happy you came home with Alex!” she said, and sounded as though she meant it. “Has he been dragging you around downtown all afternoon? You must be freezing. We just lit a fire in the den. Would you like a cup of tea?” Sasha nodded, a little dazzled by the experience of this friendly, open woman who seemed genuinely kind and nice, and was so warm to her, even as a stranger.

“I’d love one,” Sasha said, and followed them into the study, lined with beautiful leather-bound books, some of them first editions. They bought them at auction whenever they found them. And there was some very handsome art on the walls, much of it English, of horses and landscapes, and several of boats. The whole family loved sailing.

Sasha sat down on a comfortable couch, and a moment later the housekeeper brought them all tea on a silver tray. Their lifestyle was more elegant than Sasha had expected, and Helen Scott took obvious pride and pleasure in her home. She seemed to be the perfect wife and mother, and had a major career as an attorney too. It was impressive. Her mother had the law career, but had never cared about their home. She hated to cook, and had sold their family home and bought a small apartment without a guest room six months after the divorce. She was a great lawyer, but not a homemaker by any means. Helen seemed to manage to do both well, and had recently heard rumors about a possible appointment to the Superior Court bench, which had always been her dream. She would readily give up her antitrust practice for that, if it happened. She wasn’t counting on it, but the prospect was exciting.

“So what did you see this afternoon?” Helen asked Sasha warmly. “We have some wonderful galleries and cultural events here. It’s a shame you don’t have more time. And the lake activities are a lot of fun in summer, before it gets too hot. And whatever you do, don’t let the boys take you out in the boat now. You’ll freeze!” she warned her, and they laughed. “I’m sorry I wasn’t home when you got here,” she said to Alex. “I was trying to clear some things off my desk.” The things on her desk were always fairly major, he knew, but she never made an issue of it, and made more fuss about his father’s practice. She was fascinated by medicine, and always said she was a frustrated doctor, but hadn’t had the patience for all the years of medical school and residency. “I know you’re doing your residency too, but I don’t think Alex told me in what.” She turned her attention to Sasha with interest.

“OB/GYN. I want to do high-risk and infertility eventually. Right now I’m doing pretty much everything in OB, but there’s a lot of high-risk now, and multiple births with older mothers, so it’s pretty interesting.” Helen seemed very interested in Sasha’s work, and put her at ease with intelligent questions about it.

“Sasha has an identical twin,” Alex added, and Helen looked fascinated by that.

“I always wanted twins,” Helen said, “but there are none in either of our families,” she told her, looking mildly disappointed.

“My father was a twin, but his brother died when they were very young,” Sasha said. Alex hadn’t known that, and was interested to hear it. “My sister and I are totally identical,” she said to Helen, “except in personality.” She laughed. “Our parents could never tell us apart, which was a lot of fun. We used to play on it every chance we got. I used to write papers and take exams for her, and she flirted with boys for me, and got me dates. And then I’d blow it by being boring on a date. But I got her pretty good grades on exams.” They all laughed at what she said.

“Is she in medicine too?” Helen inquired as they drank their tea, and there was a plate of homemade cookies that smelled wonderful—they were gingerbread and chocolate chip.

“No, she’s a model,” Sasha said simply. “She has a much more glamorous life than I do!”

Alex nodded ruefully. “Sasha forgot to mention to me that she had an identical twin when we first met,” he explained to his mother. “I saw them at the cafeteria together at the hospital, and thought I was seeing double. She had just said she has a sister. They look the same, but they are day and night.”

“She’s pretty out there,” Sasha admitted comfortably. She already felt at home with them, and she accepted her sister as she was. “She showed up at the hospital that day in a stretch jumpsuit that looked like a leotard, high heels, and a leopard coat, which is pretty tame for her. She fools my roommates all the time, pretending to be me, except one of them can tell us apart. Our parents used to dress us identically but in different colors, and my sister would make us switch clothes. It drove them crazy, and I have to admit, we loved it. No one could ever figure out who was who. But they can now. She wouldn’t be caught dead in scrubs and clogs, which are all I own. No one in my family can figure out why I wanted to be a doctor. And some days, neither can I,” she said as she smiled at Alex, and he laughed.

“Yeah, me too. They’re trying to kill us with the schedule we’re on. We go on dates and see who’ll fall asleep at the table first.” His father and brother had been through it too, so Helen knew what he was talking about.

“I could never go to the movies with your father when he was a resident. He fell asleep during the trailers for future films, and I had to wake him up after the credits. Actually,” she said, with a twinkle in her eye, “he still does that now. Nothing’s changed.”

“What do I do?” a handsome man with gray hair asked as he strode into the room and kissed his wife. “Are you giving family secrets away?” He glanced at Sasha and included her in his smile, and hugged his son.

“It’s no secret you sleep at the movies,” his wife said, teasing him.

“Did you tell them that I snore?” He pretended to be worried, and turned his attention to Sasha. She was startled by how good-looking he was. He looked like Alex, but taller and older. He was a very handsome man, fit and youthful, as was his wife. Alex’s parents made a beautiful couple. Neither of them looked their age, and could easily have claimed they were ten years younger. “Don’t believe anything they say about me,” he said to Sasha. “Welcome to Chicago. We’re pleased you could come,” he said, as his wife handed him a cup of tea, and he helped himself to a cookie. “We can’t get Alex here often enough. They keep him too busy to come home.” They all knew it was true.

“We had to agree to work on Christmas and New Year’s to get Thanksgiving,” Alex told them, and his parents weren’t surprised. They’d been through it too thirty years before, and with young children. Tom Scott had been in medical school, and she’d been in law school when she had them. Looking back, they could never figure out how they managed. Helen thought it made life easier for this generation that they didn’t marry as young, although she thought Ben should be thinking about it now. He had been about to get engaged to his girlfriend when they broke up a few months ago. Helen was philosophical about it, and said she obviously hadn’t been the right one. She had decided that she didn’t want to be married to a doctor who worked as hard as he did. And there was no denying, their older son was married to his work. Alex was a little more moderate, and their father loved his practice, but had always made time for his family too. He had set the boys a good example about priorities, and they’d had a warm home life as a result, and still did, and strong family ties.

“So what’s on the agenda for tomorrow?” Tom asked his son. “A little sailing in the morning?” He looked hopeful, and Helen shuddered.

“You’re all crazy. You’ll freeze. If you go, don’t take Sasha. We’ll find something to do here. We’ll set the table and keep the home fires burning, and maybe crochet a little.” She was kidding, and they laughed. “Can’t you find something else to do except freeze to death on the boat?”

“It’s too cold for tennis,” Tom said practically. He played several times a week, and it showed. “And I’m terrible at Scrabble.” He grinned. Alex had told Sasha that they had their Thanksgiving meal midafternoon, and his family liked to do an activity in the morning, usually something active. On the weekend, he was planning to take Sasha to a museum and a nice restaurant for lunch, of which there were many, and she wanted to do some shopping, since she wouldn’t have time before Christmas, once they went back to work. They had made lots of plans.

They chatted until dinnertime, and right before dinner, Ben joined them. And he was even more handsome than his younger brother. They were the best-looking family she’d ever seen, and Sasha silently wished that her sister would go out with someone like Ben, but she wouldn’t have given him the time of day. He was too normal, healthy, and clean.

Ben was obviously curious about Sasha, and talked to her all through dinner. He asked a lot about the orthopedic service at NYU, they talked about the residency programs she and Alex were in, and the conversation was mostly medical all through dinner, and Helen held her own. Her husband talked a lot about his cardiology practice, and she was very knowledgeable and well informed about new developments in experimental surgeries. His father was very interested in Sasha’s passion for infertility and innovations they were implementing in Europe, which they discussed at length. It was easy and fun for Sasha to talk to people who shared the same interests she did, and a little while after dinner, Ben left to go back to his apartment, and the elder Scotts and she and Alex retired to their respective rooms.

She flopped onto the comfortable bed and smiled at Alex, and he beamed at her.

“How are you doing? I’m sorry about all the doctor talk at dinner. It’s like hanging out in the doctors’ lounge. Being with my family is like living at a medical convention.”

“I love them,” Sasha said with a broad smile. “They’re all so nice. My family is like a soap opera—everyone hates someone, they’re always fighting or badmouthing each other. You’re so lucky. This is great!”

“I like them a lot too,” he admitted, and was thrilled that she did, and she had been totally at ease all evening, and he could tell his parents and brother approved, not that it mattered. He loved her anyway, but it was such a good feeling to know that they were pleased for him, and it was a perfect fit.

They were too tired to make love that night, and slept like little kids in the big comfortable bed. His parents were at breakfast, reading the paper, when Alex and Sasha walked in, and his father looked up with a smile. It was a crystal-clear icy-cold morning, a perfect Chicago winter day, with no sign of snow, contrary to the prediction.

“Are you up for a sail?” he asked his son, while Helen rolled her eyes and Alex laughed. And his mother looked pointedly at Sasha.

“Don’t listen to them. They’re insane. It’s a family disease, and it’s hereditary. Incipient insanity around boats, particularly sailboats.” But by the end of breakfast, Alex had agreed to join his father, they had called Ben, and he was going to meet them at the yacht club.

“If you lunatics freeze to death on the lake, Sasha and I are eating the turkey without you.” But when Sasha followed Alex to the guest room and watched him dress, she wanted to go too, and asked him if she could.

“Are you serious? You don’t have to, Sash. They already like you. You don’t have to prove anything to me or them.” He didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable or obliged to join them.

“It sounds like fun. Maybe I’m a little crazy too. Do you have a jacket I could wear?” She followed him to his old bedroom, and he pulled several out of the closet that were too big for her but would keep her warm. She picked one, and he gave her a set of long johns that he’d had when he was younger and smaller. She put on the clothes, two heavy sweaters, and the sneakers she had brought just in case, with a pair of wool socks over the long johns, and ten minutes later they were standing in the front hall, ready to go, and she was wearing a wool cap Alex had given her and her own gloves.

“Oh my God, another crazy person in our midst,” Helen said, looking at Sasha, who was bundled up like a four-year-old to go play in the snow. “Don’t let them kill you out there. I’d hate to eat the turkey all by myself.” She kissed them all goodbye, including Sasha, and they drove off in Tom’s Range Rover, with Sasha in the back seat excited to be with them.

Ben was waiting at the lake, standing near the boat, which was a beautiful old wooden classic sailboat that was their father’s pride and joy. Ben had taken the tarps off while he was waiting, and they all climbed aboard. Alex showed her the cabins belowdecks if she got too cold, and told her not to be a hero if she was freezing, but she loved being on deck, as they pulled away from the dock in the crisp cold air. There was just enough wind to fill their sails, and they spent the next two hours sailing around the lake. Alex looked at her as though he’d found the prize of a lifetime, and Sasha was ecstatic, and he was sorry when they returned to the yacht club after a great sail.

“Your mother will kill me if we don’t go back now,” Tom said regretfully. Their faces were all red, and they looked healthy and glowing from the cold. Ben went back to his apartment to change, and Tom drove Alex and Sasha home, where Helen was waiting for them with hot toddies.

They were exhilarated after the sail, and Helen assured her younger son that he and Sasha deserved each other if she had enjoyed it, which she sincerely insisted she had.

Ben was back an hour later, and they sat in front of the fire in the den once they were dressed, and then moved into the living room when the guests started to arrive. They had invited four friends. Two of them were widowed women, and the men were alone for the holiday because one was divorced, and the wife of the other one was with their daughter in Seattle, where she was having her first baby any minute. Both men were doctors.

The dining room looked beautiful after Helen had set the table and decorated it with flowers and their Thanksgiving decorations. Their friends were interesting and good company, the meal was splendid, the conversation was lively, and they sat around and talked for hours until the guests left and Ben finally went home. They all said they were too full to ever eat again, but Alex knew that they would be eating the leftovers enthusiastically the next day and all through the weekend. He and Sasha were having dinner at a restaurant with Ben the following night, and then taking her on a tour of their favorite bars and hangouts. With their sail together that morning, she had become part of the clan.

She and Alex talked that night until they fell asleep, after they made love, as quietly as possible so his parents wouldn’t hear them. She had called her own parents to wish them a happy Thanksgiving, and she’d tried to reach Valentina, but couldn’t and had sent her a text, wishing her a happy Thanksgiving. She had reached Morgan at the apartment before she went to her brother’s. Sasha told Alex before she drifted off that it had been the best Thanksgiving of her life, and seeing the look of love in her eyes, he believed her. It had been his as well.