Complications: A Novel by Danielle Steel

Author:Danielle Steel [Steel, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2021-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

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Once Patrick Martin had been released from his few days in jail, and was back home, Detectives Forrestier and Plante had continued to call on him. They had dropped by without advance notice. Additional evidence in the case had surfaced, though nothing that altered the trajectory of the case. It had been confirmed, with DNA tests of the sheets, that he and Sergei had had sex at the hotel, which he had admitted to them anyway. Several times, they’d tried pressuring him into admitting that he had laid hands on Sergei and pushed him, but he remained staunch in his denial of that. The detectives couldn’t prove otherwise, and for now they believed him.

Patrick had appeared more depressed each time they saw him. Everything that mattered to him had been stripped away, as a result of his disastrous involvement with the Russian male model, and his untimely death.

And eventually Patrick had had to face his daughter. Marina had come home from Lille for a weekend, and sobbed in her father’s arms when she got there. She was devastated for him over the public humiliation he had suffered, the loss of his job and dignity and the respect of the entire country. Even if he was exonerated, by some miracle, or found innocent, it was clear that he would no longer have even the remotest possibility of becoming president. His reputation had been tarnished irreparably for life.

“Oh, Papa…I’m so sorry,” she’d said, crying with his arms around her. She was the only member of the family who didn’t blame him for his unsavory associations and acts, which were public knowledge now. Instead, she saw him as the victim, as Patrick did himself. She was, above all, his ally, which infuriated her brother, who accused her of being brainwashed, and blind to their father’s faults and crimes. The possibility of his going to prison broke her heart.

With both of their children at opposite extremes, Alice rose to the occasion and was the voice of reason in their midst. She remained clear about how shocking their father’s behavior had been, but she was compassionate. She was a living example of Christian compassion. She wanted nothing more to do with him herself, but she respected the fact that he was still her children’s father, and he knew that Marina at least loved him. Damien was brimming with fury and resentment, and Patrick was still crushed that his son was gay, despite his own actions, which he considered aberrations and sexual acts, but not indications of his own homosexuality, which he continued to deny to them, and mostly to himself.

It was the darkest time of Alice’s life, as she watched their family come apart like a machine breaking down and disintegrating in front of her eyes, and she did her best to keep her children together. Her work at the university was her salvation. Patrick was in his own small apartment by then, living on his limited savings. And he was spending the rest on lawyers.

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