Always and Forever (44 page)

At Grand Central she took a cab to the building that housed 4-S Shops Incorporated. Her heart was pounding as she rose up in the elevator to Kathy’s penthouse offices. The elevator door slid open, and she walked into the lushly appointed reception area.

“I’d like to see Kathy Altman, please,” she said to the receptionist, who was inspecting her Givenchy suit and sable coat with infinite respect. The 4-S Shops offered sportswear for women less affluent than Bella Kohn.

“Do you have an appointment?” the receptionist asked politely.

“No, but please tell her I’m here,” Bella said with quiet confidence. “Bella Kohn.”

Moments later she was being escorted down a carpeted hallway to Kathy’s office. The door opened and Kathy emerged.

“Bella!” Kathy held out her arms in joyous welcome. “Oh, how I’ve missed you all these years!”

Their arms about each other, they walked into the huge, multiwindowed office. Kathy closed the door behind her.

“Kathy, don’t be upset that I’ve come here,” Bella pleaded. “Phil told me only Saturday morning that you were back in New York. That you’re Kathy Altman. Darling, I’m so proud of you!”

“Bella, I’ll fight to keep Jesse,” Kathy said while they sat on the green velvet sofa that flanked one wall of her office.

“With Phil’s activities that shouldn’t be difficult,” Bella said caustically. “But I’ve come to set up a meeting between you and Phil. The two of you have to—”

“He can’t have Jesse,” Kathy’s voice was slightly strident. “I’m prepared to prove Phil would be a bad influence on him. I have photographs—”

“Kathy, I’m on
your
side. I talked with Alice long ago. She told me what happened. I was so upset—so ashamed of Phil. Meet with him, then let the lawyers work out the terms of the divorce,” she urged. “Even if Phil insists on some weekend custody, we both know he’s not apt to take advantage after the first few times. And make a point that Jesse sees his father at my house. I’ll always be there.” Her face was luminous. “I can’t wait to spoil him.”

“Bella, I’m scared.” Kathy was flooded by doubts. “Julius is so vindictive, and he has friends in high places.”

“I’ve told them Alice is willing to testify on your behalf—”

“Alice said that?” Kathy glowed with gratitude.

“Phil’s terrified of having his image tarnished. You can handle him, Kathy. Just stand up and fight.”

“I’ll talk to my lawyer.” Kathy was pale and tense. “He’ll set up a meeting. But you tell Phil, Bella, if he starts any funny business, I’ll call all the columnists and tell them he beat me. I can fight just as dirty as Julius and Phil Kohn.”

Beautiful and elegant in a gray wool Dior suit and silver jewelry, Kathy sat with pounding heart in the posh law offices of Phil’s attorney. Her own attorney was at her side and clearly irritated—as was Phil’s attorney—that Julius was trying to take over the discussion of a prospective divorce for Phil and her.

“Look, Phil will go along with the divorce under the proper conditions,” Julius said menacingly. “No alimony, no final settlement, and her written agreement to keep this confidential.”

“Mr. Kohn,” Phil’s attorney interrupted, “will you please allow us”—he gestured toward the other attorney—“to conduct this meeting along productive lines?”

“There’s no question of money involved.” Kathy’s eyes were blazing. “I’m perfectly capable of supporting myself and my son.”

“Your husband is asking for joint custody,” Phil’s lawyer said cautiously. “Without his consent you took the boy away from the state in the fall of 1953 and—”

“There’s no question of joint custody,” Kathy’s attorney said crisply. “We’ll consider visitation rights at specified intervals. We—”

“You’re being damned high-handed!” Phil ignored his lawyer’s warning glance. “Keeping Jesse in the house with a gay guy. How do we know what happened?”

“Nothing happened, Mr. Kohn,” Kathy’s lawyer said tiredly. “Mr. Bartlett is a long-time family friend. And if you persist on this track, we must point out that we have evidence of your mistreatment of your wife, of your adultery on several occasions—”

“It’s up to you, Phil,” Kathy broke in, terrified and impatient but determined to face up to him. “A quiet divorce, or we’ll both be splashed all over the tabloids. I’ll do whatever it takes to retain custody of Jesse.
I won’t let you have him.
”

“We have a witness to Mrs. Kohn’s beating by her husband,” her attorney picked up quietly. “Medical records that her nose was broken in the course of that beating. We—”

“Enough of that,” Julius hissed, his face flushed. “Phil, tell them—you’ll agree to give up child custody.” Now he turned to Kathy’s lawyer. “Arrange for a quickie divorce. But Jesse spends one weekend a month with his father. Beginning next weekend.”

“Dad, we’ll be in Montreal next weekend,” Phil mumbled. “At that convention.”

“All right, beginning the weekend after that,” Julius conceded. “But we want a signed statement that she’ll never ask for a cent from Phil,” he told Kathy’s attorney. “And that what happened between her and her husband when she took off like that remains confidential. No leaks. Otherwise, we go to court.”

“I’ll sign it,” Kathy said softly, exchanging a glance with her lawyer. “But visitation rights begin after the first of the year,” she stipulated. “I need time to make Jesse understand what’s happening.”

Kathy sat back now and listened—trembling but triumphant—while the two attorneys worked out details. Julius was belligerent but quiet; Phil sulked. Visitation rights were to be exercised at the senior Kohns’ home in Greenwich, as Bella had suggested. Because of Kathy’s tight working schedule it was agreed that Phil would fly down to the Virgin Islands for the divorce.

By the second week of the new year she would be a free woman, Kathy exulted as she left the meeting with her attorney. No more fears of losing Jesse. Later she must deal with how to help Jesse past this new stage in his life, bound to be traumatic.

First Jesse would meet Bella—his other grandmother. He had some hazy memory of her. Bella would be warm and loving. She would be there when he met his father and grandfather. Knowing Phil, she doubted that he would be available to play the father role one weekend a month, but Bella was a loving grandmother, and Jesse would thrive under her spoiling.

Marge was in her office, waiting nervously to hear the results. She leapt to her feet as Kathy walked in.

“We won!” Kathy glowed. “It’s over!”

“Call your mother and Rhoda,” Marge ordered exuberantly. “Then let’s go out to lunch to celebrate!”

“Marge, I feel as though I’d been reborn,” Kathy said with an aura of joyous disbelief. “That there’s a whole new world out there waiting for me.”

Where was David now, she asked herself. How wonderful it would have been to share this day with him. But David was living in Copenhagen—and married.

K
ATHY SPENT THE LONG
New Year’s weekend at Montauk, surrounded by those close to her. Her parents and Aunt Sophie—at the house for two days—were relieved and delighted that she was about to be divorced and that the constant fear of losing Jesse was behind her. Marge drove out with Rhoda and Frank and little Sara so they might celebrate this special New Year’s Eve together.

“Remember New Year’s in Hamburg?” Rhoda asked sentimentally while they sat at breakfast before an open fire in the huge country kitchen on the first day of 1959. “Can you believe that was thirteen years ago?” Rhoda’s eyes rested tenderly on Frank, “If I hadn’t gone to Hamburg, I’d never have met you.”

And in Hamburg she’d met David, Kathy thought nostalgically. Perhaps it would have been easier if she had never met him.

On their return to Manhattan, Kathy threw herself more openly into the business. She gave interviews along with Marge, allowed Ellie to book her on radio and TV talk shows.

Kathy was relieved that—after the initial tense weekend in Greenwich—Jesse seemed to be accepting his father and grandfather. But when he returned from his weekend visits, he talked mainly about “Grandma Bella.” On those weekends Wally drove to Croton on Saturday mornings to take him out to Greenwich and drove him back on Sunday afternoons, to ensure him time to do his homework for the next day’s classes.

On the Wednesday before Jesse’s May weekend in Greenwich, Bella phoned to say that both Phil and Julius would be out of town that weekend.

“Kathy, why don’t you both come and spend the weekend with me?” she encouraged. “It would be so good to have a little time together.”

“I’d like that,” Kathy said after a moment’s indecision. “Though it might upset Phil and Julius when they find out,” she laughed.

“I don’t particularly care,” Bella confessed. “Jesse’s my darling grandson, and to me you’ll always be my darling daughter-in-law. Come. We’ll have a great weekend—the three of us.”

At the May weekend at the Greenwich house Bella persuaded Kathy to allow Jesse to come out to Southampton for the scheduled July weekend.

“Phil may or may not be there,” Bella shrugged. “I’m his stand-in for visitation weekends. I’d love to have Jesse meet his cousins. The girls will be with me for two weeks in July while their parents fly out to St. Tropez. Then they leave for a month’s tour of Europe with a school group. In time,” she laughed whimsically, “he may even meet his Aunt Gail and Aunt Brenda and the uncles.”

Now that she and Jesse could come out of the shadows, Kathy decided to move into Manhattan. She began to search for an apartment to buy. She treasured the hours when she could be with Jesse, and not having to spend two hours a day commuting would add to that time.

It was important to find an apartment before school opened in the fall, she stressed to the real estate broker. She must join a synagogue, too, so that Jesse could begin to prepare for his bar mitzvah next year. Her father and mother were already planning the reception. Their pride in Jesse brought her recurrent pleasure.

The evening before Jesse was to go to Southampton, Kathy received a phone call from Bella to schedule the time for Jesse’s pick-up.

“Will ten o’clock be all right for Jesse?” she asked solicitously. “Wally has to take Julius into town for a meeting with some managers from the West Coast stores. He’ll drop Julius off and shoot right up to Croton if that’s all right with Jesse.”

“Ten o’clock will be fine.” Kathy hesitated. “Will Phil be there this weekend?” He’d missed the last two.

“He’ll be there for lunch. He’s got a present for Jesse—I suppose to make up for taking off after lunch.” Bella’s voice betrayed her irritation. “Oh, but good news, Kathy! Jesse will get to meet another cousin this weekend. David’s coming out.”

“David’s here?” Kathy gripped the phone with such intensity that her fingernails dug into her palm. “In New York?”

“Why yes, didn’t you know?”

“I know he’d left Berlin and moved to Copenhagen,” Kathy said shakily. “I tried to call him when Marge and I were in Paris last year.”

“He went to Copenhagen on some research project. He was just there for several months. I thought you knew. David’s returned to New York permanently. He’s head of a nutrition institute right in Manhattan. He’s doing so well. Working too hard, as usual.”

“I had no idea.” All at once Kathy was cold and trembling.
David was here. Not just on a visit but to live.
“What persuaded him to come back? The new job—or his wife?”

“He’s not married. He said they’d thought about it seriously, but he was sure it wouldn’t work out. You know how devoted he is to his work. And he’s writing a book based on his research. Isn’t that exciting?”

“I’ll tell Rhoda and Frank, they’ll be so pleased. I’ll give a little reunion dinner for us,” she decided, her words tumbling over one another. “We were all together in Hamburg, you remember.”
David wasn’t married.
“Would you give me his phone number? I’ll phone him after the weekend.”

She and Bella talked for a few moments longer, then she put down the phone and tried to cope with her emotions. David was back in New York to live.

He must know she and Phil were divorced.
And he’d see Jesse this weekend.
Why hadn’t he tried to call her? He probably wouldn’t know where to reach Rhoda and Frank, but he could have called her.

She dialed Rhoda’s number, was impatient when the babysitter responded. Rhoda and Frank were down in New York for a meeting of their animal rights group, the teenager explained. Kathy felt guilty that she so seldom attended, but she supported them with regular financial contributions. She
was
involved.

“Would you like Mrs. Collins to call you back tonight?” the baby-sitter asked. “It might be late.”

“That’s all right. Tell her to buzz me whenever they get in.”

Kathy found it impossible to focus on her morning mail, opened by her assistant and placed in four piles—in order of importance—across her desk. It was late enough, she told herself. Call David. Be warm but casual.

“Kathy!” His voice was rich with tenderness. “How wonderful to hear from you! Aunt Bella told me you’d be calling.”

“I just found out Friday evening that you were in town.” She paused. “I was in Paris in February of last year. I phoned the Institute, and they said you’d moved to Copenhagen. I didn’t realize that was temporary, that you were coming here.”

“New York is home for me,” he said quietly, “I’ve thought about you so often, Kathy. And about Rhoda and Frank,” he added. “I should have called, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask the family for your phone number. You’re not listed, nor are Rhoda and Frank.”

“Rhoda and Frank are living up in Croton,” she explained.
He didn’t know what Phil did to them.
“They have a darling little girl—she was five in February.”

“How wonderful for them,” David said wistfully.

“I told Rhoda and Frank you were here. The three of us would love to see you.” She was talking too fast. He mustn’t think she was pursuing him. “Would you mind making a trek up to Croton? I’m living up there until negotiations on an apartment in Manhattan are wrapped up.”

“Just tell me when. I’ll be there. And Jesse is great,” he added. “So bright and handsome, as I knew he would be.”