Among the Ducklings (19 page)

##

Weeks ago,
when she planned to return to Miami to get Phil back, Stacy didn't know that
Isabel existed. Once she found out, she had to think carefully about how to get
rid of Isabel.
 
She was planning on
confronting Isabel and letting Isabel know that she and Phil were still
together.
 
She never imagined things
could work out better than that. Looking back at what she had done so far, “it's
good to have money,” she said to herself. Her plan had so far gone extremely
well. She reviewed her plan and everything on the list had worked to
perfection, especially when luck had intervened:

 
Flown to Miami.
Check.

 
Hired Phil's secretary to send messages to Phil.
Check.

 
Created the miscarriage story.
Check.

 
Carried off a great acting performance on the beach to make Phil
believe the story.
Check.

 
Hired
Vanna
to take pictures of her in
Phil's arms.
Check.

 
Paid a witness to say that they were kissing.
Check.

 
Got rid of Isabel through her own sister.
 
Check.

Only the
last leg of her plan remained, which was to have Phil fall all over for her
again. They had already started spending time together. She knew she was
beautiful with a voluptuous body that intimidated the strongest of men. She
knew that Phil could not resist her forever.
 
It was only a matter of time before Phil would be caught in her web.

##

Isabel was
working at home this Monday afternoon. She had made the center switch her
therapy session to the morning, in an effort to avoid Phil. It was now time to
make the call that she had been dreading. Richard picked up on the third ring.

“Richard?”

“Hi
Bella.
  
Where have you been?
 
I've been worried sick about you.”

“I'm
sorry,
I should have returned your call sooner.”

“Are you
OK?” Richard asked.
 
He knew what the
problem was but couldn’t tell Isabel because Isabel would know that Rebecca had
called him.

“Well, do
you remember the man who was talking to me by the lake at Tia Marcia's place?”

“His name
was Phil, I think?” Richard said, pretending to vaguely remember.
 
He didn't know what to say. For one moment he
could not swallow anything as if a knot had formed in his throat.
 
Did Isabel call to break up with him?

“Yes.
That's him,” Isabel said. She wanted to tell Richard everything but it was very
hard.
 
How do you tell your fiancé that
you have been cheating on him and ask for forgiveness?

“What about
him?” Richard asked.

“He said
that he wanted to see me and I invited him and his friend to the house for
dinner Friday night.”

“Why did
you do that?”

“I don't
know, and I was calling to say that I'm sorry. Rebecca accused me of cheating
on you.
 
I hope that you can forgive me
and I promise that I won't see him again.”

After
blurting this out, Isabel exhaled and waited.

“What did
you do at the dinner?”

“Nothing.
Phil and his friend left early.
 
I called him later and I told him that I
didn't want to see him again.”

“There is
nothing to forgive,” Richard finally said. “You made a mistake and everyone
does. The important thing is that you love me and still want to marry me,”
Richard said.
 
He hoped to remind Isabel
that he had forgiven her when he told Isabel about Kristin and his baby girl in
the future.

“Oh, yes,”
Isabel replied. “I want to marry you.”
  
She didn't address the first part of Richard's remark about love, and
Richard didn't notice.

“I wanted to
surprise you. But since I'm talking to you, I wanted you to know that I'm
coming tomorrow,” Richard said.

“I thought
you were busy with the job?” Isabel asked.

“I found
someone to help me when I'm not there,” Richard said. He wasn't completely lying
to Isabel.
 
The job was to help Kristin
with the baby, and Richard's mother had flown in the day before from Arizona
and was going to stay at the house for the next few weeks, helping and
 
freeing Richard to come back to Miami.

“I am glad
you found some help.
 
What time will you
come to the house?”

“As
soon as my plane lands.
 
We have a wedding to plan,” Richard said
before they hung up.

##

Isabel was
still thinking about Richard's last statement when the front door opened and
Rebecca came in. She had a look on her face as if she had just gotten a new
gift.

“Are you
OK?” Isabel asked.

“I was
right about him,” Rebecca said.

“About
who?”

“About
Phil.”

“Can we not
talk about him? We've already had this conversation.”

“You’ll
want to see this,” Rebecca said as she dropped the magazine in front of Isabel,
on the kitchen table.

“What's
this?”

“This is
Phil and his fiancé spending last weekend in the Keys together.”

“How do you
know it's Phil?” Isabel asked, trying her best to look uninterested, while
looking at the picture of Phil holding someone else in his arms.

“Spare me,
Isabel.
 
I talked to Phil's fiancé this
afternoon at the Center. She was looking for him and didn't know how he would
react if he saw these pictures.
 
I'm
telling you. This guy is a creep.”

“Everything
has an explanation,” Isabel said. She didn't have one and didn't believe in her
own words. “Besides, I just talked to Richard about the dinner and told him
that I was not going to see Phil anymore.”

“Good for
you,” Rebecca said before walking out of the kitchen, leaving Isabel more
distraught than ever.

##

Andy
Marshall was a perfect example of a one-hit wonder mixed with bad luck. Born in
a small place called Piney Creek, in North Carolina, he began getting some
small modeling jobs when he was sixteen years old.
 
People always told him that he looked like a
young Paul Newman, and when he was eighteen years old, he left Pine Creek to
pursue an acting career in California.
 

During the first
seven years, he survived on modeling and bartending gigs.
 
His first break came when he was offered a
small role in a television movie. Two years later, his big break came when he
was offered top billing in a big screen movie about a politician in Washington
called “The Technocrat”

At that
time, he had already started dating Stacy, and they married the day after they
received the news that he had gotten the part.
 
It took him
three months to shoot the movie, which was also the duration of the marriage.
The movie flopped at the box office and his career took a nosedive.

Six
months after his divorce, he was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
 
It was a rare, fatal brain disease that
caused rapid, progressive dementia and death.
 
He was given eighteen months to live and now he only had six months
left. He was broke, having spent all of his money on medications to keep him
sane as the disease progressed. Several months ago, he had learned that a
doctor in South Korea had conducted an experiment on some patients that slowed
the progression of the disease and prolonged the lives of the patients for more
than twenty years.
 
While the experiment
was free, most of the patients who were accepted for the experiment were
advised to donate at least $100, 000 to the private Institute where the
research was being conducted.
 
Patients
who didn't provide any donation usually had their acceptance into the program
rescinded.
 
Two days ago, he had learned
that he was accepted.
 
He needed $100,000
fast in order to save his life.
 

Although he
resented it, he knew he didn't have any choice but to call and ask Stacy for
it.
 
She was the only one who had the
money and could help. After all, Stacy had fled with most of his life savings,
and on top of it all, he knew one secret about Stacy that he knew Stacy would
never want him to reveal.
 
In spite of
the way Stacy treated him, Andy still loved Stacy and would never consider
airing Stacy's dirty laundry in public. Threatening to sell Stacy's secret
would be a last resort.
 

But as he
picked up the phone to call Stacy, he hoped that it would not reach that point.
If it did, he hoped Stacy believed him when he threatened to sell the story to
the tabloids.
 
As the phone was ringing,
he was already feeling sick to his stomach at the thought of threatening to say
anything that would hurt Stacy.

##

Stacy had
already reached her hotel suite, when her cell phone buzzed.
 
She didn't recognize the number but picked
up.

“Hi Stacy,
this is Andy.”

“How did
you get this number?” Stacy asked.

“How about,
Hi Andy how have you been?”

“OK, I'm
sorry Andy. How have you been?” Stacy said, still wondering what he needed.

“I am dying
and I need your help.”

“Are you
sure? What are you dying from?” Stacy sounded concerned to Andy. There was hope
after all.

“I have a
rare disease and I've only been given months to live.”

“I'm sorry
to hear that.
 
What can I do to help
you?”

“I have
been accepted into an experiment in South Korea. If it's successful, it will
delay the progression of the disease and extend my life span up to twenty
years.”

“I see, and
what I can do for you?”

“I need to
pay them $100,000 and I don't have it.”

“What
happened to all your money?”

“What
money, Stacy? You took most of it when you left, and the rest has been spent on
medications to delay the dementia that the disease causes.”
 
Stacy didn't respond. She did take most of
his money to get into the movie investment business. That money was due to her
anyway. She had given him three months of married life.

“What's the
rate of success?” Stacy asked.

“What do
you mean?” asked Andy, not understanding the question.

“What are
the chances that the experiment will be successful?”

“There is a
forty percent chance, why?”

“Andy, you
expect me to invest $100,000 on an experiment with only a 40% chance of
success?
 
I didn't get where I am by
doing that.
 
If it's not successful, you
won't be around to pay me back. I can't help you Andy.”

“This is my
life you're talking about,” Andy implored.

“And a bad
investment,” Stacy said, interrupting Andy. “It hurts me to tell you this, but
you haven't worked in a long time and I don't see how I would get my money
back.”

“This is
how you treat me after all we've been through together?” Andy said.

“We were
only married for three months, Andy.”

“That's not
what I'm talking about, Stacy.
 
You know
it.”

“Are you
threatening me, Andy?”

“I'm not
threatening you and I don't want to go to the tabloids with your story.
 
But I do really need the money for the
treatment. I promise that I will work for free in your movies to pay you back.”

“No can do,
Andy.
 
If you ever try to publish it, I
will deny it.
 
You're a has-been. No
one would believe you.”
 
The line then
went dead, leaving Andy to wonder how such a beautiful woman could be so
cold-hearted.

“Did
she say she was going to help you?” asked Stephanie, Andy's younger
sister who was watching him on the phone.
 
Stephanie had come from
California to help Andy, and had been staying with Andy in his one bedroom
apartment in Harlingen, Texas, the past three months.

“No.
 
She said I wasn't a good investment,” Andy
replied.