Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch

pregnant wife! And then he even had the nerve to complain when I sued the pants off him for divorce and got total custody
     of Vicky!’
    ‘Well, that’s past history now, Vivienne. I know you had custody of Vicky originally but Cornelius has had complete custody
     since she was ten years old, and he’s not going to welcome any interference from you either now or at any other time.’
    ‘Of course he won’t welcome it, but the hell with him! I can’t just sit back and let him mess up my little girl’s life! Look
     Sam, I want Vicky to come and live with me while she gets over this disaster. I know Cornelius thinks I’m poorer than white
     trash just because I had the guts to remarry and turn my back on all his million-dollar alimony, but my husband – my last
     husband, I mean – left me a little money when he died and I’ve got the cutest little house in Fort Lauderdale now – oh, I
     know it’s not Palm Beach, but it’s
nice
, Sam, and I knowsome lovely people there. Don’t you see – I could give Vicky a
normal
home! Oh Sam, you know what happens to all these heiresses – the fortune-hunters, the gigolos, the fake Russian princes,
     the drink, the drugs, the breakdowns, the suicides—’
    ‘Vivienne, Neil’s just as anxious as you are that Vicky should have a normal happy life!’
    ‘Cornelius,’ said Vivienne, ‘has lived for twenty-three years in a Fifth Avenue palace with fifty million dollars for pin-money,
     his own Wall Street bank and all the aristocracy of the Eastern Seaboard sashaying up his driveway in their Cadillacs to tell
     him hullo. He wouldn’t even recognize normality if he met it eyeball to eyeball at high noon.’
    ‘Nonsense! The Van Zales have the quietest, happiest and least pretentious family life of any people I know!’
    ‘Well, if that’s true,’ said Vivienne fiercely, ‘why does Vicky run away from home at the very first opportunity she gets?
     I’m not calling you a liar, darling, but I think there’s a screw loose in that household somewhere and I want my little girl
     back.’ To my amazement she began to weep and her bosom, which Cornelius had once confessed had given him more wet dreams than
     any other piece of anatomy he had ever encountered, rose and fell with mesmerizing precision. It was miraculous how well she
     had retained her figure, almost as miraculous as her success in looking younger than I was when she was fourteen years my
     senior.
    ‘Have another drink,’ I said wishing I was in bed with Teresa, and tried to think clearly. I had the strong feeling that despite
     my reluctance to be involved the situation could be turned to my advantage. The fact was that I was already involved; if I
     wanted Cornelius to grant me that leave of absence from Van Zale’s, I had to persuade him to abandon his matrimonial pipe-dream,
     and in order to achieve that I had to provide him with an alternative solution to Vicky’s problems. Beneath Vivienne’s stagey
     weeping and phony mannerisms I sensed a genuine concern for her daughter, and I thought it could be argued, not unreasonably,
     that Vicky would benefit from a long vacation in Florida. Whether Cornelius would accept this argument was debatable, but
     I could try. What did I have to lose? I rose to my feet, moved to the phone and picked up the receiver.
    ‘Okay, I’ll get him on the line.’
    ‘Oh Sam … darling …’ Vivienne, trembling with gratitude, was teetering across the floor to kiss me on the cheek.
    A Van Zale aide answered the phone.
    ‘Keller,’ I said. ‘Is he there?’
    ‘Darling!’ breathed Vivienne again, stretching out her hand to take the receiver, but I stepped backwards away from her.
    ‘I’ll handle this, Vivienne, if you don’t mind … Neil? Yes, it’s me. Can you take some upsetting information without getting
     upset? I’ve got Vivienne here with me. She wants to invite Vicky down to Fort Lauderdale for a while to give everyone a breathing
     space, and