Chapter 7
Marguerite sighed heavily as she walked alone in the zoo, watching the animals play together or rest. Three days had gone by without a single word from Wren. Worse, her father had called two hours ago to yell at her about Blaine's arrest and pending trial. Apparently neither Blaine nor his father had bothered to inform him just who Wren really was-Blaine most likely refused to believe it. After all, whose family could ever be more important than his own? And how could anyone with Wren's kind of money ever do anything other than bask in his own greatness?
It was enough to make her sick, and even now she could hear her father's angry voice in her head.
"He will have a permanent mark on his record and for what? A worthless vagrant you decided to befriend? Really, Marguerite, what is wrong with you? Blaine's father has helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars at a time for my campaign, and my daughter had his only son arrested? Are you trying to kill me? Do you want me to drop dead from cardiac arrest so that you can have your inheritance early? Just take a gun out and shoot me then. Get it over with..."
And then he'd pulled out the one zinger that never failed to tear straight through her.
"This is what I get for marrying a Cajun against my family's wishes. I should never have had children. They're a liability no politician can afford."
She hadn't even been able to get a word in edgewise during his entire forty-five-minute rant. After a while, she hadn't even tried. She'd set the phone down on the counter, munched chips, and flipped through a magazine while he railed. Once he'd finished, she'd simply apologized and hung up.
Her father had never been the kind of man to listen to reason. Of course, she could have ended the whole thing by telling him who Wren was and why Blaine hadn't been able to bribe his way out of trouble, but she took sadistic pleasure out of not telling him. Let her father go on with his delusions.
Knowing her dad, he'd do a full turnaround as soon as he learned about Wren's wealth.
But she didn't want her father to like Wren because Wren was wealthy. She wanted him to see the man, not the money.
Shaking her head, she walked down the wooden pathway between the cages in the zoo as she tried to put the whole thing out of her mind. But it was impossible. She didn't want to fight with her father.
All she wanted was to have her father be proud of her. To accept her. And yet he was so unreasonable. She'd never known anyone who could make up their mind so fast with so little information and then argue into infinity that they were right while everyone else was wrong.
"One day I'm going to stand up to you, Dad," she whispered. At least she hoped she could, but it was hard. No matter what, she loved him. He was her father and he had profound moments of tenderness...
At least sometimes.
He just had higher expectations for her. He wanted her to be like Whitney or Elise, a perfect debutante. A stunning beauty who could be some rich man's consort. One who threw strategic parties to help her husband climb the ladder of success in whatever venue he chose.
But that wasn't her. She was plain and far from skinny or petite. As for parties... she'd rather be alone in a corner somewhere reading. She hated being nice to people she didn't like because her tamer wanted their contributions. She hated being fake. All she wanted was to be herself.
She wanted to make her own mark on the world like her mother had done before her marriage, not be the helpmate for someone else. That kind of life had destroyed her mother, and she knew intrinsically that it would kill her, too.
"I just want to breathe." She didn't care what she did so long as it was a job or career she chose. She wouldn't be locked in a cage like the animals here. No matter how much she loved her father, she refused to let him treat her the way he'd done her mother. Sooner or later, she was going to force him to see her for herself.
Marguerite stopped her walk in front of the white tiger exhibit. Since she was a little girl, she'd always loved to come to the zoo. It had been her mother's favorite place on earth.
Her mother had grown up here. It'd been Marguerite's maternal grandfather who'd led the crusade to save the zoo in the seventies and early eighties. He had been a visionary who had taken the zoo out of the dark ages and turned it into one of the leading zoos in the country.
Everywhere she looked, she saw her mother's side of the family here.
For that matter, she saw her mother.
When her mother had been a college student at Tulane, she'd worked here as a docent. She had planned on being a veterinarian or zookeeper after college, but her marriage had stopped all of her dreams.
The only time Marguerite could remember her mother smiling and laughing was when she'd brought her here and told her stories about the different animals and how they lived and hunted. It was here that Marguerite found peace.
Here that she could again feel her mother's presence.
Marguerite's father hated this place. To him was gauche, common, and filthy. But to Marguerite it was beautiful.
"I miss you, Mom," she whispered as she watched the two tigers play in a small facsimile of their wilderness home.
She'd only been twelve when her mother, sick of being a politician's wife, had overdosed on antidepressants. Of course Marguerite's father had covered it up so that everyone thought it'd been an accident, but she knew the truth. Her father had refused to divorce her mother or even live apart. It would have been bad for his career.
Unable to stand the prospect of being castigated for her friends, her wardrobe, and her taste in everything for the rest of her life, her mother had taken matters into her own hands. She'd left a final note telling Marguerite to be stronger than she had been.
Follow your heart, Marguerite. Don't let anyone tell you how to live your life. It's the only one you have, mon ange. Live it for both of us.
Marguerite's lips quivered as grief swept through her. Her mother had been a truly beautiful and gentle soul.
For the longest time, Marguerite had hated her father after her mother's death. And in truth, she'd hated God for leaving her alone with him. But as she grew older, she'd begun to understand him a bit.
Like Blaine and Todd, he was at the mercy of his own family's ambitions for his future. Her grandfather had run her father's entire life from birth. Her grandfather still did in many ways. Even as a powerful senator, her father always deferred to his father for advice. If Grandpa was upset, Dad was upset and contrite.
The only time her father had ever stood up to her grandfather had been by marrying her mother.
Marguerite wasn't even sure that her father ever really loved her mother. Her mother had been one of those absolutely stunning women. The kind of beauty who turned everyone's head. Any man would have wanted her.
No doubt her father had been attracted to her for her exceptional looks. Not to mention, as a former Miss Louisiana and a Cajun whose father had saved their beloved Audubon Zoo, she was a major benefit to a man with political ambitions. With her mother by his side, her father had been able to claim that he understood the needs of all members of Louisiana-both rich and poor.
Well, he might understand their needs, but he'd never understood his daughter's and he never would.
"Hi, Maggie."