Betrayal Read Online Free PDF Page A

a few years before that, she wouldn’t have gotten pregnant and had a baby. She was pretty lost for a while, although her father had always been there for her. But she was sure her mother would have handled it differently, and probably wouldn’t have insisted she get married, which her father did. The whole event had been a big mistake, except that she had gotten a terrific daughter out of it, and was grateful for that. Max was a wonderful kid, and had never caused her mother a moment of grief. And her aspirations to be a lawyer like her grandfather sounded good to Tallie. She didn’t want her in the movie business. It was too hard a life, full of unstable people, and a crazy world. She had never encouraged her to hang out with movie stars’ children, although Max had met several at school. But she was a levelheaded girl, and some of the stars’ children were surprisingly nice kids too. Max had always avoided the bad ones, and had a knack for gathering wholesome young people around her.
    “Have a nice day, Mom,” she said cheerfully after a few minutes, and they hung up, and then Tallie remembered to tell Brigitte about the audit for their Japanese investor. Tallie asked her to call Victor Carson, their accountant, and ask him to cooperate fully with them, and give them whatever they wanted.
    “At least you don’t have to do the work on it,” Tallie said to her, looking relaxed as she pulled out the script.
    “I’ll give Victor whatever he wants, if he needs anything from me.” Brigitte was good with figures and kept impeccable track of all of Tallie’s bills. There was never a problem about not having bills or receipts for whatever she paid for. After the first several years of chasing Tallie around to sign the checks, they had set up an account where Brigitte could sign them to pay all her bills. It saved Tallie the time and headache, and Brigitte kept meticulous accounts of everything. She had a charge card she used for Tallie’s expenditures as well, and she handled everything for Max, who lived in the apartment Tallie owned in New York.
    She and Victor worked well together, and Tallie counted on both of them to keep her financial life in order. With Brigitte at the helm, it ran like a Swiss clock. Hunt always said he was envious of her and wished he had an assistant like Brigitte. She was even helpful to him too, and never minded assisting him with anything.
    Tallie read the script changes on the way back to Palm Springs, and they had faxed several more to Brigitte at midnight the night before. She had brought those with her too, and Tallie went over all of it, while making copious notes. She wanted more changes when they got to the set, which did not surprise Brigitte. That was how she worked, vigilant about the tiniest detail.
    “So what did you do last night?” she asked her assistant as they approached Palm Springs.
    “Nothing much. Took a bath, read, answered some e-mails. I went to bed pretty early. I need my beauty sleep,” Brigitte said innocently. The one thing she never told Tallie about was the actors she got involved with on the set. Once in a while Tallie found out, and she didn’t say anything about it. She had a don’t ask, don’t tell attitude, and figured that it was one of the perks of Brigitte’s job, if that was what she wanted, and it seemed to be. Tallie didn’t think it was worth the trouble commenting on it since Brigitte’s on-set romances never lasted longer than the making of the film. It was fine with her, as long as she didn’t put Tallie in a compromising position of some kind, or promise favors she couldn’t deliver, but Brigitte was too smart for that, and never stepped over that line. So Tallie figured that whoever Brigitte slept with was none of her business. She looked a little too innocent to her employer and old friend as they drove along, and Tallie smiled, wondering who it was. Undoubtedly someone very young, one of the extras or young actors. That was