Child's Play Read online

  Child’s Play is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Danielle Steel

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  DELACORTE PRESS and the HOUSE colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

  Hardback ISBN 9780399179501

  Ebook ISBN 9780399179518

  randomhousebooks.com

  Book design by Virginia Norey, adapted for ebook

  Cover image: Melaie Germain/iStock/Getty Image Plus

  v5.4

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Dedication

  By Danielle Steel

  About the Author

  …A foolish man which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell and great was the fall of it.

  …A wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

  MATTHEW 7:26–27, 24–25

  Chapter 1

  It was one of the first really warm days in early June, as Kate Morgan looked at the meticulously neat stacks of files on her desk. She liked everything to be precise around her, and an orderly life. She had lived through the unexpected shocks that can happen when her husband died nineteen years before, and she’d had to make order from chaos. Her children, Tamara, Anthony, and Claire, had been thirteen, ten, and seven at the time. She herself had been thirty-five, and had never expected to be widowed at that age.

  Her husband, Tom Morgan, had been a beloved congressman. They’d met when she was in college and he was in law school, and married when she graduated. His dream had been to go into politics, hers to go to law school, but she had staunchly stood beside him instead, as the perfect political wife, raising their three children. He had died in a helicopter accident in a storm, while visiting a disaster area in Upstate New York after a flood. The news coverage about him had made him sound like a modern day saint. Friendly, open, accessible, he had been popular ever since his first election. Kate and the children had been devastated, and she had struggled to put meaning back into their lives without him. He had been a wonderful father, and a good and loving husband for most of their marriage. Now, nineteen years later, the children still revered him, and Kate had seen to it that their memories of their father were untarnished.

  The insurance money he had left for them had made them comfortable though not rich by any means, and had given Kate options she hadn’t considered before. A year after Tom’s death, she had started law school at Columbia University in New York. It had been a struggle managing school and taking care of the children, but she’d hired a housekeeper and also had her mother to help her. At thirty-six, she was the oldest student in her class, and had graduated with honors at thirty-nine.

  She had worked at Berrigan Feldman and McCarthy for the past fifteen years, since she’d passed the bar, and was a senior partner now. Her specialty was corporate law, and she was a talented litigator, handling some of the firm’s most important lawsuits.

  Kate had three trials scheduled in the next few months, if they didn’t settle first. She was a tough negotiator and a strong person, though a devoted mother and gentle in her private life. Becoming an attorney had added a whole new dimension to her life. She loved her work, and her children had adjusted to her schedule as her career grew exponentially. They were as proud of her as she was of them. She worked hard and was a strong role model for them. Now that they were grown up, she had more time and worked even harder. It had been a juggling act when they were younger, helping them with homework every night, and getting them to their sports games and school performances, but she did it. She expected excellence from them, and set the bar high for her children and herself. The results had been impressive, three solid, stable, well-balanced kids, all good students who had moved on to jobs they loved. She’d never had a serious problem with any of them, which Kate assumed was the norm, although she occasionally conceded she’d been lucky.

  She had encouraged her children to pursue careers that were meaningful to them. They had survived their father’s death with no visible signs of damage, no drug or alcohol problems, no failing grades, no problems with the law. Neither of the girls had ever gotten pregnant. Kate was the envy of her friends. As adults, all three were nice human beings with social consciences, and had graduated from good schools and colleges. Her own successful career had supplemented Tom’s insurance handsomely. She loved spending time with her children, and was grateful for their time together now, despite busy lives and demanding jobs.

  None of her children were married, although Anthony had gotten engaged six months before. Kate thought his fiancée was perfect for him. Anthony was twenty-nine, Amanda twenty-eight. Her father was an investment banker who lived in Bronxville, and had done extremely well. Amanda had gone to a respectable college, and had left school for a job as an assistant editor at Vogue. She worked for the beauty editor, and was a striking looking girl, with blond hair and blue eyes, like Kate herself. Both women were tall. Amanda could have been a model, and she had made her debut ten years before at the cotillion in New York. Her parents were socially prominent and very nice people. Kate loved the idea of Anthony being married to a girl like Amanda, and the life they would lead together.

  Anthony had gone to MIT, and was almost a computer genius. He was also a graphic designer and designed videogames for the largest videogame company in the world. He was handsome, lovable, and talented, but sometimes socially awkward, and she knew that with Amanda, he would have respectable friends in good social circles, not just the geeks he worked with. Amanda would broaden his horizons beyond his computer screen, which tended to mesmerize him until he forgot everything else.

  She took him to parties, and they wound up on Page Six of the New York Post occasionally, which pleased Kate. She was sure Amanda would be a terrific wife. She had no great ambitions at Vogue, but she enjoyed her job. She was more interested in marriage than her career.

  For the past six months, she and her mother had focused on every detail of the wedding. She had bought her wedding dress the week they got engaged, which Anthony’s sisters thought was silly, but Kate thought was sweet. They had met at a mutual friend’s wedding in Martha’s Vineyard the summer before, and got engaged at Christmas. Their wedding was scheduled for December, which was only six months away now.

  Kate left her office in perfect order, taking long graceful strides toward the elevator. She looked a dozen yea
rs younger than her fifty-four years, with long blond hair she wore pulled back. Her body was fit and athletic. A trainer came to work out with her three times a week. She was smiling in anticipation as she walked to the French restaurant ten minutes from her office on Park Avenue and East Fifty-fourth Street, to meet her youngest daughter, Claire. She looked just like her father, with dark hair and dark eyes. She was smaller than her mother, with a casual sexiness she was unaware of. She had graduated from NYU law school a year before, and worked for a rival firm as an associate corporate attorney, following in her mother’s footsteps.

  At twenty-six, Claire was on an excellent career path, which pleased her mother, and she frequently asked Kate for advice. She was waiting outside the restaurant in a short black skirt and high heels, with her dark hair piled on top of her head. Kate beamed when she saw her. Claire’s office was nearby, and Kate loved having lunch with her. She was bouncy and fun and young, and irrepressibly romantic. She had gone through a string of short-term boyfriends before, during, and after law school. Her relationships never lasted long, but they were intense and burned themselves out quickly, and then she would move to another one. She was never alone for long. There was no shortage of men in her life, unlike her older sister, Tammy, a senior vice president of marketing at Chanel, who never had time to date. She said relationships were something she’d think about later. Her rise in the company had been rapid, at the expense of her personal life, which she neglected, somewhat like her mother. Claire managed to do both, work hard and date, and men could never resist her.

  Kate kissed her and they walked into the restaurant, and heads turned when they entered. Claire had the looks that attracted men to her, and had even as a teenager, and Kate was a beautiful woman. The maître d’ was pleased to see them both and gave them their favorite corner table.

  “You look happy,” Kate commented as soon as they sat down, and Claire grinned as she nodded.

  “They gave me three new cases to do discovery on. Really interesting ones.” She never revealed anything confidential to her mother, but loved talking shop with her, and getting insights into the laws and precedents that affected the cases she was working on.

  “That should keep you out of trouble,” Kate teased her. They both ordered lobster salad for lunch, and the conversation moved quickly as they chatted. “Have you seen your brother lately?” Kate asked her, as they finished their salads and ordered coffee.

  “Ugh, I never see him anymore. He barely answers my texts. I facetimed him last weekend, and he was in Bronxville at Amanda’s parents’. He’s always with her. I think he likes their pool. It feels like he’s been kidnapped by aliens. He used to be fun to hang out with. Now he never has time for anyone but Amanda.”

  “They’re engaged. It’s pretty normal for them to spend a lot of time together,” Kate said calmly. She knew Claire’s views on the subject diametrically opposed her own.

  “All she talks about is the wedding. The dress, the shoes, the bridesmaids’ dresses, the flowers. She’s going to bore him blind in a year. He deserves better, Mom, and you know it.”

  “She’s perfect for him,” Kate insisted, as she always did when the subject came up between them. “She comes from a good family. She has nice parents. She has a good education.”

  “Which she’s wasting, picking out lipsticks for someone to write about in Vogue. She’s going to drive Anthony crazy. Don’t be such a snob, Mom. No one cares that she made her ‘debut.’ After this it’ll be all about babies, and she’ll be even more boring. Anthony’s not ready for kids. I don’t think he’s ever even seen one, except on a videogame. Amanda pushed him into getting engaged.”

  Kate looked serious when she answered. “He loves her, Claire, even if it doesn’t make sense to you.”

  “Does he? He looks like a deer in the headlights every time I see them together, and she never lets me see him alone. He’s my brother for God’s sake. We used to have fun together, and now he’s becoming as boring as she is. It’s pathetic.”

  “They’ll think about other things once they’re married. Right now the wedding is the priority,” Kate said firmly.

  “Yeah, her priority, not his. Why don’t you want more for him, someone smarter or more interesting or exciting?”

  “She’ll ground him. He needs that. Otherwise he’ll be lost in his virtual world forever. She’s the best thing that ever happened to him.”

  “I can’t believe you really think that. If I had a job like hers, you’d kill me.”

  “She’s not you,” Kate said simply.

  “Grandma agrees with me too,” Claire said, as though that were the definitive word on the subject. Kate’s mother had been the second most important person in her children’s lives, and a strong voice in their midst. She was usually the only one Kate listened to, but not this time. Margaret Chapman, Kate’s mother, was seventy-six years old, vibrant and alive, and had retired three years before as a psychologist and marriage and family therapist. Kate and her mother were not just mother and daughter, but had always been best friends too.

  “You’re both wrong on this, trust me,” Kate said without hesitation about her son’s fiancée. “If he married a geek like him, they’d never figure out how to cook dinner or where the kitchen is and they’d starve.”

  “And Amanda can cook? Please. She makes him take her out every night.”

  “It’s good for him. He’d stay in his office till two A.M. if she didn’t. She complements him.” Kate was definite about it, and had been thrilled with the match since the beginning.

  “I can’t stand her,” Claire said, looking glum, and then a smile crept onto her face again, as her mother looked at her intently, happy to change the subject. It was an argument neither of them was going to win.

  “Why is it that I get the feeling that you’re happy about more than just three new cases you’ve been assigned?” Claire had that all too familiar look she got when she was infatuated with someone. Kate knew her children well. “New man?” Claire was usually fairly open with her mother. She had no secrets, or couldn’t keep them for long when she did. She was the romantic in the family.

  “Hmm…maybe,” she said vaguely as the waiter set the café filtre down in front of them, and Claire smiled dreamily at her mother, with a total shift of gears. “I met someone, Mom. He’s incredible. I’ve never known anyone like him.” Kate didn’t remind her of the hundreds of times she had said that before, but Claire could see it in her eyes. “No, seriously, I mean it. He’s an adult, Mom. He’s a man.” She generally fell in love with irresponsible young boys. And however appealing at the outset, they didn’t hold her interest for long.

  “That’s a point in his favor. How did you meet him?” she asked, praying it wasn’t online. Kate had a strong aversion to online dating and had expressed it often. She thought it an ideal way to meet sociopaths and liars, and considered it very high risk.

  “I met him at work,” Claire said cryptically.

  “Is he a young associate like you?” which Kate assumed. There were lots of attractive young men starting out at most law firms, so this might not be such a bad thing. Claire shook her head in answer and Kate raised an eyebrow. “A partner?” That could be awkward, particularly a senior partner chasing a young girl, and worse yet if he was married. Kate hoped he wasn’t. Claire shook her head again. “Okay, I can’t stand the suspense, a paralegal? A janitor? A messenger?” she teased her.

  “He’s a client,” Claire said with a dreamy look and her mother frowned.

  “Wow, that could be very awkward. Does the partner you work for know?” Claire shook her head.

  “They brought me in to take notes at a settlement conference. And after everyone left, he talked to me for a few minutes. As soon as he looked at me, I knew this was it.” Kate almost groaned as she listened. They’d been here before. But with a client of the firm, Claire could jeopardize he
r job. She had to tell them at least. Kate felt she owed them full disclosure to be above board about it.

  “When did this happen?” Kate looked stunned.

  “Two months ago. We’ve been seeing each other almost every day since.”

  “Is he married?” She’d never done that before.

  “Of course not. He hasn’t had time to get married. He works all the time. Mom, I know this sounds crazy, but I know he’s the one. He says the same thing. It was like destiny the minute we met.” Kate wanted to cry at how naïve her daughter was.

  “You can’t say that after two months, it’s too soon. Besides, you’re too young.” Although she knew that reason never impressed her daughter, once she was involved with someone.

  “You were married and had two kids at my age,” Claire said, dismissing her mother’s comment.

  “That was different. People married younger then, and your father and I dated for a lot longer than two months before we knew it was right. And more important, you ought to tell the firm. They can’t stop you from seeing him, but they should know. You can’t work on his legal matters anymore.”

  “It’s not an issue. They settled the case.”

  “You should still tell them, so it doesn’t come out later. Sweetheart, you have to be careful. You can’t fall head over heels for every client.”

  “I haven’t. Just him.” She looked like a child as she said it. Claire was more immature than her older brother and sister, and somewhat spoiled since she was the baby. Everyone let her get away with it. She sometimes pouted for weeks to get what she wanted.

  “What’s his name?” Kate asked, still looking worried. Claire made it sound serious. She always did, and it was to her.