Inner Harbor
Page 39

The gin and tonic thudded onto the table. "What meeting?"
"We're going in to Social Services tomorrow morning to air out the problems, discuss the situation, and try to reach a solution."
"The hell I am. The only thing they want is to f**k me over."
"Keep your voice down," Sybill ordered sharply. "And listen to me. If you want to straighten yourself out, if you want your son back, this has to be done calmly and legally. Gloria, you need help, and I'm willing to help you. From what I can see, you're not in any shape to take Seth back right now."
"Whose side are you on?"
"His." It came out of her mouth before she realized that it was the absolute truth. "I'm on his side, and I hope that puts me on yours. We need to resolve what happened today."
"I told you I was set up."
"Fine. It still needs to be resolved. The courts aren't going to be very sympathetic to a woman who's facing charges of possession."
"Great, why don't you get on the witness stand and tell them how worthless I am? That's what you think anyway. That's what all of you always thought."
"Please, stop it." Lowering her voice to a murmur, Sybill leaned over the table. "I'm doing everything I know how to do. If you want to prove to me you want to make this work, you have to cooperate. You have to give something back, Gloria."
"Nothing's ever been free with you."
"We're not talking about me. I'll pay your legal fees, I'll talk to Social Services, I'll work to make the Quinns understand your needs and your rights. I want you to agree to rehab."
"For what?"
"You drink too much."
She sneered, deliberately gulping down more gin. "I've had a rough day."
"You had drugs in your possession."
"I said they weren't f**king mine."
"You've said that before," Sybill said, coolly now. "You get counseling, you get therapy, you get rehab. I'll arrange it, I'll foot the bill. I'll help you find a job, a place to stay."
"As long as it's your way." Gloria tossed back the rest of her drink. '
Therapy. You and the old man used that to solve everything."
"Those are the conditions."
"So you're running the show. Jesus, order me another drink. I've gotta piss." She swung her purse over her shoulder and strode past the bar.
Sybill sat back and closed her eyes. She wasn't going to order Gloria another drink, not when her sister's words were already beginning to slur. That would be another bitter little battle, she imagined.
The aspirin she'd taken had failed miserably. Pain was drumming at both temples in a sick and consistent rhythm. Across her forehead was a squeezing band of iron. She wanted nothing quite so much as to stretch out on a soft bed in a dark room and sink into oblivion.
He despised her now. It made her ache with regret and shame to remember the contempt she'd seen in Phillip's eyes. Maybe she deserved it. At that moment she simply couldn't think clearly enough to be sure. But she was sorry for it.
More than that, she was furious with herself for letting him and his opinion of her come to matter so much in such a short time. She'd known him for only a matter of days and had never, never intended to allow his emotions or hers to become entangled.
A casual physical attraction, a few mutually enjoyable hours in each other's company. That was all it was supposed to be. How had it become more?
But she knew when he'd held her, when he'd sent her blood swimming with those long, intimate kisses, she'd wanted more. Now she, who had never considered herself particularly sexy or overly emotional, was a frustrated, pitiful wreck because one man had jiggled a lock he was no longer interested in opening.
There was nothing to be done about it, she reminded herself. Certainly, considering the circumstances, she and Phillip Quinn had never been meant to develop a personal relationship of any kind. If they managed to have one now, it would be because of the child. They would both be adult, coldly polite, and--in the end, she hoped--reasonable.
For Seth's sake.
She opened her eyes as the waitress served her salad and hated the pity she saw on a stranger's face.
"Can I get you anything else? More water?"
"No. I'm fine, thank you. You could take that," she added, indicating Gloria's empty glass.
Her stomach rebelled at the thought of food, but she ordered herself to pick up her fork. For five minutes she toyed with the salad, poking at it while her gaze drifted regularly toward the rear of the restaurant.
She must be ill again, Sybill thought wearily. Now she would have to go back, hold Gloria's head, listen to her whining, and mop up the mess. One more pattern.
Battling both resentment and the shame that trickled from it, she rose and walked back to the ladies' room.
"Gloria, are you all right?" There was no one at the sinks and no answer from any of the stalls. Resigned, Sybill began to nudge doors open.
"Gloria?"
In the last stall she saw her own wallet lying open on the closed lid of the toilet. Stunned, she snatched it up, flipped through it. Her various identifications were there, and her credit cards.
But all her cash was gone, along with her sister.
Chapter Ten
with her mind jumbled with pain, her hands unsteady, and her system begging to shut down for the night, Sybill keyed open her hotel door. If she could just get to her migraine medication, to a dark room, to oblivion, she would find a way to deal with tomorrow.
She would find a way to face the Quinns, alone, with the shameful sting of failure.
They would believe she'd helped Gloria run away. How could she blame them? She was already a liar and a sneak in their eyes. In Seth's.
And, she admitted, in her own.
With slow deliberation, she turned the bolt, fixed the safety lock, then leaned back against the door until she could will her legs to move again.
When the light switched on, she stifled a yelp and covered her eyes in defense.
"You're right about the view," Phillip said from her terrace doors.
"It's spectacular."
She lowered her hand, forced her mind to engage. He'd removed his jacket and tie, she noted, but otherwise he looked just as he had when he'd confronted her at the police station. Polished, urbane, and bitterly angry.