Southern Lights by Danielle Steel

the new black high heels?” Savannah was almost smiling. More than anything, she was in shock. They all were. Things were moving very fast.
    “Okay, okay,” Alexa conceded about the shoes, if it would help. “You can have them too. You drive a hard bargain.”
    “What if his wife hates me? I’ve never even met her. She probably won’t like having me there,” Savannah said, panicked. That sounded like a major understatement to her mother. Luisa was a bitch on wheels, and Savannah had heard her say it for years.
    “Daddy will take care of it. You’re not staying forever. It’s only for three months. I’ll try to come down next week.”
    “You’d better, or I’m running away and coming home.”
    “Don’t you dare!” Alexa said sternly, but she knew Savannah wouldn’t do that. She had been reasonable all her life. And she was being reasonable now too, even if it was a hard situation for her. “I’d better go pack now. I’ll see you later, sweetheart.”
    Tom called her ten minutes later, and said he had gotten them on a six o’clock flight that would land in Charleston at eight-thirty, and they were leaving Vermont right then. He hoped to be at JFK by four or five.
    “I’ll be there at four with her bags. Call me on my cell phone when you get to the airport.” She gave him the number, which he had never had before. All he had was her e-mail, but they had to work together now. “I’ll be at the United terminal.”
    “I’ll try to get there as soon as I can, so you have a little time together. She’s pretty upset.” He could hear that Alexa was too. But none of them were half as upset as Luisa when he called and told her the news.
    “Are you crazy? You’re bringing her here? You can’t do that. Daisy doesn’t know that she exists.” Daisy was the ten-year-old daughter she had conceived to break up his marriage to Alexa and get him back. She hadn’t given a damn about their boys during his marriage to Alexa—she had abandoned them for eight years. She had left him for an oil tycoon in Texas, and left the boys with their father, but as soon as her new husband died, she came running back. She had used a baby to get him, and he had stupidly fallen into her trap. He had bitterly regretted it in the years since. But it was too late to do anything about it now. All he could do was try to make it up to Alexa by taking care of Savannah. He owed her at least that—Savannah was his child too.
    “Well, you’d better tell her,” Tom told Luisa coldly, referring to Daisy’s not knowing she had a sister and that her father had been married to someone else. “We’ll be home tonight, and I’m not going to have Savannah pretend to be someone else. This is hard enough on her as it is.”
    “Hard on her? What about me and Daisy? Did you think about that? Or have you been screwing around with her mother? Is that what this is about?”
    “I just saw Alexa for the first time in ten years. Our daughter’s life is at risk here. I’m bringing her home, Luisa, like it or not.”
    “You sonofabitch. I always knew you’d go back to Alexa someday.” She knew Tom didn’t love her. It didn’t matter to Luisa. She had wanted her old life back, and him, when it was convenient for her. It was always and only about her.
    “She wouldn’t go near me with a ten-foot pole, and she’s absolutely right,” he said about Alexa. “I screwed her over ten years ago. The only reason she’s talking to me now is because she needs someplace to send Savannah. Someone is threatening our daughter. Probably related to the case her mother is working on. I have to bring Savannah home. Her life may be on the line.” It made him sick that he even needed to argue with her about it. Luisa didn’t have a drop of human kindness in her, or compassion. She would never have done what Alexa had for her boys. It was ironic that now Luisa was in the position of having to take care of Alexa’s child. Alexa had done it for Luisa for seven