[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

with a board membees wife who had influence over her husband. But it was
his mother who held the largest block of stock and had the final vote.
Harry persuaded her to give it to him and to vote against her husband.',
"Mat's unbelievable!' ' Harry's father returned, he learned that his
family had voted him out of the company.' GMy God! s ''s more. Harry
wasn't satisfied with that.
When his father tried to get into his own office, he found that he was
barred from the building. And, remember, Harry was only in his thirties
then. His nickname around the company was the Iceman. But credit where
credit is due, Steve. He single-handedly built. Stanford Enterprises
into one of the biggest privately held conglomerates in the world. He
expanded the company to include timber, chemicals, communications,
electronics, and a staggering amount of real estate. And he wound up
with. all the stock.' ' must have been an incredible man,' Steve said.
"He was. To men - and to wornen.' ' he marriedt Simon Fitzgerald sat
there for a long time, remembering. When he finally spoke he said,
file:///G|/EBOOKS/Fiction1/Sidney%20Sheldon/MorningNoon%20Night.txt (20 of 148)10/9/2004 10:22:21 PM
file:///G|/EBOOKS/Fiction1/Sidney%20Sheldon/MorningNoon%20Night.txt
"Harry Stanford 48 married to one of the most beautiful women I've
,',,4ver seen. Emily Temple. They had three children, two boys and a
girl. Emily came from a very social family ""In Hobe Sound, Florida. She
adored Harry, and she to close her eyes to his cheating, but one day it
C. tot to be too much for her. She had a governess for 4he children, a
woman named Rosemary Nelson. Young and attractive. What made her even
more 4ttractive to Harry Stanford was the fact that she refused to go to
bed with him. It drove him crazy. He wasn't used to rejection. Well,
when Harry Stanford turned on the charm, he was irresistible. He finally
got Rosemary into bed. He got her pregnant, and she went to see a
doctor. Unfortunately, the doctor's son-in-law @was a columnist, and he
got hold of the story and printed it. There was one hell of a scandal.
You know Boston. It, was all over the newspapers. I still have clippings
about it somewhere.' ' she get an abortiont Fitzgerald shook his head.
'. Harry wanted her to have one, but she refused. They had a terrible
scene. He told her he loved her and wanted to marry her. Of course, he
had told that to dozens ofwomen. But Emily overheard their conversation,
and in the middle of that same night she committed suicide.' ''s awful.
What happened to the governess?' ' Nelson disappeared. We know that she
had a daughter she named Julia, at St. Joseph's Hospital in Milwaukee.
She sent a note to Stanford, but, I 49 don't believe he even bothered to
reply. By then, he was involved with someone new. He wasn't interested
in Rosemary anymore.' ' ... "
"The real tragedy is what happened later. The children rightfully blamed
their father for their mother's suicide. They were ten, twelve, and
fourteen at the time. Old enough to feel the pain, but too young to
fight their father. They hated him. And Harry's greatest fear was that
one day they would do to him what he had done to his own father. So he
did everything he could to make sure that never happened. He sent them
away to different boarding schools and summer camps, and arranged for
his children to see as little of one another as possible. They received
no money from him. They lived on the small trust that their mother had
left them. All their lives he used the carrot-and stick approach with
them. He held out his fortune as the caffot, then withdrew it if they
displeased him.' ''s happened to the children?' ' is a judge in the
circuit court in Chicago. Woodrow doesn't do anything. He's a playboy.
He lives in Hobe Sound and gambles on golf and polo. A few years ago, he
picked up a waitress in a diner, got her pregnant, and to everyone's
surprise, married her. Kendall is a successful fashion designer, married
to a Frenchman. They live in New York.' He stood up.
file:///G|/EBOOKS/Fiction1/Sidney%20Sheldon/MorningNoon%20Night.txt (21 of 148)10/9/2004 10:22:21 PM
file:///G|/EBOOKS/Fiction1/Sidney%20Sheldon/MorningNoon%20Night.txt
"Steve, have you ever been to Corsica?' 50 No.' Stan- ''d like you to
fly there. They're holding Harry 0is body, and the police refuse to
release it. I want u to straighten out the matter.' ' right.' If there's
a chance of your leaving today ... '. I'll work it out." fthank s. I
appreciate ' the Air France commuter flight from Paris to COr- a travel
book about Corsica. st Sloane read eve ,".,He learned that the island
was largely mountainous, that its principal port city was Ajaccio, and
that it was te. The book was the birthplace of Napoleon Bonapar filled
With interesting statistics, but Steve was totally As.
the plane unprepared for the beauty Of the island approached Corsica,
far below he saw a high solid wall te Cliffs of Dover. of white rock
that resembled the Whi It was breathtaking- and a taxi took The plane
landed at Ajaccio airport the Cours Napol6on, the main street that Steve
down stretched from place General de Gaulle northward to the train
station. He had made arrangements for a plane to stand by to fly Harry
Stanford's body back to Paris, where the coffin would be transferred to
a plane to Boston. All he needed was to get a release for the body. Ste [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]