Moonrise

Paul drank the last of his wine. “Got a lot on my mind, Mel.”

She closed her eyes briefly. Then, “You know what I wish?”

“What?”

“I wish we had a time machine.’He wanted to laugh.

“A time machine.”

“Yes. So we could back one year.”

One year ago he and Melissa were in the midst of their affair.

“You know,” she said softly. “Before all this other shit happened. When it was just you and me.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “That’d be nice.”

Neither of them said another word about it, but once they finished di

— When Paul woke the next morning to the buzzing of the alarm clock she was gone. Not a trace of her left, except the slight musky smell of her on the pillow he had slipped beneath her hips.

That was pretty stupid, Paul told himself. If Joa

For somebody who doesn’t really love her, he thought, you feel pretty damned shitty this morning.

SAVANNAH

Joa

“I’m taking all my belongings,” Greg said tightly to his mother. “That includes my furniture.”

Joa

But there was no other option. Greg and Paul could not live under the same roof.

After what seemed like hours, the noise stopped. Joa

He can’t leave without saying goodbye, she thought. Should I go out and see him before they drive away?

Then she heard his tap on her door. It hadn’t changed since he’d been a little boy. A single gentle tap. She had always responded to it immediately.

“Come in, Greg,” she called, shutting down the screen and placing the cyberbook reader on the end table beside her.

He looked tense, quivering with suppressed anger. Yet his shirt and slacks were neatly pressed, no perspiration stains. If he had physically helped with the moving, it did not show.

Joa

“Did you get everything?” she asked.

“Yes. I think so.”

“There’s quite a lot of things in the basement. Mostly old toys and school papers.”

He shook his head. “I won’t have room for that. My condo’s too small.”

I’ll keep it all here for you.”

Greg swallowed hard. “I— I suppose it’s time that I moved into a place of my own.”

Smiling as gently as she could, Joa

“I mean… moving out of this house.” His voice almost broke. “My home.”

She held her arms out to him and he dropped to his knees and let her embrace him.

“Oh, Greg, I’m so sorry that things have worked out this way. I didn’t want it to happen like this.”

“I know,” he said, his head on her lap. “It’s not your fault.”

“It’s not anyone’s fault.

“It’s his!” Greg snarled, looking up from his mother’s lap, his eyes red and burning. “He’s done this to us!”

“If you mean Paul—”

“He murdered my father!”

Joa

Shaking his head stubbornly, Greg insisted, “He didn’t have to do it himself. He could have hired someone.”

“He couldn’t have.”

Greg looked into his mother’s eyes. “You have no idea of how low he really is, do you?”

“Now, Greg, I won’t listen—”

“You think he loves you? He loves the corporation! He loves that stupid Moonbase!”

“He’s my husband,” Joa

“Right Sure. And last night he was in bed with Melissa Hart. Some husband.”

Joa

“Isn’t it? Do you think it’s a coincidence that Melissa’s been at the Houston and L.A. divisions the same time he’s been there? Is it an accident that they both booked the same hotel in San Francisco?”

Joa

“Why shouldn’t he take his pick of younger women?” Greg went on. “He’s the top dog now, isn’t he? He’s an important man, thanks to you. He can have any woman he wants.”

“You’re lying!”

“Check with the travel office. The two of them have been travelling across the country together. Your black CEO and his black mistress.”

“But I thought Melissa…’ Joa

“Melissa’s a slut who’ll sleep wherever the power is. You gave Paul the power so she’s gone back to him.”

“No…’ she said weakly.

“He murdered my father and he’ll spit on you now that he’s got what he wants.”

“No,” Joa

“He’s a cheat and a murderer.”

“No!”

“He is! I know he is! He murdered my father and now he’s cheating on you.”

“But why? Why would he murder your father?”

“To get you!” Greg blurted. “To get control of the corporation. To save his precious Moonbase.”

Trying to drive thoughts of Paul in bed with Melissa out of her mind, Joa

“But he already had me, Greg. I loved him and he loved me. We were going to tell your father, sooner or later. I was going to get a divorce.”

“But if you divorced Dad, then Paul could never hope to get control of the corporation. He had Dad murdered so he could make himself CEO.”

Joa

“But—”

“And that was just a few minutes before the board meeting started,” Joa

“I was there, all right,” Greg growled.

“I know, it was a shock to you, too, dear. But I had to make Paul take over the company. I’m sorry I couldn’t explain it to you beforehand.”

“He forced you into it, didn’t he?”

“No, dear. He didn’t know anything about it until just before the meeting started.”

“You didn’t trust me to run the corporation. You still don’t.”

Patiently, trying her best to mollify her son, Joa

I’m twenty-eight years old. Dad wasn’t much older when he took over from his father.”

Joa

“Greg,” she said to her son, “I know that Brad Arnold has been telling you he thinks you’re capable of ru

“Flattering?”

“Brad thinks that he can control you, and through you control the company. That’s why I had to put Paul in charge. To stop Brad.”

“He couldn’t control me.”

“He’s very clever,” Joa

“He could never control me.”

Joa