4

            Dee Chandler Harriman hung up the phone after speaking with Dana Brodie. Leaving a message for Susan to call her when she had the opportunity to do so, Dee was anxious to pass along a bit of news, but did not want to give the impression that it was anything pressing. She wanted the full impact of the news to be a surprise.

Older than Susan by about four years, Dee, a former model, nevertheless maintained a youthful appearance and was a very attractive woman. She had inherited her mother's lovely features, and knew that people still commented that they looked more like sisters than mother and daughter.

Dee had returned to New York City about three years earlier, having lived in Los Angeles for seven years. Two of those seven had been spent as a widow. Dee had always loved New York, but had hated the cold. The California climate had been very agreeable, but widowhood had not. She had sold her share of a modelling agency to her partners and returned, in the hopes that being closer to her family and old friends would ease the loneliness. She also hoped to put aside the desolation and depression that enveloped her after her husband, photographer Jack Harriman, was killed in an avalanche while on a skiing trip. It was a tragedy Dee had unfortunately witnessed.

The fact that the first man she was interested in upon returning, namely Alex Wright, had turned out to be a serial killer put a damper on Dee's search for a new husband. The whole experience had in fact been rather eye-opening for her. The experience had also brought the two sisters closer than they had been in a very long time. It was the last time, Dee swore, that she'd willingly pursue someone Susan was even casually seeing.

Jack Harriman had been the first time. He and Susan had been very serious about each other when Susan was in her 3rd year of law school. Their relationship had reached a point where Susan, in fact, felt marriage was soon in the future.

And then she introduced us at that family party, and I fell like a ton of bricks, Dee thought, remembering that first conversation they'd had. It was Christmas, and Dee had just returned to New York, having spent a better part of the year modelling in Europe.

"Susan told me you were a model, but I didn't imagine you were this pretty," Jack had said when the two spoke alone at the party, with a little too much meaning in his voice.

Dee had initially wanted to ignore the mutual attraction they felt. It was easy to ignore at first, Dee thought, because I was still modelling all over the world for much of the New Year. But then came those disastrous publicity photos back in New York a year later. "Susan only thinks everything started with that call I made to Jack to get his opinion on those photos…but I know it was that first Christmas we met," Dee said to herself. 

Why she had ever called Jack when she was upset about the photos, Dee could only chalk up to personal weakness and desperation. We hurt her terribly when we revealed to her what was going on, Dee had had to admit to herself.

Recently, though, she also began to see that she harboured feelings of jealousy and envy towards Susan with regards to her talents, accomplishments and relationships - especially with their father, Charles. Dee knew that Susan was the 'Daddy's girl' of the two, or at least had been when they were growing up.

Charles Chandler had loved to ski, and had tried teaching both his daughters when they were young. Dee had hated it because she hated the cold. Susan, however, had thrived on the ski hill, and that winter activity provided an opportunity for father and daughter to bond.

I suppose that was the start of my jealousy, Dee thought, and I guess I resented the fact that Dad didn't try harder to find other things to do with me. I sought consolation with Mom, and later modelling became my area of expression. That should have brought me satisfaction, especially with all the attention I got from so many people.  And there were so many men who wanted to be with me, too. But Susan just always seemed happier, more content with what she had, and I wanted that. Perhaps going after Jack and marrying him was my way of convincing myself that I could have what she had, and that she wasn't immune to misery, either.

From that point there had been a rift between the sisters that was compounded by the move across the country to California that Dee and Jack had made after they'd married.

What happened with Alex brought the sisters together, because they both knew how close they'd come to losing each other. Dee remembered the frantic call she'd received from a shaky-sounding Susan late the Monday night she was on her Panama cruise, warning her about Alex. Dee had the satisfaction of identifying Alex when he'd tried to board the ship as it docked at San Blas the next morning, and watching as authorities took him into custody.

I shouldn't have tried to go after Alex, Dee regretted, and that's not just because he was a psycho. He was rightfully seeing Susie, even though I knew it was nothing serious. I swear I'll never let another man come between us again. Besides, Don's not my type, and I'm not alone anymore, either. 

Dee looked down at her left hand and smiled. The gold wedding band that had been there for ages had been replaced by a diamond engagement ring.

"Wait 'til Susie hears that Russ proposed to me last night!"