Sidney Sheldon’s
After the Darkness
Tilly Bagshawe
For Kerstin and Louis Sparr.
With love.
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the
essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms—greed for life, for money,
for love, for
knowledge—has marked the upward surge of
mankind.
—GORDON GEKKO, IN WALL STREET, 1987
Contents
Epigraph
Prologue
THE DAY OF RECKONING HAD ARRIVED.
Book 1
One
WHAT DO YOU THINK, GRACIE? THE black or
the blue?”
Two
IT WAS THE MORNING AFTER THE Quorum Ball,
a Saturday.
Three
SENATOR JACK WARNER WOKE UP ON
Saturday morning with a…
Four
CONNIE GRAY STOOD IN THE PLAYGROUND,
watching her sons on…
Five
LENNY AND GRACE BROOKSTEIN’S
NANTUCKET ESTATE was an idyllic, sprawling,…
Six
JOHN MERRIVALE TIGHTENED HIS SEAT BELT
and closed his eyes…
Seven
LATER, THE PERIOD AFTER LENNY’S
DISAPPEARANCE blurred in Grace’s memory…
Eight
DONNA SANCHEZ ENJOYED HER WORK AT
the city morgue. Her…
Nine
GRACE BROOKSTEIN PLAYED WITH THE
BUTTONS on her Chanel bouclé…
Ten
GRACE BROOKSTEIN’S CONVICTION AND
LIFE SENTENCE—the cumulative punishment for
all…
Eleven
SHE WAS SURROUNDED BY BRILLIANT
WHITE LIGHT. Not the peaceful…
Twelve
GRACE’S FIRST YEAR AT BEDFORD HILLS
passed quickly.
Thirteen
KAREN WILLIS RUBBED HER EYES. IT was two
in the…
Fourteen
WARDEN MCINTOSH STORMED INTO THE
CHILDREN’S CENTER. All the kids…
Book 2
Fifteen
DETECTIVE MITCH CONNORS RETURNED TO
HIS desk in a pensive…
Sixteen
AS SHE CLIMBED INTO THE VAN, the warm air
hit…
Seventeen
MARIA PRESTON FLOATED INTO THE SIXTHFLOOR Caprice restaurant in Hong…
Eighteen
BEING IN NEW YORK AGAIN, EXPERIENCING
the sights and smells,…
Nineteen
MITCH BURST INTO THE INTENSIVE-CARE
UNIT.
Twenty
DAVEY BUCCOLA PACED HIS HOTEL ROOM
like a caged tiger.
Twenty-One
FOR THREE DAYS, GRACE LAY LOW. She found
a new…
Twenty-Two
ANDREW PRESTON...