Eighteen
HELEN AND I STARE AT Sharon for a few moments, not saying anything. Frank’s the first to break the silence. “Are you . . . are you telling me that my daughter, your stepdaughter, was involved with Richard Davenport? That murdering degenerate?”
“I don’t know she was involved with him, Frank,” Sharon says. “I saw her having dinner with him. That’s all.”
“And that’s the only time you saw Ashley with President Davenport?” Helen asks.
Sharon nods. “She came over a couple of weeks later and I actually screwed up the courage to ask her who he was. Ashley wouldn’t tell me, said she was an adult and who she saw was her own business. I tried pressing her, then she yelled, ‘Back off, you’re not my mother and you never will be!’ That’s how our talks usually ended, so I never asked her aga
