ASHLEY AND STACI MAKE THE NEWS
"The best proof of love is trust."
Joyce Brothers
Ashley and Staci caught in an embrace in Mombasa...
Shane Simba was in his office looking over the daily newspapers handed him by one of his secretaries. He looked aghast at a picture of his daughter Staci caught by the paparazzi in a canoodling moment with Ashley Lyon. At the precise instant that he was attempting to make sense of the photograph he was eyeballing, his wife stepped in the room.
“My God, Alex, this is a picture of Staci caught in Mombasa with Ashley Lyon and the damned thing isn’t platonic either,” he roared.
“Oh dear, it’s far too early for this affair to be exposed. Ashley and Staci are supposed to be getting things sorted out before the press finds out,” said Alexandra, taking the paper to see what this was about.
Shane turned angry green eyes from the paper to his wife.
“You knew about this thing, Alex? And you didn’t tell me?”
“Staci confided in me and of course I didn’t tell you. It was a confidence from an adult female to her stepmother. I wouldn’t have betrayed it for the world.”
“I am her father,” he continued to harangue. “I have every right to know if my daughter is going with a married male like Ashley Lyon. He is a notorious player as well. This bodes badly for Staci and to think that you didn’t warn me.”
“Stop bleating, Shane. I won’t stand here and take a lecture from you. I value Staci’s friendship and will continue to treat her as an adult,” said Alexandra, quite perturbed.
“Bleating?”
“Yes, I know you are a lion but you were bleating and going on in a nonsensical manner feeling your oats as you lectured.”
“Alex, you have betrayed my confidence in you by not being a proper mother to one of my children,” he said.
Alexandra shot a fast arm out and smacked her hubby in the face.
“What the fuck?” he shouted, grabbing his nose.
“You were forewarned, Shane. I will not be lectured like a demented person who lacks all sensibilities.”
She turned and left his office, slamming the door behind her. He stood there a bit until I entered his office. He still had his hand on his nose.
“Are you alright, Sir?” I inquired, handing him another global newspaper with a commendable article about Kenya.
He began to laugh heartily. “Maurice, I wed a real corker.”
“I know you did, Sir,” I said winking at him.
“Alex takes no shit from anyone and especially not from me,” he said still chuckling.
That evening Shane peaked in Alexandra’s office to be told by Bernice Bear that she had gone to feed the twins. He thanked his wife’s mainstay and headed across the lawn to the mansion. He found Alexandra in the library before a warming fire. Sacha and Tanya were in their rolling cribs, having just finished nursing. He looked down at his newest born then took a seat next to his wife. He poured a Scotch from the silver tray on the coffee table.
“Is your nose still suffering any ill effects?” she asked, with a wily glint in her eyes.
“I got busy and failed to notice. Are you inquiring by way of an apology?” he asked.
“No, merely inquiring. In my study of lions all the books say that as a last ditch effort you can hit them in the nose,” she said, smiling.
Shane threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Darling, I believe that is said of shark attacks. You hit sharks in the nose, not lions….”
“It stopped your blathering cold, didn’t it?”
“Yes, it did that. And by the way, Alex, I’m sorry about what I said in the office this morning. Of course you need to keep Staci’s confidences. She is an adult and she does love and trust you.”
“Shane, I also told her not to tell you until she and Ashley had it all sorted out. I may have been wrong about that but I didn’t want you to be worried about it unnecessarily so saying it didn’t pan out.”
“You were probably right about that, Alex. My concern is that Ashley is a player and will hurt Staci badly.”
“You were a player, Luv.”
“Not any longer. I met the right one and turned around, Alex.”
“That’s precisely where I’m going with this, Luv. It may be that Ashley Lyon has met the right one in Staci and will turn around too.”
“Ashley is married as we speak, darling. He has two new cubs. The whole thing sucks in my book. Lucy Cougar was Staci’s friend in nursing school. I don’t know how my daughter is thinking on this score or even if she is.”
“Staci is not thinking, Shane. She is in love. Don’t face her with this right now, please. Let her have a chance to come to you when she feels the time is right.”
“What would I do without you, Alex? You are absolutely brilliant.”
“We’ll turn in early after we tuck the babies in. You can express all of this wonderment to me then,” she giggled, leaning against him and lighting a cigarette for both of them.
With the picture splashed across several newspapers outing Ashley Lyon and Staci Simba’s affair, an irate Bernard Cougar picked up the phone and advised his youngest daughter, Lucy Cougar Lyon, to return to her family’s home. But Ashley had gotten to his home before the call and had lulled Lucy into thinking that it was all a mistake. That he had met up with Staci in Mombasa where he had headed a safari. I was just comforting her over her divorce. Lucy, long on naiveté and short on real intellectualism, bought the story. She loved being Mrs. Ashley Lyon and really didn’t want to rock the boat.
Suddenly, the media began to cite the various negative habits of Staci’s parents. She was now deemed a potential home wrecker and where the media had once loved her, they turned on her with a vengeance. They brought up her mother Catherine’s short but intensely troubled life in addition to her dad’s philandering nature. Shane Simba called a press conference to ask the media to go easy on his daughter, Staci. It provided a little surcease but not much.
Ashley Lyon arrived at Leah’s home shortly after she had arrived from JAGGERS. Ashley, as has been noted, maintains the most pleasurable friendships with his ex-wives and lovers. This was the case with Leah, his most recent ex-wife.
“Leely, did you see that picture of Staci and me in those newspapers the other day?” he began his conversation after helping himself to a beer from Leah’s fridge.
“Yeah, Ash, that was charming. What are you going to do about Lucy or is Staci just a fancy passing?” she asked, as she led him to the patio.
“I sort of love Staci, Leely. I never really loved Lucy.”
“You just married her is all, Ash.”
“She was pregnant, Leah.”
“Ever heard of birth control, Ash?”
“You got me there. I thought Lucy was on the pill. That turned out to be a wrong assumption.”
“I think my relationship with Juma is heading south, Ash.”
“Do you love him, Leely?”
“I do but he is such a hard ass.”
“That’s what Staci said about him. She divorced him for that reason.”
“I may have to divorce him before I even marry him,” she giggled.
She was drinking wine and Ashley was now on his third beer. They were getting a bit tiddly.
“We are in a fine pickle, aren’t we, my girl?”
“Sometimes I wish we had never gotten divorced, Ash.”
“I wish that all the time, Leely. You were my great love….of course after your mother, that is.”
They both began to laugh.
“I’ll take you to dinner at the pub. Want to join me there?” he invited.
“Sure, let’s go. If the paparazzi are there, they can become horribly confused,” she giggled.
The paparazzi were there indeed. Next day’s gossip column pictured Ashley and Leah at a table in the pub in deep conversation. The heading read: ASHLEY TO RETURN TO HIS EX-WIFE? The picture just below it was your usual tabloid style fodder. It was a single picture of Staci Simba caught at some other time. She was alone and looked stressed.
“Shane, old boy, I have a great property for you and Alex,” enthused Lewis Lyon to his presidential pal and business partner.
“What is it, Lew?”
“Gina and I have bought a house on Lake Como in the Italian Alps. We want you to join us this month there, if you can. I have a method in my madness….there’s one just down the way that’s for sale. The perfect kicking back place for you and your family,” continued Ralph Lyon’s multi-billionaire son.
“I have a few days next week,” reported Shane.
“Come to dinner in Mombasa this weekend and we’ll discuss it. That will be perfect, Shane.”
“Alex and I will be in Lamu this weekend, why don’t you and Gina join us for dinner there?”
“Will do, Shane, we’ll look forward to it.”
Georgy Simba was doing amazingly well living at Sister Leonine’s cottage in the bush. She was also acing her classes at St. Mary’s school and beginning to make friends there. She modeled every weekend for her cousin, Leah, at JAGGERS. Duke, the new designer, was creating a line of teen casual wear and was to have a major fashion showing before Christmas. He wanted Georgy to be his chief model. Georgy had once more regained her loving relationship with her father, Sloane Simba. Sloane would bring Sunny, Caroline’s son and their new daughter Cindy and drive to Sister Leonine’s cottage. There they would walk to a nearby watering hole and open a picnic basket filled with goodies prepared by the lioness nun. She would open a bottle of wine and share it with Sloane and her housemate, Georgy. Georgy noticed that her father loved talking with Sister Leonine. He would listen absorbed as she discussed the books she was reading.
Shane waited patiently for his daughter to broach the subject of Ashley Lyon with him. Staci visited one afternoon late but spent most of it riding horses with Alexandra. He invited her to join them on their Lake Como trip but she cited work as her reason for declining.
Finally, Shane and Alexandra, along with their nannies and new babies, boarded Lewis Lyon’s private Airbus 380 and headed for Italy. Shane had asked his sons, Solly, Jalil and Tarek if they wanted to come also but they had cited a camping trip they were planning with their mother and Jack Tarzan as a reason to decline their dad’s invitation to Italy. Sean Simba had an out of country soccer game to play with the All Stars.
Betty and Jack camping in Samburu. Betty is holding her son Jalil Simba...
Lewis Lyon's private airbus.....and in the air headed for Italy with Shane and Alexandra aboard..
Lewis Lyon's villa on Lake Como and the one Shane bought perching just above it....and below:
the first couple shopping in Italy....
The first evening in Lewis and Gina Lyon’s marvelous villa with the view of Lake Como and the Italian Alps, was wonderful with good conversation and exquisite drink and food. The night was clear and cold. A fire was roaring in the main family area of the house.
“I know you must be upset over Ash and your daughter,” said Lewis over a bottle of cognac he had just opened and served to his wife and guests.
“I am a bit worried, Lew, I have to confess.”
“I hope it will end well,” added Lewis. “Ash can be a pain in the ass but I will say one thing for him, his ex-wives and lovers are all his best friends.”
“He was always wonderful to and very supportive of Betty,” said Shane.
“And Leah,” chimed in Alexandra for good measure.
“It’s just the current one that he manages to shit on,” “guffawed Lewis.
“But time will tell. Just sit tight and realize your daughter is a grown female now,” advised Gina Lyon.
And then it was on to the subject of their wives whom they adored.
“I never dreamed a human being would make such a change in my life for the better,” stated Shane, drawing Alexandra closer to him and nibbling her long blonde hair.
Lewis gave one of his great guffaws so reminiscent of his father, Ralph Lyon. He pointed at his attractive wife sitting in one of the cushy overstuffed chair.
“I never thought I’d marry a member of the mongoose family,” laughed Lewis, “But there she sits and I am wild about her. Everyone thinks because a genet is kittenish and cute that they are members of the cat family but they’re not. They are from the same family as the mongoose and you know what it can do to a cobra.”
“That’s how I keep you in line, Lew,” Gina giggled.
“Yes indeed it is, my dear. You are also the brains behind my empire. Dad swears that I would still be sitting under a tree in the Lyon pride territory if it hadn’t been for Gina.”
The following day, Shane signed the contract to buy the villa next door to Lewis and Gina Lyon’s palatial villa. During that same trip Lewis and Shane bought a hotel bordering the lake adding to their mutual investments.