Sidney Sheldon's Mistress of the Game
Sidney Sheldon
 The novel opens with the wedding of Lexi Templeton, Kate Blackwell's great-granddaughter. Despite it being her wedding night, Lexi is obviously troubled and expecting the police to show up any moment. The story is told in a flashback similar to Master of the Game. The plot starts on the funeral day of Kate Blackwell, who has died at the age of ninety-two. During the funeral, while a pregnant Alexandra (Kate's granddaughter, Lexi's mother) is weeping with her husband Peter and son Robert "Robbie" Templeton, her twin sister Eve is secretly happy of her grandmother's death, as it was her powerful grandmother who has always protected the Templetons. It is implied that her husband, mousy plastic surgeon Keith Webster, hasn't fixed her grotesque face and is constantly aware of the photographers hiding outside to take a photo of her pregnant with a marred face. She plans to get rid of the Templetons and making her child the next heir of Kruger-Brent Limited. Later on, Alexandra gives birth before Eve but dies in childbirth. Peter and Robbie are in despair but Peter notes that the baby looks like Alexandra and names her Alexandra as well, but simply calls her "Lexi". A few days later, despite Keith's worries about Eve's pregnancy (Since Alexandra died of child birth, which is the same way Alexandra and Eve's mother Marianne died due to genetic heart problems), Eve lives to give birth to a boy, whom she names Max because she feels like that name means power. She believes that Max will be the one to take over the empire, not his cousins. Max grows in a different environment compared to Lexi. While she has a family that adores her, Eve channels her hatred and obsession to her son. Eve, furious that Keith marred her face so that she would never leave him, convinces her son to secretly loathe his father as well, and in the process, hate the Templetons as he grows up. Peter's life is in shambles. He left his job as a psychiatrist to join Kruger-Brent under Kate's implying that this is his job as Alexandra's husband. Robbie comes out as a homosexual after failing to become aroused when a classmate tries to seduce him for his money while offering him drugs and nearly getting arrested, causing a rift between the two. He nearly kills his kids with a gun but shoots the nanny's arm instead, causing him to have an epiphany and seek help. The nanny is paid to keep quiet and Peter and Robbie reconcile. However, eight-year old Lexi is taken by an unknown man (implied to be someone who knew the Blackwell twins long before Alexandra died) who plans to sell her to a human trafficker. Lexi is raped and kept hidden for many days in the USA, but she is managed to be located but it is a few seconds too late as a bomb goes off, causing her to lose her sense of hearing. Somewhere in Max's childhood, Eve wants to get rid of Keith, who is nothing more but a nuisance to her. Throughout Max's life, she is a bigger influence to Max than Keith is, but when it came to Max's classmates, she allowed him to have birthday parties, but stayed hidden. Max was annoyed by this, and in result, hated his friends because he assumed they all called his mother a monster. She convinces Max to go on a hiking expedition alone with Keith and push him off a part of the mountain that is known to have been accident-prone. Max pushes his father off, making it look like an accident. Eve is proud of him, but Max secretly begins having nightmares. Years pass, and Lexi is noted to have transformed from the innocent daughter of Alexandra Templeton to becoming a sex kitten, due to her puberty. However, she experiences social problems because she cannot act like a normal teenager because she always requires a person to translate for her, since she can read lips and speak, but cannot hear. Max, on the other hand, has become a playboy who feels power when he breaks their hearts. Peter and Eve grudgingly coordinate Lexi and Max's birthday in Cedar Hill, Kate's mansion, since they both have near birthdays. The event is star studded with both Lexi's friends, Max's friends, and the Kruger-Brent board members. Max is charismatic but mysterious, but more are interested in Lexi. Eve is jealous that, being Alexandra's twin, Lexi is an almost spitting image of Eve. Lexi attempts to have sex with a boy she likes during the party but her childhood trauma ceases her from enjoying it. Max tells her that she "smells like sex" and has no chance to rule the company, thus revealing his hatred for her family. Years pass, and despite Lexi never experiencing a normal life due to her hearing, she is still very determined to become a part of the company. Robbie, a piano prodigy since childhood, does not want to sell his soul to the company like his father and signs his share over to Lexi and becomes a famous gay pianist. Because Lexi, Robbie, and Max get a 1/3 share each, Lexi gets 2/3 of the company by the time she turns 25, making her the dominant owner. Eve tells Max that the best way to stop Lexi from taking over is to ruin Lexi's reputation in the company. Max seduces Lexi (an incestous relationship, as they are both first cousins) and they begin a not-so-secret relationship that not many approve of. Lexi makes her downfall when she reveals to Max the code to her safe. He steals a memory card from the safe which has wild, provocative, and almost naked pictures of her from her college years and exposes it to the public. The Kruger-Brent board believes that her reputation is ruined as a professional and demands that she resign from the board. She dramatically resigns, promising to return. The second part first focuses on Gabriel McGregor, a very distant cousin of Lexi. Lexi's great-great-grandfather, (Kate's father) Jaime McGregor, founder of Kruger-Brent, had a brother in the beginning of "Master of the Game" who sneered at Jaime's dreams to go to Africa to find diamonds. Jaime became famous and only sent money to his mother (the only one who supported his dream by secretly giving him her savings to travel), and when she died, didn't bother sending anything else to his family. The brother became bitter and thought Jaime as ungrateful, even though he was not supporting Jaime in the first place. His embitterment of Jaime's side of the McGregors passed down generations until it reached Gabriel McGregor, who, unlike his ancestors who complained, decided to create his own fortune in Africa. His story is quite similar to Jaime's: He arrived with little money, got scammed out of a good business (but ended up getting arrested because he was tricked to do an illegal business until he could clear his name), and with the help of an African friend, he managed to start his own company, Phoenix. He marries a doctor doing charity work, giving shelter and medicine to girls who became victims to rape and HIV. (In the book, she mentions that the natives believe that intercourse with a virgin cures HIV, and they also believe that "the younger, the better".) Lexi, five years after resigning, has a business called Templeton. Because Max showed her a doctor who could cure her deafness before he exposed her pictures, she continued therapy and manages to hear and speak properly again. She is a leader in American business, even ahead of Kruger-Brent. Eve is angry that Max is following Lexi's strategy like other companies instead of being one step ahead. She forces him to marry a woman of her choice and have kids. Meanwhile, Eve is growing old and demented and constantly sees hallucinations of Kate, Alexandra, and the rest of the dead people she hated trying to kill her. On the other hand, Max's nightmares of his fathers starts shortly after the birth of his first son. He also misses Lexi and regrets betraying her. Lexi decides to set up a business in Africa. She is considered competition by Gabriel and meets her and tells her that they are related. She notices he is very lively and loves his wife, but is not interested in destroying their marriage. However, a native who believes Gabriel's wife's charity work is a scam holds her and their kids hostage while Gabriel is out, but is sliced, along with the kids, to death. Gabriel goes into a depression, but Lexi helps him out and they eventually fall in love. After years, Lexi finally has a scheme to take back Kruger-Brent. Despite telling Gabriel that she is over losing the company, she secretly takes the money from his charities to fund her scheme. She buys all the loose businesses of Kruger-Brent through another person, and in the process pushing Kruger-Brent out of the stock market and making them bankrupt while gaining a new company called Cedar International. Max is so depressed about his mother's anger and the company's failing that he kills himself. Lexi buys back Kruger-Brent and gets her old reputation back, with the media claiming "all of us were like her in college". Meanwhile, she finds out she is pregnant with Gabriel's child and wants to have an abortion. Gabriel finds out about where she got the money and is furious with her. They have a falling out, resulting in them breaking up. However, she pays him back and sends him a note that she plans to abort their baby. Gabriel realizes that he still loves her no matter what and makes it to the abortion clinic just in time to convince her to keep the baby and to marry him. They marry after the birth of their daughter Maxine, however, her happiness is short lived. As Eve is about to die (which she claims she sees a healthy Kate suffocating her with a pillow), she makes a note to Lexi telling her that she knows how she took over Kruger-Brent and has sent the same copy to the police. Lexi sees the police by the gate and stalls before letting them in. The police arrive during the party, half-doubting Eve's letter but takes Lexi to the police station. However, Lexi manages to escape the station and leaves the country with Gabriel, Maxine, and the help of two of her trusted employees. She evades the FBI and Interpol to go to a private home in Maldives. She re-reads the letter and finally thinks to herself: "I haven't won the game. Not yet. But I'm still here. Still playing."