SOLVED. Late 80's book about girl who is mistress to a billionaire [s]

[Gini]

The main character's name is Alix and she's a an ex-model who is having an affair with an older gentleman and he dies in her bed. He leaves her everything and the family goes after her to contest the will. Takes place in New York City. She works in a gallery and the billionaire's son starts having a crush on her. PLEASE help me find this, I've been searching for years! This isn't a romance, its one of those epic rich family sagas that were so popular back then. I posted this months ago but can't find it, so I'm reposting it, sorry!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Bump.

[Tab]

The Fortune by Michael Korda

Here's part of the Kirkus review:
The death of a New York billionaire in his West Side love nest sets off vibrations of anxiety, fury, envy, etc., among his greedy family--particularly when it is revealed that he has left control of his Fortune to the sweet young thing he secretly married in his last days. Korda, who found the clef to literary wealth and success with Queenie (1985), rams it into the keyhole of a jolly, filthy rich politician who says "Hi, feller!" all the time but who is, of course, not the late Nelson Rockefeller, who was merely acquainted with rather than married to the young lady with whom he breathed his last. Korda's hero is Arthur Bannerman, who never quite made it into the Governor's mansion but who did have a huge spread in Venezuela, an enormous estate on the Hudson, and a fabulous collection of abstract art. The heroine is lovely Elizabeth Alexandra "Alexa" Walden, who has turned her back on the haunted dairy farm in Illinois where she grew up under the too-fond eye of a rather tense dad and come to New York to find fame and fortune as a model. Alas, she is a little too zaftig for the runway, but her good looks and keen head for business find her a niche in the art world, where she chances to meet the melancholy widower Bannerman.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Gini, is that your book?

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Sent OP a PM. She is still active, so we have a chance of a reply.

If no reaction, the next Mod to read this can move it to Abandoned

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

I agree with Tab that this has to be "Fortune." All plot points match. Moving to Solved.