‘But… you didn’t even read it?’ I tried to say it delicately, but beating around the bush was never my forte.
‘I glanced over it…’ she said doubtfully.
‘Well, it was all in there,’ I said matter-of-factly.God, Olivia. She’s never going to confide in you if you act like such a smug know-it-all,I chastised myself.
‘So, you knew about these ridiculous rules? Did you ask to have them changed?’
‘Nope. There wasn’t any point, George and Jeannie made it clear that there were to be no changes. “Like it or lump it”, I believe, were George’s exact words. And at the time I didn’t care about any of that. I still don’t. Which is a good job, seeing as how whatever we do, we will probably end up with nothing anyway.’ I felt my jaw clench then, remembering that Miles and I were set to get nothing anyway.Poor, stupid Mimi, I wanted to say. Just finding out now that it wasn’t going to be wrapped up neatly in a bow for her and she was going to have to jump through Jeannie’s hoops until the day one or both of them died.
‘It doesn’t bother you that if Miles left you for another woman, you’d get nothing?’
‘Well…’ I considered, ‘yes, that would bother me. But I know he would never do that.’ Mimi scoffed, but I continued. ‘I just care about the kids?—’
I suddenly remembered my children were already being done out of their inheritance, and I felt my anger rising anew that she was even griping about this to me.
‘You trust Miles implicitly?’ she asked suddenly.
I frowned. ‘Of course I do. Do you trust Tristan?’
She looked me square in the eye. ‘Of course I bloody don’t. To trust anyone is the most foolish thing you can do. I don’t even trust myself. I just think it’s ridiculous that after years of marriage, after giving these men children, sacrificing our bodies and our careers, we could be left with nothing iftheydecide to walk away. How is thatfair?’
I imagined FantasyWh0re sliding into Miles’s DMs. Offering him a strings-free good time. Then a horrible thought occurred; what if Clem and Jeannie hadn’t been talking about Mimi and Tristan’s marriage? What if they were talking about my marriage? I felt my stomach turn over. This is exactly why my therapist warned me to stay off those sites– the spiralling.
I reassured myself that if any one of those people had ever had an affair with Miles, you could bet they wouldn’t be able to resist posting about it. Whatever was going on was about Mimi and Tristan’s marriage, not ours. And, as usual, Mimi was adept at trying to bring me down with her.
‘Hang on in there, Mimi,’ I said airily, ‘just stick it out a bit longer and I’m sure all the pain will be worth the one hundred mill.’ I reasoned that she wasn’t going to tell me anything, so I might as well get a jab or two in. I’d only regret it later if Ididn’t seize the opportunity to say how I really felt.
Her head snapped towards me, mouth agape. ‘What is your problem, Olivia?’
‘Myproblem?’ I laughed. ‘Idon’t have a problem.’
‘Yes, you do. You don’t exactly hide your contempt for us. Do you think the rest of us don’t notice when you write about us in your books?’
‘What the hell are you talking about, Mimi?’
She put her tongue in her cheek and raised her eyebrows. ‘We’re not as oblivious as you think. We read your books. We know you use us as characters.’
I made no reaction, only a blink to give myself away. ‘Pffft, no, I don’t,’ I said, shaking my head unconvincingly.
‘Yes, you do. You think I wouldn’t notice that the spoiled, covetous orc happened to look suspiciously like me? Even her one-liners are mine. And then you killed her off in the most horrific way you could think of.’
‘No,’ I protested. ‘Jesminda is nothing like you. Nothing whatsoever.’
Mimi arched an eyebrow at me. ‘Sure. Whatever you say. And the evil queen isn’t based on Jeannie, either, I suppose?’
A smile threatened to play on my lips as I said, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘I’m just saying, you think you’re the innocent in all of this, but we all know what you think of us.’
I didn’t know what to say. After a moment, she got up to leave.
‘Mimi?’ I called after her.
She turned, cutting her eyes at me.
‘If you’ve read my latest book, would you consider leaving a review?’
She turned back without saying a word and carried on walking.
