‘I heard the boy was in a coma!’
‘Yeah, he and his parents learned their lesson alright.’
‘God, Cat, what a fright.’
Emme squeezed her hand. Her friend. The first person she had met on this mad journey and the person she almost died with. She knew for certain that they would be friends for life.
Epilogue
‘Are you OK? Are you sure you can do this?’ Tristan asked, as they flew in Tristan’s charter helicopter towards the Silberschnee. Emme nodded as she squeezed his hand, breathing calmly so as not to strain her lungs, her ribs. She wasn’t ready to ski any time soon, but they had snow boots and crampons on and were ready, so they could walk the path around the Blocherpass. Emme nodded tentatively. She feared the sound of the rotors might trigger something; trigger her– but sitting next to Tristan, his hand clutching her thigh, gave her comfort and she knew she would be OK.
Emme had left the hospital in Bloch on Christmas morning, also by helicopter with Tristan by her side; with an excited Marian and Geoff gazing out of the window as they finally got to see Kristalldorf come into view. Emme and her parents had never travelled by helicopter before, and the ride was spectacular. They moved into the Vitreum penthouse and spent a quiet and languid day with Tristan, watching movies and having Christmas lunch sent up from the kitchen. Marian didn’t stop talking about the changing weather through the exquisite panorama; Geoff kept accidentally triggering all manner of devices hidden among the sleek ergonomics of the penthouse.
Cat had to stay in hospital for a few days more, but Lydia, Will, Yannick and Tiago all brought Christmas to her: gifts, tinsel, andThe Grinchon the hospital’s pay per view, and they crowded around her bed and all laughed together watching it. Between her friends, Tristan Du Kok and Lumi Kivvi, there wasn’t much else Cat could want for.
Emme didn’t have the energy to deal with Lexy, but Tristan called Bill on Boxing Day morning and invited him up to the Vitreum restaurant for brunch. Bill was equal parts flattered and intrigued by the invitation– he hadn’t dined with Tristan at Vitreum since he and Lexy were new in town and he had been shocked to hear Emme might be one of the three people injured in the Kristalldorf avalanche. Swiss privacy laws meant the press weren’t allowed to name them, although rumours had swirled that Cat and Emme were among the injured and that Tristan Du Kok joined the search and rescue team with his own snow shovel. Plus Bill was keen to get to the bottom of Lexy’s improbable Münchausen by proxy accusation.
Tristan gave Bill two simple instructions: bring Emme’s belongings, and don’t tell or bring Lexy. Bill was too curious to break Tristan’s confidence.
Lexy had almost had a nosebleed when she saw Bill rolling Emme’s huge suitcase out of Chalet Stern on Boxing Day morning and he wouldn’t tell her why.
‘Bill?’ ‘Bill!’ ‘BILL!’ she had bellowed after him from the front balcony.
‘Goodness, how are you Emme?’ he later asked, as he ordered coffee, orange juice and eggs Benedict, and Emme and Tristan eased into the large round table.
When Emme showed Bill the BUZZ doorbell footage of Lexy and Tristan; and Jenny catching them out, Bill suddenly realised how Dimitri Diamandis had felt.
He looked at Emme, bewildered. Was she really with this cad?
Emme nodded, and the penny dropped. Not only had his wife cheated on him, it was also highly unlikely Jenny had stolen as much as a banana from them.
‘And, erm, the Münchausen by proxy…’ Bill said, clearing his throat.
‘What?’ Emme said, aghast, before explaining that Bella was sick from eating too much party food, Harry had a normal bug probably caught from school, and she had never even used the Himalayan pink salt, let alone tried to poison the children with it.
Emme told Bill about the slap and said that if they didn’t pay her a decent notice period, she would be taking it to the police on the grounds of assault.
Bill, ashen-faced, wrote Emme a cheque, for double her rate through to April, and apologised profusely. Emme apologised too. She hadn’t wanted to leave Harry and Bella in the lurch again, but she suspected there would be bigger upheaval ahead for them than the matter of a new nanny.
And none of it was Emme’s fault.
‘Sorry, man,’ Tristan said as Bill left, Christmas cheer well and truly knocked out of him. He offered Bill his hand.
‘You’re a shit, Du Kok,’ Bill Harrington sneered, refusing it.
Emme’s parents flew back to the UK on Boxing Day, and Lucille, Ryan, Zara and Zack were all very understandingabout why Christmas dinner was a day late, keen to hear happy news of Aunty Emme’s recovery. Marian and Geoff understood that Emme might need a few weeks longer in Kristalldorf to recover before coming home. Having seen where their daughter’s saviour lived, having understood that he was her special someone as much as he was her good Samaritan, gave them the security to leave her with him.
‘I promise I’ll be home soon,’ she had said as she and Tristan saw them off on the heliport roof.
‘I could get used to this,’ Geoff puffed like a peacock, as they soared over the Alps towards Zurich.
Tristan and Emme spent four days locked away, making love with caution, eating, recuperating, talking. Over breakfasts and massages, films and confessionals, Tristan managed to show Emme how serious he was. How her physical recovery and mental wellbeing were more important to him than anything else. How there was nothing he wouldn’t do to win back her trust and make her happy. How she was his priority. And Emme had to hand it to him, he had never in fact lied to her. How could she begrudge Tristan for being the person he was before they kissed? She had fallen for that person after all.
And now, here they were, the penultimate day of the year. Tristan had instructed the helicopter pilot to set them down on a ledge and return in half an hour, just a few hundred metres along the pass. He knew Emme was up to it.
Tristan’s arms were slung around his girlfriend’s waist, careful to protect her side. He dotted sweet kisses in her ear as they waited.
And then they saw it: as the sun hit the horizon, their entire world turned pink.
