‘She’s played for our annual gala for the last three years,’ Norah adds. ‘Such a lovely young woman.’
I turn back to them and nod, swallowing the lump in my throat, afraid to speak until the haze over my eyes dissipates. ‘It’s beautiful,’ I eventually say.
‘You know, I think she plays for weddings,’ Norah says, casting mischievous eyes to Gregory, who rests his hand on the small of my back.
‘Excuse us,’ Thomas says, taking his wife’s hand. ‘We’ll see you at the table.’
‘A delight to meet you,’ Norah says.
‘Gregory! Darling!’ Lara’s voice hits us before we see her making her way through the crowd. Gregory’s mother is as glamorous as ever in a structured black satin gown, her ears, neck and wrists adorned in pearls.
‘How are you, mother?’ Gregory asks.
‘Oh my beautiful daughter-in-law-to-be, look at you. Absolutely dazzling,’ Lara says, ignoring her son in a way that makes me chuckle and tell him in a look,I guess I’m the apple of her eye now.
‘Hi, Lara, how are you?’
‘Better now, better now.’
‘Hi, Lawrence,’ I say, accepting a kiss on each cheek from Gregory’s step-dad and business partner.
As Lara begins excitedly hurling extravagant wedding plans at me, my eyes lock onto a group of three women over her shoulder, whispering, their attention obviously fixed on my left hand until one of them notices me looking. With a tut, an eye roll and one hand on hip, they turn their backs to me. Then I seeher: Stella. She has a scowl like thunder as she makes her way towards us, practically dragging her very wealthy husband, Jean-Pierre, behind her.
She all but dives on Gregory, wrapping her arms too tightly around him and putting her lips too close to his as she kisses his cheeks.
What a magnificent dick she is.
‘Stella, how nice to see you,’ I lie, turning her body to me and away from my fiancé to air-kiss her cheeks.
Urgh, I really wish Amanda hadn’t decided she was too fat and not pregnant enough looking to face a camera. She’d have a passive-aggressive put-down just perfect for Stella.
As I’m thinking that, Gregory tucks me into his side and nuzzles the hair at my temple.
‘Feisty,’ he whispers.
Our table is one of three closest to the stage in the room that must seat at least a thousand people. The colours from the reception shine in even brighter swags and swaths throughout the room. The walls have been draped in black curtains and the cheerful shades burst like shooting stars, lights twinkling against the darkness. As Gregory guides me to our table to the continuing sound of Violet, the pianist, playing through large speakers, I can’t help thinking back to the children’s ward of the hospital.
It was the day after Gregory and I had first made love. Sandy and I visited my dad whilst Gregory went to Paediatrics. Once we’d said goodbye to my dad for the day, we went in search of Gregory, finding a man dressed in a giant lion head and a ward full of giggling children. One of the first moments I knew I was unequivocally in love with him.
The children loved him, too. He was incredible with them. There wasn’t a nurse without a smile as he broke the mould of white-collar CEO. The room is exactly how those children were that day. Sick, some of them dying, the truest darkness of the world. Yet their smiles really were like shining stars, just like the lights glimmering around the room.
We take our seats at a table for which Gregory has paid. We’re joined by Lara and Lawrence, Norah and Thomas, Stella and Jean-Pierre, Lawrence’s niece Emily and her fiancé Harry, and Gordon and Vivienne, a couple I remember from the fateful night of Lara’s bonfire party. A night I push quickly from the forefront of my mind.
Once the lights are dimmed, Norah makes her way to the stage to welcome the guests. She speaks about the purpose of the night before inviting up to the stage the chairs of Early Birds, Transformedand Brainy Children.They give frankly shocking and astoundingly moving speeches about their respective charities and give the guests details of a silent auction and various other fundraising things happening throughout the evening.
Norah returns to the microphone with a beaming smile. ‘Well, I would like to tell you all a little bit about the fabulous charity, Dreams. But, tonight, we have a very special guest of honour. She is a shooting star. A burning light we should all take inspiration from. Her mum tells me this little girl demanded to stay up beyond her bedtime tonight to come here and tell us how amazing she thinks Dreamsis and what the charity has done for her. This brave girl has fought two bouts of leukaemia in her short five years and is currently nearing the end of her third round of treatment. The doctors say she’s doing very, very well. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage tonight, the star of the evening, Isabella Willows.’
It’s the little girl from the hospital. Isabella, Gregory’s ‘girlfriend’, who’d informed me that it was okay for Gregory to have two girlfriends. Her mum helps her navigate the four steps to the stage, pausing on each to take a breath. With each step, I will her frail, tiny legs to win, the lump in my throat and constriction in my chest building with every anxious second. The piano music changes to ‘Part of Your World’ fromThe Little Mermaidand the whole scene has my eyes full for the second time tonight. In the middle of the stage, Isabella pauses, gathering her breath. She waves to a table and a man who I guess is her dad. He in turn blows her a kiss. Then she looks around the room; those big, bright eyes that melted my heart the first time I saw her are shining, distracting from the dark circles beneath and her hairless head, which is decorated with a white hairband with one big daisy.
When I think I can take no more, she turns to our table and shouts above the piano, ‘Gregory!’
He waves but she holds out her hands towards him. His jaw tenses and I can read his mind. His image as a stern, ruthless CEO will be shattered if he goes. If he doesn’t, he denies that little girl, standing there with her weak arms outstretched. He debates it for a second then rises from his seat and goes to Isabella, bending to the stage as she wraps her arms around his neck. I have no idea what he says to the little angel but she laughs, the most profound and wonderful sound.
* * *
It was unintentional, but Gregory made sure his public image was angelic tonight. Nothing has leaked about bribes. Yet. But anything is possible whilst Katrina Martin is still lurking and tonight has done no harm to his reputation. That’s something his head of PR, Sydney and I agree on as we subtly discuss the situation over an after-dinner coffee.
As I’m talking to Sydney, Francis, the jerk in finance or, more specifically,private equity, who Gregory obviously can’t stand but doesn’t upset due to his willingness to invest in a broad portfolio of business, brings his stunning and much younger wife, Adriana to say hello. From the corner of my eye, I watch Adriana throw her head back, flicking her long, black hair back and forth across her shoulder as she laughs at absolutely nothing.
