‘Oh Francesco,’ she fake laughs. ‘You’re so baaaaad.’
Francesco.I’ve never heard of Francis coming from Francesco. I continue my conversation with Sydney until Lara asks me to accompany her to the ladies’ room.
‘Scarlett, I’m sorry if I was a little intense earlier about the wedding. I’m just excited. He’s my only child and—’ She stops when she notes the unintentional but – in hindsight – extremely obvious pull back of my head. ‘He told you about her.’ Her eyes immediately fill and my frosty reaction wanes.
‘Elsa. Yes, he did.’
‘Scarlett, you have to understand. I wanted to leave?—’
I hold a hand up gently to stop her. ‘Lara, you don’t have to explain anything to me. Will I ever understand how you stayed? Probably not. But that’s because I’ve never been in that situation; I don’t know what it was like. All I do know is that it must have been horrific for all three of you.’
She opens her mouth and I will her not to speak. One day, we might have that conversation, but not here, not now.
She raises her lips silently in a look that I think may be the most authentic I’ve ever seen on her. That front-of-house show she puts on for other people isn’t here in this room. She’s just a woman, as fallible as everyone else, who went through something horrific. Something neither she nor Gregory have to hide from me any more.
Going to the bathroom in a floor-grazing gown is not the easiest thing I’ve done in my life. After navigating the going and flushing part, I work at putting my dress back in the right places, twisting, shuffling.
‘She’s so ordinary. I mean, a lawyer, really?’
‘He’s just having a final fling before he finds the right woman. And he will, ladies.’
‘I bet she’s rubbish in bed.’
‘I bet she sleeps in pyjamas.’
‘Well, I hate to state the obvious, ladies, but she’s beautiful and there must be something about her to have landed the bachelor of the century. She’s finally taken Gregory Ryans off the market. That’s something women in this room have tried and failed to do.’
‘Oh, please, no man is ever completely off the market.’
My hand is frozen on the door. Part of me wants to go and put them in their place; part of me thinks they’re right. Gregory could have any woman he likes, and maybe he will get bored of me.
‘Let me tell you something about my son.’ Lara’s voice cuts through the catty voices. ‘He is a good man. A man of integrity. And that woman you’re talking about is the best thing that’s ever happened to him. She’s worth a thousand of you all. So why don’t you take your bitchy tantrums back to your husbands and leave my son to be happy with a genuine and honest, good-hearted woman.’
I hold my fingertips to my mouth, waiting for the toilets to clear.
When I come out from hiding, there’s only Lara left, reapplying lipstick in the over-sink mirrors.
‘Thank you,’ I tell her.
‘I meant it,’ she says, dropping a hand to my shoulder before she leaves me washing my hands.
As far as mothers-in-law go, maybe she won’t turn out too bad.
A man in a suit catches the corner of my eye as I step back out into the corridor.
‘Fancy seeing you here.’
Nick Henshaw, the director who tried to take Gregory’s company from him after the shooting. The director Gregory forced to resign from Constant Sources. He moves close to me, too close.
I offer him a fleeting glance of disgust before turning my back on him but he slaps the wall above my head, preventing me from walking further. As I turn, he leans towards me, forcing me back against the wall.
‘I have nothing to say to you,’ I spit.
‘That’s good. Then you can stand there whilst I tell you a few things.’
His breath smells of alcohol. Hard liquor. His six-foot frame towers over me. His stone-cold grey eyes bore into mine.
‘I bet you’re surprised to see me here. Of course, you remember our last meeting. You and your boyfriend tried to take everything I’d ever built. Forced me to resign frommycompany. And do you know what that bastard told me when I asked for a fair and reasonable sum to compensate me for my resignation? My resignation, which came about because he fucked up and fucking killed his own fucking daddy.’ His words are wet on my face, making me squint and turn my head to one side. ‘Do you know? He told me to go fuck myself.’ A hollow laugh bellows from the depths of him and he leans closer to my face. ‘You two took everything from me. I. Want. It. Back. And guess what, I’m going to take it back, any way I can get it. You see, I’m starting again, ’cause that’s the thing you forgot in your clever little plan. I could just start again. Get a new company. Get funding from Francis Benedetti, a man who can see talent and a good thing. And now, my company will bring your man creeping to my door.’
