‘Many of you will recognize our next speaker from the court case that gripped the country,’ Cosby began. ‘He and his husband Noah were the last victims of Relationship Responder and convicted killer Jeffrey Beech. Today, I’d like to welcome to the stage, Luca Stanton-Gibbs.’
Luca’s legs were leaden as a cheer rang out and he made his way to a black X taped to the floor. The last time he’d stood before an audience was at Jeffrey’s trial. The evidence he’d given was widely reported upon and had been damning, refuting the defence’s claims that Luca had led Jeffrey on and was a co-conspirator in a plan to kill Noah. It took a jury only four hours to side with Luca and the prosecutor’s many others witnesses. Luca had since declined all media requests for interviews to concentrate on his own mental health recovery. But when event organizers had approached him, he knew that he must participate.
He grasped one side of the lectern, focused on the autocue and cleared his throat.
‘Many of you will know parts of my story, but not all of it,’ he began. ‘So I’m here today to fill in the gaps.’
After explaining how he and Noah had met and married, he recalled how a flawed Audite system had Levelled them up and brought Jeffrey into their lives.
‘Noah warned me about him several times,’ Luca continued. ‘He was convinced that there was something disingenuous about him. But, despite being let down by the technology that was supposed to help us, I still had faith in the Act. I believed a human being and not a machine would realize it had been a huge mistake and overrule the decision. I was sure Jeffrey was on our side. I was open to his suggestions, I listened to his advice. And I have never been more wrong about anything in my life.’
The audience maintained a respectful silence as Luca described Jeffrey’s divide-and-conquer techniques, of slowly but surely chipping away at their confidence in each another until their marriage was genuinely in crisis.
‘That last night, when Jeffrey strangled and kept electrocuting me . . .’ Luca’s voice cracked and he paused, taking a sip from his bottle, ‘the only reason I’m alive today is because, when Noah returned home on receiving Jeffrey’s video, the fob that Jeffrey used to control the Audite must have fallen from his pocket and landed on the stairs. Noah picked it up and switched it back on to record their forthcoming confrontation as he ran up the stairs to find me. For once, it worked in our favour as key words triggered the system to alert emergency services. The police arrived as he was trying to kill me and arrested him.’
To rapturous applause, the woman who had given Luca his mic and bottle appeared, pushing a wheelchair containing Noah. Luca leaned over to kiss his husband before holding his hand.
‘The damage Jeffrey wreaked on both of us was psychological and physical, and it continues to this day,’ Luca continued. ‘I have been diagnosed with PTSD, which makes me relive that night over and over again. But Noah has suffered much more. He was dead when the paramedics arrived and only their persistence resuscitated him. The attack and lack of oxygen has left him with a brain injury, which led to a series of strokes. He has difficulty with his short-term memory and the right side of his body is partially immobile. The stress on his windpipe makes communication difficult. He has been forced to leave the career he loved. But he is still very much alive, and that is what matters.’
More applause followed and Luca waited until it subsided. ‘In the aftermath of what happened to us,’ he continued, ‘we were granted special dispensation for a voluntary divorce, but we are still very much together. Noah’s health aside, we have everything we could ever want. We have left our home in New Northampton and we’re renting a flat in London close to the hospital where Noah is an outpatient. Our surrogate Beccy has taken herself off the Government’s approved list and, once Noah is ready, we will restart our plans for a family. And we have donated half of the compensation money we were awarded by the Government to the Freedom for All party. The rest we will use for Noah’s medical bills.
‘We want no part in what a Smart Marriage has become. The Marriage Act has taken love out of the equation and has made us focus on wanting better cars to park outside better homes and to live in better towns. A marriage shouldn’t be monitored by anyone, especially Artificial Intelligence. It shouldn’t create societal division. It shouldn’t matter if we marry or not. Being single, cohabiting or widowed are not dirty words. But marriage is one, unless you do something about it.’
The crowd’s cheers only grew louder when, with Luca’s assistance, Noah rose from his wheelchair and walked five steps unaided to the lectern. Holding on tightly to Luca’s hand, he opened his mouth to speak, taking time to pronounce each word.
‘We do not need money to be happy,’ he said slowly. ‘We managed it before the Act was introduced and we can do it once it is repealed. If enough of you here or watching at home agree with us, fight to make your voices heard as I am now. If enough of us vote with our hearts, then perhaps we can have the equal society we are owed.’
Noah’s speech received the largest cheer of the day as he made his way back into his wheelchair. Luca kissed him again before they waved farewell to the crowd and they left the stage to continue with their brand new but familiar lives.
94
Jada
The view of the stage from the rear of the park might nothave been clear, but it suited Jada. She could have watched today’s event on television from her sister’s home where she and Matthew had been staying since Ally and Marley had bought her house. But she had a duty to finish what Anthony had died for, and that didn’t involve hiding away. And she wasn’t going to miss for the world the public’s reaction to what was to come.
She checked the passport App on Ally’s phone once again. If all went according to plan, she would meet her sister and brother-in-law in Paris later that night when her Eurostar pulled in. They had already travelled there yesterday with Matthew. Ally had used Jada’s passport and their strikingly similar appearances meant no suspicions of officials had been aroused. After this afternoon, Jada was sure her own travel document would be flagged and she would be arrested. She would be using Ally’s passport instead.
Jada had been advised by rally organizers that her contribution would mark the end of the day’s events. Nevertheless, she had been there at the start of the rally to march through the streets and later when protesters converged in the grounds of Kennington Park to listen to each speaker, celebrity guest and musician.
The trauma her former clients Luca and Noah had suffered with their Relationship Responder unsettled her the most. She wanted to meet or at least write to them to express her apologies on Anthony’s behalf. But she had held back. Perhaps after today it might be easier to explain.
Anthony’s death had hit her as hard as the sudden loss of any loved one. Her grief arrived in waves and when it wasn’t threatening to drown her, it filled her with rage. She had long accepted there was a sizable part of his working life that he could not discuss, but she had never considered how damaging his projects were to others. As much as she loved him, she was ashamed of his legacy. And it was something both she and Matthew would have to learn to live with.
Her anger was also directed towards Anthony’s employers for what they had done to her. Mother and son had been separated for two days following her arrest on drug smuggling charges at Heathrow Airport. She had been kept in a holding cell until, without explanation, she was suddenly released and reunited with a traumatized Matthew. But before they were allowed to leave, a tall, skinny man, whose dark eyes she couldn’t read, had informed them Anthony had been killed in a car accident a day earlier. Instinctively she knew it was not a chance collision. On her return home, Anthony’s office had already been stripped of every gadget and electronic device.
Later, she refused to believe a police report confirming there was no fault with the vehicle’s operating system and which ruled the accident was driver-led. And an inquest suggested the fact that Anthony’s car collided with the same bridge pillar that killed his mother indicated he had likely intended to take his own life. But Jada knew her husband and the effect his mother’s suicide had on him. He would never put Jada and Matthew through it. She was convinced his job had killed him. Finding someone, anyone, who could verify this or help her appeal against the inquest ruling proved impossible. She was completely alone.
A voice booming from speakers scattered about the park caught her attention. She had grown to know Howie Cosby personally from their many recent meetings.
‘Thank you so much for your attendance today,’ he began. ‘If the numbers here are indicative of support against the Act then I have little doubt that we will overcome it. Our final guest speaker is unable to be here in person, but what you are about to hear might be the most important video you watch all day.’
As he exited the stage, Jada clenched her fists and looked to the sky.This is for you,babe, she said to herself,There’s no going back from here.
Kennington Park fell silent as the screens faded to black before a stationary image appeared.
It was of Jem Jones.
It wasn’t the woman that fans had grown used to watching in the last few months of her life. This wasn’t the browbeaten Jem, the desperate Jem, the Jem drained of fight and fury. This was the fresh-faced Jem of old, the girl the public had fallen in love with long before she’d nailed her colours to the mast of the Marriage Act.
