Her forehead crinkles as she cocks her head to one side. She thinks she has misheard, because I’ve said it as casually as if I’m recalling what I ate for breakfast. But as my words sink in, she glares at me, wide-eyed, mouth open.
‘I asked Ioana what you were doing there and she said you’d turned up to apologise for what you’d done to her and Nicu. She’d told you she was going to make your and Nicu’s lives miserable. But she was lying to you.’
I recall how Ioana admitted she’d had enough of working with me. She was too exhausted to play the bitter ex any longer. And shewanted to return to Romania and start afresh with the money she’d made from selling stories about Margot.
‘Butafteryou gatecrash the wedding tomorrow,’ I said to her.
‘Are you not listening?’ she replied. ‘I’m done. As of tonight.’
‘But everything is planned,’ I protested. ‘We have the photographer, the videographer,The Sunis holding its front page and a double-page spread inside for this. They are paying us a lot of money. Look, once we get tomorrow out of the way, you can go home and forget all about Nicu and Margot.’
‘You are as bad as that witch,’ she snapped, then made her way to the balcony. ‘All you want is to take things away from me. Well, no more.’
I tell Margot how I moved towards Ioana.
‘Come on,’ I said. ‘You’re forgetting who first told you about Nicu’s cheating. If it wasn’t for me and my contacts, you’d be none the wiser.’
I might as well have pulled a pin from a hand grenade.
‘This is all your fucking fault!’ she screamed. ‘You ruined everything. If you hadn’t sold it to your fucking newspapers, then he’d have dumped that bitch and would’ve come back to me. But you pushed them together. And it’s because of you they’re getting married. You have destroyed my life. You are no better than her, you parasite.’
I glare at Margot. ‘It wasn’t planned, it just happened,’ I tell her. ‘I’d never felt a rage like it. It burned hot inside me. All I could see was that you and Nicu were going to get away with something else. Your marriage was going to redeem you, then you’d bounce back even stronger. Before me or Ioana realised what was happening, I lurched forward, and with all my force, I pushed her so hard that she stumbled towards a coffee table and fell backwards over the balcony.’
Now, as I reflect, I don’t remember how much time passed before I regained control over myself from Warren on the balcony and peered over the glass balustrade. Once I adjusted my vision tothe darkness, I caught a glimpse of her impaled on the railings below. Zain, Jenny and Warren’s deaths had been different to hers. They were all part of the plan. Ioana’s wasn’t. Yes, I had used her, but then so had Warren. Killing her was his means of escaping me. I don’t tell Margot about him or any of the others who I’ve carried. I don’t need anyone telling me how crazy I am.
‘I had to erase any trace I’d been in that apartment,’ I tell her. ‘I briefly considered trying to set you up for her death, as you’d been there only minutes before me. But I didn’t have time to think it through. It’d be far easier if the police decided it was suicide. I found her laptop, which was still switched on, slipped on a pair of rubber gloves I found by the sink and typed.’
Margot speaks. ‘You made me do this Nicu. You and that bitch.’
I’m not surprised she remembers it. I also took a photo of the screen and balcony and, later, posted it on all my anonymous social media accounts. It quickly went viral.
I left Ioana’s computer open on the coffee table and locked her children’s bedroom door to prevent them from going on to the balcony. Finally, I made my way down the fire escape, ensuring there were no CCTV cameras recording me.
Margot dabs at the corners of her eyes with the sleeve of her jumper.
‘You got everything you wanted,’ she says. ‘The world believing Nicu and I had driven a young mum to her death, and the media turning on us again. It torpedoed any chance I had of public forgiveness.’
‘It was a thousand times better than the stunt we had planned,’ I admit. ‘I’ll always be grateful to Ioana for that.’
‘I need a minute,’ Margot says before rising to her feet and disappearing along the corridor and into the bathroom.
I top up my glass of wine and drink it all in one long gulp.
Chapter 77
Margot
I sit on the lid of the toilet with a hand towel over my mouth, hoping Anna can’t hear me cry. Her revelations have floored me. The biggest, of course, is what she did to Ioana. And perhaps I should be sickened. But I kind of understand it. I know how it feels to have been provoked by that woman. Many a time I fantasised about killing her myself in some nasty, drawn-out manner. I guess you don’t get much nastier than being impaled on railings after falling fifteen storeys. It scares me to think that it could’ve just as easily been me who shoved her. You don’t know what you’re truly capable of unless you’re pushed to the edge. Or in Ioana’s case, over it.
I can’t stay in the bathroom for much longer. This might be my only opportunity for the truth. So I dab my face with a wet wipe, touch up my make-up and return to the kitchen. I refill her empty glass and wish I could join her in having one.
‘Why couldn’t you have left Nicu and me alone here in Northampton to fade into obscurity?’ I ask. ‘Why did you have to follow us?’
‘Actually I did leave you alone for a while. But when it was announced Nicu was returning toStrictlyI could predict what wasgoing to happen next. You two would get your lives back together and I couldn’t let that happen. You didn’t deserve to be happy.’
‘Why, because you weren’t?’ I hit back.
‘I talked Drew into moving here to restart the harassment. And when a house came up in the same street as you, we paid our rental deposit and moved in.’
