Chapter Twelve
Evie
As the evening drew in and darkness blanketed Manhattan, Bonnie switched on the extra spot lamp on the table. She carefully unrolled the Chantilly lace. ‘You did wash your hands after you had the toast, didn’t you?’ She checked with Evie.
Evie smiled for the first time since the confrontation with her uncle outside her apartment last night. ‘Of course I did. I always do.’ She reached out and touched the edge of the lace, perfect, soft, gentle and flowing. ‘This is gorgeous, hats off to the new supplier.’
Bonnie nodded. ‘I’m really pleased with them so far.’
‘What time are the Henleys due in?’
‘They’ll be here in …’ Bonnie checked her watch, ‘fifteen minutes.’
‘I’ll set up the living room.’
‘Are you sure you’re happy to stay? I know you’re off to the shelter this evening.’
‘It’s fine,’ Evie replied. ‘I’ll be able to get everything ready, greet the Henleys, and then if it’s okay I’ll leave the details to you.’
‘Perfect.’ Bonnie smiled. ‘Make sure you open those magazines to show our feature on the business. We’re famous!’
Evie’s smile lasted until she was out of view. In the living room she plumped up cushions on the two couches sitting at right angles from each other, the armchair in the corner. She arranged the magazines, opening them out as Bonnie had asked, and when she saw the feature again, she wondered whether this was how her uncle had found her. Had he somehow seen it, on a street corner, in a store, over someone’s shoulder as they planned their dream wedding? He’d probably thought all of his Christmases had come at once when he found out her place of work and somehow her address, all the details that wouldn’t be too difficult to find once you had a starting point.
She stared at the picture of her in the magazine, sitting at the long table, sewing a lace trim to an ice-pink veil, and she thought about last night.
He’d been lurking in the shadows, and she hadn’t seen him until she put her key in the lock.
‘Hello, Evie. Long time, no see.’
Her breath held in her throat.
‘Cat got your tongue?’ He moved towards her and she tried to step back, but she was already as close to the door as she could be.
He pulled something from the pocket of his coat, presumably a new one that had replaced the coat he’d dumped at Nicole’s apartment a few days ago. ‘We’ve got some unfinished business, young lady.’ He towered threateningly over her. Even in the dark she could see every detail of his face, the clean-shaven jaw, the cut by his bottom lip, the pockmark in his cheek that’d always been there.
He showed her what he was holding: another photograph from the collection she’d wished were never taken, the hold he had over her and always would. ‘I assume you found the photo in the coat.’ She didn’t answer. ‘Plenty more where they came from.’
‘Lizzy!’ She shrieked, as loudly as she could. She hoped her friend hadn’t been able to find her keys in her bag. They’d joked in the past that her designer Louis Vuitton was like a black hole. Please let it be the case tonight.
‘Lizzy!’ She screamed again.
Her uncle leant closer when they heard footsteps, his breath hot and stale on her face. ‘Scream all you like. This isn’t over. You’ll be seeing me again.’
‘Everything okay?’ Lizzy appeared like an apparition and Evie had never been so grateful in her life.
Her uncle said, ‘Good evening,’ to her friend as though he was a welcome acquaintance, and then he was gone, into the Manhattan streets, swallowed up again by the metropolis where Evie knew he’d lurk quietly like a lion until he was ready to pounce on his prey again.
‘What was that all about?’ Lizzy carefully came down the icy steps, keys in hand. She’d caught her just in time.
‘Nothing.’
‘Oh, bullshit!’ Lizzy always was one to tell it how it was. ‘Now we’re going inside,’ she nodded to the keys still on the ground, ‘and you’re going to tell me everything.’
And as painful as it had been, Evie had told Lizzy every last detail. And it had felt better than she’d ever anticipated. Lizzy had earned her stripes as a lifelong friend last night when she’d listened to Evie’s story. Lizzy hadn’t judged her, she hadn’t even commented as Evie got her words out, one after the other. And when Evie had finished, Lizzy ran upstairs to her apartment and came back with a bottle of store-bought mulled wine and they drank the lot.
Now, as Evie surveyed the living room at The Perfect Fit Couture to ensure she was ready to greet the Henleys for their appointment, she knew that last night she’d taken another step into her new life by letting a friend know about her past. It was another step forwards, but niggling at the back of her mind was that somehow, before long, she could very well be taking a good few steps back.
*
