Tommy opened her mouth, visibly struggled. She opened and closed her mouth twice more, and finally, seeing her friend’s lips tremble for the first time Margot took pity on her.
“He’s not coming,” she whispered.
Tommy stepped forward, and what followed was perhaps the longest three heartbeats of any jilted woman’s life, and when her girl said that one word it was broken, as though she too was crushed.
“No.”
For a moment no one said anything. Lani froze. The very air in the room seemed to still as the horrible truth of that wretched moment hung there between them for a century’s worth of seconds. Then the first tear fell.
And the spell was broken. Tommy flew into action. The justice of the peace was thanked for his time and told his services would not be needed. Lani whisked the veil from her head, bundled it out of sight in a bag, adjusted huge black shades on her face, and Margot was in the back of the Bentley before her neck got wet from the tears.
Tommy and Lani got her out of her wedding dress. They cleaned her face and neck and hands, put her in one of Tommy’s beautiful silk caftans and put a glass of Moscato in her hand. She drank.
She drank until a woozy drunkenness invaded the nothingness that was now her soul. She sat there on Tommy’s fabulous electric blue sofa and drank until the tears started again. Then bustling like two pissed off but trying not to show it hens, Lani and Tommy fed her. Holding spoonful’s of sticky saffron rice in front of her lips and tapping like she was a baby until she opened.
No one said anything about the tears falling. No one said anything period. Margot couldn’t remember those two being that quiet before, and she’d known them both for more than 25 years. She supposed no one knew what to say. They just fed and watered her like a wilted plant, and she let them because she didn’t have the strength to go home.
She couldn’t bear to return to her house, walk in the door alone, and see signs of the man who had just humiliated and betrayed her scattered around like he owned the place. Until an hour ago, he had owned it, metaphorically speaking; he’d also owned the majority of her heart. She supposed he no longer wanted it. Good thing. It was hopelessly broken.
After six bites she turned her head away from Lani’s rice spoon. Her eyes met Tommy’s.
“Can I stay here for a while?”
“Of course.”
“Will you, do me a favor? Two, actually.”
“Yes.”
Margot swallowed audibly and this time when a tear fell she dashed it angrily away. “Will you bring me my big, wicker work basket? And remove all of his things from my place?”
“First thing tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”
Tommy picked up her own wine glass and handed Lani hers. They held them out, and slowly with a horribly shaking hand, she clinked hers against them.
“We’re here,” said Lani.
Thank God. Her girls were all she had.
“No one’s heard from him. Candace said he hasn’t been to the office in days. He’s not answering his phone. I even went by the prick’s apartment to drop off his shit and tipped the hell out of the doorman. He hasn’t been there either.”
“This is fucking crazy,” said Lani. She remained incredulous even after the evidence clearly pointed to the most logical scenario.
Which was, “He’s a fucking asshole,” Tommy spat. “And a coward. How dare he do this? Who the fuck does he think he is? The piece of shit.”
“It just doesn’t make sense. He worshipped her. You saw them together. He was so excited about the wedding. He drove me nuts about the floral arrangements for the reception. He even chose the menu and caterer without my help. And it was fabulous.” Judging from the tone of Lani’s voice this development had been mildly shocking. “He vetted each server personally.”
“He’s a prick,” Tommy spat. “A filthy ass fucking liar. He left our girl at city hall in a handmade, white crinoline and lace fucking dress loaded with nearly 5G’s worth of crystals. He better go back to France to live. If he shows his face around here again I’m gonna bash it in with a shovel.”
Margot tiptoed back to the guestroom. She picked up the bracelet she’d been working on. It was brutal looking, spiked with broken pieces of bone tangled in a delicate web of painted olive green and black wire. She’d smashed them with a hammer and sanded the pieces. Yet it seemed romantic. It clipped together with a series of tiny hooks like a corset. Perhaps that was why. Whoever wore it would need help putting it on and taking it off.
Red and pink precious and semi-precious gems clung to the web, and she knew without conceit it was one of the most beautiful, expensive things she’d ever created. Lani had yet to take off the chandelier earrings she made yesterday. She was even coordinating her outfits around them.
The bracelet was the fifth piece she’d created in the past three days, and the floor and dressers were littered with sketches for another six or seven other pieces. She was planning to call it the Heartbreak Collection. She thought her fans would love the irony. The corner of her mouth quirked in a flashing parody of a smile. At least Nori’s desertion was good for her work.
Someone knocked. Tommy stuck her head around the door. “Well?”
That meant, was she coming out of the room or what? She took the bracelet and her work basket and went into the Tommy’s room. Lani sat in the middle of dozens of pairs of shoes.
“Okay?” she asked.
Margot nodded. The numbness was a blessing. She prayed it lasted for another six months at least. Being mildly drunk all the time helped. She picked up the glass on Tommy’s night stand and drained it. Ever helpful, her friend immediately refilled it.
Margot toasted her and drank.
“Why don’t you ever wear these?” Lani held up a pair of strappy, hot pink and purple stilettos with a fabric flower over the toe.
Tommy shrugged. “Impulse buy. They never seem right with anything I have. They’d go with that purple dress you just got. The long sleeves and cowl neck, short skirt and spindly heels will be perfect. Take ‘em.”
“Thanks!” Lani grinned at the shoes and set them aside.
Margot laughed softly and picked up her bracelet and a pair of pliers. At first she didn’t notice her girls watching her. Then she looked up and found them staring.
“What?”
“You laughed,” said Lani.
Margot laughed again. “Is that a crime?”
“No!” Tommy glared at Lani and deliberately kicked over a pile of shoes.
“Hey! Watch it, you fucking hoarder. This goddamn closet is a disgrace,” she muttered returning to her work. “I don’t know how you get dressed in the morning.”
“Very carefully,” said Tommy. “Shall I order Thai for dinner? That little place around the corner is spotless every time I go in, and they have the most wonderful spring rolls and dumplings.”
“White rice,” Lani yelled after her. “Nothing fried! She doesn’t need to be jilted and fat,” she muttered, then looked up stricken, having forgotten Margot was in earshot.
But Margot just laughed. “Okay? I think you guys have had it right all along. The only thing worth caring about is beauty and enjoying life. There is nothing else.”
The next time she looked up the bracelet was finished. Lani promptly put it on. “It matches the earrings perfectly,” she smiled, admiring her reflection.
Two more days passed without incident. And as the fifth day’s sun sank into the horizon Margot started to feel weird. At first she didn’t know what was making her so restless. So she took one of her Tommy’s Lorazepam and tried to sleep, but it didn’t work and for hours she just lay there in the dark.
It wasn’t like him. To not call, to not see how she was, to send Tommy a cryptic text on their wedding day saying, “Take care of her,” and then nothing? It wasn’t Nori. He wasn’t a coward. He might be an asshole sometimes, but not with her. And he wasn’t weak. She had been the only weakness she’d seen in him, and that was a differ
ent thing.
He wouldn’t have left her standing there in her wedding dress wondering what the fuck was going on, and he damn sure wouldn’t have just disappeared off the face of the planet.
Something was wrong. She sat up in the dark. Suddenly she was sure of it. For the first time since her aborted wedding day, she called his cell. It went straight to voicemail. She called Lado. He picked up, sleepy, but not upset to hear from her.
“How you holding up?”
“Fine. You heard from him?”
“No. I haven’t.”
And there it was, the confirmation she needed. Lado thought his absence was strange too. She could hear it in his voice.
“I’ve called a dozen times, gone by his place, called him at work, nothing. I’ll call you when I hear something, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Margot.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.”
“When he left here on your wedding day he seemed so happy. He got into the car, rolled down the window and said, “This is it, my friend. Wish me happy. And I did. I never thought, not in a million years –”
Neither had she. “Goodnight, Lado.”
Nori’s best friend sighed sadly. “Goodnight.”
There was no going back to sleep now. She paced around her room for a while, then she crept out past Tommy and Lani sleeping in their respective beds and went into the living room. Tommy had a great view. The city looked beautiful at this time of night. Sluggish, but still moving, a thousand lights twinkling like there was nothing wrong, but she knew there was.
She began to pace. Why had no one heard from him? It was one thing to change your mind about marriage. Ditching someone at the altar, even it is the courthouse’s altar was bad enough, but Nori hadn’t been near his apartment or his office. He hadn’t called her, his best friend hadn’t heard from him, he wasn’t answering his phone for anyone else she knew. Candace didn’t know anything either. Aro she wouldn’t try since he was probably still dancing a jig that they were finally apart.
Something was wrong. She could feel it. He wouldn’t just walk away without saying a word to anyone. It wasn’t his style. Even under extreme pressure, Nori wasn’t a punk.
And why the sudden about face? He’d showed absolutely no signs of hesitating over their upcoming marriage, and she’d watched for them. He seemed happy, looking forward to it, excited about their honeymoon in St. Barth’s. He’d been working long hours to clear his plate so he could focus solely on her, he said.
He’d watched with ill-concealed pride as she packed her trousseau. He’d even bought her a pre-wedding wedding ring, he called it. A huge, diamond shaped pink sapphire surrounded by enough diamonds to blind someone if the sun hit them the wrong way. Tommy had smacked her lips over it and gazed with a hilarious mix of greed and appreciation and said, “That mother fucker loves you.”
He tried to get a peek at the ring she’d designed for him. Of course she hadn’t let him see it. She regretted that now, which was probably fucking stupid. It’s not like seeing the ring would have kept him from leaving her. But her churning gut was no longer sure that’s what happened.
Margot had no illusions left about love at this point, but there was no way he’d have left her alone like that, humiliated, without a word. His French ass would consider it the height of rudeness and bad taste.
And Nori didn’t text. He didn’t like messing with those tiny buttons, said he preferred to hear her voice live.
“You wouldn’t respond anyway,” he’d once teased her. “You’d never know, you’re so rarely on your phone.”
Where was he? She’d even called his apartment in Paris. The housekeeper hadn’t seen or heard from him in months. She’d even broken down and called his father; Aro didn’t bother to return her calls. Not that she’d really expected him to. He was probably thrilled Nori had backed out, that he was relieved from the disgusting need to welcome her into his rarified family.
She stopped pacing. His father. She had to see him. They weren’t close, but if anyone knew where Nori was, it was him. She looked at the clock. It was almost five. The sun would be up soon. Nori was usually on his way to the gym by now. She’d start there. Maybe she could run into him and end this thing one way or another.
She wasn’t trying to get him back. She just needed to see that he was okay. She just needed to know for sure that this weird urgency she suddenly felt over his safety was just hurt, some warped ass reaction to being duped and dumped. And not her spidey sense trying to tell her that her baby needed help.
Chapter sixteen
No one at the gym had seen Nori in days.
“I was starting to worry,” said Ralph, the locker room attendant. “It’s not like him to miss his workouts. You don’t think anything’s happened to him, do you?”
Margot promised to call when she found out anything. That proved it. Something was definitely wrong. Hell would freeze over before Nori missed a workout. He claimed he needed them to feel sane, to metabolize a crazy baseline energy, otherwise he’d bounce off the walls.
She called Lado and told him the gym was a bust.
“Jesus,” said the lawyer. “I’ll go and see Aro. He hasn’t returned any of my calls. If he’s not in the office, I’ll bust into his house if I have to.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He hesitated. “Alright, I’ll pick you up in –”
“No,” she interrupted, not trusting him not to leave without her. “I’m near your place, I’ll come to you.”
“I’ll be down in 10.”
Margot was there in three, waiting for him when he entered the lobby a few minutes later.
“I had my car brought around.”
They got into the Benz, and he put a hand on her leg and squeezed. “We’ll find him.”
“Yeah.”
Aro wasn’t in the office, and no one had seen him for days either. It seemed a little too coincidental that Nori and his father should both be missing for the same amount of time. The only difference was, people had heard from Aro, who claimed to be working from home while shaking off a bug.
His secretary seemed skeptical. “In the past Mr. James has always disapproved of those who work from home. But I’ve gotten several work related emails from him over the past few days.”
Back in the Benz Margot asked Lado, “Do you know how to get to his house?”
“Yup.”
“Who are you calling?”
“Nori and then Aro. Just in case.” But again no one answered. “No matter. We’ll be there shortly. Somebody knows something, and I’m gonna goddamn well find out what.”
“Get down,” he told her 35 minutes later when they turned the corner onto Aro’s street. “If he’s watching, we don’t want to get his guard up, and if he sees you it will be. I’ll get in, make sure I leave the front door unlocked, and see what’s what.”
“If there’s something up, he’s not just gonna tell you,” Margot said, folding herself onto the floor.
Lado laughed as he swung the car around the drive and stopped in front of the door. “I have no intention of taking that pretentious old bastard’s word for anything. I’m going to look around and see for myself, whether he wants me too or not, and you’re gonna help me.”
Crouched on the floor of the Benz, Margot listened.
“Lado. What a surprise.”
“It shouldn’t be Aro. I’ve been calling you for days. Calls you ignored. Where’s Nori?”
“He’s away for a few days, I’m afraid. He needed some quiet to recover from this, unfortunate incident.”
“Bullshit. Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Lado pushed his way past the older man. “I must say, I’m quite shocked at your behavior, keeping a friend standing out here on the stoop like a peddler.”
Margot couldn’t hear anything else. A few minutes later she crept from the car and tried the door. It opened soundlessly. Good job, Lado. She peaked in. Aro and
Lado were nowhere around.
Quickly but silently she ran through the house. Praying Lado kept Aro busy, she opened the door Nori had pointed out as Aro’s office. He’d known she was looking into some new book shelves, and he’d wanted to show her his father’s, custom made and beautiful. He’d wanted to adapt a similar idea for her tools and materials.
She didn’t know what she was looking for, but Margot rifled quickly through the drawers and poked through the papers on top of the desk. There was no computer.
One part of her couldn’t fathom Nori’s stuck up father keeping him here against his will, potentially staging some sort of psychotic intervention just to keep him from marrying her. But the other part of her remembered the look she’d caught on the old man’s face after she clowned his ass at that dinner party. He hated her.
He’d done nothing but bad mouth her from the moment she entered Nori’s life. He’d even cornered Nori at the gym. Then Aro tried to get Candace to back out of her contract with Ineffable. Nori got wind of it, and as far as she knew, that was the last time the two of them spoke.
Fuck it. She’d look around upstairs. Better to know than to wonder. She took the stairs two at a time on silent feet, pausing at the top to listen. Suddenly she heard Aro speaking.
“Lado, you’re being ridiculous. You seriously want to inspect the bowels of my home? What do you think? I’ve got my son chained to the wall in some secret room?”
Apparently she and Lado were thinking the exact same thing. All of the doors were closed and there was a bunch of them. She’d start at one end and work her way down.
The first three were empty. The fourth was a bathroom. She crossed the hall. What she saw behind the fifth door nearly stopped her heart. Nori.
“Baby!” she rushed to his side.
He was so pale, and he didn’t respond to her voice. She slapped his face gently, and his eyelids fluttered. He moaned softly. She saw why. There were several syringes on the night stand.
“Lado!” She screamed and kept screaming as her eyes took in the restraints attached to the headboard of the bed, the ligature marks around Nori’s wrists where he’d obviously struggled.
Ineffable Page 21
