She took a bite and washed it down with her champagne. The taste was wonderful.
Are you really going to eat that? Jack’s voice came back to her. That furrowed brow. The look of disgust. In the years after giving birth to Julienne, she’d been on the end of constant digs about her appearance and her weight. Nothing she did could make Jack happy.
Now she ate what she wanted, in moderation. The insecurity that had given rise to binge eating was a thing of the past. Instead of being ashamed of her body, seeing only the imperfections, she took pride in it. Exercise had gone from being a form of punishment she was forced to endure to something that gave her pleasure, especially when she observed the toned muscles she’d acquired.
Her self-esteem was another of the many things she had won back from Jack.
“What else are you doing?” said Irene. “Has…what’s her name…Kerstin come with you to Sweden?”
“Yes, Kerstin is with me and she’s working around the clock to find out what’s going on. Yesterday, we spoke to several investors to persuade them not to sell.”
“Without giving anything else away, I hope?” Irene scrutinized her keenly while reaching for a second slice.
“Naturally. And I think it worked. But I ask myself whether that’s enough. It’s a question of how focused the person behind this is. I’m worried that it’s someone very focused indeed.”
Irene put down her cutlery and looked at Faye.
“How are you doing?”
Faye knew that with Irene it was best to stick to the straight and narrow.
“To be completely honest, I’m surprised at how badly this has shaken me. We’ve had crises in the company before in the last few years. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of crises of different sizes. Running a company is effectively a matter of crisis management. Well, you know that. But this…Someone is trying to take my life’s work away from me. I created Revenge with my own two hands and I’m still the one at the tiller. And it may be naïve of me, but I never considered the possibility that someone would try to take away everything I’ve worked to build.”
Irene shook her head emphatically.
“It’s not naïve. After all, how often do hostile takeovers happen nowadays? Basically never. Might it be Jack who’s behind this, somehow?”
“Jack? No, he’s got no capital left. And no contacts either. He’s wiped out and everyone has turned their back on him. I can’t see how he would be in a position to pull off something like this from prison. Especially after what he did to Julienne.”
“Is there anyone else you can think of?”
The waitress came back with their main courses and placed them on the table in front of the two women. She looked questioningly at the half-eaten pizza.
“Are you finished? Should I take it away?”
“No, no, leave it. We need carbs today,” said Faye, and Irene nodded. “Obviously I’ve picked up my fair share of enemies over the years,” Faye continued once the waitress was gone. “You can’t build a big company without treading on people’s toes along the way. But there’s no one in particular who stands out. I wish I had a clearer picture, or at least some theory about who it was. But no. Unfortunately, I have no idea.”
“You can rest assured that I won’t sell in any case. And I’ll keep my ear to the ground. Perhaps I can find something out, and if I do then of course I’ll get in touch.”
Faye felt her shoulders relax. It was only now that she realized how tense she had been.
She clinked glasses with Irene. Around them, the lunch guests continued to murmur while the two women attacked their main courses with pleasure.
The water was delightfully warm against her body. Faye took long, powerful strokes and reminded herself to take deep breaths. The pool at the Grand Hôtel resembled a cave, with beautiful vaults and subdued lighting. If you spoke, it was in a low voice, and in the background there was nothing but discreet music of the kind that was typical of spas the world over.
Kerstin was sitting on the wide step halfway into the pool. Faye swam over and slid into place beside her. She straightened herself and leaned back, her elbows against a step, gently splashing with her legs.
“How many are on your list today?” Faye said.
“I’ve got five to seven that I think I can get through, depending whether I can get hold of them and how long each conversation takes.”
“Well, as I said, there’s no need to worry about Irene. She’s promised us she won’t sell.”
“Good. Not that I thought she would, but then again, I didn’t think some of the people who have sold would either.”
Faye looked down into the water at the ripples created by her legs as she shifted on the step. She thought about the dark water. She remembered screams. Saw terrified faces in front of her.
“Faye, how are you feeling?”
Kerstin’s voice brought her back to the present and Faye shook her head slightly.
“There’s a lot that needs doing if the American expansion is to go ahead. I need to spend the day working on that,” she said. “I can’t afford to devote all my time to managing this crisis—daily operations must go on, otherwise we’ll end up with nothing left to lose.”
“Focus on your things and I’ll keep ferreting away.”
Kerstin closed her eyes, savoring the water. She had been in the spa for an hour before Faye had arrived and had swum a decent amount despite the pool really being too small for swimming lengths.
“I know you’ve got a lot to do, but can you help me check up on one other thing?”
“Of course,” said Kerstin, opening her eyes. “Something in particular?”
“Can you find out a bit more about a man called David Schiller? He’s an angel investor.”
“Of course I can,” said Kerstin with an amused smile. “Something tells me that it’s the man here at the Grand who was definitely not your type?”
Faye splashed some water at her.
“Are you being sassy?”
Kerstin grinned.
“Not sassy. Just pointing out the fact that you want to find out more about a man that you claim to be completely uninterested in.”
Faye looked down at her feet in the water again.
“Well, let’s just say that he’s proven himself to have some plus points. And that makes it even more important to find out all I can about him.” She turned toward Kerstin. “I’m determined never to let anyone catch me unawares again.”
Kerstin got up, wrapped her white bathrobe with the hotel logo on it around herself, and tied the sash at her waist.
“I’ll dig up everything I can find. And you should take the opportunity to get some rest. It won’t do any of us any good if you hit the wall. Have an hour here.”
“You’re right. I’m actually going to let myself have that.”
Faye got out of the pool too and reached for her robe.
When Kerstin had left, Faye lay down on one of the loungers and enjoyed the tranquility. The lunch with Irene had dispelled much of her anxiety, and the fear she had felt after her encounter with Detective Yvonne Ingvarsson had begun to dissipate. There was a blurry image of someone who looked like her. So what? Jack had been convicted of Julienne’s murder. He wouldn’t be released for years. The media had helped by drumming in the message that Julienne was dead. It was now an accepted truth. Even though there was no body.
She reached for the glass of freshly pressed orange juice on the floor beside the lounger and took a sip while her thoughts wandered off to her beloved daughter, who was probably splashing about in another pool right now. Today was the first day of June and there was apparently a heat wave across Italy.
Footsteps on the tiles made her look around. David, who had come down from the gym on the second floor, glanced around without spotting her. He took off his black shorts and T-shirt, rev
ealing an unexpectedly well-toned back, and dived into the shimmering green water wearing nothing but underpants. Faye smiled. It was probably strictly prohibited. He swam a couple of lengths and Faye discreetly craned her neck. Eventually, she grew bored of watching, got to her feet, and approached the pool.
David swam up to her and flashed that smile that changed his appearance and made him almost handsome.
“Good morning,” she said. “How was the full day with your daughters?”
A flicker of darkness crossed his face. He heaved himself out of the pool and gratefully accepted the towel that Faye passed to him.
“They couldn’t come,” he said abruptly.
“Has something happened?”
They walked side by side back toward the loungers.
“Johanna decided at the last moment to take them to Disneyland Paris instead.”
“But why?”
David sank down onto a lounger and dried his legs with the towel. He avoided looking at her.
“She’s done it before,” he said quietly. “She finds out from the girls what I’m planning and plays a trump card at the last moment. I don’t know why, but I’m sure she has her reasons.”
“I thought you were getting along well, despite the circumstances?”
“Perhaps I glossed over it when we last spoke. I don’t want to be the guy who talks shit about his ex-wife.”
She looked him deep in the eyes.
“You can tell me.”
They looked at each other in silence for a while. Then he stretched and laced his fingers together behind his neck. Faye lay down on her lounger, facing toward him.
“She’s always been jealous,” David eventually said. “But around two years ago it began to go into overdrive. I’ve never been unfaithful, not to her or anyone else. But I noticed that she had begun to watch me—checking every tiny thing I did. She would suddenly demand to read my texts. I didn’t have anything to hide, so I let her. But then…She turned up at the office. Scared my female employees. Sent them threatening messages on Facebook.”
David sighed.
“I tried to protect her, smoothed things over. I paid them off so they wouldn’t report it to the police. I did everything to protect Johanna. To protect the girls. Sometimes she was completely absent—wandering around the house like a sleepwalker. She would forget to pick up Stina and Felicia from practice or would talk to them harshly. It was one thing when she had an outburst of rage at me, but them? She distanced herself from us. I began working from home more, so that the girls wouldn’t have to be alone with her.”
A tear ran down his cheek and he quickly wiped it away. His jaw was trembling.
“I feel so fucking powerless.”
Faye knew everything about feeling powerless. But she rarely spoke about what had gone before. She rarely spoke about Jack.
“I know just what you mean,” she said in a low voice, her gaze fixed on the tiled floor. “I felt like that for many years. Lived like that for many years. Let myself be controlled, had my identity taken away from me. My self-confidence. Everything.”
She felt David’s eyes on her and forced herself to meet them. She felt naked, unprotected, but also alive. Why had she thought he was uninteresting?
David placed his hand on hers on the lounger and it was as if she’d had an electric shock.
“I’m sorry someone hurt you so badly,” he said, his blue eyes not wavering from hers. “I know that if there’s anyone who can manage on their own it’s you, but I want you to feel that you can talk to me. About everything. You don’t have to be strong by yourself.”
“I’m used to it,” she said, withdrawing her hand.
She could still sense the warmth of his skin.
“Do you feel up to telling me about it? I’m here. And I want to listen.”
Faye hesitated. She had kept the door to her past with Jack closed for so long she wasn’t even certain she could open it. Or how she would do it. David said nothing. He waited for her while she allowed her own thoughts to swirl around. Then she made up her mind.
“We met at the Stockholm School of Economics…”
David placed his hand on hers again. This time she let it lie there while the words came out. Slowly at first, as if every word hurt. Then more and more rapidly.
FJÄLLBACKA—THEN
I lay there shaking in the darkness, my eyes wide open.
“If you tell anyone I’ll kill you.”
Sebastian took a stranglehold on me, shoved his face into mine so that I could smell his sour breath, and squeezed.
“Get it?”
I nodded slowly.
“Yes,” I croaked.
When he let go, I coughed. Sebastian picked up his underpants and returned unhurriedly to his room. I opened the window to let in some air and crept back under the damp covers. It hurt between my legs and I dried myself using my top. Then I sat there staring out of the window.
Memories rushed through my mind. Sebastian and me when we were little. Holding each other’s hands under the table while Dad yelled into Mom’s face, the tip of his nose touching hers. Sebastian curled up in a small ball next to me, seeking my warmth. My security.
All that was gone now. None of those memories was worth a thing any longer. He had taken them from me.
We had sought refuge in each other—the two of us had been the only ones who understood. Now it was just me and Mom left. And Mom was weak. I couldn’t blame her for that. She was weak because she had carried us and protected us as best she could. Stayed for our sake.
I could hear Sebastian restlessly pacing across the floor in his room before the window opened and silence descended. I wondered what he looked like and how he felt sitting curled up on the windowsill seven or eight feet away from me. And then I realized that I could kill him. He was dangling his legs at a height of at least fifteen feet above the ground. If I crept out after him, opened the door to his room, and rushed over, then I’d have time to push him down. I’d tell Mom and Dad that I’d heard him cry out and that I’d run into his room to see what had happened. But I couldn’t do it. I still loved him, despite what he had done.
If I had known what awaited me, what he would subject me to, I would have killed him immediately and without hesitation. It would have spared me a lot of pain. And trouble.
Faye was lying on the big bed in her suite. Her bags were standing, packed, by the door. Tomorrow she was going to leave the Grand Hôtel and move into the apartment by Östermalmstorg. Although it would feel good to be in her own space after so many days at the hotel, she realized to her surprise that she was going to miss David.
The display on her phone lit up and she saw that Kerstin had sent her a message. She clicked on it and read it, a smile spreading across her face.
Everything seems to check out. Have so far been unable to find any issues with David Schiller whatsoever. No criminal records, no defaulted payments, nothing on social media, and I’ve also made discreet inquiries in his business circles and haven’t turned up anything that suggests he’s not okay.
Faye rolled onto her stomach. She couldn’t stop smiling when she thought about her time with David in the hotel spa the day before. They had sat there talking for over an hour before they had had to part ways.
The fact that she had been able to start telling someone about Jack—what he had forced her to think and do—made her feel like she’d lost several pounds. The relief was huge. David had seen her and heard her. She felt like a person. Not just a woman, where the endgame for the man was always to get a lay.
She pulled out her phone again and called Julienne on FaceTime.
Her daughter’s face on the small screen always made her forget all her troubles, all her negative thoughts. That was the only thing she felt grateful to Jack for. He had given her a daughter who was, in Faye’s eyes, absolut
ely perfect. From the messily painted pink toenails to the blond hair that tumbled a long way down her back.
“Hi, sweetheart!”
“Hi, Mommy,” said Julienne, waving cheerily.
Her hair was wet and Faye guessed that she had been in the pool again.
“What are you doing?”
“Me and Grandma have been swimming.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Mmm, lots of fun,” said Julienne.
“I had a swim too. Yesterday. I thought about you then.”
“Oh right,” Julienne said. Faye noticed that she had already begun to lose interest in talking on the phone. Life was tempting her away.
“I’ll call tonight and talk to you then. Miss you. Kiss kiss.”
“Mmm, bye-bye,” said Julienne, waving hastily and impatiently.
“Say hi to Gra—” Faye began to say, but Julienne had already hung up.
Faye smiled. Without doubt, Julienne was going to grow up into an independent woman.
She got up from the bed, went to the bathroom, and turned on the tap to draw a hot bath. Someone knocked on the door and Faye glanced quickly at her wristwatch. It was twenty to nine. Faye stopped the water and went into the hallway.
“Yes?” she called through the door.
“It’s Yvonne Ingvarsson from the police.”
Faye took a deep breath and then opened the door. Yvonne Ingvarsson looked at her with a hint of a smile.
“Can I come in for a while?”
Faye remained in the same spot, her arms folded.
“I don’t think it’s okay for you to just turn up like this.”
“I want to show you something. Can I come in or not?”
Faye sighed and stepped aside so that Yvonne could come into the room. After three or four feet the officer stopped.
“Nice suite.”
“I didn’t know that visits like this were part of your job description. What’s this all about?”
Yvonne Ingvarsson didn’t answer. Instead she put her hand in her bag and took out a clipping from a gossip magazine. It was an old photo of Faye and Jack. She passed it over.
Silver Tears Page 7
