‘And finally, I will have a role in running the company,’ Adrianna announced in a tone that brooked no objection. ‘Jeffrey has messed up his children with this nonsense. You four cannot be left to make peace after all the fighting. We will decide together, Jeffrey and I, how this will work. I have been in hospitality since I was sixteen and I know about entertaining and how to run a business. I will have plenty of time for this, because Jeffrey will need to rest a lot, now he is retiring. You will be surprised, I think, Jeffrey,’ she said, fixing him with a basilisk stare, ‘how much you will need to rest once you are retired.’
‘It’s all been so much to take in,’ Jeffrey said, his voice a feeble whisper. ‘Such a lot to deal with.’
‘I know,’ Adrianna agreed.
She refrained from pointing out that almost all of it was entirely his own fault, as, from the look of him, he was perfectly well aware of that already. He was visibly sagging, his face still ashen. She wasn’t sure how much of her well-rehearsed pitch he had heard, but the main thing was that she had convinced him to skip making an announcement about the CEO appointment today.
‘We have plenty of time,’ she said gently. ‘We will go on our honeymoon, relax, talk about all of this. You can decide if you agree with everything I have said. We will talk it over as a team. Because now we are married, we are a team.’
She set down her glass.
‘And now it’s past time for me to get ready for dinner!’ she said. ‘No announcement to upset anyone, just a lovely dinner, how nice! Mummia, please go to tell the wedding planner that we are running late, at least an hour by now. It will not be a problem for the food – the main courses are already prepared, they are served at room temperature in the Italian style. The pasta will be cooked when we are eating the antipasti. No, wait.’
She looked from her stepdaughter to her husband, and decided that the former was in better shape than the latter.
‘Bella, can you do that?’ she asked. ‘Find the wedding planner? It will be good for you to have something to do, I think.’
Bella nodded.
‘It will,’ she said. ‘Keeping busy is always the best thing for me. If you’ve got anything else I can help with . . .’
‘Yes! Please tell Conway – and Bart –’ Adrianna added quickly, remembering that Bart was not supposed to have overheard this whole conversation, ‘that there will be no announcement at the dinner. Everyone can relax and enjoy themselves. You don’t need to tell them my thoughts,’ she said with a small smile. ‘Let’s wait for that. We have plenty of time. Oh, and make sure you are sitting next to Mummia at dinner. Get the planner to reorganize the seating.’
Bella nodded again, standing up.
‘This has been – God, I don’t know what it’s been!’ she said ruefully. ‘I’m still processing everything. But – only good thoughts and good memories. That’s great advice.’ She smiled at Mrs Rootare. ‘And, Adrianna, thank you for recommending me for CEO—’
Adrianna held up her hand, the diamond engagement ring glittering spectacularly.
‘You are welcome. It is best for the business. But go now, please,’ she said, kindly, but firmly. ‘Mummia, I want you to take Jeffrey downstairs. He’ll be fine now he has had his brandy. Won’t you, Jeffrey?’
It was phrased like a question, but it was a command. Obediently, Jeffrey Sachs gave his empty brandy snifter to Mrs Rootare for disposal on the bedside table and let her put one hand under his arm, gently helping him to his feet.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can,’ Adrianna said. ‘I will come down on my own. Jeffrey can wait for me at the bottom of the stairs. It will be less tiring for him.’
Bella hesitated, looking towards the still-closed bathroom door.
‘But what about Charlotte?’ she asked.
‘I will deal with her,’ Adrianna said. ‘Don’t worry. I will make sure she is okay and send her to her room to recover. If she does not come down to dinner, don’t go to look for her. I can check on her later if it’s necessary. Remember,’ she added firmly, ‘be nice to yourself. It is not your job to take care of her.’
Nodding once again, Bella hurried across the bedroom to open the double doors for her father and Mrs Rootare.
‘Adrianna?’ she said, looking back at her stepmother. ‘Thank you so much for this. We’ve been tearing each other apart, and it’s wonderful to think we might be able to put ourselves back together again, even a bit. Welcome to the family.’
Jeffrey nodded, perking up at this.
‘Good girl,’ he said to his daughter. ‘Well said. She’s a treasure.’
‘She truly is a treasure,’ Mrs Rootare said fondly as she led her new son-in-law out of the suite. ‘And very smart too. If you let her, she will make everything better.’
‘You know,’ Bella agreed, following behind, ‘I honestly think she will.’
Chapter Thirty-Four
Adrianna found Charlotte curled in a ball on the bathroom floor, her back to the huge white marble bath, her face the same colour as the marble. She was hugging her knees and staring ahead of her, her eyes blind. Beside her lay her phone, which she had been carrying in one of the pockets of her wide-skirted dress. She turned, hearing Adrianna enter, and slowly focused her gaze as she looked up at her new stepmother.
‘I Skyped him just now,’ she said. ‘And he laughed at me. He said I was stupid not to have guessed – why would Daddy give the housekeeper’s son all that money for his education, especially in America, where it costs a fortune? He said the allowance Daddy gives him is nothing compared to what the rest of us have, and it wasn’t fair. He wanted a chance to work at Sachs, like us, but Daddy told him it was never going to happen. So he found a way to meet me and got me into bed. For revenge, he said.’
Charlotte retched on saying the last words, but there was clearly nothing left to come up. She must have reached the loo in time, as there was no sign of vomit anywhere. But the room still smelt of it, the sour, acrid smell of alcohol and stomach acid. Adrianna went over to the vanity stand, picked up her lightest, most citrusy perfume, Pucci Vivara, and sprayed it into the air a few times to improve the atmosphere.
‘It’s over now,’ she said calmly. ‘Jeffrey is very much to blame. He should have told you when you were adults, and able to hear it. Let the boy join the family a little, not kept him in America like a dirty secret.’
‘Lee was hoping that I’d be CEO and give him a job at Sachs,’ Charlotte said. ‘He told me, just now. He thought we would keep on having a secret affair, and I’d give him a job, and Daddy wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. He wanted to work for Sachs as a victory over Daddy sending him away. I thought he cared about me, but he just saw me as his way in. I thought I had my life so perfectly organized. Paul and the children for home, and Lee for sex . . . Oh God . . .’
She retched again.
‘I told him I was in love with him, and he laughed at me,’ she said pitifully.
Adrianna had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in a therapy session with her wayward stepdaughter.
‘It’s a difficult situation, I agree. But you need to get up now,’ she said.
She considered whether to offer Charlotte a glass of water, and decided against it; given the state Charlotte was in, she might well throw it straight up again as soon as she had drunk it. Adrianna’s brow furrowed as something occurred to her.
‘Lee?’ she asked, bending over and extending her hands to Charlotte. ‘I thought he was called Ronaldo.’
‘Lee was my nickname for him when we were little,’ Charlotte said, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. ‘We used to play building forts, besieging each other, in the garden, and he was the general a lot . . . we saw a film with General Lee in it, Gone with the Wind. I started to call him that, and it stuck. You know how kids’ jokes are.’
Adrianna nodded as she walked Charlotte out of the bathroom.
‘Go back to your room and drink some water, slowly,’ she said. ‘Lots of
water, but not much at once. Order some plain bread and some yoghurt. Tell them to bring some salt, too. That helps to balance your stomach after you have been sick. Take your time. If you can come and join us, good, but your father and I will understand if you can’t. Maybe lie down for a while.’
By the time Adrianna had finished giving these instructions, they had reached the door of the suite. With a light, firm push, she sent Charlotte into the corridor, where she stood aimlessly, as if unsure where to go. But Charlotte was no longer Adrianna’s concern. She shut and bolted the door, then she walked over to the connecting door to the living room and bolted that too.
Finally, for the first time that day, no one could intrude on her. She took a deep breath, relishing this, weight pouring off her shoulders.
Shuffling noises indicated that Bart was finally wriggling out from under the bed. The sight was so comical that she burst out into much-needed laughter, tears springing to her eyes as he caterpillared out onto the carpet, fluff clinging to his face and clothes.
‘I think you should have a word with the cleaning staff,’ he said, brushing a clump of fluff off his waistcoat. ‘Clearly they’re skimping on vacuuming! Thank God I don’t sneeze easily. I had a dust bunny the size of my thumb hanging over my face.’
He sat up cross-legged on the bedside carpet.
‘So,’ he said, ‘my family is utterly and completely fucked up. I don’t even know how to deal with what I just heard.’
He shook his handsome head in disbelief.
‘Pa had sex with Maria? He’s always been able to have any woman he wanted, the most beautiful ones on the planet – I mean, look at you! I adore Maria, she’s like a second mother to me—’
He pulled a face at his own words.
‘Well, isn’t that ironic, considering what we’ve just found out from Pa!’ he observed, shaking his head. ‘Anyway, she’s a lovely woman with a heart of gold, but she wasn’t exactly a stunner even back in the day. Pa likes them long and leggy, and she’s barely five foot tall and rounder than she’s high.’
‘For some men,’ Adrianna observed dryly, leaning back against the bolted door, ‘all they need sometimes is a woman who is there.’
Bart laughed, but without any humour to it.
‘I’ll bow to your superior experience,’ he said. ‘In fact, I’m bowing generally. You were right about every single thing you just said about all of us, and especially about me. What the hell am I doing, turning up and sitting in my office—’
He put quotation marks around that word with his fingers, mocking himself.
‘– drinking myself into a stupor? Of course I should be roaming the world in seat 1A on the best airlines available to humanity, charming tourism ministers into coughing up all sorts of concessions to Sachs! It’s the perfect job for me! Frankly, if Pa had any sense he’d make you CEO.’
A faint smile curved Adrianna’s lips.
‘I know,’ she said. ‘But I will be happy to work with Bella. She will do a good job.’
‘Will she be okay?’ Bart asked. ‘That was bloody brutal. I honestly don’t know how Charlotte can look either of us in the eye again.’
‘Either of you?’ Adrianna said. ‘I think all three of you.’
Bart considered this.
‘Wait,’ he said slowly. ‘Conway too? You mean—’
‘I mean I think someone gave Samantha a push to check into what Conway was up to with other women,’ Adrianna told him. ‘She would not have done this on her own – she would not like to think about it. Someone told her, and then because of her pride, she would have to find out the truth. And I had never heard of this Cook Islands place, but I was curious about it. It seemed so unlike Conway to go that far, be that sneaky. Conway, who kisses women in Morton’s where other people can see! I talked to Tania and she did research that shows that anyone can open this kind of trust in the name of anyone. We think your sister did it so your father would have another reason not to give the job to Conway.’
Bart heaved a deep sigh.
‘After what I just heard, I believe it,’ he said. ‘This is bloody depressing. You must be wondering what the hell’s wrong with this family.’
He looked at her hopefully.
‘Not too late to get a divorce!’ he suggested.
Adrianna broke into another laugh.
‘If I were a queen,’ she said, ‘you would be my – the clown who jumps around with bells, making me laugh – how do you say that?’
‘Court jester,’ Bart said, kneeling up on the rug and holding out his arms to her. ‘Come here and let your court jester finish what he started. It’s not exactly usual for the jester to be the queen’s secret lover as well, but you’re not exactly a conventional woman, are you?’
‘I shouldn’t,’ she said, but she was walking towards him, untying the belt of her dressing gown, letting it fall to the floor, once more feeling like a femme fatale. Bart’s bright-blue eyes were hot enough to burn holes in her skin. ‘We shouldn’t.’
‘Just this once,’ he said. ‘I swear. We have to do this, just once. We have to.’
Adrianna halted in front of him; he pulled down her silk knickers once more, closed his mouth around her, warm and wet, his tongue starting to work magic. It felt like paradise. Her eyes shut in absolute bliss, and she realized there was dampness on her lashes. His hands were wrapped around her high buttocks, pulling her close; she opened her eyes again, wanting to look down and see him making her come, tangling her fingers in his thick blond hair, her hips starting to pump against him.
He made a noise like a deep growl in the back of his throat, and she realized that she was actually crying now, with exhaustion and relief and happiness, as she started to come. How on earth had she ended up on her wedding day with both a new husband and a new lover? Her previous resolution never to let Bart close, never to yield to the temptation he presented, had crumbled to dust and ashes. How could she let this happen only once? How could they stop this sheer, transcendent pleasure, now that they had found each other? Lust she could have fought, pushed back, managed to banish. But this, she knew, was not just lust.
I deserve this, she told herself as her hips pounded against his mouth, as she came over and over again, his tongue flickering against her, knowing precisely what she needed and where. I’ve worked so hard. I’ve done so much and come so far. I’ve brought my husband’s family back together, and I’ll make him as happy as I can for as long as he’s alive. He deserves that, for marrying me and treating me so well.
He’ll never find out about me and Bart, I’ll make sure of it. But I can’t give this man up. He may be just a pretty toy, but he’s my toy, and no one will take him away from me.
Her fingers tightened possessively in Bart’s hair as he licked his lips and smiled up at her.
‘Your turn,’ she said, sliding down to the carpet, pushing him back, unzipping his trousers. ‘You’d better come quickly, like I did. I have my wedding dinner to go to.’
He sighed in bliss as she pulled down his boxers and closed her hand around his penis, which was already as stiff as a rod. Meeting his eyes, she blurted out:
‘I think I’m falling in love with you too, okay?’ and watched his big blue eyes fill up with joy for a long moment before she lowered her head and took him in her mouth.
Chapter Thirty-Five
One year later
‘I’m so excited,’ Sirje said with a beaming smile as she sat at Adrianna’s dressing table, looking at herself in the mirrors from several angles at once. ‘It’s so kind of you to let us get married here! I feel like I’m in Four Weddings and a Funeral – or Downton Abbey!’
‘I know, darling,’ Adrianna said fondly as she pinned on her sister’s veil. ‘I still feel like I’m in a film sometimes here too. Did you look at the house listing I sent you, the one that’s only five miles away? It’s not as grand as Vanbrugh, but it’s still lovely, and you don’t want to have to manage a whole estate anyway. It’s too much work for a party gi
rl like you. But you could come down for weekends. It’d be great to have you so close – I’d love that!’
‘I don’t feel grown-up enough to have a country house yet,’ Sirje admitted. ‘I want to travel to every single sexy, glamorous place in the world, and so does Conway. He says he wasted so much time with Samantha playing house, when what he really wanted to do was go crazy in Ibiza and Sardinia and Aspen and Verbier – oh, I have to learn to ski, apparently!’
She pulled a face.
‘I don’t see why I can’t just soak in the hot tub and wait for him to come back from the slopes! But no, he wants me with him.’
‘Better that way. Don’t leave him alone for any length of time,’ Adrianna said with her usual devastating frankness. ‘You know what you’re getting into – he screwed around on one wife right from the start. You’re always going to have to keep an eye on him. He takes after his father – he’ll be looking to trade you in after ten to fifteen years.’
‘But I have my secret weapon,’ Sirje said with a very naughty smile, sliding her hand down to cup what lay between her legs, the penis and balls that were strapped and tucked away so deftly that no one would ever have suspected their existence.
‘Sirje, there are other chicks with dicks in the world,’ her sister said firmly. ‘Look at the one he cheated on Samantha with! I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that he’d love to meet you, but there was so much going on before my wedding, it went straight out of my head. But seriously, you’re not the only gorgeous whore in the world who happens to have a penis, you know?’
‘I know, honestly I do,’ Sirje said. ‘I know what guys are like, Adri. I know Conway’s not exactly the faithful type. But then, neither am I! The couple that plays together stays together.’
‘Mmn. Not always, in my experience,’ Adrianna said wryly. ‘Bring in someone else and things can get very messed up very quickly. The stories I heard at Farouche! But you have a great prenup, which is the important thing.’
Bad Twins Page 37
