by Karen Swan
‘Why?’
‘Because . . . I helped him,’ she shrugged. ‘I thought he was a top guy, completely misrepresented by the press, libelled by his enemies. I felt pretty sorry for him much of the time actually. I used to go out of my way to make things great for him. I had no idea . . .’
‘And how could you have done? He is a charismatic man. He fooled me too, for a long time. Why do you think I married him?’ Her fingers had laced together but the knuckles were pressed white. ‘I had been in some . . . toxic relationships before I met him. The world I moved in made women like me seem very disposable, and I had no sense of self-worth. But when we met, he was different to all the rest. At first, we were just friends. He would fly in whenever he could to whichever city I happened to be working in, and we would just walk and talk, go for meals. It was all so innocent and romantic. Nobody had ever treated me like a person, before.’
‘So when did it change?’
‘About five months after we were married. He didn’t like the way a man I was talking to at a party had been looking at me. He was certain we were having an affair.’ She rolled her lips together. ‘He threw me down the stairs that night.’
Both Poppy and Chloe gasped. ‘Oh my God,’ they uttered in unison.
Lucas, sitting beside her, reached forward and squeezed her hand. ‘It’s how we met. I knew Alexander from Chicago. I had been working a residency at the Weiss hospital and had operated on him for a particularly nasty ankle break. He had been pleased with my work and kept my number. I happened to be in London for a conference when he rang, saying he had a “sensitive case”. She had broken her leg in three places.’ His voice tremored at the memory and, this time, it was Elodie who put her hand on his thigh and squeezed.
‘After that, I relocated to Paris and he would send Elodie to me whenever she needed medical attention . . . which was regularly.’ His mouth had flattened into a line, his eyes as hard as stones. ‘He trusted me to be discreet and in return he paid me hush money to keep quiet, to keep her looking beautiful.’ His hand brushed down her bare arm as he gazed at the woman now sitting beside him; she in turn looked back at him with an adoration that made Chloe feel intrusive. ‘She would always be covered up – long sleeves, long dresses – to hide the bruises . . . He was a monster; I couldn’t bear that he thought I was colluding with him, but it was the only way I could help Elodie – even if it was only afterwards.’
‘He was the only one who knew the truth, the only person I could trust,’ Elodie said in a voice so low, the breeze almost spirited it away. ‘. . . Sometimes, when my husband hurt me, I was almost happy because I knew then I would be able to see Lucas.’
Lucas’s hand found hers again. He looked back at them. ‘I begged her to leave him; he would kill her one day, of that I was certain; but she was too terrified – like a deer in headlights, she couldn’t move. The security guards supposedly keeping her safe were more interested in reporting back her every move to him. She was trapped. How do you escape a man like that? A man who has the resources to scour every last square inch of this planet.’
‘By faking your own death,’ Chloe said quietly.
‘I had been hiding money away for years,’ Elodie said. ‘I had an account in a bank in Switzerland that was so secretive, even my husband would not be able to gain access to it. I didn’t think I would ever use it, but when I found out about the baby, everything changed – especially because it was not his. I would not have put it past him to have the baby DNA tested, to be sure. And then he would have killed us all.’
The silence that followed was chilling. No one doubted it was the truth.
‘Did he ever suspect you?’ Chloe asked, looking at Lucas.
‘No. We were incredibly careful. And restrained. No phone calls. No emails. Ever. We would sometimes go months without seeing each other, and when we did, we never met anywhere but at my clinic. I would schedule follow-up consultations for as long as I thought I could get away with.’
‘And when that stopped, we would wait for the next beating,’ Elodie added simply.
‘Jesus Christ,’ Poppy murmured. ‘So what changed?’
‘You, Poppy.’
‘Me?’
‘When I rang that Monday morning, I had been wanting to ask you to get Alexander tickets to the World Cup in Russia. He is fanatical about football and I thought being back in his homeland too, it would help keep him away for another few days at least. I could not bear the thought of him coming back again. I had begun to suspect I might be pregnant but I wasn’t ready to confirm it – I knew it would be a life sentence if I was. But then, when you answered, Chloe,’ Elodie looked over at her. ‘And told me about Poppy’s accident, as terrible as it was, I realized it gave me a short window in which to make my move. I knew it was now or never.’
Chloe nodded, remembering the phone call with the unidentified woman that morning. She had hung up. Chloe had assumed it was Rosaria, but of course, she famously never used her voice before noon.
Elodie looked across at them both with fierce eyes. ‘I am ashamed to admit the accident provided me with an opportunity and with you deputizing for Poppy, Chloe, I knew it would be a while before you were standing on your feet. Joel was living in New York so Lucas rang straight away and asked him to go to your offices and sign up as a client. I couldn’t go and buy a house myself – anything in my name meant Alexander would know about it within the minute – but the discreet service you provide at Invicta meant you could set up a whole new life for me.’
Chloe looked across at Joel – but he was already watching her. ‘And it would all be independent,’ she murmured. ‘Even if Alexander had become suspicious, there would have been nothing for him to trace – you were an entirely separate client, using a false name. The worst that could happen was that he would learn you were the far-away brother of his doctor. A coincidence perhaps, but nothing more alarming than that.’
Elodie gave a small, bashful smile that appled her cheeks; she was epically beautiful. ‘It was almost delightful that Alexander’s own concierge, who always made his life so perfect, should be helping me to leave him.’
‘It’s bloody excellent, is what it is,’ Poppy grinned. ‘And do you know what? I am happy to have obliged with my own little bit part! A couple of broken bones to help you escape? Totally worth it!’
‘It was more than a bit part!’ Chloe smiled, but now didn’t seem like the time to bring up brain surgery. ‘So . . . what now?’ She looked back at Lucas. ‘Are you still working for Alexander? You were there the night Elodie went missing . . .’
‘No, but we had to stage it carefully. It would have looked suspicious if we had both disappeared at the same time,’ Lucas nodded. ‘So after Elodie disappeared, I continued as normal for another month, then closed my clinic, putting up a notice saying I was retiring from clinical practice and taking up a research fellowship in Tokyo.’
‘But wouldn’t that be easy for Alexander to trace? How many Doctor Inkhams can there be working in orthopaedics in Tokyo?’
‘None, of course. Should he ever bother to look, he will find that I have disappeared too – but I doubt he will; with Elodie gone now, he won’t be needing my services on such a regular basis. And besides, Elodie and I have both taken her mother’s maiden name. New identities for us both. It is the only way to be certain we are safe.’
‘For what it’s worth, I don’t think he will look. I think he truly believes you are dead.’ Chloe looked across at Elodie. ‘Did you know Alexander thought Lorenzo Gelardi had taken you?’
‘Really?’ Elodie was still for a moment and a wave of pain seemed to tremor through her.
‘He assumed you were taken to distract him from Lorenzo’s takeover bid. And by the time he realized you weren’t . . .’
‘. . . Well, that does not surprise me,’ Elodie said after a long pause. ‘The human element always comes after the financial one for him. He is incapable of seeing anything outside that context. And it would not once have c
rossed his mind, of course, that I might have committed suicide. To him, I had the perfect life – houses around the world, couture wardrobes; why would I want to kill myself when I had all that?’
She released Lucas’s hand and sat further back in the cushions, wrapping her arms around her unborn child. ‘I have more here than he could ever understand.’ She gestured to the gardens, to Lucas, her tummy again. ‘My life is far richer now than it ever was with him.’
‘Hoo-bloody-rah to that,’ Poppy said, swinging her long leg and raising her glass. ‘But there’s something I want to know – exactly how do you disappear off a yacht in the middle of the Med in the middle of the night?’
‘Ah well,’ Elodie smiled, nodding towards Joel, who had been sitting quietly all this time, off to the side. ‘Lucky for me, my brother-in-law is ex-Marine Corps. He was a commando in Afghanistan.’
Chloe’s jaw dropped open. Well that certainly explained a few things! Her gaze met his again, which wasn’t hard; he hadn’t taken his eyes off her at all during all this. It was like wearing a coat.
‘Joel taught Lucas to teach me how to jump into the water from a height and make minimal splash—’
Chloe remembered his dive from the rocks, his rampant fearlessness. The memories seemed to play between them, hanging in the air.
‘But still . . . it was so high! You must have been terrified!’ Poppy said in awe.
‘It was. I was so scared. But Joel had said the boat gave me the best chance of disappearing without trace. Obviously I had to wait till we had dropped anchor and the engines were off. Then it was just a matter of waiting for night to fall. He had hired a small daytrippers’ boat and was moored a small distance further away. There were lots of smaller boats moored for the night so it did not arouse any suspicion.’
‘But wouldn’t the guards have heard another boat, even if they couldn’t see you?’
‘I’d brought an inflatable dinghy onto the boat,’ Joel said. ‘As soon as it was dark enough, I rowed over, clamped myself to the stern and waited.’
‘But what if the guards had seen you?’ Chloe asked, scarcely able to believe the audacity of the plan – he had just attached himself to the side of the boat and waited?
‘They wouldn’t have seen me, even if they’d looked down. The hull bellies out there, so I was pretty well hidden from the decks.’
‘We had some bad luck, though,’ Elodie added. ‘There was a big party on the coast that night and they had a fireworks display. The sky kept lighting up. I was so frightened they would see us.’
‘Agreed, but I think it worked to our advantage,’ Joel said, looking over at Elodie. ‘It meant they didn’t hear your entry into the water and I think it actually bought us time – they were watching the display along with everyone else.’
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Chloe mumbled. ‘It’s all so much to take in.’
‘I know. We can scarcely believe it ourselves,’ Elodie smiled, dropping her head on Lucas’s shoulder.
‘. . . So why Greece?’ Poppy asked. ‘Why here? I mean, apart from the stunning seas, gorgeous views, perfect weather . . .’
Elodie laughed. ‘My grandmother was Greek so I had many happy summers here as a child. It has always represented safety to me. And of course, it is still quite unknown to the rest of the world. I like that it is more . . . rustic. It feels real and that is what I want after so long of being caged away.’
‘I get that that must feel good now.’ Poppy wrinkled her nose. ‘But won’t it get a bit lonely, going forward?’
Elodie sighed contentedly. ‘I know it will seem that way to most people, but I have seen the world. I have lived on every continent and drunk the finest wines. I have sat at dinner with princes and presidents and none of it was as satisfying as sitting in this garden with the birds and the goats.’
‘And the donkeys!’ Poppy added. ‘I bloody love the donkeys.’
Elodie laughed. ‘Exactement! Perhaps in a few years, we will find somewhere in a village, nearer a school, for this little one. But I can never afford for Alexander to discover I am alive. My life must remain small if it is to stay safe and that is a price I can pay. I came to Greece to escape.’
‘Well I’ll drink to that,’ Poppy said, holding her glass aloft in a triumphant toast of solidarity. Though she wouldn’t get the justice she deserved, this at least was vengeance of sorts. ‘To your Greek escape.’
Chloe’s gaze slid over to Joel’s again. Hadn’t they all come here for that? Broken hearts and broken bones had driven the three women here, one way and another.
Chloe stood in front of the shutters, knowing that one latch was the only thing standing between her and her future. She had already heard the rasp of his next door. It was a sound her ear had become attuned to.
Taking a breath, she unhooked it and walked out. He was already sitting on the wall of the balcony, waiting, a couple of bottles of beer in an ice bucket chilling nicely.
His eyes met hers in silent conversation. It was the first time they’d been alone all night.
‘I thought you were married,’ she said quietly, by way of explanation for her quick morning-after exit, as he handed her a beer; the glass felt cool against her palm. ‘I heard you on the phone, that night.’
He nodded. ‘A fair assumption.’
She hesitated. ‘Then when I got back to New York I was told you were an impostor . . . a fraud . . . a conman . . .’
He nodded again. ‘Hard to argue against . . .’
‘Then I thought you were a money-launderer! What?’ she laughed, seeing his expression at that. ‘It was the only thing that made sense.’
‘. . . I guess I can see that, too,’ he concurred.
‘And then, finally, I thought you were a corporate spy. Working for Alexander.’
His mouth opened but he didn’t seem to know what to say. He frowned. ‘It’s hard to know how I can live up to these staggeringly exciting expectations,’ he said drily.
‘I’d rather you didn’t.’
‘Really? You’re not disappointed that I’m just the proud owner of five Mexican food carts and a lease on a new premises in Greenwich Village.’ He grinned outright as he watched her expression change.
‘That food truck was yours?’
He shrugged. ‘Doing pretty well too.’ His eyes flicked upwards. ‘Although nothing like as well as owning a multinational engineering company.’ The querying look in his eyes surprised her. Did he think it would make a difference to her to learn that he wasn’t rich after all? ‘I won’t be buying VIP membership at Invicta any time soon.’
She smiled. ‘That’s okay. I’ll offer you a preferential rate for Langton Concierge instead.’
‘Langton?’
‘That’s one of the names we’re thinking about. Poppy and I are setting up on our own – Langton is a mesh of our surnames. Langham, Marston . . .’ She shrugged.
‘Interesting.’
‘Well, we’ve got the contacts, the clients, the experience . . . and a nice amount of seed money to get us going.’ She and Poppy had staged a coup at Jack’s apartment the week Poppy was discharged from hospital, the two of them waiting for him as he came home steaming drunk with a couple of brunettes. He had been quick to see that – although they had no actual proof of Serena and Tom’s industrial espionage – a phone call to the police would nonetheless shine an unfortunate spotlight on both the timing of Invicta’s sellout, and to whom: questions would be asked, people would talk . . . And what with the departure since of several high-profile clients (Pelham and Greenleve had both followed Chloe and Poppy out of the door) and an investigation by HM Revenue & Customs for suspected payroll fraud (prompted by an anonymous tip-off which Chloe was sure had come from Lucy’s father, who had also just cashed in his stake), the murky stench of corruption was beginning to stick. One phone call to Tom later, and she and Poppy had ‘resigned’ with a $500,000 golden handshake each.
‘It looks like you’ve got everything figured out,’
he said, pinning her up with that gaze again.
‘Not quite everything,’ she said quietly.
He watched her. ‘Still having trouble with men in bow ties?’
‘Funnily enough, no.’ Kate had taken particular delight in reading out to her a report of Tom being blackballed from the East India Club on account of ‘being rather too full of himself’ (perhaps it was merely a coincidence that Lucy’s father was a member there; then again, perhaps not). And she had heard from several of her old London mates that he was struggling to find even enough friends to make up a game of tennis; it seemed she wasn’t the only one to have seen through him at last. She arched an eyebrow. ‘But Marmalade, my childhood bear, does look particularly fine in his . . .’
He nodded, allowing a smile to creep into his eyes.
‘Had you been following me?’ she asked, watching him closely. She had often wondered about it since that night at the restaurant – how else could he have known it was her birthday? How else could he have known they’d be there?
His gaze flicked from her to his glass and back again. ‘. . . Perhaps.’
‘So I was being stalked by a commando on the streets of Manhattan,’ she murmured. ‘And I didn’t even know it.’
‘Ex-commando. And that was the point.’
‘It wasn’t a coincidence that day, crossing the road, was it? You planned it.’
There was a pause. ‘I just needed to see you again. I knew it was hopeless and that I wouldn’t be able to talk to you . . . that I couldn’t explain . . . But I thought that seeing you face to face again, even just for one more moment, would be enough.’
‘And was it?’
‘No.’
Her eyes met his and she felt like she was fizzing inside, her blood carbonated; she felt on the verge of overflowing. ‘But if I hadn’t come here and just happened upon this, you still wouldn’t have told me the truth, would you?’ she asked, feeling chilled by the very thought.
He shook his head. ‘Couldn’t.’
No. The stakes had been too high for Elodie and Lucas – they couldn’t risk anyone knowing the truth, Alexander was too dangerous, too powerful. Joel losing her would have to have been the ‘collateral’ in that arrangement; but his eyes shone and she knew it would have hollowed him as it had her.
