by Lyn Gardner
“Where’s Georgia? I’ve got to talk to her,” he said desperately. “I’ve tried ringing and texting her but she’s not answering. I need to talk to her.”
“To do what?” asked Aeysha. “To explain that you betrayed her and Jack? What was your price, Alex? Thirty pieces of silver?”
Alex flinched as if she had physically hit him. “I don’t want to make excuses, Aeysha. There are no excuses for what I’ve done. I just want to see her one last time, to tell her how sorry I am.”
There was something about his abject misery that touched Aeysha. “OK,” she said. “I shouldn’t trust you, but I do. I expect you’ll find her in the music room. Number three. It’s where she often goes when she’s down. But I’ll be right outside, and if you do anything more to hurt her, Alex Parks, I’ll track you down to the very ends of the earth.”
Chapter Forty-One
Alex slowly pushed open the door of the music room. He took a deep breath and stepped inside.
“Georgie?” he whispered.
Georgia was sitting hunched on the piano stool with her knees drawn up. She glanced at him. His striking face was pale; his eyes troubled. She shifted so her back was turned to him and shuffled closer towards the piano so her head was resting on the closed lid. It was as if she was trying to get as far away from him as possible.
“Go away,” she said in a cold, hard voice.
“Georgia,” he pleaded. “Let me just talk to you, please let me explain.”
Georgia lifted her head, her eyes blazing. “Explain? What is there to explain? Everything is crystal clear to me and to everybody else. You used me. You used me so you and your dad could get at Jack Marvell. I was an idiot ever to fall for it. Go away and leave me alone.”
Alex turned back towards the door. But then he stopped. “Georgie, I can’t leave you like this. I know I’ve hurt you. I know you won’t ever be able to forgive me for what I did. But I want you to know the truth.”
“Truth!” spat Georgia. “It doesn’t seem to be one of your strengths. You deceived us all and lied to me. You made me think that it was me, little Georgia Jones, that you were interested in. But it was all just a lie to find out information so you could discredit Livy’s dad and get your revenge on Livy. You’re despicable, Alex Parks, a sewer rat has more morals than you.”
Alex shook his head sadly. “You’re right, Georgia, what I did was awful and I am truly sorry. I really am. But you’ve got to believe me when I tell you that I never set out to hurt you.”
“Oh, don’t think that you have, Alex Parks. I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction,” said Georgia. Her voice was trembling and her eyes shone with fury.
“Georgia,” Alex said, urgently, “I had to do it. My dad was desperate. He hasn’t worked for months. My mum’s sick. Our family was falling apart. When I told Dad that Olivia Marvell and her sister were here at the Swan, he saw a way to make an easy buck. It wasn’t all planned out. It was just opportunism. He asked me to feed him what information I could so that he could be useful to Ethan Rees. At first I said no, but when Livy humiliated me, I decided to do what I could for him.”
“Like a spy,” snarled Georgia.
Alex nodded miserably. “I swear it wasn’t like that at first. He just seemed really interested in Livy and her dad and his stunt down by the river. It was only later that he started putting pressure on me to find out as much as I could.”
“So,” asked Georgia, slowly. “When you first came to the Swan and you tried to get closer to Livy, were you just pretending you liked her, or did you really like her?”
Alex shuffled his feet. He hesitated, and then he said: “I thought she was gorgeous. I genuinely wanted to get to know her better. I’d never met a girl quite like her. Most girls fall at my feet.”
Georgia took a deep breath. “And me? When Livy gave you the brush-off and you turned your attention to me, was that real or were you faking?”
There was a tiny, charged silence and then Alex looked Georgia straight in the eye. “I can’t lie, Georgia. At first, getting close to you was just a ploy. A way of getting back at Livy and helping my dad at the same time.”
“And I made it easy for you,” said Georgia, bitterly. “I just swooned at your feet.”
“No! Yes … er, no. Listen! Please, please listen. That’s what I need to explain. Georgie, at first I was just trying to get info from you to help my dad. I thought we’d have some fun together, then when I’d got all the info my dad needed, we’d just break up. No hard feelings. But after the first couple of weeks, it wasn’t like that at all. It got more complicated. You’re a such lovely girl, Georgie. You don’t know how many of the boys really like you. And I … I… Georgia, I really fell for you. I wasn’t pretending, I promise. And I thought you felt the same.”
Georgia’s heart gave a lurch, but she couldn’t bear the thought of making herself vulnerable to him again. She gave a hollow little laugh. “You’re a self-confessed liar,” she said. “Why should I believe a word you say?”
“Because it’s true,” said Alex, softly.
“Then go down to the river and confess. In front of the press. Then tell Jack you’re sorry,” said Georgia.
Alex look scared. “It’s too much to ask, Georgie.”
“Then leave me alone, Alex. You’ve already done enough damage.”
“I know. I’m so, so sorry.”
He turned and left the studio, his shoulders hunched and his entire body engulfed in misery. Georgia put her head against the piano lid, and cried and cried. After a while the door opened again and Aeysha walked quietly into the room. She said nothing, but slid on to the edge of the piano stool next to Georgia, put her arms around her and held her very tight.
Chapter Forty-Two
The wind whistled around the bridge, blowing the snowflakes into a blizzard that made them look as if they were fighting each other. Most of the city was silent, wrapped in an icy cocoon. But down at Tower Bridge, a full media circus had set up camp. The reporters had been digging around and they’d come up with plenty of evidence of connections between the Parks family and Ethan Rees, but nothing yet that categorically proved Andy Parks had been impersonating Jack in the incriminating videos.
Jack was in good spirits, having been briefed by Olivia and Pablo when he had taken a break from the wire, but he was keeping his mouth shut until more evidence had been found. He didn’t want to make any rash statements or say anything that could be construed as crowing. Eventually, he’d retreated to his hammock for half an hour to get away from the constant glare of the cameras.
“But what if no solid evidence is found?” asked Olivia, anxiously. She was feeling low. After the excitement of the late afternoon when she had thought that Jack’s innocence was about to be proved beyond all doubt, she was upset by the lack of an instant happy conclusion.
She was also worried about Georgia. Aeysha had texted to say that she’d taken her back to her house, but she wondered whether the group could ever be the same. It felt as if something had been irrevocably broken.
Olivia walked moodily down towards the water, kicking a stone and oblivious to the snow that was settling across her head and shoulders.
“Liv!” She swung round. Alex was standing on the towpath. What could he want with her? Olivia walked up towards him. When she got near he looked smaller than she remembered. His face was pale and his cheeks hollow. He looked like a living statue. The snow was settling on his hair and eyelashes so it was as if somebody had sprinkled him with tiny glittering stars.
“What do you want?” she asked warily.
For a moment, Alex said nothing, as if he had something caught in his throat and he couldn’t speak.
“I want to tell Jack I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Olivia felt the fury rise in her throat, but Alex was such a picture of misery that it died as quickly as it had sparked. “And I want to give you this,” he said, thrusting his phone into her hand. “Look at the messages,” he said.
; He walked away from her down towards the river. Olivia looked down at the phone in her hand and clicked through the messages. Here it all was, all the evidence that was needed to prove Andy Parks’ involvement with Rees and Viktor and their attempts to scupper Jack’s world-record attempt. There were even some emails from Ethan Rees to Alex’s dad, detailing the kind of intelligence that would be helpful and which Andy Parks had forwarded to his son.
Alex had given her everything that she needed to prove Jack’s innocence. With a noise that was half a cry of triumph and half a sob, she ran towards Pablo.
“It’s here,” she shouted. “All the evidence is here!”
She thrust the phone into his hand and immediately they were surrounded by a gaggle of journalists. Suddenly, a great shout went up from the people on the bridge. She wondered whether Jack had emerged from the hammock. Pablo was still excitedly talking to the journalists, but Olivia pushed her way out from their midst to see what was happening. What she saw made her heart thump.
Alex was up on the wire, edging precariously along it towards the middle where Jack’s hammock swung. Olivia put her hand to her mouth and began running towards the water. What had Alex said? I want to tell Jack I’m sorry. But she had never imagined that he meant to do it straight away.
Alex took another wobbly step. To her horror, Olivia realised that he wasn’t wearing a safety harness. He wouldn’t last more than a few seconds on the wire in these conditions. He didn’t have either the skill or the experience to deal with the dangers. Another few steps and he would feel the full force of the wind, which would play with him until it knocked him off his perch into the icy dark waters below.
Olivia didn’t hesitate. There was only one spare safety harness, and it was hanging at the end of the wire. She grabbed it, slung it over her shoulder and stepped out on to the wire after Alex. She heard Pablo shout “No!” behind her. She saw Jack stick his head out of the hammock and a look of horror cross his face as he saw both her and Alex on the wire.
“Don’t move,” Olivia warned Jack. She knew that if Jack tried to clamber on to the wire, it would sway and tip Alex into the water. She wasn’t even sure that she would survive the vibrations, either. She glanced down at where the river lay in wait like a hungry monster.
Jack instantly saw the danger and stayed as still as a statute, his eyes fixed on the children as if willing them to stay upright. The snow continued to fall silently around them. It felt as if everyone watching from the bridge and the banks of the river was holding their breath, too.
Several boats were circling under the wire, their engines turned down low. Olivia was beginning to gain on Alex. She was trying to step as lightly as she could to avoid setting up vibrations in the wire. If she could just get to Alex and slip the safety harness around him and clip it to the wire, it wouldn’t matter if he fell.
Now the snow was falling in great clots, so it was hard to see more than a few steps ahead and the wire was becoming treacherous. A sudden gust of wind felt like a punch in the stomach and made Olivia gasp. But she didn’t falter. She saw Alex teeter and held her breath, thinking that he would certainly fall. In the nick of time, he recovered his balance. But he looked so fragile, as if another gust could catch him and pitch him off the wire at any moment.
“It’s Alex, isn’t it? Just stay where you are, son,” called Jack, softly. He thought he recognised the boy as a Swan. He also thought he’d never seen anyone look so terrified.
“But I need to talk to you, Mr Marvell. I need to tell you that I’m sorry for everything.”
“I’m sure you don’t have anything to be sorry about, Alex, but let’s talk about it on firm ground. Please just stay where you are. Someone is coming to get you. They’ve got a safety harness. They’re going to help you.”
Alex tried to turn to look behind him and he swayed back and forth like a piece of washing badly pegged to a line.
“Don’t move and keep talking to me,” said Jack, desperately. If he could only keep the boy still, perhaps Olivia would get to him in time. Jack was scared for him, but more scared that, if he fell, he would cause the wire to sway so much that Olivia would plummet into the river, too.
“I didn’t mean for all these people to get hurt,” shouted Alex. “But Ethan Rees offered my dad a job in America and money if he would make the videos. He was desperate, you see. But I never thought that it would destroy you so completely … I’ve been such a…”
The journalists in the boat below were straining to hear and scribbling furiously.
“Alex, it’s all right,” said Jack soothingly. “Don’t upset yourself.” He looked anxiously at Olivia who had almost reached Alex. She glanced at her dad.
“Alex,” he said urgently, “you must try to raise your arms. Be very gentle so you don’t lose your balance, and Liv will slip the safety harness over you.”
“Livy!?” Alex tried to swing round. He looked at Olivia with astonishment. “After everything I’ve done to destroy you and your family, you came out on the wire to save me.” His eyes were full of tears, his face a mask of pain.
Olivia reached out to try and steady him, their hands brushed, and then Alex plunged off the wire into the swirling water below and was swallowed up.
Further along the river, Viktor Ivanov crawled out of his hammock and hauled himself on to the wire. From the riverbank, the tiny figure walking towards the shore looked about a hundred years old. He reached the end of the wire and started to clamber down.
Ethan Rees ran towards him. “Viktor! Viktor, my boy, what are you doing? It’s not one of your scheduled breaks. Get back on that wire at once! We’re not done yet.”
Viktor ignored him and started trudging towards the path. “I am,” he said, very quietly. “I’m finished. It’s over.”
“Come back!” yelled Ethan Rees. “There are only two days to go. You can still win.”
But Viktor just kept on walking, and as he did so, Rees’s phone began to chirp with messages, and suddenly a posse of journalists appeared and began running towards him, shouting about videos, fraud and deception. The slight figure walking along the towpath didn’t even look back.
Chapter Forty-Three
Tom and Katie were anxiously scanning the crowds pouring into the foyer of the venue. Katie was back from Yorkshire after filming her part in the TV series. Alicia and Jack were standing nearby, and several people were crowded around Jack, asking for his autograph and wanting their photograph taken with him. Others shouted out their good wishes, and a man was clapping Jack on the back, congratulating him on breaking the world record and saying they needed more heroes like him.
“That’s not what people were saying a week ago,” muttered Katie, dryly.
Tom was still looking around. “You don’t think Liv and Georgia have got lost?”
“No, look! There they are,” said Katie.
Olivia and Georgia were coming towards them with their arms linked.
“Are you both all right?” asked Tom, scanning their faces anxiously.
“Yes,” said Georgia. “I’m glad we went to the hospital to see Alex. It felt like…” She searched for the right word. “It felt right.”
“How is he?” asked Katie.
“Well, apart from a collapsed lung and the fact that he swallowed half of the Thames, reasonably OK,” said Olivia. “It was just lucky all those boats were there to pick him up so quickly or he probably would have drowned.”
“He’s different,” said Georgia, quietly. “Nicer. It’s a better way to remember him.”
“He won’t be coming back to the Swan then?”
Olivia shook her head. “I don’t think it was ever an option. His dad’s facing a police investigation but, when that’s over, Alex says they’re going to move out of London.”
“But he said he’d write to me,” added Georgia.
Katie frowned.
“Don’t you frown at me,” said Georgia. “I’m so over Alex Parks. I don’t know what I ever saw in him.”
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“Good looks? Oodles of charm?” said Katie, with a grin.
“Nah,” said Georgia, with a wicked smile. “That’s not my type.”
She linked arms with Katie and they strolled over to look at the merchandise.
Tom and Olivia watched them go.
“Do you think Georgia’s really OK?” he asked Olivia.
“Well, she’s putting a brave face on it. Of course she’s bruised, but Aeysha’s been amazing with her. They’ve talked a lot, and after we’d been to the hospital she said that although she was furious at the time, she realised that we were just trying to protect her when we laid the plan to trap Alex.”
“It was probably good that we’ve all been so busy this week with Dream rehearsals. The performance went well this afternoon, didn’t it?” said Tom.
“Yes, it was lovely,” agreed Olivia, “although I can’t wear my costume without thinking of Kasha hobbling out of that hotel in it. He makes such a lovely girl.”
“You’d better not tell Lucie Groves. She’d have a fit.”
“She won’t stop asking him how he got out of the hotel, but he just says that he sprouted wings and flew,” said Olivia, with a grin. “Which reminds me, where are Imy and Gem?”
At that moment, they appeared. Olivia greeted them enthusiastically. “Tom,” she said, “this is Imy and Gem. They are Kasha’s number one fans, and he’s really looking forward to meeting them after the show.” She handed the two girls their tickets for the concert, backstage passes and invites to the after-show party.
Imy and Gem squealed. “I won’t know what to say to him!” said Imy.
“Oh,” said Olivia, with a wicked smile. “If you’re stuck for words, why don’t you ask Kasha about my Aunt Belinda. He’s very, very fond of her. I don’t know what he sees in her myself.”
At that moment, Eel came waltzing up with Emmy and Esme, who’d come down from Yorkshire to stay for the weekend.
“Liv! This is my friend, Esme.” Eel was looking at Esme proudly. “Esme is going to the Imperial. She’s a fantastic dancer.”
