Read Paradise Online

Authors: Katie Price

Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Contemporary, #Contemporary Fiction, #Literary

Paradise (24 page)

BOOK: Paradise
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‘He broke my trust. There can be no going back.’

‘Oh, come on, Ethan – you know the pregnancy story is only going to raise your profile further. It’ll make the bidding war for the wedding pictures even more ferocious.’

‘I told him I didn’t want anyone else to know, and look at the spin he put on it! I’m not having my wife-to-be talked about in the press like that. Benny knew exactly what he was doing when he leaked the story.’

‘But he only had your best interests at heart. Believe me, Ethan, the man worships you.’ She tried even
harder to lay it on. ‘You’re like a son to him.’ She turned to Angel then. ‘You must talk him out of this.’ There was an edge of desperation to her voice – she was no longer the kick-ass, in-control agent.

‘Don’t involve Angel, this is between me and Benny, no one else.’ However hard Susie was trying, it wasn’t working with Ethan. ‘In fact, if you could excuse us, Angel and I have several other meetings.’

Effectively dismissed, Susie stood up. ‘It’s not too late,’ she appealed one last time.

Angel and Ethan were silent as she walked from the room, shown out by Jose. Then Ethan spoke. ‘You know, maybe you need to speak to Carrie and get her to take over again, if Susie carries on her relationship with Benny. She doesn’t exactly seem to be thinking straight at the moment.’

‘I’ll see how it goes,’ Angel replied, wondering how much longer Benny and Susie would last. ‘D’you still want to go the cocktail party tonight?’

Tyler, one of Ethan’s team mates, was holding a party at Bar Marmont to celebrate his birthday. Angel was sure that Ethan wouldn’t want to go; and she had no desire to face the press.

‘Of course we’re going to go!’ Ethan exclaimed, surprising her. ‘Otherwise it looks as if we’ve got something to be ashamed of.’

This was not the answer she had hoped for. ‘What if Benny’s there?’

‘There’s no reason why he should be, Tyler’s not one of his clients. And, if he is, I’ll deal with it.’

Reluctantly Angel went upstairs to get ready; she could have done with a cosy night in to recover from the day. But when they arrived at the swish bar, thankfully without being papped, she felt her spirits lift. No one was looking at her as if she was a whore, they seemed genuinely pleased to see her, and it was
clear that no one believed the outrageous stories in the press. She and Ethan spent a pleasant couple of hours drinking Bellinis and chatting to Alisha and Logan.

‘Told you it would be okay to come out,’ Ethan told her as they got ready to leave.

But he had spoken too soon. Both of them froze as they saw Benny Sullivan weaving his way through the guests, heading straight for them. Angel’s heart sank. She really had hoped that she’d seen the last of him. Ethan reached for her hand as Benny arrived in front of them.

‘We’re just leaving, Benny,’ Ethan told him.

Benny glared at him. ‘Ten years I’ve worked for you . . . ten fucking years! I took you on when no one else was interested, helped make you all those millions, and
this
is how you pay me back?’ His face was sweaty and he was breathing heavily, as if struggling to contain his emotions.

‘You broke my trust, Benny, and I’d had enough of the way you treated Angel. Our business relationship is over, there’s nothing more to be said.’

Again Ethan made to go but Benny blocked his way. He jabbed his finger at Angel. ‘You chose
her
over me? Some worthless piece of trash? She’ll be screwing some other sucker before you know it. The bitch has got form.’

Angel felt Ethan tense next to her and instinctively felt that he was about to punch Benny. She held tightly to his hand. ‘Let’s just go, Ethan, please.’

‘Take back what you said.’ He spat out the words.

Benny shook his head. ‘The truth hurts doesn’t it?’

God knows how Angel would have held Ethan back but thankfully Logan turned up then and moved between the two men. ‘Ethan, I really think you and Angel should go. Benny can stay here with me and we
can have a little chat about how he is not going to bother you two again or things could get very uncomfortable for him.’

Ethan remained where he was for a few seconds but then seemed to take on board Logan’s advice. ‘Don’t ever come near me and Angel again,’ he hissed as he walked past Benny.

Angel felt really shaken up by the encounter. It was so disturbing knowing how much the man hated her. But she tried to keep it from Ethan, not wanting to give him any further reason to want to settle the score with Benny. She just hoped that it would all blow over.

In the meantime she had Cal to deal with. He was over in LA for one of his visits to see Honey. They had done a good job of avoiding each other so far but Angel was due to pick up her daughter the following day. She would have to see Cal then, and no doubt he would have seen the news story and have a view on it. And she still couldn’t shake off that feeling of jealousy about him and Madeleine. But she was determined to breeze in, collect Honey and make a quick exit.

Cal’s house was just along the coast from hers, an ultra-modern place, painted white, with a roof garden, and surrounded by palm trees. He and Honey were swimming in the pool, the housekeeper informed Angel when she opened the door to her. It was strange walking through Cal’s house, seeing all the furniture he had chosen for himself and the many photographs of Honey on the walls. Angel looked out for pictures of Madeleine but there were none. Instead, just as she was about to go out to the pool, she noticed the photograph of Honey, Cal and herself taken on Santa Monica beach all those months ago. He’s probably just put it up for Honey, she told herself, but couldn’t help finding it surprising that Cal would have a picture of her on his
wall. Did it perhaps mean that he still had feelings for her, in spite of seeing Madeleine? What did he think when he looked at it?

She stepped outside on to the decking and into the glorious sunshine, a smile on her face ready to greet her daughter . . . and did a double take. Because reclining on a white sun lounger by the pool was a stunning-looking blonde, clad in a tiny red bikini that showcased a knock out figure. Angel didn’t think this was Madeleine so who the hell was she? She didn’t exactly look like nanny material.

‘Mummy!’ Honey called out in delight.

Angel averted her eyes from the blonde bombshell and walked over to the pool where she sat down at the edge, waiting for her daughter to swim to her.

‘Hey, I didn’t realise what the time was,’ Cal said. ‘I’ll just get Honey out of the pool.’ He picked up his daughter and climbed out, treating Angel to a view of his gorgeous body as the water ran off his olive skin.

‘Hiya, Angel,’ called out the blonde. That voice sounded horribly familiar. Angel spun round as the blonde strutted towards her, and then froze as she realised it was none other than Simone bitch-face Fraser!

‘Didn’t you recognise me?’ Simone gave an annoying tinkly laugh. ‘I’ve decided to test out the old saying that blondes have more fun.’

What the fuck was she doing here? Was Cal seeing her as well as Madeleine? Angel bristled at the thought of one of her least favourite people spending time with her daughter, and at Cal’s continuing inability to tell her the truth about his relationship with Simone. She was too gobsmacked to reply

‘Simone has several auditions over here and I said she could stay at the house,’ Cal explained her presence.

Yeah, right! Like there aren’t enough hotels in LA, Angel thought.

‘It was so sweet of Cal, but you know how generous he is.’ Simone flashed him an adoring glance and stretched her arms over her head as if drawing attention to her lithe body, especially her boobs which were threatening to burst out of the tiny red bikini top. ‘I love it out here, Angel, I’m really hoping I get a part then I can stay. I’ve got a new agent who thinks that there will be lots of possibilities out here for me. And you’ll have to tell me all the cool places to go. I really want to throw myself into my new LA life.’

This woman was incredible! Did she really think Angel was going to end up as her new best friend? Well, she could spin on that! And the blonde hair didn’t suit her, she’d looked so much better as a brunette. Angel busied herself wrapping Honey up in a white fluffy towel, which saved her from having to make a reply other than a cursory, ‘Oh, right.’

But that wasn’t going to deter Simone who carried on, ‘Press giving you a hard time, I see. Still, on the plus side, at least you’re well enough known out here that they write about you. And it’s not like you haven’t had to deal with bad press before, is it?’ That comment earned her a frown from Cal and she was temporarily silenced, not wanting to say anything out of turn in front of him.

‘Are you okay?’ Cal asked Angel. ‘I could always delay my flight if you needed me to have Honey while all this is going on.’ He was drying himself with a towel; she tried not to look at the angel-wing tattoo.

‘Thanks, but I’m fine. It will all blow over soon.’ She wanted to say, Don’t you have a supermodel you need to get back for? But didn’t. ‘It always does,’ she sighed.

‘Actually I was thinking about Honey, I don’t really want her to be caught up in the press shit.’

Oh, typical of Cal to try and gain the moral high ground!

‘She won’t be, Cal,’ Angel said defensively, and it was on the tip of her tongue to say that nothing could be as bad as the press attention when they’d found out about his affair. ‘Can I get Honey’s things? I really should be going.’ She had quite enough to deal with already without having Cal doing his judgemental number on her.

‘See you around then, Angel,’ Simone called out as Angel headed for the door. Not if I can help it, she was sorely tempted to reply, and couldn’t resist calling back, ‘Be careful in the sun, Simone. It’s hotter than you think and so ageing for the skin. I’d wear a hat, if I were you, there are a lot of very
young
actresses looking for work in LA.’

It was a low blow and Cal flashed her a warning glance, but Angel couldn’t care less about his disapproval.

Inside the house Cal quickly got Honey dressed and handed Angel her rucksack.

‘So there was no truth in the story?’ he said quietly. ‘I mean, I know the part about Daryl was rubbish, but the other?’ He paused, seeming not to want to say the words.

‘No, I’m not pregnant.’ And Angel had to stop herself from adding ‘yet’, wanting to show Cal that she had moved on with her life.

‘I see,’ he replied coolly, his barriers well and truly back in place.

‘So does Madeleine mind about Simone staying with you?’ Damn, she’d stumbled over saying ‘Madeleine’, and why the fuck was she mentioning her at all?

‘Of course she doesn’t, why would she?’

‘And how’s it going with her? She’s very beautiful.’

‘It’s going well. Why are you so interested?’ He reached out and lightly touched her hand with the engagement ring on it, as if to say, You’ve made your choice. Angel suddenly felt hot and short of breath. Cal was right, why was she so interested? But her next question was no better at defusing the tension.

‘So Simone is just here as your friend?’

Cal clenched his jaw, clearly infuriated with her for asking the same question again. ‘As I’ve told you, nothing’s changed on that score. She is just a friend. Will always be just a friend. I don’t have any other feelings for her and never will have. She’s too fucked up and needy.’

It was unfortunate for Simone that she chose that moment to sashay through the French doors into the living room. For a second she faltered as she registered Cal’s words and looked utterly crushed. And Angel thought again that while Cal’s feelings for her might simply be those of a friend, Simone’s were in an entirely different league.

Cal helped her get Honey into the car. Angel was all set to drive off when he stopped her. ‘Did you know that you’ve got some graffiti on there?’ He gestured at the door of the front passenger seat. Angel, who loved her car, was livid and shot out of the driver’s seat to take a look. Someone had scratched the word ‘Bitch’ into the door. It looked horribly stark against the pristine midnight blue paint, like some kind of warning. For a few seconds she stared at the crudely scratched letters, feeling chilled. There was something so personal and hateful about the word.

‘It was probably some kids fooling around,’ Cal tried to reassure her.

‘Some kids who knew I was a woman?’ In spite of the warm sun Angel suddenly felt cold. She folded her
arms defensively and looked anxiously over at the tall wooden security gates. Surely no one would have climbed over them?

‘Everything okay?’ Simone appeared at the front door, in a sheer white kaftan. Now
there
was someone who really did think Angel was a bitch, however hard she pretended not to. But surely it couldn’t have been her, unless she could shape-shift into a bat and fly round the house! Not that Angel would put anything past her. And, of course, there was Benny . . .

Cal filled Simone in. ‘That’s terrible, Angel! D’you think you’ve got a stalker!’ She sounded almost excited by the prospect.

Way to go, Simone! Why not make me feel really uptight? Angel thought.

‘It’s just kids,’ Cal replied. ‘It probably happened when you were out shopping, Angel. Don’t make a big deal of it, Simone, can’t you see that Angel is upset?’

‘Sorry,’ she replied, twirling a lock of blonde hair round her finger, ‘I was just concerned for her.’ Simone sounded neither sorry nor concerned, something that didn’t pass Cal by as he gave her a scornful look. Better brush up on the old acting skills if you want to keep in with Cal, thought Angel.

Ethan took a very different view of the graffiti and insisted on calling the police, in spite of Angel’s protests. ‘Babe, we’re in the public eye and there are some nutters out there. It’s better to be safe than sorry.’ The young officer who was sent out to take a statement some time later that afternoon saw the incident from Angel’s point of view. There was no other evidence that pointed to a stalker, but when he asked Ethan and Angel if there was anyone who might have a grudge against them, Ethan came out with the first name that had sprung to Angel’s mind.

‘Benny Sullivan, I just fired him. And we had a pretty unpleasant encounter with him last night.’

BOOK: Paradise
8.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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