Unbind (62 page)

“Now?” I laughed, but I was serious.

He took my hand. “I think we should, too. In fact looking back, I wonder why we didn’t just do it in Vegas, you know?”

I placed my cutlery down, looking at him with a grimace, wishing he’d started this conversation after we sat down to eat our spaghetti carbonara. “Yeah, but… I want my friends and family with us. Besides… she’ll tear us to shreds when she finds out.”

“She won’t find out if we go back to London and do it there.”

“She will ask why we’re going back… she might follow us. Hell, why are we even still thinking like this?” I clutched my hair and he reached over to comfort me with a kiss on my cheek.

“I’m sorry it’s like this, Chlo. I really am. Since you had your implant removed… we could get pregnant any day. I want to be married as soon as possible, don’t you?”

“Of course, more than anything.”

“I’m done with New York. I’ll keep the gallery on but I’m so done here. Let’s go back to London. I could open another gallery there. Branch out. What d’ya think?”

“I do miss home.” I pouted, trying not to get emotional about just how much I missed my sisters and Kay. “I don’t want to go back to Media Solutions though. I’d like to be your PR woman if that’s all the same with you?”

“That’s more than okay as far as I’m concerned. It’s agreed then, right?” He asked eagerly, his hand tight on mine.

“Yes, though I want to finish my therapy first.”

“That’s fine. How many more sessions?”

“As many as it takes…”

He grimaced. “I want to leave like, before spring? Don’t you?”

I shuffled in my chair. “Is there something you’re not telling me? You seem in a rush.”

He chuckled and stood so he could move around the table and stand right behind me. He kissed a path over my shoulders and nape. “What I’ve been working on will seriously tick her off. I’m serious about that too, Chloe. But it’s time.”

Ominous, but promising.

“A month. Give me that. I know where I want to get married, anyway.”

“Yeah?” His eyes sparkled.

“Hmm-mmm.” I nodded, my eyes glazed with happiness.

“Where, baby?”

“That’d be telling now.”

“You won’t tell me?” I shook my head. “Then a punishment is certainly in order!”

He dug his hands in my sides and tickled like there was no tomorrow, then carried me to the bedroom and made love to me as if that very day was our last. Crossing the line with Cai was certainly the most fun a girl could have.

SHE STITCHED ME up…

I gave a month’s notice to Carl and apologised for leaving. I don’t know why I did that but I felt bad. We’d gotten to become good friends and I knew he had a crush on me. He relayed this info to Her Madge and within 30 minutes of her receiving my resignation, she called me to her office for the first time since I’d worked there.

“Chloe,” she nodded as I walked into her pristine work environment. She held out her arm and gestured at the seat opposite, straining to smile at me. “Make yourself comfortable, dear.”

The décor was as you’d imagine—floor to ceiling windows on both sides, white walls and floors, white imitation fireplace, white furniture, everything neat and tucked away. It was pure and clean. Untainted. Pity I knew she was blotted by malice.

“Carl told me you’re leaving?” She appeared saddened, trying to pout. Something in her eyes told me she was fuming.

“Yes, I’m going to be Cai’s PR woman. With the show such a success, we’re going to do more collections and possibly open a place in London. We’re looking into it, anyway.”

“I see.” She looked directly at me, but her mind was clearly elsewhere while she absorbed this information.

“I actually got a ton of offers from lots of different people… when we got back from Vegas, I had at least a dozen offers over email. You know… to do PR and launch parties for artists much more seasoned than Cai.”

“Well, of course,” she used a grand hand gesture, “you’re
Frame
darling. I always said you were. You’re what this place epitomises.”

“Thanks.”
I guess.

“I am sad you’re going,” she said, pouting slightly. “I don’t like to see people go. It makes me wonder what we did wrong.”

“Absolutely nothing.”
Something fishy here.

“I guess you
are
quite the woman, Chloe. You should stretch your legs in this world.”

“It’s what I intend on doing.” I kept my responses short, not to give myself away. She might have otherwise deduced I was planning on a wedding and a baby too!

“How does Cai plan on buying a gallery in London, may I ask?”

I smiled. “I didn’t ask. Perhaps he’ll finally sell
Sub Rosa.
”

“Oh,” she said like it was nothing. She rocked back in her swivel chair and studied her nails. “How might he do that?”

“Wh-what do you mean?”
I know what you mean. Grr.

She looked vacant, her eyes scanning the room. “He doesn’t own that place. I do. While I remain executor, at least.”

I sighed, tired of it all. “Yes he told me. So why do you still remain executor?”

I munched on the inside of my cheek, desperate just to blurt out she was fucking Claudia.

“There were tiny, little quirks to Claudia’s will. The first being… Cai must be either 25 or married to inherit. However, at an executor’s discretion… the trust might remain frozen for three more years, if the claimant did not meet a number of secondary requirements.”

“Hmm,” I mused, crossing my arms and legs. “Pray tell what are they?”

“One, he must have graduated college. Two, he must have gained a fixed income to support the estate, which he clearly did not have last time I checked. Three, unless he had any dependants, there was no reason why not to hold back his inheritance just that little bit longer. A precautionary measure.”

“I think it’s preposterous. Anyway, he has money. He got the gallery after all.”

“Yes, via what means? One has to ask oneself that question, doesn’t one?”

I wanted to smash her face in. She didn’t fool me, not anymore.

“He said a benefactor bequeathed it to him, he even wondered if it were you,” I curtly explained. I didn’t know as much about that as I’d liked to have done and she seemed to pick up on my discomfort there.

“It wasn’t me, dear. So… this same backer… I wonder if they will miraculously produce a gallery on the Thames? We’re talking a few ’mil in the Smoke, Chloe.”

“Look I’m sorry if you’re upset I’m leaving but it’s my choice and whether he gets another gallery or sticks with this one, I don’t care. I want to help him launch his career.”

“Huh.” She toyed with her hair, clearly pissed off with me.

“What?”

She scoffed, toying with her hair still. “You girls. Soon as you get your leg over… tut. You’re all about the man now? Forget your own career exists, did you?”

“I don’t have to listen to this.” I stood and prepared to leave. “Perhaps I should pack up my desk right now.”

“Perhaps you should Chloe, dear. Remember… he’s a liar. Also, you might want to have your engagement ring verified. I think you’ll find it’s a fake.”

I stared at her and the air didn’t move. I felt wrapped in a bubble for those few moments neither of us blinked. She thought she was so clever.

“Fuck you, Jennifer.”

I turned and left, her deadly smile reflected in the shiny gleam of her office doors as I left. She couldn’t break us, I wouldn’t let her.

When I got back to my desk, I started packing my things away. I had so much stuff, I didn’t know if I could even carry it in one journey.

“Hey girl, sorry to hear you’re—” Tiff arrived and looked confused. “You’re going already?”

“Yes. She’s not taken it well.” I didn’t elaborate. I couldn’t give a toss anymore.
Get me out of this hellhole.

“Shame. I’m gonna miss you girlie.”

I stopped for a moment and rubbed her shoulder. “You were very kind to me and I won’t forget it. I just know that working for my boyfriend’s aunt isn’t good for me.”

We exchanged glances and she understood. After hugging it out, Tiff went back to her desk with tears in her eyes.

I got back to shovelling stuff in my bags when something caught my eye. On the screen of my iMac… an email. The subject: ‘
Mind Over Body: Revealed’.
It was sent ten minutes previously, as I probably sat in that meeting with Her Madge.

I couldn’t help but get a look.

The content… sickening.

There was one picture attached to the email and it was a private one Cai would never have let anybody see. I faced the camera, and, a bit of breast was on show. I was clearly Agnes, clearly poised in that shoot. Now everybody knew it was me.

How did she get it?

The most infuriating thing was that the email had no sender details or a signature. I didn’t know where the heck it could have come from and during my showdown with the bitch, she’d not touched one key of her keyboard. Not that she ever did anyway.

Shit.

A few words accompanied the picture:
Chloe Harmon, our own. Well done Chloe. You sold out a publication in one day. All congratulate, Chloe Harmon!

Was this a bad joke? Was I the only one who got this email?

I poked my head up out of my cubicle and so many faces turned to look at me. Most were aghast. I sat back down quickly and mixed emails surged into my inbox:

I really thought that article was real? Why did you lie? I can’t see a scar on you!

You took some liberties… yeah?

Chloe… people I know were inspired by that… don’t be downhearted.

I thought it was a real-life story?

You made it up?

Is that story really yours? Sorry to hear about it. Horrible thing to happen to you.

The walls closed in. Shrank. I couldn’t breathe. Everybody knew. Everybody.

What was truth? What was a lie?

I knew I couldn’t carry the contents of my drawers and files and stacked boxes. There were too many accessories and invitations and books and beauty products. Neither did I want to leave anything.

Yet I had to leave.

Right then.

Otherwise I was going to have a panic attack.

I downloaded all my articles onto a USB stick so I could take those away, but removed them from the computer once I had them. I emptied my email folders and wiped my browsing history, in fact, anything pertaining to me at all. The iMac was bare by the time I was done. I took my devices away because it wasn’t as if the company was short on them. I grabbed my handbags and box of invites, my Rolodex and the beauty products which cost as much as a large family’s yearly food budget in India. 

I had to get out.

Checking there was nothing that Tiff couldn’t messenger me or dispose of on my behalf, I stood and left. A silence so cruel hung in the air as I walked out and when I passed Carl’s office, he mouthed, ‘
Sorry
’
through the glass
.
I was the sorrier. Cai must have given me his backup memory stick, that time I’d shown them all the shoot we’d done. No doubt the more private, original footage was still on there and somehow it was now being distributed through Hervé Tower and no doubt a lot further.

I depleted inside.

Drowned.

In the elevator my heart sank. My ring. I kept it on a chain underneath my shirt and when I popped it out, I stared closely. On inspection, it wasn’t the same one we’d found in Cartier but it was very similar. The stones weren’t set so neatly and it didn’t gleam as it should.

I got out into the fresh air and breathed a sigh of relief. She’d dispensed with me good and proper, hadn’t she? Even though I’d already handed in my notice already!

My phone rang and I saw it was Kayla. I jumped in a cab and said, “Battery Park.”

Once seated, I answered the phone. “Kayla?”

“It’s already reached us.”

“Well, surprise, surprise. Shit.”

“Look. Fuck it. You’ve got good tits, alright?” She shouted.

I sighed. “You’re a good friend. Pity I was employed by Medusa incarnate, eh?”

“Ugh. Babe. What happened?”

I laughed even though it wasn’t funny. “I handed in my notice to be Cai’s PR and she went doolally. Made all kinds of claims about my boyfriend, who is actually my fiancé by the way—”

“Your what?” she interrupted.

“Yeah, we’re engaged. We just haven’t told a soul because she’ll go ape shit. The wedding…”

“…that wasn’t,” she finished for me.

“Yeah.”

“Listen, you don’t sound good. Are you sure you’re alright?”

I took a moment to think. No. I wasn’t alright. “I will be Kay, I will be. I’ll ring you soon.”