by Polly Carter
Another woman laughed. “God, yes. I can’t think of anyone who is actually having sex with the person they’re married to. Well, not if they can avoid it!”
“I’ve managed to not have sex for over a year,” another woman confided. “If he wants to share Marcus’s piece of arse, I couldn’t care less. I refused to marry him until we had a water-tight pre-nup that was all in my favour. He won’t ever divorce me. It will cost him too much. I’ve kept my side of the bargain and given him a son and heir; from here on in, he can keep that wrinkly old cock well away from me.”
Another burst of laughter erupted over which Pearl heard someone say, “No shortage of hot pool attendants and gardeners,” and they all laughed louder.
“Ah, there’s Marcus,” Tina said. Pearl swung her eyes quickly around and saw Marcus walking amongst the guests, his eyes scanning the crowd as he went. She could see he was searching for her, and was about to go to him when Tina broke away from the group. “Excuse me ladies while I speak with my intended and find out the plan.” Seconds later, she came into view as she went through the doors.
Pearl watched as she approached Marcus. It was clear Marcus was not interested but Tina was not to be deterred. Pearl moved out of the shadows to go to his rescue only to bump into Linda.
“Ah, I’m glad I found you before my son did. You and I need to talk, dear. At least I need to talk and you need to listen. I can see you don’t belong in this world and have no idea how it functions, so I’m going to tell you. It’s what some people might think of as incestuous, I suppose. Marriages are much better when they’re kept in the extended family, as I like to think of the people you see here tonight. Occasionally, some men with bigger cocks than brains wind up marrying young and beautiful fortune-hunters.” She paused for effect. “Like you, dear!” She held her hands palm up and opened her eyes wide in feigned surprise as though the thought had only just occurred to her. “But those marriages don’t make anyone happy. The men wind up embarrassed, and their gold-digging wives end up with no husband, no friends and, if their husbands were at least smart enough to get pre-nuptial financial agreements, no money either. It becomes a sad and ghastly mess, I’m afraid, and I’m not about to let that happen to my son. You’re quite a pretty little thing, aren’t you? And I’ve no doubt you’re well practised in bed, so it’s been agreed that if Marcus insists on continuing his affair with you after his marriage until he has lost interest, he may do so. None of his other sexual partners has lasted long; I see no reason why you should be different.
“It’s a shame you came tonight, though. I can’t imagine what Marcus was thinking. It was cruel of him to expose you to embarrassment and humiliation like this. Why don’t you slip away while you have a modicum of pride left, you poor little thing? It’s obvious to everyone that you are hopelessly out of your depth. I feel a bit responsible for Marcus’s cruelty in letting you think you’d be welcome tonight, so I’ve organised a driver to take you home. See?” She pointed to a man standing by a car looking up towards the house. “You can leave quietly down these steps. That way no one will notice and you won’t need to feel ashamed. Off you go. It would be silly if you were here when Marcus announces his engagement to Tina. Oh, but before you go, perhaps you’d like to remove the necklace which I am guessing Marcus loaned you for the evening. It’s too valuable for you to be wearing while you’re traipsing about in dingy streets and bars.”
As Pearl listened to Linda’s cruel words, her heart started thumping in her ears and her body broke out in a cold sweat and began trembling so violently she was afraid she’d fall over. Over Linda’s shoulder, she could see Marcus still scanning the room for her as he tried to escape Tina, but people were coming from all sides, clapping him on the back and making small talk. Her eyes refocused on Linda’s tight, baby-bottom smooth face, glinting eyes and curled mouth and suddenly, with absolute clarity, she understood the dread she’d had in Marcus’s apartment.
“Don’t worry,” she said quietly to the older woman. “I will leave, but it’s not because you want me to; it’s because I wouldn’t waste my time here with you for another second if you paid me.”
Linda’s face hardened and the curl of her mouth became a snarl. “Interesting you should mention paying you. I have a large cheque here. It’s yours if you agree to never see Marcus again. It’s extremely generous I think you’ll find.” As she spoke, she pulled a cheque from down the front of her dress and held it out.
Without missing a beat and without looking at it, Pearl took it, tore it in half, then in half again and handed her the pieces. “You’re a horrible, horrible person,” she said managing to keep her voice low and controlled despite the rage and sorrow flooding through her. “Keep your money. I want none of it.”
“Ah, Linda, darling, how are you? Oh, and goodness, is that little Pearl all tarted up in her refashioned prom dress? I didn’t realise it was a fancy dress party, but you’ve come as… Cinderella, is it?” Marcie said loudly as she joined them, gloating triumphantly at Pearl, enjoying her obvious humiliation. The colour drained from Pearl’s face and the hot tears burning her eyes threatened to overflow. As awful and as cruel as these people were, though, she was going to retain her dignity.
“Mrs Holding. Miss Jones. Good night,” she managed to say clearly, before making her way down the stairs, praying with every step that she would reach the waiting car without tripping or crumpling in a heap.
“Where would you like to go, miss?” her driver asked as she fastened her seat belt and he started the car.
She gave the driver the address of her apartment. “Please hurry,” she said, needing to get away as quickly as possible. Her stomach was churning. Her heart was broken. What a horrible, horrible night. But it had made everything crystal clear, and she tried to feel grateful that that had happened now and not further down the track. Marcus would come after her as soon as he realised she’d left, but she didn’t want to see him. Not tonight. She guessed Linda and Tina would prevent him finding out for as long as possible that she’d gone, so she would at least have a bit of a head start. As they were driving, she blocked him on her phone.
Arriving at her apartment, she asked the driver if he could call her a taxi and wait for it. Then assuring him she would only be a few minutes, rushed up, threw off her dress, shoes and diamond choker and changed into jeans, jumper and runners. Closing her eyes to all the Little clothes Marcus had bought for her, she grabbed her other clothes and threw them onto the bed. Her Little was tucked away and adult Pearl was in charge as she fetched her bag and stuffed her possessions into it: clothes she’d brought with her from the farm, books, and Rusty, Moppy and her teddy bear. Then running into each room, she grabbed essentials and shoved them in as well.
When she had everything she wanted, she wrote a note and left it on the bed with her dress and the choker, picked up her things and left. A pain so sharp it caused her to softly cry out and double up ripped through her as she took one last look around the apartment where she’d felt such happiness. Biting her violently trembling lip, she locked the door behind her and hurried downstairs to where a cab was waiting for her. Jumping in, she gave the driver the name of the hotel where she planned to spend the night.
Half an hour later, with everything taken care of and nothing to do until morning, Pearl collapsed onto the pillow in her hotel room and sobbed, her heart broken, her dreams shattered, and her life once more in tatters. This time, though, there would be no going back. This time she had learned her lesson. She was done with Marcus, done with his family, and done with Mon Addi and all its clients. She would make a new future for herself, but first she needed to cry.
Chapter 26
Marcus
Marcus scanned the room again. Still no sign of Ray or Pearl. Damn. Where was she?
“I’m sorry, Tina. Please excuse me.” He tried once more to extricate himself, but this woman who, with every passing minute he was increasingly in danger of disliking, clung to him like a limpet.
“Aw, come on, Marcus. It’s a party and we almost never get time to talk these days. Remember when we were kids, sneaking downstairs to pinch food off the table and then alcohol when we were not much older.” She laughed, and Marcus was struck by how much her head resembled a grotesque skull when she peeled her lips back like that. He didn’t recall her laughing like that.
“I do remember,” he said grimly. He didn’t want to feel badly about Tina. He just wanted her to leave him alone to find Pearl who, artless and unspoiled as she was, could not be less like this calculating woman in front of him. But he also remembered when Tina had been a carefree girl, and one summer in particular. A few of the families with children made it an annual event to take a summer holiday together at an expensive lakeside resort. The parents were too busy with their own drinking, flirting and philandering to be interested in the children who were old enough to go off on their own without anyone noticing or caring. That had been the best summer holiday of his life, and he and Tina, friends then, and the others had swum in and boated on the lake, walked in the moonlight and sat around in the dark telling ghost stories.
When the summer ended and they’d packed up to leave, he and Tina had kissed as they said goodbye, and he’d been impatient for the next summer holiday. But when he arrived at the lake and rushed over to her chalet, he found a different person to the one he’d taken his leave of less than a year before. She’d been away, boarding at a new school, and the older girls there had taught the younger ones how to pout and simper and wheedle. “You have to practise if you’re going to catch a rich husband,” they’d been told.
Finally, when Tina had stamped her foot, pouted and pinched him one too many times, he’d pulled her over his knee and smacked her bottom. She’d jumped up crying and run off, threatening to tell her parents. He knew she wouldn’t. She’d be too embarrassed. Alone, he’d sat staring unseeingly out over the lake after she’d gone, thinking about what had occurred. It wasn’t planned. Until it happened, he’d had no idea he was going to do it. But, he’d admitted to himself, putting his hand down his trousers, he’d liked it and wanted to do it more. And he did, although not with Tina. Some business of her father’s called them away before she’d forgiven him, and that was the last summer holiday they spent together at the lake. The next time they met up, they were both adults and Marcus didn’t find the woman she had become at all attractive. She, however, seemed to think his spanking her was tantamount to a proposal and she firmly believed they were destined to marry.
Ray, meanwhile, had been hopelessly in love with her all his life, but had said nothing because he figured she was Marcus’s girl. Marcus could see it in his brother’s eyes, but spared him the humiliation of letting on he knew. When Marcus stopped wanting to spend time with Tina, she used Ray to try and get close to him. Ray knew she was doing it, but hoped that one day she’d look at him, instead of always past him at Marcus, and realise how good they were together. What no one else but the two of them knew was that one night, after too much to drink and Marcus having again told her he didn’t love her and would never love her, she’d taken Ray into her bed. He wasn’t aware of the conversation she’d had with Marcus, and foolishly believed the day he had waited so long for had finally come at last. He joyfully made love to her all night, whispering endearments, planning their future together, declaring his eternal love and loyalty.
In the morning she was gone. Then a text arrived. How could you? You know I love Marcus. You’ve made me betray him. I hate you. I never want to see you again.
Within days he had quit his job, packed a small bag and left the country. Tonight, Marcus thought he could still see an echo of the girl she’d been, and wondered if that part of her could be reached, or if the brittle exterior she’d cultivated had hardened over the top and made it impossible for anything deeper to get out.
“Why don’t you find Ray?” he asked suddenly, interrupting her. He hadn’t been listening and had no idea what she was talking about.
“What?” She started as though he’d slapped her face. “What for?”
“If you want to marry into this family, Tina,” he told her gently, “you’re focusing on the wrong brother. I am in love with Pearl and I intend to marry her if she will have me. I’ve told Mother, and I’ve made it clear there is nothing she can do to stop me. I don’t know if Ray is still in love with you, but I think he would consider marrying you to unite our families anyway and he’d do the right thing by you. He’s already told me he is keen to find a wife and have a family. He’s a good man; in some ways better than I am. And you and he are alike. He likes this lifestyle. He’d love to have kids and go holidaying with the rest of our old crew and their families up at the lake, as the adults this time.” He half smiled and shook his head. “It’s not for me though, Tina, and neither are you. It’s time you accepted that once and for all. I’m going to find Pearl. I think she’s with Ray, so when I find them, I’ll tell Ray to come see you, shall I?”
He’d expected her to make a scene, but she was just staring at him, her shoulders sagging, her face crumpled into sad understanding. He bent forward and kissed her on the cheek, thinking he’d not seen her look so beautiful since they’d kissed goodbye half their lifetimes ago.
“Goodbye, Tina. Be happy. Don’t let Mother humiliate you by announcing a fake engagement to me. Talk to Ray.”
He resumed his search for Pearl. There was no sign of her, of Ray or of his mother. He started to get a very uneasy feeling which was heightened when he saw Marcie and asked if she’d seen Ray and Pearl.
“I saw Ray a while ago. I think he and some others were going to the summer house for a smoke. Pearl probably went with them,” she told him with a self-satisfied smirk which he didn’t understand.
He made his way through the guests, out the back door and across the garden to the summer house, but before he even reached it he realised he’d been sent on a wild goose chase. No lights were on, and it was as silent as a grave. Angrily clenching his fists, he returned to the house. He saw Marcie out on the patio talking to Linda and went the other way. After searching the house and asking everyone he could find, he caught sight of Ray coming in through the front door. He sped to meet him.
“Where the hell have you been? Where’s Pearl?” he demanded.
“Mother sent me to the shop for these.” Ray held up a packet of cigarettes.
“She doesn’t smoke!” Marcus almost shouted.
“I know.” Ray shrugged. “I thought it was odd but she was adamant she wanted them and that I was to get them. She said not to worry about Pearl because you were with her.”
“I haven’t been able to find her,” Marcus growled, realising he’d been duped and that his mother had outplayed him as she’d done so often in the past.
Barging onto the patio, he grabbed Linda by the shoulders and swung her around. “What have you done with Pearl?” he demanded, not caring who heard.
“Ah, there you are, dear,” Linda said smoothly and quietly. “I was beginning to worry about you. There’s no need to shout at me. Pearl was with us a minute ago, but she felt ill and wanted to go home. I couldn’t find you, so I organised a driver for her. Poor little thing. I think she felt out of her depth. She said I was to tell you that she wanted to rest and that you shouldn’t bother her tonight, so why don’t you have another drink and let’s make this a proper party. Perhaps you could have a dance with Tina.”
“I don’t believe you,” Marcus snarled menacingly glaring at her with utter contempt. “What did you say to her? Never mind. I’ll find out from her.” He made to leave, but Linda stopped him.
“Marcus, don’t. Don’t disregard your family or the business. Don’t make a foolish decision and let your emotions run away with you. If you leave me, you will be doing exactly the same thing your father did, and you know it. You won’t do that to me, will you, my darling? You and I both know Ray is not ready to be in charge of the company. If you walk out on me, you will be destroying me as surely as your f
ather tried to.”
Marcus shook his head as he ran his hand roughly across it as if to rub away her words, his thoughts and his pain.
“I have to go, Mother. I have to make sure Pearl is all right. If she would really rather be alone, I’ll come back for a while. Otherwise, I’ll see you tomorrow before I drive Pearl home. We can talk about the business and what we’re going to do then. Okay? But I’m not marrying Tina. That’s final, and I have told her so.”
Linda shrugged sadly, but Marcus knew she was trying to manipulate him, and he was quite prepared to stand his ground. She had Ray and Alan to look after her; Pearl had only him.
“I have to go.” He bent to kiss her cheek, but she moved away so he kissed the air. His mouth tightened and he snorted as he left, striding quickly to his apartment without another word.
What a disaster the night had been, he thought grimly as he jumped in his car and headed to Pearl’s apartment. He was furious with his mother; maybe she hadn’t said anything in particular to make Pearl leave, but she hadn’t been welcoming and friendly, and it certainly felt like she’d deliberately kept him away from her. At least he’d made it clear that his marrying Tina was not an option even if they hadn’t finally resolved the issue of a new CEO for Holding Corporation. The only solution he could see to that problem was a three-way agreement between himself, Ray, and the board, under which Ray would invest his money and be nominally appointed CEO while allowing Marcus to actually be in charge until he, Ray, was in a position to take the reins himself. It seemed like the perfect solution, but it might not be easy to get everyone to agree. He had made himself unpopular with some of the board who’d objected to changes he’d implemented, but fortunately most of them had gone. His mother would be seriously vexed that he wouldn’t officially be the CEO. It was a shame she couldn’t see that the harder she tried to cling to him, the more she was pushing him away. She had a lot of power with the board and if she decided to veto his plan, it was unlikely he would be able to get the board to override her.