Everything to Nothing

by Mark Henthorne

  Michelle skipped out of Sally’s cabin into her own cabin and when she entered she could not help stopping to stare at the ball gown. She thought to herself that she had never, and would never again, wear anything so perfect. Picking up the gown, she slid into it and then turned to contemplate herself in the mirror.

  Her hair had been left to fall naturally, however it had been lightly curled into ringlets. The beautician had only applied the lightest of makeup to her face. Her most striking feature was her lips which had been coated in a deep red gloss that matched her dress to perfection. The gown curved over her large chest which was being pushed up to form a delightful large cleavage and cascaded down her body, flowing out to cover the bulges on her stomach and hips. To finish off her appearance she wore a pair of new black Prada shoes that had been supplied with the gown which added a few inches to her height. She was very happy with the way she looked, but she also knew that as soon as she was stood beside Sally she would feel inadequate and plain next to her perfect friend.

  *

  A short time later, Mr. Gallagher stepped off his yacht and held out his hand to help the young women step off the gangway. With a woman on each side of him linking an arm each, they walked the short distance to where the limousine was parked. While they walked a few people stopped to look at the three people, each of them laughing and joking as they walked along. A few passing tourists took photographs and as their cameras zoomed in to focus on their faces they were disappointed to see that they were not anyone famous.

  When they neared the limousine, the chauffeur opened the rear door for them and they entered the vehicle. Sinking down into the luxurious leather seats, Mr. Gallagher reached to the cool box and poured them all a glass of champagne from the cold bottle of Krug.

  Sedately the limousine cruised through the streets of the Principality until the large car came to a brief stop. Through the window Sally could see police and guards checking the limousine and the underside of the vehicle for any kind of explosive device. Quickly they were waved through and shortly after they stopped again where the chauffeur exited the car and opened one of the passenger doors.

  Michelle was sat next to this door so she exited first. As soon as she placed a leg out of the car she was instantly dazzled by the flashes from cameras. Blinking, she stepped onto the red carpet and stood up. Instantly the cameras stopped as the journalists realised it was not anyone famous, and then they started again as Mr. Gallagher stepped out of the car. Once again most of the cameras stopped, but a few of them recognised him and carried on taking pictures. With a wave to the crowd he reached back into the limousine and took the hand of his daughter.

  As she stepped out of the car the cameras clicked and stopped. Then the photographers, upon realising how beautiful this unknown woman was, like a ripple through them the cameras started again. Flash after flash dazzled the three of them, and then one of the photographers who had recognised Mr. Gallagher realised that this stunning young woman must be his elusive only daughter. ‘Miss Gallagher!’

  Surprised, Sally turned towards the man who had called her name, and was instantly dazzled as the flash went off. Taking up the cry of her name, more of the photographers struggled to catch her attention for that special photograph where she was looking directly into their lens.

  ‘Miss Gallagher!’

  ‘Please Miss Gallagher!

  ‘This way Miss Gallagher!’

  With plenty of smiles, they stayed there for a few more moments, Sally responding to as many of the cries of her name as possible by turning this way and that way. Slowly her father started to edge them away from the front line of camera men, towards the gap between the two phalanxes of photographers. Still they called her name as they walked along the red carpet, but now she ignored them, eager to get away from the limelight that she did not wish for. She speeded up, and both of them took the hint, quickly following her to clear the group of photographers.

  After clearing the gathering of journalists they were able to view for the first time their intended destination. Michelle let out a small whistle through her teeth. ‘Is that what I think it is? That’s the Prince’s Palace. Oh my Sally, we’re going into a Palace!’

  Which is where they headed to, passing the security guards who waved them under an archway into the courtyard at the front of the Palace. Upon entering the haven of the courtyard Mr. Gallagher turned and studied them both. ‘You both okay? That was a bit intense. Sorry, I thought there may be a bit of paparazzi, but nothing like that!’

  ‘It’s okay dad, don’t worry. You okay Michelle?’

  ‘Yeah, I might get my sight back in a minute!’ They all laughed at Michelle’s joke as they continued to walk across the courtyard towards the entrance.

  ‘Right, ladies, stop walking for a moment. In a moment, as you can see, we are going to enter the Palace. We are here as guests of Prince Albert the Second of Monaco himself. In a moment you are going to meet him. He knows me, so he’ll address me by my first name. I’ve met him before, so I will refer to him as Sir. You must refer to him on introduction as Your Serene Highness. If he likes you, he’ll say you can address him as Sir. If he really likes you he’ll allow you to address him as Albert, although I’ve only ever heard him say that once and that was to your mum Sally. Shake his hand, give a slight curtsey and simply say ‘‘It is an honour to meet you Your Serene Highness’’’

  ‘Oh goody, a prince!’ exclaimed Michelle.

  ‘Don’t get too excited, he’s round about my age! Do everything as I say and you’ll be fine. He’s quite relaxed when you get to know him, but he cannot stand not having the proper respect shown to him in public.’

  ‘Okay dad, we’ve got it. Can we go in?’

  ‘Of course. Shall we?’ He offered an arm to each lady which they took, and he led them to the entrance of the Palace.

  *

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Mr.,’ the microphone crackled as the announcer stated his first name, ‘Gallagher accompanied by Miss Sally Gallagher and Miss Michelle Walmesley.’ And then they were introduced to the Prince. ‘Please may I introduce you to His Serene Highness Albert the Second, Prince of Monaco.’

  ‘Mr. Gallagher. So good to see you again.’

  Taking the Prince’s hand in a firm handshake he replied, ‘Sir, it is a real honour to be invited into your Palace.’

  ‘It is my pleasure.’

  ‘May I introduce my daughter Sally, and her friend Michelle?’

  Michelle stepped forward first and gave a small curtsey. ‘Your Serene Highness. It is an honour to meet you.’ He nodded and smiled at her and the smile turned into a positive beam when his eyes met Sally’s sparkling emerald eyes.

  ‘You Serene Highness. It is a pleasure to meet you,’ and she also gave a small curtsey.

  ‘I thought for a moment that an apparition of your mother approached me. Please, I insist, call me Albert.’

  ‘Of course, erm, Albert. Thank you for inviting us into your home.’

  He gave a light laugh. ‘It is more of a tourist destination and government building than home now Sally, but it is a pleasure to have you here. I must attend to my other guests, but I insist you save a dance for me later this evening.’

  ‘Again, it would be an honour Albert.’ Sally gave him his best smile, which unknowing to her made his heart skip a beat. With another pair of curtseys and a shallow bow, they walked away from the Prince through the throng of fellow guests.

  ‘Well, you both made an impression on him to say the least!’

  ‘I think you could marry a Prince if you wanted to Sally!’

  ‘Don’t be silly. He only liked me because I reminded him of my mother. I’m sure he won’t even remember my name by ten tonight.’

  ‘I doubt that very much.’

  Mr. Gallagher distracted them by placing a glass of champagne into their hands, and then he led them through the guests, stopping every now and then to speak to people he recognised. All the men, even if they were stood next to their o
wn stunning wife, could not take their eyes off Sally. Some of them tried to take her away from her father’s side, asking her whether they wanted to come onto the balcony and look at the view, or if she wanted a tour through the State Apartments which they had exclusive access to. To each and every offer, Sally politely declined and stayed close to her father’s side.

  After mingling and networking their way through the crowd, Mr. Gallagher spent quite some time chatting to another man who was trying to persuade him to invest in their new computer system. Quickly the ladies grew bored with the conversation so they wandered away from him and took up position next to a large ornate stained glass window. Almost instantly they were approached by two men who were old enough to be their fathers. Politely Sally and Michelle chatted to them until Sally asked Michelle did she know where their boyfriends were. Thankfully the two men took the hint. They chatted amongst themselves for a few moments until mid-sentence Sally stopped speaking.

  ‘What’s up?’ Michelle asked.

  ‘Oh my word.’

  ‘What’s up honey?’

  ‘I suppose I should have guessed he would be here.’

  ‘Who?’ asked Michelle again, looking around.

  ‘The guy. Behind you. Over your left shoulder. Tall. Dark.’

  Michelle slowly turned and looked across the room to where two men were stood, both of them were indeed tall, dark and very handsome. ‘Crikey! They both look gorgeous from here! Who are they?’

  ‘The one on the right as you look is his friend. The one on the left is Mo.’

  ‘Mo? I’ve never heard you talk about a Mo before. Who is he?’

  ‘Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed.’

  ‘He’s a prince? You know a prince?’

  ‘I know lots of princes.’

  ‘Is he rich?’

  ‘He makes daddy look like a pauper.’

  ‘Crikey! You don’t seem too happy to see him?’

  ‘I’m not. Let’s just say we didn’t depart from each other on the best of terms.’

  ‘Why? What happened?’

  ‘Shit! He’s noticed me. Double shit. He’s coming over.

  For the next few moments Sally and Michelle watched the two men walk over to them, watched as the women they walked past turned to look at them.

  ‘Miss Gallagher. It is a pleasure to see you again.’ The Prince held out his hand which Sally accepted.

  ‘Prince Mohammed. An honour to meet you again. May I introduce my friend, Michelle Walmesley.’

  He took her hand and lightly shook it. ‘Miss Walmesley, a pleasure.’

  ‘The pleasure is all mine Your Highness.’

  ‘Please, Mo is fine. Miss Gallagher, I believe you’ll remember my friend Ashraf.’ Sally smiled politely but neither of them offered a hand to shake. ‘Okay, this is slightly awkward. As an icebreaker, can I offer you both some champagne?’

  ‘No we’re fine thanks Mo. How’s your partner?’ With a flush of his cheeks the Prince stated she was fine. ‘Well shame you weren’t single last year then maybe this meeting wouldn’t be so… awkward.’ For a moment there was some feet shuffling and more awkwardness. ‘Come Michelle, I need to powder my nose. Nice to see you again Your Highness.’ Without waiting for a reply, Sally brushed past the Crown Prince and walked quickly towards the toilets, throwing open the door.

  ‘Sally! You can’t speak, and treat, a Prince like that!’

  ‘Well he shouldn’t have treated me like he did last year. And as for the sleazeball Ashraf…’ Sally placed her fingers in her mouth and made a retching noise.

  ‘What on Earth happened?’

  ‘Ohhh, last year. We were at his palace in his country, sorry, one of his many palaces. I was single, and he told me he was. He’s quite a few years older than me, than us, and me being the naïve daughter of a billionaire I fell for him, big time. He swept me off my feet. I was due to leave with daddy, but I begged the Prince to let me stay at the palace with him. I stayed there for a month. Every day we went sailing in his yachts, swimming in private coves, staying on his private islands out in the Gulf. He treated me, well, he treated me like a princess.’

  ‘Last year? Last summer?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You told me you were away with your dad on business, keeping him company?!’

  ‘Sorry, that was a lie.’

  ‘I’d say! I thought you told me everything?!’

  ‘Usually I do honey, but not about last summer. He’s the first and only guy to see me naked and I was very content on the last night we were together for him to take my virginity. On the penultimate night though, I heard a commotion coming from along the corridor, towards the Prince’s room. It sounded very heated, and apart from staff, I didn’t think there was anyone else staying in the palace apart from us. So I put my gown on and walked quietly towards his room. His door was open and I stood in the doorway watching another woman throw ornaments, books, anything that came to hand, at the Prince, to which he casually batted them away with a pillow.’

  ‘His girlfriend?’

  Sally nodded. ‘If it had been any other circumstance it would have been quite funny, watching the Prince naked using his pillow as a bat. Of course, I quickly put two and two together and came up with three, and we all know that three doesn’t go too well in a relationship. Apparently she had been studying overseas and had just got back and heard about the woman the Prince had been seen with so many times.’

  ‘What a bastard.’

  ‘To say the least. I was heartbroken Michelle, fucking heartbroken. He saw me in the doorway and she noticed that he was looking at something else so she turned and saw me. She walked towards me; I can only presume swearing at me in Arabic. I panicked and ran off to my bedroom, locking the door behind me. For ten minutes she battered the door, screaming. I sat on my bed and prayed that the door held. I swear that if she had got through that door she would have killed me; she wasn’t rational. Eventually, a few members of staff pulled her away and I can only presume locked her in another room somewhere in the palace.’

  ‘So he didn’t even come to stop her?’

  ‘No. He had to rely on his staff. He didn’t have the balls to confront her himself, which I suppose says a lot really. That night I didn’t sleep, and I didn’t sleep for a week. The next morning, early, I snuck out of my bedroom and begged one of the staff to take me to the airport. I had nothing but my passport, some cash and my bank card. I got on the first flight out of there. Turned out it was a flight to Bangkok. I spent a month on my own in a hut on an island, crying my eyes out.’

  ‘Oh Sally, I’m so sorry. I had no idea. I thought you were with your dad, jet setting around the globe.’ She put her arms around Sally and hugged her while Sally wiped away the tears that were now rolling down her face.

  ‘He totally broke my heart and as a man who is older than me, a Prince no less, he should have known better than trying to take advantage of a young woman, innocent in her naivety.’

  ‘Yes, he should have. You should have told me, I could have come and supported you.’

  ‘Thank you honey, but it was something I had to get through on my own. Anyway,’ she turned away from Michelle, ‘I’d better fix my makeup before we go back out there.’ As Sally was fixing her smudged makeup, Michelle asked about Ashraf. ‘Well, one night the Prince had to attend a function, men only, no way I could go, so he asked Ashraf to look after me. He was quite nice at first, then as the night went on he started to get really sleazy, saying that the Prince and him shared everything. They had slept with the same women lots of times and they weren’t bothered about it and other such things. When we were in the limo coming back from a party we had been to, he tried to hit on me and he tried to hit on me strongly. I swear if I hadn’t kneed him in the bollocks he would have raped me!’

  ‘You kneed him?!’

  ‘Yeah, he was pissing me off. It was quite amusing watching him roll about on the floor of the limo in the foetal position!’

  ‘I bet it was!’


  ‘I didn’t see him again after I had told the Prince. He was not amused.’

  ‘So you had no idea he had a girlfriend?’

  ‘She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was his betrothed.’

  ‘Oh my God! What an absolute bastard!’

  ‘Yep. Right, how do I look.’

  ‘As usual, sickeningly perfect!’

  Sally laughed and took her friend by the hand, exiting the toilet and leading her across the room in the Palace. As they walked towards the bar both of the girls noticed that the Prince was now dancing quite erotically with a woman who might as well not been wearing any clothes for she was not leaving much to the imagination.

  When they were served at the bar, Michelle was surprised when Sally ordered a glass of red wine, cheap red wine at that. ‘Red wine? We’re in a palace in Monaco and you’re drinking red wine, cheap red wine?!’

  ‘I have no intention of drinking it Michelle. Order us two glasses of the best champagne and I’ll be back in a moment,’ stated Sally who picked up a glass of the wine.

  As Sally tried to walk away, Michelle grabbed her arm. ‘Sally, where are you going?’

  ‘Stay here darling; you don’t need to be a part of this.’

  ‘No, Sally don’t, think about where we are, who is watching!’

  With a smile and a wicked glint in her eyes, Sally shrugged off Michelle’s hand and walked towards the edge of the dance floor where she stood waiting for the music to stop. The blood was racing through her body, fuelled by adrenaline and she struggled to stop her hand from shaking. As the music stopped, she stormed onto the dance floor, speaking just below a shout. ‘Hi Mo. How’s your fiancée?’

  With a flash of anger across her face, the woman he had been dancing with turned to confront him. ‘You’re engaged?!’ He did not reply.

  ‘Yes, he is. This is for breaking my heart, and for all the other women you’ve taken advantage of!’

  With those words, Sally threw the red wine into his face and watched with pleasure as it drained down over his white jacket and shirt. She jumped as the woman delivered a slap to his face and smiled as she watched him wipe the wine out of his eyes.