by Sarah Rayner
Ivy shuddered. The idea that he was seducing Cassie while giving her the brush-off!
“I think it’s his responsibility to be faithful, not mine,” said Cassie.
Ivy struggled to work it out. I wonder if she fancied Russell at all? she spat inwardly. I bet she thought he might help her career.
“Anyway, whatever…” Cassie leaned over to check the baby again; he appeared to be sleeping on, oblivious. “Being hitched doesn’t stop Russell.”
“You mean he’s done this before?”
“Before?! Aw, come on. Don’t tell me you didn’t suspect as much—he’s scarcely the faithful type.”
Despite her private tumult, Ivy couldn’t help note Cassie’s true colors seemed to be emerging. How forthright she was being, pugnacious, almost. And to think she thought she looked vulnerable, sitting there without a scrap of makeup, hair disheveled! Ivy was witnessing a side to Cassie she hadn’t known existed; like a lioness protecting her newborn cub, her aggression seemed to stem from self-preservation, or anger, or both. Still, however primal, Ivy didn’t like it. This posed a new threat.
Ursula restated, “Let me be absolutely clear: you were seeing them simultaneously?”
“Leon and I were hardly full-on initially,” said Cassie. “He knew I was seeing other guys. For a while last summer, I thought I’d have some fun—I’d just arrived here, remember. Men do it all the time.”
“Then you got pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“Strikes me as a trifle careless.”
Cassie blushed. “I appreciate that now.”
“And you told them both?”
“I did.” Cassie nodded. “I believe in being honest.”
Ivy writhed in discomfort. Cassie seemed to be looking intensely at her.
“Wow.” Ursula shook her head, incredulous. “Rather you than me.”
“I realized I’d been pretty irresponsible.” Cassie sighed. “So I believed that was the least I could do. And once I’d decided to keep it, I told them both that too. Leon was very understanding, all things considered. He’s been a good friend to me recently. Whereas Russell refused to even acknowledge the child might be his. Dropped me, like a proverbial hot potato. No support. No interest. Nothing.”
There was another few seconds’ silence.
“I think Russell’s a prick,” said Ursula. “For what it’s worth.”
“I found that out a bit late,” said Cassie. “Found out a lot a bit late, come to that.” Again her eyes bored into Ivy.
Shit, Ivy panicked, finding it virtually impossible to keep pace. Was it possible Cassie knew about her and Russell? And it wasn’t over yet …
Orianna had been silent for the entire proceedings. Now she interjected, “But what about Dan?”
Cassie turned to her and frowned. “What about Dan?”
“I understood you were seeing him?”
“You what?”
“I thought the baby was his,” said Orianna.
Cassie snorted again, this time with laughter. Then, glancing at Orianna’s face, she paused, and said more sympathetically, “What on earth gave you that idea?”
“Ivy told me,” said Orianna.
Now all three of them turned to Ivy.
“Seems like you’ve got some explaining to do,” said Cassie.
“What do you mean?” asked Ursula.
“I’ve never shagged Dan in my life,” said Cassie, simply.
Orianna gasped. “You haven’t?”
Cassie shook her head. “No way.”
“Oh!”
“I wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing. You hired me, you’re my boss. You’ve always been really nice to me. Whereas she”—Cassie glared at Ivy—“she’s been shagging Russell, not merely for a few weeks in the summer like me, but for years.”
“RUSSELL!” from Orianna and Ursula. This time the baby stirred.
Yet another long silence.
“Who told you that?” asked Ursula, eventually.
“Russell did.” Cassie shrugged her shoulders again. “I went over one night—to tell him I was pregnant, in fact. He responded by saying it was pathetic of me—stupid—to get myself in such a mess. Said he was hardly the commitment type. And then, when I was getting ready to leave, she texted him.” She spat the words at Ivy. “It was your birthday, and he was so angry with me that he showed me your message; said your ongoing affair was evidence of his inability to commit—not just to me, or his wife, but to you, or anyone. That’s when I realized what a total dick he is. I’ll have no qualms about suing him for child support. Quite frankly, you deserve each other.”
Ivy started to shake all over again.
Cassie knew about me and Russell for months without breathing a word! she thought. The sneaky little cow!
“You and Russell…” said Orianna, slowly. “So that explains the expense account.”
Expense account?! How the fuck did Orianna find out about that?
“And why you didn’t want me to reveal who the father was.” Again Cassie scowled at Ivy. “So you could dupe Orianna.”
“So you could dupe us all,” said Ursula. “I bet she started those rumors about Dan being bisexual too. Tell me, did he even ever go to G-A-Y, Ivy?”
The silence seemed to fill the entire ward; the sense of expectation was huge.
Ivy’s head was spinning. So here it was.
Revelation. Confrontation.
She was beyond excuses, beyond quips, beyond anything. She felt sick, wanted the ground to swallow her up; to be anywhere other than here.
Eventually, at a loss as to any other course of action, shakily, she got to her feet, and, precipitated by adrenaline, fled as fast as she could from the scene.
* * *
The doors of the ward swung closed.
Before Orianna had the chance to think, she was standing. “Excuse me. I need to sort this—now.” And she sprinted after Ivy.
Ivy might be fitter than Orianna, and she might have longer legs—but she couldn’t control the traffic. It was still rush hour, the main road outside the hospital was packed, and, as cars whizzed by with barely feet between them, Ivy was forced to come to a halt on the edge of the pavement.
“STOP!” Breathless, Orianna caught up with her.
Seeing a potential gap in the nearest lane, Ivy tried to make a dart for it across the street, but Orianna grabbed her by the hair.
“No you don’t!”
“OW!” Ivy struggled to pull her tresses from Orianna’s hands. Orianna held on tight.
“Just what the fuck do you think you’re playing at?” yelled Orianna, heedless of passersby. Fortunately there was another stream of traffic, and Ivy was forced to remain where she was. Orianna kept tight hold of her hair, in case.
“Ow!” Ivy repeated.
If she was in pain, Orianna didn’t care. “You told me Dan was going out with Cassie!”
“So?” Ivy jerked up her chin.
“They never even slept together!”
“No.” Ivy smiled now, sarcastically, and Orianna saw a cruelty in her face she’d not acknowledged before. It was a shock to see it directed pointedly at her.
“You led me to believe they had.”
“And you’re more the fool for believing it.” Ivy snorted, then laughed. “You even thought he might swing both ways, didn’t you?” Orianna caught her checking the road out of the corner of her eye. It remained impossible to cross.
“But why all the lies, Ivy?”
“Why?” There was no mistaking Ivy’s tone now: it was so full of venom it seemed to contaminate the air. “Let go of my fucking hair,” she commanded. “And I’ll tell you.”
Rapidly, Orianna assessed Ivy’s predicament. Would she make another bolt for it? Somehow Orianna doubted it. If she did, Orianna would only follow her, so it was worth the risk to get some answers. She relaxed her grip.
Ivy stood up straight, smoothed her hair, and turned to face Orianna. “I put Dan’s watch in Cassie’s handbag.”
/> “You did what?”
“You heard me.” Again Ivy smiled maliciously.
“But why? Why bother?”
“You really have no idea?” she asked, venom now mixed with incredulity.
“Not really, no.”
Ivy shook her head. “You truly are too nice for your own good.” She made the word sound like the worst possible attribute.
“How d’you mean?”
“You’re so pissing naïve, Orianna.”
“Oh?”
“I hate you.”
For all her shock, the words pierced Orianna with the sharpness of a dagger. “But I thought we were friends?”
“Friends? Friends?!” Now Ivy was shouting. A couple of pedestrians turned to stare; neither Ivy nor Orianna cared. “Friends don’t betray each other, Orianna.”
“How did I betray you?”
Ivy held her palms up to communicate how obvious she felt it was. “For starters, you kept me in the dark about Dan.”
Orianna was aghast. “Because of that? But I thought you understood why I didn’t tell you—after what happened with Clive.”
“You used to tell me everything. And suddenly you stopped.”
“That’s hardly fair,” protested Orianna. Although perhaps there is a grain of truth in it, she realized. Maybe I did exclude Ivy, when I first met Dan. But that’s normal, isn’t it? I can’t read Ivy’s mind; I had no clue she was still seething. “You seemed to forget all about it.”
“Just because I seemed to, didn’t mean I had.”
“Oh.” Orianna remained confounded. I suppose I was rather self-absorbed, she recalled, though it doesn’t seem reason for Ivy to hate me. Not only that, when Ivy is so private herself, she seems to be exhibiting dreadful double standards.
“And you took that promotion,” sneered Ivy.
“Ah.” Now it was becoming clear.
“You deserted me, professionally, without so much as a hesitation.”
She knew there was some truth in this too. Though again she’d assumed Ivy had forgiven her.
“And then you employed Cassie, a junior, to work with me without involving me at all.”
“I’m sorry,” said Orianna. “I honestly thought you’d like her—we always liked the same people before.”
“When we interviewed them together.”
“But I was the creative director. It’s quite normal for the head of department to hire people without consulting anyone else. Neil used to.”
“She’s fifteen years younger!”
“She was all we could afford. I was going to carry on working with you too.”
“It was insulting!”
“It wasn’t meant to be. I was trying to do my best.”
“Your best! Exactly! Always looking out for yourself, never looking out for me!”
“I tried to look out for you as best I could.”
“Like hell you did!”
“I’d love to know if you’d have done it any differently, given the circumstances,” said Orianna. “I’m not sure you would.”
“Who cares, frankly, what I might have done. You were the one who got promoted. You were the one who fucked me over, OK?” Orianna sensed loathing emanating from Ivy’s every pore.
Orianna mulled it over for a few seconds. Ivy appears convinced she holds the moral high ground, she thought, but surely my misdemeanors are nothing compared to the games she’s played? Ivy’s behavior was malicious, evil; she set out to hurt people, cause harm right from the start. Whereas I was just trying to walk the tightrope between looking after my own interests and caring for others.
The more Orianna thought it through, the more unjust it seemed, and the more her anger grew. She faced Ivy square on. “I’m not as naïve as you think.”
“And what do you mean by that?”
“Oh, you’ll find out soon enough.” Orianna recalled the phone call she’d made earlier. “Put it like this: if you’d played less dirty yourself, there might have been the money at Green to hire someone on your level—a proper partner, to work with you full-time.”
Ivy said nothing.
“And if you’d been straight—honest, loyal—you might have a right to have a go at me.”
Further silence.
“But you weren’t.” Now Orianna was spitting too. “You’ve been playing it dirty for years, Ivy. Before I even started seeing Dan, let alone got promoted.”
Ivy paled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I believe you do. And if you’re in any doubt, it’ll become clear very soon. So, frankly, if you know what’s good for you, I wouldn’t show your face in Green again, not just for a while, but ever. And in the meantime, don’t you dare lecture me on betrayal.” She was at that point where anger and adrenaline had taken over and she felt articulate, clear-thinking, and totally impetuous. “You’ve betrayed Ed. You’ve betrayed Cassie. You’ve betrayed Dan. You’ve betrayed the agency and your colleagues. And you’ve betrayed me. You’re an adulterous, scheming, thieving, lying bitch.”
She raised her hand, and, with all the force she could muster, slapped Ivy across the face.
42. A word or two
Maybe it was fate or simply a fluke, but when Orianna stepped through her front door later that evening, the phone was ringing.
“Hello?”
“Orianna?”
“Dan!” She didn’t bother to conceal her delight. “How weird—I was just going to call you.”
“You were?” He sounded a little wary.
“Yes!”
“Oh.”
“We need to talk.”
“We do.” She heard him sigh. Was it relief? She wasn’t sure.
She’d better make herself clear. “I owe you an apology.”
“Why?”
“It’s a long story. Too long for the phone. Suffice to say, I found out a whole load of things this evening, about Ivy. Among them the fact that she lied to me about you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah—she hinted months ago you might be bisexual.”
“Really? And you believed her?”
“Not completely, no, I wasn’t sure. But then she told me you were seeing Cassie.”
“Ah. Ri-ight.” Yet he didn’t sound as shocked as she’d expected him to be.
“Did you know she’d done that?”
“Not exactly. Though I thought she was up to something.”
“Why didn’t you say?”
“I wasn’t sure, so I didn’t know what precisely to accuse her of. And when I tried to speak to you about her—”
“I didn’t listen,” said Orianna, flatly. “No, you’re right, I didn’t.” I wish I’d trusted him, she thought, instead of trusting Ivy. “And that’s why I need to apologize.”
“I see.”
“I’m sorry. I feel terrible about it. It’s my fault, in some ways. I should have been surer of you. Not jumped to conclusions.” After so much muddle and so many months, Orianna was desperate to clear everything up as fast as possible. “Listen, I appreciate it’s getting late, but, er, are you busy, now?”
Dan only hesitated for a split second. “No, I’m free.”
“Can I come over?”
“I’ll come to you,” he offered.
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure—that’s why I was calling, in fact.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I wanted to talk—I was worried you were looking for another job, leaving the country.”
“What on earth gave you that idea? Not Ivy, by any chance?”
“No, not Ivy. So you’re not?”
“No.”
“Ah, right. I must have got the wrong end of the stick.” He gave another sigh; this time she was certain it was relief. “Anyway.” Another momentary hesitation. “It would be nice to see you.”
“It would be nice to see you too.”
* * *
In all the months that he and Orianna had been dating, Dan had never
got from Camden to Holloway so fast. He checked himself in the mirror—yeah, he looked fine—grabbed his car keys and his wallet, and within less than two minutes was behind the wheel. He found a space right outside Orianna’s apartment.
It felt strange, going back after so many months apart. It was so familiar, yet different. When he’d last been there, the window box had been jaded, its geraniums blooming one last time. But now it was spring, the box was filled with daffodils.
“Hi,” said Orianna as she opened the door. She smiled.
She looks different, he thought. Her hair’s longer, but that’s not the only thing. She seems older, wiser somehow; it suits her.
“Hi.” He smiled back. I think it’s going to be all right, he thought.
“I believe I’ve got some explaining to do.”
“Me too.” But first, forget talking. He held out his arms.
Orianna stepped forward, and embraced him. “I’ve missed you,” she said.
To: Everyone
From: Orianna Bianchi
Date: Wednesday, March 24, 8:47
Subj: Changes
It may have escaped your notice that Ivy Fraser hasn’t been in the office for over a week. It’s my understanding that rumors are rife, and I wish to be straight with you all: Ivy will not be returning to Green. She was found guilty of serious professional misconduct, not to mention various other, more personal transgressions which make it no longer viable to continue her working relationship with the agency.
It has also come to my attention that a few of you saw our financial director, Russell North, leaving yesterday afternoon alongside two police officers. He too will not be returning to the agency in the foreseeable future.
Unfortunately we have discovered major fiscal irregularities over the last few weeks and these implicate certain employees at the deepest and most serious level. The matter is currently at the hands of the fraud squad and under investigation. I am asking you all to keep this confidential while they do so, and we will let you know the outcome of their findings when full details emerge.
Finally, and on a more positive note, without wishing to embroil you all in my private life, a number of you have recently noted the ring on my left hand. I am delighted to announce that yes, indeed, Dan Cohen and I did get engaged over the weekend.