Unbind (Sub Rosa Series Book 1)

by Lynch, Sarah Michelle

  “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 thr
ough 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.”

  I hung up on her and told the cabbie to take me to a different address instead.

  My therapist.

  “LOOK, Dr. Theo said I could speak with him if I really needed to. I know he probably didn’t mean face to face, or without an appointment, or like this with me in such a state… but I am in such a state for a reason and I need to speak with him.”

  “Ma’am, ma’am. Stop. Please. He’s with a patient. I told you. We have to wait. I’ll ask if he has five minutes when he’s freed up, okay?” she said slowly so that I nodded along like a good girl in response.

  “Fine.”

  I waited and I waited. I looked at that ring and cursed it. Was it a fake? Was I seeing what I wanted to see?

  Eventually, a patient left Dr. Theo’s room and the receptionist let me see him for five minutes.

  “What’s wrong, Chloe? Why are you so agitated?”

  “I, oh, I… I wrote that article, you remember?”

  “Yes,” he nodded, his grey eyebrows meeting in the middle with a frown.

  “Today everybody found out it was me. And not in a good way.”

  “Oh?” He smoothed his frown.

  “Yes. One of the shots leaked. My breast was shown. Jennifer Matthews threw me out of the building.”

  “Oh?” His tone menacing.

  “What? Why are you looking at me like that?” I quizzed him.

  “Jennifer Matthews is a dear friend and that doesn’t sound like her whatsoever. She’s done all sorts of charitable work for mental illness… visits the people in her spare time, you know? As part of her care in the community. You know Claudia, her sister, she suffered mental illness.”

  “I thought she had dissociative identity disorder? That’s what I heard.” Let’s see what he knows…

  “Why yes, but she was cured after many years of treatment. Pity she was double-diagnosed and never defeated her addiction.”

  “How do you know that?” I quirked a brow.

  “The notes I received on her medical history when I was asked to assess Cai, of course. This is confidential usually, how ever rudimentary, but she passed on didn’t she so I suppose it can’t hurt for you to know. You see some issues are hereditary… or inadvertently passed down. Besides… Cai isn’t afflicted by what she had.”

  “What does he have?” I glowered.

  Dr. Theo looked at me seriously and I realised… patient confidentiality. Fuck!

  Suddenly I didn’t know why I’d even bothered visiting the doctor. Stupid move. I stood and explained, “I’ll see you for our next session. I’m sure it can wait.”

  “Take care, Chloe.”

  When I got outside, I saw nobody in the hallway. It was late in the day by then and his next patient rushed past me and straight into his surgery.

  I passed a room labelled Archive and couldn’t stop myself. I made a split-second decision. I’d done this before in my other job, poring over files when a copper or a fellow journo wasn’t looking. This was a new low.

  I got to the M’s and found Cai’s file. It was thick.

  I rummaged through so quick because I knew I didn’t have much time. I saw the same words over and over again. Sociopathic tendencies. Anger. Womanising. Hatred. Inability to relate. Compulsive liar. Therapy ongoing. Indefinitely.

  The files fell out of my hand as I struggled to make sense of this and that’s when I got caught red-handed. I flew out of there, charging past the receptionist and down the stairs, back outside into the cool air. I screamed for a cab and got inside.

  On the backseat I was shaking so hard. I asked to be taken to Battery Park, where I should have gone in the first place. I needed some space to think.

  Chapter 60

  I STILL DON’T know how long I wandered by myself before Cai found me. It was dark anyway and he looked terrified to discover me sat on the grass against a tree, huddled, clearly not myself. Why was this happening to me? Who was this man? He said words I didn’t hear. I was numb to the core. How could this be? I just didn’t know. I didn’t want to know.

  “I’ve been searching for hours damn it! You frightened me! You didn’t answer your phone. Please. Chloe. I am so sorry. Talk to me. Tell me something. Anything. Speak to me.”

  He held me in his arms but I couldn’t say anything. Until I said…

  “Agnes.”

  “I know. Oh, I know. I heard. I am so sorry, darling. I am so sorry.” He kissed my hair and held me tighter and I burst into tears.

  “My ring… she said it was fake! Why did she say that to me?”

  “Oh, god!” he cried loudly. “Damn it, because it is. Because it’s fake, alright?”

  “Oh, no.” I cried into my hands, moving back away from him. “Lies. Where do they end?”

  “I couldn’t afford the one you wanted. I’m so sorry.” He looked ashamed, looking down at the floor.

  “I would’ve understood. What I don’t understand is that you lied to me! I don’t need your lies, Cai. I don’t even need a ring. I just want you, not pieces of you, either. All of you.”

  He held his forehead. “Oh god, I know. I can’t say enough times how sorry I am.” His face was wracked with pain, fear and hurt. “I’m working on getting you the ring… I was just gonna swap them without you knowing, when I could afford it. I swear. I know that makes no difference but I just wanted to make you happy and I didn’t do this to hurt you.”

  “You don’t own Sub Rosa… you don’t own anything at all, do you? She bought your apartment and the gallery and the Chelsea pad?”

  He dropped to his knees in the middle of grass and held his head. “I own the gallery, okay? I didn’t lie about that. Someone bequeathed it to me. I don’t know who. I had to pay for all those damn renovations and that show nearly fucking bankrupted me. Don’t you think I’d buy you rubies and pearls if I had any damn money?”

  I had been the one to pay for Vegas on the credit card… it all made sense. I’d done it without even thinking to ask him for his half.

  I kicked the grass and almost kicked him. “Listen to me, damn it. I don’t want any of that shit. I thought we got that clear from the start, yeah? What I want is a lover and a man, just a man. Skin and bones and hands and arms to hold me. Not a liar, or a cheat. A womaniser. A scoundrel. A liar… a goddamned liar!” I screamed.

  “W-what… what?”

  “You. I said, you. A liar. A s
coundrel.”

  “I’ve been with two women, Chloe. I didn’t even love Jackie. I’m not a womaniser, okay? I swear on my life… I only ever loved you.” His voice was shallow, an echo of his usual self, and he started crying there on the ground, in the middle of that deserted park.

  “Listen, I went to the therapist today unannounced because I was out of my bloody mind and I stole a look at your file, okay? It said you’re a sociopath and you don’t know how to relate, you’re always angry and you womanise and all this stuff… all this stuff… what am I to believe? Seriously?”

  He punched the air and growled. “Sit down here with me, damn it, woman. Listen.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Now,” he gestured, the look in his eye non-negotiable and pointed. “I had sociopathic tendencies, okay? I am not a sociopath. I still visit the shrink every week and I just tell them what they want to hear… that I know I’m a fuck-up. Don’t you think she has her claws in that damn fraud? Huh?”

  “So why the fuck did you send me to him?”

  “’Cause I knew you’d go snooping that’s why and now you know, okay? Now you know what kind of noose she has round my neck. She has everyone under her spell. They all think she’s Miss Perfect. Well, she isn’t.”

  We were both breathing hard, talking fast, dealing with all our emotions.

  “He said she overcame the DID but never the addiction.”

  “Fucking quacks. She is cleverer than all of them put together.”

  I cursed loudly, grunting. “What does she want? What does this all boil down to? Really? Why stop your inheritance? What is this really all about, Cai?”

  “She doesn’t want me to be free… to have the money… I don’t know!”

  “You never slept with any other women? The time is now… if you want to tell me anything else, the time is now.”

  He breathed out a long breath. “I couldn’t get hard half the time, Chlo. I couldn’t do it. I was pictured with all those dames dangling off my arms but I couldn’t… I felt like nothing, in here,” he beat his chest like King Kong, “she made me feel about an inch big. I wanted to but I couldn’t. I really tried to piss her off with all those women but she must have known I couldn’t get it up. Rumour spreads and all… half the reason why people kept saying I was gay.”