I dialled the number and took a deep breath.
A sing-song voice answered straight away. ‘Cordelia Dickens PR.’
‘Cordelia Dickens please,’ I snapped, in my most scary, curt voice.
‘Who shall I say is calling?’
‘Holly Miller.’ Within seconds, Cordelia’s voice came on the line. It sent a shiver down my spine.
‘I didn’t expect to hear from you,’ she said, with a sinister tone.
‘I’m sure you didn’t. Cordelia you did your best, it didn’t work. One story in the Daily News, one tiny mention in a column, it’s not your best ever is it?’ I tried to sound threatening, but my resolve was leaving me fast.
‘Oh Holly, I know that you work for Francesca Williams and her firm is only a tiny little tadpole in the pond of PR, but I thought you would know better.’
‘I do know better, and if my company is a tadpole, then yours is pond scum.’ I was feeling quite pumped up by the argument. It was definitely therapeutic.
‘Is there any point to this conversation?’ Cordelia was as cunning as a hungry fox.
‘I just want to be left alone.’
‘Then marry George. He’s a good-looking man with a great career. If he wasn’t a client then I’d be jumping him.’
‘That would solve all my problems.’
‘I know, which is why I’m not going to. Apart from the fact he is totally in love with you anyway, so there is no way he’d even look at another woman.’
‘Bullshit.’
‘I’m really busy, Holly, but I can tell you one thing. This isn’t over, not by a long shot.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Just what I say. You haven’t heard the last of this and your silly little attempt to threaten me has just made me more determined.’
‘Why? Why this?’
‘I heard about George and saw an opportunity. For both of us.’ She sounded so mercenary.
‘You can’t be making too much money from him.’ It was a last attempt. My bravado had completely dissolved.
‘Oh, I get a percentage of the money he gets for his story, so at the moment he’s not making me rich.’
‘So it wouldn’t hurt you to drop it.’
‘I can’t do that, you haven’t heard the last of this. You better get comfortable Holly, because it’s going to be a long ride.’ She laughed then, a Cruella de Ville laugh.
‘Why do I get the feeling this is personal?’
‘Because it is. Actually I didn’t know anything about you before I started working for George, but now I do there’s a little bonus there for me.’
‘What?’ I felt hot, then cold. I certainly felt confused.
‘Ask Francesca,’ she replied, before slamming down the phone. What did she mean by that?
I came off the phone fuming. But then I calmed down and panicked. I checked my e-mail and saw that there was one from Freddie and one from Francesca. Shit, they would kill me when they knew what I’d done.
Freddie sent me a ton of work to do with the message: ‘You’re bloody welcome to it.’ Francesca said that I should come into the office if I felt like it. I mailed back saying I would go in the following morning. I decided not to tell them about my phone call until then. Although they couldn’t kill me over the phone, if I cried in person they might forgive me for ruining everything.
Because I thought I had. By having a bitchy conversation with Cordelia I had just managed to make her more determined than ever. There was only one possible option left to me. Perhaps I could call George and persuade him that Cordelia was only acting in her own best interest. Could I do that? Should I? I decided to wait until I was in the office and take advice. I couldn’t rely on my own bright ideas.
I went to my bedroom and picked up the letter I had written to Joe. It was from the heart so there was no way that could be wrong. I went to the post office and mailed it to him. I kissed the back of the envelope and hoped that it would bring me some luck.
My parents arrived back shortly after me. I explained about going to work, and they looked concerned, but I managed to put their minds at rest.
‘It’s lovely having you to stay, but I don’t need anyone here,’ I said. ‘After all nothing has really happened.’
‘We’ll be here just in case. It’s a scary time for you with the pregnancy and everything. I’d rather you weren’t alone.’
‘OK.’ There seemed little point in arguing. Actually I didn’t want to be alone; I never minded being alone but since Joe and I had split, I hated it.
I spent the rest of the day, making a dent in some of the work I’d been sent. I felt like I was fifteen again and doing my homework. Especially as my parents hovered around me offering to help. As if they could help.
*
As I took the tube into the office I was excited—for five seconds. Until I remembered what a nightmare journey it was. As I snuggled up to a man with a very scratchy suit, and tried not to scream as someone stood on my toe, I considered telling someone I was pregnant to see if that would get me a seat, but then it was a secret and tubes had ears. Actually they didn’t, but I was paranoid. If Cordelia got hold of it, then she would make my life hell. I was wearing a shift dress which was quite loose on me in the old days, but had become tighter. I wasn’t exactly showing but my stomach was definitely rounder. My mother said you couldn’t tell that I was pregnant just to look at me, which made me feel better, because I felt huge.
I marched into the office feeling almost normal again, until I saw the look on Freddie’s face.
‘Did you get the papers today?’ he asked. I shook my head. It was only nine thirty and the office was still quite empty. ‘Boardroom,’ he said as he took my hand and led me there. Every tabloid was spread out on the table. They were all open at a certain page. The headlines screamed at me. The photos sneered at me. Cordelia had managed to carry out her threat. I was the subject of four national newspapers that day:
BETRAYAL: THE MARRIAGE THAT NEVER WAS
FROM BROKEN PROMISES TO BROKEN HEARTS
THE MARRIAGE-PACT MAN AND THE SCARLET WOMAN
THE HEARTLESS WOMAN AND THE HEARTBROKEN MAN
I was in shock. There was no way I could comprehend what I’d read. I looked at Freddie with tears in my eyes.
‘I’ll get you a coffee, sit down and read them.’
‘I don’t drink coffee any more, only fucking herbal tea,’ I spat through clenched teeth.
The thing about the stories, I gleaned, once I’d been able to regain control and read them without my tears blinding me, was that they were consistently inaccurate. Actually they weren’t all lies, but mostly. Because, surprise, surprise, the thing that they’d done was to spice up the story. Cordelia, spurred on by my stupid phone call, had reshaped the facts to sound more tabloid. The ‘sex sells’ principle had been employed. And it had worked.
I was a nymphomaniac who had had a very long sexual relationship with George in my youth. As well as having sex with everyone else. I manipulated him totally from the beginning, and told him that although I loved him, I needed to try other models out. Then, when he felt vulnerable about our relationship I signed the marriage pact, promising that it would come true because I loved him. Of course that pact was all that kept him going. Then he moved to New York and I told him that I would join him just as soon as I’d sorted my career out, and he’d believed me. I kept him going with phone-sex for years until he could bear it no more and came back to claim me. (Note: I have never had phone-sex with anyone. I find the idea a bit embarrassing to be honest.)
He did that and I jumped into bed with him immediately and told him that I would marry him, but that I had to dump the bloke I was seeing at the moment, viz. Joe. He went back to New York, believing me but when nothing happened he came back again, and started the legal proceedings.
Freddie came back with my herbal tea.
‘So, what do you think?’ he asked, flinching slightly as if I was going to hit him.
‘I’m
not about to shoot the messenger,’ I replied. ‘It’s all lies, bloody lies. I can’t believe it.’
Francesca walked in as I was sobbing into Freddie’s black top, and she read all the papers before she spoke.
‘Can we sue?’ she asked.
‘How can we prove it? They haven’t said anything that’s quantifiable. How can I prove that I only had sex with him once? How can I prove that I’m not the total slut that he has made me out to be?’
‘You’re right. She’s a clever bitch.’
‘Cordelia?’ Freddie asked.
It was as good a time as any to tell them. ‘It’s all my fault.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I called her yesterday and told her that it hadn’t worked and that she’d be best to leave me alone.’
Both Francesca and Freddie paled. ‘Shit.’ They voiced in unison.
‘I know, she got really mad and said that I should ask you about it.’ I pointed at Francesca, I was lacking the energy to even address her properly. She sat down beside me.
‘I would have supported you anyway. You see, Cordelia used to be a friend. We both started in PR together and we both worked for respectable firms. But somewhere along the way she discovered the celebrity, or minor celebrity arena and decided that she wanted to concentrate on that. Mainly, I think, because the people she represented were so desperate for fame that they would do what she told them. Not a brain to call their own, most of them. She wanted me to work with her and she didn’t like it when I refused and opened up my own company.’
‘Sounds like a pretty ridiculous grudge to me,’ I said, thinking it sounded like something from a Jackie Collins’ novel. But then, Cordelia sounded like someone who wanted to be in a Jackie Collins’ novel, so it almost made sense.
‘And I slept with her husband.’ Francesca coloured.
‘You what?’
‘Well, he was quite a dish and she was getting on my nerves, pestering me all the time to go into business with her, then threatening to ruin me if I didn’t. It was only the once, but she divorced him because of me.’
I laughed, really, really loudly. Freddie and Francesca looked scared, as if I had jumped over the edge.
‘It’s all about sex. I slept with George. You slept with Cordelia’s husband. Christ, we’re in this mess because of sex. Sex with George was all right, it was functional but it hit the right spots. I mean there were no emotions involved, like with Joe but technically it was fine.’
‘Graham—Cordelia’s husband—was the same.’
‘Fucking hell, can you two hear yourselves,’ Freddie said. ‘We’re in the middle of a crisis and you’re comparing notes on the two men who put you here. Can we have some decorum.’ Freddie was visibly upset. I looked at Francesca and we both burst out laughing once more.
Cordelia found, or was led to George, and as she said she would have worked for him anyway, but with the added bonus of getting her revenge on Francesca, she was a little more determined in her quest. It all fell into place.
The office was in full flow, and I noticed that my staff were working as if everything was normal. I went to talk to them.
‘Are you all right?’ I heard a few times. Some were embarrassed at first but I think I managed to convince everyone that I missed them and that I was still sane.
‘How’s the bun?’ Dixie asked.
‘Making me fat,’ I responded.
‘You look well.’
‘Thanks Dix, but I feel like shit.’
After I re-established my staff relations, I went back to the boardroom where my two allies were discussing the war.
‘I’m going to get Sarah to draft a press release saying it’s all lies.’
‘OK.’
‘Then we’ll send it out. But Holly, my instinct is that we should ride the storm. I think that anything else would be a bad move. All we need to do now is to make sure that you keep a low profile and that you keep your pregnancy hidden, if you know what I mean.’ Francesca was now solemn.
‘I’ve got a hospital appointment later this week, but if I take my mum and we get a cab then that should be all right.’
‘Some photographers might start following you, although I can’t imagine they will,’ Freddie warned.
‘I should go home now, shouldn’t I?’ I asked.
‘Yes, and Holly...’
‘Um?’
‘Don’t have any more bright ideas. Check them with me first.’
‘Right boss. I was going to ask if you thought I should call George.’
‘Do you think that you can get through to him? Better than Cordelia?’ Freddie asked.
‘I might. I thought that maybe if I told him how hurt I am by the press coverage, I might be able to appeal to his better nature.’
‘OK, but let’s draft what you’re going to say, then you can call him from the office while we’re there.’ I had the feeling that they already knew it would go horribly wrong, but were humouring me. At least if it did go wrong, this time they’d be there to catch me when I fell.
I paced Francesca’s office as Freddie went to instruct Sarah on the press release. I could see that everyone in the office was giving me sympathetic glances. I smiled. They must think that I am on my way out, but they still seemed to care.
Francesca drafted what I would say to George; we all knew how good he was at twisting my words. However, I was taking him by surprise, which was a very sound war tactic.
Francesca dialled the number and handed the phone to me. I hoped it wasn’t his answerphone. It wasn’t.
‘George Conway.’ The voice was even more arrogant than last time.
‘George, it’s Holly.’ Pause to let that information sink in.
‘Holly, what a surprise. I’m not sure I should be talking to you.’ I had anticipated that, or Francesca had.
‘I know you probably think I should go through Cordelia, and I tried that, but George we share a lot of good history.’
‘True.’
‘Have you seen the papers today?’
‘I have.’
‘And are you happy about it? The fact that I have been having sex with you all our lives practically. That I used and abused you but promised to marry you. George, it’s all lies.’
‘That’s one way of looking at it.’
‘And the other is?’ I raised my eyebrows at Francesca and shook my head.
‘That I have to do whatever it takes to get you to realise that your rightful place is by my side.’
‘George has it not occurred to you that by telling these lies about me it’ll just make me hate you?’
‘Yes, but you won’t hate me forever. Believe me this is totally necessary.’ Again, Francesca had anticipated this response.
‘I could sue you for defamation.’
‘I’m a lawyer Holly, I know what you can and can’t do. Sue me if you want but you won’t win. In the end you’ll realise that I love you and you love me. If it takes a bit of disruption in your life then I’m sorry but you could always just admit to how you feel.’
‘George, I feel like my best friend is stabbing me in the heart. I feel like the one person who would never hurt me has hurt me. I feel as if there is no way I will ever be able to love you, not in the way you want me to. This crusade of yours is fruitless, and it’s hurting me. Surely you don’t want to hurt me.’
‘Of course not, but if it’s necessary...Holly please, just agree to marry me and we can put all this behind us.’
‘I can’t do that.’
‘Then I have to go.’ He hung up.
Francesca looked at me.
‘The problem is that he absolutely believes he is doing the right thing. I can’t understand it, but he does.’ I put my face in my hands in total despair, and Francesca, at a loss of what else to do, held me.
Chapter Twenty-four
Human Interest
I put down the phone and felt wretched. Why couldn’t she understand that I didn’t want to hurt her? That hurting her w
as tearing me apart. It had been hard ever since I had agreed to work with Cordelia. Sometimes, like now, I questioned my actions. I just wanted to issue a nationwide appeal to Holly, so she could realise her life was with me. That was all.
At first I thought Cordelia had been wrong. The story hardly set the world alight, and it seemed poised to die before it even got anywhere. I began to think that my quest was fruitless. Then Cordelia suggested that we spice up the details. It had all the makings of a great human interest story, but it needed a bit more of a kick to it. That was what she said. I know about the law and she knows about the media. We worked together.
When I was with Cordelia I felt relaxed. She was reassuring, she was patient, and she listened. All I wanted was to marry Holly and I knew, knew without a shadow of a doubt that that was what should happen. My family weren’t speaking to me, Holly wasn’t speaking to me, but I would prove them all wrong because they were all wrong. I was right. If I had to use dirty tricks to get Holly, so be it, because the main purpose of the story, unknown to Cordelia, was to split up Holly and Joe. Once he was off the scene then there would be no one standing in my way.
Cordelia was impressed by my suggestions and, as I knew they were legally sound, we went ahead. I was amazed how quickly the story broke. I’d spoken to her in the afternoon and by morning we were in the papers. Cordelia was pushing me but that wasn’t it. I was pushing myself just as much. I knew that this was perhaps my big chance and I wasn’t going to blow it.
At first I was nervous about talking to journalists but by the fourth interview I did that day, I got used to it. And the photographs. I have never been that keen on having my photo taken but when you have a professional photographer and they are telling you how great you are, then you begin to believe it. I began to understand how Holly’s old flatmate, Lisa, got so vain. She was a model and had people pandering to her all the time. Holly and I used to take the mickey out of her something rotten. I wondered if she still did. So, I had five photographs taken, four interviews with national dailies, and one interview with a weekly gossip magazine. I was beginning to feel like a bit of a celebrity. I smiled to myself that we’d come so far, so quickly, and I knew there was only one person I had to thank for that. I vowed, as I set off to meet with her in her office that I would tell her so.
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