by S J Bolton
‘Not a problem as far as I’m concerned. Am, let me be clear, I’m not leaving Ella for Megan.’
He wasn’t, he realised. It didn’t matter what strange, twisted attraction she had for him, and maybe Amber was right to call it a charm or a spell. It made no difference. Xav loved his wife.
‘You don’t get it yet, do you?’ Amber hurried on. ‘She started looking at Pearl and Ruby as though she was going to eat one of them, and she said, “I’ll never have anything as precious as these two, will I?” and when I tried to think of something to say, she looked at me, all mean and cold, and she said, “So you’re going to have to give me one of yours.”’
For a moment, Xav wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.
‘What?’ he said, after seconds had gone by. ‘I mean, you’re not serious?’
‘Oh, she laughed about it, and made out she was joking, but she was perfectly serious. That’s my favour, Xav. I have to give her one of my children.’
36
At a little before eight on Friday morning, as his train was pulling into Paddington, Xav got a text from Felix on his burner phone.
Good news. Found it! Meet tonight at Tal’s old house. By the pool. 8.30 p.m. Don’t call, I can’t talk. See you later.
Found it. He had to mean the film and signed confession, the proof. Xav found Felix in his contacts and was on the point of pressing call when he remembered he’d been told not to. Amber then, she’d still be at home, getting the girls ready for whatever half-term activity was planned. He typed quickly.
Did you get the text?
A minute later, she replied.
A little while ago. Tal too. Sounds great. Best not to talk, though. See you later.
Xav put the phone away. Was that it then? Was it over?
The day passed maddeningly slowly and Xav’s train home was delayed. On top of that, traffic out of Oxford was worse than usual. The heavens had opened that afternoon and vast glistening puddles lay across the tarmac, slowing everyone down.
The rain was slackening by the time he reached Talitha’s old village. The huge electronic gates of her parents’ house were open and Xav pulled into the drive with a sense of foreboding. He hadn’t been back here in twenty years, not since that summer. Even Talitha rarely came here any more; she and her parents hadn’t got on for years.
It was nearly quarter to nine in the evening.
So, Megan had left the proof here after all. He’d been wracking his brains all day to work out how she’d done it because that last night he’d walked her to her car and watched her drive away. Somehow, though, she had, and Felix had worked it out. As he parked and switched off the engine, Xav was conscious of a sense, not of disappointment, exactly, more of missed opportunity. If anyone had been meant to get the better of Megan, it should have been him. Megan aside, he was the smartest.
He’d look after her though, even if the others weren’t prepared to play nice. She could have his share of the trust fund, he might even be able to find some more funds he could direct her way. He’d see her taken care of, as long as she dropped the psychological torture.
By the pool, Felix’s text had said, but the pool was in darkness, bouncing with a life of its own as the rain fell into it. There was a light on in the pool house though, and Xav thought he could see silhouettes beyond the window. He tapped on the door before pushing it open. Talitha appeared.
‘We were getting worried,’ she said. ‘Everyone’s here, even Amber.’
Shaking the rain off his hair, Xav followed Talitha inside. The pool house was smaller than Xav remembered and smelled of mildew and pool chemicals; the bamboo chairs had splintered with age and the cushions were stained. It felt wrong to be in here, like coming back to a place he’d spent his adult life trying to escape.
Felix was at the bar, no surprise there, and Daniel stood by the pool table, gripping one of the cues like a weapon. Amber sat on the edge of an easy chair, her hands clenched. She gave him a smile, though, one that made her seem, for a moment, like the old Amber.
Xav had no sense of having interrupted a discussion; Felix had waited for him before breaking the good news. No wonder the others were looking edgy.
‘Parents?’ Xav asked Talitha. The last thing they needed was an elderly Barnaby Slater QC barging in.
‘Palermo,’ she told him. ‘They like to go before it gets too hot. It’s only us here.’
‘Drink?’ Felix offered.
Xav shook his head. ‘I’m good.’ He crossed to Amber and sat down, but when he looked up, the others were all watching him. They all looked tense, even annoyed.
‘Sorry, guys,’ he said. ‘Trains, then traffic.’
The sound of the rain outside seemed to grow louder.
‘So?’ Talitha said. She was by the door, as though guarding the entrance, in spite of what she’d said about them being alone on the property.
Talitha was talking to him, not Felix. Four pairs of eyes were still fixed on him.
‘End the suspense, please,’ Talitha went on. ‘I mean, we all appreciate the discretion, but I’ve been beside myself all day.’
‘Where was it?’ Amber asked.
Felix pushed himself away from the bar. ‘Never mind where was it, are you sure you’ve got it,’ he said. ‘I mean a film could be anything, we know that already. We need to get it developed.’
Xav looked from one face to the next; still the same expression on all of them. ‘Guys,’ he said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
No one spoke.
‘Xav, this isn’t funny.’ Amber’s voice was unsteady. ‘Why would you do that?’
He’d missed something, something massive.
Daniel said, ‘Did she put you up to it?’
Xav pulled his phone from his pocket. Getting to his feet, he found Felix’s text and held it out as he strode to the bar.
‘This arrived early this morning,’ he said. ‘When I was on the train. What good news? What did you find? And what the fuck are you all talking about?’
With a trembling hand, Felix took the phone. A few seconds later, he handed it back. ‘I didn’t send this,’ he said.
They were messing with him. ‘What do you mean, you didn’t send it? It came from your phone, from your number.’
Talitha grabbed the phone from Xav and read the message. ‘Shit,’ she said.
‘What?’ Amber was on her feet now, even Dan had put the cue down.
Talitha held her own phone out towards Xav. He read the message on screen, a message from him:
Good news. Found it. Meet tonight at Tal’s old house. By the pool. 8.30 p.m. Don’t call, I can’t talk. See you later.
The same message he’d got from Felix, except this one he’d sent himself, apparently, to all four of the others.
‘We got it at six forty-five this morning,’ Talitha said. ‘You asked us to meet here.’
‘No,’ Xav shook his head. ‘No, I didn’t. I thought Felix did.’
‘How is that possible?’ Amber asked.
‘Megan,’ Dan said.
Amber turned on him. ‘Well, obviously Megan, but how did she do it?’
Felix had pulled himself upright. The tallest, he could see over their heads and his eyes were fixed on the window. Xav was conscious of the others turning around as he did. Outside, the pool lights had activated and, at the far end, a solitary figure stood on the tiles, looking down at the water.
Felix said, ‘I think we’re about to find out.’
37
Felix led the way outside. It may only have been Dutch courage, but of all of them, he seemed to have the most. Talitha and Daniel walked together, sharing nervous glances. Amber hung back and even took hold of Xav’s hand as they followed the other three.
‘She scares me,’ she whispered.
Megan scar
ed Xav too. She hadn’t dressed for the weather, and already her light summer dress was soaking wet. Her long hair clung to her skull and streamed down her back. She had a satchel-style bag, its strap crossed over her chest, as though it held something precious.
Felix led the group to the opposite edge of the rectangular pool.
‘Hi, guys.’ Megan looked up at the sky and water poured down her face. ‘Can you believe it? Raining on my parade.’
‘What do you want, Megan?’ Felix had taken his stance directly across the water. The others gathered behind him.
‘I thought we should end it here.’ Megan had to raise her voice to be heard above the rain. ‘Where it all began, by Tal’s pool.’
Amber squeezed Xav’s hand. ‘She does remember. I knew she did.’
Amber’s whisper shouldn’t have been heard over the rain, across the distance, but somehow it was.
‘Well, of course I remember,’ Megan yelled back. ‘You think I’d forget what you lot did to me? For a second? You could batter half my skull away and I’d remember that.’
Xav dropped Amber’s hand. ‘Meg, let’s go inside. We can’t talk out here.’
For a moment, he thought she’d refuse, that she’d carry on screaming until, storm or not, the neighbours called the police, but then she looked over their heads.
‘The pool house,’ she said. ‘OK. That’s where we hatched our vile little plan.’
Megan entered last and stood with her back to the door. Water fell off her body and pooled on the linoleum. Nobody switched on the lights.
Megan spoke first. ‘Just to get it out of the way, I let myself into your house first thing this morning, Xav, and used your phone to text the others. I kept a key from the night before. I’ll hang on to it, if you don’t mind. When I got to work, I used Felix’s phone when he was out of the office and, yes, you both need to change your passcodes now.’
Felix was leaning against the rear wall. He didn’t look frightened, like the rest of them. He looked furious. ‘I’ll ask again,’ he said. ‘What do you want?’
‘Felix don’t.’ Amber was huddled on the edge of the old sofa. ‘Don’t make things worse.’
Talitha, too, had taken a seat, directly opposite Megan. Daniel was standing behind her, his hands on the chair back. It was possible he meant to look protective; equally possible that he was hiding behind Tal.
‘Oh, I think things are about as bad as they can get.’ Felix hadn’t taken his eyes off the woman by the door. ‘What do you want, Megan?’
‘What do I want?’ she said. ‘I want to look you all in the face and say, you bunch of cowardly, miserable, treacherous shits!’
Xav had expected it, had said the same thing to himself over the years; even so, the force of Megan’s rage felt blistering.
Felix, who seemed to have become their spokesman, said, ‘OK, so now you’ve done it, what—’
Megan didn’t let Felix get any further. ‘Oh no, I’m not nearly done. I gave you my entire life. I gave up everything for you lot, and all I asked of you, in fact, the last thing I said to you, was don’t forget me.’
There was a tremor in Megan’s voice; to his shame, Xav found it giving him hope. Emotion was the opposite of strength.
‘We didn’t forget you, Meg, not for a second,’ Amber said.
Megan turned on her, making Amber cringe into her seat. ‘Oh really? Because not one of you phoned or wrote or came to visit me in twenty bloody years.’ She sneered at Dan, who had his eyes fixed on the back of Talitha’s head. ‘You, you snivelling piece of shit – you were less than a mile away for four years and you didn’t come. And now, finally, when I’m out, you treat me like a pariah, some sort of wannabe mate from the old days trying to hang out with the rich, cool kids.’
‘Nobody asked you to do what you did,’ Felix too had raised his voice. ‘You volunteered.’
Megan gasped, and Felix seemed to think he had her on the run. He even took an aggressive step towards her. ‘You failed your A levels, or as good as. You crashed and burned, Megan, so don’t whine at us about missing out on your fabulous future. You didn’t have one.’
‘I could have re-sat, you miserable git,’ Megan yelled back. ‘I would have lost a year, at most. Instead, I lost twenty.’ She pointed her finger at Talitha. ‘You, you were supposed to represent me, you promised you’d get your sleazebag of a dad to act for me and what did he do instead? He’s been representing Michael Robinson for twenty years. And you didn’t even leave it at that, did you? Did you think I wouldn’t wonder why everything went so badly for me inside? Why I was constantly being picked on and abused and set up? I knew someone big was on my case and it could only have been you and that bunch of criminals you call your family.’
Talitha opened her mouth; nothing came out.
‘Why did you tell us you couldn’t remember anything?’ Daniel asked, in a voice that managed to sound aggrieved.
‘Because I wanted to see what you’d all do,’ Megan told him. ‘I wanted to give you a chance to behave well, to do the right thing, even if you didn’t have to.’
Xav gave a deep sigh. He should have known; it had been a test. They’d all failed.
‘Meg, it’s not as bad as you think, I promise you,’ Amber was in tears now. ‘We set up a trust fund, years ago. We’ve all been paying into it. It’s a lot of money.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I know all about the trust fund.’ Megan gave a dismissive glance at Felix. ‘Your IT security wouldn’t keep a nursery safe. I found it my first week and I used your passwords to get into it.’
‘You can have it, all of it,’ Felix said. ‘We can transfer it to you tomorrow.’
Megan lowered her head to lift the bag strap over it. ‘I’ve already got it, you moron. I helped myself to Xav’s laptop first thing this morning, and I put it all into my account. So, thanks, guys – it’s a start.’
Xav wondered if he was going to be sick. What else had she done? And what did she have in that bag she was unbuckling?
‘So, what do you want?’ Felix repeated.
The effort of loosening the bag seemed to tire Megan. She leaned back against the door, her eyes half closed, and took several quick breaths. Xav was reminded that she was, supposedly, very ill.
‘First of all, forget looking for the proof,’ she said, when she appeared recovered. ‘You’ll never find it. Oh, that reminds me, who broke into the water tower the other night?’ She looked from one face to the next. ‘Amber and Dan wouldn’t have the nerve. Felix wouldn’t be sober enough to tackle that ladder. Tal, maybe. No, my money’s on you, Xav. You’d have been closest on my tail.’
She held eye contact with him, and he knew she was thinking about what else he’d done that night.
‘Enough.’ Felix held both hands into the air, the way a schoolteacher calls for silence. ‘Tell us what you want, Megan, or don’t. Either way, I’m not listening to any more crap.’
‘Shut the fuck up, Felix, and open this.’ From the satchel, Megan pulled a large brown envelope and held it out to him. For a moment, Xav thought it might be the proof they’d been looking for, that Megan was simply going to hand it over, but Felix’s face as he pulled out a typed document, several pages long, told him that was impossible.
‘What is this bollocks?’ Felix held it back towards Megan. She didn’t take it.
‘A legal document making me a full partner in your company. You’ll need to get your lawyers to look over it. Maybe Tal will do the honours. I’ve changed my mind about having her act for me – you’re welcome to her.’
Xav had never, before, seen a look of such fury on his old friend’s face. For a second, and another, he thought Felix would rush at Megan. Getting a hold of himself, Felix said, ‘You think I’m giving you half my company?’
‘Fifty-one per cent.’ Megan gave him a tight smile. ‘I’ll be managing partner because that wa
y, we’ve a chance of saving it. I give it less than two years with you at the helm, Felix. Your drinking is out of control and your cash flow is at crisis point. I’ll let you give Sarah the good news – she really doesn’t seem to like me. Although to be honest, I’m not sure she’s going to be married to you for much longer.’
Megan was done with Felix. Leaving him pale with shock, she turned from him as though he’d ceased to exist and pulled another envelope from her bag. Xav’s stomach clenched as she turned to him.
‘On the subject of marital discord,’ she said, ‘here are your divorce papers. You need to sign and serve them. Don’t take too long.’
Xav took a deep breath. At least his favour wasn’t a surprise. ‘I’m not divorcing my wife. Megan,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry about what you’ve been through and you’re right to be angry, but I’m not doing it.’
He was conscious of nervous looks shooting between the others as Megan came towards him. He could smell the rain on her hair and a faint note of Coco Chanel. She came close enough that she had to tilt her head to make eye contact. ‘Then, sometime in the next few days, you will wake up in the middle of the night to find me sitting on the end of your bed,’ she almost whispered to him. ‘I will tell your wife everything you did. Then she’ll be the one serving divorce papers.’
The relief, as she turned from him to focus her attention elsewhere, made Xav want to sit down. He forced himself to stay upright. Daniel was next, and he too received a brown envelope.
‘Medical forms,’ Megan said to the white-faced man in front of her. ‘I need them completed by the end of the week and sent to the address in the top right-hand corner. You’ll have to go through a psychological assessment and I expect you to pass it. The favour is only considered redeemed when I have a fully functioning kidney in my body.’