by Sandie Jones
‘So, you’re telling me that he brought nothing to this marriage, nothing of any financial value?’
Alice shakes her head. ‘Not a penny, and yet now I’m told he’s entitled to half of everything I own.’
‘You’ve spoken to a solicitor?’ asks Beth in surprise.
‘Yes, earlier today,’ admits Alice. ‘I’ve asked for some advice on where I stand if we separate. Something’s not been right for a while, but seeing his reaction to you at Olivia’s party yesterday, I knew for definite. I guess you must have really surprised him.’
Beth smiles wryly. ‘He wouldn’t have been expecting me, that’s for sure.’
‘Now I know why you went out of your way to avoid him,’ says Alice. ‘I’d not thought about it before, but last night, I remembered all the times you could have bumped into each other, yet every time you’d somehow manipulated yourself out of it. You must have both felt like you were sitting on a timebomb, working out ways to avoid each other whenever I was around. But yesterday you made a conscious decision to do what you did. Why now, Beth?’
‘You don’t get it, do you?’ says Beth. ‘That day, when I saw you both outside my flat in Guildford, was also the last time I saw him – until yesterday.’
Alice feels winded. ‘What?’
‘He disappeared off the face of the earth and it was only a good few years later that I saw a picture in the paper, of you receiving a design award. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to recognize the woman in the car that day, but I knew it was you the minute I saw it. So I used you to track him down.’
That admission, more than anything else, cuts Alice the deepest.
‘Now I’m here to claim back what’s mine.’
‘You want money?’ asks Alice, her voice tight. ‘That’s what this is all about?’
‘I want what’s rightfully mine. What he stole from my family.’
‘And you’ve waited this long to get it?’
‘I needed to take my time, work out the best way to do it, pounce at the most opportune moment, just like he did with me. I had to be sure he had the money to give.’
‘So how are you going to go about getting it back?’
Beth looks down into her lap and wipes away the tear that is threatening to fall. ‘By blackmailing him.’
Alice lets out a derisory laugh. ‘With what?’
‘I had hoped that making him look like he was having an affair would do the trick. That by the time he found out it was me, he’d be so close to losing you that he’d do anything to make me stop.’
‘So, the texts . . .?’ starts Alice.
Beth nods. ‘And all the other things . . . the hotel bill, the earring, the flowers, the tyres . . .’
‘That was all you?’ asks Alice, disbelievingly. ‘But why? Why would you do that to us? To me?’
‘Because I hated you for having the life that I was supposed to be having. You had it all . . . the perfect job, the perfect children, supposedly the perfect husband . . . I just wanted you to hurt as much as I had been hurt. But I went too far. Olivia didn’t deserve to be brought into this.’
Alice cocks her head to one side as a new fire sparks within her. She’ll take whatever Beth throws at her, but not if she’s going to bring her children into it. They’re off limits.
‘Olivia?’ she questions.
Beth looks anywhere but at Alice. ‘I made a formal complaint to the school about her,’ she says quietly.
‘Oh my God!’ Alice exclaims.
‘I’m sorry,’ says Beth, barely audible.
Alice goes to get out of the car before Beth leans across and grapples with the door.
‘Please – wait,’ she says.
Alice leans her head back resignedly onto the headrest and closes her eyes.
‘So what is Nathan going to do now?’ she asks. ‘Now that he knows it’s you.’
‘He’s told me he’ll have the money ready by tomorrow.’
Alice laughs sarcastically. ‘We’ll have less money then than we’ve got now. Japan completes this afternoon.’
‘Are you still going ahead with that? After everything I’ve told you?’
‘Doing the Japan deal isn’t dependent on Nathan,’ says Alice, matter-of-factly. ‘It depends on me – whether I want to do it or not – and right now, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t. In fact, what you’ve said only makes me want to do it more.’
‘Is Nathan doing it with you?’ asks Beth.
‘Financially, you mean?’
Beth nods.
‘No, this is all on me – I’ve taken a loan out for it.’
‘Good,’ says Beth. ‘Don’t let him anywhere near it.’
‘And what are you going to do?’ asks Alice. ‘Now that I know everything. Now that you can no longer blackmail him.’
Beth turns to look at her imploringly. ‘Don’t tell him, Alice.’
‘What?’ she says, exasperated. ‘After everything you’ve done, you honestly expect me to do you a favour?’
‘Please,’ begs Beth.
‘What if everything you’ve told me is a lie?’ says Alice, looking directly at Beth for the first time. ‘What if you’ve made this all up? And even if you haven’t, why should I do anything you say? Look at what you’ve done to me, to my family. Right now, Nathan doesn’t look like he’s actually done anything wrong, at least not by me. So why would I show you loyalty over him?’
‘Because he pretended to be your dead husband,’ blurts out Beth, stopping Alice in her tracks. ‘Please – if for no other reason – do it for that.’
Alice feels a jolt. Tom.
‘So, Nathan told you that his name was Thomas Evans?’
Beth nods. ‘Born on twenty-first of May, 1976.’
‘So regardless, you’ve known for ages that your Thomas and my Tom were two entirely different people. Yet you still implied that he was one and the same person.’
‘Yes,’ whispers Beth.
‘So . . . so you never actually knew my Tom?’ Alice asks tentatively. ‘Your Thomas Evans was Nathan.’
Beth nods.
A rush of relief floods through Alice, reigniting every tiny flame that she’d bequeathed to Tom over the past ten years. ‘So Tom was the man I thought he was?’ she asks, with tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘He was never the man you made me think he was.’
‘No.’
Alice lambasts herself for ever believing otherwise. She knew her Tom hadn’t been capable of what Beth was accusing him of. She steels herself before asking the next question, unsure of the answer she wants to hear, unsure of what her best friend is truly capable of.
‘He’s on Facebook . . .’ she starts. ‘My Tom is on Facebook living a new life . . .’ She can’t bear to look at Beth, knowing that her expression will tell her all she needs to know.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Beth chokes. ‘I wanted you to think that he might still be out there. That he’d left you because he wanted to. Just like Nathan had left me.’
Alice closes her eyes tightly, willing her heart not to break all over again. ‘But the photos?’
‘Surprisingly easy,’ says Beth quietly. ‘They’re all on your phone, and how often have you left it on a pub table whilst you went to the bar, or given it to me to hold whilst you were in the toilet? The picture of the other woman and child was a random photo from the internet.’
‘God, you must really hate me,’ cries Alice.
‘I thought you were part of it,’ says Beth after a long pause. ‘I saw the house and the cars, and just assumed that it was my mother’s money that was paying for it all.’
Alice feels numb and wearily pulls on the door handle.
‘What are you going to do?’ asks Beth as Alice goes to step out. ‘Are you going to tell Nathan you know everything?’
She doesn’t even have the energy to reply.
44
Alice feels like there’s a tennis ball lodged in her throat, blocking her airways, as she makes her way up the stairs to the
office.
‘Whoa, I didn’t think you were going to make it back in time,’ says Nathan, moving in to kiss her. ‘Where were you?’
She stares at him, not knowing what she’s looking for, but there’s nothing to suggest he’s the man who’s defrauded her best friend and her mother. Nothing to explain why he’d used Tom’s name before he’d even met Alice. And nothing to suggest he knows he’s about to be rumbled. His calmness almost floors her. She moves past him without a word.
‘We’ve got fifteen minutes until we complete,’ says Nathan as he follows her into her office.
‘Great,’ she murmurs.
‘You okay?’ he asks. ‘You look tense.’
‘Nervous,’ she manages.
‘That’s not a bad thing,’ he says. ‘You wouldn’t be human if you weren’t.’
She smiles tightly.
‘Get the champagne on ice, Lottie,’ is the last thing she hears Nathan say as she closes her door behind him.
Her phone rings, displaying Liz’s number. She’d forgotten all about her.
‘Liz, hi.’
‘Hello Alice – have you got a minute? I just wanted to come back to you on this contract.’
‘Yep, sure. Anything I need to be worried about?’
‘Well, only that there’s a clause that I’ve just had checked out. I thought it might just have been a discrepancy caused by translating the contract from Japanese to English, but I checked with a colleague and it’s a pretty important one – I hope it’s not too late.’
‘No, but we’re close,’ says Alice. ‘Completion’s scheduled for about fifteen minutes’ time.’
‘Well, it looks to me as if there’s a covenant on the land.’
‘Yes, my lawyer in Japan mentioned something about that,’ says Alice. ‘He’d flagged it up to Nathan, who assured me that all was well.’
‘But it means that nothing more than a temporary structure can be built on the land you’re buying. A shed, car port, something along those lines, perhaps, but certainly not a permanent apartment complex.’
‘Well, that doesn’t make sense,’ says Alice tightly. ‘We’ve got planning for twenty-eight apartments.’
‘I can’t see how that can be the case,’ says Liz. ‘Because as I say, the land you’re buying is within the urbanization control area, and as such, no brick buildings are permitted.’
Alice feels as if the blood flowing around her body has reached a dead end. ‘But surely Nathan would have flagged that up to me,’ she says, rubbing at her forehead with the palm of her hand. ‘Why would he have let me go ahead with the purchase, if nothing can be built on it?’
‘I don’t know,’ says Liz tentatively.
Or maybe Nathan already knows there’s a problem, thinks Alice. ‘But why would he advise me to go ahead with it?’ she says aloud. ‘It’ll risk the business, our salaries, our home, all of it. It doesn’t make any sense.’
‘I’m only reporting what we’ve found,’ says Liz.
‘Who’s the vendor?’ asks Alice abruptly.
She hears Liz turning over papers at her end.
‘A company called Excelsior. I really think you need to get to the bottom of this before you agree to completion. It would be ill-advised to go ahead on what I’m seeing here.’
The name means nothing to Alice. ‘Okay, thanks for your help,’ she says, and puts the phone down. She starts typing an email to Mr Yahamoto, heading it up ‘Private & Confidential’.
Dear Mr Yahamoto,
It has come to my attention that there are one or two discrepancies in the contract for the purchase of Embassy Docks, Tokyo, that I would like you to comment on, ahead of completion.
Therefore, I would like to postpone completion until such time that I am confident that all is as it should be.
Please inform the vendor’s solicitors of this decision immediately and let them know that we will revert to them in due course.
I would like to remind you to exercise discretion in this matter, and remain aware that I am the sole purchaser and so should therefore be your only point of contact.
Yours sincerely,
Alice Davies
Alice grabs her handbag from her desk and heads out through the open-plan office. ‘I’ll be back in five minutes,’ she calls out, to no one in particular.
‘Hey, where are you going?’ says Nathan, frantically. ‘Alice!’
She races up the high street, and is out of breath by the time she arrives at the bank. On seeing her, the manager grabs a cup of water from the cooler and offers it to her.
‘Mrs Davies, are you okay?’
‘I need to stop the transaction,’ she says, breathlessly. ‘We’re not completing.’
Five minutes later she’s waiting in the manager’s office as he prints off confirmation that the transfer has been halted. If her fears are unfounded, then she may have just lost out on the deal of the century. A no-brainer, as Nathan would say. But if her instinct is right . . .
Beth’s words ring loudly in her ears. Don’t let him anywhere near it.
Her chest falls and rises heavily, every fibre in her body fighting against the growing possibility of Nathan being more corrupt and cruel than she could even begin to imagine.
Her phone rings and, seeing it’s Nathan, she hesitates, as if it’s going to stop him from saying what she thinks he’s going to say. Knowing that if he does, it means that everything Beth has said is true.
‘Jesus, Alice,’ barks Nathan down the line. ‘What the hell are you playing at?’
‘What’s up?’ she says, as calmly as she can, though even she can hear the quiver in her voice.
Don’t say it. Please don’t say it.
‘Why have you stalled completion?’ he says, and with those five words, Alice’s world comes crashing down around her.
She hangs up and with shaking hands calls Beth. ‘You won’t be getting any money back from Nathan,’ Alice says.
45
The deceit is crippling, like an unknown force rippling through her body, slowly shutting down her vital organs, one by one.
Beth drives the car in silence, the pair of them contemplating their next move whilst Alice’s phone rings off the hook.
‘How can you be so sure that Nathan’s the vendor?’ asks Beth eventually.
‘Because the vendor is the only other person who would have been told that completion’s delayed,’ she says.
‘And you were buying it for a million pounds?’ asks Beth incredulously. ‘How much do you think Nathan bought it for?’
‘It’s worthless!’ says Alice, as she bangs the dashboard with a closed fist. ‘He’d have got it for a song because nothing can be built on it. It’s no man’s land.’
‘Shit,’ says Beth. ‘He was going to do it all over again.’
Alice leans back on the headrest as a text from Matt pings through on her phone.
Good news! Looks like the payments to Visions are all kosher as they’re a subsidiary of Excelsior – the vendors on Japan! Will talk you through when you’re back in the office.
‘What do you want to do?’ asks Beth.
Alice counts to ten in her head, concentrating on taking slow deep breaths in and out. ‘I want to kill him, is what I want to do.’
‘Who was that disgusting man?’ asks Beth, sounding as if a lightbulb has gone on in her head that no one else can see. Alice waits for her to offer more.
‘That creep who owned Temple Homes. The one who assaulted you.’
Alice shakes her head, not knowing what he’s got to do with anything. ‘David,’ she says. ‘David Phillips.’
‘Where’s that site? The one he wanted you to work on.’
‘Bradbury Avenue,’ says Alice, a slight irritation to her. How was this solving the very big problem of Nathan?
Beth snatches a look at her watch. ‘Will it still be open?’
‘What, the site?’
Beth nods.
‘I don’t know. Why?’
‘Ca
ll David and find out if you can meet him there.’
Alice turns in her seat. ‘Why would I do that?’
‘Just ask him to meet you there now.’
‘Absolutely not,’ snaps Alice. ‘I never want to speak to him again.’
‘Just do it,’ says Beth, her eyes not leaving the road in front of her. ‘I’ve got an idea.’
‘And what do I do if he says yes?’
‘We’ll revert to Plan B.’
Alice begrudgingly looks up his number, unsure of whether she deleted it from her phone after their encounter. She almost hopes that she has.
When she sees it, she fights the urge to lie to Beth. ‘I don’t want him to think that what he did was okay,’ she says quietly, remembering his hands on her behind, his rough fingers kneading her breast.
‘Believe you me, he won’t get away with it,’ says Beth, ‘if you please just do as I say.’
‘Are you honestly asking me to trust you?’ says Alice, her voice high-pitched and laden with irony.
‘Yes,’ says Beth firmly, and for some reason Alice believes her.
‘David!’ she enthuses, superficially. ‘It’s Alice. How are you?’
‘Oh, Alice,’ he replies. ‘Well, this is a surprise. I thought after—’
‘It was a misunderstanding,’ she says. ‘And not something that should interfere with business.’
‘Well, I’m pleased you feel that way. I have to say, I was somewhat surprised by your overreaction.’
Alice bites her lip, desperately trying to stay calm.
‘Listen, I was wondering if I could take a look at the site after all? Just to get a clearer picture of your vision for the interior. That is, if you’d still like me to . . .’
‘Of course,’ he booms. ‘It’s still very much a building site, so we have to be careful, but I’ll gladly show you around. When are you free?’
‘I was thinking in maybe half an hour or so, around six, if that works for you?’
‘I’m afraid the site is closed for the day now,’ he says.
Alice looks to Beth who spins her finger, intimating for her to wrap the conversation up.