Shimmers of Pearl (The Pearl Trilogy, Part 3) (18 page)

“Yours and Alex’s, of course.”

“We’re in love, Laura.”
Ooh, that felt good, too.

“His dick has obviously got the better of him. But that’s by the by. I’m not a home wrecker, whatever you may think of me. How far gone are you?”

“Three months,” I lie. “It’s all happening, Laura. The doctors are delighted with the scans. I’m carrying a very healthy fetus – no chance of miscarriage now.” I hope I haven’t jinxed my pregnancy by saying that. I wince at my words.

She puffs, “I see. Well, that will change the course of events somewhat.”

Somewhat?

“Look Pearl. I’m willing to do a deal. You can keep Alexandre and your baby. But I
also
want a baby. You know, James couldn’t have children and before that…well, I was in a bloody wheelchair, thank you very much. Having a child has been a dream of mine and I want that dream to come true at any cost. Do you understand, Pearl? I am
not
giving up on my dream. We can do IVF. Alex won’t even have to have sex with me. Just his sperm, that’s all I want.”

This woman is a real nut-job. If this were a movie, I’d be laughing by this point. “Why don’t you go to a sperm bank, Laura?”

“Ugh, that’s disgusting. Some smelly old sperm from someone I don’t know?”

“Don’t you have a handsome gay friend who could help you out?”

“I’m not a fag-hag. I don’t go round with poofs, and besides, d’you think I want my baby to have homo genes in his DNA?”

“Well, what about a one-night stand with some gorgeous guy?” I suggest.

“I want brains as well as beauty. I want it
all
for my baby.”

I propose an idea which I’m sure she’ll shut down. I go ahead and suggest it anyway, “There are lots of clever, handsome men. You can afford it – advertise – you could even do it on eBay. I’m sure Alexandre would pay for any costs involved. Or I can help out.”

“You think I’d degrade myself like that, Pearl? Purr…lease.”

“There must be a better way, Laura - a way that doesn’t involve Alexandre doing something against his will.”

“Pearl, I think you’ve forgotten something key here. I hold the cards. I have the power. I want Alexandre’s sperm in that little test tube - and nobody else’s - and if I don’t get it I might just be inclined to make a very big scene!”

“Don’t do that, Laura! You’ll break his heart if you…you know….say anything.”

“What about
me?
What about my bloody broken heart! I look at myself in the mirror and I see a fuck-off, babelicious blonde looking bloody good for her age – then I see you with your big forty year-old arse and wonder…what the fuck does he see in her?”

Big ass?
I have to tread carefully here. I mustn’t let this woman get to me. I force myself to remain calm and take another deep breath.
Breath in, breath out.
“We’re both into dogs, Laura…things like that. We have a connection. A bond.”

“Look, Pearl, I think I’m being bloody magnanimous as it is - I’m letting you keep Alexandre. All I’m asking for is his bloody semen!”

I’m speechless – I can’t think of how to reply.

She carries on in her posh drawl, “You talk to him. Tell him that if he doesn’t agree – in writing by the way – to come to the clinic with me, then I’ll be perfectly happy to spill the beans about ‘you know who’, and what that ‘you know who’ did.”

“Where is the ‘you know what,’ Laura?”

“The ‘you know what’ is in a safety deposit box in a fuck-off vault in one of London’s most protected banks, so don’t even think about fucking with me.”

I try to sound composed. “I’m sure you wouldn’t do anything rash, Laura.”

“I always hated that silly cow anyway. To be honest, she’s got it coming to her. What kind of a person would do what she did? Not the topping off part but abandoning her children.”

I hate to say it, but Laura does have a point. I have never met Alexandre’s mother but she doesn’t sound like the most stable of people. Nor, the most loyal.

But I say, “We mustn’t judge her. And whatever
we
might think, Alexandre loves her.”

“Anyway, you need to have a chat with him and let him know where I stand. I’m thirty-three years old and I want that baby A.S.A.P. I’ve already started the hormone therapy and I want that French fuck’s sperm in that test tube within the next few weeks.”

“Laura, if you think he’s a ‘French fuck’ why do you want his baby in the first place?”

“Because he happens to be the most intelligent person I know. He’s a genius, Pearl. Do you appreciate how clever he is? His mind is like a quantum theory computer. He is also stunningly handsome with a perfect, well-proportioned body. With his brains and his beauty and my brains and my beauty we’ll produce a wonder child.”

She sounds like the baddie in one of those mad, science fiction movies. “And then what?” I ask.

“I get his sperm, wait until I have the actual baby - just in case. Might even have some extra frozen for the future just for good measure. I’ll also want a nice trust set up for the child - several million’s worth –
several
million – and then he can have everything in that vault and we’ll never speak of the subject again.”

“What about the child? You’ll want it to have a father, surely? Is Alexandre expected to play daddy?”

“I haven’t thought that part through, yet. I have to ponder what’s ‘best for baby’. Now
you’re
pregnant. Pearl, it really puts a spanner in the works.”

“What about James?” I ask, half imagining him lying dead somewhere, poisoned by her.

“I was getting geared up to divorce him but he could come in handy. Good point, Pearl. I need to mull all that side of things over. I really had imagined myself back with Alex until you and your fat arse got in the way. I’m sure he’ll get bored with you, eventually. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

I want to scream and shout at her but I also don’t want to rock us both out of the very wobbly boat we’re in – we could capsize and end up drowning, the pair of us.

“What if the IVF doesn’t work, Laura? There’s only a fifteen percent success rate, you know.”

Silence.

Then she replies chirpily, “I feel very confident. Oh yes, and Alex will need to do his bit, too. A multivitamin. He’ll need to stop drinking, no soy products, eat organic, no food from plastic containers. The positive thing about you being pregnant, Pearl, is that it’s proof that his semen is working just fine. I mean, it must be extra powerful to have got you, a forty year-old pregnant. I’ll give him a list about the do’s and don’ts when we speak later. Well, bye then. Nice chatting. Tell Alex to call me A.S.A.P.”

“I will,” I answer, my blood boiling. I hang up.
What a basket case.
She really must have fallen hard on her head in that accident.

***

As soon as I get home, I search for Alexandre. He’s in his study talking on the phone. Deadly serious. He shoots me a ‘do-not-interrupt’ glance. Normally, I’d slip away and come back later, but I hover. He’s wearing a hand-tailored, charcoal gray suit and looks extremely dapper. I have to say, he really is one of the most handsome men I have ever seen in my life.

“No, I didn’t say that. What I said was that we need to invest another twenty million. You know how these things are. If you want quality, you have to pay for it, and what we need is…what we need…look, what we mustn’t skimp on is talent. If that’s what his fee is, then that’s simply what we have to pay. Green-light that, Jim, yes, we have to. She said what? That’s bullshit. There’s room out there for games that don’t involve shooting people. You see, Jim, that’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I liked about it. It has an epic heart-tugging story, glorious environments, kind of a sweet light magic and dark magic and a simply stunning soundtrack.”

I observe my fiancé as his face reveals a gamut of emotions between smiles, frowns and furious brow creasing – animated by this conversation which is obviously about the next big video game. I have gathered that their budgets are bigger than blockbuster movies.

Alexandre loosens his tie. “That’s right. What consumers want are handhelds that run Android so they can have a nice portable emulator. Okay, Jim. Speak to them and get back to me in the next few hours. Thanks.”

“Sorry to bother you, baby.” I’m lingering at the doorway.

“You never bother me, chérie; I’m always glad to see you. Come here and sit on my lap - just give me a couple more minutes – I need to write something down before I forget.”

But I can’t hold it in. His wheeling and dealing may be important but nothing as life-changing as being, or not being, a father. I blurt out, “Laura called me. We need to do something. She’s on the warpath, still.”
The sperm warpath.

He closes his lids as if that will wipe her from his mind. “I keep hoping she’ll give up and go away.”

“Not a chance. But things are looking up a little,” I say, hopefully, as I settle on his knee.

He puts his arms about my waist and breathes in the scent of my hair. “What d’you mean?”

“She’s given up on wanting you, yourself, although she still wants part of you.”

He shakes his head. “She’s such a nutter. What did she say?”

“She wants you to go to the IVF clinic with her.”

“Oh Christ.”

“Well at least she’s stopped harping on about marriage with you and living happily ever after.”

He raises his eyebrows.

“I told her I was pregnant.”

He furrows his temple. “Was that wise? She’s so off the rails she’s capable of anything. I really want her to keep away from you, Pearl – she could get consumed by jealousy.”

“Strangely enough, I think it’s had the opposite effect – it seems to have cooled her down. She’s delighted your semen is so potent. She says she’s not a home wrecker.”

“She’s a wrecker, period.”

I nuzzle into his embrace and squeeze my arms about his broad chest. “Maybe you should—”

“No, Pearl.”

“I’ve got
you
, that’s all that counts.”

“I am not giving into her. She is
not
having my child.”

“She says if she doesn’t get what she wants - your semen in a test tube, plus several million, she’ll make a scene.”

“She can have the money – I’ll pay her off, but she’s not getting her way.”

“She’s determined. Nobody else’s sperm will do. She wants yours and yours alone – she thinks you’re a genius, wants a wonder child.”

“I can’t believe how insane she’s being. This is not the Laura I once knew.”

“I know, it sounds like some twisted black comedy or something – it’s so far-fetched, so larger than life, I keep pinching myself to make sure I’m not floating about in one of my nightmares again.”

He takes off his jacket and throws it on his desk. “She’s totally out to lunch, she’s morphed into a fucking lunatic.”

“She wants you to call her tonight. Oh yes, and she reminded me about the evidence being in the bank vault.”

He loosens his tie some more as if the Laura news is making him feel strangled. “You didn’t discuss that over the phone, did you? She could have been recording it.”

I run my fingers through his dark hair. It feels soft and comforting in the midst of the tangle of mess we’re in. “We sort of spoke in code. Your mother was just referred to as ‘she’ and the evidence, ‘you know what’. Something tells me Laura’s enjoying the drama of it all. The way she was speaking made me feel that if it came to the crunch she wouldn’t actually go through with her threat. I think she might just be playing power games.”

“Too much of a risk to take, though. I’m too nervous about this to call her bluff.”

“Still no word from James?”

“No, he still hasn’t returned my calls.”

I grimace. “You don’t think she’d be capable of murder, do you?”

“No. But then again, this new persona of Laura’s is a total shock to me. I don’t know who she is anymore.”

“You really think she suffered brain damage in the fall?”

“Either that, or some mind-altering medication she’s on. Maybe she’s taking something for the pain, who knows. But she’s not being rational, anyway.”

“What if you humored her? Pretended you agreed? But give her someone else’s sperm. Get the teeth and hip parts back and she’ll be pregnant with an anonymous donor, thinking it’s you. You’ll still have to pay her the ‘settlement’ but at least it won’t be your child she’s carrying.”

“I’d have to sign legal documents, though, wouldn’t I? And we’d have to be in cahoots with the doctors. Doctors are hard to bribe or they could lose their license to practice.”

“Not necessarily. If you can get the exact same container they give you, or bring in your fake sample in a sanitized container and swap it over, who’s to know?”

“Laura’s too savvy. She will have probably thought of that – would probably want me to masturbate into the container in front of her.”

“Maybe, but you could try.”

“How long does sperm live?”

“A few hours, I think. You could pay someone who looks like you to come to the clinic with you. Get it fresh.”

He rubs his eyes. “Listen to us. This conversation is crazy! This whole situation is fucking surreal.”

“We have to come up with some plan, though.”

“What about our last idea? The fake passport idea – paying an actress to go to the bank?”

“That’s riskier. It’s breaking the law. Whereas with this idea we’d get a slap on the wrist, not slung in jail.”

“True.”

“Could we trust her to keep to her side of the bargain, though?”

“The way she’s been behaving? I doubt it.”

A question has been on my lips for a long time. “Just out of curiosity, what
was
it about Laura that you loved? Apart from her physical beauty? Before, the accident, I mean.”

“Funny you should ask that. I’ve been mulling that one over myself, recently. You know, I think I was…I don’t know.”

“What?”

“Very young. She was my first serious girlfriend. I’d always been with older women, friends of my sister’s.”

“Prostitutes?” I ask.

“Sex workers, yes. They were high class hookers, if you like. Not the sort that lurked in an alley somewhere. Not at all. These girls were more like consorts – dined out with politicians and extremely wealthy, older men. They were vetted, tested regularly. Always impeccably dressed, often very educated, too. They knew all sorts, about good food, fine wines, current affairs and could really hold an intelligent conversation – it was part of their job. That was the kind of work Sophie did. Anyway, I had relationships primarily with them simply because they were friends of my sister’s. I never paid for sex, obviously.”