The Show (50 page)

‘Ah, yes. The email. That’s the other reason I came in person. That email didn’t sound like you.’

‘Well, it was me,’ said Macy defiantly. ‘Angry me.’

‘I read it more like sad you,’ said Austin. ‘Very, very sad you. It wasn’t the Macy Johanssen I know.’

‘Well maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do,’ snapped Macy.

Austin had made himself at home on Macy’s sofa, stretching out his long legs in front of him and spreading his arms wide, as if this were a club and an accommodating butler were about to bring him a cigar and a glass of Laphroaig. Apart from Gabe, Macy didn’t think she’d ever met a man with such natural arrogance. It was both attractive and deeply annoying.

Austin suddenly leaned forward and said seriously: ‘Macy, there’s something I need to tell you. Your father’s dead. He passed away three days ago in Palm Desert.’

Macy did her best to look nonchalant. ‘So? I knew he was dying. Now he’s dead. So what?’

Austin sighed. ‘So a lot, actually.’

‘Look, Austin, I don’t know what he told you, or what bullshit lines you’ve been swallowing. But all Per Johanssen ever wanted from me was money. A slice of my fame and fortune, such as they are. Or were,’ she added, a touch bitterly.

‘You’re wrong,’ said Austin. ‘Do you know how I first met your dad, Macy?’

Macy looked at him suspiciously. ‘When he walked into your office and pulled out his cheque book?’

‘Nope.’ Austin sipped his drink. ‘I met Per when I was sixteen. He changed my life.’

Now he had Macy’s attention. She’d always suspected there was more to Austin’s dealings with her father than the usual lawyer/client obligations. At long last, it seemed, she was about to find out what. Sitting down again in the chair opposite him, she said, ‘Go on.’

‘I was kind of a hopeless kid back then,’ Austin began. ‘Venice was rough, like I told you. My home life sucked. At sixteen I was busy getting thrown out of school, shoplifting and generally doing my level best to rob myself of any decent future. Anyway, your father had been invited by the careers department to give a talk at my high school.’

‘The school where the math teacher got shot?’ Macy remembered.

‘Exactly. I can’t even remember what Per’s talk was about.’

‘How to be a deadbeat dad?’ Macy quipped.

Austin grinned. ‘Nah. We knew all about that already. I think it was entrepreneurship or something. Anyway, I missed most of it. I was outside in the parking lot trying to steal your dad’s car. He came out earlier than I expected and caught me red-handed.’

‘What happened?’ Macy asked.

‘Well, that’s just it. I was waiting for him to call the cops, or at least to report me to the school administration. But he didn’t. Instead he gave me his business card and asked me to come to his offices the next day.’

Macy listened, rapt.

‘So I show up at his real-estate offices, this angry, barely educated black kid. And your dad gave me a choice. Either I start working there for free every Saturday and after school, or he tells the school what happened. And that was the start of it.’

‘The start of what?’

‘Everything. My new life. Those offices became like a second home to me. A first home, really. I learned to type, to file, to show up on time. I made friends. I started believing I could have a future. Your dad became kind of like my unofficial godfather. He paid for my entire college education, Macy. And law school. He was amazing.’

‘Yeah, well,’ Macy said bitterly. ‘Good for you. I guess it’s a shame he was such a grade-one asshole to his own kid. He drove my mother to her grave, you do know that, right?’

Despite her angry tone, there were tears in her eyes. Austin leaned forward and took her hand. He knew she might hate him for what he had to say next, but he owed it to Per.

‘I didn’t know him back then. I’ll admit that. But Per told me a very different story about the end of his marriage.’

‘I’ll bet he did,’ scoffed Macy.

‘Your mother had a long history of alcoholism, from way before they met.’

‘That’s not true!’ Macy said hotly. ‘That bastard drove her to it.’

‘She got clean briefly while she was pregnant with you,’ Austin said calmly. ‘But soon after she relapsed. After that it was chaos. She would disappear for weeks at a time, often with other men she’d met while out on a bender. Your father cared for you almost entirely alone until the age of three.’

‘That is a flat-out lie!’ Macy shouted. Her mouth had gone dry and her head had started to hurt. Why was Austin saying these awful things?

‘It’s not a lie,’ he said quietly. ‘I have medical and court records to prove it. Per kept copies of everything. In case, in future, you ever reconciled.’

For a moment Macy sat in silence, overwhelmed by the raging torrent of emotions coursing through her. She didn’t believe what Austin was saying. Couldn’t believe it. And yet there were huge chunks of her childhood memories that were missing …

Turning on Austin accusingly she said, ‘If that were the case, if my mom was the bad guy and Per was some sort of saint, why did he leave me with her? Why did he disappear and never come back?’

‘Because your mother threatened to kill herself if he took you,’ said Austin. ‘She’d gotten clean again by then, but she was still sleeping around.’

Macy shook her head. ‘This is baloney.’

‘Look, he wasn’t a saint,’ said Austin. ‘Far from it. He divorced your mother because he couldn’t take it any more. That was selfish. He was thinking of himself, not of you. He got a job in New York, and he started a new life. I think seeing you or keeping in contact was too painful. But it was the biggest regret of his life.’

‘As it fucking should have been!’ said Macy. She started to cry.

‘Macy, listen to me,’ Austin squeezed her hands in his. ‘I’m not saying Per’s version is the truth. I never knew your mother. And in my experience, when families break down, there’s never only one truth anyway. In any case, nothing excuses what he did. But he
did
love you. And he
was
sorry. And he changed. He changed. The man I knew was a good man. Deeply kind. Like I say, I owe him pretty much everything.’

Macy stood up and walked around. This was a lot to take in. Too much. But in the end she wasn’t sure if it changed anything. It explained more about Austin than it did about her father. Perhaps Per
had
changed. But if he had, the fact remained it was too late. He was dead. Both her parents were dead. Macy was on her own.

‘There’s something else,’ said Austin.

Macy sighed heavily. ‘Do I want to hear this?’

‘Fifteen years ago, your father got into the alternative energy business,’ said Austin, all business again suddenly. ‘Wind farms.’

‘He always was full of hot air,’ Macy giggled nervously. ‘Sorry. Bad joke.’

‘He sold his business eighteen months ago.’

She gave him a ‘so what’ look.

‘For a hundred and eighty million dollars.’

For a moment Macy froze. Then she burst out laughing.

‘Bullshit!’

‘I have all the paperwork with me if you’d like to take a look. You should, at some point,’ Austin said casually. ‘Seeing as how you’re his sole beneficiary.’

‘I don’t want it,’ blurted Macy. Austin noticed that her hands were shaking. ‘I won’t touch a penny of it. He abandoned me. Mom and me. This isn’t … No.’

Standing up, Austin put his arms around her. For a moment Macy stiffened, taken aback. But then she softened, leaning into him, eyes closed, letting his strength soothe and calm her.

‘I understand,’ he said. ‘I do. But you don’t have to keep it for yourself. You could give it away. Start a foundation. Do something amazing. With that much money, Macy, you can change the world.’

Macy looked up at him. Without thinking she found herself clasping her hands around his neck, standing on tiptoes and planting a kiss on his lips.

‘What was that for?’ Austin’s eyes widened.

‘I don’t know,’ said Macy. ‘I think I’m still in shock.’

Austin broke into a grin. ‘I like shock. Can I shock you some more?’

‘I doubt it!’ said Macy. ‘I think you’ve done enough for one evening. Did Per really leave me a hundred and eighty million?’

‘He did. Which leaves me in something of a quandary.’

‘Oh?’ Macy raised an eyebrow. ‘How so?’

‘The thing is, Macy … I like you.’

For the first time since Macy had met him, Austin sounded nervous. It was really quite endearing.

‘Do you?’

‘I do. A lot,’ he went on. ‘I like you a lot. But if I ask you to have dinner with me now, it’s going to look as if …’

‘Ah, I see. As if you’re after my money?’ Macy finished the sentence for him.

‘Exactly.’

‘But I already told you. I don’t want it.’

‘You say that now,’ said Austin.

‘I mean it.’

Looking at Macy’s proud, defiant, beautiful face, he could almost believe that she did.

‘I wanted you from the moment I saw you, you know,’ he said, grabbing hold of her again.

This time Macy pulled away. ‘I can’t.’ She looked down at the carpet, biting her lip.

Austin looked crestfallen. ‘Why not?’

‘It’s nothing to do with the money,’ Macy said quickly. ‘I know you’re not like that.’

‘Well, what then?’

‘The thing is I … I’m still in love with someone else,’ Macy stammered.

‘Gabriel Baxter, you mean? No you’re not,’ Austin said confidently.

Macy frowned. ‘Yes I am. I just told you I am.’

‘Nope.’ Austin shook his head. ‘You just think you are. You don’t want to be a farmer’s wife.’

‘Oh, no?’ Macy looked at him archly ‘What do I want then, according to you?’

‘This.’ Austin kissed her hard on the mouth. Macy tried to remember why she ought to resist, but suddenly found that she couldn’t. When he slipped a hand under her sweater, expertly unclipping her bra, and began caressing her left breast, she knew the battle was lost.

‘I’m a terrible girlfriend,’ she whispered through gasps of pleasure.

‘Mmm-hm.’ Austin’s hand moved lower.

‘I mean it. I’m always unfaithful. I can’t commit!’

‘That,’ said Austin, kissing her neck, ‘is because you’ve never been with the right man.’

In that crazy, joyous moment, Macy believed him.

Eddie’s heart lifted when he walked into the bedroom. He’d expected to find Annabel slumped under the covers after the carol service, staring at the same page in her novel that she’d had open since this morning. But instead the bed was made, the clothes tidied away and he could hear the shower running in the master bathroom.

‘Darling! You’re up.’ A cloud of steam enveloped him as he walked into the bathroom. Annabel turned off the shower and stepped out. He handed her a towel. ‘You look better. Are you up to joining us for supper? I’ve carved the ham and Magda’s made a rather fancy-looking cauliflower cheese.’

‘I won’t be here for supper.’ Annabel looked at him coldly. ‘I’m leaving. Tonight.’

Eddie looked perplexed. ‘What do you mean, leaving?’

‘I mean leaving.’ Pushing past him, Annabel opened the bedroom wardrobes and began to dress. ‘Leaving this house. Leaving you. Leaving.’ Two packed suitcases sat at the bottom of the cupboard, side by side like squat black bodyguards. Eddie felt his stomach lurch.

‘But why? This is madness.’ He tried to touch her arm but she shrugged him away. ‘I know you don’t approve of Milo and Magda. But it
is
their life, and what’s done is done.’

Annabel spun round furiously. ‘Milo and Magda? You think this is about Milo and Magda?’

‘Well, isn’t it?’ Eddie’s frown deepened.

‘No, you bastard!’ To Eddie’s astonishment, she hit him in the chest, hammering both fists against his ribcage as hard as she could. ‘It’s about you! You and Laura fucking Baxter! Did you really think I was going to sit back here passively, the good little wife, while you had another affair right under my nose?’

‘Annabel—’

‘Well, you know what? A few years ago, I would have. I did, for heaven’s sake! Twice! But no more. Not after this year. I’ve been to hell and back, Eddie, and I’ve survived. I’m not going to let you destroy me again. I’m not going to live with any more lies. Not one. Not ONE!’

‘Annabel.’ He grabbed hold of her more forcefully by the shoulders.

Letting out a scream like a banshee, she kicked out at him wildly, her arms and legs flailing, scratching at his face like a woman demented. ‘Let go of me!’ she yelled. ‘Let
go!
’

‘I will not.’ Wrapping his arms tightly around her entire body, like a human strait-jacket, he waited for the struggling to stop. Eventually it did. Panting with exhaustion, Annabel slumped in his arms. ‘Listen to me,’ said Eddie. ‘I am not having an affair with Laura Baxter.’

‘Liar!’ Annabel turned her head away in disgust. ‘She was in the flat that day. I heard her, Eddie.’

‘OK, yes,’ Eddie admitted. ‘She was. But not because we were having an affair.’

‘What then? Business?’ Annabel scoffed. ‘You don’t
have
any business with her, Eddie. Not any more. I checked with our lawyers.
Valley Farm
’s been cancelled. Something else you lied to me about.’

‘I didn’t lie,’ said Eddie. ‘I just didn’t tell you. You’ve been so fragile lately, I was worried … I didn’t want to push you over the edge.’

‘Well, you lied about Laura,’ Annabel shot back. ‘And you’re still lying now!’

Being careful not to release her completely – he was still scared she might bolt – Eddie turned Annabel round to face him.

‘I lied to you about her being in the flat. I’m sorry. But I asked her there to talk about her husband.’

Annabel’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. ‘Gabriel? Why?’

‘Because those two still love each other. It’s as plain as the nose on both their faces. And because I’m fond of them, I didn’t want them to go through with a divorce that I knew they would both regret.’

Annabel digested this information. She wanted to believe him so badly. But she didn’t quite dare.

‘They are divorced, though, aren’t they? The news was all round the village.’

‘Yes,’ Eddie said sadly. ‘Unfortunately, I couldn’t convince Laura.’