Chapter 12
12
In war, the victorious strategist only seeks battle after victory has been won.
THE ART OF WAR , SUN TZU
OPERATION TROJAN HORSE
Bask in the glow of success!
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Sienna
Oh
My
GOD!!
Astrid
It’s AMAZING!
@Sienna did you read it? @Bella are you awake yet? @Paige where are you??
Sienna
I think it’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever read.
Astrid
Hahahahahahahahahaha it’s ingenious. Bella you’re amazing.
BELLA!! WAKE UP!!
Bella’s phone buzzed and buzzed. She’d thought for one rather alarming moment, coming round from dreams about red velvet cake and Chase that she would never admit to a living soul, that it was an earthquake.
But no. It was just the girls. Bella pushed up out of bed, glaring at Delia’s book.
Bella’s thoughts had been too scattered last night from Chase’s ill-timed present for her to be able to fall asleep. She’d tried to turn to Sun Tzu, but he just wasn’t cutting it. So, she’d finally unearthed Delia’s book and started reading. She had thrown the book across the room in frustration at some point around three in the morning. And then at 3.15 she’d retrieved it again.
Her phone buzzed again and she reached for it, fearing something awful had happened. A quick scan of the messages still incoming confirmed that it had. Chester C. Carlton’s piece had finally landed. And it had landed hard.
Bella clicked through the links to find it and… wow. She scanned the piece, her eyes growing bigger and bigger as sentences jumped out at her, her mouth hanging open in shock.
Portrait of the Artist as an Arrogant Man
By Chester C. Carlton
Having lorded his way through the fine art scene, subjecting any and all to such sneering levels of disdain as to all but ruin one’s faith in humanity, Miller – presumably from boredom rather than any genuine desire to bridge the gap between patron and client, and piece and artist, has taken it upon himself to become ‘gallery director’ at large of Tejvir Nayak’s new offering, the eponymous Nayak New York. The well-known property developer, presumably strong-armed into a vanity project for his best friend, seems almost wilfully ignorant of his employee’s behaviour and as such, is playing a very dangerous game with his own reputation.
When rumours of near indecent levels of inappropriate behaviour reached my ears ? —
What rumours? Bella asked herself, scanning the rest of the piece.
Miller’s well documented temper could only have been a surprise to an employee who had failed to do their research. He has apparently been terrorising staff, with one all but disappearing without a trace only three months into their job.
And now it appears his ineptitude has cost him the support of another life-long friend and fellow artist Zadzisai. But what could have caused such a rift? Nothing short of the biblical kind of hubris Chase Miller has long since been known for, surely.
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Sienna
Do you think Chase knows? Do you think he’s read it?
Astrid
Oh God I hope so. Seriously Bella, you’re a freaking genius!
Bella looked across her apartment as if she could see through to Chase’s. Biting her lip, she padded her way out of her bedroom and towards her front door, her ears pricked for signs of… well. Anything, really.
Why wasn’t she feeling as gleeful as Sienna and Astrid? Why wasn’t she feeling the thrill of victory she should be feeling?
Because he’s none of the things Chester C. Carlton said he was.
But he was still a cheating, lying…
A thump and a crash barged their way into her thoughts, pulling her up short about a foot from her front door.
Another loud bang cut through the silence of the early Saturday morning. And then the shouting started, curses strong enough to turn the air blue.
Bella
He knows.
* * *
Ever since Saturday morning, Chase had fielded emails and phone calls from journalists, friends, enemies, artists, buyers, all with varying degrees of self-interest and rabid curiosity, threatening either to pull their current involvement from the gallery, or future possible involvement if they didn’t find out ‘ what Chester was talking about ’.
The problem was, Chase didn’t fucking know what Chester C. Carlton had been talking about. He didn’t even know why it had happened. Yes, they’d crossed paths several years back and, okay, Chase was willing to admit that to say that he’d been abrupt was putting it mildly. And no, Chase had never liked to ‘play the game’ when it came to interviews, critics and social media.
But this? This was a wholly unprovoked attack against him personally. It was a hit piece. Chester was refusing to take his calls, the magazine was refusing to take Tej’s and the publisher was saying ‘speak to our lawyers’.
Jesus, the whole thing was a mess. And that it had been released on a Saturday just made the whole thing that much harder. The online edition had hit just hours before it reached the news stand, and while for most it wouldn’t have made front-page news, in the art world it was everything .
He’d spent all of Sunday evening clearing his inbox after spending three hours with Sascha in the studio. And how it was that a twenty-three-year-old art student was the sanest person he’d spoken to in the last three days, he didn’t know. But he was damn thankful.
‘Hit piece?’ she’d asked.
‘Hit piece,’ he’d confirmed.
And that was it. She didn’t need to know anything else. And he’d blocked it from his mind for those blessed three hours.
But it was 6a.m. on Monday morning, Chase was already in the office and once again his inbox was full.
He rolled towards the drawer side of the desk to get his planner out, but the wheels were off and he rolled too far, whacking his knee on the cabinet instead. He let out a shout of raw frustration. Gritting his teeth, he flung himself back away from the desk, got up, glared at the chair because there was clearly something wrong with it even though he couldn’t tell what, and rolled his shoulders.
Coffee. He just needed coffee.
He limped over to the coffee station and grabbed his coffee, sugar and realised that the water cooler was out. Huffing out a sigh, he went to the kitchen, filled a jug with water, came back, filled the coffee machine, waited for the light to turn orange, inserted the pod, nerves soothing as the scent of coffee filled the air from the pour. He tore the top strip off the sugar sachet, emptied the contents into the cup and took a calming breath before knocking back the scalding hot espresso and proceeding to spit the whole thing out back onto the floor of his office.
He had some weird out-of-body moment where he genuinely saw himself as a cartoon character with a huge red head and steam coming out of his ears. He wanted to rage, to break things, to hurt things. The abject horror of the last two days was finally getting to him and for a horrible moment he thought he might actually cry. Cry from rage. What the fuck was happening to him? Why was everything going so wrong?
Running a hand through his hair, he turned and found Maurice, Bella and Ali all standing staring at him in shock.
‘Oh fuck off!’ he shouted at the top of his lungs to no one in particular and they scattered like marbles.
* * *
Three hours later, Tej found him on the roof of the building, where he’d hidden from the rest of the staff since being caught throwing a tantrum like a little child.
‘I always liked this view.’
‘Tej, you like every view that isn’t Mumbai.’
‘That is also true.’
‘How much shit did you get from your dad?’ Chase asked, knowing that Tej would lie and say it was nothing. He hated that this was impacting Tej so badly.
‘It was nothing.’
Chase huffed out a bitter laugh. He knew what he should do. He knew that quitting was probably the only way to make sure the gallery stood a chance at a half decent opening. But he’d quit so much. His art. His marriage – not that that was entirely his fault. Annalise had quit on him long before then. But he had quit London. He’d given up on so many things, including the dreams his mother had for him.
Christ. He had to stick at something . But not at the expense of his friend.
‘Tej—’
‘I don’t accept,’ Tej said with a shrug. Sometimes talking to Tej was like talking to someone with exactly the same brain. ‘I don’t want your resignation, Chase.’
‘Tej, be serious. I’m going down and I’m taking this gallery with me.’
‘The captain always goes down… actually, wait I’m not going down on you.’
‘ I’m the fucking captain,’ Chase snapped back.
‘No, I’m the captain, you’re the gallery. And although I love you bro, I’m never going to go down on you.’
‘It’s with , not on , you muppet.’
‘There’s really no need to start name-calling.’
‘Chester started it,’ Chase announced, nearly at strop levels.
‘It might have helped had you not called him an “insufferable egotist who wrote like he was being paid by the word and had debts to pay”.’
‘I said that?’ Chase asked, half impressed with himself.
‘Apparently so.’
‘When?’
‘Couple of years back.’
‘Huh.’
‘Seems fair, after reading that article.’
They both broke into smiles and standing side by side, looked down below at the sidewalk where people hurried back and forth. While that New York hum – absolutely unlike anything else in the world – played in the background. A mixture of building work, conversations, the roar of the subway, and something that could only be the beating heart beneath it all.
‘Was it a hit piece? Yeah. Has it damaged Nayak New York?’ Tej shrugged. ‘Remains to be seen.’
Chase barked out a laugh. ‘You know the PR firm is thinking about cancelling the contract.’
‘Then they’re not the right PR firm for us. Look,’ Tej said, turning to Chase, finally with the seriousness Chase felt the situation warranted. ‘If you want to leave, I get it. No harm, no foul. I wouldn’t want you to stay somewhere that was unhealthy for you.’
Tej’s pause wasn’t for dramatic effect. That was the thing that meant the most to Chase. If he said it, he meant it. It was that simple. So, Chase knew that Tej wasn’t trying to reverse psychology him. But he was giving Chase the opportunity to really think about it.
‘But if you’re only leaving because of some misguided sense of obligation, then fuck that.’
Chase could walk away now. Leave the gallery, leave Sascha, he knew that Tej and the team would honour their agreement with her, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
Was this what he’d always wanted to do with his life? Absolutely not. Did that mean he shouldn’t be doing it? As an artist, he’d got the chance to do something that so few people had. He’d got the chance to paint, to explore his creativity, to show his pieces in galleries and was lucky enough that a few very wealthy people had thought it worth the obscene amounts of money that they’d paid for it.
But he hadn’t been able to pick up a paintbrush for over a year now. Even now, the thought of it all brought him out in a cold sweat. The gut-churning, nauseating, near paralysing fear of it all. That was unhealthy for him. But this? Whatever Chester C. Carlton wanted to write about, he could do this. He could be a gallery director for Nayak New York. And he would make it work.
Chase nodded. ‘We go down with the ship.’
‘We go down with the ship,’ Tej echoed. ‘Are you sure it’s not on ?’
‘Yes.’
* * *
Bella followed Maurice, Ali and Ye-Joon into Chase’s office, which usually felt spacious, but not today with Tej and the proverbial elephant in the room. She was confident that Chase would be announcing that he was stepping back from the gallery director position and that Tej would – in all likelihood – step into the breach until they found a suitable replacement. She’d drafted a comms piece stating as much after getting off the video call with the girls on Sunday.
As the first real piece of revenge against their exes it had been cause for celebration, which was why they’d all made the effort to video call. Astrid and Sienna had been drinking champagne, while a slightly subdued Paige had opted for a gin and tonic, having developed a taste for it after being in the UK for nearly two months now.
And all the while Bella smiled and took the credit for giving Chase his just desserts , she told herself that perhaps she’d feel something more when Olly got his.
‘What did he say?’
‘What did he look like? Oh God, tell me he looked terrible. The man is far too good looking for his own good.’
Bella had bitten her lip, not wanting to think about how Chase looked. Especially not the last time she’d seen him at her door with a red velvet cupcake. But since hearing the crashes and bangs from his apartment, she’d not seen or heard anything from him until she’d arrived at work that morning. At least now she’d be able to tell them. Now she’d be able to tell them how defeated he looked when he quit.
Only… Chase didn’t look defeated. He looked mulish. And mulish wasn’t part of the plan.
‘There’s no point beating around the bush. You’ll all have seen or heard about Chester C. Carlton’s article,’ Chase began.
Everyone in the room nodded, Bella hoping that she didn’t blush. She was, she was beginning to realise, very bad at being bad.
‘As a result, we’ll probably be fielding a lot of queries in the next few days. Bella, can you put something together that either sidesteps the query, or addresses it in a way that shows we’re not taking it seriously?’
‘Absolutely, I… ehm, what?’ she asked, looking up at them. ‘We’re not taking it seriously?’ she repeated.
‘No.’
Bella’s mind went completely blank. This had never happened before. She made plans. Executed them. And they went as predicted. Always. This… Chase staying … wasn’t part of the plan.
‘Why?’
Chase blinked.
Oh crap.
‘No, sorry. I don’t mean why are you staying, obviously, that would be…’ She laughed, hoping no one heard how fake and awkward she sounded right now. She waved a hand. Maurice side-eyed her, Ali laughed with Bella, and Ye-Joon pumped his fist in the air, presumably in support of Chase.
Bella swallowed. ‘I’ll have something drawn up by lunchtime.’
‘Excellent. And I’m going to need you this afternoon to sit down with me, Tej and Magenta,’ he said, flicking the screen of his iPad.
‘Sure, of course,’ Bella said.
‘How do you want to handle comms until then?’ he asked, finally looking back up at her.
She blinked, hastily regrouping her scattered brain cells.
‘If we get calls from journalists, it’s no comment, for clients, Carlton is a disgruntled journalist with an axe to grind, and for artists there’s no such thing as bad publicity,’ she snapped out.
Chase looked to Tej leaning against the back wall, his arms crossed over his chest, who nodded, before turning back to the team. ‘That works. Let’s do it.’
Bella swallowed again and followed the team filing out of Chase’s office back to theirs.
‘I wonder what Chase did to that guy? The piece was terrible,’ Ali whispered to Ye-Joon.
‘These journos, man. They’re all up in your business but if you piss ’em off, that’s it. You’re as good as done.’
‘Bella,’ Tej called. ‘Can I buy you a coffee?’ he asked with a laugh, pointing to the kitchen.
‘Of course,’ Bella offered with a smile. She turned to follow him and then her thoughts hit her, near stopping her in her tracks.
Oh God.
What if he knows?
What if someone had spoken to Chester? What if he’d told them about her involvement in the interview?
Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod.
‘Actually, can I…’ she asked trying to excuse herself.
‘This won’t take long,’ Tej assured her.
Ohmygodohmygodohmygod.
As she nibbled the centre of her lip, her heart went into overdrive and her cheeks burned.
‘You okay?’ he peered at her curiously.
No, sir. I am not okay.
I am about to sweat through my shirt, because I am FREAKING OUT.
‘Of course. I just need some water,’ she said, pushing a glass under the tap.
Get. It. Together.
She downed half a glass of water, took a breath and turned. She would face this, whatever it was, head on. She hadn’t done anything wrong. Not really. And if she had been caught, then she’d simply ‘silly socialite’ her way out of it, like she had with Chester.
‘Listen, I’m a little worried about Chase and I was hoping that you’d be able to keep an eye on him,’ Tej said, with a rueful smile. ‘It’s not been easy for him to move from artist to gallery director and now this.’
‘Oh, of course, that’s no problem at all,’ she said, offering her most compassionate smile.
Not been found out. Okay. We’re back on track. It’s all okay.
‘It’s just that I haven’t really seen him like this since his wife cheated on him,’ Tej shrugged.
‘You mean, he cheated on her,’ she corrected.
‘No,’ Tej said, with a frown and a shake of his head.
‘Mmm,’ was all Bella was capable of saying as her stomach dropped to the floor and her entire body was filled with dread.
‘No, Annalise was sleeping with Chase’s best friend. Poor bastard walked in on them just over a year ago.’
A ringing started in Bella’s ears. Sadly, not enough to block out Tej’s words.
‘And as if that wasn’t enough, Annalise tracked him down to where he was staying with this chick he really liked, and then told her that Chase was still married. All because Chase refused to agree to let her have the house that he’d bought in London. I’m telling you. Nothing could convince me to get married. Nothing ,’ he said, shaking his head, while Bella stared at him with bug eyes.
After about a minute, Tej collected himself. ‘So will you?’
‘I will?’ Bella all but squeaked.
‘Keep an eye on him.’
‘Yes! Yes, I’ll… I’ll do that,’ she said, staring at a blank space for nearly ten minutes after Tej left. Then she rushed out of the office, without her coat or bag, ignoring Maurice and Ali.
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Bella
Code red.
Code RED.
HELP! NOW!