Chapter Thirty-Two
Lilavati
Something shifted for me last night. I don’t know whether it was my acknowledgement of how far my feelings for Ant have come, but things felt different.
I have no idea if Ant felt it too. And I have no idea how to broach the subject.
But the notion that there could be more than just a sexual spark between us is flickering to life, and I’m equal parts excited and terrified.
Once we’re back in Sydney, I’ll screw up my courage and ask Ant how he feels.
In the meantime, we have a wedding to get through.
After the anxiety of the luau, I opt for a long sleep-in while Ant heads off for a quick morning surf, which should give us plenty of time for a snorkel or a nap before we get ready for the sunset ceremony.
He’s only been gone a couple of minutes when there’s a knock at the door. He’s terrible for forgetting his keycard.
“Did you forget …” I start, expecting to see Ant. But it’s my mother and Warren.
“Lili, we need to talk to you,” Warren barks. There’s no mention of Ant, and it’s obvious they’ve been watching and seen him leave.
I’d like to say request denied and close the door, but you don’t overcome a lifetime of training in a couple of days, so I stand back and allow them in, pulling the robe I threw on to answer the door tighter around myself, painfully aware I’m naked beneath it.
Warren looks smug and Mum looks nervous as I offer them water and we sit awkwardly at the dining table.
From her seat, Mum can see across the apartment through the open door of the bedroom to the unmade bed.
Pillows are strewn everywhere, and the covers look like they’ve been caught in a tornado.
She purses her lips and her cheeks flood with colour.
“Perhaps you should put on something more appropriate?” Warren suggests as though being caught in your bathrobe in your own hotel suite is somehow scandalous.
I throw on underwear and a sundress and clean my teeth as quickly as possible and rejoin them, eager to get them out of my space. I pick up my glass and move to stand on the other side of the kitchen counter, subconsciously putting a barrier between us.
“We’ve come to give you information that you need to hear. Ant Stevens is not who you think he is.” Warren’s whole demeanour is so self-righteous; I’d like to slap his face.
“Is that so?” I guess he’s finally googled Ant.
Mum nods miserably.
“We had been hoping you’d come to your senses and realise Anthony is not an appropriate choice of partner,” Warren starts in his best pompous, scolding tone.
“Antony,” I correct him.
He huffs and rolls his eyes.
“But it appears we overestimated your good sense. It has come to light that Anthony Stevens is not what he seems. He’s a liar. He may have told you he’s a barista, but he is, in fact, the owner of Beach Road Boards. And of the chain of coffee shops known as North of the Bridge Beans.”
“I’m aware,” I say, taking a sip of water. If he thinks telling me Ant has lied to me will break us up, he’s got another thing coming.
Warren looks momentarily surprised. He wasn’t expecting that. But he recovers quickly, exchanging a dark look with my mother before continuing.
“Furthermore, he has been seeking a capital investment in order to grow both businesses.”
Warren leans back in his chair and crosses his arms with a look that screams gottcha.
“What do you mean?” I’m not normally dense, but I can’t quite piece together where he’s going with this.
“What I’m telling you is, the man lied to you. I had my doubts from the outset as to what a man like him would want with a woman like you. Now it’s clear.”
“It is?” Not to me. Especially when they don’t even know it was all fake. And my idea.
“Clearly, he wanted access to me. He wanted to ingratiate himself with the family in the hopes I would recommend that the firm invest in his business.”
None of this makes sense. If Ant wanted access to Warren, why has he avoided him? Encouraged me not to give in to their expectations? Stood up to him, however politely, when he crossed a line?
“That makes no sense. I don’t think I’ve ever even told Ant what you do.”
Which is a concept Warren, who thinks the whole world revolves around him, would not understand.
Warren scoffs. Mum continues to stare, silent and miserable, at where her glass is dripping condensation on the tabletop.
“Don’t be so na?ve. I’m well known in investment circles. He did his research and worked out a plan to get to me. And he used you to do it.”
The words used me stand out. Circling. Have I been deluding myself?
I find my voice, but it’s weak, unsure. “So, there’s no universe in which Ant might be interested in me for … me?”
Warren’s voice distorts like a slowed-down recording as he continues to dismantle my hard-won confidence brick by brick.
“Anthony Stevens is a good-looking man. A surfer. He no doubt spends his time surrounded by beautiful women in bikinis. Are you honestly stupid enough not to understand that sex is on tap for him? What could he possibly want with you?”
Warren must see something in my expression because he barks out a laugh.
“What? Do you seriously imagine he’s in love with you?”
That’s exactly what I’ve been imagining, or at least hoping, despite how preposterous it might seem.
How pathetic I must look.
My knees start to buckle, but I resist. Stiffen them. I won’t show this man weakness. I won’t show him how his words have sliced me open, every ounce of pride spilling onto the floor at my feet. But he hasn’t finished with me yet.
“It was obvious from the start that he was intelligent. Now we also know he’s dishonest. And grasping.” Warren’s self-satisfied smile makes my skin crawl. “He was never interested in you. All he wanted was access to this family and our money.”
“Ant? No. I don’t think so. You need to leave. Now.” This is absurd.
Except the idea Ant is looking for an investor and didn’t tell me, snags in my mind, catching on how this came to be. On Ant originally saying no to my proposition. Then suddenly changing his mind. The day after Warren was all over the news. Could there possibly be some truth to this?
“Wake up to yourself. Surely, even you can see this has been a long con. He’s preyed on you, a lonely, desperate woman, for financial gain.
And as soon as he’s got what he wants, he’ll disappear and you’ll never see him again.
If I cut him a big enough cheque, he’d be gone without a backward glance. ”
Lonely? Okay, yes, I guess I was lonely. But desperate? Is that how other people see me? Is that how Ant sees me?
“Lili, please,” Mum says. “You need to listen to Warren. He could be dangerous.”
Warren turns on Mum. He’s on a roll.
“He’s hardly dangerous, Marion. He’d have to be far smarter than he is to cause me harm.
" Unsurprisingly, he's making my pain all about him. "But now that we’ve caught him in his plans, we can have him thrown out.” Warren stands and heads for the apartment phone. “I’ll call security. Get his access card cancelled. Housekeeping can pack up his things.”
Finally, what’s just been said registers with me. I lunge for the phone before Warren can reach it.
“No. I said leave. Now get out!” I shout. For a moment, it looks like Warren will wrench the phone from my hands. “Don’t even think about touching me,” I hiss.
“Fine. I’ve warned you. If you are too stupid or too wilful to see the facts of the matter, there is nothing more I can do. But you can tell your boyfriend he will never see a cent from me or my company. Regardless of what he threatens.”
My fingers itch to throw the phone at his arrogant head, but I do nothing more than lift a trembling hand and point. Warren stalks to the door and yanks it open.
“And until you’ve come to your senses, you are no longer welcome in my home.”
For a moment, I think I’ve misheard him. Surely, he can’t be serious? I try to catch Mum’s eye, but hers are fixed firmly on the floor. Yet again, there’s no help from her.
I hate that house. It’s never been a home for me. And he knows it. But it’s where my mother lives. Banning me isn’t about the house. It’s about banishing me from the family. Hurting me. Disposing of me.
Even in the midst of my turmoil, I don’t miss that pronoun. It’s not my mother’s home. Or even their home. It’s his.
And I don’t miss the implication that, should I choose Ant, it means losing my family. My mother. She may not be the mother she once was, but she’s all I’ve got. If I choose Ant, and Warren turns out to be right, what do I have?
With a deeply unsatisfying hiss of the hydraulic door closer, Mum and Warren disappear, and I race for the bathroom, bringing up what little food I’ve had today in a violent heave.
Along with a piece of my heart.
None of this makes any sense. I’m almost certain I never told Ant what Warren did. Although, it’s true he could have researched him. And he was all over the news. It wouldn’t have been hard.
But it was me who approached Ant, not the other way around. Although it’s an inescapable fact that he didn’t agree to it until after the news articles about Warren.
Ant isn’t even my boyfriend; it’s all fake, or at least it was. So, how would being with me in that capacity help him? Unless he wanted to use it as fake leverage to fake break up with me.
Then I remember asking him if there was anything else he had to tell me. He said there wasn’t. So, whatever else is true, in that moment, he lied to my face.
Maybe his lies were only by omission, but they’re still lies. And what’s his excuse for why he kept lying?
He could’ve told me about how he’s looking for investors when he told me he owned those companies.
Why keep that to himself, unless he didn’t want me to know for some reason?
Surely that’s something you would share with your …
whatever I was. Am. Was. I don’t even know. The fact is, I’ve never known.
I can’t make sense of any of it. Except for the one thing I know to be true. Ant lied to me. First, about his job. Then, about needing capital funding.