Fifty-Six
Ari couldn’t ignore it. Helen’s gasp had been weird. It was sharp, almost involuntary, like she’d been struck.
Ari, Paris, and Nancy all turned to her at once, their scrutiny pinning her in place.
‘Something wrong?’ Ari asked casually.
For a fraction of a second, Helen looked truly unguarded, her usual smooth, cutting expression stripped away to reveal something raw underneath. And then, just as quickly, she recovered.
‘Just a touch of asthma,’ she muttered, shaking her head as if they were all imagining things. But she wasn’t quite meeting anyone’s eyes.
Nancy narrowed hers. ‘You don’t have asthma.’
‘I developed it after I fired you,’ Helen said quickly.
‘I quit. And show me the inhaler,’ Nancy said.
‘I will do nothing of the sort,’ Helen said, eyes dark with warning.
Ari, ever impatient, tilted her head. ‘That wasn’t asthma. You looked like someone had just spilt your deepest, darkest secret.’
Helen scoffed. ‘Don’t flatter yourself.’
But there was something in the way she straightened her posture, the way her fingers tightened around the strap of her clutch, that made Ari’s instincts hum. She was covering something. And it had nothing to do with Paris’s small-time theft.
Paris must have thought the same, because she stepped closer, her voice quieter now—lower and more deliberate. ‘Helen’s just shocked to hear such a baseless accusation of jewellery theft thrown at her favourite niece.’
‘Yes. That.’ Helen waved a dismissive hand, but she turned slightly away, angling herself towards the door.
‘I thought it was asthma,’ Nancy said.
‘That too,’ Helen said, exasperated. ‘Both things.’
‘Are you all quite finished?’ Margot cut in, her voice weary. ‘Honestly, I’d be better off watching Emmerdale.’
‘You need to get to a hospital,’ Nancy reminded Margot.
Paris’s frustration flared again. ‘Oh, do shut up, Nancy. If I needed your opinion—’
‘You don’t,’ Margot interrupted. ‘But I do. Since the dogs are attended, I’ve decided I do want an ambulance.’
‘Great, someone call an ambulance,’ Paris said. She looked at her aunt. ‘Helen? You can manage that, can’t you?’ she asked, her tone tight.
Helen nodded. She wasn’t arguing this time. She got out her phone again and went about procuring an ambulance.
Nancy took the opportunity to step toward Ari, speaking past the guard, dropping her voice so only she could hear. ‘There’s more rot here than just you getting stitched up.’
Ari’s face was struck by realisation. ‘Oh, bloody hell. Of course.’ She turned to Paris. ‘Your new husband already told me. I didn’t click what he meant until right this second. “Every penny goes where it needs to be”. Weird way to put it, Cal.’
Paris looked at Cal. Cal cringed. ‘I just mean… Like I said. It goes where it’s supposed to.’
Paris tried a laugh. ‘Yes, of course.’
Ari laughed too, but hers was much more real. ‘Too late. I’ve nailed you. It’s the foundation.’ She paused for effect. ‘You’ve been thieving from it, haven’t you, Paris?’
Paris’s smile didn’t falter. But the words that followed were so carefully measured she could have been a robot. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said. But the tension in her posture said everything.
The crowd started rumbling again. Ari couldn’t say which way it was going. Nor did she care. She had Paris’s neck under her shoe.
She looked at Paris from under a beefy arm. ‘You’ll take anything from anyone. Of course you’d stoop to that.’
Paris’s jaw clenched, but she refused to look directly at anyone. Instead, her gaze darted between the door, the floor, the walls, anywhere but at the group of people waiting for an explanation.
‘You’re deflecting,’ Paris spat, her voice low but cutting. ‘Because you are the only criminal in this room.’
Ari said nothing to that. She just let things stew. There wasn’t much more for her to say now.
But then Helen, having gotten that ambulance on its way, had something to say.
‘This is absurd. Absolutely ridiculous,’ she repeated, stepping forward with a strange, almost frantic energy. ‘I mean—really, how could anyone believe—’ She stopped herself mid-sentence. Her hands fluttered nervously at her sides like she was fighting an urge to run.
‘This is all based on what exactly?’ Helen continued, now standing a little too close to Paris, as if to shield her. ‘Cal? He’s—’ She paused, but only for a moment, her mind clearly scrambling for some kind of excuse. ‘He’s not even heavily involved in the foundation.’
Everyone looked at Cal. He looked down.
Ari looked at Paris. But Paris wasn’t saying a word. She wasn’t backing up Helen’s story, wasn’t agreeing or denying anything now. She just stood there, silent, as the conversation spiralled around her.
Ari had to admit, she was enjoying herself. Watching this panic was lovely. But ultimately, she didn’t think much would come of it. In the best-case scenario, rumours would forever swirl. Ari could live with that.
But it wasn’t over.
Suddenly, Cal, who had been descending into a sweating mess for the last few minutes, lost it. ‘I told her not to! But she said the events had to be spectacular. She said the budget needed to be taken from the donations. She said the next one would make enough to cover it all—’
‘CAL!’ Paris screamed.
And right then, there was a rap at the door. Paris ran to unlock it and found the police standing there.
‘ARREST HER!’ Paris screamed, pointing at Ari.
‘ARREST HER!’ Ari and Nancy screamed together, pointing back at Paris.
‘HOW DARE YOU!’ Paris screeched, bolting toward Ari, raising her clutch purse, looking oddly like a cave dweller about to commit murder by rock.
The security men turned from Ari, now in the strange position of having to hold back the bride from the initial security problem. ‘Calm down, madam!’ one of them beseeched. But she was wild.
‘What the hell is this?’ asked a policeman, baffled.
Ari stepped away from the security men and their struggle to contain tantruming Paris and turned to find Nancy.
Instead, she bumped smack into Helen.
‘You,’ she said with cold fury and a raised hand.
Ari, ever a lover, not a fighter, turned her face away instinctively.
But the slap never came.