Chapter 41
FORTY-ONE
The hotel foyer was almost empty. Its rich velvet furniture and thick carpets absorbing all sounds except the classical music playing through hidden speakers. As they approached the reception desk, Ellen spotted a large white noticeboard on an easel.
Chemistry Today Winter Awards Ceremony. The Wellington Room. First Floor.
She pointed it out to Lucy who got directions from the young man on reception.
The lift seemed to take an age to come. ‘Do you think they’re in there? The girls?’
She’d sent another two texts to Grace from the Uber, but hadn’t had a reply. Lucy rattled the button to the lift in impatience. ‘I don’t know. But I’m hoping they haven’t found Ian yet. Let’s take the stairs.’
The staircase was wide and carpeted in the same dark-blue velvet as the reception area. By the time they got to the top, Ellen was a little out of breath. ‘Where now?’
Lucy pointed to a large wooden door bearing a brass nameplate: The Wellington Room. ‘In there.’
Ellen had never gatecrashed an event in her life. But this was for Grace. ‘Let’s go.’
On the other side of the door, the room was full of round tables seating maybe eight to ten people. All the men were dressed in black tie, the women in silk or sequins. Whoever Chemistry Today were, they liked to put on a party.
Ellen had felt good in the calf-length ruby dress she’d worn for dinner with Lucy and Joe, but felt decidedly underdressed in this company: even the waiting staff wore bow ties.
They kept to the very edge of the room as they scanned the tables for the girls, but they were nowhere to be seen.
She whispered to Lucy. ‘Maybe they changed their minds?’
A couple of people around the tables at the back had turned to look at them.
Any minute now and someone was going to come and ask them what they were doing here.
Lucy seemed oblivious to this as she started to wander up the side of the room, checking the tables.
Ellen followed, trying to ignore the glances they were getting.
There were people meandering around, waiters pouring drinks, and a hubbub of chatter and laughter.
‘There!’ Lucy pointed to the side of the temporary stage that had been erected at one end of the room.
Relief swept over Ellen. They’d found them and Ian McCready was nowhere in sight.
Just as they were about to walk across the room to them, a tall thin man in an expensive dinner suit tapped the microphone.
‘If I can have your attention again, ladies and gentleman, we are about to present our final award of the night.’
Ellen and Lucy froze in place on their side of the room, trying to get the girls’ attention without drawing any to themselves.
The man on the stage continued, ‘Before I introduce this year’s recipient of the Chemistry Today Award for Significant Contribution to Research, I have had a last-minute request, which I think the recipient will enjoy.’
When he then looked over at Grace and Charlotte with a smile, Ellen’s stomach clenched. What was going on?
As both girls took the three steps up to the podium, Lucy grabbed Ellen’s arm. She could barely hear her voice over the polite applause. ‘What are they doing?’
Whatever it was, they were too late to stop it.
Charlotte stepped up to the microphone first.
‘Hello, everybody. I hope you’ve had a nice dinner. Thank you for letting us come to speak to you this evening on a night to honour Ian McCready.’
Ellen followed the direction of Charlotte’s hand to a table at the very front of the room and that was the first time she saw him. Ian.
Her gasp made a woman sitting close by turn and frown at her. There he was. Looking a little older, but really not much different than he had when they were young. Lucy leaned in close to her ear. ‘The bastard hasn’t even had the decency to age.’
She was right. Much as she hated him, he was a very attractive man. The arrogance was still there: tilted back in his chair, jacket unbuttoned, elbow resting on the table, the familiar sneer on his lips. He still believed he was better than everyone.
Even he looked confused at the two young women on the stage pointing towards him. He had no idea who they were. Grace, she could understand, but Charlotte? He’d known her. He’d lived with her. Had he not taken any interest in following her online at least?
Now Charlotte was addressing the audience again. ‘You may be wondering why we are giving this introduction tonight. Well, it’s because we both wanted to pay tribute to this man before you. My name is Charlotte Meads and Ian is my father.’
Ian had frozen in his chair, oblivious to the shock on his face, murmurs of surprise and pleasure rippled around him. The other guests must be expecting a sweet speech of love from these two girls. How wrong they were.
‘As you may know. my father studied chemistry at Canterbury University where he met my mother. Some might say that they had instant chemistry.’
Her smile was so saccharine as she waited for the polite laughter at her joke. She had them in the palm of her hand. Ian stuck a finger in the front of his collar and pulled at it as if it was too tight. Was he worried? Ellen really hoped so.
‘I was born a year after my parents graduated. Mum was hoping for a girl, Dad was hoping for a termination.’
The atmosphere in the room changed, but there were still a few uncertain laughs, maybe thinking that she was still joking. The look on Ian’s face was thunderous.
‘Still, they did make a go of it and he lived with us for – about a year or so, I think? He came home most nights, apparently. And I think it was only three times that my mother was absolutely sure that he had screwed someone else.’
Now the room was absolutely silent. No one was still under the misapprehension that this was some kind of joke.
The man who had been on stage when they arrived was ashen, Ian called out to him. ‘Are you not going to stop this?’
But when the man moved, Lucy stepped in front of him. ‘Don’t even think about it.’
Charlotte’s tone was still so upbeat that people were looking from her to Ian as she continued her speech. ‘Can you imagine my surprise when I found out that I had a sister that I knew nothing about and – even more curious – she was a year older than me?’
Charlotte took a step to the side and nodded at Grace. Ellen’s stomach lurched. Was she really going to do this?
Within a heartbeat, she discovered that, not only was she going to do it, but she was going to make sure everyone heard her, loud and clear.
‘My name is Grace Cooper and I have never met my biological father before today. In fact, I don’t know that he even knows that I exist.’ She stared Ian down in way that made Ellen’s heart swell with pride. ‘Hello, Dad.’
Ian opened and closed his mouth, shocked into silence.
‘The reason I haven’t met him is that Ian spiked my mother’s drink so that she was unconscious when I was conceived.’
That made him move. He stood so quickly that his chair clattered to the floor behind him. ‘What is going on? Somebody needs to stop them. Where is security?’
Frantically, he looked around him for help. Seeing him so rattled was more pleasurable than Ellen had expected. But no one came to his aid. She wouldn’t mind betting that there were several people in this room tonight who were pleased to see him get his comeuppance.
Grace – articulate, confident, strong – kept going.
‘We have only just realised that we are sisters. And we’re wondering – Daddy – whether there are any more half-sisters or half-brothers out there?
Just in case, we’re going to make it our business to try and find all the other women whose drinks you spiked so that you could rape them. ’
Shocked gasps peppered the room at the use of that word. Had they not been listening? Did they think there was a difference between drink spiking and assaults in the park? Were they more shocked at the words of these young women than they were at the actions of the man who sat among them?
Charlotte put a hand on Grace’s shoulder and swept an arm to encompass the room.
‘There are plenty of people filming this right now and I would imagine that some of those videos are going to make it on to the Internet before the night is over. When you post them, please add the hashtag IanMcCreadySpikeStory and make sure you tell the press that we’re available for interviews and comments. ’
‘That’s enough!’ Ian leaped forward as if he was going to climb the stage, but wasn’t fast enough to stop Ellen and Lucy getting in his way, standing between him and the girls.
Lucy’s voice was pure hate. ‘No you don’t, arsehole.’
He recoiled as if she’d struck him. ‘What are you doing here?’ His eyes widened as he saw Ellen. ‘Ellen? Is that you?’
Her name on his lips made her feel sick, but if her daughter was brave enough to do what she’d just done, then Ellen wasn’t about to be the weakest link. ‘Yes, it’s me.’
Old habits die hard and he looked at her as if she was dirt on his designer shoes. ‘I’d hardly recognise you. The years have not been kind. What the hell are you doing here?’
Lucy almost went for him, but Ellen held out her hand to keep her back.
He wasn’t going to make her feel small any more.
‘Since the night that you raped me, I’ve had to live with a guilt that doesn’t belong to me.
I’m here to give it back to you. Because, you know what?
Despite what you took from me, I’ve won.
However awful your actions, I got Grace from it.
And I got Robert. And then Emily. And I got a wonderful life with my family.
We are safe. I don’t know what kind of life you’ve built for yourself, but you might want to start saying goodbye to it.
Because we’re not keeping secrets any longer. ’
For a moment, she thought he might hit her. But then he sneered at her. ‘I don’t think so. You’ll be hearing from my lawyer in the morning.’
By this time, Grace and Charlotte had made their way down from the podium. Grace put her arm around Ellen’s waist. ‘That’s good. Maybe he can also sort out your appointment for a DNA test.’
When did her daughter become so quick and confident? Ellen held her close. On her other side, Lucy reached her right arm around Charlotte and her left across the top of Ellen’s back.
They stood there, watching him. Four strong, confident women standing firm in the truth.
Ian McCready, face like stone, turned and walked away.