Chapter 86 Claridge’s
Sometime later
Gloriously sparkling tiles, ornate chandeliers, shimmering art nouveau mirrors – afternoon tea at Claridge’s is a welcome delight.
And I have to say, I feel I deserve it. For someone without a great deal of empathy, to do so much good is surely reason to celebrate.
I feel like someone very noble, such as Evita Perón. I’ve done so much for my people.
Tor is released from her terribly demeaning affair with a blackmailer; Cait from the stinging tentacles of an abusive husband; Georgie from the clutches of a deplorable old witch; Madeleine from gnawing guilt at having destroyed her son’s happiness; Mrs Pembury from the stress and strains of headship; and Nelly from a future of polyester uniforms and low expectations.
The handsome waiter in a white dinner jacket and bow tie asks if I am expecting company. I tell him that I’m waiting for my fiancé and ask for the champagne afternoon tea for two as the grand piano starts up, accompanied by a violin.
I’m wearing a strapless magenta crepe gown with a beautiful satin-twill train.
It’s definitely too much, but it has an hourglass shape and makes me feel like an old-fashioned movie star, even with my bump.
While waiting, I have time to recollect the last few months from the vantage point of a job well done.
Of course, sadly, I ended January without a single husband.
One dead, one voided. In fact, men in general had not had a good time of it.
Hollis, Mercer and Owen all lost their lives; Hollis also lost the love of his life; Lawrence lost the whip when Tor’s scandal emerged; Stephen lost his childhood sweetheart and the delusion that his mother was ever good to him; Josh lost half his penis due to third-degree burns; Zac lost his blackmailing career; and Ranni lost his dream job in Abu Dhabi.
Only Nathan remains unscathed. He has his worms and he’s happy.
Ranni’s passport didn’t go missing at the last moment.
It didn’t need to. Aisha found her own simple strategy.
She stopped arguing with him, wished him well in his new life, and refused to leave the country.
Resistance conquers all, even a husband’s erroneous belief that his patriarchal position is a right not a duty.
Aisha is delighted and has resigned from her position as PTA chair, since she’s just taken on a high-profile client who’s taking all her time. This left an opportunity for someone. I was just in the right place at the right time. Another little tick on my to-do list.
Fortunately, my formal marriage to Hollis, so sadly brought to an end by his sudden death, was validated by lawyers, and as no one challenged my status as his legal spouse, I was the sole beneficiary of his fortune.
I’ve been able to buy the Hampstead house and am already planning various improvements.
Sadly, when Stephen ended his relationship with Georgie, she took it badly and started making all kinds of accusations about me on social media.
Fortunately, before she could do any serious damage she was hit by a blue Toyota Corolla just outside Highgate station – a notoriously busy junction.
The combination of emotional and physical injury has been hard for her and she headed back to Dubai.
The past will come back to haunt you if you don’t smother it with a pillow, as I’ve found out to my cost.
Stephen has come to better appreciate the underlying strength and simplicity of our transactional and uncomplicated love after Georgie’s mercenariness and his mother’s manipulation.
He said he’s always felt a pressure to be happy, but now realizes he doesn’t need to be, and is much more content with being successful.
Our current intimacy rating is 2.4 times per week, and increasing all the time, which bodes well for the future.
Anyway, we remain a permanent port for each other in a stormy world.
In the end, we’re a team and although we’ve faced challenges, we’re now stronger than ever.
And with little Leopoldine on the way (gender now confirmed), Stephen’s already designing a new nursery.
Of course, the baby might be Zac’s, but life isn’t about origins, it’s about destinations, so I’m not even all that curious.
But if she is Zac’s, she will be so beautiful the world will be lucky to have her.
As the Hollis tragedy revealed, Stephen and I were never legally married, so we’ve decided to wed again.
Everyone’s so supportive and the whole saga makes for a great dinner party story.
Hampstead is going to love it as it makes us seem quite bohemian.
I decided to put Hollis’s diamond ring to good use and gave it to Stephen to use as our engagement ring.
Sophie and Paolo also finally agreed on marriage after Sophie gave up drinking and realized drink was the problem not Paolo.
It’s going to be a double wedding, of sorts.
We’re getting married in a fabulously lavish Scottish castle, and the following week, Sophie and Paolo will be married at an approved council venue in Wood Green.
Following the wedding, the baby will be born, and Nelly will start at Adams, which gives me great pride.
Nelly was so happy when I told her she’d passed that tears fell from her eyes.
You see, people often fail themselves in advance by claiming not to care, but in reality it’s because they have no hope of their own success.
It takes others to have that confidence for them.
I’m hoping the rules and routines of a private school will help to rub off her harsh edges and violent outbursts, or at least teach her how to disguise them better, as it has with the aristocracy for centuries.
There was a small funeral for Hollis, which I chose not to attend, as there seem to be some residual feelings of blame coming from his co-workers and family.
Apparently, they think I sought him out once I found out he was rich – oh, the irony!
I understand his mum and dad couldn’t make the trip, so I arranged with the vicar for the ceremony to be live-streamed to Australia. It’s the least I could do.
Cait is still in prison awaiting trial, but thoroughly enjoying the infamy. Her old podcasts have gone viral and she’s delighted. It’s a strange coincidence that she killed my husband and I killed hers, but what are friends for if not to help rid you of undesirable partners?
Anyway, as there are eye-witness accounts of Hollis’s sad ending, Cait will be charged with involuntary manslaughter as she was only trying to protect me.
Quite unexpectedly, however, she has decided to plead guilty to killing and burning Owen.
She told me that she wants to own it, and she likes her new nickname, Two-Time.
Her lawyer was furious about her change of plea, but her literary agent suggested it’d work wonders for her book sales.
She’s a beacon of hope for survivors of domestic violence everywhere, and she really does look good on it.
She’s had her hair cut to give it more body and her skin has even cleared up.
She’s still with her new girlfriend, another murderer as it happens, but shared interests are bound to lead to romance in such confined spaces.
I’ve used Hollis’s money to pay for an excellent firm of lawyers for Cait and will honour my promise to buy her a house for when she gets out.
There’s a vocal campaign in support of her, and the lawyers are hopeful that she will be treated leniently by the courts.
I’m sure she’ll be back at home before the twins reach secondary school, so it’s good to know they won’t be without their mother for too long.
Not wanting to trumpet my generosity, but I did repay Tor the money she paid to Zac.
I told her that I’d managed to force it out of him with threats.
Tor loves money more than anything, and she was genuinely pleased.
We’re on good terms again and planning for Adams together.
She still thinks it was Zac who released the photo, which helps.
She was also rather surprised by the response.
After the initial censure from the other mums, she was soon overwhelmed with praise for her sculpted body and time-management.
She also received several requests for Zac’s number.
Everyone loves a happy ending, and here we are.
No damage done, and lots to be grateful for.
A Hampstead house, a successful marriage, a child in a good school (the new head looks a great improvement on the last one), a baby on the way, and me as PTA chair.
I feel blessed. Even Ellie seems better off.
She was offered places at every other school she applied for and accepted a prestigious 100 per cent scholarship at another good school.
I’ve personally saved that family thousands, but I won’t ask anyone to thank me.
It’s the little unrecorded acts of kindness that make the world go round, as George Eliot so famously wrote.
One would think that I could now rest on my laurels.
However, as Hollis’s will should pass everything to me, in addition to considerable private wealth, I will soon own a billion-dollar AI company.
I’ve never been a CEO before, and the challenge intrigues me.
It’ll require a whole new wardrobe, of course, and I’ll need to study the ins-and-outs of being a successful female CEO to get things right.
And although we’ve just moved in, who knows if Hampstead is my forever home or just another stepping stone? I found myself looking at properties in Kensington the other day and I have to say there was one particular house that piqued my interest.