Page 12 of Forever is Now

Margaret Taylor: You’re lucky I’m a restrained woman. Because you deserve to rot for what you’ve done to my daughter.

Adelaide James: [She laughs] Perhaps you should be careful what you say, given this is being recorded.

Margaret Taylor: I’m not a lawyer anymore, so I can say what I want.

Adelaide James: Anyway, I’ve got Summer’s topics here. So, please, tell us about your daughter.

Margaret Taylor: She’s my youngest. She’s always been a bonnie little thing. Determined, headstrong when she wants to be, but so, so kind. My Summer, she’d never hurt a fly. She’s always only wanted what’s best for people. Always looking out for others. That’s why it’s so unfair what’s been done to her. What those reporters and tabloids have done.

Adelaide James: Some would argue that reporters are the purest. We set the record straight. But anyway, what do you want the world to know about Summer?

Margaret Taylor: I want you all to know that she is vulnerable. She may be an amazing writer and she may be famous right now, but that doesn’t mean she’s invincible, unbreakable. Because my daughter has broken before—in all of this. And I do not want to be picking up the pieces again. People seem determined to give her a trial by media, even when she’s never been legally accused of doing anything wrong. And that’s not fair. It’s things like this, things that happen to innocent people, that lead to loss. Loss of lives, and I am begging you, that if you’re one of those people who’s read the paper and sent Summer a message on social media, accusing her, threatening her, that you stop.

You stop and you think about what you’re doing.

Because if you don’t. If you continue, there will be blood on your hands.

And that is as much as I am willing to say. I am going to find my daughter now.

DAY TWO

Monday July 22nd, 2024

Summer Taylor-Braddon: So, Adelaide, here’s how this is going to work today. I’m going to talk first. And I’m also going to introduce a couple of your most famous articles. You’ll then have your chance to respond—and I gather that you’ve invited some guests to the studio, for later today?

Adelaide James: I have, yes. And you may be sitting there all smug now, but you won’t by the time I’ve finished with you.

Summer Taylor-Braddon: If you say so. Now, let’s get back to the truth, shall we?

For a long time, Ruari and I had not been able to agree on where we were going to go for our honeymoon. We both loved natural places, and we wanted to explore somewhere we’d never been before, but there were just so many amazing places. That was our problem.

Eventually, we agreed to do a sort of tour of some of Indonesia’s islands. We were starting with Sumatra, then we’d go to Bali, then Lombok.

We got the train toLondon Heathrow Airport and then flew from London to Kualanamu International Airport in Medan. The whole flight took something like sixteen hours, and had one stop, and to be honest, we were both grouchy when we landed because we just hadn’t been able to sleep on the plane. I can’t even remember what time it was there when we arrived, but we were bone-tired and as soon as we got to the hotel, we just slept.

The next day though, we were able to explore Medan. So, it’s the largest city in the world’s sixth largest island. That’s what Ruari kept telling me. He’d looked up loads of facts about the places we were visiting, and I never checked any of them, but they sounded right.

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