Page 106 of The Sisters
‘How did you know?’ squealed Violetta.
‘Grace told me,’ said Carlotta as she hung up.
Everyone seemed to be moving on. She was pregnant, in lust with the child’s father, one sister was a recovering alcoholic, the other one happily dating a brain surgeon while starring in a reality TV series, and her mother in some fantasy marriage to a man who could potentially be her biological father. Carlotta started to laugh at the absurdity of her life and by the time she arrived back at her apartment was almost weak from laughing so hard.
As she took the elevator upstairs, she felt dizzy from the movement and struggled to get the key into the lock. She ran to the bathroom and threw up into the sink. This was going to be hell, she decided.
33
Spencer, Atlanta – October 2010
Birdie would be here with him tonight. She said she had something to tell him, something important. He walked around his house, waiting for Birdie’s arrival, wishing he was in New York with her. He had wanted to be with her when she left Leon. He didn’t trust that man, but Birdie was insistent that she had to do it alone.
He waited for her phone call, he was to meet her at the airport. She would call the girls when she arrived. None of them knew about her plans. She was going to tell Violetta, the one Birdie knew would understand the most, but they had fought over lunch.
Spencer worried about the girls. Carlotta, lost in her horses and afraid of connecting to real people. Violetta and her endless parties and need for love. And Grace, an old woman at twenty-five. He wished he was closer to them, could offer them guidance. But he never intruded, only helped when asked. He didn’t want to push them away. He had a feeling that one day they would come to him when it really mattered.
He checked his watch. Birdie should have called by now, he thought, beginning to become worried. Then the phone rang. Filled with relief, he almost ran to answer it.
‘Birdie?’ he asked. ‘Thea? Hi, what’s wrong?’ he asked, listening to the woman bawling on the end of the phone.
‘I’m coming,’ he said, and hung up.
You will die for this Leon, he thought, as he ran from the home he had built for the woman who lay in a coma in New York.
34
Grace dressed in her most sombre outfit, a Jason Wu tweed grey dress, with a black Stella McCartney wool blazer. She attached vintage Georg Jensen earrings and a matching bracelet. Black heels and opaque tights. She looked at herself in the mirror. Minimal makeup and a spray of Aromatics by Clinique and she was out the door.
Carlotta was sitting at the boardroom table with Chris, Violetta and Spencer when she arrived.
‘Morning,’ she said.
‘Hi,’ said Violetta.
Carlotta smiled at her. Grace gave her a look as if to ask how she was and sat down next to her. Carlotta lifted up her long sleeved black jumper and showed her the motion sickness bands beneath her sweater. Grace raised her eyebrows.
Spencer’s phone rang and he picked it up and walked from the room. The sisters sat in awkward silence while Chris pretended to be absorbed in the spreadsheet in front of him. When Spencer walked back into the room, Grace spoke. ‘Everything OK, Spence?’ she asked, hoping to change the conversation.
Spencer looked distracted. ‘Fine, fine.’ And he sat down in his chair.
The door opened and Chris’s secretary stood in the doorway. ‘The board is here,’ she said.
The men filed in, murmurs and greetings filled the room, and the sisters suddenly felt nervous.
Chris stood up. ‘Thank you for finding the time to reschedule,’ he said. ‘As you know, we have our new shareholder in today. There has been a closed meeting between the previous shareholder and this new party, and so we have no idea who they may be. I would ask that whatever happens we keep our heads about us and remain calm.’
‘Why all the cloak and dagger, Chris?’ asked Nicolas Canturi.
‘It was part of the deal. I would have liked to know earlier but I haven’t been able to source any details.’
‘What about you?’ asked Nicholas of the sisters.
Violetta shook her head. ‘I haven’t heard a thing.’
‘Me neither,’ said Grace.
‘I saw Matthew and asked him and he told me he has signed papers that forbade him to not speak of the deal till after this meeting,’ Carlotta said.
