Page 90 of The Payback Plan
‘I’ll have to go back and pack up the rest of my stuff, although as most of it was recently acquired from charity shops and I’m not likely to wear it again, I guess I could just leave it. But I do need to pick up Pavarotti.’
She could of course arrange for him to be moved through a pet transport company but she’d grown too fond of the hamster to subject him to a long road trip with complete strangers. Her father would do it, as would either of her siblings but with them already concerned for her about the tabloid pictures she’d alerted them to before she got on the plane, she didn’t want to give them any more cause to worry.
This was a mess of her making, she should be the one to tie off the loose ends.
Sienna rested her elbow on the table, propping her chin on her palm. ‘How do you feel about seeing him again?’
Paige had been trying not to think about it but she couldn’t avoid it forever. ‘I don’t know. It’ll be hard I guess.’ At least having Scotland to head to would be a good distraction.
‘Because you love him?’
‘Yeah.’ Loving him and knowing that it didn’t change anything was gutting. Wasn’t love supposed to be transformational? ‘But also because I need to apologise for the way I left things. I was in panic mode and lashing out and I acted impulsively when he was just trying to offer me an alternative way of dealing with it.’
‘Alternative how?’
Paige shook her head, desolation an ache in her throat. ‘It doesn’t matter. If by some miracle Oliver wanted anything to do with me after today, it doesn’t change our circumstances. He’s someone still very much in the public eye. And I am still very much someone with a lot to hide.’
Sienna’s mouth quirked. ‘Humour me.’
Contemplating her friend for a long moment, Paige huffed out a breath. ‘He said I was being passive and that I was punishing myself for something that wasn’t my fault. That I hadn’t doneanythingwrong. He said I should make a stand. That I shouldn’t let Harvey take any more of my life than he already has.’
Sienna didn’t say anything for long moments, just nodded slowly as if she was trying to compute all this new information. Or formulate the right response.
‘Maybe he’s right, Paige?’ she said eventually, her voice gentle. ‘Youdidn’tdo anything wrong. This terrible thing was donetoyou through no fault of your own and yet you’re the one hiding away.’ Removing her hand from under her chin, she slid it across the table to rest on Paige’s forearm. ‘I’m going to do my bit to call Harvey out but… maybe youshouldmake a stand.’
Paige snorted derisively. Make a stand. How could something soill-definedsound so bloody grandiose? Yet, having this same conversation with Sienna, without all the heat and confrontation, the message hit differently.
What if she was right? What ifhewas right?
‘I don’t even know whatmake a standmeans.’
‘Neither do I.’ She patted Paige’s arm and smiled softly. ‘But maybe Olly does?’
Paige didn’t know what to say to that but Sienna seemed so sure of herself she almost believed it. Not that they got to discuss it any more as Astrid’s, ‘Heads up ladies,’ interrupted the discussion. Astrid looked pale but also resolute as she strode toward them, pointing at the window. ‘The eagle has left the building.’
Tossing money on the table, they hotfooted it out of the café and across the road, dodging traffic to reach Bella as fast as they could. She seemed dazed and lost and was shivering when they finally reached her, standing in the frigid cold in nothing but her slinky, not-made-for-a-New-York-February dress and heels, her fingers clasped around a small fashionable clutch. In unison they wrapped their arms around her and held her tight.
‘Where the heck is your coat?’ Sienna demanded.
Astrid nudged Sienna. ‘I don’t think she’s worried about her coat right now.’
‘Let’s get her into a cab,’ Paige suggested, worried Bella was going to fall down if they didn’t get her a seat soon. Spotting one across the street, she walked three paces to the edge of the sidewalk and hailed it and less than a minute later they had all piled in.
‘Where to?’ the cabbie asked.
‘The apartment,’ Bella whispered.
Sienna, in the front seat supplied the address as a tear rolled down Bella’s cheek. Astrid, who looked even more guilt-ridden than she had in the café, shot a worrying look at Paige who put her arm around Bella’s shoulder, surprised when Bella,keep-calm-and-carry-on Bella, curled into her like a child curling into their mother.
Nobody spoke during the trip, not even the driver and Bella didn’t even stir until they were pulling up outside her apartment fifteen minutes later.
‘I need my phone,’ she said absently.
Sienna, who had taken charge of Bella’s clutch said, ‘Here you are,’ as she passed it over then fixed up the driver.
Bella tapped on a preprogrammed number and after only a second or two said, ‘Daddy?’
More looks were exchanged between Paige, Sienna and Astrid. Bella didn’t talk much about her family but they knew things were strained. Or had been anyway.
