Page 174 of Wife After Wife
Damn it, Harry got to keep his yacht. Unbelievably, the idiot British public had voted to cast itself adrift from Europe, to go it alone like it was still fighting off the Nazis in World War II.
Terri threw another file into a cardboard box, then stopped to look around. After what seemed like a lifetime in this office, she’d be leaving it today. She couldn’t help feeling sentimental.
There was still so much to do. Twenty-odd years’ worth of stuff. Terri’s untidiness was legendary. While clean-desk policies had been implemented, no one had been brave enough to suggest Terri complied.
“Ah, Eliza. Just the man.”
Ana’s daughter entered the office like a blast of fresh air. Her red curls were scraped back off her face into a high ponytail, and her deep brown eyes—Ana’s eyes—were full of enthusiasm for her gap-year job helping Terri.
“It’s so exciting to be moving into the new offices, after all these years hearing Dad banging on about how brilliant they’re going to be.”
“Well, if you want to get there quicker, you can empty that filing cabinet. Coffee first, though. If you’d be so kind?”
“On it!”
Terri was delighted to have Eliza on board. She was sharp as a pin, didn’t mind doing the dogsbody jobs, and Terri imagined it would have made Ana smile.
Eliza returned with two coffees and made a start. “Terri, why don’t you chuck some of this stuff out? All the walls are made of glass in the new place, so everyone will be able to see each other’s mess.”
“I ignored that email. I’m too old to change my ways.”
Later, Terri returned from an editorial meeting to find Eliza sitting at Terri’s desk, a file open in front of her. She recognized the papers, and the photo of herself and Ana.Shit.
“Terri, why have you collected all this stuff about Mum’s death?”
Eliza was eighteen now. Didn’t she deserve to know?
“Now’s not the time.”
Eliza must have seen something in her expression. “Nobody’s doing any proper work today. Tell me.”
So Terri did. But she ended by saying, “Look, love. I’ve thought about this long and hard. I’m almost certain it was done without your dad’s knowledge. I’ve never found anything to link him personally to your mum’s death.”
“Why is there a photo of Caitlyn with the Russian guy and Dad?”
Terri hadn’t realized she’d seen that. “Of course, she was your stepmum for a while.”
“She was lovely. I hated Dad for kicking her out. I know why he did now, but he was pretty horrible to her.”
“Yes, that was all very sad. Caitlyn had a dodgy background. She was involved with a drug dealer, and she shacked up with a friend who tried to sell her story to me. Name of Storm. Dreadful person, I sent her packing. Poor Caitlyn. She tried to pull herself out of it when she met your dad, but it’s difficult to shed your past.”
“Dad won’t talk about her now, but he really loved her, I think.”
“He loved all of them, Eliza. Unfortunately for them.”
Eliza was quiet for a moment. “I don’t think I’ll ever get married,” she said. “In fact, I might just stay a virgin all my life.”
CHAPTER 53
Harry
January 2018
Harry glanced up from his desk, looking through the glass walls to the distant boardroom, where he could just make out the huge portrait commissioned to mark the opening of the Rose building. In it, Harry was standing, legs apart, in what Terri had mockingly called a “power stance.” The artist had emphasized his broad shoulders and long legs, but it was a shame the mouth looked rather mean.
They’d been in the new building for just over a year now. The millennials on Harry’s staff were forever Instagramming photos of themselves flying down the glass slide from the third floor to the atrium, or eating their avocado-centric brunches in the café overlooking the Thames. Which was all fine by Harry. He wanted Rose to be the coolest place to work.
He opened up the report on RoseHealth.com that had just popped in from the Greenhouse, his research and development department. It had been Eliza’s idea to share Clare’s “lifestyle change” expertise online. Clare had been all for it. She’d grown tired of Doc Butts’s “twentieth-century approach to wellness” (that word again) and had left not long after her and Harry’s wedding a year ago (a quiet affair, close friends and family only). Now she was casting about for something other than volunteer work to fill her time.
