One of the Girls(49)

Saw the intensity in her eyes as they burned into his.

Now he remembered.





40

Eleanor

Eleanor placed her fingertips to her temple. She felt dizzy, too hot. The neckline of her T-shirt was compressing her throat.

Her mind skipped back years and years, to when Ed was graduating from university. She remembered overhearing a hushed conversation in their father’s study: Ed had got a first-year student pregnant. He’d wanted her to terminate the pregnancy, but she’d refused. Her mother had caught Eleanor listening and redirected her to the kitchen, fingers digging into the top of her arm.

‘What’s going to happen?’ Eleanor had asked. She’d meant to the baby, to the pregnant girl, but her mother had answered:

‘Don’t worry. Ed will be fine. Your father and he will smooth things out.’

Smoothing was a family speciality. If she remembered rightly, a contract had been drawn up by Ed and her father, agreeing to a monthly maintenance contribution in exchange for Ed’s anonymity. Handy to come from a family of lawyers when you needed to cover your own arse.

The girl’s name was Juliana. They’d never met, but Eleanor had often found herself wondering about her and the baby. Did she have a boy or girl? Where did they live? Did Juliana ever return to university? Was she happy?

Several years ago, prompted by an afternoon spent with a cousin’s newborn, she’d asked Ed, ‘Do you ever wonder about your baby?’

He’d looked at her, appalled. ‘I’ve closed the entire thing from my mind. I suggest you do the same.’

And that was that.

Until now.

‘I take it,’ Eleanor said into the phone, ‘that Lexi doesn’t know you have a child?’

‘No.’

‘Don’t you think you should’ve told her?’

‘I was scared that if I told her, she’d run.’ She caught a rare note of vulnerability in his voice. He really did love Lexi.

‘High flight risk,’ Eleanor said. That’s how Ed had described Lexi. She was wonderful, fun, gregarious, but also had an air of someone who might just disappear, like she was too good to be true. Pouff! ‘Do you think Ana knows who you are? Who Lexi is?’ Eleanor asked.

‘It can’t be a coincidence. Juliana – Ana – knows my name. Lexi will have spoken about me, used my name. She knows exactly who I am.’

Huh. Eleanor looked again towards the taverna. Ana was reaching for a jug of water. She refilled Lexi’s glass, then her own. An itchy sensation travelled across her skin: Ana had been lying to her. To all of them.

Eleanor hated liars.

‘Has she asked anything about me?’ Ed said.

Ana had asked several questions about Ed, like whether he’d be happy about the news of Lexi’s pregnancy and what sort of father he’d be. ‘Yes, she has. I think she was digging.’

‘Bitch,’ she heard Ed say beneath his breath.

‘What do you want me to do? Poison, blade, or gun?’

‘Don’t joke.’

‘I’m not. Why has she befriended Lexi? Why not just speak to you?’

‘Money. She gets double the maintenance if there’s no contact between us and my identity remains undisclosed until Luca is eighteen.’

Eleanor was quite familiar with the sensation of being appalled by her brother, her family. ‘Luca,’ she said slowly. ‘So you knew he was a boy?’

‘Yes, I knew. I have a copy of the birth certificate.’

‘Is your name on it?’ she asked, but even as she did, she knew the answer to the question. Under the heading Father, it would read Unknown. Another condition of Ed’s contract.

‘I need to talk to Lexi before Ana does. I’m going to get on a flight right now.’

‘There are only two connecting flights from Athens and they’re on Sundays and Wednesdays. The earliest you’ll get out here is the day we leave.’

‘Shit.’ She could hear him pacing, knew he’d be making tight strides, arms rigid, a knot of tension clenching his jaw. ‘Then I’ll have to do it when I pick her up from the airport. Tell her face to face. That’s the right thing, isn’t it?’

‘Best you’ve got.’

‘Listen, Eleanor, I don’t want Ana to work out that we know who she is. I don’t want her saying anything to Lexi, not until I do. And I need you to keep your eye on her. You’ll do that for me, won’t you?’

She agreed.

‘Call me tomorrow. Let me know everything is okay.’

She ended the call and remained rooted to the spot, shoulder blades pressing into the stone wall of the church. Her neck fizzed with tension, mind abuzz.

A Greek woman ascended the steps, a baby swaddled in a light blanket in her arms. She caught the shock of dark hair, the perfectly round head. She remembered the look on Ana’s face when Lexi announced she was pregnant. She was surprised, like the rest of them, but there was something else there, too. A hollowed expression, the swallow of her throat, her eyes lowering for a moment. She’d pressed her lips together before lifting her head, smiling, offering up her congratulations. Eleanor had never been particularly good at reading people; she’d assumed Ana was simply surprised like the rest of them – but now she wondered what that expression revealed.