The First Mistake(65)

‘Grandma will be here in time to make you tea,’ she says in a bid to drown out the negative thoughts.

Sophia rolls her eyes. ‘I don’t understand why she has to be here. I’m nearly sixteen – I can look after myself.’

‘That may be so, but there’s Livvy to think of,’ says Alice, hanging on to the door for support. ‘It’s not fair for you to have the responsibility.’

‘Well, why doesn’t she go to Grandma’s and I stay here?’

Alice sighs heavily. ‘We’ve been through this enough times. Will you please just do as you’re told? You know the plan, and that’s the end of it.’

‘When are you going to start treating me like a grown-up?’ Sophia huffs as Alice walks out.

‘When you start acting like one,’ says Alice, under her breath, acutely aware that she sounds like her own mother twenty years ago.

She goes into her bedroom, where Nathan is packing, and can’t help but notice the difference between their organization skills. Whilst her case is lying open with its contents hastily chosen and messily arranged, Nathan has laid out his outfits on the bed, each with the corresponding pair of shoes and colour-coordinated accessories.

‘Hi darling,’ he says, pulling her towards him. ‘All okay?’

She smiles tightly.

‘You sure you want to do this?’ he asks as he kisses her.

‘Absolutely,’ she says.

‘What time’s your mum coming?’

Alice looks at her watch. ‘She’s going to pick Livvy up from school and then do the girls’ tea here.’

‘And you’re okay with it all?’ He hesitates before going on, as if fearful of opening a can of worms. ‘About leaving the girls?’

‘Yes,’ she says, ignoring the weight that is sitting on her chest. ‘No problem.’

‘And we’re going to have fun, as well as see to business?’ he says.

‘Of course,’ says Alice, and she means it, because she can’t remember the last time she let her hair down. She might need to up her medication in order to get herself there, but she’ll get there – she’s determined to.

‘I can’t believe the turnaround in you,’ he says, kissing her on the nose. ‘One minute you’re adamant that AT Designs should save money by holding back on our expansion plans, and the next you’re offering a million pounds for a site in Japan that you’ve not even seen. What changed?’

She could tell him. She could say that the man she’s been doing it all for, to keep his memory alive, not wishing to let him down, was nothing but a cheating bastard. But she doesn’t want to give Tom the credit. She wants Nathan to think that what she’s about to do is what she wants to do, rather than having been dictated to from beyond the grave.

‘I think you’re right,’ she says. ‘It’s about time we put ourselves on the map, and if we have to come out of our comfort zone to do it, then I’m prepared to take that chance.’

‘I love you, Mrs Davies,’ he says.

‘And I love you, Mr Davies,’ she replies, without wishing for a second that she was still Mrs Evans.





31


‘It doesn’t look big enough, does it?’ says Alice in astonishment at the sliver of barren land she’s standing in front of.

‘You’d be amazed what they can fit on this,’ says Nathan, ‘especially here in Tokyo. They’re used to building tall and thin, because space is always at such a premium. They just go upwards.’

‘So, it’s going to be five floors?’ she asks.

‘Yes,’ says Nathan. ‘It’ll be the same height as the athletes’ village over there. We can’t go higher than that.’

Alice shields her eyes from the midday sun as she looks across the river to the vast, brand-new white block standing proudly amongst the cranes and metal-framed structures that will create the Olympic site.

‘This is a prime piece of real estate,’ says Alice, excitedly. ‘Look how close it is.’

Nathan smiles. ‘I know. It may look like a dusty car park, but this is going to be in such huge demand. I can’t actually believe that we’re getting it for such a good price.’

Alice looks over to the towering blocks beyond, where columns of mirror-like windows appear seemingly endless against a blue sky. She feels a knot forming in her stomach. Can they really take on the big boys in a country so far away? In a culture so far removed from their own?

‘We can do this,’ says Nathan, as if reading her mind. He looks at his watch and tugs gently on her hand, beckoning her back to the waiting car. ‘We’re going to be late if we don’t get a move on.’

The chill of the air conditioning hits her as she gets in and the suited chauffeur offers her a cold towel. She accepts gratefully and lays it gently on her face, careful not to disturb the make-up she’s so meticulously applied. She’d caught sight of the platinum ring on her right hand as she put her mascara on earlier, its diamonds no longer an indelible link to Tom, but a nod to his affair with Beth. After all, who’s to say it hadn’t been meant as a present for her?

As Alice had acknowledged that she would never know, she’d ripped it off and thrown it carelessly into her handbag. She had somehow felt different without it, as if something had changed within her. How could it not have? The realization that she’d lived a lie for most of her adult life – the ten years spent with Tom and the ten years spent without him – hit home. A life based on deception and deceit. But now she was finally stepping out of the shadows, a complete woman, no longer peppered with holes that the bullets of the past had left.