The First Mistake(95)

‘What the hell is going on?’ he says when he reaches her, a little out of breath. ‘Why have you dragged me out here? We haven’t got time for this, you need to authorize the bank and Yahamoto and get Japan done.’

‘I’m not completing on Japan,’ she says, her voice wobbling.

He starts to come towards her. ‘You have to, darling. We’ll lose a hundred thousand pounds if we don’t.’

‘Is that not enough for you, Nathan? Wouldn’t you have been wise just to take the deposit money and run?’

‘Wh-what?’ he says, as his eyes slide from side to side. ‘What do you mean?’

‘But you wanted to hold out for the big one, didn’t you?’ Alice goes on. ‘You got greedy. What were you going to do with the money, Nathan? Do you have another life all lined up, ready to walk into? Were you going to use the money to charm your next victim? Like you did me.’

‘Darling, you’re not well,’ he says, opening his arms out to her. ‘I know you’re back on the tablets, you’re drinking too much, you’re allowing things to get to you and mess with your head. You need help.’

Without even thinking, she steps forward and slaps him hard across the face. He holds his burning cheek with his hand and looks at her in shock.

The mask finally slips. ‘You’re going to go through with Japan,’ he hisses. ‘Get on the phone now and authorize completion.’

She stands there, jaw set, but her heart is beating so fast she’s sure she can feel it banging against her ribcage. ‘I’m not doing it, Nathan.’

He lunges at her and pins her against a concrete pillar. ‘You don’t have a choice,’ he says, his breathing heavy. ‘Just get on the phone and do it.’

‘No,’ she croaks, shaking her head as much as she’s able to.

He hits the wall above her head with his fist. ‘Fucking do it. Now!’

Alice recoils as his knuckles pass within millimetres of her face. She feels unable to breathe, her lungs burning, as she struggles to keep calm. Nathan grabs her roughly by her cheeks and she’s sure she’s stopped breathing altogether.

‘Nathan!’ calls out Beth from the top of the stairs.

His head spins around. ‘You?’ he questions, as if unable to believe what he’s seeing. He looks from Beth to Alice and back again. ‘What the fuck . . .?’

‘Is it true, Nathan?’ asks Alice, his grip on her face weakening. ‘Did you steal Beth’s money?’

His eyes are wide, his pupils dilated.

‘You owe me,’ hisses Beth.

‘For what?’ laughs Nathan hollowly. ‘It was your own greed that brought you down.’

‘You killed my mother,’ she says.

‘That’s a little over-dramatic, isn’t it? Did I force either of you to give me money? Or did you give it to me willingly?’

Alice wants to close her ears, so that she can’t hear what her husband was capable of in a different life.

In this life, she says to herself.

‘You were going to do it again, weren’t you?’ says Alice, trying desperately hard not to cry as the reality hits her. ‘You were prepared to walk away from our marriage and children, for money.’

‘I’ve done my time,’ he spits. ‘There isn’t another man on this earth who would have put up with what I’ve had to. Constantly having to reassure you, convince you that nothing was going to happen to me, that I wasn’t going to leave you like your beloved Tom did. You sucked me dry, Alice.’

‘Don’t you dare put yourself in the same sentence as him,’ she screams, hitting Nathan’s chest with all the strength that she can muster. ‘You will never be the man he was. He was cut from a different cloth. You don’t even come close.’

He grabs hold of her wrists and leans in so that his face is just millimetres from hers. ‘Cut from a different cloth, you say? I very much doubt that. I think we’re a lot more similar than you think.’

‘Leave her alone,’ says Beth, stepping forward.

‘Or what?’ he snarls.

Beth raises her arm to hit him, but Nathan catches it and twists it up and around her back. His face is distorted and beads of sweat are dotted on his forehead as he moves towards the edge of the building, taking Beth with him.

‘Get on the phone,’ he says to Alice. ‘Authorize the deal.’

‘Why are you doing this?’ she asks. ‘When did you become this person I don’t recognize?’

‘You made me like this,’ he spits. ‘You, her, him . . .’

‘Him?’ Alice questions.

‘Darling Tom,’ he says, snidely. ‘The golden child who could do no wrong.’

Alice shakes her head in confusion, whilst Beth winces as he tightens his grip on her.

‘You’re not making any sense,’ says Alice. ‘What has Tom got to do with any of this?’

‘He took what was mine,’ says Nathan. ‘You both did.’

Alice looks to Beth, her expression as puzzled as her own.

‘You think that AT Designs is all yours?’ he shouts at Alice. ‘Well, it isn’t. Whatever Tom put in, half of it was mine. So all this time you’ve been bleating about it being Tom’s company, how his interests have got to be protected, how you’ve got to do right by him . . .’