The Prisoner(26)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN


PAST

I woke up in my hotel room in Las Vegas, and the events of the previous day came flooding back. Had I really gone through with it? I held up my hand, saw the gold band that Ned had placed on my ring finger, and a terrible doubt took hold.

It’s fine, it’s a business arrangement, that’s all. You thought it through and decided that the chance to go to college without having to worry financially was worth the risk.

Now, in the cold light of day, I thought about that risk. But when it came down to it, I couldn’t see that it was so very great. I wasn’t worried that Ned wouldn’t pay me, a hundred thousand pounds was nothing to him. Nor was I afraid that he might want sex, despite telling me that it was purely a business arrangement. In all our time here, he had never done anything to make me uncomfortable, or made a remark that was out of place. People might judge me for being stupid enough to get married on the spur of the moment to a man I barely knew, but the story Ned and I had agreed to tell—that we’d been secretly dating for a few months, and that he whisked me off to Las Vegas with the intention of asking me to marry him—would make it more understandable.

If it hadn’t been for Carolyn, I wouldn’t have had any misgivings at all. She would be hurt that I’d kept a supposed relationship with Ned from her. It bothered me that I couldn’t tell her the truth. But if I did, she’d be angry that I’d married him for money. Except that I hadn’t, not really, because I’d given him something in return, a way out of what to him was an impossible situation. To be honest, I couldn’t see why he didn’t just stand up to his father. But maybe, in wealthy families like his, there were certain things that had to be done out of duty.

I pushed myself up on my pillows, looked at the ring on my hand again. Once I told Carolyn that our marriage was a stupid mistake, it would be fine. And she wouldn’t be angry at me for long—I’d be able to tell her in a month, because yesterday was August 1st and Ned and I had agreed that we’d announce our separation on the first of September. Once we had, I’d move back to my apartment and carry on with my life. I’d have to leave my job at Exclusives, because no one would expect me to continue working there once we’d separated. But then I’d look for another job to take me through to next September, when I’d finally be able to go to college.

It had actually been fun yesterday. When I arrived at the chapel, Ned had been waiting with a bouquet of flowers and two witnesses. The ceremony was over in fifteen minutes. Outside, we’d posed for a photograph and Ned had joked that his parents were about to get the shock of their lives. We’d walked back to the hotel, had more champagne and a celebratory dinner, then Ned had gone to his room, and I had gone to mine.

I stretched my limbs, sorry that I was going to have to leave this luxurious bed, this beautiful hotel. But I needed to get up, the taxi was coming at ten to take us to the airport.

The hotel phone on the bedside table rang and I smiled that Ned was acting like a husband, checking I was ready.

“Amelie?”

My heart leapt into my mouth; it wasn’t Ned, it was Carolyn. If Carolyn was phoning me here, at the hotel—how did she even know I was here?—something must have happened.

“Carolyn, is everything alright?”

“Amelie, thank God. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?” She sounded close to tears and my panic increased.

“I left it on the plane, I’ll get it back later today, when we land, we’re leaving this morning. What’s happened, are you alright, is Daniel alright?”

“Yes, yes, what about you, how are you?”

“I’m fine,” I said, puzzled at the urgency in her voice.

“I didn’t know where you were, I tried to find out, I phoned Exclusives, spoke to Ned’s PA, but she wouldn’t tell me which hotel you were staying at, she said Ned had left instructions not to be disturbed, and it was more than her life was worth. Amelie, I have to ask, how has Ned been toward you? He hasn’t tried to pressure you into anything, has he?”

My heart started thumping. Had she already heard about our marriage? “What do you mean?” I asked.

“It’s just that—Amelie, he assaulted Justine.”

“Assaulted her? Ned assaulted Justine?” I sat down on the bed, my legs suddenly weak. “I don’t understand. He can’t have.”

“He did, he turned up at her apartment late at night, he said he needed to speak to her about her contract. She didn’t want to let him in but he said he wouldn’t be long as Hunter was waiting downstairs in the car. He asked if he could have a coffee and while she was in the kitchen—well, he cornered her, began grabbing her, saying she had teased him for years, that she was an ungrateful bitch, that she owed him for giving her a job in the first place.”

My head was spinning, I could hardly understand what Carolyn was saying.

“But—when was this? Ned’s been here with me for the last few days.”

“Last Friday.”

I drew in my breath. The day before we left for Las Vegas.

“It was awful, Amelie,” Carolyn went on. “She only managed to stop him by grabbing a knife and threatening him with it.”

I clapped my hand over my mouth. “How is she, how is Justine?”