Silver Tears(49)

It didn’t matter now.

Nora was lying on her back, looking up at Faye with big blue eyes. There was no doubt about it—she was Jack’s daughter. And Julienne’s half sister, come to that. She was a copy of her father. Faye stared at her as if bewitched before bending down, holding out her arms, and picking her up. She held the child close to her breast.

“There there, there there,” she hushed.

Nora quieted down. Allowed herself to be embraced. The intensity of her crying reduced as Faye made her way back through the apartment to the kitchen.

Faye ended up standing in front of Ylva with Nora in her arms. Ylva couldn’t stay here, she knew. Jack might turn up at any moment and actually manage to get in. Another screech rang out from the apartment next door. Down in the car park, someone was revving up a moped.

“This is what we’re going to do,” said Faye. “You can borrow whatever you need from me to buy an apartment in the middle of town. And you’ll pay it back when you can.”

Ylva looked up, glanced from her daughter to Faye, and then opened her mouth to protest. Faye interrupted her.

“This isn’t up for discussion—it’s strictly a business decision on my part. If you live here your work will be poorer, and you’ll always be worrying that Jack might come back. And since your duties involve assessing new investors in Revenge, that affects me too. You’ve already shown me what you’re made of. You’ve given me what I need and you’ve been loyal.”



Ylva smiled feebly.

“Thanks.”

“Until you find a new place, I don’t think Alice would mind you and this little lady moving in with her. She’s pretty lonely in her big house out on Liding? in the weeks when she hasn’t got the kids. And Jack won’t find you there.”

Ylva wiped away the last of the tears.

“That sounds good,” she said. “That means I can carry on going through the investors in peace and quiet.”

Faye winced. She still hadn’t said anything to the others about David wanting to invest in Revenge’s American expansion. Ylva had warned her against mixing business and her personal life again, so they would probably end up at loggerheads about her considering David as a potential investor. David’s proposal would be reviewed just as thoroughly as all the others and on the same terms—that was important to Faye. He had turned up last, so he’d be assessed last. If they got that far. There was a lot to deal with first.

“Pack a bag with your essentials and we’ll take a cab to Alice’s. I’ll call her now,” Faye said, sitting down at the table with Nora on her knee.

She was longing to be in Madrid. She would regroup and return to Stockholm with a plan to destroy Jack. And stop Henrik’s attempt to steal Revenge from her.





PART THREE





Residents at a property in ?stermalm raised the alarm on Tuesday night when they heard screams and shouts from an apartment. “It sounds like someone’s being killed,” a woman said when she called in.

When uniformed officers arrived on the scene, there was no one there. A police spokesperson declined to issue any further comment on the incident.

Aftonbladet, 26 June





David’s mobile rang. Once again, it said Johanna on the display and he sighed, turned it over on the table, and tried to look unconcerned.

Faye smiled at him and David returned her smile.

They were in a tapas restaurant beside a beautiful cobbled square, not far from the Puerta del Sol.

The sun had set but the evening was still scorching hot. The dulcet tones of street buskers echoed between the whitewashed fa?ades. Faye was wearing a thin white dress, while David was wearing a pale blue linen shirt and thin cotton trousers.

A plate of garlic-fried gambas had arrived and was sitting between them, while to Faye’s right there was a bottle of Chardonnay at rest, tempting her in its silver ice bucket.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Faye asked, nodding at the phone.

David shook his head.

“Not really. I don’t want to talk about anything that isn’t to do with us.”

“Then we won’t.”

“We’ll just have to confront all that stuff when we get home. Can’t we just be in the here and now, you and I, in Europe’s most beautiful city?”

Faye raised her glass.

“You’re right.”



“I’m so incredibly in love with you—do you know that?” said David.

Despite Johanna’s persistent attempts to ruin their trip, they’d had two amazing days in Madrid. Faye fell more in love with David with every minute she spent in his company. He was considerate and kind. Held the door open, pulled out her chair, insisted on paying for everything, bought her flowers and chocolate. Yet he was also modern in his views on equality in a completely straightforward way, and he could grasp that women were treated as second-class citizens in comparison to men. In the boardroom, in the street, in educational institutions. He was interested in what she had to say and asked follow-up questions. Not out of a sense of obligation, but because he was genuinely interested in her thoughts and opinions. His eyes sparkled when she spoke. He made her feel appreciated and loved in a way that Faye had never felt before.

Faye realized that she was smiling and David was looking at her quizzically, but she merely shook her head and waved it away. It was impossible to put her emotions into words.