Silver Tears(64)

“You know, it’s not especially flattering when the light catches your head at that angle. But I know several people who’ve been very happy with what the Poseidon Clinic has done for them. They shave the hair off, pick a spot on your neck and harvest the follicles, and then implant them where it’s gone thin. Really great results.”

She raised two thumbs and Henrik grasped the edge of the desk. For a moment, he looked like he was going to explode. From her seat, Faye couldn’t see into the open-plan office behind her, but she guessed that every single member of the staff was pretending to work while doing everything they could to see what was going on inside her office. Which would soon be Henrik’s office, she thought to herself, suddenly feeling nauseated.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” Henrik said with a grimace. “You’re trying to drive me up the wall, just like you did with Jack. You ruined his life, Faye. You took everything from him. And, yes, I’ve heard your lies about him and I don’t believe a single word of them. Jack wasn’t like that. Jack was…I know you’re lying.”

He spoke through gritted teeth and Faye swallowed. She controlled the urge to answer cuttingly that he had no way of judging what Jack was and was not capable of. Especially not in relation to his own daughter. But she guessed it was pointless. Henrik wasn’t there to listen.

“You didn’t just take everything from Jack. You took everything from me too.”

“You seem to have managed all right anyway,” Faye said acerbically, looking at his tailored Armani suit and his Patek Philippe Nautilus.

“No thanks to you,” said Henrik.

Faye shrugged.

“You’ve always liked being a victim, Henrik. Even back at college. Everything was always someone else’s fault.”



“Do you think you’re in a position to have this sort of attitude toward me, Faye?”

“Does it matter what sort of attitude I have? Does that change anything?”

Henrik smiled, reclined, and put his feet on the desk. All of a sudden, he looked at her in amusement.

“No. Nothing whatsoever, really. I’m doing what I planned to do. It’s done. I’m the majority shareholder and I’m going to propose a new board of directors as soon as possible. Without you.”

Faye held out her arms.

“Well, congratulations. You’ll soon have Revenge in your hands. Take the office now, it’s yours. But do you have any vision? Do you know anything about how to run a company like this?”

Henrik sat up in his seat.

“Faye, the problem with you is that you’re an empty shell. You’re just an exterior and there’s nothing of any value underneath it. Jack knew that. I know that. Everyone around you notices it as soon as they get to know you. You can trick people for a bit, but sooner or later, they realize who you are. No one can love you, Faye.”

He chuckled. His eyes were bright, and once again in her mind’s eye she saw how the rivets on the bag would rip open his fiery red skin.

Instead, she stood up slowly. She sat down on the edge of the desk. He appeared to find that discomfiting, and shrank back in his desk chair.

“I understand where this need to assert yourself comes from, Henrik. Alice has told me everything. But they can even perform operations for that these days. They can definitely add an inch. Maybe you should consider it. Because you can’t use my company as a penis extender…”

She smiled scornfully at him, stood, picked up her Chanel bag, and swept out of her former office.

Behind her, she heard a crash. Henrik had thrown something right at the glass wall. She smiled: 1–0 to her. She had kept an even temper, he hadn’t. She only hoped it wasn’t a Pyrrhic victory.





The heat didn’t dissipate. Faye left the office on Birger Jarlsgatan and strolled toward Stureplan to eat lunch alone. She needed to gather her thoughts, sort through them, after what had just happened. Revenge had been lost, but she hoped only temporarily. Ylva seemed to be putting all her faith in plan B.

Faye had always struggled to think when sitting still with nothing but empty walls to look at. She needed external stimuli—to see people, to hear them.

The tourist season was in full swing. Clusters of tourists were wandering around the city. She didn’t blame them. Stockholm was beautiful—she loved the place. But she couldn’t enjoy it in the same way she had when she had first arrived from Fj?llbacka. Her eyes had grown accustomed and were no longer as keenly alert to its beauty.

Faye reached Stureplan and stood immobile for a while under the big concrete mushroom, wondering where to go.

The outdoor area at Sturehof was full. Granted, she had nothing against being seated indoors, but she would have preferred not to bump into anyone she knew. Not now, when the rumors of her loss of Revenge were probably spreading like wildfire. She walked toward Strandv?gen, passing the luxury shops without looking in the windows, feeling how the walk was waking up her brain. The water in Nybroviken glittered in the sun. The quaysides were filled with people. She stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the light to change.



She felt empty. The brief euphoria she had felt in getting Henrik to lose his composure had gone. Instead, she felt nothing. She searched for her rage. The darkness. The turbid water. But all she found was emptiness in those depths. It surprised her. Took her off her guard. She always knew how to deal with rage, but she didn’t know how to deal with nothing.