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‘I loved Howard, I truly loved him,’ she said, her eyes sparkling with tears. ‘Love isn’t about passion, Tess, whatever you might think. Love is about understanding, and Howard and I understood one another. He was driven and dynamic, everyone who met him knew how successful he was going to be, but we did it together, we were a good team. In Howard I got what I had been taught to want and need. A companion, a wonderful provider, a friend. We had four beautiful children together.’
‘But you were never in love with him.’
She gave the slightest shrug. Her mouth down turned sadly. ‘I never felt those feelings for him. Passion, desire. Things I felt for Olivia,’ she said quietly. Tess felt a rush of conflicting emotions: relief, validation, fear. As much as she wanted to hate Meredith right now for jeopardizing her relationship with Sean, she still didn’t want her to be a murderer. But she had to know.
‘Did you kill Olivia Martin?’ said Tess.
‘NO!’ shouted Meredith, slamming her hand against the chair. She glared at Tess for a moment, then looked away. ‘But you’re right, Tess, as you always are. I was in love with Olivia.’
She stood up and walked to the window, eyes searching the darkening horizon.
‘I first met Olivia on Bunny’s yacht. She was so beautiful and exciting, so alive. It was a year before Howard and I were married. Olivia and I could only make time to see each other about once a month, but we spoke all the time, wrote letters. And yes, we were still together until the night of her disappearance.’
Tess moved a little closer.
‘Tell me about the night of your wedding – the truth, Meredith. Everything. I need to know what you were quarrelling about.’
When she turned back, the old woman’s expression was fearful and pained.
‘Olivia was drunk. High. It always made her aggressive. She cornered me by the fountain and said we needed to talk. I told her it was my wedding day and begged her to wait, but she wouldn’t, so we agreed to meet in the rose garden a few minutes later.’
‘What time was this?’ asked Tess.
‘Maybe eleven fifteen,’ she sighed. ‘When we did meet, she looked so hard–faced. She told me she wanted money. Five thousand dollars a month to keep quiet about us.’
‘Did you agree?’
‘It was a lot of money back then,’ she said with a small, hard laugh. ‘But still, I didn’t want it to come out. I knew very well why Howard married me: respectability. Times were different back then, Tess. A story about Olivia and me would have been a scandal, but it would have been a disaster for a family cosmetics company selling lipsticks and blusher to wholesome Middle America. It seems ridiculous today, but that’s just the way it was.’
Tess frowned. ‘Surely she was just bluffing, though?’ she asked. ‘She had just as much to lose. Why would Olivia allow a story like that to come about herself?’
She shrugged her thin shoulders. ‘Olivia’s career was over. She was thirty and there were younger, prettier girls on the scene. Her TV career had failed to launch and she couldn’t have stayed as an Asgill’s girl for much longer. Besides, I was scared. I was young and it was my wedding day. Forgive me if I didn’t t
hink as rationally as you would have liked.’
Tears glistening on her cheeks, Meredith took a sip of water from a glass standing on the dresser, her hand shaking as she picked it up.
‘I told Olivia we’d talk about it after my honeymoon, then she turned around and left while I went back to the party to watch the fireworks. That was the last time I ever saw her … ’ Finally Meredith’s voice cracked and she covered her face, sobbing at the memory of a love lost but never forgotten.
‘I believe you,’ said Tess quietly, suddenly feeling as if she was intruding on someone’s grief. Meredith looked up as Tess walked to the door.
‘Forgive me about Sean, Tess,’ she said. ‘I was wrong, I know that now.’
Tess forced a smile. ‘Yes, you were,’ she said. ‘But I’m still going to find out what happened to Olivia.’
If only she knew how.
CHAPTER SIXTY–SEVEN
Brooke was still half asleep when she felt the bed move. She turned her head, squinting through the sun creeping through the long white shutters, and saw David sitting there, smiling at her.
‘Are you a sight for sore eyes,’ he said softly, touching her cheek.
‘You’re here?’ she said groggily, struggling back on the pillows. It was the 28th of December. David should have arrived the previous night, but he had phoned to tell her he had to fly to Washington en route to attend some urgent meeting about his new show.
‘Flew straight back from DC,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t seen you all week, baby, but I figured it was better to get all the meetings out of the way so they won’t be disturbing us on honeymoon.’
‘Which they will … ’ she said with a slow smile.
