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Across the road, Harper Conway is in animated discussion with a man half-hidden in the doorway of an office block. As we watch, she leans towards him and wreathes her arms around his neck.
The man with her isn’t her husband.
It’s Stacey’s.
chapter 22
stacey
Felix knows better than to hit her where it shows. He’s skilled at causing her pain without leaving marks. He punches her in the kidneys, or kicks her between her legs.
She’s miscarried twice since they had Archie.
But she’d forgotten she was presenting a special swimwear programme today, part of theMorning Express‘Real Women’ series. She agreed to model a one-piece swimsuit – she draws the line at a bikini on national television – so at least the marks on her stomach will be hidden. But she can’t do anything about the livid bruises on her arms and legs.
‘What on earth happened toyou?’ her wardrobe stylist, Kym, exclaims when Stacey disrobes in her dressing room.
Stacey summons a rueful smile. ‘I tried out one of those electric bikes.’
‘Oh, my God! What happened?’
‘They go faster than you think. Don’t tell anyone – I feel silly enough as it is.’
‘Those things are a menace,’ Kym says, picking up her make-up brush. ‘My friend was working onAmerica’s Got Talentwhen Simon Cowell came off one of those and broke his back. He couldn’t hardly walk for months.’
Stacey’s co-anchor, Brendan, is smug in his trendy board shorts and bare chest when shewalks into the studio. He’s not part of the ‘Real Women’ segment, but he revels in his reputation as the housewives’ wet dream, and isn’t going to pass up an opportunity to show off his six-pack.
‘Nice outfit,’ he says, as she settles herself on the sofa and waits for the sound guy to mike her up. ‘Covers up the old mum-tum a treat.’
He knows how sensitive she is about her weight. Stacey’s battle with the bulge is familiar to viewers: they did a whole series around her ‘weight-loss journey’ a couple of years ago. Her personal ratings went through the roof. Thanks to her nutritionist and personal trainer, at thirty-eight she’s in better shape now than she’s ever been, but she’ll never have flat abs or a thigh-gap, because she’s not a pre-pubescent girl.
‘You’re gonna need to put on a shirt, Brendan,’ the sound man tells him. ‘I have to clip your mike to something.’
The floor manager is already counting down to record the trailer for the upcoming show. As soon as the light above the camera facing her blinks red, Stacey produces the warm, welcoming smile that’s endeared her to the nation.
‘Coming up in today’s show: the heartbreaking story of the “milk carton kids” who disappeared thirty years ago and never came home,’ she says.
‘And we meet the war hero defying the odds to parachute off Mount Everest,’ Brendan says.
‘Plus the latest in our series on Real Women: are any of us really “beach-body ready” and should we even be trying?’ Stacey asks. ‘All that and more in today’sMorning Express Show, coming up right after the news in your area.’
She’s too much the consummate professional to let her distraction show while they’re on-air, but a low-level anxiety gnaws at her all morning. She’s planned her escape from Felix down to the last detail, but so much depends on whether Millie Downton will help her. She’s grateful for the swimsuit segment: once the parade of women in bikinis comes on set, Brendan’s leering misogyny ensures the programme descends into organised chaos, which masks her inattentiveness.
After the show, she joins the production team in the editor’s office for the usual post-mortem. To her disgust and Brendan’s smug delight, three-quarters of the morning’s viewer calls and emails are to ask for more shots of his waxed abs. One of the feature producers suggests sending him out to various scenic locations to recreate famous ‘knicker-wetting’ moments: scything in a field likePoldark’sAidan Turner, or emerging from a lake like Colin Firth inPride and Prejudice.
Stacey excuses herself from the meeting and leaves, texting her agent as she takes the lift down to reception where her car is waiting. She’s anchored theMorning Express Showfor more than a decade. It’s time the network gave her a show of her own, something that’ll give her a chance to show off her serious journalistic chops. She knows her own worth: she’s won the People’s Choice Award for Best Presenter eight years running.
She’s grateful Felix is at work when her driver drops her off at home. She needs time to sort through all their joint paperwork, and make sure she has everything she needs before she pulls the trigger on her plan.
And then her phone beeps with an incoming message from her husband just as she opens the front door:
I’m waiting for you upstairs.
chapter 23
millie
I’m running along the Embankment when Stacey phones me. Exercise helps me come down from my surgical high: I’ve just finished a fourteen-hour coronary artery bypass graft on a fifty-six-year-old woman. The CAPG itself was successful, but my patient suffered a number of complications on the table which tripled my time in theatre. She’ll survive the surgery, but I doubt she’ll live to draw her pension: she’s four stone overweight, and the obese don’t generally make old bones. There’s nothing like slicing down through several inches of yellow adipose tissue to make you want to hit the pavement and work up a sweat.
