Original Sin

He was silent for a moment as the car engine started. ‘You seemed to be getting on well with Ally.’

‘She’s nice …’ said Brooke obtusely.

‘You’re not jealous?’ he said, laughing softly.

‘I don’t trust her,’ she blurted out.

‘Trust her? What do you mean?’

‘Call me crazy,’ said Brooke, ‘but I’ve just got this feeling.’

‘A feeling about what?’ asked David. His words were measured, clipped. She could tell he was annoyed at the ‘trust’ jibe. Brooke supposed he had a point, considering how understanding he’d been about the Jeff Daniels accusations.

‘I just wondered if it was Alicia who leaked the Oracle gossip story,’ said Brooke.

‘What?’

‘Look, I spoke to Tess Garrett today and she said the story came from one of your ex-girlfriends.’

‘It sounds to me as if Tess Garrett is trying to justify her existence.’

‘She sounded pretty sure.’

‘On what basis?’

‘A source at the Oracle.’

He pursed his lips together.

Brooke paused before saying anything more. She never liked bringing up the subject of past girlfriends. In her experience it only made you look jealous or needy or both.

‘Aren’t you going to say anything?’ she asked.

‘How am I supposed to react?’ he said, anger in his voice.

‘Well, don’t you think it was Alicia? It had to come from somewhere.’

‘On what grounds?’

‘Well, she did go to Brown …’

‘Brooke, you’re being ridiculous.’

‘Am I?’ she said, challenging him.

David was a serial monogamist: through his twenties there had been at least five girlfriends who had all lasted between six months and two years, and the Jeff Daniels leak could have come from any of them. They all had the same potential motivations: sour grapes, mean-spiritedness; some sense of thwarted entitlement, perhaps.

But it had been Alicia’s bright-eyed friendliness and a feeling of gleeful pleasure when she mentioned the Oracle story: it all made her suspicious of Alicia. Call it female intuition, but she was sure she was behind it.

‘Yes you are being ridiculous! After all, it was your friend, that Matt Palmer, who was quoted.’

She frowned. ‘It wasn’t him. I told you what he said. A journalist tracked him down and misquoted him.’

‘And you believe that?’ he asked.

‘Yes I do. He’s got less motivation for doing it than Alicia.’

He turned on the seat to face her.

‘Alicia’s parents and my parents have known each other forever,’ said David tightly. ‘She is a lot of things, but she is not deliberately evil.’

‘It sounds to me like you’re defending her.’

David rarely sounded angry. He always dealt with problems in his usual cool, composed way, but now his voice was raised. ‘I am not defending her. I just wonder what motivation she’d have for doing something like that.’

‘Oh, grow up, David,’ shouted Brooke. ‘Maybe, just maybe, she still loves you, did you ever think of that? Maybe she’ll do anything to stop you from being happy with anyone else.’

David turned to look at her. His face was stony.

‘Brooke, she finished our relationship.’

It stung Brooke like a slap in the face. She had always had the romantic notion of David Billington, America’s most eligible bachelor, rejecting each of his previous girlfriends because he was still searching, like Prince Charming, for the one girl who was perfect in every way. Childishly, she had allowed herself to believe that she had been that girl, that she was his one true love. Not for moment did she imagine she was second choice, that all along he had been pining for the one he could not have. She wondered momentarily if David and Alicia would still be together if Alicia had not called it a day, and the image of David and Alicia glad-handing the party in natural symmetry jumped into her head. But she knew she was right about Alicia, she just knew it.

‘Just because she finished with you doesn’t mean she wants anyone else to have you, David,’ she said. ‘It’s naive to think Alicia is somehow incapable of being spiteful and underhand just because you were once in love with her.’

‘Well thanks for the vote of confidence.’

It did not escape Brooke’s notice that he had failed to deny he had been in love with Alicia, but despite her hurt and anger she still felt a pang of protectiveness. She hadn’t been striking out, she had been telling the truth: David was strong in so many ways, but he had one Achilles heel. He always saw the best in people. There was nothing naturally suspicious or cynical in his make-up, and she knew that if he were one day to run for office, it could be a fatal flaw. Her voice softened and she put a hand on his arm.

‘Oh honey, let’s not fight about this,’ she said softly. ‘You know I’m only saying it for your own good.’

‘No, you’re saying it because you’re pissed,’ he replied flatly. ‘You’ve had a crappy night and you’re feeling sorry for yourself. I’d just cool it, if I were you, Brooke. Okay, so you had one lapse of judgement with that Jeff Daniels character, but that doesn’t mean you have to assassinate everyone else’s character. It’s not very attractive.’

His words scalded her. ‘A lapse of judgement? So all that stuff about how you believed my story and how you trusted me was just crap, was it? Do you even care about how I felt back there tonight?’ She felt hot tears pricking at the back of her eyes.

He puffed out his cheeks. ‘Of course I care,’ he said in a low voice. ‘It’s just that if you’re going to be my wife, you’re going to have to get used to these parties, these people. It’s my life, Brooke.’

They were just a couple of minutes away from her apartment and she couldn’t think of anywhere she would rather be. She tapped the driver on the shoulder. ‘Miguel, can you drop me home please?’

David tutted loudly. ‘Honey, don’t overreact.’

‘I’m not overreacting. I just want to go home,’ she said quietly.

David nodded at Miguel. ‘Take her home.’

10 (#ulink_845b7255-111a-5e90-bad0-3d757c66f006)

‘We have a major problem,’ announced Mimi Hall, publisher of Yellow Door’s children’s division. They were only two minutes into the weekly executive editorial meeting and already Brooke was on edge. Mimi Hall could be a very frightening woman, particularly when there were problems, when she always seemed to cleverly shift the blame onto other people. Brooke’s privilege and celebrity were no protection here; in fact it was something that seemed to annoy Mimi Hall. Everyone in the room knew Mimi did not belong in the gentle, good-natured world of children’s publishing, Five years earlier she had been a hotshot in the adult fiction division at Doubleday, but a string of high-profile flops and their consequent financial losses had got her fired. She’d taken the publisher’s job at Yellow Door, not because she thought a move into children’s publishing was exciting – far from it, Mimi Hall didn’t even like children. But it was a job, and sitting out her purgatory, awaiting a plum MD job somewhere, Mimi Hall seemed hellbent on taking out her professional frustrations on everyone else. Particularly Brooke.