He’d just released the handbrake when another notification alerted him to an incoming video call. Sienna. Of course, she’d have landed now. Probably already in the terminal building at LAX. He considered ignoring her, but he knew she would just keep calling. Sienna Montgomery wasn’t someone who let things go if she didn’t get her own way.
Reluctantly, he accepted the FaceTime call. Her face came immediately into focus. In the background, he could see what looked like a lounge area, with strip lights on the ceiling. He recognised it immediately. LAX had a whole ecosystem and team for dealing with celebrities. They were brought in through a different entrance, and chaperoned through a series of corridors and rooms that had no public access. When he flew with the cast ofThe Clansman, they were ushered through to the lounge that Sienna was standing in now, to relax there pre-boarding. If they were landing, they were met off the plane and taken through that same area to shield them from the public gaze. He rarely used that service when he flew alone, preferring to travel with glasses on, a hat pulled down, and as little fuss as possible, but a certain female who was on his screen right now took it for granted. She’d been going through LAX that way, with her famous parents and grandparents, all her life, so although she no longer had that star status, she had enough influence to send a text and get swift passage to the VIP lounge.
His wife was one of those stunning natural beauties, but right now, she wasn’t giving her best look. Her eyes were even more bloodshot than they’d been earlier, there were mascara stains under her bottom lashes, her hair was dishevelled and her skin blotchy. He couldn’t remember a time when she had looked like this, not even after a two-hour workout with her thousand dollar an hour personal trainer.
‘Ollie, I’m so sorry,’ she said again, and he wondered what approach she was going to go with now. Repentant? Explanatory? Self-justification? Would she be mortified? Or would she stick true to form in her life and go on the offensive when she felt attacked?
‘Is this when you say again that it wasn’t what it looked like?’ he asked her, but there was no challenge in his voice, just sadness and disappointment, which seemed to light the blue touchpaper.
‘Oh piss off, Ollie. Is that how we’re playing this?’ Yep, cue a very definite lean into a ‘fight fire with fire’ position. ‘What do you expect? At least he’s there for me. When was the last time you came rushing to my side? Or helped me through any kind of shit? You won’t even come back to LA when I need you.’
‘Last time I checked I wasn’t snogging the face off someone I wasn’t married to though.’ Low blow, but it felt justified.
Her perfect bone structure twisted into a snarl. ‘You sure about that?’
Okay. So that’s how this was being played. He wasn’t rising to it.
‘I’m sure.’
‘Maybe you just didn’t get caught. You honestly want me to believe there’s nothing between you and your eternal side piece?’
This was exhausting. He knew exactly who she was talking about, but he wasn’t getting into this with her again.
‘You’ve put Kara before me since the first day we met,’ she went on.
He’d heard this so many times. It was the same argument she’d recycled every time she was angry, insecure, or she’d messed up and was trying to deflect blame. Like right now.
‘And you’re doing it again. I’m asking you to come home and you’re going with her instead. No wonder I did something stupid. You can’t fucking blame me.’
He was over the manipulation. ‘So it’s my fault you’ve got a thing going with Van? Tell me something, Sienna – was it just today? Or the last week? The last six months?’
He saw her jaw tighten and her eyes dart to the side, and he knew whatever was going to come out of her mouth next was a lie.
‘Today.’
It wasn’t. He should be angry. Furious. He should be raging about the injustice of this, the betrayal of everything they’d promised to each other. Yet, he still felt nothing but tired of the whole thing. Maybe she had a point. Perhaps his calmness was a sign that he was already checked out.
‘And I know it was stupid, but I was just feeling so shit when you said you weren’t coming home.’ The emotional pendulum had swung back to self-pity, but only on the way to petulance and emotional blackmail.
‘So that’s it? When you don’t get what you want, you just hit up another guy?’
For a second, he thought she was going to throw her phone at the wall. Instead, her eyes narrowed, and her cheeks reddened.
‘You really don’t care, do you?’ she hissed.
He said nothing. He did care. He loved her. They’d had a brilliant few years at the start of their marriage and he hated that he’d hurt her, even unintentionally, by not doing as sheasked. But this wasn’t serving either of them anymore and it was becoming pretty clear that they both knew it.
His silence was making her escalate and veer right back into the attack zone.
‘You used me and my name to get a bit of fame, then you think you can just toss me to one side and treat me like shit? Last chance, Ollie. Forget your precious Kara and come back to LA tonight or we’re done.’
16
ALICE
Val’s yellow Jeep was barely picking up speed on the road home, when she turned to Alice, eyes wide.
‘In the name of the Holy Mo Farah, Alice, what the hell was that about? One minute my sausage roll was approaching the landing strip, and the next minute you were out of there like yer arse was on fire. I haven’t run that fast since the eighties.’
