“I’m sorry, Nate,” Brenda said, coming to her daughter’s side. “But whatever’s going on here, I think you’re talking to the wrong people.”
Determined to keep it together, Nate let out a short sharp laugh. “Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“The blackmail was a nice touch by the way. You’re one hell of an actress. I genuinely thought you were desperate to help your daughter.”
He took in Brenda’s glare as she willed him to shut up. Talk about trying to keep up the pretence.
“I should have just taken my chances with the developers,” Nate continued, regardless.
“What do you meanblackmail?” Flick asked. “Why would anyone want to blackmail you?”
Nate didn’t deign to answer, he just sneered. As far as he was concerned, the women were in it together.
“Mum, do you know why anyone would want to do that?”
Refusing to speak, Brenda flushed red. Not because she felt any shame, Nate knew that. She was just pissed because they’d been caught out.
“Mum?” Flick asked again.
Nate shook his head at the pair of them. “Of course, that was just the beginning of your little plan, wasn’t it? The set up.”
“I’m sorry, but you really have lost me, Nate.” Flick’s confusion seemingly fast turning to frustration, her eyes went from him to her mum and back again. “Can one of you please tell me what’s going on here?”
Again, Nate scoffed. He pulled out his phone and clicked on the screen before shoving it towards Flick’s face. “Ring any bells?”
“What is it?” She took the mobile from him and scrutinised the photograph on display. “But this is a newspaper’s website. How did they get this? Why would they even want it?”
“Keep swiping. There’s more, although I’m guessing you already know that.” Nate watched her follow his instruction, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper as each image appeared.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t,” Nate said, mocking her claims of virtue. “So how much did they pay you?” he asked, ignoring her wounded expression as she passed the phone to her mother.
“Pay me?”
“Any other year and I doubt they’d have been interested, something else you probably already know.”
Flick just looked at him.
“Oh come on.” Nate’s accusations appeared to hit a brick wall. Snatching his phone back, he addressed both women. “You really expect me to think you’re not responsible for this?”
He watched Flick take a seat at the table, then looked at Brenda who seemed frozen to the spot. Their sudden silence on the matter told him all he needed to know. “I just hope that whatever money you did get was worth all the effort.” He waited for an answer.
Met with nothing but continued quiet, his shoulders dropped before he turned to leave the room.
Making his way down the hall and back out through the front door, he shook his head. He no longer felt angry, or frustrated, or stupid. A sadness enveloped him. Were there no good people left in the world?
He got into his van and, after staring at the chateau for a moment, started up the engine and drove away.
37
Flick sat in silence trying to make sense of what had just happened. “Why?” she finally asked. “Why would a newspaper be so interested in me and Nate? I don’t get it, we’re nobodies.” She crinkled her nose, screwing her face up in confusion. “And how did they even get the pictures? As far as I know there weren’t any journalists at the video shoot or the wrap party. But even if there were, why us? Why not take photos of the band?” She looked to her mum who leant against the kitchen counter. “They must have confused us with someone else. There’s no other explanation.”
She fell quiet once more, convinced she’d crossed over into some twilight zone. None of what had just happened seemed to make sense. “And what about Nate’s reaction? Instead of coming around here blaming us for whatever’s going on, he could have just as easily asked the paper’s editor. That’s the first thing I’d have done.” She tried to recall each of the pictures, hoping for a clue as to which paper had featured them. She’d been so engrossed in the actual images that she hadn’t thought to look. If she had, she could have contacted the editor herself. She turned to her mum again. “And all that rubbish about being blackmailed. Who does he think he is? I’ve never heard anything so preposterous.” Her voice quietened as she envisaged his downright fury. “I’ve never seen anyone so angry.”
She stopped speaking, her eyes narrowing as she waited for her mother to join in the conversation. She’d been unusually quiet throughout the whole episode, quite out of character when she normally had something to say on every subject going.
