Lana sits on a chair.  She feels numb.  There is blood on her wrists and hands.  Blake’s blood.  Suspended inside her cloud of shock she stares at it blankly.  She touches it with a finger.  It feels sticky.  I’m not dreaming, this is really happening, her brain says.  She wipes her hand on her stained navy and white trousers, takes out her own mobile and calls Billie.

Billie is quicker to arrive than Marcus.  The sight of Billie’s worried face hurrying towards her undoes her.

‘Oh, Billie,’ she sobs.  ‘It was my fault.  I wasn’t looking where I was going.  If he had not pushed me out of the way it would have been me that the car hit.’

‘Banker boy threw himself under a car to save you?’

Lana stops crying as she registers what she has not with the shock. But he is cold and unemotional.  He hardly ever touches her unless he wants to have sex. Why?  Why did he do that?

‘People only do that for the people they love,’ Billie says.

‘He doesn’t love me.  If you knew what kind of relationship we have you’d never say that.  He must have acted instinctively.’

Billie says nothing.  Her eyes are on the door.  ‘Here comes big brother.’

Lana turns in the direction Billie is looking in.  Indeed, it is Blake’s brother; he has the same superior air.  He is standing at the door scanning the room.  As soon as he spots them he comes over.  His surprised eyes slide quickly over the spiders climbing on Billie’s throat, but he addresses Lana, as if he instinctively recognizes the type of woman his brother could fall in love with.

‘I’m Marcus.  You must be the one who called me.’

‘Yes.’

‘Thank you.  Where is my brother now?’

She points towards the desk.  ‘They won’t tell me anything.’

‘What happened?’

‘He pushed me out of the way of a speeding car and took the hit himself.’

Marcus’s face is incredulous.  ‘My brother did that?’

Tears began to roll unchecked down Lana’s face.  She feels like a fool crying in front of that disapproving stranger, but the tears refuse to stop.

He looks at the tears unemotionally.  ‘It will be the shock,’ he says.

Lana nods.

He glances quickly at the two ladies behind the reception desk, obviously eager to talk to them.  ‘Look, if you give me your name and address, I will be happy to compensate you for what you have done.’

Lana feels as if he has slapped her.  She takes a shocked step away from him.  She remembers Blake saying, we are not like you.  ‘That won’t be necessary,’ she says.

An expression passes across his face.  Irritation.  ‘Well, thank you for calling me, anyway.’  He turns away from them and begins to walk towards the enquiries desk.  Then he remembers, stops and comes back to her.  ‘Can I have my brother’s phone back, please?’

Silently she puts the phone into his outstretched hand.

‘Thank you again for what you did for my brother,’ he says awkwardly.

Lana nods.  She feels Billie’s hand come around her waist.

Marcus strides away.  After the fear, the guilt, and the worry, the shock of his brother’s utter rejection finishes her.  She sags weakly against Billie.

‘Fucking heartless, rude bastard.  Fuck them and their pissy billions.  They can keep it.’  She leads Lana outside and hails a black cab.  They get in and do not speak during the journey, but Billie tightly holds Lana’s hand in hers for the entire duration of the trip.

When they get out of the cab, Lana retches and is sick by the side of the road.  An old biddy walking on the other side of the road stops to stare and Billie hails her to ask if she has a tissue.  ‘Oh dear, oh dear,’ she says, and crosses the road.  She fishes a handkerchief from her handbag.  ‘What’s the matter with the poor child?’

‘She’s pregnant,’ Billie says.

Lana’s eyes swing around to Billie.

Billie claps her hand over her mouth.  ‘Oh my God!  You’re pregnant, aren’t you?’

‘Can I have the handkerchief back?’ the old biddy whines plaintively.

Billie takes the soiled cloth from Lana and ungratefully stuffs it into the woman’s hand. ‘Thanks, love.  You want to stock up on tissues in future.  More hygienic.’

The woman leaves with a sniff and Billie turns to Lana.  ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I just found out myself.  Besides, I can’t keep it.’

Billie’s eyes open wide.  ‘What?’

Lana blinks back the tears.  ‘It’s in my contract.  If I don’t terminate I will forfeit all rights to it.  I’m not going to give up my baby to that cold bunch.’

Billie’s eyes flash.  ‘They can’t do that.’

‘They can, Bill.  The way they feel about crushing us is the way you feel about killing a row of ants heading towards your jam jar.’

‘Who do they think you are?  Fucking Oliver Twist?  Please, sir, can I have some more, sir?  You know what?  I haven’t used any of the money that you gave me.  Let’s give that back to them and work out some plan where we pay the rest back with interest.’

Lana shakes her head tiredly.  ‘Oh, Bill, they don’t want the money back.  It’s all about their precious bloodline.  The purity of the great Barrington line must be safeguarded at all costs.  And any bastard children must go back to the Barrington care.  They don’t trust the likes of us to bring up children properly.’

Billie looks as though she is about to go into one.  A very long and loud rant.

‘Not now, Bill.  Please. I just want to go somewhere I can sit.’

Billie holds out her hand.  ‘Come.  I’ll take you home.’

‘I don’t want my mum to know.’

‘It’s OK, we’ll go to mine and you can clean up there.  We don’t have to tell anyone.’

‘Remember when you said you didn’t know whether you would share your lottery money with me if you ever did win?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Now you know, don’t you?’

Billie smiles sadly.  ‘Yeah, now I know.’

Thirty

Victoria walks up to the nurse smiling deferentially at her.

‘Good afternoon, Miss Montgomery.’

‘Good afternoon.  How is he today?’

‘He seems better.  I just looked in on him a few minutes ago and he was asleep, but he was conscious for a few minutes this morning, and seemed desperate to know if someone called Lana was all right?  Do you know this person?’

Victoria can’t stop the pure rush of shock that invades her body.  She shutters her beautiful green and smiles.  ‘If he asks again, tell him not to worry about her.  She is fine.’

‘I certainly will, Miss Montgomery.’

Victoria nods politely and walks down the corridor.  Her heart feels as if it is breaking.  She enters the room tentatively.  It is quiet and full of flowers. Her eyes move to his face.  His eyes are closed.  She walks up to his bed and stands looking down on his sleeping face. He looks so pale under his dark tan.  She knows it is very dull of her, but she loves this man.  She doesn’t even care that her friends call her Sticky Vicky behind her back.

‘Oh, darling,’ she whispers.  ‘What a perfectly awful fright you gave me.’ She takes his big hand in her small dainty ones and caresses the inside of his wrist.  Every since she met him at her garden party when she was ten years old she has loved him.

‘I’m going to marry that boy,’ she told her father.  Her father threw back his head and laughed but over the years, he has been shocked by her total dedication to ‘that boy’.  While Blake indulged in his meaningless affairs and liaisons she refused to seriously date anyone else.  Of course, her father did not and would never know about the drunken one-night stands. Those didn’t count.

She lets her finger trace a vein.  There is nothing she will not do for this man.  She bends down and kisses that straight mouth.  His lips feel cool.  She remembers that other time she pressed her lips to his.  Then, he was fifteen.  He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and looked at her scornfully.  ‘You’re just a baby.  Lip kisses are for grown-ups,’ he chided.