Читать книгу Tasmina Perry 3-Book Collection: Daddy’s Girls, Gold Diggers, Original Sin - Tasmina Perry, Tasmina Perry - Страница 36

Serena stayed at Elmore’s villa until the end of the week. Elmore had deliberately banned any papers coming into the house and, when her sisters had all frantically called to see how she was, she had purposely told them not to tell her about the full impact of the story. That pleasure was left to her publicist, Muffy Beagle, who had however insisted on filling her in. All the UK tabloids had gone heavy on the story for two days. It was only the emergence of pictures of a supermodel smoking a crack pipe and an affair between two cabinet ministers that had relegated the story to page eleven by day three.

It had helped that the hookers had had very little to say for themselves. One of them had embellished the incident of Serena dropping the plant pot onto Michael’s Ferrari by claiming she had slashed its tyres, but as Muffy had pointed out, Fleet Street would have stayed on the story a lot longer if Michael had been both British and as famous as, say, Tom Archer. The news of her pregnancy had actually attracted lots of sympathetic column inches for Serena, with countless cynical columnists waxing lyrical about the difficulties faced by single mothers, no matter how rich or famous. To Serena, however, the sympathy was worse than the hookers. She hated to think of herself as a victim in any way, but as Stephen Feldman had said, this was exactly the way they had to play the game in the press. Stephen was well aware that she had a glamorous if difficult persona in her home country, and he was convinced that this whole episode could soften her image considerably. She could make a few choice chat-show appearances on both sides of the pond, he decided. After this, Oprah and Vanity Fair might be interested.

However tempting it was to stay at Elmore’s villa indefinitely, the practical and ambitious side of Serena knew that she had to get back to London to get her life back on track. London first, then New York, she corrected herself, not wanting to venture back onto Michael’s territory quite yet. Anyway, there were a few pressing things that needed sorting out immediately: namely, the renewal of her contract with Jolie Cosmetics. Her agent was quite happy to wade in with negotiations, but Serena still felt it was a good idea to pay a visit to the London-based CEO Sidney Parker personally, reasoning she should tell her side of events face to face and charm him into another lucrative deal.

‘Well, you look good,’ said Venetia, reaching out to give Serena a hug. Serena had just fast-tracked through customs after Elmore’s jet had landed her on a small strip of runway at Luton Airport. Her older sister had insisted on picking her up and Serena was quite happy to let herself continue to be mothered.

‘I can assure you I don’t feel it,’ said Serena, embracing Venetia and giving a dramatic shudder to emphasize the point.

‘I knew there was something about that man I didn’t like in Mustique,’ said Venetia, linking her arm through Serena’s and leading her towards the BMW four-by-four that was parked just outside the small terminal building.

Serena arched one eyebrow. ‘You could have fooled me,’ she said. Venetia let the comment go as they settled into the cream leather seats.

‘Men with too much money, Sin, you have to wonder if they are worth the bother,’ she said in a quiet voice.

Serena gave her sister a sidelong glance. She rarely let the mundane nuances of other people’s relationships affect her, but it had been plain even to Serena that all had not been well between Venetia and her husband for some time. Her sister’s vibrancy had visibly diminished since her wedding nearly two years ago. Venetia had never been very confident, but it was clear that life with Jonathon, no matter how rich and connected he might be, had not had a positive effect on her sister’s self-esteem. But now there was something different here. She stole a glance at Venetia’s profile and noticed that her skin was slightly more flushed and sun-kissed than usual and her eyes had a sparkle she had not seen in a long time.

‘I have to say that you look rather well too,’ said Serena, probing for information. ‘You’ve been in Spain, haven’t you?’ Venetia had turned the keys in the ignition and her eyes were focused forward through the windscreen, but Serena saw the pink flush rising up her sister’s cheeks. She simply nodded.

Serena could see that this wasn’t something Venetia wanted to talk about; while she was a gossip junkie, she wasn’t in the mood to work too hard for it. Instead she began to rummage around in her Chloé bag, hunting for her Blackberry. She had a barrage of messages and emails. She switched it off as quickly as she turned it on. It was enough of a distraction to switch Serena’s attention back to herself.

‘So I assume I’m staying at yours, then?’ said Serena, playing with the air-conditioning buttons on the walnut dashboard like a distracted child.

‘As long as that’s OK,’ smiled Venetia.

‘I don’t want any crappy rooms, darling. I like the one with the walk-in wardrobe. Now come on, step on it, let’s get back to London.’

Despite being a native of Chicago, Sidney Parker, CEO of Jolie Cosmetics, lived for nine months of the year in a vast, six-floor stucco-fronted Eaton Square house, on account of his much younger English wife Lysette. Mrs Parker was a bottle-blonde former cocktail waitress from southeast London, who had chased the better life with single-minded determination from a very young age.

In another life, Lysette would have been a politician or a gangster. Her finely balanced mixture of ruthless ambition and her chameleon-like ability to charm important people had landed her the prize of Sidney Parker, but Lysette hadn’t stopped there, quickly establishing herself as a feared and fêted society player whose opinion and patronage was highly valued. If Lysette Parker didn’t come to your charity fundraiser or RSVP your party invite, then you were dead in London society.

Happily for Serena, Lysette had always admired the beautiful Balcon sisters. Throughout her campaign to ensnare a rich husband, Lysette had devoured Tatler magazine, becoming intimate with the society movers and shakers and grand aristo families contained within its pages. Serena was everything Lysette had wanted to be when she was growing up in Lewisham two decades earlier, and it had been Lysette who had persuaded her husband to make Serena the European face of Jolie Cosmetics. Polished, privileged and ridiculously beautiful, she knew that Serena embodied that English rose fantasy so many British girls secretly harboured.

Sidney would have much preferred to go with a supermodel as the Jolie Cosmetics girl three years earlier, but he respected his wife’s streetwise outlook on the business and, as it had turned out, Lysette’s hunch had proved correct. Within six months of Serena becoming the face of Jolie, profits across the board were up sixty-three per cent and the perception of the brand was transformed from a fusty traditional European cosmetics house into something much more fresh, modern and glamorous. In a bid to get a sultry Serena pout, women from fifteen to fifty were clamouring for Jolie’s plum and peach lip-glosses, while sales of their line of skincare products tripled as customers sought to replicate Serena’s flawless complexion. She didn’t know it, but Serena owed more to the Parker family than she realized.

With a wave, Venetia dropped Serena at the small flight of steps that led up to the enormous midnight-blue door of Sidney and Lysette Parker’s home. Rarely nervous, Serena still felt a little bout of butterflies in her stomach as she rang the bell. She usually relished meetings like this, but it had only been six days since the scandal had broken in the newspapers about her pregnancy and Michael Sarkis, and it was impossible to tell how Sidney would take it. Mindful of this, she had dressed to impress. Virgin glamour, she smiled: cream billowy Chloé dress, gold ballet flats, a smudge of Jolie blush swept across her cheek.

She knew it was the right decision to come and see Sidney so quickly. She would rather he heard things from the horse’s mouth than from the tabloids. And anyway, the contract had to get resolved as soon as possible: with her Cheyne Walk home sold and her going back to New York temporarily out of the question, Serena had to find somewhere new to live quickly, and she needed to assess the size of the contract before she made any decisions on that.

A Filipino maid in a grey dress opened the door and beckoned Serena in. A tall, sturdy man of about sixty, dressed in a razor-sharp navy suit, came to greet her in the hallway. Clearly once a very handsome man, Sidney had lined skin that somehow looked more brushed and polished because of its light mahogany colour. Grey hair swept back off his forehead and a pair of thin, gold-framed glasses perched on a long firm nose completed the cosmopolitan look.

‘Sidney, how are you?’ said Serena, grabbing his hand and kissing him on both cheeks.

‘Fine. And you look wonderful,’ he replied, smiling benevolently. ‘Let’s go through to the study. Oh Joyce?’ he said, addressing the maid, ‘Could you get us some tea?’

They walked in silence through to an ornate library. It was a formal room, decked out in rich flock wallpaper, walnut panelling and shelves of colour-coordinated books. The room reminded Serena a little of her father’s study at Huntsford, except this place was more airbrushed, like a Ralph Lauren fantasy of an English gentleman’s library. The old-money feel was further undermined by huge framed photographs of beautiful women on the walls: portraits of all the Jolie spokeswomen. Serena was next to Kelly Sanders, a stunning, red-haired Texan model-turned-TV-presenter, who was the North American Jolie spokeswoman, and next to them was Bay Ling, the up-and-coming Chinese model who was the face of the burgeoning Far Eastern cosmetics market.

Sidney sat down behind his huge desk and sank back into his chair, playing with a gold Mont Blanc pen as Joyce silently entered and placed a silver tea tray on the desk. Serena took a moment to glance around the room. She had never been in the study before; usually when she met Sydney they would take drinks in the drawing room. Perhaps Lysette was entertaining elsewhere in the house.

‘I’m glad you came to see me so quickly,’ said Sidney, handing Serena a bone-china cup. He still had a slight American twang, although he had purposely tried to rub it away in favour of clipped English tones.

‘Well, I know we have plenty to talk about,’ smiled Serena, folding one long tanned leg over the other. ‘As you know, I’ve hardly been in London lately, living in New York and all that,’ she gushed, making her voice as pretty and singsong as possible.

‘What do you think of Bay Ling?’ said Sidney suddenly, waving a hand in the direction of the girl’s picture. Serena looked up to inspect her. She was certainly the most Western-looking Oriental girl she had ever seen. Her skin was slightly tanned rather than sallow, the hair cut into the severe bob that was currently all the rage in Manhattan. In fact, there was hardly a trace of the Chinese about her. Her bone structure was perfect, the delicate face oval rather than round, her lips pale and plump.

‘She’s stunning, isn’t she?’ prompted Sidney. ‘China’s first supermodel.’

‘Yes. Well, the press call anyone with long legs a supermodel these days,’ laughed Serena lightly.

She noticed a muscle in Sidney’s temple twitch.

‘But … she is extremely beautiful,’ she continued quickly.

‘We’ve moved a quarter of a million units of China Rose lip-gloss already,’ he said, nodding his head slowly. Serena found herself echoing the gesture.

‘Have you ever been to Beijing?’ he asked. It was the sort of question that veered towards an offer. Serena felt her anxiety diminish. ‘No, I haven’t,’ she said earnestly, ‘but I did stay at the Amanpuri in Phuket last winter,’ she said seriously.

‘A Thai holiday resort is hardly the new global commercial headquarters,’ replied Sidney, a disapproving tone in his voice.

Serena’s back stiffened.

‘Unbelievable city,’ he said suddenly, stroking the side of his face and continuing in a more benevolent tone, ‘when Bay Ling and I opened the Beijing store three months ago, I swear the queue was as long as the Great Wall of China!’ He guffawed lightly to himself. ‘It makes the opening up of Russia as a commercial territory insignificant. China is the future.’

Serena had to suppress a bored sigh. She was not in the mood for a lecture on global economics. ‘Well, perhaps you could arrange a visit for me. I’d love to see it all,’ she smiled, taking a delicate sip of tea. ‘It’s probably about time all the Jolie spokeswomen met up anyway,’ she said generously.

Sidney laughed, a little forced.

‘Anyway,’ said Sidney more brusquely, ‘I suppose we’re here to talk about your contract?’

Serena smiled and recrossed her legs. ‘Just the broad strokes,’ she smiled playfully, ‘the rest we can leave to my agent. That’s what I pay him fifteen per cent for.’ Inwardly, Serena shuddered at the thought of that figure. If she was about to be made Jolie spokesperson for North America as well as Europe, that was a deal in excess of £5 million a year. Fifteen per cent of that was … she couldn’t do the maths, but it was certainly a lot of money, she thought, suddenly feeling a little cross.

Sidney paused, moving his swivel chair from side to side. ‘Lysette and I have been giving the renewal of your contract a lot of thought in the last few days.’

‘How is Lysette?’ asked Serena, smiling broadly.

Sidney nodded. ‘Very well, very well indeed. As you know, I have enormous faith and trust in her opinions about the direction of this company.’

‘She is a very astute woman,’ nodded Serena sagely.

‘She is indeed,’ agreed Sidney, rubbing his chin. ‘Not only is she my wife, she is my line of communication to the general public. She was right about signing you up three years ago, and I trust her instincts about your position now. Having moved to New York and taken up with Michael Sarkis –’

Serena jumped in eagerly. ‘I know!’ she gushed. ‘Moving out there is the best thing I have done in years. It has raised my profile Stateside enormously. I can understand why you were initially hesitant to make me the face of North America as well as Europe but now, yes, things are much different.’ She smiled.

‘I didn’t mean that,’ said Sidney without emotion.

‘Oh …’ said Serena. ‘Then I’m not sure I …’

Sidney leant forward on the desk, shuffling up the sleeves of his dark navy jacket. ‘Your relationship with Michael Sarkis has been damaging to the brand.’

The smile fell off Serena’s face.

‘Well, as you are no doubt aware,’ said Serena quickly, trying to sound confident and in control, ‘I found my ex-boyfriend in a compromising situation in Cannes and I terminated the relationship immediately. I felt that was the responsible thing to do.’

‘And you’re pregnant,’ said Sidney matter-of-factly.

‘Yes,’ answered Serena with a little annoyance. ‘Men and women in a relationship often conceive a child.’

Sidney leant back in his chair as far as it would go, seemingly anxious to put as much distance between them as possible. ‘You are a very, very beautiful woman,’ said Sidney, with the hint of a smile. ‘But we took you on because you represented certain things. Elegance. Class. Tradition. They are the cornerstone values of Jolie Cosmetics.’

‘And I remain all those things,’ said Serena indignantly.

Sidney let the silence hang in the air for a few moments. ‘Lysette feels, and I agree with her, that the revelations of this week have changed things considerably. It looks messy, Serena.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ said Serena haughtily. ‘So Michael revealed himself as a playboy. I did the decent thing and got rid of him. I’m having a child. This is the twenty-first century. Plenty of children are conceived out of wedlock.’

‘We are a traditional company,’ said Sidney slowly, emphasizing every word. ‘You know how Midwest America is a conservative market. It is vital for our company to be seen to be projecting the correct values.’ He cleared his throat. ‘This, er, threesome, the prostitutes …’

‘Does this mean I’m not going to get North America?’ said Serena, visibly flustered. ‘But we discussed –’

Sidney appeared to ignore her. ‘As you are aware, your European contract is up for renewal, and we feel that at this time it is not appropriate to renew it.’

Serena began to feel a rage swell up inside her. ‘If this is because I am pregnant, you do realize there are laws against this sort of thing?’

‘Your contract is at an end and it is entirely up to our company whether we renew it. Or not,’ he added. ‘In any event, Bay Ling has been so successful for us in China we feel it may be the appropriate time to increase her profile in the west. We think that will drive even more sales out in the Far East.’

Serena stared at him. ‘You’re going to replace me with her?’ she screamed, her voice a quivering, shrill sound. ‘You sell in this country and all over Europe because of my English Rose image! It’s successful! Why replace me with someone who looks like, who looks like … they work in a chip shop?’ she ranted.

‘We’ve made our decision,’ interrupted Sidney calmly. ‘It really has been a pleasure working with you over the years. Lysette and I would like to give you this as a small token of our appreciation.’ He reached into his top drawer and pulled out a Jolie powder compact that, from the way he lifted it, looked as if it might have been made from solid gold.

‘Please, give it to Bay Ling,’ said Serena, mustering up as much dignity as she could. ‘It looks like she needs it. I’ll see myself out.’

Sidney simply nodded as Serena rose. He flipped open the compact and looked at his reflection in the mirror, rubbing a tea-stain off his teeth with his finger. Then he snapped it shut.