Obsession (27 page)

She turned her attention to the others again, watching Octavia with mounting revulsion. She was pawing Luke’s arm as she asked him and Annalise all about the prostitute
programme
, and from the way her eyes were glittering Corrie could tell that she was already more than a little aroused. Corrie was very tempted at that point to describe in graphic detail the shots she had viewed earlier that day, just to shut Octavia up, but judged it better to remain silent for now.

It was no wonder, Corrie was thinking to herself, that Annalise was so unstable in her emotions when she had parents like these. Octavia wasn’t even subtle about the way she was trying to capture all Luke’s attention, and as they smiled deeply into each other’s eyes, deliberately shutting Annalise out, Annalise, clearly as hurt as she was bewildered, fought bravely to make him notice her again. But each time she succeeded Octavia was ready.

‘Just imagine,’ she drawled now, ‘having someone pay you for the privilege of fucking you.’

Corrie barely had time to be amazed by such a profane word coming out of such a clinical mouth before Octavia said something that shocked her beyond words.

‘I’d just love to be bending over with a stranger’s cock right up my cunt, and all the time look at the money he’s left on the table.’

Corrie’s head spun towards Phillip. Slumped in his chair as he was, he seemed not to have heard, but Annalise had.

‘Mummy!’ she declared, her face on fire, ‘that’s disgusting. I’ve never heard you talk like that before.’

From the look passing between Octavia and Luke, it was quite evident that Luke had.

‘I’m sorry, darling,’ Octavia was saying, patting Annalise’s cheek. ‘But you have to remember, sweetheart, that mothers are human too. Still, it was quite unforgivable to say such a thing in front of you, and I apologize.’

‘I think you should apologize to Daddy too,’ Annalise retorted. ‘And Corrie. You’ve really embarrassed her.’

Octavia turned to Corrie with a look of mild surprise.
‘Oh
, but I’m sure Corrie’s heard it all before,’ she remarked smoothly.

Corrie felt like she was in the middle of a nightmare, and wanted nothing more than to get out of there. Obviously Octavia was letting her know that she knew about her relationship with Luke, but why? She was a vindictive bitch, that was for sure, the way she was treating her own daughter more than proved that. But what about the way she was treating her husband, pathetic cuckold that he was, sitting there huddled into his chair? And if Octavia knew so much about Corrie’s relationship with Luke, did she also know about her own relationship to Corrie? Somehow Corrie didn’t think so. The person pulling all the strings here, she felt sure, was Luke. He was sleeping with them all – Octavia, Annalise and Corrie. But what was he trying to prove by bringing them all here together like this? Suddenly Corrie’s eyes rounded, and she turned slowly towards her father as the realization of what was happening started to dawn on her. She had no idea why Luke should want to humiliate Phillip like this, but there was little doubt in her mind that that was exactly what was going on.

Phillip’s eyes flickered towards her, but seeing her looking at him he turned quickly away. Octavia’s falsetto laugh suddenly grated through Corrie’s ears, and when Corrie turned back she felt a near overriding nausea rush to her throat. Octavia was pressed so closely to Luke’s arm that Annalise couldn’t see the tiny, bejewelled hand carressing his buttocks, but Corrie could. So too could Phillip, if he’d cared to look. This grotesque pantomime was insufferable, and all Corrie wanted was to get outside, away from the overpowering stench of Octavia’s perfume and breathe some fresh air into her lungs.

She was already on her feet when the doorbell rang again. Immediately Corrie looked at Luke, hardly daring to imagine what more chicanery was to come. As he turned his back on Octavia and Annalise he rolled his eyes at
Corrie
, then went to answer the door. A few minutes later several people, all as immaculately dressed as Phillip and Octavia, filed in, and at last Phillip got up from his chair. Corrie could hardly believe the transformation in him as he greeted the newcomers, and started to mingle with all the confidence one might expect of a successful businessman who knew his importance in the world.

However, he continued to avoid Corrie like the plague, which upset Corrie more than she wanted to admit, for she was becoming increasingly aware, through the thin crowd, that Luke and Octavia were whispering, looking in her direction, then laughing. She was horribly unnerved by it, and found herself wishing that she could turn to Phillip for reassurance, after all he was her father. But she knew that she stood even less chance of success there than Annalise was having in trying to detach her mother from Luke. Watching him now Corrie was even more bitterly disappointed in Phillip than she had been the first time she met him, and for some reason this made her want to cry. He was letting both her and Annalise down, seemed to care nothing for what either of them might be suffering, yet somehow Corrie knew, that as oblivious as he wanted to appear to it, he wasn’t. It was distressing him too, but even so he was going to do nothing to comfort either of them. She started to notice then, the furtive glances he kept throwing in Luke’s direction. This had the effect of convincing Corrie even more that there was something going on between them that went far deeper than a mere power struggle, which was what she had assumed it to be at first.

‘Do you think my mother’s having an affair with Luke?’

Corrie turned round to find Annalise looking up at her with stricken eyes. Instantly Corrie’s heart turned over.
She’s my sister
, Corrie was thinking,
my own flesh and blood
.
And she’s such a child still
. But what the hell could she do to comfort her? How could she even begin to explain to Annalise what was going on when she didn’t even know herself?
It
was likely that Annalise sensed something too, something beyond her mother’s outrageous behaviour, though Corrie doubted very much that Annalise would even want it put into words. All she wanted was to be reassured. It was all, in her fragile state of mind, she could handle. But the tragedy of it was that Corrie could sense only too well the desperate need inside her. Annalise wanted to be loved. To feel that she mattered to someone more than anyone else in the world, and God help her, she had chosen a man like Luke to do it.

For a moment Corrie was so close to tears that she couldn’t answer, then seeing the panic her silence had evoked in Annalise she smiled, lifted a hand to Annalise’s cheek and lied.

‘No,’ she said softly, ‘I don’t think so. But what I do think is that you are paranoid where Luke is concerned.’

It was what Annalise wanted to hear, just the look on her face told Corrie that, but what Corrie had to decide now was what she was going to do about getting him out of their lives. And, if she could, find out what was going on between him and her father. There might well be nothing she could do about that, but she wanted at least to try, for as improbable as it might seem now, she was already harbouring a hope that one day, if only in a small way, she, Phillip and Annalise could become a family.

The next morning Corrie rang the office to say she would be in late, then settling herself down for what she knew would be a lengthy conversation with Paula, she reached out for the phone. As she did it rang. To her amazement it was her father.

‘I’d like you to meet me tomorrow night,’ he said. ‘I’ll be at the Man in the Moon pub at World’s End. If you can, be there at eight thirty, if not I’ll wait,’ and before Corrie could utter a word he rang off.

Still somewhat dazed by the abrupt call Corrie dialled
Paula’s
number. It took quite some time to tell her all that had happened the night before, but the fact that her father had just called Corrie decided to hold back for the time being.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Paula said in a hushed voice when Corrie had finished. ‘I just don’t believe it. My God, it must have blown your mind.’

‘It did,’ Corrie answered, ‘but the question is, what am I going to do about it?’

‘I don’t know. I mean, do you think Luke knows?’

‘I can’t be sure. To be honest, I had so much to drink that first evening we went out, I don’t remember what I told him.’

‘Then I think you should confront him, ask him.’

‘That’s what I thought at first. But if he doesn’t know that Phillip’s my father, then quite frankly, I don’t want him to know.’

‘But you think there’s something going on between him and Phillip, you said? That would suggest that he
does
know about you. I mean the way he lined you all up in front of Phillip … God, it’s sick!’

‘Isn’t it? But I’ve more or less decided that it must be him who tells me what he knows. I want to hear it from his own lips, that way I might stand a chance of getting to know what’s behind it. If I tell him Phillip’s my father, then for some reason I feel as though he’ll have me at a disadvantage. And if he doesn’t know, and finds out from me, I sure as hell don’t want him to be the one to tell Annalise.’

Corrie could hear the smile in Paula’s voice as she said, ‘Do I take it from this that you’re no longer lusting after him yourself?’

‘Do me a favour!’ Corrie cried. ‘The man’s obviously some kind of pervert.’ She shuddered. ‘If you’d seen him with Octavia last night. I have to tell you Paula, I’ve seen and heard some pretty sickening things these past two
weeks
, but she, more than anyone or anything else, has left the worst taste in my mouth. There’s something about her that makes the most sordid whore you can imagine seem pure by comparison.’

To Corrie’s surprise Paula was silent. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked. ‘What are you thinking?’

‘I’m thinking about Ted Braithwaite,’ Paula answered steadily. ‘Has it occurred to you that he must have known who Annalise was when he put you in touch with her?’

‘Yes,’ Corrie answered, ‘I’ve thought about that. But I’m pretty sure his motives were genuine.’

‘Are you going to talk to him about it?’

‘I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway.’

‘And what about Annalise? Are you going to tell her who you are?’

‘No. That’s for Phillip to do. Which brings me on to the telephone call I received just before I rang you.’

‘Holy shit! What
is
going on?’ Paula cried, when Corrie told her. ‘It all sounds like one hell of a mess, Corrie, and I have to tell you that it frightens me a bit. At least, Luke does. I’m convinced he knows.’

‘You could be right. But as I said, I’m not going to be the one to confirm it.’

‘Doesn’t it make you want to get out of there?’ Paula said hopefully.

‘You’re dead right it does,’ Corrie answered. ‘And I would, believe me, if it weren’t for Annalise. I’m more afraid for her than I am for anyone else.’ Again she shuddered. ‘I just don’t understand how her own mother could have behaved the way she did right in front of her. And Phillip’s not going to do anything about it, that much is obvious. She doesn’t have anyone else, except me, and if I walked out now I’d never stop worrying about her.’

‘Well, I can understand that. But for my part, I’m worried about you. Why should Octavia have wanted you to know that she knew about you and Luke?’

‘To be truthful I don’t think it’s any more than that she got a kick out of it. She wanted me to know that she has more power over him than either me or Annalise. Well, she’s welcome to it, if that’s the case. But I don’t think she has. I think Luke is calling all the shots, and she’s just so wrapped up in herself, and her nauseating fantasies, she can’t even see what he is doing to her husband.’

‘There goes that word again,’ Paula said.

‘What, fantasy?’ Corrie sighed. ‘It’s one that’s starting to make me feel sick just to hear it. What ever happened to good old romantic dreams? Of meeting Mr Right and going off into the sunset together? These days my definition of fantasy is something that depraves the mind, makes you behave … Well, like Octavia. Anyway, I don’t think she’s the problem, I think Luke is, and I’m fascinated to know what he’s going to say about last night.’

But when Corrie finally arrived at the office Luke didn’t even mention it. Corrie played along with his silence, keeping to her decision to say nothing until he did. But maybe her father would throw some light onto things when she saw him the following night. But any hope she had of that was dashed the next morning, when Phillip’s secretary called to tell Corrie that he couldn’t make it.

Cristos Bennati, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jeans and his thin, pale cotton shirt billowing in the warm California breeze, was strolling around his pool terrace listening to the lead actors discussing their roles.

As he paced he said very little himself, wanting, for the moment, only to glean how they saw their parts in this arcane story of
Past Lives Present
. It was going to be one difficult movie to shoot, with so many changes of period, special effects and stunts, not to mention the size of the cast, but what concerned him most was that the lead artists should have a clear and human concept of each character they were to play. That wasn’t going to be easy for Paige
Spencer
, who had never taken on a part so complex, nor so demanding before, but Cristos was certain that with the right help she would deliver. David Easton, on the other hand, who was unquestionably where the money was, Cristos knew he could rely on totally. Easton had a whole string of successes behind him, was as versatile an actor as Cristos had ever come across, and was one of the hardest workers, too.

He was watching Easton now, using a hand to shield his eyes from the dazzling sun as Easton patiently went over what he saw as Paige’s character in her eighteenth century incarnation. Paige and the others were listening as intently as Cristos to Easton’s views, and though they were different from Cristos’s own, Cristos was more than ready to accept that Easton might have come up with an angle he’d not seen himself.

A few minutes later Cristos was grinning. Sure enough, Easton had yet again pulled a rabbit from the hat. Easton was looking at him, grinning too and knowing that he had just impressed the hell out of his director.