‘I think it’s time to leave, Amy.’
‘But I haven’t done anything wrong,’ she said, her voice trembling.
‘We don’t want to have to call security.’
‘Security? Douglas, listen to yourself. I am not a drug addict. I have never touched drugs.’
An image flashed into her mind. That afternoon she had come back from Dr Al Saraf’s. Josie sitting in Chrissie’s chair, a phone call, a flurry, a knocked bag spilling its contents on the floor. She’d let Josie pick it up and the girl had obviously seen a stray syringe.
‘It’s Josie, isn’t it?’ she said, pointing towards the door. ‘Josie told you I was on drugs. She saw a syringe and made up a story to discredit
me.’
Douglas raised a hand. ‘Amy, listen to yourself. I know you’re upset, but there’s no need to start throwing accusations around.’
‘That little tramp seduced my husband. Did you know that?’ She was pointing at Douglas himself now. Her heart was hammering hard and she could feel sweat beading at her temples.
Douglas had got up from his desk and had walked round to her side. Now he put a hand on her shoulder to direct her out of the room. She spun away.
‘Get off me,’ she hissed.
As he opened the door, she could see Josie standing there holding a mug of tea. She couldn’t hold her anger and frustration in any longer.
‘Are you happy now?’ she screamed. ‘I have only ever tried to help you, and you do this to me. You want my life, is that it? And if you can’t have it, you want to destroy me.’
Douglas was now openly restraining her. Denton Scoles had appeared out of his office eating a biscuit.
‘Watch her, just watch her,’ Amy said, trying to wriggle out of Douglas’s grasp.
‘Amy, are you all right?’ said Josie in a smooth, calm voice. ‘Do you want me to call David?’
‘I don’t want you going anywhere near my husband,’ she screamed.
She watched Josie and Douglas exchange glances.
‘I’ve called security,’ said Denton, not looking Amy in the eye.
‘Don’t worry,’ she spat. ‘I’m leaving. This business, Douglas. It isn’t about magazines. It’s about people.’ She flashed a look at Josie. ‘And the moment you make the wrong pick is the moment you find it all unravelling.’
Chapter 31
Max’s Holland Park house was big. No real surprise there; everything about Max was big, overblown. Maybe he’s overcompensating for something, thought Amy, then immediately regretted it, not wanting to think about Max’s endowment, large or otherwise.
She stood outside the shiny black door, psyching herself for a minute before she went in.
Max Quinn wasn’t the ideal shoulder to cry on, but David was locked in a key meeting with Japanese investors all morning and she didn’t want to disturb him, not when she felt so hysterical. Besides, when it came to fighting back against Douglas Proctor, who better to call than the ruthless snake himself.
Rehab. It was just more corporate arse-covering of the worst kind. Even if she really had been hooked on heroin, did anyone seriously believe that Douglas was committed to getting her off the black tar and into recovery? And once she was whole again, was he really going to let her back in charge of Genesis Media’s number one cash cow? Was he hell. All they had to do was make the right noises, pretend to be sympathetic to her ‘issues’, then scoot her off with whatever token redundancy payment would keep her quiet. No, Amy knew her career was over – at Genesis certainly; possibly in the media as a whole, depending on how much of the story the gossips swallowed.
She took a deep breath and pressed the bell.
It might be over for Amy, but that didn’t mean she was going to let this go. Not in a million years. Because someone had created that story, fabricated it and spread it. She had seen through it immediately.
According to Douglas, a cleaner had found the needles the previous night, yet in the next breath he was telling her that Dolce & Gabbana already knew about the rumours. Yeah, right. Either the cleaner had immediately rung Milan, or someone was lying. More than that: someone had decided to use the lie to bring her down. And Amy was going to find out who.
‘Amy!’ said Claire, opening the door. ‘Such a surprise. What on earth are you doing on a social call at this time?’
‘It was actually Max I wanted to speak to. I called his office. His PA said he was straight off a flight from New York but was stopping off at home first.’