The Making of Mia (36 page)

Joshua stared at Mia with the iciest glare she had ever seen, and finally, he spoke. ‘So it’s true,’ he spat angrily. ‘Well,
Joanne, top marks for reinventing yourself. But I’m curious – what did you do to raise the money for surgery? Whore your body
to men who like to fuck fat girls?’

Mia laughed. Nothing he could say would ever hurt her again.

‘You paid for it, darling. Olivia Windsor thanks you from the bottom of her cold, black heart. It’s just as well you didn’t
believe me when I told you I was writing for
Gloss
using that pseudonym, or I’d have needed to take out a loan. But am I to take it that the engagement is off? It’s a pity
because I would have liked to give birth to your treasured little Garnet heirs. It would have given me great pleasure to see
dumpy little versions of Joanne Hill running your magazine company – the greatest revenge ever.’

Joshua crossed his arms against his chest defensively, and Mia could see that her words stung.

‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you, Joanne,’ Joshua
said harshly, and Mia grinned at him. She was on a high from revealing her secret, and Joshua knew it. ‘But with one little
phone call to my friends at the
Guardian
, I can ruin you. I can tell the journalists exactly what you told me, and within twenty-four hours they will have gathered
enough research on you – medical records, birth certificates, bank accounts – to have an exclusive front-page story that will
shock the world. I can see the headline now: “Mia Blackwood Committed ID Fraud for Petty Revenge.” Sounds good, don’t you
think?’

‘Hardly,’ Mia laughed. Not only was she thousands of steps ahead of him, but she also loved every minute of seeing Joshua
scrabble about desperately for some ammunition. His threats didn’t scare her, and nor did his mock-up of a headline. ‘Stick
to the day job, Joshie. Although it’s lucky you’re a publisher and not a sub-editor, isn’t it? If you were a junior sub on
Gloss
I’d have sacked you for coming up with a crap headline like that.’

Joshua took his tiny black mobile phone from his pocket and flipped it open.

‘Keep laughing, Joanne, because as soon as I dial the number you’re history.’

Mia sighed dramatically, and walked over to her glass coffee table. On top of the sparkling surface lay some proofs of a magazine,
and it was only when Mia handed them to Joshua that he realised that they weren’t for
Gloss
.

‘A four-page spread in the next
Vanity Fair
about how I changed my image and name to make it in the shallow world of magazines,’ Mia explained, as Joshua’s fingers gripped
the inky proofs tightly in anger. ‘Gable – who isn’t really my brother, although I’m sure you’ve realised that by now, darling
– gives his insight into why he pretended to be related to me, and Jessie, the journalist who did the piece, cleverly weaves
my life story in with the horrid reality of the cosmetic surgery I undertook. I must say, it’s a great article.
You might want to consider Jessie as a freelance for
Gloss
.’

Mia leant over the proofs, brushing her breast against Joshua’s arm, and pointed out some of the photos. ‘Look, here’s me
at my last day at school – don’t I look miserable? – and here’s some photos from a shoot I did a couple of weeks ago. It’s
a bit like playing spot the difference, isn’t it?’ she said, conversationally. ‘Only it’s more “guess what work Jo had done
on her body and where”.’ Joshua looked up from the proofs with such rage that Mia suddenly wondered if she was going too far.

‘You fucking bitch,’ Joshua said to her abrasively, and even though she was slightly scared, Mia gave Joshua another brilliant
grin.

‘The magazine is out next week, but I wanted to tell you about it myself before someone at the printers leaked the story to
the
News of the World
. If you like you can keep these proofs. I don’t need them any more,’ Mia said, but straight away Joshua ripped them up and
let the pieces of shiny paper drop to the floor. He glared at her for the longest time, and then, quite without warning, a
smile spread on his face, and Joshua suddenly looked pleased with himself.

‘There’s still the matter of the fraudulent email that you sent to the
Media Guardian
– the one that resulted in my having to sack Madeline,’ Joshua said, slowly walking around the room. She hadn’t considered
that, he thought, triumphantly. He was going to nail the bitch if it was the last thing he did. When Mia didn’t speak instantly
Joshua spun round, and was surprised to see Mia still looked calm.

‘Ah, yes. That,’ Mia said matter of factly. ‘Well, that’s covered too, I’m afraid. I’ve spoken to Madeline and she knows all
about it. She was a bit shocked at first, I have to admit, but when I explained why I had to do it she eventually came round.
She even admitted that if the roles had been reversed she’d have considered doing it too. We had quite
a little reunion, you know,’ Mia said, her voice taking on an amused tone. ‘And what surprised me most of all was how little
Madeline knew about you and your sham of a marriage. But don’t you worry – I filled her in on the gaps.’

Joshua narrowed his eyes. She was bluffing, he thought. She had to be. ‘You “filled her in”? Really, Joanne, I do sometimes
forget that you’re just a kid. You can be so tiresome when you’re trying to be dramatic. Spit it out.’

Mia took a deep breath. ‘Fine. I told Madeline that you only married her so you could control Garnet Publishing,’ Mia said,
raising her eyebrows and watching Joshua’s lack of expression with interest. His face remained poker-straight from years of
business experience. ‘She didn’t believe me at first, but once I told her everything I knew about you, she realised just how
naïve she had been. The truth hurt, but she needed to understand just why you discarded her like a piece of shit. I mean,
she always knew you had an eye for the ladies – which was why she asked me to be your PA in the first place – but she really
didn’t think you were so stupid to start having affairs again.’ Mia watched Joshua’s eyes widen. ‘When Madeline came round
to the fact that I was telling the truth, she told me more about you and your home life. I never knew, Joshua, that your father
really believed that Madeline was mentally ill. And I certainly didn’t realise that for the whole time you were married, your
father believed you were faithful to your wife. Really,’ Mia continued, with a wink, ‘I’d have thought that it would be a
Garnet tradition to have mistresses, but it sounds as though your father is quite the moral, family man. I wonder how he would
feel if his former beloved daughter-in-law phoned him up to tell him that not only was she sent to a clinic when she was actually
mentally fit, but also that his son had an awful lot of affairs when he was supposed to be concentrating on producing heirs
and building the family business up.’

Joshua scowled. ‘You have no proof,’ he said, crossing his arms and walking around the room again.

‘Wrong again, darling,’ Mia said. ‘When I was your PA I had access to your email in-box. Well, I very cleverly made copies
of all your emails to Marina, as well as to Jasmine, Natasha and Serena, and not only that, I took the liberty of photocopying
your diary one night, too.’ Mia laughed quietly to herself as Joshua stopped pacing and stood deadly still. ‘All those nights
you made me work late really paid off.’

‘The media wouldn’t dare to run any of these stories,’ Joshua said angrily. ‘Rupert Murdoch is a good friend of mine, and
as for the Barclay brothers and Lord Rothermere—’

Mia interrupted him. ‘But stories like this
sell
, Joshie. You and I both know that. Can you imagine opening the
Sun
and seeing Debbie in some tarty red lingerie? If she was offered a couple of quid she’d do it in a second – it would be her
big break and before you knew it she would be a contestant on
Celebrity Big Brother
, crying her eyes out about how badly she’s been treated. Or how about a hand-wringing piece in the
Guardian
about how bosses always take advantage of their employees? This is a story that even the most discreet of newspaper proprietors
wouldn’t worry about running. Especially if you add in the fact that you got your perfectly sane wife sent to a private hospital
just to get her out of your life.’

‘Madeline would never do that to me.’

‘Oh, you’re so wrong. Madeline and I have grown rather close recently – well, we do have a lot in common – and she is perfectly
prepared to go to any number of magazines or newspapers so that the whole world knows the truth about you. She’d prefer to
break the news to your father in person, considering how decent he was to her when you were married, but other than that she’d
be happy to go to the press. She
needs the money, you see. Madeline and I both agree that it’s time she gets what she’s owed. And while we’re sorting out what
she rightly deserves, I need some hush money too.’

Joshua looked at Mia blankly. Ordinarily he thrived on negotiations, but Mia had him backed so far into a corner that he was
willing to give her whatever she wanted to shut her up. If he lost his reputation, he thought, he would lose everything –
his position within the company, the respect of the industry and his pride. ‘What do you want?’ he said emotionlessly.

Mia sat down on her sofa and crossed her legs. Her silver dress rose slightly up her tanned thighs, and even though she looked
like a model, she spoke like a confident business-woman who knew she’d won a bloody battle. ‘Ten million pounds each. Call
it severance pay, and neither Madeline or I will ever go to the press with our story.’

Joshua stared at Mia, and his mouth dropped open. ‘I don’t have a spare twenty million sitting around. And if I don’t have
it, you can’t have it.’

Mia laughed. ‘You may not have it, Joshua, but your publishing company does,’ she said, while smiling lazily. ‘I asked Debbie
to get the latest finance figures from Edward Sampson-Brown, and it seems Garnet Publishing is doing rather well. Ten million
pounds each is small change to the company, and the figure is – at the very least – what we’re worth. After all,’ she said,
‘what price would you put on your reputation?’

Joshua didn’t speak for a minute as he assessed the situation. It would be worth spending £20 million just to get Joanne Hill
and his stupid ex-wife out of his life, he thought. Just so long as they never darkened his door again.

‘You will both sign a statement saying you will never speak about any of the things mentioned tonight,’ Joshua said, menacingly.
‘Because if a word of this gets out, you
will not only be liable to give me back every single penny, but I will sue you so hard for breach of contract that you will
have to beg your surgeon to take back your breasts in order to raise the money you’ll owe me.’

Mia grinned. She didn’t have a problem with his terms at all. ‘Get the contracts to us within twelve hours and you have a
deal,’ she said, glancing at her clock. It was nearly one in the morning, and twelve hours was plenty of time for Joshua to
call his lawyers to an emergency meeting. ‘If you don’t, I won’t be held responsible if Madeline happens to phone up her cousin
in tears. Do you remember her cousin, Joshua? The one who writes for
The Times
?’

Joshua shot Mia the most malicious glare she had ever received, and without saying a word he swept out of the penthouse and
on to the rain-sodden streets of London’s South Bank. As soon as he left, Mia slumped on her sofa, and it wasn’t until she
noticed the pink diamond ring glittering on her living-room floor that she realised she’d won: she’d taken on Joshua Garnet
and beaten him. All the nervous energy that had built up soon drained from her body, and Mia felt only calm, soothing relief
that quickly gave way to pure, ecstatic exhilaration. Even though she knew she could phone Amelia, Gable, Lucy or Madeline
to fill them in on what had happened, Mia realised there was only one person in the world that she really wanted to celebrate
with, and that was William.

May 2008

A year later Jo was composing an email on her computer when Madeline walked into her office. Jo looked at the older woman
carefully, and realised, sharply, that her business partner was beaming at her – something she’d never done when she’d worked
at Garnet Publishing. When Madeline smiled, Jo thought, her whole face relaxed, and despite being in her forties, Madeline
looked ten years younger than she really was. Motherhood suited her, Jo realised with a jolt, and she recalled how Madeline
and her new partner, Dan, had summoned her to the hospital to meet Alfie Turner when he was only three hours old. Madeline
had gazed down at her son with such tenderness that Jo had felt a pang of regret about how badly she’d treated Madeline in
the past.

‘Lucy phoned, and she says that Joshua has just called a crisis meeting,’ Madeline said happily, as she sat down on a cow-print
chair in Jo’s large glass-fronted office. Framed covers of
Cerise
– their first women’s glossy magazine – hung on the hot-pink walls, and in pride of place on Jo’s desk was a photograph taken
on a recent trip to Thailand. In the photo Lucy and Amelia were hugging each other, and Jo was being carried, piggyback style,
by Gable. She was beaming directly at the camera. Jo knew that without the support of her friends she would never have been
able to get through the intense weeks of media coverage about her surgery and deception,
so she had treated them all to a luxurious few weeks on a remote Thai island.

Jo leant back in her indigo leather chair and laughed. Her natural brown hair fanned out on her shoulders, and even though
she’d put on half a stone and wasn’t wearing any make-up, she still looked as beautiful as she had done when she was pretending
to be Gable’s little sister. ‘So he’s finally realised that
Cerise
is going to shut him down,’ she commented, and Madeline nodded as she smoothed out a wrinkle in her white Prada suit. In
it she looked more like Bianca Jagger than ever.