The Tangled Web (36 page)

The plan was
working and it was almost too perfect.  Everything was going exactly as it
should.  Vicky was preoccupied with her own drama, Flic was doing anything she
could to busy herself with Vicky’s troubles and avoid tracking down George, and
as for Adam…well, she hadn’t counted on him being here, but he was just a
hapless idiot who wasn’t getting in the way at all.

She checked
over her shoulder once more and scrolled down her phone’s address book until
she came to the number she wanted.  She pressed the call button and waited.  It
went straight to voicemail, just as she expected.  She would leave a message.

‘It’s Lumi. 
Everything’s going well.  We’re all going to be at Aphrodite’s Birthplace at
two o’clock today.  It’s the perfect place to do this.  It’s signposted as
Petra Tu Romiou.  They’re all preoccupied with one of Vicky’s dramas so they
suspect nothing.  Any problems, text me.  I’ll see you there.  I love you.’

30

16
^th
July

Lumi clutched her phone in her hand.  They were almost at
Aphrodite’s Birthplace.  And he hadn’t sent her a message to say he was there
yet.  She cursed him.  Had she been wrong to trust him in the first place?  She
didn’t know.  Maybe he was as untrustworthy as she had been told.  Maybe she
had been taken for a ride, just like others had been in the past.

No!  She stopped herself.  She had to stop thinking that
way.  She had to trust him.  He had been so kind to her already.  He had made
her feel so special.  She would know if someone was just buttering her up to
get what they wanted, and it really didn’t feel like he was.  And his side of
the story sounded so convincing.

She had to keep herself balanced.  She needed a healthy
amount of trust and caution.  She had to trust that he would go ahead with
their plan.  She had to trust herself to stay on her guard and turn things
around to her advantage if he didn’t keep to his end of the deal. 

Lumi looked to her right and saw a relaxed Flic sitting
with her bare feet up on the driver’s seat in front of her.  She was looking
out of the window and smiling to herself.  She looked so young and fresh and
happy.  Flic looked completely different in Cyprus, away from the heavy
make-up, the fake tan, the cocktails and the bitterness she was carrying around
on a daily basis.  Here, she just looked like any other woman on holiday in her
denim skirt and strappy top.

Lumi felt her stomach tighten and her chest get heavy.  A
wave of guilt washed over her for what she was about to do.  Flic would end up
even more bitter after this afternoon.  But it had to be done.  She had ruined
marriages and relationships for too many months and gotten away with it.  She
had to get what she deserved.

She looked straight ahead and saw the back of Vicky’s head
bobbing around as she chatted nervously to her brother.  She wished there was a
way to get her revenge on Vicky too, but she hadn’t had time to think of a
plan.  Perhaps she didn’t need to.  Vicky was so miserable all the time.  She
was carrying a dark cloud around with her that might never go away.  And
Christos was managing to hurt her in ways that Lumi could never have dreamed
up. 

She started to feel angry thinking about that bitch. 
Didn’t she know how lucky she was to have a beautiful baby girl, a job she
enjoyed, a family who loved her, a house that was practically a mansion to live
in?  How could SHE be depressed?  Vicky had everything Lumi had ever wanted,
and still it wasn’t enough.  She had to complain about being a single parent. 
From what Magnus had told her, Vicky’s ex-boyfriend didn’t even know about his
daughter.  There was a good chance if he did know, he would come straight back
to Scotland to be with the two of them.  And as for her job, she was spending
her days helping families through the worst time of their lives, and arranging
beautiful funerals for people who aren’t here any more.  She was doing a
worthwhile job, for good money, and still it wasn’t enough.  She had to
complain she wanted to be a writer, and she needed something to blog about.  So
she played her little game, ruining lives and sabotaging other people’s
happiness, just so that she could have something to write about.

If she could find a way to get justice by ruining Vicky’s
life, she would.  But it looked like Christos was about to break her heart yet
again.  She had her own finger on the self-destruct button permanently and she
insisted on falling for the wrong men.  Tough shit.

The only person she felt sorry for was Adam.  Poor stupid
Adam.  He was an idiot, albeit a good looking and friendly one.  She was sure
he was here to try and salvage his train-wreck of a relationship with Flic. 
Too bad that would never happen now.  But he would meet somebody who really
deserved him. 

She felt her phone vibrate in her hand.  Yes!  This had to
be him.  She opened the text message inbox.

“I’m here.  I’m in the gift shop. Keep them away from the
shop and on the beach. I love you x”

She smirked and took a deep breath to cleanse her of her
nervousness.  She could do that.  She typed in a reply.

“We’re just arriving now. Stay in the shop. I’ll text again
when we’re on the beach. I love you too x”

‘That’s us here now,’ Adam chirped.

‘Ok, let’s go girls,’ Lumi said, opening her door and
stepping out.

‘Girls AND boy,’ Adam reminded her.

Lumi closed the car door over again and turned towards
Adam.  It was time to put her plan into action.

‘You mean you’re coming too?  Why?’ she asked.

‘Well, why wouldn’t he?’ Flic snapped.

‘It might make things a little awkward if Vicky is
confronting Christos.  If her brother is there, it may seem less like a
discussion and more like he is her bodyguard waiting to beat him up if he
upsets her,’ Lumi rationalised.

‘I never thought of that,’ Vicky pouted.

‘Nonsense.  Adam’s coming,’ Flic dismissed.

‘It’s not nonsense.  He can come, but he has to wait until
everything is fine.  Once Vicky speaks to Christos and everything is ok again –
or not so ok – Adam can come and enjoy the beach with us,’ Lumi insisted.

‘She has a point, Flic.  It might intimidate Christos,’
Vicky conceded.

Flic tutted.  ‘Adam, what do you want to do?’

He stroked his chin and appeared to be mulling over Lumi’s
argument.  ‘I think I’ll stay here for the first ten minutes.  That should give
them a wee while to talk without me being there and it won’t seem
confrontational.’

Lumi raised her eyebrows.  That was a big word for him to
use, she thought.

‘Alright then,’ Flic humphed.  She turned to look at Lumi
and appeared to be wrinkling her nose in distaste. 

Lumi smothered a snigger.  If Flic hated her now, wait
until she got her just desserts.  Then she would really have a reason to hate
her!

‘Right, I’ll go on ahead and find Christos, then Flic and
Lumi, you two follow in a minute.  Adam, you wait here for about ten minutes. 
You’re just a phonecall away if I need you.’  Vicky threw the car door open and
banged it shut with force which suggested she was psyching herself up to appear
angry rather than hurt. 

Lumi watched Flic put her shoes on and then examine her
nails, while Adam played with the stereo trying to find an English speaking
station.  She announced that she needed some fresh air and got out of the car,
ignoring Flic’s following jibe about the air being too hot to be described as
fresh.  She rested against the back of the car and looked into the window of
the gift shop.  And there he was, hiding behind a display of books.  He winked
at her and she felt a little shiver despite the sun blazing down on her.  Just
a few more hours and they would be together and wouldn’t have to pretend any
more.

*****

Vicky forced herself to walk rather than run through the
tunnel to the beach.  The place was crowded.  Why did it have to be so busy? 
Of course it was busy, she told herself.  It’s a major tourist attraction in
the middle of summer.  There would be something wrong if it wasn’t busy.  She
wished she could just blink and be there on the beach though, with Christos in
front of her and nobody else.  How were they going to talk about this properly
with dozens of strangers around them?

After the walk through what seemed like the longest tunnel
in the world, although it was really quite short, Vicky reached the beach.  She
was disappointed it wasn’t a sandy beach, with grains of soft golden sand which
would stay in her shoes for weeks to come and remind her of this day.  She
staggered clumsily onto the pebbles and sighed.  Maybe it was a good thing it
wasn’t sandy, she told herself.  Maybe she wouldn’t want any reminders, if it
didn’t turn out to be a happy day.

Christos wasn’t hard to spot.  He was sitting on the
pebbles, looking out towards the sea, watching as groups of tourists discarded
their clothes, ran into the spray and swam towards the rock which was where
Aphrodite was supposedly born.  Amongst the fair haired, the fair skinned and
the would-be photographers, Christos stood out.  Vicky paused for a moment to
look at him.  While everyone else wore obvious holiday clothes, Christos was
dressed like a local, in his white t-shirt and jeans.  His thick black hair
looked even darker than usual.  The only thing that gave him away as someone
who didn’t live here was his pale skin.  He was far too pasty to be a resident,
even if this was his original home. 

As if her eyes were burning a hole in the back of his head,
he turned almost as soon as Vicky started to walk in his direction.  He smiled
at her.  It was a smile she had seen so many times before; whenever he came in
to her office, whenever she spoke to him on webcam, when he came to deliver the
flowers for her Dad’s beloved garden to her home, when she went into his shop,
in hundreds of photographs.  She had never hated his smile before, the way that
she did today.  What had once seemed friendly and approachable now seemed
predatory.

She didn’t return the smile and the closer she came to him,
he realised that something was not right.  His expression changed to one of
wary concern. 

‘What’s wrong agapi mou?’ he worried, in his half Cypriot,
half Scottish accent which she had previously found endearing.  Now it was just
tedious.

Vicky said nothing for fear that she might burst into
tears.  Instead she reached into her bag and removed the printouts of the chat
he had with Jessica and the messages they had exchanged before he blocked her.

His confusion was evident as he unfolded the papers but
this gave way to anger as he realised exactly what he was reading.

‘You spied on me?  For real?’ he blasted.

Vicky shook her head.  ‘No.  I didn’t.  Pamela did.’

‘She was supposed to be Kayla!’ he snarled.  He threw the
papers into the sea in frustration and put his hands into his thick hair. 

‘She got fed up of you not responding.  She changed tactics
and didn’t tell me,’ Vicky croaked.  She willed herself not to cry.  She
attempted to rein the tears in, but the angrier he looked, the weepier she
felt.  She had to stay strong.  She lifted her chin defiantly and stared into
his eyes.

‘You expect me to believe you knew nothing about this?’ he
fumed.

Something inside Vicky snapped.  How dare he try and turn
this around on her!  She had done nothing wrong.  She hadn’t asked Pamela to
change tactics, and she wasn’t the one cheating on a long term partner, or
anyone else for that matter.  The tears began to wash down her face and as soon
as they had escaped she released the anger she was feeling.

‘I don’t care what you believe!  You’re the one that’s in
the wrong here!  You’re the one who has cheated on your girlfriend!’ she
yelled.

A few Russian tourists who had been about to lay down their
towels and strip off for a swim started to mutter to each other and stare at
Vicky and Christos. 

‘What?’ he barked at them.

They quickened their steps and marched away in the opposite
direction.  Vicky looked around her and noticed that everyone else seemed to be
moving too and pretty soon they would be alone on their little stretch of the
beach.

She turned her attention back to Christos.  ‘I don’t care
how angry you are at me.  I think you’re just angry that I’ve found you out and
you don’t have anyone who will believe your sob stories about how mistreated
you are by your girlfriend any more,’ she spat. 

Vicky took a deep breath, glad that she had gotten those
words out, and turned to walk back towards the car. 

‘Wait!’ he pulled on her shoulder and turned her to face
him again.  He put a hand on each of her arms.  ‘Look at me.  Please, Vicky,
look at me.’

She tutted and despite her better judgement telling her not
to do so, she looked directly into his eyes. 

A few days ago, she would have been thrilled to be standing
here on a foreign beach with the man she considered to be one of her closest
friends.  He was special to her.  She had always thought that maybe, in another
time and place, the flowers he delivered to her almost daily would be for her
and not for the funerals.  The chats they had would be over dinner at night
rather than on a computer.  Now, she felt like she had wasted so much time over
those chats.  It was time she could have been writing, or sleeping, or making
other friends.