The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard : A Novel (2023) by Lester Natasha

Author:Lester, Natasha [Lester, Natasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty Seven

Blythe Bricard

After Blythe hangs up from Remy, her mind turns over a reel of images – Mizza, who designed Dior couture. And Astrid, who disappeared into a vapour of rumours about drug dealers and jealousy.

One of the images in her mind supports that story – Hawk and Astrid at a Charles Revson party, Astrid wearing a singlet with Hawk’s name on the back, a style the brand updated often in the first few years and then abruptly stopped producing after Astrid disappeared. In the image, Astrid is holding onto both Hawk and a toilet seat embedded with hundred-dollar bills with the same kind of desperation – as if she can’t let either of them slip through her fingers. She’s laughing, looks drunk or wasted, and with her over-the-top toilet seat under her arm, she’s the woman Blythe is ashamed to be related to.

But …

Blythe takes out her phone and pulls up the article about her own talent for providing inspiration rather than designing. None of it’s true. What if Astrid did design the dress she wore to the Cotys? What if it’s just that the falsehoods are too tantalising to be disbelieved?

And she knows, with such certainty it makes her lean her elbows on her knees and stare at her reflection in the shining parquetry floor, that if she restarts MIZZA with Blake Group, the media will say: JAKE BLACK BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO MIZZA AND MAKES IT A SUCCESS. Blythe’s name will appear a couple of paragraphs down as the inspiration behind the idea, nothing more.

It will be his. Not hers. And Blythe will be the one walking away with tears on her face.

Blythe crosses to the dining room and Jake looks up straightaway, as if he’s been waiting for her. She knows she’s about to hurt him – again? Was he hurt by their divorce? Yes, she thinks he was. But she either hurts him again now, or she hurts herself.

She indicates that she wants to talk to him and they cross back to the library. Something about her expression has him dropping into a chair.

‘You’re not doing MIZZA with me,’ he says.

She stands in front of the fireplace and stares down into it. ‘I’m breaking my promise to you and the deal we made. I come from a long line of women who are crucified by the future for who and what they supposedly love. Which means I cannot work with you. Ever.’ Her words are vehement.

How does she say this next part? She’ll be making herself as vulnerable to Jake as she’s ever been and she has no idea what he’ll do with that.

She breathes out, tries to explain. ‘Even in our worst moments, we never had difficulty with …’ She falters, feels her cheeks redden. But she has to be honest – she wants him to keep to his side of the deal even as she can’t uphold hers. She wants Eva and Sebby to win for once.

‘We never had trouble with sex,’ she says, voice a little too loud in her determination to have it done.

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