The Sisters (31 page)

‘Wow, I knew there was something about you.’

‘Yeah, a rebel. Dad went mad, mum went madder. Thought that I was throwing my life and education away. But this makes me happy. Even if it doesn’t make me rich at least I’m doing something that makes me get out of bed in the morning and I’m excited about my day.’

‘Have they got over it yet? I think my mum regrets the day she ever agreed to put a piano in the house.’

‘My dad still thinks that this is just a blip and that I’ll get over it. It’s been ten years; it’s not going to happen. So Ms. LeSoeur don’t worry about a thing.’

As Lucinda drove home she sang along, at the top of her voice, with every song that came out of her car speakers. For the first time in a long time she could actually say that she was happy, she even laughed when the opening lines of the Gwen Guthie club classic
‘Ain’t nothin goin on but the rent’
blared out of the speakers. Lucinda was still singing when she arrived home. It was almost 11pm and she wasn’t surprised that the twins were still up but she was surprised to see Jessica sitting in her living room with a cup of tea in her hand as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

‘Hi mom. How was the studio?’ Katelyn said, sprawled out on the sofa watching High Fidelity and ignoring the absurdity of the fact that the aunt whom she’d barely seen since she arrived in London was sitting next to her.

‘The studio was fine,’ Lucinda said calmly.

‘Hello Lou,’ Jessica said as she stood up. It had taken her two days to find the courage to contact her sister but every time she’d picked up the phone she knew that a phone call simply wouldn’t do and there was no guarantee that Lucinda would even have accepted it. So she’d taken the chance, knowing that her sister deserved more respect than that. She’d driven from Islington to Notting Hill in the hope that her sister wouldn’t slam the door in her face. The icy tension between the sisters was enough to draw Katelyn’s attention away from the television.

‘I think I’m going to watch the rest of this in my room,’ Katelyn said as she unwound herself from the sofa, walked up to her mum and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Be nice,’ Katelyn whispered to her mum. ‘Night, Auntie Jess,’ she said before running up the stairs two at a time.

‘What are you doing here, Jessica?’ Lucinda asked once she’d heard Katelyn’s door shut.

‘I needed to see you. To speak to you.’

‘You could have called.’

‘I could have done but…’ She searched for the words. ‘A phone call wouldn’t have been enough.’

Lucinda didn’t move away from the door as she watched her sister from a distance. She wasn’t wearing any makeup and she could see the dark circles under her eyes and her face looked anguish and drawn.

‘Mum said that you’ve been away, but you don’t look like you’ve been on holiday. Not unless you took a ten day city break to Helmand Province.’

‘Lou, I’m…’

‘Have you eaten?’ Lucinda asked, not feeling quite ready to hear whatever Jessica had come all this way to tell her, especially after the last time they’d spoken, which had left their relationship beyond repair.

‘What?’ Jessica replied, confused that Lucinda hadn’t yet grabbed her and demanded that she leave.

‘I said have you eaten?’

‘No, I haven’t. I had something at lunch but it wasn’t much.’

‘Right, come on then,’ Lucinda said as she turned and walked into the kitchen leaving Jessica with no choice but to follow her.

LUCINDA BUSIED herself with taking out the remainder of the butternut squash and spinach rotolo from the fridge. As always she’d cooked too much and feared that she and the twins would be eating it for a whole week. She turned on the radio to fill in the silence as Jessica stood patiently by the island not sure whether she should be sitting.

‘Would you like some wine? I’ve got a shiraz already opened,’ Lucinda said as she waited for the ping of the microwave.

‘No thanks. I’m not drinking…I’ve stopped drinking.’

‘Oh, ok. Well, I’ve got diet coke or cranberry juice.’

‘I’ll take the juice,’ Jessica replied as Lucinda prepared the drinks and only sat down once she’d placed the plates on the table. Jessica felt her stomach rumble as the smell of rich, spicy tomato sauce combined with butternut squash, basil and oregano wafted up her nose. She sat down and took a mouthful of pasta not quite believing the sensation in her mouth. ‘Oh my god. Lou, this is so good,’ Jessica said after her first mouthful. ‘I never knew that you could…’

‘There are a lot of things that you don’t know,’ Lucinda replied coldly as she poured herself a glass of wine and sat down to eat.

‘Why are you here?’ Lucinda asked as she topped up her glass unable to take the pretence of the silence anymore. ‘Because I’m surprised that you’re here in my house eating in my kitchen. I thought you had no intention of speaking or seeing me again.’

Jessica pushed her plate away and diverted her eyes away from the large wine glass that Lucinda was bringing to her lips.

‘I came to apologise. To tell you that I was wrong. I was wrong to take Andrew’s word over yours.’

Lucinda raised an eyebrow. ‘You were wrong? You were wrong to take his word. Is that it?’

‘What do you mean is that it, of course that’s it.’

‘Jessica, you weren’t just wrong. You betrayed me.’

Jessica looked down at the table. ‘I know.’

‘You took his word over mine. I’m your sister and I’d never have done anything to hurt you. Never, and you believed him over me. How could you do that?’

‘Lou, I know and I’m sorry.’

‘It’s not enough. Saying sorry is not enough. So what happened? What made you see the light? Because it definitely wasn’t anything I said.’

‘He told me,’ Jessica said unable to stop the hot tears that were streaming down her face.

‘Oh great, so you only believe me because that shit of a man told you. Thank you, Jessica. Thank you very much. Do you know what damage you did? I had mum here looking at me as if I was a piece of shit under her shoe, Beatrice calling me asking if it was true. Even though she said she’d never believe it, do you have any idea how it feels to have your own family doubting your words and questioning your truth? I’ve done a lot of things that I’m not proud of but I’d never do what you did to me. Never,’ Lucinda said as she got up angrily from the table and walked towards the garden doors, suddenly finding the room and conversation suffocating. She walked barefoot into the garden still holding her wine glass and took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the soft, warm breeze swept over her.

‘You hurt me, Lou. You hurt me when you left me,’ Jessica said softly as she stood next to her sister. ‘It was always us. We did everything together and then you left me.’

‘And that made you believe that I’d try and sleep with your husband. Come on, Jess. You can do better than that.’

‘Lou, I’m trying, I’m really trying. I’ve been stupid, I’ve been blind and I’ve been a fool. I accept all of that. Even worse I put someone else before my own sister. I should never have done that.’

‘Jess, I left you. I left Euterpe but I never stopped being there for you. I left Euterpe for you. Not for me.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘You were going to kill yourself. You were drinking too much, partying too much. Every time you disappeared to some after party I was worried sick that I’d wake up to find out that something had happened to you. I couldn’t let you do that to yourself so I had to leave. Jess, I loved being in Euterpe. You and me we lived and breathed music and there was nothing I loved more than creating music with you and performing on stage with you and Bea, that was my life. I didn’t really care about going solo but when I met Paul and he told me what I could do if I stepped out on my own I thought it’d be the best thing for you. I didn’t plan on doing a Diana Ross and turning us into Lucinda LeSoeur and Euterpe. I never wanted that. I just wanted to save you.’

‘I thought that it was all about you, and when I saw Andrew on top of you, it was easier to believe that you did that to me instead of blaming him.’

‘Well, you wouldn’t would you? You were so self-absorbed, so far up your own arse that it was easier to blame everyone else but you. It was easier to blame me.’

Jessica said nothing, knowing that everything Lucinda was saying was true. ‘I’m sorry that he tried to hurt you.’

‘You don’t have to apologise for him. Don’t you dare do that. I may want to kill you right now but I’m not having that,’ Lucinda replied as she suddenly felt exhausted and sat down.

‘I’m sorry that I didn’t behave like a sister. You’re my big sister Lulu and I’m sorry,’ Jessica said as she sat down next to her.

Lucinda said nothing. She’d never wanted to fight with Jessica and she’d learnt a lot over the past few months to know that life was too short and too unexpected to focus on the negative or the frailties of others.

‘Say something Lou,’ Jessica said.

‘I’m glad that you’ve stopped drinking.’

‘I could lie and say that I’m glad too, but I’d kill for a sip of your wine.’

‘Well tough. Stick to cranberry juice.’

‘He never wanted me you know. He just wanted…actually I don’t know what he wanted.’

‘Yes you do. He saw a cash cow. Simple as that. If it wasn’t you it’d have been someone else.’

‘He wants everything, Lou. Everything that I’ve worked so hard for. When Christopher and I got divorced it was reasonable.’

‘That’s because Christopher is a decent human being and Andrew is a cunt.’

‘God, I hate that word.’

‘Find a better word to describe him and I won’t use it.’

‘You’re right he is a cunt.’ Jessica looked at her sister and for the first time since she’d walked into her house, laughed.

‘He came to me the other night saying that he’d let me keep the house and our money if I gave him the agency.’

‘Tell him to go and fuck himself. Hold on,’ Lucinda said as she realised what Jessica had said. ‘What do you mean our money? I don’t have anything to do with this.’

‘He wanted our money, Lou. Our royalties,’ Jessica replied. ‘Lou, what did you think was happening with the royalties?’ Lucinda turned towards Jessica, suddenly feeling confused, stupid and drunk. She hadn’t seen a royalty cheque for over 12 years. It’d never occurred to her that she was still receiving royalties. When she’d walked away from Euterpe in her head she’d walked into a world where her husband was providing for her so she hadn’t given a second thought as to what was happening with the profits from her old life.

‘We’re still getting royalties? I hadn’t even thought…?’

‘Are you serious? Of course we do. It was business. Andrew did teach me something. They used our music for advertising cars, game shows, there were the greatest hits that we were contractually obliged to release five years ago. Euterpe is still making money, even if we’d stopped being Euterpe. I can’t believe you…’

‘I just didn’t think…’

‘Well, I just assumed that you just weren’t interested in a couple of quid because as you told me every time Paul took a piss he earned money.’

‘I think I was drunk when I said that.’

‘Probably, but I thought that if you were putting Euterpe behind you then I didn’t want anything to do with you or our past either. So I hardly paid the account any attention until it appeared on the divorce application.’

‘Well how much is in the account?’ Lucinda asked.

‘£4million, 728 thousand and 32 pence.’

‘You what?’

‘With interest, it’s probably a little bit more than that.’

Lucinda couldn’t say anything, as she felt overwhelmed by what Jessica had just told her. She felt as if the dove was flying towards her with the olive branch.

‘Lou, are you ok?’

‘I’m fine,’ she replied as she swallowed the rest of her wine and sat up a little bit straighter as she tried to get her head together. ‘Nearly five million.’

‘Yes and Andrew wants it.’

‘Well he can fuck off.’ Jessica smiled at her sister’s words. ‘What does he think we are, a bloody cash-machine?’

‘To be fair, I couldn’t believe it was that much. It makes me wonder why I stopped song writing. Even after you left. But Lou, the reason why I’m telling you this is because…’

‘Half of it belongs to me.’

‘Of course it does. I’d imagine it’s just small change to you though.’

Lucinda threw her head back and laughed loudly causing the dog in next door’s garden to bark back.

‘Small change? If only you knew, Jess. If only you knew.’

‘WHAT ARE you looking at?’ Richard asked as Felicia quickly closed the laptop.

‘Nothing. Just emails. Work ones.’

‘Since when do you hide work emails? Show me.’

‘Honestly, darling, there’s nothing to see,’ Felicia replied as she got off the bed, firmly holding onto the laptop. Richard moved towards the door and blocked her. He knew that over the past several weeks Felicia had been keeping things from him but he’d thought it was nothing more than her being overprotective and not wanting to be stressed by whatever was going on in their daughters’ lives. That hadn’t stopped him. He was their father after all. Just because they were all now grown women didn’t mean that he’d relinquished the title. ‘What are you hiding from me?’

‘I’m not hiding anything from you.’

‘Of course you are. You never close your laptop when I come into the room, not even when you’re ogling over pictures of that Luther man.’

‘Bloody cheek. I don’t ogle over pictures of him and his name is Idris Elba not Luther.’

‘Whatever, is this about Jess?’

‘What about her?’ Felicia asked as she put her laptop down on the bed and watched her husband.

‘I do have Twitter you know. What else am I supposed to do when I’m hooked up to that chemo machine for hours.’ Felicia took a deep sigh and sat back down on the bed.

‘It’s not true. It can’t be,’ she said as she opened the laptop and entered her password. The screen opened up to
The Daily Post
showbiz page.
“Jessica LeSoeur took drugs whilst her nine-year-old daughter slept in the same bed with her. Jessica assaulted her husband Andrew, when he confronted her drug dealer.
” She shut the laptop again unable to continue reading the shopping list of slander against her daughter.