Erin felt herself blush. ‘Well, it’s a scary prospect. I have a builder on standby ready to start, and I guess I’m going to have to project-manage it myself.’
‘If you want any help, just shout,’ he said.
‘Oh, I’ll come knocking alright. Make sure you have a big stock of brandy at the ready at the end of every day.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I’ve got a bit of experience in property development. I sort of dabble in property myself.’
It was Erin’s turn to look surprised. ‘You dabble in property? In what way do you “dabble”?’ she asked cheekily. ‘Define “dabble”.’ Their heads were only inches apart and she could feel his warm breath on her lips.
‘I own Peony House,’ Chris said quietly.
Erin jumped back. ‘You own my flat! My tenancy agreement says the landlord is JuniorCon Ltd or something.’
He nodded. ‘Well, I’m embarrassed to say it’s me. Peony House was bought and developed by my father’s property company. He transferred it over to me a few years ago when I told him I wanted to be a journalist and wasn’t going to join the family firm. I formed a limited company just to manage the building. It’s my nest egg.’
‘I thought you said your dad was a builder?’
‘He is. He’s got a building company. The Scanlan Group.’
Erin was shaking her head in disbelief. Scanlan were one of the biggest home-builders in Ireland. George Scanlan – Chris’s father, presumably – was an aristocratic industrialist of the old school, building schools and hospitals with his spare cash. Erin backed away from Chris, shaking her head.
‘Erin. What’s wrong?’ asked Chris, leaning his bike against a lamppost.
‘I thought I was through with rich men,’ she whispered through a half-smile.
‘Don’t hate me because I’m loaded,’ laughed Chris, taking her in his arms and kissing her as Big Ben struck midnight. It was a new day. A new start. A new life together.
Epilogue
Once Krakatoa had finished filming, and word spread about what an exciting new acting talent Summer Sinclair was, she was inundated with offers of roles. With money in the bank and a lot more promised, she moved to a bright, airy apartment in Chelsea that overlooked the Albert Bridge, which twinkled gloriously and made every night feel like Christmas. She also began getting to know James Bailey. An art teacher who lived in Dorset, he had a warm and friendly wife who had welcomed Summer with a generosity she had never encountered before, while James’s two teenager daughters Katie and Alice couldn’t believe their luck at having the Summer Sinclair as a half-sister. It was going to take a long time to catch up on all the wasted years but she had the rest of her life to do it. She had spent years looking for a father figure but, now that she had one, she wondered how she could ever have found the forty-something men on the Cipriani and Chinawhite circuit attractive.
At the Krakatoa premiere in London, with the paparazzi screaming her name and glowing reviews in the trade papers, she couldn’t believe how far she’d come in the last twelve months. After her ectopic pregnancy and the end of her relationship with Adam, she had felt that she could never feel happy again. She smiled to herself and turned behind her, where Charlie McDonald was signing autographs for screaming girls behind the crash barrier. In a midnight-blue suit, his blondy-brown hair flopping onto his face, he looked gorgeous.
Charlie looked up and grinned. And, as their eyes met, the noise and people seemed to bleed away until it was just the two of them.
Lovers. Friends.
He walked over to Summer and whispered in her ear. ‘Come on, honey. I think it’s time to go in.’
He squeezed her hand and she felt safe. Life got better all the time.
Adam Gold was investigated by the FSA. He vigorously denied receiving any tips about share purchases of Ginsui and, since there was little or no evidence to the contrary, he was cleared of insider dealing. His appearance at the FSA’s Canary Wharf offices did not however, go unnoticed, and Midas Corporation’s share price wobbled. For six months it looked as if the company might even go under. But when Midas suddenly announced it was to build a thirty-acre residential, shopping and leisure complex by the Thames the company’s fortunes recovered. Adam climbed twenty-five places on the Sunday Times Rich List. He moved more heavily into philanthropy. A Karin Cavendish scholarship fund for gifted students at St Martin’s College of Art was one of several donations. Adam Gold is still single. Huge sums of money are exchanged at charity functions to sit next to him.
Christina Levy is about to move into Reggie Bryce’s twenty-bedroom mansion in Bel-Air which has a bowling alley, a soccer pitch and en-suite everything. She considers herself to be going home. Reggie’s place is only fifteen miles away from Christina’s childhood home, a trailer in the Valley.
Diana Birtwell finally left Martin, who went running back to Tracey and their children. His Internet business promptly stalled. Diana is pregnant with an Icelandic sportswear millionaire, four hundred places above Martin on the Sunday Times Rich List.
Donna Delemere’s organic food empire goes from strength to strength. In time, Donna and Daniel forgave Alexander. Alex in turn grew to respect Donna for her sassy business skills and forgiveness.
Molly would have stood by Marcus during his time in prison; she had grown terribly fond of The Standlings. Marcus, however, had other ideas and insisted she moved out after his arrest. ‘It was all a sham,’ he’d told her after the trial. ‘I don’t love you. I love Karin.’
Molly posed nude for an American men’s magazine and is currently living off the proceeds. After bemoaning the lack of decent men in London – it was quite pathetic, she would tell anyone who would listen, how men were only interested in twenty-two-year-olds in skinny jeans – she decided that she could do worse than reunite with Harry Levin. He refuses to take her calls.
Marcus is serving ten years for manslaughter in HMP Risley. With good behaviour he is expected to get out in six.
Adam begged Erin to do two months’ notice. ‘This is the last thing you do for me. You’ve got a book to finish and a building to develop,’ he told her, promising to give her a large bonus for the duration of her stay at Midas. Erin’s last job in his employment was to go and box up everything in Karin’s home.
‘I’m kind of going to miss him,’ she told Chris while they were taking silver photoframes from the expensive looking cabinets and covering them in bubble wrap.