Page 54
Frankie shook her head. ‘Just Isabelle. If anything happens to her, he will have no one.’
‘He will have me.’ Shauna held Frankie’s gaze. ‘I promise you.’
Her sincerity seemed to satisfy the woman, because she let go of her hand and closed her eyes.
Chapter 23
It had been well over a year since Roxy and Shauna had seen each other. Shauna had hoped to spend time with Roxy while she was in Europe filming For the Love of Grace, but her friend’s new clothing line had taken off in a big way and she’d seized the chance to consolidate her success in Milan and Paris by opening a flagship store on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, so once again they’d found themselves on different continents. Even when filming wrapped and Shauna returned to the States, their busy schedules kept them apart. With ROX clothing now being worn by A-listers in all the fashionable places, Roxy needed to put in an appearance at every fashion week on the planet: at London Fashion Week, she was seated next to Anna Wintour, who was wearing a ROX drop-waisted silhouette dress. In Paris she was photographed with Kate Moss. At the launch of the New York store, Sarah Jessica Parker made an appearance in a jaw-dropping black ruffled swan dress that made the pages of hundreds of women’s magazines around the globe.
Shauna was excited to be back in LA once more; they were breakfasting in the Fountain Room at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Roxy’s favourite hangout. Shauna had ordered an egg-white omelette with spinach, while Roxy had ordered the buttermilk pancakes.
‘I can’t believe you can still eat those! I can’t even look at one of them now! I might as well smear them on my hips, that’s where they are going.’
‘Nonsense! Women should enjoy their food. I’m sick of all these size zero LA women. I’d rather dress a good old size-fourteen Liverpudlian lass any day of the week.’
‘I daren’t put another pound on, we still have publicity to do for the Grace movie. The camera never lies.’
‘Rubbish! You’re going to look incredible, and that is what Spanx are for, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve never mastered the art of wearing Spanx, I usually end up with them stuck around my knees, unable to move!’
‘Anyway, what’s happening with the publishing house, how much are they offering for your “tell all” memoirs?’
‘A million dollars for global rights.’
Roxy whistled. ‘That’s a lot of money. You going to take it?’
‘I don’t know. I’d like to tell my story, my way. That’s assuming I’m going to do it.’
‘What’s holding you back?’
Shauna paused. ‘The truth.’
Roxy nodded. They were silent for a moment, then Roxy said, ‘If you really want to tell the truth, then you have to face up to the past.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘You know exactly what I mean. I know all about that box you keep hidden away, the one with all the letters and cards that you write but never send.’
‘Roxy … I don’t want to talk about this.’
Roxy put down her fork. ‘Shauna, you never want to talk about this. Look, I haven’t mentioned it before now, but I’ve been seeing a therapist.’
‘Oh …’ Shauna’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘Why didn’t you tell me this before?’
‘I’m telling you now.’ Roxy frowned. ‘For years, I’ve needed to get some things off my chest, stuff that’s been buried for too long. About Thierry.’
Shauna suddenly felt stupid and self-centred. ‘I’m sorry, Roxy, I should have asked about it more over the years, but I thought, well, I wanted to forget about everything, and I thought you did too.’
‘I can’t forget, we can’t forget. Shauna, I’ve spent years waking up with night terrors. I’ve avoided forming relationships with men who are equals because I want to stay in charge all the time. That guy tried to steal my peace of mind. I want to claim it back.’
‘Oh, Roxy.’
‘Peace of mind doesn’t come for the asking; we need to work hard for it. I want you to come away with me – we can look at it as a life cleanse. We’ve been talking about a trip for ages and I think you should go back to Ithos. This is the first time for years that I feel able to get away. The team will do a great job looking after the store here while I’m gone. I know I can leave ROX in good hands. The retail team say I only get in the way anyhow, and with Marco on the design side, I don’t have anything to worry about.’
‘Funny that he never made it back to Italy.’ Shauna smiled. Marco, the young model that Roxy had introduced her to a couple of years previously was now one of her key employees.
Shauna looked at her watch. ‘That reminds me, Isabelle will be dropping Alex over at the house and then we’re going to Universal Studios.’
