E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten
North How the Other Half Die
Main
ISBN: 978-1-80546-058-9
Verlag: Corvus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
'Succession meets The White Lotus. Absolutely enthralling' Antony Johnston
E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten
ISBN: 978-1-80546-058-9
Verlag: Corvus
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
Rachel North was born in Scarborough and studied English Literature at Oxford University. She has worked as a cleaner, a receptionist, a kitchen designer, a market researcher, a company director, a celebrity shopper and a victim support volunteer. She has an MA in Creative Writing. Under the name Caroline Bond, she is the author of six novels, including two Radio 2 Book Club picks, The Second Child and The Day We Left. She lives in Leeds with her husband and one of her three children... the other two having grown up and escaped.
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Chapter 6
BENEDICT
Ben wasn’t the least bit surprised when Jonny and Juliet decided to come down to meet Geri with him. The thought of him being the one to welcome her to the island was obviously unacceptable to them. And so it began, the jostling for the spotlight.
They walked down to the helipad in single file. Once they reached the terrace they instinctively arranged themselves by age order along the low wall and looked out at the distant horizon. Ben wondered, not for the first time, where Juliet’s freakish height came from. Perhaps Geri would be wise to ask for DNA tests on all of them before she chose her successor. Although given their father’s reputation, perhaps it would be safer to leave that old dog sleeping – for all their sakes. Watching Jonny and Juliet standing together, leaving a gap between them and him, brought back some uncomfortable childhood memories for Ben. He’d known from being very young that there was no love lost between his half-brother and sister, but that regardless of their personal animosity they would always put up a united front when confronted by him. It had been that way since they first met. To be fair, it had, somewhat inauspiciously, been on the day that Jonny and Juliet buried their mother, but that had hardly been Ben’s fault. As a trusting ten-year-old, how was he supposed to know that their father would use the occasion of his exwife’s death to try to reintegrate himself, and Ben, back into the family? It had, understandably, been a tricky few hours all round, so when Ben had seen his grief-ravaged but still beautiful eighteen-year-old half-sister finally look at him and approach, bearing a plate of much-needed food, his little heart had lifted. Only to be crushed. Juliet had set the plate down on the table, stood over him and without any preamble whatsoever asked, ‘Why are you called Benedict?’ Ben didn’t know, so he’d politely and simply replied, ‘I don’t know. Why are you called Juliet?’ Juliet had smiled, with zero warmth, and said, ‘Our mother chose mine and Jonny’s names specially. We’re both J’s because she was called Joanna. She did it so that we would always be connected whatever happened.’ She’d swallowed. Ben remembered it as a painful sound. Then she’d said, ‘And what happened was, your father left her and us.’ And with that she’d walked back to Jonny, her real brother, and not looked at or spoken to Ben again for the rest of the day.
That powerful need to put him in his place had dominated their relationship ever since.
The same silence surrounded them now. There was no asking after each other’s kids, no small talk about their journeys, no chat about their current projects and absolutely zero speculation about Geri’s plans. But Ben knew that it was what was said that mattered most when it came to his siblings. That neither of them considered Ben a contender was no secret; in their eyes, he was an irrelevance. Their much higher-profile roles within the Group and their seats on the Board bolstered them in their smug complacency. Both of them had had stellar trajectories within the business.
After stints working on the Advertising and Marketing side of the business Jonny had, astutely, moved over into Finance where he was now a director, which was as close to God as you could get in many people’s eyes. Not Ben’s, obviously. Because despite his Savile Row suits, his full head of silver-tinged hair and his strong jaw, what was Jonny really other than a broker? Well, sharp, greedy, self-obsessed bastards were ten a penny in the City. Why would Geri choose him to head up the organisation that she had poured her life and soul into? Jonny had never cared about the business really, all he was interested in was the money.
No, in Ben’s humble opinion, it was Juliet the Giantess who was Geri’s natural successor.
Juliet was, and had always been, a slave to the company. She’d worked her way up from the actual shop floor, learning the ropes the old way. Geri’s way. And his aunt must have been impressed. Why else would she have entrusted Juliet with the core bakery business at the tender age of twenty-six and put her in charge of Acquisitions by the time she was thirty? Acquisitions was known as the division internally. Under Juliet’s stewardship, and with Geri’s blessing, the acquisitions team had made real inroads into precisely Ben’s wheelhouse – health and well-being. The Chalice Group now owned a number of branded spa hotels, a large chain of gyms, and a successful yoga and meditation franchise, and had recently launched a very lucrative well-woman product range. Not too shabby for a company whose roots lay in churning out cheap, unhealthy fast food to the masses. Oh, how Ben would have loved Juliet’s gig. But no. When he’d joined the business he’d been stuck in the Research division, and he’d never left. He’d moved no further than one floor up, in the same building, in the past eight years. Sure, Geri had appointed him Head of Consumer Insight after he’d moaned about his lack of progression and she’d given him a bigger office, but he wasn’t even a full director. It sucked.
Why shouldn’t he be in with a shout? Long shots provided the best returns. He was younger than Jonny or Juliet, he understood the modern world that the Chalice Group now operated in and he was the only one who appreciated the power of social media in global brand-building. He had relationships with some of the best digital houses and links with the most successful influencers. If Geri really wanted to appoint someone who could lead the Group not just into the next decade, but into the 2040s and beyond, then he was her best option.
Was he trying to convince himself? Yes, of course he was, but he needed to, no other bugger was going to.
Ben sensed Jonny looking at his Breitling, as impatient as ever. Juliet was also getting restless. She was shifting from foot to foot and sighing, very audibly.
‘I thought you said she’d be here by 5.00 p.m.,’ Jonny huffed.
Ben stretched and yawned, an OTT gesture specifically designed to irritate his brother. ‘I did.’
‘Well, it’s quarter past. I’m not standing around here like a tool for much longer, if we don’t how long she’s going to be—’
Ben interrupted Jonny – it was another thing that his brother hated. ‘Things to do, bro?’
Jonny hesitated. ‘No. Not really.’ That was unlikely. Jonny always had something on the boil. ‘Can’t you check?’ he snapped.
Ben refused to rise to his rudeness. ‘I could, but Alice’s message, all of ten minutes ago, gave their ETA as 17.00.’ She’d actually said 17.30, but what was the point of having more information than the competition unless you used it – even it was for the petty entertainment of ticking off your rivals; sorry, siblings.
Jonny glanced at his watch again, but he didn’t move. Being absent from the line-up would look bad. To signal his displeasure he started pacing up and down the terrace. Juliet continued to shuffle on the spot, her eyes glued to her phone. Her silent agitation was as oppressive as Jonny’s pissed-off restlessness. And the pair of them wondered why he avoided them as much as was physically possible. Given there was time to kill, Ben decided to go fishing – metaphorically, not literally, obviously. ‘What do you two make of all this, then?’
‘What do you mean?’ Jonny.
‘This.’ Ben waved his arms around to encompass them, the island and Geri’s imminent arrival. ‘Her sudden desire to “celebrate” ’ – he made air quotes with his fingers – ‘her birthday with family.’
Jonny stared at him, his impatience shading into irritation. ‘As you know full well, it must be about succession planning.’
Ben grinned. ‘Succession planning. Is that what we’re calling it?’
Juliet finally pitched in. ‘I don’t think we should be calling “it” anything. Trying to second-guess Geri is like trying to predict the weather – only much more difficult.’ It was on the tip of Ben’s tongue to point out that with any decent weather app it was dead easy to know whether you were going to have sunshine or a storm, but he didn’t get the chance.
Jonny got in first, as he so often did. ‘Oh, come off it, Juliet. Let’s not pretend. The only reason we’ve all made this trip is to finally get some clarity about what she’s planning. God knows it’s about time. Why she’s decided to do it here, I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time she set foot on Isola dei Delfini.’
It was too good an opportunity for Ben to miss. ‘That could be because you’re always in residence.’
‘Do you have to be such a dick?’ Jonny snapped.
‘Me?’ Ben’s laughter drifted out to sea and was quickly lost. ‘It’s not me who’s the big dick around here.’
‘Can you two please pack it in? Look. She’s here.’ Juliet pointed to the horizon and there, sure enough, was a small black dot that was growing bigger by the second.
As the helicopter closed in on the island, the throaty of the blades filled Ben’s ears. Soon the trees were thrashing back and forth and full of dust. There was nothing understated about arriving by chopper. Ben slipped on his shades, all the better to watch the landing. He’d seen helicopters land on Isola dei Delfini before, but each time it was impressive. The landing pad was small and the jagged rock face unforgiving. Any descent had to be pinpoint accurate. Geri’s helicopter slowed, turned sideways and manoeuvred into position. The swirl of debris increased. The chopper hovered fatly for a couple of seconds then sank heavily from the sky. There...
