Page 109 of Broken Beyond Repair

Sydney smirked as she tapped the iPad on the desk, putting their room service order through. “Would you like some pastries?”

“I won’t say no,” Beatrice replied, collapsing onto a sofa. “Are those today’s newspapers? Can you pass them please?”

“Which one?”

“All of them.”

Sydney placed them on the table in front of Beatrice and watched as she rifled through them.

“Looking for something?”

“Yes, this. Though I can’t believe it’s only worthy of page three.” Beatrice folded the newspaper back and passed it to Sydney before turning her attention to the other newspapers. “This one has a snippet on page one.”

Sydney’s mouth opened as she saw Peter’s face staring back at her next to the words ‘Sex Pest’.

“Shit, Bea. How did the press pick up on this? Did you have something to do with it? You said you have a clause.”

“I do.”

“So, how?”

Beatrice shrugged. “We’ll never know, will we?”

Sydney’s hands went straight to her hips. “Beatrice.”

“Okay. Alex came to my dressing room after the show to congratulate me and to press the point I’d made about standing up and being counted. He didn’t think it was right that his father was getting away with what he did, and to be honest, although I initially agreed to the amendment, it’s been eating away at me. With Alex to think of, I respected it. It’s not a great look to have a sex pest for a dad.”

“That kid of yours is really something.”

“He is, and with his permission I had someone give an anonymous tip to the press, just enough to make them start sniffing around. You know what they’re like once they get a whiff of a sex scandal. Whatever they did worked as some of the women have agreed to talk to the police.”

“If he traces it back to you, though?”

“The clause only extends as far as me, and technically it wasn’t me that tipped them off. Even if he was to link it back to me, is the truth not worth speaking? The worst he can do is sue me for breach of contract, and with any luck, those women will take him for every penny he took from me. It will be good to know it’s going somewhere worthwhile and give those women some recompense.”

Sydney took a seat beside Beatrice and let out a puff of air.

“Are you okay?” Beatrice asked, placing a hand on her leg.

“Yeah, it’s a lot to take in. But I’m proud of you.”

“The truth needed telling — it always needs telling.”

Sydney placed her hand over Beatrice’s. “Yeah, it does.”

“I’ve come under pressure to reveal the names of those who acted inappropriately toward me when I was younger.”

“Will you?”

Beatrice nodded. “Once the heat has died down around Peter, I will.”

With coffee and pastries served and consumed, Sydney rang down to reception to summon the car they had ordered to take them to her mum’s house.

“We have a few minutes to freshen up. Then it’s time for you to meet Mum.”

As Sydney emerged from the bathroom, she met Beatrice in the hallway, where she was zipping up a small holdall.

“We need to take this.”