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‘You have no idea, do you,’ I snap, glaring at Michelle as I shift my body to face her full-on. ‘You have absolutely no idea how amazing your son is. Well, I do, and I’m not going to stand any longer for the lack of respect you’ve shown him all evening.’

She stares at me. She doesn’t flinch, she doesn’t recoil, she responds to my sharp accusation with that iconic hardened stare.

My back now turned to him, I can hear Leo breathe in sharply behind me.

But I don’t care. My blood is boiling, my heart pounding, my face flushed with fury and protective rage.

I’m no longer a busy meerkat. I’m a fuck-off massive, claws-out, roaring bear.

Her glacial eyes bore into me.

I glower back at her.

Bring it on, bitch.

‘Would you please give us a moment?’ she says, turning her head ever so slightly to address her camera crew quivering with excitement behind her, her eyes still locked with mine. ‘ Now .’

Lowering their equipment, they traipse back to the ballroom, hunched with disappointment at missing out on the impromptu, legitimate, juicy bust up with their protagonist at its centre. Real-life documentary? What a load of bullshit.

As soon as the door closes behind them and the lobby returns to silence, she speaks.

‘Excuse me?’

‘All evening, I’ve listened to your snide remarks and petty put-downs, and I understand why Leo feels like he has to stand there and brace himself for impact while you go at him with all the tactfulness of a sledgehammer, but I’m not going to leave him defenceless.

’ I pause to take a breath. ‘Michelle, do you have any idea how brilliant he is?’

She narrows her eyes at me. ‘I know my son.’

‘I don’t think you do,’ I counter. ‘You seem to be happy to dismiss him, but I have spent a lot of time with this man recently and I can tell you now that anyone who has the privilege to know him would never have the audacity to brush him away. Look,’ I hold up my hands to initiate a treaty talk, ‘I don’t want to cause a fuss, I know you’re busy and you have an event to host, but I just wanted to make sure you know what you’re doing.

I won’t speak for Leo, but I was under the impression that your extension of the invitation tonight was for you two to begin rebuilding your fractured relationship – but if you treat him like this, I’m not sure you’re on the right lines. ’

Her lips curl into a venomous smile. ‘Am I to believe that I’m supposed to take advice from the journalist who’s clearly screwing my son when she was meant to be working with him?’

The arrow flies at my chest.

It splinters before it hits.

‘Hey,’ Leo snaps, stepping forwards to stand alongside me, but I press a hand gently against his arm.

‘It’s okay, Leo,’ I assure him, smiling back at her.

‘It doesn’t bother me for her to know that we’re together.

In fact, I’m relieved. I’d like to shout it from the rooftops that I am the lucky person who gets to be with her son.

The bravest, kindest, most incredible man I’ve ever met.

’ I look up at him to find his eyes gleaming.

‘I don’t know what’s really happened between you two, but whatever it is, it’s led to the man you are today, Leo. And that man is exceptional.’

He exhales, his fingers brushing against mine.

‘And boy can he surf,’ I add, almost laughing in wonderment.

I turn to grin at Michelle, her animosity no match for my radiating enthusiasm.

‘I’ve never seen anything like it. You should see him out there.

He is dominating this competition, he’s surfing like he never left, and his opponents are bricking it, because they can see what’s changed.

Everyone’s always known that he’s got more talent than anyone else – that Peter guy just proved that – and it doesn’t take a genius to work out that he has drive, but more than either of those things is that Leo gets more joy from this sport than any of his competitors. And that’s dangerous.’

Michelle’s lips are pressed together so hard, they’re disappearing.

‘You know I know sport,’ I say, giving her a conspiratorial smile, as though I’m on TV being interviewed by a fellow commentator, ‘and I know what it takes to win. You can literally see it when he’s out there.

The other surfers are concentrating so hard, and they’re good, really good.

But Leo surfs with the spirit of the water.

’ I glance up at him. ‘I don’t care if that’s a wanker thing to say; it’s true. ’

He chuckles, beaming down at me.

‘That’s all very touching,’ Michelle remarks drily, unimpressed.

‘But you seem to be forgetting, Miss Gray, that I’m fully aware of his talents and potential.

I wouldn’t have sent you to profile him if I didn’t think he had the ability to come across to audiences as an appealing option to cheer for.

But I also know his weaknesses. I know what happens when he gives into indulgences and the consequences that follow.

At the heart of it, people don’t change. We are who we are, and I know him.’

The arrow hits its mark that time. Leo flinches, stung.

That’s the power she wields, swiftly reducing him to the lost boy he took drastic measures to suppress and ignore, the kid who couldn’t help but let his mother down.

It didn’t matter if he was champion of the world.

Once, twice, three times, whatever. Surfing was never going to be enough for her.

That title was never going to be enough for her.

He was never going to be enough for her.

My heart sinks as I watch him crumple.

‘You have no idea what we’ve been through as a family,’ Michelle hisses, her emotion coming through now. ‘You have no idea what he put me through, what I’ve had to do to protect him.’

‘ Protect him?’ I repeat, baffled by her delusion.

‘She’s right,’ Leo croaks, his eyes dropping to the floor.

‘Leo—’

‘No, Iris, she’s right,’ he repeats, his forehead creased in agony. ‘I didn’t… I didn’t tell you everything because I didn’t want it in the article.’ He glances up at her, before closing his eyes and lowering his voice. ‘The night at Bells… when I went surfing drunk—’

‘And on drugs,’ Michelle mutters, lifting her eyes to the ceiling.

Leo takes the hit. ‘Yep, and on drugs. The person who saved me from drowning was there at my house because of Mum. She’s the reason I’m here today.’

‘Sorry,’ I say, frowning, ‘I don’t understand.’

‘When Ethan Anderson won the World Championship title again, I knew that Leo would do something stupid,’ she says briskly.

‘I was in London at the time, but I sent someone who worked in my Melbourne office to go check on him. It was God-knows-what-time in the morning over here, but I forced that person to get up, leave his family sleeping peacefully, and check in on my son. When he got there, he saw him heading out to Bells Beach with his surfboard, swaying and clearly not of sound mind.’

The tremor in Leo’s hand causes it to vibrate against my fingers. He clenches his hands in an attempt to stop it.

‘He rescued him,’ Michelle continues, folding her arms. ‘I did everything in my power to keep the unfortunate incident out of the press, which wasn’t easy, let me tell you.

A lot of people involved needed… financial encouragement to keep their mouths shut.

And his rescuer got a healthy promotion, too, despite being a pompous, brain-dead idiot.

I paid dearly for his bump up – but that’s best forgotten.

’ She rubs her forehead and then gives a wave of her hand.

‘Anyway, that was when we all decided it was best for Leo to get away from the temptations here and move to Burgau where he could lay low.’ Her eyes sharpen at me.

‘There. You think I don’t know my son? You are very much mistaken.

I know exactly who he is. I knew his next actions before he did. ’

Leo is silent, his head bowed, his hands still balled into fists.

I process this fresh information.

‘You already told her about the Bells Beach incident for the article then, I take it,’ Michelle surmises, sucking air through her teeth.

‘I hoped that you had better sense than that, Leo – I assumed that you’d skate over the hairy details and make something up about why you quit the country, but I must have underestimated Miss Gray’s capability of extracting even the most gruesome of details from her subjects. ’

‘Gruesome,’ I whisper in disbelief, but she doesn’t hear me or doesn’t care.

‘If you must include it then I trust that these extra additions won’t make an appearance,’ she says in a severe tone. ‘I’d rather not be in any way involved.’

I glance up at Leo. He looks smaller somehow. Shrunken, thwarted, beaten.

Michelle heaves a sigh: the martyr who tried to stop this before it started.

‘Let’s move on, shall we?’ she proposes, before gesturing to the ballroom behind her. ‘One photo, Leo, and then you can leave.’

‘No.’

I hear myself say it before I’ve thought it through.

Michelle starts, before her lips curve into a mocking smile. ‘I was talking to my son .’

‘He doesn’t need to be a part of this,’ I say quietly but surely.

Leo has lifted his head now and he’s watching me, puzzled, his eyes desperately searching my expression, trying to work out what’s going on.

Michelle remains bemused by my insistence on getting involved, a pebble jutting out in the middle of the path she’s bulldozing through.

A minor inconvenience, easily flattened.

‘A part of what, Miss Gray?’ Michelle asks curiously, the challenge gleaming in her eyes, her smile stretching.

‘Your attempts to smooth over your PR crisis.’

She freezes. Her smile evaporates.

‘That’s what this has been about all along, right?

’ I say, no longer cocky to have one over on her, not angry and raring to fight.

I’m disappointed to have played a part in it and I’m sad I didn’t see it before.

‘The call for boycotts against your publications on social media, the shift in how the public feel about you. The Bind Inc. board is getting twitchy.’

She gulps audibly.

Bullseye .

‘It was your publicity team who set up the feature,’ I recall, thinking back on mine and Toni’s conversation.

‘They were in contact with the Studio editor, not you. I assumed it was your idea, but I think it was theirs. I think they’ve been behind all of this.

You know, when I accepted this feature, I openly acknowledged that it was great for your dismal public image – but I somehow convinced myself that was an advantage, not the full motivation. ’

‘I don’t—’

‘Were you ever planning on coming to watch Leo’s heats?’ I ask, cutting her off, somehow emboldened by the truth. ‘You didn’t phone him or message him directly. It was your publicist who led Leo to believe you’d try to be there, right? Not you.’

Leo turns to look at her, his jaw ticking. When she doesn’t say anything, he prompts her, needing the answer: ‘Mum?’

She purses her lips, clasping her hands in front of her again. I picture her in board meetings doing this when she’s challenged, biding her time to think of a rebuttal.

‘My schedule was always going to be busy, and to be honest, Leo, I… I was worried you would fail in the first heat and I didn’t want to watch that – it has been a long time and there’s a lot of fresh talent,’ she admits.

It’s the first time I think she might be speaking from the heart, actually.

She adds, with a satisfactory pinch of shame, ‘I am pleased to have been proven wrong.’

Scrunching his eyes, he runs his hand down his face, muffling an angry groan.

‘I hope to attend one of the rounds, Leo,’ she asserts. ‘Maybe not the Quarterfinals, but perhaps if you reach the Semifinals, I’ll be able to shift some things in my schedule.’

He snorts. ‘Okay. And what about tonight? Was I ever actually invited? That bullshit your publicist spun about both of you thinking the other one had asked me. Am I only here because I’m doing well? Something you didn’t foresee but can happily use to your advantage?’

Her jaw clenches.

‘Wow.’ He puts his hands on his hips, grinning manically at the ground. ‘I’m a fool. What is wrong with me?’

‘You’re not the fool, Leo,’ I say quietly, looking at Michelle.

She’s masking it well, her regret, but it’s there in her hardened features.

‘The big deal about this photo. It’s a photo op , right?

’ Leo says, his eyes flashing furiously up at her.

‘That’s the only reason I’m here, isn’t it.

Your team is scrambling to save your public image, the one you’ve been fucking up so well recently.

The big new documentary, the flashy Studio feature, and a photo at your big new charity launch with your beloved son.

Holy shit, Mum, congrats,’ he claps his hands, ‘you played me so well.’

‘Leo—’ she begins.

‘No, I don’t want you to try to talk your way out of this,’ he says, shaking his hand at her. ‘I’ve always felt like a disappointment, but here we are and suddenly the only disappointment is you.’

She sighs.

His eyes harden; he’s focused now, clear-minded. I could burst with pride.

‘You made it clear that I owed you the Studio feature because of all your effort to protect my image before,’ he states coldly. ‘I’ve done that now. I’ve shown up to your event, your cameras have captured our heartwarming reunion. That’s enough. I’m done. We’re even.’

She closes her eyes briefly. ‘I was trying to help you.’

‘You were trying to help you ,’ he claps back. He sighs, softening his voice. ‘You’ve never been happy with my choices, and that always felt like my failing, but it’s not, it’s yours. I wouldn’t change anything. Honestly, I’m grateful to you, Mum.’

Her eyes lift to his in surprise.

‘I’m grateful for what you did for me back then,’ he tells her. ‘But more than anything, I’m grateful that because of you, I said yes to the feature that would change my life.’ He gazes at me, reaching for my hand and taking it, holding it tight. ‘It led me to Iris.’

Smiling, I reach up to untie his bow tie, leaving it hanging loose around his collar. He finishes the job, lifting his chin to undo the stiff top couple of buttons.

‘Better,’ I observe. ‘We should get out of here.’

He looks back to his mum, growing taller as he straightens, his shoulders rolling back, his free hand sliding into his pocket as though he hasn’t got a care in the world.

‘Congratulations on the launch of your new initiative, Mum. I’m sure your guests are in for a great evening,’ he says, giving her a brief nod.

Then he turns and, hand in hand, we walk away.

Michelle doesn’t call after us and we don’t look back.