All That Glitters (26 page)

Part of her didn’t want Chastity to. She didn’t think she could bear it if she found out Johnny had been seeing someone else, that she’d been one of many playthings. But another part of her – the stronger part perhaps, the part that was energised by creating
YourHappyEverAfter.com
– was desperate to find out what had happened.

‘Okay,’ Ella eventually said in a small voice. ‘Do some digging. I’m not sure you’ll find anything though.’

She shifted her eyes away from the screen and onto her friend. She didn’t think she’d ever seen a more determined expression on Chastity’s face.

The weeks rushed by. Ella found a team of freelance developers and designers who could work on
YourHappyEverAfter.com
, and she and Chastity spent hours arguing about what the content of the site should be and who should be in charge of it.

‘
You
should write it,’ Chastity said.

‘But what do I know?’ Ella said. ‘I only know about me – and a bit about you – and that’s not enough to inspire people to be happy, to help create their perfect life.’

‘You know more than you think you do,’ Chastity muttered. ‘I just think you’re being down on yourself, and Nash does too.’

‘What do you mean by “Nash does too”?’ Ella asked. As lovely as Chastity was to her now, she could still be incredibly blunt.

‘It’s just that Nash and I were talking and he thinks you’re still not over Johnny and that it’s knocked your confidence a bit.’

Ella laughed. ‘That is ridiculous.’

Chastity held her gaze. ‘Is it? If it is why don’t you write the content for the site?’

‘Because I don’t think it’s sensible,’ she said firmly. ‘What if I got ill? What if a bus hit me? Then we wouldn’t have any content.’

Chastity rolled her eyes. ‘Then you build up an archive of stuff that can be published when you’re not around. Like when you go on holiday and stuff.’

Ella shook her head. ‘Look, I know you and Nash think you know what’s best for me all the time, but I’ve actually come up with a solution for this,’ she said smugly. Her eyes were shining. ‘I’ve been doing loads of research on the internet, and the more I think about it, the more I think it will work.’

‘What is it?’ Chastity asked. Ella looked ridiculously pleased with herself.

‘Well, I was on YouTube, and I saw a video of a girl showing how to pluck eyebrows perfectly, and I really liked it. I mean, nobody ever taught me how to pluck my eyebrows, and I thought it was really interesting.’

Chastity stared at Ella’s flawlessly arched eyebrows incredulously. ‘You’re going mad,’ she said eventually. ‘Johnny Cooper has made you go bonkers.’

‘And then I saw another video by a girl who was telling the camera about how she’d been dumped, and how dancing lessons helped her gain her confidence back,’ Ella said, ignoring Chastity.

‘I don’t understand.’

‘I realised that we don’t need to tell anyone how to have their happy ever after because the internet’s already full of helpful, amazing advice. There’s just nowhere where it’s all accumulated. And that’s what
YourHappyEverAfter.com
will be.’

Chastity’s expression slowly changed into a huge smile. ‘So we select bits and pieces by other people and post them on the site?’

‘Yes! From how to create the perfect business plan to how to deal with grief to how to buy a flat by yourself . . . I really think it will work. There’s amazing, useful advice from women all over the world on the web, but it’s not in one place. We can become that place! We can be a destination for girls who want to improve their lives. To feel more fulfilled. To have their happy ever after by self-improving and learning and—’

‘And becoming the woman they’ve always wanted to be,’ Chastity finished.

The girls stared at each other.

‘Obviously we always credit everyone, and we always link back to the sites the information came from,’ Ella continued, as she put her business head back on. ‘But I don’t see there will be a problem with it. If anything people will hopefully want to be featured on the site as it will give them more exposure.’

‘Ella Riding, since when did you become so smart?’ Chastity asked.

Ella shrugged. ‘It’s amazing what you can achieve when you have to,’ she said, and she turned back to her screen again.

She didn’t say what they were both thinking: that it was amazing what you could achieve when you were desperately trying to get over the love of your life.

Chapter Seventeen

‘So this is where you’re living now,’ Stacey remarked emotionlessly, as she walked around the Crystal Palace flat. She looked great – she was glowing, her hair was longer than Ella had ever seen it, and she was wearing the latest Diesel jeans and a cool blazer from Zara – but her expression was carefully blank, as if she was struggling to contain all her feelings about seeing Ella again. ‘It’s very nice.’

‘Thank you. We spent a lot of time trying to get it just right,’ Ella said, as Stacey wandered over to the wall-mounted plasma TV.

‘And a lot of dosh too, by the looks of it. I thought you said you were poor? And that you were living with your old manager?’

‘I was,’ Ella said awkwardly as she thought about Nash, ‘but when Chastity left Freddie we decided to get a place together.’ She hated that she felt so defensive whenever she spoke to Stacey, but she couldn’t help it. Compared to the money she’d had at her disposal when she was with Danny she
was
poor, but she knew that compared to most people – including Stacey – she was rolling in it. For now, anyway. She might still be desperately unhappy, but to others she was still ‘living the dream’.

‘Oh yeah, and how is Chastity?’ Stacey asked. Ella noted an undercurrent of bitterness in her voice.

‘She’s okay. Taking one day at a time, and trying to concentrate on the website we’re going to launch. She’s not had it easy, you know, Stace.’

Stacey sat down on the purple velvet chair and shrugged. ‘It sounds to me like she’s had it easy. Everyone knows if you marry a footballer that he’ll cheat on you, and to make up for it you have access to all his cash. I don’t know why she was so surprised.’

Ella bit her lip. A few years ago she’d have said exactly the same thing about Chastity and Freddie, but things were different now. The people they were talking about weren’t just faces in a trashy magazine. Chastity was her friend.

‘Not all footballers cheat,’ she said softly, ‘and Chastity never thought Freddie would do that to her.’

‘Bet she’ll be getting a big payout from the divorce though, which will make the whole thing easier to handle,’ Stacey remarked, and Ella sighed. Chastity had gone out for the afternoon, ostensibly to talk to a web developer, but really she’d disappeared to give Ella some space for Stacey’s visit. She was coming back in time for the supper Stacey had offered to make, and Ella really wanted her friends to get on. It was important to her.

‘Look, I know you think you don’t like Chastity, but you need to give her a chance. She’s not like the girl you’ve read about in the magazines.’

Stacey’s eyes narrowed and she let out a little laugh. ‘
I
need to give
her
a chance? Are you kidding me? Why should I?’

Ella’s mouth dropped open. ‘I don’t understand,’ she managed to say eventually. ‘What’s upsetting you so much?’

Stacey crossed her arms. ‘I don’t see why I should be friends with her. You practically dumped me – me, your
family
– as soon as you got with Danny, and Chastity was my replacement. I wasn’t even a bridesmaid at your wedding;
she
was.’

Ella sat down on the sofa and rubbed her eyes. She’d known she’d have to sort it out with Stacey eventually, but she’d kind of hoped that Stacey would forgive and forget without saying a word. Obviously it wasn’t going to be that easy.

‘I messed up,’ Ella said softly. ‘I know I should have demanded that you were my bridesmaid, and I definitely should have included you more in my life with Danny.’

‘Yeah, you should have.’

‘I just . . . I just didn’t feel like I could have said anything. I know it’s not an excuse, but Aaron – Danny’s manager – didn’t let me do anything for myself. I couldn’t even choose my own clothes.’

Stacey shrugged again. ‘You chose that life though,’ she said simply. ‘Which meant choosing a life where you treated me – and everyone else who’d been there for you before Danny – like shit.’

Ella looked down at the floor. She hadn’t realised it was possible to feel worse, but she did. She felt terrible.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I wish I could go back in time and change my behaviour. You have no idea.’ Ella wasn’t just thinking about how quickly she’d ditched Stacey because hanging out with her was ‘uncomfortable’ – she was thinking about how she’d agreed to marry Danny because she was scared of love, how she’d had an affair that could have ruined Danny’s career, and how, ultimately, she’d been incredibly self-centred. No wonder Nash hadn’t liked her.

Just because she’d been unhappy it didn’t mean it was okay to be so selfish.

Ella heard Stacey sigh, but when she didn’t say anything she forced herself to drag her eyes from the floor and to her step-sister. To her surprise Stacey was smiling.

‘You know, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to forgive you so easily, but I do,’ Stacey said simply, and Ella couldn’t quite believe it.

‘You’re letting me off that easy?’ she asked in astonishment. ‘You didn’t forgive Kelly Black for
six years
after she ripped the head off your favourite Barbie.’

Stacey grinned. ‘Yeah, well, Kelly Black wasn’t aunt to my first child, was she?’ she said slowly, and it took a moment for Ella to understand what her best friend was saying.

‘You’re pregnant?’ she gasped, and Stacey nodded.

‘And I can’t imagine having a baby and not having you in my life. You made a mistake – obviously – but life’s too short to hold silly grudges. I want you to be my best friend, and I want you to be family to my baby. So what do you say?’

Ella was so choked up that she couldn’t say anything at all.

‘I can’t believe you’re five months pregnant!’ Chastity exclaimed as they sat down for supper in their dining room. ‘You’re not even showing and you’re still tiny!’

Stacey grinned. ‘Give me another month or two and I’ll be well on my way. Mum says she didn’t start to show until her seventh month and then she suddenly got enormous.’

Ella eyed Stacey’s belly. There was the slightest swell to it, a tiny bit of roundness that hadn’t ever been there before. Quite unexpectedly she felt a pang of longing. She’d assumed that she’d end up having a family with Johnny, and they’d even gone as far as imagining what their baby would look like. That was never going to happen now, and it hurt.

‘God, this beef is amazing,’ Ella exclaimed in an attempt to change the conversation. ‘Stace, thank you so much for cooking for us; this is such a treat.’

‘Yeah, especially as we rarely cook for ourselves,’ Chastity agreed. ‘Well, I make beans on toast, and Ella’s not bad at baking cupcakes, obviously, but that’s as far as our repertoire goes. It’s so good to have a home-cooked meal.’

‘What did you used to do before you lived together? Did you eat out every night?’ Stacey asked Chastity curiously, and Ella smiled to herself. She could tell that Stacey was ever so slightly in awe of Chastity Taylor, despite any resentful feelings she’d had. And who could blame her? Since Chastity had left Freddie she was an even bigger household name, and was being speculated about even more than Victoria Beckham and Coleen Rooney combined.

Chastity shrugged. ‘Our live-in chef made us whatever we wanted,’ she said casually. ‘He wasn’t too bad – he did a stint at some Gordon Ramsey restaurant in America – but he had a bit of an attitude problem.’

Stacey’s eyes widened. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, he refused to tell me the calorie count of our meals, despite me making that a condition of his employment,’ Chastity said with a frown as she stabbed at her beef. ‘And once he cooked some fish in a butter sauce, when I specifically told him I was doing a dairy-free diet before a red-carpet event.’

‘That’s terrible,’ Stacey said, and Ella shot a quick warning look at her. She could hear the laughter in her step-sister’s voice.

‘It really was – it was the end of the world,’ Chastity sighed, and then she smirked. ‘Of course, I
was
a complete shallow, spoilt bitch back then.’

Ella grinned. ‘You really were,’ she agreed, and Stacey laughed.

‘I can’t believe you two have both packed in your footballer’s wife lives completely so you can start your own business,’ she said. ‘If I had an ex with loads of money I’d damn well make sure he paid up.’

Chastity smiled, but her eyes looked sad. ‘I used to think that too, but if I’m going to get over Freddie I need him out of my life completely, and being financially dependent on him wouldn’t help.’

Ella nodded. ‘And that’s one of the reasons we’re setting up the site – so that we can help other women take control of their lives and their happiness, even if it’s just in a small way.’

‘I think it’s a great idea,’ Stacey said. ‘It seems like it’s a good distraction, too. But, Ella, what else are you doing apart from working yourself to the ground? Are you going out? Having fun? Are there any men on the horizon?’

Ella was momentarily stunned. The thought that she might have turned into a workaholic hadn’t even occurred to her, and she looked at Chastity, who – thankfully – looked as taken aback as she felt.

‘I watch TV sometimes,’ Ella began slowly, ‘but no, I’ve not been out since Danny and I split up. I suppose I’ve been so busy concentrating on the website that it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Working is really helping me get over Johnny.’

‘And besides,’ Chastity said, ‘Ella’s so busy being friends with Nash that she doesn’t have room for any other man in her life.’

Ella shot Chastity a look, but Chastity shrugged innocently and ignored her.

‘And I’m really busy looking into Johnny Cooper’s life when I’m not working,’ Chastity continued, oblivious to Ella’s glare. ‘It’s more time consuming than I thought it would be.’

Stacey raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, and Ella rolled her eyes as Chastity explained that she thought there was something odd about Johnny.