Forgot to Remember

Monday evening/night

Monday evening/night

Martin couldn't even bring himself to enter the building. He stood by the front door and waited for Clare's arrival. Ali who had arrived at that moment as well, watch in alarm as Dec hurried into the hose. She wondered where Ant was. Had he been admitted into hospital? At the moment this was the only conclusion she could come to given Dec's behaviour. When she saw that Martin didn't follow his little brother, she went over to him, hoping to find out about Ant's condition. Martin was startled by the hand that gently touched his shoulder.

"Everything okay?" Ali asked gently. Not receiving an answer she asked further
"I hope Anthony's is fine."
From Martins's stricken expression and tear filled eyes she gauged that Ant was most probably in critical condition. Before she could ask anything else a taxi came and halted right in front of them. Clare quickly exited the vehicle. After hurriedly paying the fare she ran over to Martin and hugged him tightly.
"Where is he?"
"Inside."
"With the body?" Clare asked flabbergasted.
"There is no body. Ant jumped off the bridge near the gym." Martin told her.
"OH MY DEAR LORD!" Ali screamed, startling the other two.
Briskly walking up to her, Clare grabbed the manager by her shoulders and commanded very sternly
"Control yourself. I know it's hard but this is not the time to fall apart. You have to take care of the media while we handle Dec. We don't want this story all over the newspapers by tomorrow, do we?"
Ali nodded her head vigorously gulping down her tears, her eyes wide in disbelief and shock. She blinked her eyes furiously taking in a deep breath and let it out with a whoosh and went back to her office.

"How is he?" Clare asked Martin.
"I haven't had the guts to go to him, yet."
"You mean he's all alone in there? God Martin! You are definitely stupid. This is no time to leave him all by himself." Clare chided
"I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do." Martin said dejectedly. His girlfriend gently rubbed his back.
"Shhhh it's okay... we'll take care of him together," Clare said through her own tears, trying to control herself, as this would be the most helpful right now.
"Okay, let's go in." she finally said once they've both had gained some control over their emotions. Martin opened the door slowly. The house was silent. There was no sound of sobbing. He entered as silently as possible with Clare right behind him. What he saw didn't register, as it definitely didn't align with the current situation. Dec was sitting at the dining table an account book open in front of him. Pencil in hand the TV presenter was busily making calculations.
"Decky what are you doing?" Martin asked confused.
"Balancing our account books." Dec answered matter of factly, "With Stephen constantly bugging me I haven't been able to get round to this in quiet a while. And Mart you know how pissed Ant gets if I don't do the accounts on time."
"Decky, Ant isn't..." Martin gently began
"I know he's in the office. I have a lot of backlog to catch up with before he comes home. Now don't bother me." Dec said and dismissed his friends. The two of them looked at the man busily making calculations. Adding digits. Erasing digits. Re-rewriting digits.

After the account book was updated Dec busied himself with cooking. He looked at the clock. It was close to 7; Ant would be home very soon. He heard the kitchen door open and looked at it expectantly but Dec was disappointed when he saw Martin open and shut it just as quickly. Declan wondered what his brother was up to. Martin had been constantly peeking into the kitchen in short intervals but the man never entered. Something was definitely messing with his brother's mind. He had never ever seen Martin behave this oddly before.

Martin ran to the front door when he heard the door bell, telling Dec he should look after the food, as he's not the most talented guy in the kitchen anyway. He went out to see Paddy McGuinness standing in front of the door. Seeing that Martin had closed the front door behind him instead of asking the guest inside Paddy asked, "What's wrong Martin?"
He looked at his friend's brothers face and said jovially "Oh, the guys want to have a romantic evening alone. I should have guessed."
"No, Paddy. There is no romantic evening. Ant is gone."
"What? He dumped Dec?" he asked in disbelief
"No, Ant left Dec his shares of Ant and Dec Productions and then ..."
"Then what Martin?"
Paddy stared at his mate's brother intently as Martin's eyes started to tear up
"He took his own life." Martin finally choked out.
"How is that possible? Yesterday he was so happy, he told everybody in the office about his plans to make Dec the happiest man on earth. We all thought he was going to propose."
"No, there was no proposal. Just a suicide note."
"I have to go to Dec." Paddy started to reach for the door but Martin pushed him away.
"No, Dec is in complete denial. We've been keeping an eye on him all day. He's cooked dinner for Ant and is now waiting for him to come home. If he sees you he'll want to know where Ant is."
"But... I need to ask Dec for some papers I need for the show." Paddy said.
"Okay I'll gethim to bring the papers to Ali. You can get them there this evening. We can't risk taking any chances. Hopefully by morning he'll have registered ..." Martin stopped, even after so many hours he still couldn't bring himself to acknowledge it.
"I just can't believe it." Paddy started pacing. "Ant is a fighter he wouldn't just give up like that."

Meanwhile at James Grant Management Ali stared at the computer screen in front of her. She couldn't focus on the words written there.
*Dammit, how the hell am I supposed to concentrate.*
Ant - dead - that was unbelievable. Her assistant came over and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Go and take a break this is too much for you. I realise that. I'll handle everything here" The assistant took over the manager's duties. Ali went into a empty room and took out her phone. She dialled a number and waited for it to be picked up.
"Anne..." Ali whispered as a familiar voice answered and the tears started to stream down her face
"I know..." Anne said. "Martin told me. My poor baby and poor Anthony..."
After Ali finished her call to Dec's mother, she got a call from Martin.
"Hi Ali. Paddy needs some papers that Dec has... Could you give him a ring and persuade him to bring them to you? Paddy will pick them up tonight."
"Of course." Ali mumbled tonelessly.
She called Dec who jokingly answered, "Don't say we need another meeting today. That can't be true.
"No but I need those papers of your show. Paddy and I have to have them by tonight. Could you bring them over?" She said trying to make it sound really important.
"Ali I don't have time now. Ant'll be home soon."
"Alright I'll come to you. I'm on my break anyway. This way you won't miss..." Ali stopped to compose herself and continued as sweetly as possible, "you won't miss Ant when he... When he comes home."