The Banker's Holiday

Day 1362

[SEXUAL CONTENT WARNING !!!]

FELICITY APPLIED her lipstick then looked at herself in the mirror.
Not bad for 43.

She was looking better than she did at 40, happier, livelier, with a good sparkle in her eyes. It was hardly surprising. That had been one of the worst years of her life. How things could change!

That was the old Felicity she'd left behind. Regrets? She had a few. Regret she'd put up with David for so long. Regret that for too long she'd been distant from Erica. Regret that she'd wasted years loveless. But you couldn't go back and change things. She wouldn't want to.

It was that summer that had been the turning point, not that it had been easy to disentangle herself from the old life. That life had clung on like a limpet until she'd chiseled it off. She'd learnt who her true friends were, learnt to be hard when needed, slowly learnt to let love back into her heart. How she'd grown up that summer. They all had.

Those first few weeks when they got back had been a whirlwind of activity, sorting Erica, solicitors, interviews with the police and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, explanations to parents and friends, moving locations and watching parts of their story unfold in the media. It hadn't helped that it was the end of the silly season and that there wasn't much else that was newsworthy. But the whole thing had caught on like wildfire, and tales of sexual misconduct spread through the London banking world followed by very public accusations. #MeToo wasn't just Hollywood.

As for David, he had been kept in hospital for three weeks and then – after Moses didn't press charges, bless him – transferred back to the UK, where he was admitted to a psychiatric ward. Nobody could ask him the questions that they wanted too. The bank's shares plummeted as people speculated, and their IT engineers investigated, as to what else may have been breached in their systems. Nobody would tell Felicity anything about that, but she was warned that the bank might make a claim for damages against David eventually, on that and the financial irregularities. Clearly only he knew what had gone on, and he was in no fit state to clarify anything.

She'd been assured that the police took revenge porn posting seriously, but she knew that they were more concerned about the bank. Power rules, and nothing has quite as much power as Masonic bankers buried at the heart of the seats of power of government, the media, finance and business.

Eventually the media fuss died down and there was some contact with David. It had been assessed that he was well enough to understand divorce proceedings and so Felicity launched them. To her surprise he seemed amicable enough, through lawyers at any rate, but the financial side was going to be a mess, partly due to the complexity David had constructed, and the prospect of a myriad of claims against him. Sam had been busy whilst working for him before the Caymans trip, and unraveled much of David's dodgy dealings. That was clear from the envelope she'd given her.

David was still unwell but the psychiatrists couldn't agree on a diagnosis. It seems that everything had hit him hard when his world had collapsed, but then it had been mostly his fault. She could have been a better wife, true, but that didn't excuse a lot of the things he did. It seems he'd avoided responsibility by creating his own controlling world.

True to form he couldn't cope with the infidelity of others, whilst still believing he was largely blameless in his. The doctors had explained some of it to her, but it was complicated and full of strange words. Loss of job, money, and prestige had tipped him over the edge. Supposedly. She had her own view of why he'd confronted poor Moses.

Felicity, having no job, and with Erica still a minor, had been granted some interim funds that David agreed, but accommodation was awkward. She couldn't face living at either house, not after David and his shenanigans, and the cameras. The best thing would be to sell both. That they eventually did, but most of the money was still tied up awaiting the legal and tax claims.