“Well,” I said, “It must still be exciting!”
He sighed, “Excitement runs thin after a while. I mean, it’s fun up on stage. That’s all there’s really to look forward to, though. The rest of it is just…work. Gwen loves it. She was born to be in the spotlight. She‘s always off doing this or that. I don‘t get to see her much, honestly.”
“How’s she doing then?” Ollie asked, leaning toward the speaker so Warren could hear.
“Oh, she’s fine. She’s great. She’s at some rock star do with her pretentious rock star friends. I skipped it. I’ve had enough of that, thank you. I crave silence these days.”
We thought that there might be some tension brewing and it seems we were right. About a month later, the proverbial shit hit the fan.
The story as I understand it went like this. Warren accompanied Gwen to an awards ceremony where she won the award for Best New UK Pop Artist. After her formal acceptance, they went to an after party at a nightclub where they both got a bit pissed and became overtly friendly on the dance floor. Several photographers caught them at it and the photos quickly hit the internet. Not that Warren cared, in particular. It was all publicity, he told me, for him as well as Gwen, as he was a songwriter and the more people that knew he wrote songs for Best New UK Pop Artist the more likely he was to be able to feed himself. “It’s fine,” He assured us, “We weren’t having sex or anything! They’re not that graphic!”
Actually, they were fairly graphic. Oliver and I found the whole thing to be quite amusing. Our son was having his fifteen minutes of fame…or of shame, if he had been so inclined. We were so happy and proud of him, even in the face of his scandal. And then one day Oliver stopped by Warren’s house to make sure it was secure and he found our son in the garden stuffing his rubbish bins full of paper. Ren refused to tell Oliver or me what had happened, only that he’d had enough of the tour, enough of false friends, and enough of Gwenllian Hughes.
“She’s a liar. She‘s not the Gwennie we all knew. She‘s a phoney,” He was all he said to me, “She made a fool out of herself and a fool out of me. I‘m done with her.”
It seemed very odd that he would end not only his romantic relationship, but his entire friendship with Gen so abruptly. It made me quite sad because I knew they loved each other since they were children. Warren pretended he didn’t care, but I could see that he was destroyed. He was very quiet about it and never said another word, but a mother can tell when her child is hurting. Still, his father and I didn’t pressure him for details. He was, after all, an adult. As much as both of us were inclined to want to comfort and protect him, we both knew that all he’d do was tell us to mind our business. So we did.
We actually found out a few months later what had really happened when Gwen showed up, knocking on our door in the wood. “Hi,” She said sheepishly, doing her best to smile, but it was obvious she was nervous, “I was visiting my uncle in town and I thought I’d come by to see you. Is it all right?”
Even though we knew she’d done something terrible to hurt our son, or at least he thought she had, we invited her in for tea. Oliver and I had always considered Gwen a semi-adopted daughter. The truth was that I was thrilled to have her pop by. “I have pumpkin scones," I told her happily, knowing they were her favourite, “Would you like milk or tea? “
“Milk," she smiled as she sat at the table, “Thanks, Sil."
After an hour or so of chit chat about how we‘d been and what Caro and Gryff were up to, Oliver finally point blank asked her what had happened with her and Warren. “I thought the two of you were getting on so well,” He said, “I was disappointed to hear that you’d split up.”
She immediately looked as if she’d cry, “Yes…well, I’m afraid that was my entire fault.”
It seems that Gwennie had a portion of her past she hadn’t shared with Warren. In that past there existed a young man named Nick Han that she had met in Berlin. She’d been a struggling musician with a demo tape and a headshot, that was desperately pursuing anyone she could find to give her music a listen. Mister Han had noticed her in a nightclub and approached her. It was a come on, she said, but he was attractive and seemed nice. After a while of flirting, she discovered he was actually a record producer and that he was more than willing to listen to her demo. They exchanged phone numbers. He took her on a few dates and seemed just as interested in her music as he was in pursuing her affections. It was not long before he introduced her to executives at a recording label. They weren’t overly interested at first. It took two years for Nick to convince them to come to one of her shows in Hamburg. Within six weeks she had a contract. Caught up in the excitement of it all and swept away by Nick from fancy party to fancy party, meeting famous people and jetting around the globe, she had married him when she was only twenty years old.
“It was such a mistake!” Gwennie confessed, “It wasn’t long before I knew it was all wrong. He was just so exciting and he knew all these famous, important people and I felt like a rock star with him. But after it all settled and we were in our flat, I just kept thinking about Renny and how much I missed him. It had been years since I’d seen him, but I had to find him. I tried to get on with my life for five years, but when I got picked up by a UK label and knew I was leaving Berlin, I told Nick how I felt. I told him all about Ren. He said if I needed to go find him to do it. He was so confident that I’d come back to him, but I knew I wasn’t going to.” She paused, “I was so scared to contact Ren. You have no idea. I sat in London for six weeks before I did it. He was so happy to hear from me. When we did finally get together, it was like nothing had changed between us. Nick’s a nice bloke, but I never loved him. I’m in love with Ren. I’ve always been.” She sighed, “And when Nick realised that he went psychotic on me. He said I used him. The really terrible thing is that he’s right. I did. I didn’t mean to, but I did.”
“We all make mistakes,” Oliver said gently, “Didn’t you tell Warren about Nick?”
She shook her head and her face in her hands. “No! It was so stupid! I wanted us to be perfect, so I never mentioned it! I filed for divorce thinking that Nick would just give it to me, but he refused. He contested it and the whole process got really messy. I didn‘t want Warren to know, so I kept it from him. I told Nick that I didn‘t want anything from him, no property, no money, I just wanted out, but he said he didn‘t care. I hurt him so badly. He wanted to drag the whole thing out just to hurt me back!”
“Are you still married to him?” I asked. I handed her a tissue.
She nodded miserably, "He’s still tying it up. I thought that I could get it over with, you know? Without hurting Ren, but Nick saw the pictures of me and Warren on a website and he got all bent out of shape! He just showed up in Greece at the hotel and marched up to Renny and showed him the marriage license and talked a bunch of shite! He didn’t bother to show him that we were in the middle of divorce proceedings!” Gwennie sniffed, “I swear it’s true! Here! I brought the papers with me.”
Oliver shook his head, “We don’t need to see them. Why didn’t you show these to Ren?”
“He wouldn’t listen to me! He was so hurt and so angry! He started shouting at me, telling me I was a liar and then he just left. He just walked out on me. He didn’t even bring his things with him. I let him go, yeah? I thought he was just angry and he’d be back. I sat there and I waited all night and he never came back. He left me, just like that. And now, he won’t talk to me. I‘ve called, I‘ve e-mailed. I‘ve written him letters. I even went to his house and banged on his door. I faxed these papers to him, but nothing. Not a word.”