Behind Closed Doors(24)

‘What’s happened?’ I asked.

‘The dream is over, I’m afraid.’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ I said reassuringly, telling myself that it could be the best thing to happen to us. ‘We’ll manage.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to find another job easily—or you could even set up on your own if you wanted. And, if things are really tight, I could always go back to work. I wouldn’t be able to have my old job back, but I’m sure they’d take me on in some capacity or other.’

He gave me an amused look. ‘I haven’t lost my job, Grace.’

I stared at him. ‘Then what is this all about?’

He shook his head sorrowfully. ‘You should have chosen Millie, you really should have.’

I felt a prickle of fear run down my spine. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked, trying to keep my voice calm. ‘Why are you being like this?’

‘Do you realise what you’ve done, do you realise that you’ve sold your soul to me? And Millie’s, for that matter.’ He paused. ‘Especially Millie’s.’

‘Stop it!’ I said sharply. ‘Stop playing games with me!’

‘It’s not a game.’ The calmness of his voice sent panic shooting through me. I felt my eyes dart around the room, subconsciously looking for a way out. ‘It’s too late,’ he said, noticing. ‘Far too late.’

‘I don’t understand,’ I said, choking back a sob. ‘What is it that you want?’

‘Exactly what I’ve got—you, and Millie.’

‘You haven’t got Millie and you certainly haven’t got me.’ Snatching up my handbag, I looked angrily at him. ‘I’m going back to London.’

He let me get as far as the door. ‘Grace?’

I took my time turning round because I wasn’t sure how I was going to react when he told me what I knew he was going to tell me, that it had all been some kind of stupid joke. Neither did I want him to see how relieved I was, because I couldn’t bear to think what would have happened if he had let me step over the threshold.

‘What?’ I asked coolly.

He put his hand in his pocket and drew out my passport. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something?’ Holding it between his finger and thumb, he dangled it in front of me. ‘You can’t go to England without it, you know. In fact, you can’t go anywhere without it.’

I held out my hand. ‘Give it to me, please.’

‘No.’

‘Give me my passport, Jack! I mean it!’

‘Even if I were to give it to you, how would you get to the airport without money?’

‘I have money,’ I said haughtily, glad that I had bought some baht before we’d left. ‘I also have a credit card.’

‘No,’ he said, shaking his head regretfully, ‘you don’t. Not anymore.’

Unzipping my handbag quickly, I saw that my purse was missing, as was my mobile phone.

‘Where’s my purse, and my phone? What have you done with them?’ I lunged for his travel bag and scrabbled through it, looking for them.

‘You won’t find them in there,’ he said, amused. ‘You’re wasting your time.’

‘Do you really think you can keep me a prisoner here? That I won’t be able to get away if I want to?’

‘That,’ he said solemnly, ‘is where Millie comes in.’

I felt myself go cold. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Put it this way—what do you think will happen to her if I stop paying her school fees? An asylum, perhaps?’

‘I’ll pay her fees—I have enough money from the sale of my house.’

‘You paid that money over to me, remember, to buy furniture for our new house, which I did. As for what was left over—well, it’s mine now. You don’t have any money, Grace, none at all.’

‘Then I’ll go back to work. And I’ll sue you for the rest of my money,’ I added savagely.

‘No, you won’t. For a start, you won’t be going back to work.’

‘You can’t stop me.’

‘Of course I can.’

‘How? This is the twenty-first century, Jack. If all of this is really happening, if it isn’t some kind of sick joke, do you really think I’m going to stay married to you?’

‘Yes, because you’ll have no choice. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll tell you why.’

‘I’m not interested. Give me my passport and enough money to get back to England and we’ll put this down to some terrible mistake. You can stay here if you like and when you get back we can tell everybody that we realised it wasn’t meant to be and have decided to separate.’

‘That’s very generous of you.’ He took a moment to consider it and I found I was holding my breath. ‘The only trouble is, I don’t make mistakes. I never have and I never will.’

‘Please, Jack,’ I said desperately. ‘Please let me go.’

‘I’ll tell you what I’ll do. If you sit down, I’ll explain everything to you, just as I said I would. And after, when you’ve heard what I’ve got to say, if you still want to leave, I’ll let you.’