The Other Woman(51)

‘He could have anyone he wanted,’ she went on. ‘So why on earth he’s settling for you, I don’t know. But he’ll see sense eventually, you mark my words. I just hope that it comes sooner rather than later.’

I smiled, as if her vicious words were rolling over me, like water off a duck’s back, but every syllable was like a sword cutting through the very strings that held my heart in place. I felt as if I had gone back in time, been transported back to primary school, to when nasty Fiona had loomed over me in the corner of the playground, and had laughed as I lay sprawled on the ground, my blue gingham dress caught up around my waist.

‘Why are your knickers dirty?’ she’d sneered. ‘Look, everyone. Emily’s pooed herself.’

Other children came over to point and laugh, while I hastily pulled my dress back down and went to get up. Fiona offered me her hand, but as I reached up to take it, she pulled it away and I fell back again. ‘Oh, silly, dirty Emily.’ She laughed, and everyone around her joined in, if only for fear of being picked on themselves. ‘You might want to go and change, ’cause no one is going to want to sit next to someone who smells of shit.’

I could still feel that shame and embarrassment. The heat that had scorched my cheeks, even though I’d battled feverishly to stop it. I’d run towards the toilet block, where the usual gaggle of kids blocked the way. I pushed through them just as the bell sounded for the end of playtime.

‘Emily Havistock, the bell has gone,’ shouted Mrs Calder from the other side of the playground, seemingly with eyes in the back of her head. I chose to ignore her, preferring to incur her wrath over Fiona’s. I banged the cubicle door shut and locked it before pulling my knickers down to check for marks. There was nothing but a scuff of dirt where I’d fallen onto the dusty tarmac. I don’t know why I’d believed it would be anything else. I burst into tears then, the type that you try so hard to hold in, for fear of knowing that, once they start, they may never stop.

The type that was threatening to fall now, some twenty years later, as I stood in front of another bully. I swallowed them back down and fixed Pammie with a steely stare.

‘When are you going to realize that Adam and I are going to be together forever?’ I said, my voice wobbling ever so slightly.

She tutted and rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t think so.’ She sighed. ‘You don’t stand a chance.’

I moved closer to her. ‘I’m marrying your son, and no matter what you say or what you do, you will never stop that. It is going to happen, whether you like it or not, so I suggest you start getting used to it.’

She leant in even more, so that our noses were almost touching. ‘Over my dead body,’ she spat.





24

‘You seem to have quite a fan,’ Adam mused, as he snuggled up to me. It was 2 a.m. and he’d been home for an hour, most of which had been spent making love. I was never going to turn that down, especially after we’d been apart for four days, and he’d no doubt had every imaginable temptation put in his way in between times. But now I was tired and needed to get some sleep before the alarm went off at six.

‘Mmm,’ I murmured. ‘Who?’

‘Mum,’ he said jubilantly. ‘She said she had a great time, and you made her feel really welcome.’

I drew in a deep breath, waiting for the sarcasm to pass before he told me what she’d really said. God, had she really got to him that quickly? Spoken to him even before I had? He’d only been on English soil for a couple of hours.

‘So. Thank. You,’ he whispered, in between planting kisses on my cheek.

I turned to face him.

‘What?’ He laughed.

I thought back to the vow I’d made – to never see her again, after the wedding – when she’d questioned my relationship with Seb.

Her comment had come out of nowhere, whilst I was sunbathing by the pool, the morning after our fight. ‘You do realize that you won’t be able to see so much of Seb once the wedding’s been and done with, don’t you?’ she’d said.

I hadn’t even realized she was up, let alone lying next to me by the pool. I didn’t move a muscle, just opened my eyes under my sunglasses to see Tess and Pippa snorkelling in the shallow end.

There was no one else around.

‘Is that so?’ I’d replied.

‘Yes, it is so,’ she’d sniped. ‘It’s not right, you having such a closeness to another man. Adam is prepared to put up with it until the wedding, but once you’re married, Seb is going to have to go.’

I still didn’t move, though my muscles were twitching beneath my skin and all I really wanted to do was jump up and tear her eyes out.

I kept my voice steady. ‘Adam said that, did he?’

‘Yes, he’s always had concerns. He told me at the very beginning how unhappy he was about it.’

‘I don’t know if it’s slipped your attention, Pamela, but Seb’s gay.’ As soon as it came out, I wanted to suck it back in again. It felt like I was justifying our relationship to her by saying that him being gay made it okay.

‘I fully appreciate that,’ she’d sniffed. ‘But it’s not right. He shouldn’t be here. Adam was horrified when he realized you were inviting him.’

Adam had not so much as breathed a word of it to me. He wouldn’t dare. But now, thinking about it, we’d never had that conversation, ever. Mine and Seb’s relationship was just what it was, had always been, long before Adam had come along, and I’d thought, assumed, that he’d accepted it, but perhaps he hadn’t.