The Soulmate(70)

He holds a palm up, silencing me. I remain in the doorway, my gaze darting back and forth between him – pacing with the phone pressed to his ear – and the girls, who I will never take my eyes off ever again.

‘Max,’ Gabe says after a couple of seconds. ‘Yes, my four-year-old daughters passed that message along. What kind of person would –’

Gabe is quiet so I assume Max has cut him off. The hand holding the phone is shaking – whether in fear or anger, I don’t know.

‘In that case, you might as well come and get it,’ Gabe says.

I stare at him. Come and get it? The USB? But we don’t have it!

‘Will you be coming in person or sending one of your thugs?’ Gabe asks. ‘Fine. Give me half an hour to get my family out of the house. I assume you’ll understand if I don’t want them around.’

‘What the hell are you doing?’ I say, when he hangs up.

‘I’m meeting Max,’ he says. ‘To give him the USB.’

‘But you don’t have the USB.’ I steal a glance at the girls, sitting open-mouthed in front of the television. They haven’t moved a muscle.

Gabe walks to the window, looks out. ‘Take the girls to your parents’ house, Pip. Stay there until I let you know it’s safe to come back.’

‘Not until you tell me what you’re going to do.’

He turns and looks me in the eye. ‘I’m going to fix it.’





77


AMANDA

BEFORE



Max was still in his office with the accountant. Down the hall, my whole world had fallen apart. The image would forever be burned into my mind. Pippa kissing Max. Pippa taking off her top and pressing herself against him. That’s where the video ended. Part of me was glad I didn’t have to watch any more than that. If I had, I was sure I’d be sick again.

The ache of it was physical. I’d heard people talk about having a sick feeling or a heaviness in their belly when they were heartbroken, but this wasn’t just in my belly – it was in every single cell. Max was in every single cell. It’s one thing finding out your husband is unfaithful when you are primed for it. Expecting it. But after all I’d done to avoid this exact situation – the years of eavesdropping, the spying – I’d been caught unawares. How could I have been so stupid?

I desperately wanted to make sense of it. Was it a chance encounter? An affair? As far as I knew, Max hadn’t anticipated Pippa’s call on the night in question. It had come out of the blue. Pippa had claimed to be worried about her husband’s mental state, I recalled. Was that the truth? Or was it all part of a ruse to get Max to come to her?

And was Max in on the ruse?

I was still staring at the screen when Max stuck his head into my office. I stared at him anew, changed somehow in the wake of what he’d done. He looked different to me. Like an imposter. A wax statue of my husband.

‘We have to head to the office for a couple of hours,’ he said. ‘I’ll be home for dinner, though.’

I nodded. Smiled. I might have waved. It all felt robotic. But Max didn’t seem to notice. Funny to think that this was the last time I ever laid eyes on him.

After he was gone, I looked back at the screen. Did he love Pippa Gerard? Was that what this was about? Pippa and Gabe had moved away very soon after the night of the video. To Portsea – a lovely spot. We had a beach house there ourselves, which we used for a month each summer. Max said he was glad Gabe was able to make a fresh start. Was he also glad because it meant he didn’t need to live with the guilt of his affair with Gabe’s wife?

Only a week or two ago Max had showed me an article about how Gabe had earned himself a reputation as a ‘suicide whisperer’, talking to people who came to the cliff outside his house, convincing them that they had something left to live for. I thought it was a lovely full-circle moment. I’d been happy for him. Now I was sad for him. Sad for me.

I needed answers, and I wasn’t going to get them from Max.

I saved the incriminating files from the USB to my computer’s desktop, picked it up, carried it to the dining room table and left it there, open, where he would see it. Why bother with a note when this would tell him everything he needed to know? Then I removed the USB.

Now, I needed to speak to Pippa.





78


PIPPA

THEN



It took me a couple of minutes to realise that Max wasn’t responding to me. I’d been too wrapped up in my own rebellion, throwing off the shackles of the perfect wife. But gradually I became aware of Max’s stillness, and I stepped back.

‘I’m sorry, Pippa,’ he said. ‘I hope I didn’t give you the wrong impression. But I love my wife.’

I was mortified, but Max seemed even more embarrassed than me. He could barely meet my eyes.

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, hurriedly retrieving my bra and T-shirt from the floor. ‘I’ll leave now.’

‘I’ll call security and let them know you’re coming down,’ he said, when I was dressed. Polite to the end.

I travelled down in the elevator alone.

I was almost home when I received a phone call from Max’s security guard saying Gabe had tried to break in to the NewZ offices. He’d been in a highly agitated state, and Max had called an ambulance. I was stunned that, after everything, Max was still helping Gabe.