The Wife Before Me(53)

‘Stop lying to me,’ she snapped. ‘There were no complaints, apart from the ones you manufactured. You must be very satisfied with your day’s work.’

‘You can’t believe I had anything to do with this.’

‘No one else is responsible.’

‘You’re calling me a liar?’

‘A vindictive liar. I was a fool not to heed my father’s warnings.’

‘Your father had only one reason for hating me.’

‘Don’t you dare sully his memory with your disgusting insinuations.’

‘He broke you, Amelia. He left you incapable of love or trust. That’s why we have problems in our marriage. You can deny it all you like but you need to name it. The two of you alone here. Those night terrors. You were too scared to understand what was happening to you. The sooner you accept what was going on, the sooner you can seek help and start to rebuild our relationship.’

The mesmerising tenor of his voice. She had listened to him once but that was before she discovered that violence took many forms, apart from bruises and cracked ribs.

‘He said you’d break my heart. How right he was.’ She could feel it sundering, the fissure widening. ‘He saw through you from the beginning but I was too besotted to heed him. I had to wait until you attacked me before I realised he was trying to protect me from a nightmare, like he always did.’ Her hand moved protectively over her stomach. ‘I’ll never forgive myself – or you. Never.’

‘I wasn’t the one who accused him.’ Nicholas took a step towards her, then stopped when he saw her expression. ‘No one twisted your arm, Amelia, or forced you to confront him. You did that all by yourself. Putting up a cross in his memory may be a salve to your guilt but to me it’s the height of hypocrisy. He told me he’d do everything he could to break us up, which is not surprising considering―’

‘When did he say that?’

‘He didn’t tell you, did he?’

‘Tell me what?’

‘He hired a private detective to check on me. He found nothing, of course. What would I have found if the tables were reversed? Hmm?’

‘Stop it. Stop. I won’t allow you to poison my love for him into something hideous. You’ve wrecked our marriage. I’m not prepared to put up with your behaviour any longer. You’ve freeloaded off me for long enough. I want you out of my life.’

‘Freeloaded?’ She forced herself to stand still as he walked towards her. ‘That’s not what we agreed. What’s mine is yours. Isn’t that what you told me? I’ve no intention of going anywhere. My child―’

‘Your child? You thought otherwise when you knocked me to the floor.’

‘You provoked me, Amelia, just as you’re doing now.’ He grasped her shoulders, twisted her head so that she was forced to look at him. ‘Our child belongs to both of us. Remember our vows? ’Til death do us part. I’ve no intention of breaking mine or allowing you to do something as foolish as breaking yours.’

‘Leave me alone. You’ve raised your hand to me for the last time.’

‘We’ll see about that.’ The blow, so swift and sudden, sent her spinning away from him. She fell, her body crashing against the ladder. It tilted, the legs on one side lifting. For an instant it seemed to defy gravity, and Amelia, also frozen in that same suspended pause, was assailed by images. The memory rushed away from her as the metal frame struck her head and she was knocked senseless.



* * *



An ambulance, siren screaming. The pain low down in her back, her stomach cramping.

‘My baby…’ Her breath rasping, Nicholas holding her hand. ‘Don’t talk. We’re nearly at the hospital. Everything’s going to be all right.’

Amelia could see the truth in the eyes of the paramedic, who leaned over her and asked her to score her pain on a ratio of one to ten.

‘I can’t give you a number.’ She wasn’t sure if the paramedic could hear her or if she had even spoken her thoughts aloud. ‘How am I supposed to calculate such pain?’

Nicholas clung to her hand. She did not want to listen to him sobbing or look at his tears falling. Crocodile tears, shameless, and she was unable to tell if she was clinging to him for support or if it was the other way around.



* * *



The edge was tempting. A bottomless hole waiting for her to fall forward. No space to burrow, no way to escape. Here, there was just darkness. Her baby, gone now, gone like thistledown on a spring breeze, leaving behind a weight too heavy to carry. Nicholas stayed by her side, pulling her back when she strained against him.

‘We are one,’ he said. ‘Now, more than ever, we must work to make our marriage stronger. I love you, Amelia… love you… until death do us part.’

His promises sloughed off her. Dead tissue falling from a marriage that no longer had meaning. She would talk to David Smithson as soon as she was strong enough to face the inevitable confrontation when she demanded a divorce from Nicholas. Living with him was no longer an option, yet she knew how hard she would have to fight to reclaim her freedom. She would move slowly, warily. Wait for the right time to lock him and his possessions out of Woodbine for ever.





Thirty