Incredible Beauty (So Many Reasons 2)

“She will be when she finds out,” I chuckled. “It’s a surprise. If I can keep it from her, she won’t know until they arrive on the doorstep.” I added with a devilish smile.

After walking around the house, I left to check out the last two. As I suspected, neither of them compared to the first. I sent Maria an email with my findings.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Emma

Simon had been gone a while, and to be honest, it was good to have the place to myself. Not that I knew where anything was. Nothing about this place seemed familiar to me at all. Searching through the fridge for something to drink, I came up empty handed. Maybe Simon could get something on his way home for me. I dialed his cell, and got the busy signal. Maybe I could catch him before he left the office.

“Hi, I’m after Simon Anderson? He was dropping in to pick something up.” I said to the receptionist who answered the phone.

“No, Simon hasn’t been in. He doesn’t work here anymore.”

“Oh, okay. Maybe I got it wrong.” Hanging up the phone, I sat down on the couch. Why would he lie to me? He had definitely said he was going into work. Where had he gone if not there? I picked up my cell again and dialed Cass.

“Hey you,” Cass said warmly.

“What are you up to?” I asked. “Come over for a drink if you’re up for it.” I added. I felt like I hadn’t seen anyone in ages. People had visited in hospital, but usually they didn’t want to stay long or just didn’t feel comfortable. Not that I blamed them, I didn’t feel comfortable in hospital.

“I’d love to. You’ve saved me from an evening of football.” I laughed, knowing how much Cass hated most sports, especially football.

“So he stayed with Claire while you were in hospital, I don’t really see the big deal. He probably wanted to spend time with Maddie. You need to stop reading into things Em.”

“I know, but it’s not even the fact that he stayed with her. It’s that he told me you were helping out with Mirabella. Why lie to me?” I shrugged helplessly, unable to let this go.

“Maybe he guessed you’d react like this?” she offered softly.

“I don’t know, Cass. I feel like there is something else he’s not telling me,” I mumbled. It was most likely just the side effects of the operation talking, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something going on.

After Cass left I decided to email Maria. She had been emailing and calling me every day to check on my progress. Opening up my laptop, I saw it was open to Simon’s email. Just as I was about to log out, a name caught my eye. Claire.

There were many reasons Claire might be emailing Simon, logically I knew that, but my mind was turning over the worst possible scenarios. Hesitantly, I clicked open. Never would I have thought of myself as the type of person who would snoop through their partner’s emails, but here I was.

Simon,

I cannot apologize enough for what happened. I don’t blame you for being angry at me, but please don’t let Maddie suffer for my mistake. I can’t even excuse what I did, because honestly, I’ve wanted to kiss you like that for a long time.

Please, can we talk?

Claire.

As I sat there staring at the screen reading her words over and over, a wave of emotions rushed through me. Angry, I slammed the laptop shut. This had to be some kind of fucking joke. Was that where he was now? With her? The thought made me sick. Wiping the tears from my eyes, I thought about what I should do. I didn’t want to be here when he got back, that much I knew, but I sure as hell wasn’t leaving my daughter here, with him.

There was only one person I could call and that was Cass. She had barely made it five minutes from my house when I made my blubbering call to her. Five minutes later she was hugging me, assuring me everything was going to be fine.

“Come on Em. Let me take you to bed. I’ll wait here for Simon, and we’ll get this sorted out,” she hushed, rubbing my back.

“Sorted out?” I laughed, incredulous, “he kissed Claire!”

“Technically, she kissed him,” Cass interjected, “and from the sounds of it, he was pretty angry.”

“I knew it. I fucking knew it. I knew she wanted him back. Everybody thought I was just being the jealous girlfriend and now look at this mess!” I stood up, sending the chair behind me hurtling into the wall.

“Calm down Em,” Cass begged, “please, just sit down or something.” She walked me over to the couch and sat me down.

“How can I calm down? I don’t even remember the last six months of our relationship? How do I know this hasn’t been going on for months?” I ranted, my head ached from trying to find my lost memories.

“He loves you Em. I can see that and you must be able to see that every time he looks at you.”