‘I’m not going to do that. I want to do it; I think you know why I can’t deal with arguments. But that’s my problem, not yours. So you can just throw whatever you want at me, and we’ll take it from there.’
‘I don’t want to throw anything at you, Drew.’ She couldn’t look at him.
‘That’s fine too. I think I need to know why you reacted that way, though. I obviously hurt you, and I didn’t mean to.’
‘It’s not your fault.’
‘Maybe not. It’ll be my fault if I walk away without finding out what’s going on with you. So, if you don’t mind, I’m just going to wait here until you think you can tell me.’
Phoenix bounded up to her, nudging and pawing at her legs, as if she hadn’t seen Caro for months. Caro scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve, remembering too late that it probably wasn’t a great look.
She felt the sofa move as Drew sat down next to her, handing her a piece of kitchen roll from the kitchen. She tore it in half, blowing her nose with one piece and rubbing at her eyes with the other. He reached forward, smoothing down a lock of hair that was obviously sticking up and she turned the corners of her mouth down. She must look an absolute fright...
‘You look beautiful.’
‘What are you, a mind reader?’
‘Sorry. Won’t happen again.’
She reached for him, and his arms closed around her shoulders. The warmth of having him close only made her burst into tears again.
‘I messed up, Drew.’
‘Yeah. Me too.’
‘I’m sorry.’
‘So am I. Now tell me something I don’t know.’
Caro heaved in a breath. It was time to face up to him and tell him the truth. He deserved that at least. She couldn’t do this while she was still in his arms, so she sat up straight, looking into his eyes.
‘It’s not your fault, Drew, it’s mine. It’s...’ Suddenly it hit her. Drew wouldn’t have treated her the way that Blake had. ‘It’s not my fault. I don’t think it is anyway.’
‘So tell me whose fault it is.’
‘Blake. He taught at one of the universities I was associated with in California.’
‘He was your teacher?’ A note of concern sounded in Drew’s voice.
Caro shook her head. ‘If I’m honest, there wasn’t a great deal that he could teach me.’ This was new, too. She could see Blake from a different perspective now, and it didn’t do him any favours.
‘Okay. More a colleague, then. To be honest, that doesn’t sound quite so inappropriate on his part.’
He knew. He’d put two and two together and realised that no one could hurt you as much as someone you loved. That was why Caro had been so afraid when she’d seen Drew looking at her work.
‘I thought he loved me. I loved him, and I thought I’d found my home with him. I shared all my ideas and...’ Caro shook her head miserably.
‘He took them from you?’
‘W
orse. When the water feature in our garden kept getting gunked up I developed a self-cleaning valve. He patented it, and I lost the rights to it, which meant I couldn’t develop it any further and make it available free in developing countries. He didn’t steal it from me, he stole it from all the people who might have benefited from it.’
‘What did he do with the patent?’
‘He tried to sell it. There was a lot of interest and he was set to make a life-changing amount of money from it. He told me that I was stupid, and that someone had to look after my business affairs for me.’
‘Wait. No, Caro. Anyone who ever tells you that you’re stupid...well, that reflects on them and not you.’