‘Good.’
Isaac seemed satisfied, even if Charlotte didn’t share his confidence. Isaac was too young to remember the excuses that his father had made for being out every evening. Things to do at work. Client entertaining. She reminded herself that Edward was doing something worthwhile, and not running up debts that he couldn’t pay.
She heard a noise at the front door and Isaac slipped down from his seat, running into the hallway. So different from the child who, just four weeks ago, had nearly jumped out of his skin when someone knocked on the door.
‘Hey, buddy.’
She heard Edward’s voice and suddenly all of her fears and uncertainties seemed unreasonable. Not that they stopped pinching at her heart, but for the time being they receded to mere what-ifs instead of painful certainty.
‘Is he better?’ Isaac was perched against Edward’s side, tugging at his shoulder to gain his attention.
‘Is who better?’
‘That boy...?’
Edward’s querying gaze lit on Charlotte’s face.
‘Isaac was asking where you were.’ Charlotte hadn’t dared ask, thinking that it was assuming a bit too much. ‘I told him that you were making another little boy well. The one you’re operating on tomorrow.’
‘Ah.’ He turned to Isaac. ‘The boy’s not better yet, but he will be. We’re taking good care of him, and he’s going to be just fine.’ He set Isaac back onto his feet and sat down.
‘Would you like something to eat?’
He looked up at her. That dark blue gaze made everything else seem beside the point. The smile overrode every other sensation apart from pleasure.
‘No, that’s fine, thank you. I’ve already eaten. I’ve still got some more to do tonight, but I came home to see Isaac before his bedtime.’
Charlotte turned quickly. She wasn’t being fair. He had things to do. He didn’t take her for granted, as Peter had done, expecting his dinner to be on the table whatever time he came home.
‘Coffee, then.’ She smiled brightly at him. ‘You’ll have some coffee? And I made cheesecake.’
‘That sounds fantastic.’ He caught Isaac’s eye. ‘Hey, are you having cheesecake, too? Or are you just going to run around the kitchen while I eat?’
Isaac swooped towards the table, flapping his arms like a pair of wings, and sat down next to Edward. For the moment, at least, before Edward retreated again into his study, the world was as it should be.
* * *
The operation must have finished hours ago. It was ten o’clock, and Edward still wasn’t home. Charlotte had tried his mobile and it went straight to voicemail. She didn’t dare try again, because a list of missed calls from her would look as if she was crowding him. There was only one thing to do, and that was call the hospital.
It took a while to pluck up the courage to do it, and then another five minutes of waiting on hold before she got to speak to the right person. Then she wished she hadn’t. It was only a twenty-minute drive from the hospital at this time of night, and Edward had left at nine.
‘Not to worry. Thanks.’ She smiled into the phone, as if that might give some believability to her words. Of course she was going to worry.
‘He said he was going to check back in again when he got home... If there’s any message?’
Charlotte pursed her lips and then went for it. ‘Can you tell me whether he’s done that yet? Checked back in?’
‘Yes, hold on...’ A keyboard clicked into the silence on the line. ‘Here it is. Yes, he called in about twenty minutes ago. Said we could reach him on his mobile if there was any problem.’
‘Thanks. I’ll try that, then.’
Charlotte hung up. So what was she going to do now? Edward obviously hadn’t been in an accident on his way home because he’d called in. And he obviously didn’t want anyone to know where he was.
She knew exactly what she wasn’t going to do. She’d been here before and refused to believe what was staring her right in the face. The cold, hard proof of the credit card statements that her husband had kept hidden for so long. The affair that he had denied for so long. It had almost broken her.
Not again. Edward was a man with secrets, and she wasn’t going to sit around, waiting for them to shatter her life. This time she’d protect Isaac—and she’d protect herself.
* * *