One Night...Nine-Month Scandal

‘Because it has nothing to do with us.’

‘It has everything to do with us,’ he said thickly. ‘It explains a great deal about why you find it so hard to trust me. It explains why you keep giving me nervous looks. Why you keep waiting for me to fail.’

‘The reason I keep giving you nervous looks is because I know this isn’t what you wanted. And I know that this sort of situation doesn’t have a happy ending. We could keep it going for a while—maybe we’d split up and then get back together, who knows—but that isn’t what I want, Alekos. I don’t believe in the fairy tale any more,’ she said in a faltering voice. ‘But I do believe I deserve better than that. And so does my baby.’ Without looking at him, she walked into the bedroom and closed the door.

Staring at that door, Alekos knew the gesture was symbolic.

She’d shut him out of her life.

Kelly dialled Vivien’s number for the fourteenth time, left a fourteenth message and then ended the call.

She desperately needed to talk to someone, but her friend just wasn’t answering the phone.

Scrabbling for a tissue, Kelly blew her nose. She had to stop crying. This was ridiculous; how much water could one person safely lose in twenty-four hours?

She’d been in no state to travel anywhere on her own so she’d agreed to travel back to Corfu and then back to London from there. And she’d cried for the whole duration of the flight. If the baby hadn’t already scared Alekos off, then her tears would have done the trick, Kelly thought numbly, remembering Alekos’s taut silence as he’d handed her tissue after tissue.

When he wasn’t mopping up her tears, he’d worked, occasionally lifting his eyes from his emails to check on her.

Check that she wasn’t about to go into meltdown.

But he hadn’t attempted to resume the conversation they’d had the night before. He obviously thought she’d totally lost it, Kelly thought gloomily, remembering the look in his eyes as he’d watched her.

When she’d reminded him in a stiff voice that she wanted to return to England on the first available flight, he’d agreed to make arrangements, but the moment they’d arrived back at the villa he’d disappeared, presumably to his office to bury himself in work.

And now she was back in the master-bedroom suite, trying not to look at the enormous bed which dominated the beautiful room.

Switching off her brain, Kelly took a shower, dried her hair and then walked into her dressing room. She pulled on a pair of shorts and a simple tee-shirt and then tugged out her suitcase.

For a moment she stood, just looking at her clothes.

What use were any of those in Little Molting? She couldn’t teach the children wearing pale-blue linen, could she?

And she couldn’t wear any of the beautiful shoes unless Alekos was next to her, holding her arm.

Trying not to think about that, she walked back to the bedroom and instantly saw the note on the bed. Walking across the room, she picked it up, assuming it was her flight details: meet me on the beach in ten minutes. Bring the ring.

Of course. The ring.

Gritting her teeth against the tears that threatened, Kelly scrunched the note up and threw it in the bin. Great; so he wanted to make sure she didn’t run off with his precious ring a second time.

She looked down at her hand, at the ring that had been with her on the bumpy journey that was her relationship with Alekos. The thought of parting with it just felt hideously sad.

Tugging it off her finger, she weighed it in her palm for a moment and bit her lip.

She had no idea why he wanted to meet her on the beach, but if that was what he wanted then that was what she’d do.

She’d deliver the ring to him in person for a final time.

Then she’d go back to her old life and try to learn to live without him.

Kelly walked slowly down the path, trying not to think about how perfect it would have been to bring up a child here, among the olive groves and the tumbling bougainvillea.

She felt as though someone had punched a hole through her insides. As though she’d lost something that she’d never find anywhere

else.

Pausing for a moment, she closed her eyes. She just had to get through the next five minutes and that was it. She could go away and she’d never have to face him again.