Original Sin

‘This is not my fault alone, Tess,’ said Dom cruelly. ‘You forced me into this.’

‘Fuck YOU!’ shrieked Tess, turning and running for the door, crashing against a waiter and sending a pile of canapés flying.

She fled back out the front door and down the steps, out into the stinging cold air. Wanting, needing to get away, she ran along the side of the house, her high heels scuffing against the gravel. What have I done to deserve this? she asked herself. Did I really force him into cheating? If I had stayed here, would we still be together?

‘No, that’s such crap,’ she whispered, wrapping her arms around herself and sitting down on a stone step. ‘That selfish wanker.’

She sat there, shivering, staring at the ground as her eyes blurred. Her body felt numb and hollow. Was this really happening? she asked herself. Everything seemed so surreal – being in Surrey, in Nina’s mansion, seeing Dom with another woman – that she squeezed her eyes shut, hoping that when she opened them she’d be back in New York.

After a few moments she heard footsteps running in her direction and her heart gave a tiny lurch. Was he coming for her, to take her back?

‘There you are.’

She looked up in misery. It was Sean, not Dom. He put her coat around her shoulders.

‘Come on,’ he said, pulling her up gently. ‘I’ll take you back home.’

Tess allowed herself to be led back to Sean’s car and sat in silence as he drove off down Nina’s long winding drive. Staring at her reflection in the window, she began to wonder if she was being truthful with herself. Did she really want Dom anyway? All that time she’d spent in New York, she hadn’t really

missed him, hadn’t really longed for him to come and be with her. She had assumed it was because she had been too busy, of course, but was that really the reason? When she and Dom had discussed the Asgill job, they had smiled and talked about paying off the mortgage and the golden opportunities to be had in America. Never once had he said, ‘Don’t go, I’ll miss you too much.’ And neither had she.

Sean leant over and handed her a handkerchief. ‘I can’t blow my nose on this,’ she said with a wan smile, ‘it’s silk.’

‘Don’t worry. I can afford it.’

‘Thanks,’ she said gruffly.

He paused for a moment before saying, ‘Don’t thank me.’

She looked at him and he would not catch her gaze.

The penny dropped.

‘You knew about this, didn’t you?’ she said quietly.

More silence.

‘You knew? You brought me out here especially? In fact, you flew me out here – to end my relationship?’

‘Of course not,’ said Sean defensively. ‘I wanted you to come to the dinner.’

‘But you knew Dom was going to be at this party.’

She looked at him, hoping it would not be true, hoping it would be a dreadful coincidence. He kept his eyes fixed on the drive and exhaled heavily.

‘Yes,’ he said flatly. Without thinking, Tess slapped him across the cheek. The car swerved dangerously across the gravel, the outside tyre bumping against the embankment.

‘What the fuck?’ shouted Sean as he struggled to gain control.

‘You sadistic bastard!’ she yelled. ‘What have I ever done to you? Why would you want to hurt me like this? What was it, some sort of cabaret? A little bit of entertainment to amuse your friends?’

‘No!’ he shouted back, ‘I was trying to help you!’

‘That’s what you call help?’ she spat. ‘Well next time, don’t bloody bother.’

Sean paused, then said quietly. ‘It’s a small social circuit, Tess. I saw Dom and Tamara out together at a restaurant in Chelsea a week after the Lupin party. I didn’t want to tell you then, because it could have been a business meeting for all I knew. I wasn’t sure what was happening. But then I heard Tamara had been boasting she was going to Nina’s party with her new man.’

‘And you wanted me to see,’ said Tess, nodding. ‘So you brought me to the most public place you could find so you could humiliate me.’