Five years later
It’s Dominic’s birthday.
We’ve arranged for a whole bunch of our friends as well as his brother and a few very select family to come out to Italy, to a castle in the mountains, to celebrate. They thought we’re just here for an extended birthday party.
Only Dominic and I had a little something extra planned.
Katie knew. As did Eric, because it turns out Dominic can’t keep secrets from him.
And when we announced what we were really up to the looks on their faces was priceless.
So now I’m here, in the evening heat of the Italian summer, feeling the nerves starting to set in as Katie chats away. A stylist is doing my hair, and a makeup artist is waiting patiently to put the finishing touches to my face.
Katie’s already in her dress, a long flowy thing that I half envy but I wouldn’t change my dress for the world. I had it made especially, it’s exactly what I envisioned, exactly what I’ve dreamed of and when I put it on, when I’m ready to go I can barely get over how I look in the mirror.
Katie hands me a posey of flowers and I smile before we head down the spiral staircase to where everyone is waiting. To where Dominic is waiting.
When I walk out the sun is setting. It’s exactly as I imagined it. There are candles lighting the path between all the seats and Dominic is there at the very end smiling at me. He’s got more grey hairs now, a few creases from where he smiles too, but if anything they make him more devilishly handsome, more irresistible to me.
For a moment, for the briefest second I can’t believe that we’re here, that everything worked out the way it has.
We lost a lot of friends from the fall out of the affair. My entire family refuses to acknowledge I even exist but they never really liked me anyway so I guess it’s not that much of a loss. Dominic lost one investor but the rest stayed. His returns where too good for them to resist even a sex scandal and it’s helped that we’ve stayed together, that from the offset we were clear about it not just being a fling, that it was real, that our feelings for each other were real too.
As I come to stand beside him I can honestly say I’ve never loved him more.
“You look so beautiful.” He murmurs and I blush.
The man starts talking, going through the legalities. We’ve opted to have the ceremony as short as possible, no readings, no sermon, just me and him, saying our vows, committing ourselves to one another.
When the ceremony is over Dominic kisses me and he doesn’t hold back. Like he doesn’t care that everyone is watching and I half gasp as he steals the air from my lungs.
We walk hand in hand through the castle to where they’ve laid out a feast on a huge veranda overlooking the valley below. The view is breath-taking but it’s nothing compared to that of my new husband.
Eric passes us both a glass of champagne, congratulating us, and I take a small sip. It’ll be my only glass tonight but I don’t mind. It’s a sacrifice I’m more than willing to make for the future we want, the future we both, very soon, will have.
Eric didn’t approve of us for a long time. He made it clear what he thought in private but he also stood by Dominic publicly and for that I’m grateful.
And now? Now he’s accepted it. Now he doesn’t even act like he ever had reservations.
Someone calls for a toast and a few people shout ‘the happy couple’ and then Dominic turns facing me, raising his glass and says so proudly, “To my beautiful wife.” And then he kisses me again.
Is it sad that I still get a little buzz every time he does that? It’s been years now, you think I would have gotten used to it, but even his touch still sends a thrill through me and every time he kisses me it feels like the first time, when he snuck into my room and we had to be so quiet and yet, it took my breath away all the same.
We sold the old house, Dominic’s house, and bought an old grade II listed Tudor mansion. Somehow it felt wrong to continue our relationship in a place connected so much with my mother. And the thought that Timothy had been lurking there too didn’t help.
Our new home is beautiful. It’s got so much history, so much character, and we’ve spent ages making it ours. Our home.
We take a seat, Dominic’s hand rests on my leg as if he can’t bear to not touch me in some way and I know neither of us is going to get much sleep tonight.
In two days we’re going to travel onto Venice, spend a few days on the canals and exploring, before heading south to Rome and then onto Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast. It’s a mini tour but we’ll have three weeks on our honeymoon so not so mini really and the benefit of being here is we won’t be hounded, we won’t be followed, we’ll have some privacy.
Because despite five years passing, we’re still a topic of interest for the general public to lust after. Dominic is still a big name and I’ve inadvertently turned myself into a minor celebrity. They call me the ‘husband stealer’ in the trash rags. It’s amusing in a way that they’re so fixed on my transgressions but no one makes comments about my mother’s.
Dominic and her got divorced within months of it all coming out. Did Collin take her in? No, he didn’t, turns out he was happy to shag his underling but wasn’t willing to be in a real relationship which I think says a lot about him. He got fired of course. And now he pays child support for a baby neither of them wanted.
I haven’t seen my mother since. Haven’t spoken to her but every so often, when she’s low on cash she does another circuit of the gossip rags, trying to sell her story as the woman scorned. Only everyone is getting sick of it now and besides there’s only so many times you can claim to be the victim while you’ve got the evidence of your own misdeeds swaddled in your arms.
Do I regret what we did? No. Not for a moment. Would I change any of it? The only thing I would change perhaps is all the lies. All the deceit. When it all came out I guess it was a relief. It was over. We didn’t have to hide our feelings anymore and in a way we found out who our real friends were too.
Timothy went away. He thankfully pleaded guilty, as if he could state otherwise and even now he’s rotting in some prison cell. When I think back to everything he did, that thought gives me comfort.
As the evening continues Dominic gets me up to dance and I wrap my arms around his neck, stare into his face as the stars twinkle above us. It couldn’t be more picturesque. It couldn’t be more perfect.
“You’ve made me the happiest person alive.” Dominic murmurs into my ear and I shake my head.
“How can you be when I am?” I say and he laughs.
“Did you see their faces, they didn’t have a clue.” He says nodding his head in the direction of where some of our friends are sat drinking.
I smile catching the eye of Jemma. Technically she’s my agent, but we’ve been working together for so long and so closely, we’re way beyond just professional now.
She took a punt on me when I was still the country’s resident harlot. She saw something, I don’t know what, but I’ll be forever grateful to her for helping me achieve my other dream; of becoming a writer.
My first book came out eight months after our affair hit the press. I channelled a lot of my emotions, a lot of my energy into it as a form of escape. I think in all honesty most people bought it because of who I was. Because I was the scarlet woman who stole her mother’s husband but the jokes on them because it propelled it into a bestseller.
My second book got shortlisted for the ‘Women’s Prize for Fiction’ and, though I didn’t get picked, it cemented my reputation as an actual bona fide writer. As someone to be reckoned with and not just some good time girl. It’s now in the process of being made into a movie with some big Hollywood names already linked to it. Not that I’m that smug about it.
And my third? Well, if I play my cards right it should be as much of a success as the other two. So I guess I got what I wanted there too.
As the party continues around us Dominic takes my hand and quietly we escape into the dark.
I know where we’re headed, what he wants, and as he kisses me every few steps along the way I’m more than a little desperate for his touch too.
We walk into what is the honeymoon suite. They’ve scattered rose petals all over the floor and bed. And they’ve lit candles too.
I glance around as Dominic starts trying to undo the countless buttons holding my dress together.
“Did you design this on purpose?” He murmurs and I laugh.
“You mean to keep you on your toes?” I say.
He grins.
“Give me a moment.” I say stepping away, going into the bathroom. I’ve got it all planned because the underwear I’ve got on under this dress is absolutely not the kind I want to be wearing the first time my new husband sees me.
I slip the dress off. He’s undone enough buttons for it to shimmy past my waist and then I grab the neatly hidden lingerie that’s been waiting, biding its time since I put it there hours ago.
Within seconds I’m wearing a new set, white lace, bridal, with suspenders too because we’ve both recently discovered how much he likes me wearing them. I keep the veil on, keep my shoes on and step back into the room, back to where my husband is waiting.