a liar and a cheat.
But all that was in the past now. There was no way of bringing him back and she knew she wouldn’t want him back now, even if that had been an option. She was done with him. Now she just needed to get his family out of her life too.
She should be able to reconstruct Nicolette’s face without too much trouble. Despite everything, she could remember the shape and feel of Mark’s face under her fingers. She would be able to restore his daughter’s face.
She put the photo down and flicked through the others. Had she spent too long looking at that one? Too long looking at Mark’s face instead of at Nikki’s? Had she seemed distracted, inattentive, vague? She moved to the other photos—Nikki dressed for a school prom, her yearbook photo, a birthday party, a close-up head shot of her with her sister.
‘Can I keep these photos?’ she asked.
‘What are you going to do with them?’
‘I’ll make enlarged copies. The more information I can gather, the better the outcome of surgery.’
Tanya nodded. ‘So you think you can help?’
‘Yes.’ Abi’s voice was strong, confident.
She printed off a diagram of a face and measured Nikki’s features, jotting figures onto the paper record. She was relieved to find that her hands didn’t tremble as she measured the width of Nikki’s face, the distance between her eyes, the height of her philtrum, and took more photos.
‘What happens next?’ Nikki asked, as Abi put the camera down.
Now she needed some time. ‘I will see you again in a couple of days to go through the plan for the surgery in more detail once I’ve worked out the best approach, and if you want to go ahead we should be able to schedule the surgery for next week. I’ll get my secretary to make a follow-up appointment.’
Abi asked Jennifer to pencil the surgery into her diary and make sure that Damien would be free to assist her before she said goodbye. She could feel a headache starting and would really have liked to lie down somewhere quiet and pull the covers over her head. She needed Jonty’s company, or Damien’s. Either of them would help to settle her nerves and fears, relieve the tension she could feel building inside her, but she didn’t have either of them. And she couldn’t seek Damien out. She wouldn’t be able to explain her problem. She didn’t want to discuss it with him so she stretched her neck and shoulders, took two paracetamol tablets and got on with her day.
* * *
Abi had expected to have a few days to pull herself together before she saw Tanya again but it happened sooner than she expected. She was waiting for Damien as they had a meeting scheduled to discuss Nikki’s surgery further when Jennifer buzzed her office.
‘Mrs Farrington is here,’ Jennifer said.
‘Nikki’s appointment isn’t until tomorrow,’ Abi replied.
‘She knows that. Nikki isn’t with her. Mrs Farrington wants to know if she can have a minute of your time. She has some more photos for you.’
Nikki’s surgery was scheduled for next week. She didn’t need to see Tanya, there was absolutely no reason to see her, but she found herself saying yes.
She carried a fistful of photos in with her. Photos Abi assumed were of Nikki, and she wondered why she couldn’t have left them with Jennifer, but as Tanya marched across to her desk and fanned the pictures out across the surface, Abi realised why. These weren’t photos of Nikki. They were photos of Mark.
And Abi.
‘I knew I’d seen you before,’ Tanya said.
Abi clenched her fists at her sides to stop herself from reaching out and picking up the pictures. ‘I worked with your husband,’ she replied. Her heart was hammering in her chest and it made her voice jump in her throat.
Tanya spread the photos out further, shuffling through the assortment until she found the one she wanted. She pulled out a shot that showed Mark with his arm around Abi’s shoulders. She was beaming up at him, looking like a woman in love. It had been taken on their weekend’s leave in Prague, a belated celebration of Mark’s fiftieth birthday. At the time Abi had thought it was the most beautiful city, the most beautiful place, in the world but it had all been lies. Abi couldn’t believe that woman in the photo was her. It had only been taken nine months ago but she had been so naive back then. She had grown up a lot since and now she didn’t even recognise this woman.
‘Let’s be honest, shall we?’ Tanya said. ‘This was more than a working relationship. A lot more.’
‘Where did you get these?’ Abi’s voice was wobbling and her hands were shaking. She kept them clenched at her sides but now it was in an attempt to stop the tremors.
‘They were sent to me with Mark’s things. All neatly boxed up. Photos of my husband with another woman.’
Of course, Abi realised, his personal effects would have been sent to his next of kin. His wife. The one Abi hadn’t known anything about.
Why had she insisted on printing these photos and giving them to Mark?
She knew why. She’d wanted him to put them in his office or his room but he never had. She’d wanted to feel like they were a proper couple, like she was going to be part of his life when they returned to the States. After all, that was what he had promised her, and she had believed him. Despite the fact that he’d insisted on keeping their relationship secret—he’d told her that, because of his position as her CO, he didn’t think it was right to parade their relationship, and she had agreed. She’d had the future to look forward to so she could wait. But then she’d found out his promises had been empty ones. At the funeral she’d realised why he had wanted secrecy.
After he had died she hadn’t thought about looking for the photos, destroying them. She’d been too upset to consider things like that. She’d had her own copies and she hadn’t considered that Mark’s personal belongings would be sent back to his family. She hadn’t thought he’d had a wife. Daughters, yes, but he’d told her he was divorced. And she had believed him. She’d had no reason not to.
‘Were you having an affair with my husband?’ Tanya asked.
Abi didn’t know what to say. ‘We were having a relationship,’ she admitted. It seemed pointless to deny that under the circumstances. ‘But I didn’t know he was married. I didn’t know it was an affair. I didn’t know about you until his funeral.’
Abi had seen Tanya and her daughters at the front of the church but had still assumed that Tanya was the ex-wife. Until she had opened the memorial card and seen what it so clearly stated.
Devoted husband of Tanya.
Loving father of Nikki and Natasha.
Mark hadn’t been divorced. Mark hadn’t been planning on making a life with her. He had still been married.
She had left the funeral before it had finished. She had fled almost before it had started. She would never have attended in the first place if she had known. She’d felt embarrassed, humiliated and ashamed.
Abi picked up the photo of her and Mark in Prague. Looking at her picture, it would
