Not only was she the cliché, engaged to her father’s second-in-command, she was the one who’d been cheated on. It made her feel grubby. Stupid. She’d thought she’d made a safe choice of partner, a man her father approved of. She’d thought that Stephen would never treat her the way Shaun had. But she’d ended up hurt, just the same.
Maybe she’d wait for a couple of hours until she could think of the right words. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to rush back from their corners of the world: Andie from Kent, where she was settling in to married life and pregnancy with the man she loved more than anyone on earth and who loved her all the way back, Portia from LA, Posy from wherever she was dancing with the ballet corps—she was being even more elusive than usual—and her parents from their ‘gap year’ in India.
She could do this.
Though she still hadn’t found the right words by the time she got back to her flat. As she’d half feared, Stephen was still there.
‘Immi! Oh, thank God. I was so worried about you.’
Did he really expect her to believe that?
‘You didn’t answer any of my calls or my messages.’
Obviously. And he hadn’t taken the hint—or her explicit request that he should leave before she got back.
‘I asked you to leave,’ she reminded him.
‘I couldn’t—not until we’d talked. Immi, it was a mistake.’
She took a step back before he could sweep her into his arms. She didn’t want him to hold her and try to make her feel better. He was the reason she felt bad in the first place. And he’d made the choice. Even if the other woman had come on to him, he could’ve said no. Could’ve stayed faithful. Could’ve told her that he was flattered but he was getting married next month and wouldn’t cheat on his fiancée.
He’d chosen to do the opposite.
‘It doesn’t have to be over,’ Stephen said, his eyes beseeching.
How easy it would be for her to agree. Then she wouldn’t have to unpick the wedding. Wouldn’t have to feel as if she’d let everyone down. Wouldn’t have to face her family knowing what a naive, stupid fool she’d been, thinking that the man she loved felt exactly the same way about her.
But Immi looked at Stephen now and realised that, actually, she didn’t love him any more. She’d thought maybe she was having an attack of cold feet at Andie’s wedding: but it had been more like a wake-up call. If she married this man now, she knew she’d spend the rest of her life wondering if he was making another ‘mistake’ he expected her to forgive. Every time either of them went away on business, every time she visited her sisters on her own because he was ‘too busy’ to make it, would there be another woman keeping her place warm in his bed?
‘Was she the first?’ Immi asked.
Stephen looked shocked. ‘How do you mean?’
Was he really going to be evasive, even now? ‘I need you to be honest with me,’ she said evenly. ‘Was that girl the first time you’d cheated on me?’
He looked away, and she knew the truth. ‘So that’s what Jamie meant about keeping your nose clean.’
He blinked. ‘How do you know about that?’
‘I overheard.’
He frowned. ‘You didn’t say anything.’
‘Because I thought I was overreacting. That I was tired. That I was letting the stress of the wedding get to me.’ She paused. ‘Were you with her when I was at Andie’s wedding?’
‘No.’
She didn’t think he was lying. But she needed to know the whole truth, not just part of it. ‘Were you with someone else?’
‘It was a—’
‘—mistake,’ she finished for him, feeling sick. So that was at least two women he’d cheated with. How many others had there been? ‘I don’t want a marriage based on a mistake.’
‘Immi, we’re good together.’
She took another step backwards when he reached for her. ‘No, we’re not. If I was enough for you, you wouldn’t be looking elsewhere.’
His skin turned a dull red. ‘I guess.’
He’d been honest with her. Maybe she should be honest with him—and herself. ‘And you’re not enough for me.’
He stared at her. ‘You what? Are you telling me there’s been someone else for you, too?’
‘No. Because I’ve never cheated on you.’ That almost-kiss at Andie’s wedding hadn’t been cheating, because Immi hadn’t actually done it. She’d thought about it, though, which was almost as bad in her view and it made her feel guilty.
‘It’s over, Stephen,’ she said. ‘I can’t trust you, and I don’t want a marriage that’s full of suspicion and lies.’
‘But—’ He stared at her, looking horrified. ‘We’re getting married in a month.’
‘Maybe you should’ve thought about that before you brought that girl home. To my bed.’ Immi dug her nails into her palms. ‘I can’t marry you. But I’ll deal with cancelling the wedding.’ Because then at least she would know everything had been done properly. Stephen had completely undermined her trust in him. Maybe she was being a control freak, but she’d rather know that things had been cancelled instead of skipped over.
‘What are you going to tell your parents?’
Good question. She still wasn’t sure. ‘I’ll tell them the wedding’s off.’
‘So I’ve lost my job.’
Why did she feel that that upset him more than losing his wife-to-be? ‘I don’t know if Dad will sack you.’ Paul Marlowe would probably want to sack Stephen—but whether he could actually do it in legal terms, Immi didn’t know. Besides, surely any decent person would offer to resign? She didn’t think her respect for Stephen could’ve withered any more, but apparently it just had. ‘Dad isn’t here.’ And Stephen, as his temporary second-in-command, would hardly sack himself. ‘I’ll be speaking to Priya in HR, but I guess it’s going to be awkward in the office tomorrow.’ She paused. ‘Unless you maybe call in sick.’
‘And then get sacked for lying?’ he scoffed. ‘Hardly.’
So, even though he was completely in the wrong, he wasn’t going to make this easy for her? ‘Your choice,’ she said. She couldn’t do anything about the work situation, but she could at least do something about the home situation. And this was her flat, not theirs. He hadn’t paid a penny towards the mortgage and he couldn’t claim any rights in it. ‘Did you pack your stuff?’
‘No.’
Clearly he’d expected to talk her round. He’d got that one wrong, too. Something else to add to her list, then. ‘Go and stay with Jamie. I’ll have your stuff delivered to his place.’
