the truth you wouldn’t have called me “Whore”.
‘I didn’t know what to believe. I thought perhaps you’d read my letter and were pretending, or maybe you hadn’t been home yet and would get it later. But I told Jake that he must be right about that.’ She gave a wry smile. ‘It was always wise to tell Jake he was right. He’d already destroyed my cellphone so that nobody could get in touch with me.’
‘So you were his prisoner?’ he said, aghast. ‘All that time you were suffering and I did nothing to help you.’
‘How could you? I must admit that I did hope for a while, but in the end I realised you’d accepted our parting and that was the end. So I married him.’
‘You married him?’
‘Why not? I felt my life was over. I just went with the tide. When I found he’d been fooling around with other women it gave me the weapon I needed to divorce him. Suddenly I wasn’t afraid of him any more. I accepted some money from him because I had people who needed it, but I didn’t keep any for myself. I didn’t want anything from him, even his name. I used Henshaw because it was my mother’s maiden name.’
‘What’s happened to him since? Does he trouble you?’
‘He’s in jail at the moment, for several years, hopefully. I told you how I took business courses after that, and started on the life I live now.’ She raised her wine bottle to the moon. ‘Independence every time. Cheers!’
‘Independence or isolation?’ he asked.
She shrugged. ‘Does it matter? Either way, it’s better to rely on yourself.’
He sighed. ‘I guess so.’
He was glad she couldn’t see his face, lest his thoughts showed. He was remembering one night, a lifetime ago, when she’d endured a bad day at work and thrown herself into his arms.
‘What would I do without you?’ she’d sighed. ‘That rotten photographer—goodness, but he’s nasty! Never mind. I can put up with anything as long as I know I have you—’
‘And you’ll always have me,’ he’d assured her.
Three weeks later, the disaster had separated them.
‘Better rely on yourself,’ he repeated, ‘rather than on a fool who thought it was funny to conceal his real background, and plunged you both into tragedy.’
‘Hey, I wasn’t getting at you. Nobody knows what’s just around the corner.’ She laughed. ‘After all, we never saw this coming, did we?’
‘And you’d have run a mile if you’d known. I remember you saying so.’ He waited for her answer. It didn’t come. ‘How long ago since your divorce?’ he asked.
‘About five years. Since then I’ve been Mrs Henshaw, bestriding the financial world. It suits me. Remember you used to joke about my having a great brain?’
‘It wasn’t entirely a joke. I think I was a bit jealous of the way you could read something once and remember it like it was set in stone.’
‘There now, I told you I was made to be a businesswoman.’
‘But that’s not your only talent. Why didn’t you go back to modelling? You’re still beautiful.’
‘Not really.’
‘I say you are,’ he said fiercely.
‘I won’t argue about it. But it takes more than beauty and I’ve lost something special. I know that. I knew it then. I’d look in the mirror and see that a light had gone out inside me. Besides,’ she hurried on before he could protest, ‘I wanted to try something new. It was my choice. Life moves on, we don’t stay in the same place.
‘Cassie was one person. Mrs Henshaw is another. I became quite pleased with her. She takes people by surprise. Some of them are even scared of her.’
‘And you like people being scared of you?’
‘Not all the time, but it has its uses. She’s a bright lady is Mrs Henshaw. Lots of common sense.’
‘Now you’re scaring me.’
‘Good.’
‘So I’ve got to get used to Mrs Henshaw hanging around, when the one I want is Cassie?’
‘I’m not sure that’s a wise choice. Mrs Henshaw has to get that hotel set up. You need her expertise, her “great brain”. Cassie wouldn’t be up to the job.’
She managed to say it in a teasing tone, and he managed a smile in reply. But they both knew that she was conveying a subtle warning.
Go slowly. Don’t rush it. A false step could mean disaster.
‘I think we should go back now,’ she said.
She rose and offered him her hand. He hesitated only a moment before nodding and taking it. In this way, with him following her lead, they strolled back to the hotel.
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