together had been a big enough step for her…marriage seemed an enormous leap into the abyss.
Certainly Nick hadn’t seemed overly pleased for her. But then, for some reason Nick had never really warmed to Stephen. Not that he had ever said anything detrimental, and the two men were always perfectly civil to each other, but Kate had always known that Nick had reservations about him.
You couldn’t be friends for as many years as they had, through school and college, and not learn to read the signs. She could tell by the sardonic gleam that lit the darkness of Nick’s eyes sometimes, and the smile that wasn’t quite so easy or relaxed when Stephen was around. Her partner was not someone Nick would have chosen for her, but it was only because he worried about her, and Stephen was so totally opposite to him in every way.
Nick took his career and his business running a computer firm very seriously. For Stephen, work was just a means to an end…he had changed jobs three times in the last year. He was wild about heavy rock music and in his spare time played in a band. Life was a bit of a rollercoaster ride with Stephen, but Kate had to admit it was exciting.
She slowed down even more as their apartment came into sight. It was on the ground floor of a very impressive patrician eighteenth-century mansion that overlooked the canal. The rent was astronomical and perhaps a bit more than they could really afford, but Kate had fallen in love with the place on sight and had decided she’d rather cut down on a few luxuries and live there than anywhere else.
She noticed the light in the front salon was on. Stephen was home early as well. She locked her bike against the front railings and ran up the steps to the door and let herself in.
The door closed with a bang behind her; her footsteps echoed on the polished wooden floor. ‘Stephen,’ she called out as she walked into the salon.
Even though it wasn’t dark outside all the side lamps were on and the main chandelier blazed over the antique furniture. She flicked a couple of the lamps off as she passed towards the kitchen. There was a bottle of champagne cooling in a bucket on the table and two champagne glasses sat out waiting. But there was no sign of Stephen.
‘Stephen honey, where are you?’ Kate walked back through to the hallway. Then heard music coming from the bedroom. It wasn’t the usual heavy rock that Stephen liked to listen to; this was softer, more romantic.
She paused with her hand on the bedroom door. There was a strange noise coming from the room, like someone gasping for air.
Kate pushed open the door.
Stephen sat up in bed and stared at her in horror.
‘Stephen…?’ In a kind of blank disbelief she stared back at him and then at the woman who lay beside him. Shock unlike anything she had ever experienced before lashed through her.
‘Oh, hell!’ Stephen raked a hand through his blond hair, an apologetic, nervous look on his handsome features.
‘Sorry, Kate.’
CHAPTER TWO
KATE sat alone in the apartment in total shock for hours watching the light fade.
The earlier scene played and replayed in her head with mind-blowing clarity. The woman—‘Natasha,’ Stephen had called her—had got up, dived into a T-shirt and a pair of jeans and disappeared into the bathroom.
‘She’s a colleague from work,’ Stephen murmured as he reached for his clothes.
His calmness had brought fury rushing through her veins. A thousand questions fought for position, but all she’d said was, ‘You’d better get out.’ her voice trembling with rage.
‘Out?’ He had looked stunned. Like a little boy who had been told that Christmas had been cancelled. ‘Out where?’
‘Out of the apartment…out of my life.’
‘Oh, come on, Kate…we need to talk things over—’
‘I think the time for talking is over.’
She had watched from the front windows as they’d left. Stephen had put a small case and his guitar in the back of a red sports car. The woman’s wheat-blonde hair had swung jauntily as she’d got behind the wheel. Then they’d roared off.
She was glad she hadn’t cried—at least she had kept her dignity. She was glad she had restrained her temper as well. Neither of those emotions would have served her well, and at least that woman hadn’t got the satisfaction of seeing her break.
But now, alone and desolate, Kate felt the tears welling up inside her. She swallowed them down, fiercely. Then on impulse she stood up, picked up her bag and left the apartment.
As she cycled along the road, the fairy lights on the bridges twinkled softly in the dusky purple of the evening. Lovers strolled hand in hand towards a brightly lit restaurant. It was a place Stephen had often taken her to. She had imagined he might take her there tonight. How could she have been so stupid? she wondered. She felt numb inside, as if all of this were unreal, some kind of sick dream.
She cut down a side street, the breeze whipping through her hair, cooling the fierce heat of her skin.
She didn’t know where she was going until she turned down Nick’s road. It was as if she were operating by remote control.
Nick lived in a converted warehouse. His offices were one side, his apartment the other. Kate pressed the front doorbell a couple of times but there was no answer. Where was he? she wondered. Maybe that woman from the café had detained him; perhaps they were out having a drink together.
Relief flooded through her as she heard footsteps and the door swung open, bathing her in warm, mellow light.
Nick had changed out of his suit and was wearing a pair of blue chinos and a blue shirt. He looked relaxed, and handsome. Kate felt her heart twist painfully. She had never felt so glad to see him.
‘I was starting to think you were out,’ she said with a wobbly smile.
‘And I thought you’d be on champagne in some fabulous restaurant by now, an enormous diamond ring on your finger.’ He stepped back so that she could come inside. ‘What’s happened?’ He closed the front door, his eyes flicking over her, taking in the fact that she was wearing the same clothes as earlier, then locking on the extreme pallor of her skin.
‘Katy, what’s wrong?’
‘Stephen has been having an affair.’ She kept her voice steady with extreme difficulty. ‘I caught him with her…in our bed.’
She didn’t know what happened, but one moment she was standing there, telling him in what she thought was an incredibly brave voice, and the next she was in his arms and he was cradling her close, hushing her as she broke down into sobs.
‘It’ll be OK,’ he murmured gently, stroking her hair back from her face. ‘You’ll get through this.’
‘No, I won’t,’ she sobbed. ‘How could he do this to me, Nick? I thought when we moved in together that we were making a commitment; it was such a big step for me. He talked me into it, for heaven’s sake! Told me that he looked on it as a prelude to us getting married. I thought we were a couple, that we would be faithful and…God,
