The Moment She Left Read Free Page A

staying. His mother, like hers, lived in Kesterly, his father’s property business was headquartered in the town and it was his intention, and his father’s wish, that he should take it over. While she, if she was serious about giving up the police force, could do whatever she pleased. Work with him, study for a new career, she might even want to be a stay-at-home mum for a while.
    The options were endless when money wasn’t a problem, and the heady sums he’d made from the sale of his business, plus what he’d just inherited, had meant that the world truly was their oyster.
    So she’d done what everyone wanted and married him while knowing, even as they were taking their vows, that she was making a mistake. It might be right for their mothers, the children, and presumably for him, it just wasn’t right for her.
    It had taken three years for her to decide she must stop living a lie. In spite of how many hearts it would break, she had to be true to herself, even if it was hurting her too.
    ‘Are you in love with him?’ he asked now, but not for the first time.
    She looked away. ‘I’ve already told you,’ she answered, ‘he has nothing to do with this.’
    It was true; her reason for leaving had nothing to do with Graeme Ogilvie, the man she’d had a brief relationship with during the time she and Martin were apart. She wished now that she’d never mentioned him, and knew she wouldn’t have, had Martin not kept on and on insisting she must have met someone.
    Looking at Martin now was hard. His face was pinched, his dark eyes wide and hostile; fighting rejection never made a person attractive at a time when they most needed to be. ‘Is he in love with you?’ he demanded sourly.
    With a flash of irritation, she said, ‘How many times do I have to tell you it isn’t about him?’
    ‘Why don’t you just answer the question? Is he in love with you?’
    ‘Of course not. I’ve had next to no contact with him since we broke up three years ago . . .’
    ‘But you’re in touch with him now?’
    She didn’t argue, there was no point when he wasn’t listening.
    She wanted him to go, to leave her alone with her conscience so she could start deciding how best to handle it, and her children – and the rest of her life.
    ‘If you leave, Mum, I’ll never, ever speak to you again,’ eighteen-year-old Alayna had ranted furiously down the phone when she’d found out about the break-up, thanks to her father calling her at uni to deliver the happy news.
    Andee had wanted to wait until Alayna and her older brother were back for the summer before telling them, but it was too late for that now.
    ‘Mum, you can’t be serious,’ Luke had protested when he’d rung from Exeter, where he was in his third year of Sport and Exercise Science. ‘You need to think about this, because it sounds to me like you’re doing what Dad did all those years ago, having a middle-aged meltdown.’
    ‘I’m not in crisis,’ she’d told him, although maybe quietly, underneath it all, she was. ‘I just need to be on my own for a while. I’m renting a flat in Kesterly, so I’ll see you every day when you’re home, if you want to, but I know how busy you always are.’
    ‘Every day could be overdoing it,’ he agreed, ‘but I just don’t get why you have to hurt Dad like this. I know what he did when he left was terrible, but I thought you were over it. I mean you married him, didn’t you?’
    ‘I did, and I’m completely over what happened. This is something different. Something I have to do for me.’
    She’d never told the children about Graeme Ogilvie, it had been too new a relationship at the time for her to share it with them, but as soon as she’d admitted it to Martin he’d clearly decided their children needed to know too.
    In truth, she’d only run into Graeme a few times during the three years since she’d broken up with him. On the first two they’d been at the same function in town, and though they’d