Chapter 2
2
CRYSTAL
At that time, when I first met her, I knew nothing about her. She was just another woman who’d been treated like crap by a guy, and I empathised, of course I did, I felt sorry for her. She’d had the news at work and got herself into a state. I didn’t want to interfere, and I certainly didn’t want to make it all about me, so I just did what I could to calm her down. It made me angry to hear how completely callous her other half had been in the way he’d dumped her. What a cowardly thing to do – to just disappear while he was on the other side of the world, and not even have the decency, or the guts, to tell her. Even the brother didn’t sound much better – sending that message, making it sound like he was being thoughtful and gracious in doing so, and then just erasing himself so she couldn’t even respond. Didn’t even give her the chance to ask any questions, or the satisfaction of a good rant.
I liked Gemma right from the start. Nobody deserved to be in that position, let alone when they had a child to consider. But I liked her spirit, too – her anger – even while she was so distraught – her fury at being treated the way her ex had treated her. It gave me hope, for her sake, that she wouldn’t just fold up and go under, the way I had when I’d been put in a similar position.
Oh yes, I understood – only too well. That was why I knew I could help her. I’d been in a very dark place myself, and it hadn’t been too long since I’d been able to start hauling myself out of it. I’d had a lot of help, and had finally been able to reach a kind of acceptance – well, acceptance of most of it, for most of the time. I was able to understand that there was only one person to blame for everything I’d been through, and that person was the bastard who’d walked out of my life at the very worst possible time he could have chosen, who’d told me there was somebody else and then just disappeared, leaving me… in chaos.
Well, it seemed Gemma was a victim of something similar, so of course I empathised with her. From that very first day, all I felt was a completely genuine and heartfelt sympathy. I wanted nothing more than to be her friend.
And… names? Well, names can just be coincidental, can’t they.