Chapter 66
I opened the front door with shaking hands and placed my keys on the hall table. Jack walked out of the kitchen. He was dressed for rehearsals, but his face showed the strain of a sleepless night.
‘Luckily, Lucy doesn’t have to witness this because she has already gone to work.
Before you lie to me again, let me save you the trouble,’ he said.
‘You didn’t stay with Jane or Sinéad, you didn’t go to the theatre, and you didn’t book into the Merrion Hotel.
I was worried sick. Where were you between leaving this house at seven p.m. last night and –’ he checked his phone for the time – ‘eight fifteen a.m.?’
I couldn’t think of anything to say. I began to cry, but he did not move to comfort me.
‘I gave you the benefit of the doubt last time. There is mud on your dress, and you reek of alcohol. Take a shower before you go to bed. And, please, don’t sleep in our bed. You can stay in the spare room until you sort yourself out … with somewhere to live. I’m running late. I have to go.’
‘Jack! You can’t mean –’
‘Yes, I can. Our daughter has just come through the worst crisis of her life and you are refusing to do the one thing that you could to reassure her. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but don’t give me that bullshit about being triggered.
When you didn’t want a second child, I allowed that excuse, but Lucy is the only child we have, and she’s in trouble. Why can’t you help her?’
I reached out to touch him as he passed me in the hallway, but he shrank from me, almost flattening himself to the wall, and that’s when he noticed. ‘Where are your shoes?’
‘The heel broke off one of them. I had to borrow these from Linda.’ When you’ve been lying as long as I have, it comes naturally.
He paused for a nanosecond; he wanted to believe me, but common sense kicked in. ‘Didn’t Linda move to Galway last year?’
‘Yes, she did, but she was back staying at her mother’s –’
‘I don’t believe you, Ruby. Don’t make it worse. Call Nasrin.’
The door slammed behind him.
I had pushed him too far this time. Was my marriage over?