Chapter Thirty
When Daniel woke, the sun was already streaming through the curtains. He lay on his back, allowing the events of last night to return to him. With a groan he remembered his conversation with Anna when they’d arrived home. He rolled over to reach out to her, but her side of the bed was flat and empty. She was always an early riser — he hoped her absence just meant she was downstairs.
* * *
Daniel drove towards Lucinda’s house, his hands gripping the wheel with fury. Anna hadn’t been downstairs in the kitchen as he’d hoped. Instead, a lone piece of paper had greeted him with her final words of goodbye. At first he’d been dismayed that she’d left, then angry that she’d slunk away without even facing him. As he re-ran the conversation in his head from the previous night, though, he realised she’d been saying her goodbyes then. If only he’d seen it, maybe he could have talked her round. His emotions had swung back from anger to dismay. He’d thought he’d found real love with Anna, his soulmate, someone with whom he could share everything, his hopes, his dreams, his thoughts, his body. But there had always been Lucinda. And Anna had been right when she’d asked why she should have to risk humiliation at the hands of his ex-wife and her friends, just because Lucinda didn’t want him to find happiness with her.
After reading the note he’d grabbed his phone and rang Anna, but his call went to voicemail. He texted her but there was no reply. She obviously didn’t want to speak to him. And that was when the fury began to grow. Fury at Lucinda that, although it had hurt him when she’d moved on with Axel, and he hated the thought of another man playing father to his son, he’d stepped aside and treated her relationship with respect. Why couldn’t she give him the same?
Anna’s words rang in his head — that Lucinda wanted him to react — and she was right. But what Anna didn’t know, what he’d never been able to share with her, was that there were reasons he’d always treated Lucinda with kid gloves. Reasons why he needed to keep the status quo to preserve the relationship between her and him and Ben. And Lucinda had known that, and now she had pushed things too far. She had pushed him too far, because his life was empty without Anna in it.
Gravel sprayed from the sides of his tyres as he pulled to an abrupt stop in front of Lucinda’s house. He stormed down the driveway, before banging on her front door and simultaneously ringing on the doorbell.
‘Hold your horses! Where’s the fire?’
‘Well, I hope you’re happy now.’ He hurled the words at her the moment she opened the door.
‘Daniel, what—’
‘You’ve got what you wanted. So I hope you’re pleased with yourself.’
‘Daniel, what on earth are you talking about?’
‘Last night!’
‘Oh.’ Her eyes widened. ‘Yes, I’m sorry about last night. Verity had too much to drink and got carried away. She should never have thrown a drink over Anna.’
‘And why would she do that?’ Daniel asked. ‘She doesn’t even know her. So why would she have a go unless she’d been egged on? By you!’
‘Daniel! I don’t know how you can say that. I was with you at the time, if you remember.’
‘But you weren’t with me before, were you? When you were all getting sloshed together. Were you feeding them vitriol? Just like you did before the ball, so that no one would speak to Anna, and then afterwards, when they wrote those snide comments on Instagram.’
Lucinda gripped the door as though she was about to slam it in his face. ‘Maybe that’s because Anna clearly doesn’t fit in. Nothing to do with me!’
‘She doesn’t fit in because you and your friends haven’t given her a chance. I don’t care if you don’t like her. You don’t have to. But I do, and now, because of you, because of how you’ve treated her, Anna doesn’t feel comfortable being here anymore. So if your aim was to drive her away, then congratulations! You’ve done it. She’s gone!’
‘Mummy, Daddy, please don’t argue.’ A voice behind them stopped Daniel in his tracks. They turned to face Ben, who had tears streaming down his face. ‘I hate it when you argue.’
Lucinda threw Daniel a look that clearly said Now see what you’ve done? Daniel knelt down and held his arms out, and Ben ran past his mother to throw himself against his father’s chest.
‘I’m sorry, Ben,’ Lucinda said. ‘We don’t mean to argue. It’s just that sometimes grown-ups get frustrated with each other. We’ll try not to argue in front of you again.’
Ben looked up at Daniel. ‘Has Anna really gone?’
Daniel nodded. ‘Yes, I’m afraid so.’
‘Is she coming back?’
Daniel shook his head. ‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Can’t you go and get her?’
Again Daniel shook his head. ‘It’s a bit more complicated than that.’
‘But I really liked her!’
‘Me too,’ Daniel said softly.
‘That’s just not fair!’ Ben pulled himself away from Daniel, looked at the two of them and then, with tears still spilling down his face, ran upstairs.
Daniel pulled himself back to his feet, glaring at Lucinda.
‘Daniel, I—’
‘I don’t want to hear it. And I think Ben needs you now.’
He began to walk towards his car, his anger spent, but then turned back to Lucinda. ‘From now on I don’t want anything to do with you apart from access to Ben. Whatever we had has been destroyed and there’s no going back. So please, don’t call me or come round on some pretext because I’m really not interested. Do you understand?’
Lucinda nodded sadly. ‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Good. I’m glad you’ve finally got the message.’
* * *
Anna woke to the sound of her phone ringing. Confused, she looked at the screen, saw it was Eva and answered it.
‘’Lo.’
‘You weren’t asleep, were you?’ Eva’s bright and breezy voice came down the phone. ‘Good God, woman! It’s the middle of the afternoon.’
‘Oh.’ Anna sighed. ‘I didn’t get much sleep last night.’
‘Too much partying, I hope. Did the exhibition go well?’
‘Um, sort of. A bit mixed really.’
‘Oh!’ Eva paused. ‘Want to talk about it?’
‘Not really. Not yet anyway.’
‘Okay. Well, when you’re ready, you know where I am.’
‘Thanks.’
‘But that wasn’t the only reason I was calling you. I’m getting my new leg tomorrow.’
‘That’s brilliant news!’ Anna sat up in bed, genuinely happy for her friend. Eva had been waiting for news on her prosthetic limb for a while — Anna knew she was desperate to get going with it so she could be up and walking again. ‘Do you want me to come and photograph it?’
‘If you’re up to it?’
‘Of course I’m up to it. I wouldn’t miss this for the world. What time?’
* * *
Feeling thirsty, Anna made her way downstairs to make a cup of tea. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d eaten, but couldn’t face the thought of food. She was grateful that the house was empty to give her time to process the situation. She was on her own now. Her dreams of a life with Daniel gone. She shook herself. There was no point dwelling on it. She would just have to get on with things. She was glad she had tomorrow to concentrate on. She would focus on that for now, then take a leaf out of Eva’s book and take it one day at a time. She sat down at the kitchen table and braced herself to pick up her phone. There were several missed calls from Daniel and a ream of text messages. Anna deleted them without reading them. She knew she had to speak to Daniel — he deserved that at least. She should try to make up for the way she’d slunk out in the early hours of the morning. But not now. She couldn’t face it now.
She took a deep breath and steeled herself for the next thing she needed to do. She clicked into Instagram, looking for the post she hoped she wouldn’t find. But there it was. The very moment Verity had launched her glass of champagne into her face. Almost as though the photographer had known it would happen and when. What a coincidence . The phrase “today’s news is tomorrow’s chip wrapping” ran through her head. Only these days it wasn’t like that. These days, once something was online, it was there for life, for all to view for ever. Whenever there was anything new to say about a person those photographs could be dragged up in an instant for all the world to see.
‘Well, thank you, Lucinda,’ she muttered. ‘Now my humiliation is complete.’ She sipped at her tea, grimacing because it had gone cold. Lucinda may have won in terms of splitting her and Daniel up, but Anna wouldn’t let her win completely. The best revenge is success , she told herself. She was determined that whatever she decided to do she would be successful, just to spite Lucinda and her friends.
* * *
‘So, here she is, your new leg,’ the physiotherapist said.
‘She’s beautiful.’ Eva stroked the metal lovingly.
‘Most people give them names. But that’s up to you.’
‘I will give her a name. Something that’s going to give me my independence deserves one. I’ll have to think about the right one though.’
‘I know this is a cliché, but you need to understand it’s going to take time. It’s going to be metal against flesh for a while, so it will rub at first and you’ll have to take it in small bursts, while you become acclimatised.’
‘Okay, I understand.’
Standing in the background, filming the first time Eva would put on her prosthetic limb, Anna marvelled again at how upbeat and positive Eva always seemed to be. She was sure that she had her moments, where despair would hit her, but she never showed it in these sessions. Here she was always prepared to go the extra mile, to make the best of her situation. Eva was definitely the kind of person Anna wanted to emulate.
The time passed quickly as Anna concentrated on getting the best shots and videos of her friend, and she was glad that she had something positive to focus on.
* * *
Daniel groaned as his phone rang and Lucinda’s number flashed up. Hadn’t she got the message? He stared at his phone as it rang, contemplating whether or not to answer it. But what if she was phoning about Ben? And there it was. The reason they’d always have to stay connected.
He accepted the call. ‘Lucinda,’ he said curtly.
‘Daniel! He’s gone!’
‘What do you mean? Who’s gone?’ He wondered what drama Lucinda was trying to create. Had she split up with Axel? Was she using that to try to pull him back in?
‘Ben! Ben’s gone.’
A shiver of fear ran down Daniel’s spine. Not just at her words, but at her voice, which he now realised was genuinely hysterical.
‘Ben’s gone? Where’s Ben gone?’
‘I don’t know! He didn’t come down for breakfast so I went to wake him up. His bed was empty and his backpack is gone.’
‘Shit!’ Daniel was suddenly very afraid. ‘Have you phoned round all his friends?’
‘Not yet, no. I thought he might have come to yours.’
‘Start phoning. I’ll be round as soon as I can.’ Daniel picked up his keys and ran to his car.
The journey to Lucinda’s house was a blur. All he thought about was Ben. Where had he gone? Was he safe? And he thought of all the dangerous people who were out in the world, who could harm his precious, innocent nine-year-old son.
* * *
Lucinda had rung everyone she knew. ‘No one’s seen him or heard from him. No one.’ A tear slid down her cheek. In the past Daniel would have comforted her, but today he had no time for emotion. If he gave in to any emotion, either hers or his own, he would break down, and then he wouldn’t be able to find his son.
‘So now it’s time to phone the police,’ he said, in his most matter-of-fact tone.