Chapter 24
ORLA
‘Here she is – fresh from yet another meeting with her new best friend. Urgh, it’s like a betrayal.
I can’t believe you’d just dump us for someone new,’ Yvie teased, as Orla came into Carlo’s Café and slid into the booth that Yvie and Emmy had already claimed.
They’d arranged the meet-up after Yvie and Emmy came off day shift, so it was already past six o’clock and dark outside.
And yes, Orla had indeed spent the afternoon with Maddie, and they’d gone to a little baby boutique in the West End.
It had been their second meet-up, after the day of the baby shower three weeks ago, and just like the first time, Orla had enjoyed every minute of it.
It helped that they were around the same age, and they were both at the same stage in their pregnancies, so it was a chance to talk about baby stuff with someone sharing the same experiences.
Her enjoyment came from more than that, though.
Being with Maddie allowed her to share the joys of impending motherhood with someone who didn’t know about Kyle or his affair.
It was the only time in all of this that she could forget what had happened and enjoy the moment without feeling that it had been tainted.
Just at that, Keli, who’d been on a day off today, slid into the leather seat beside her and she’d clearly caught part of the previous conversation. ‘What did I miss there? Who has dumped who?’
Yvie feigned devastation, clutching her chest in woe, as she said, ‘Orla was out with her new friend again. We’ve been cast aside.’
Keli grinned in Yvie’s direction. ‘Don’t give up the day job, because you’re never making it as an actress.’ She switched to Orla. ‘The one you met at the antenatal classes?’ Keli had been off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so she wasn’t fully caught up with Orla’s news.
‘Yes. Actually, it turns out that she lives in Weirbridge. I was telling her that the only time I’ve been there before was when I went to your mum’s house for dinner. She works in the salon there.’
‘The Copper Curls? I love that place. Jessie is a riot. Her and my mum started a conga at Jessie’s birthday party a couple of years ago and my mum nearly ended up with hypothermia because it snaked out into the street.
It was snowing and minus four degrees. What’s the name of your new friend?
It’s been a while since I was in the salon, so I don’t know all the stylists there now. ’
‘Her name’s Maddie.’
‘Maddie McShay? She was a few years below me in school, but I thought she left the village years ago.’ Keli ordered a glass of prosecco from a passing waiter.
‘She did, but her mum had a brain tumour and Maddie came back to nurse her for six months before she passed away.’ Given that they were all nurses on the Elderly Ward, Orla knew that they’d all understand the sacrifice and the emotional toll that must have taken on Maddie.
‘And now she’s pregnant by an ex-boyfriend.
I think it was a one-night stand, to be honest. She doesn’t really talk about it,’ Orla said, pouring some milk into the decaf Americano that had been waiting for her when she arrived.
‘God, I miss wine. I really, really miss wine.’
‘Oh wow. The village hills will be alive with the sound of gossip,’ Keli said.
‘And sorry, I need a wine. I’ve been with my brother and Tress and their two wee ones for the last two weeks.
I don’t want to scare you, Orla, but bloody hell, kids are loud.
Anyway, bring me up to date. What have I missed? ’
‘Nothing much, I just… just…’ Orla had to stop speaking because she felt her bottom lip begin to wobble.
Emmy immediately stretched over and put her hands on top of Orla’s trembling fingers. ‘What is it, hon? Oh no. Has he upset you? Or is it something else?’
Even as she tried to calm both her breathing and the thoughts that were ricocheting around her mind, Orla registered that Emmy’s first thought had been that Kyle was to blame. That told her that not only did she have loyal pals, but also that maybe she wasn’t going absolutely mad.
‘He hasn’t done anything. That’s the thing. I’m just having all these weird suspicions, and I actually think I’m losing my mind.’
Yvie was having none of that. ‘Orla, you’re the most balanced, objective, logical one of us all…’
‘I’d be offended, but she’s not wrong,’ Keli said, completely matter-of-fact.
Emmy nodded in agreement, as Yvie carried on, ‘And let’s face it, he’s hurt you really badly already, so if something is making you suspicious, then you need to pay attention to it.’
‘Although, it might just be that you’ve got the wrong end of the stick,’ Emmy attempted to add some balance to the argument. ‘I once thought Cormac was having an affair, but it turned out that he was just sneaking around because he was planning to propose.’
That token of common sense was at least enough to make Orla’s lip stop trembling.
Yvie spoke up. ‘Okay, tell us exactly what’s happened that’s making you have suspicions.’
Orla took a deep breath, mortified to be causing drama like this yet again.
Wasn’t it enough that they’d had to listen to her relationship woes a few months ago and now she was back with a new instalment that might not be anything more than a figment of her imagination?
‘I think it started on the night of the baby shower…’
‘Is that the night that he came home from the gym with a black eye? I can’t believe he didn’t sue.’
Orla nodded, already feeling her heart speed up again at the thought of that night.
She’d tried so hard to enjoy herself at the surprise shower the girls had organised for her, but she couldn’t let go of the thought that Kyle had coincidentally managed to have a solo few hours on the night of the party at the bar where Demi worked.
When she’d got home, she’d been relieved to see he was already there, in his sweats.
All normal apart from a purple and blue bruise under his left eye, that was spreading and swelling by the minute.
‘Holy crap, what happened to you?’ she’d asked, all her fears tossed out the window as she waddled at speed to the freezer for a packet of peas.
‘I walked into a barbell on the military press machine at the gym. Wasn’t paying attention and it just caught me at the perfect height. It’s fine, honestly. No major damage done.’
She’d felt terrible for doubting him, and even more so, when he’d taken the following day off work, and they’d gone out shopping for furniture for the baby’s room.
They’d bought a beautiful white cot, and pale yellow bedding, to match the yellow nursing chair that would go in the corner of the room.
A white chest of drawers with a changing table on top, and a thick creamy rug had completed the look, and Kyle had spent the rest of the day building it all and putting everything in place.
When she’d seen their daughter’s room finished that night, she’d felt a surge of love that had reminded her of the old days, when he just had to walk into the room and she’d feel her heart thud a little louder.
But then the call had come.
The alarm was going off at the office and he had to leave.
‘And I think that because he’d used that excuse before, when he was having the affair, it just triggered something, so now I’m back to being a paranoid wreck who is doubting everything he’s saying and doing,’ she explained.
‘Every time he works late, I wonder if he’s with her.
Every time he leaves early in the morning, I fear the same.
He had a job in Edinburgh last week and had to stay there overnight and I didn’t sleep a wink. ’
‘Don’t you have Find My Family, or Life360? Or another of those tracking apps?’
Orla sighed. ‘No. When we first met, we were living in separate countries and did the long-distance thing for two years before we got married and I moved here. Kyle said back then that he didn’t want to have those trackers because they suggested we didn’t trust each other.
Stupidly, I thought that was actually quite sweet.
God, I’m an idiot. Yet another reason to feel stupid and to wonder if I’ve been duped all along and I’m still being duped now. ’
‘Why didn’t you tell us you felt like this?’ Yvie’s sympathetic expression nearly set off the lip tremble again.
‘Because you lot already want to take out a contract on him and when I’m being logical, I honestly think he’s innocent.
This is just me, being hormonal and anxious and I’m sure that I’ve got nothing to worry about.
I truly believe he wouldn’t do anything that would jeopardise our family.
When he did it last time, he didn’t know about the baby. It’s different now.’
‘Yeah, but your feelings are understandable, hon, they really are,’ Keli assured her.
‘I think it would be less understandable if you didn’t worry.
And I’m sure you’re right. He wouldn’t be that stupid.
Although, I have no ground to stand on because I once had a six-month relationship with someone who was practically married to someone else and I didn’t spot it. ’
‘I don’t think that’s helping,’ Emmy chided her, just as Orla felt a kick to her shin and yelped.
‘Sorry!’ Yvie blurted. ‘Wrong leg. That was meant for blabbermouth next to you.’
Orla rubbed her shin and carried on. ‘I haven’t got to the worst part yet. Today I did something crazy, and I’m not sure how I’m going to get out of it.’
‘No matter how crazy it is, we’ll help you,’ Emmy said, before aiming for a joke that Orla knew was intended to cheer her up. ‘Unless you’ve murdered him. Actually, we’ll help you with that too. Yvie bought a shovel for her flower beds last summer.’
Orla stopped biting her bottom lip long enough to say, ‘I put my phone in his van.’
Silence.
It wasn’t the reaction she’d expected, until she realised that she hadn’t explained that very well.
‘I put my phone in his van,’ she repeated, ‘so that if he said he was working late, I could use my Find My iPhone to track him.’
Another silence as that sank in. Then four pairs of eyes went to the huge clock on the opposite wall of the café. The one that told them it was now seven thirty.
‘And…?’ Emmy got to the obvious question first.
Orla’s lip wobble responded. ‘He texted me an hour ago to say he was working late. The text came through on my iPad because it’s linked to my phone.’
‘Wait…’ Yvie put her hand up. ‘Are you telling me that the phone is in his van right now and all we have to do is follow its location to find the answer to all this?’
Orla nodded. ‘Yes, but what kind of person does that make me? I shouldn’t have done it. I feel terrible. I should just trust him. He’s my husband and the father of my child and…’
If she was expecting any kind of calm reasoning and methodical discussion, she’d picked the wrong audience.
Which, subconsciously, was probably why she’d admitted it all to them in the first place.
They were strictly ‘no judgement’ friends.
Actually, they were ‘no judgement’ friends that were already sliding out of their leather banquettes.
‘Let’s go, ladies. Carlo, can you add all this to my bill please?’ Yvie shouted over to her fiancé, who was loading up a tray with drinks at the bar a few feet away.
‘You haven’t paid a bill in ten years, my love.’
‘And you haven’t married me in ten years,’ Yvie shot back, bringing up her long-standing, half-joking grievance that they were aiming to have the longest courtship in history.
‘Consider your account settled,’ Carlo fired back, his laughter making everyone within earshot smile. Orla loved the easy banter that went back and forward between these two. Once upon a time, she and Kyle had that too.
‘We can take my car. It’s right outside,’ Emmy said, pointing to a huge, slightly battered, but gleaming white double cab pick-up truck. ‘Shit, I forgot I’ve got the truck. My car is in the garage.’
‘Not exactly inconspicuous, is it, Nancy Drew?’ Keli said, shaking her head.
‘It’s fine. He’ll never suspect anyone would be spying on him in a truck that’s like something from Ghostbusters,’ Yvie countered, pulling the door open.
It was at that exact moment that Orla’s cold feet set in. ‘Hang on, hang on – this is crazy. It’s gone far enough. I can’t drag you lot into this.’
They all stopped, stared at her, waited until she processed what she’d just said. If they didn’t go, she’d continue to fret. And if she did go, they might just find him and discover there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
‘Okay, yes I can,’ she concluded, and they all carried on into the vehicle. That’s when Orla sussed out that there was a crucial flaw in the plan. ‘I didn’t bring my iPad, so I need someone’s phone so I can sign into my Apple account to track it.’
Yvie handed hers over, and in seconds she was signed in, and saw that her phone was at an address on the south side of the city, about twenty minutes away from where they were now.
Was that where Demi lived? She had no idea.
And there was only one way to find out. She handed the phone over to Emmy, who nodded and started the engine.
‘Okay, got it. Let’s go find out what’s going on.’