CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
‘What’s going on?’
Reeling from the news that Wyatt had been lying to me all along about Dan, and that he actually had a child he’d refused to acknowledge, I turned to find Blaize looking at me with concern.
‘Oh, it’s Wyatt.’ I explained the situation to her and she looked appalled.
‘The rotten bastard.’ She gazed over at Rowena, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying her ice cream despite the cold day. ‘Imagine that lovely little girl never knowing her father. We were so lucky, weren’t we?’
‘We were.’ I sighed. ‘I have to say, if it wasn’t for the fact that Wyatt looked out for you that day and stopped you from driving while you were so drunk, I’d think he was worse than the devil. As it is, I’d say they’re pretty equal.’
Blaize gave me a look that seemed a little shifty.
‘What?’ I demanded.
‘Nothing.’
‘No, come on. What aren’t you telling me?’
She shrugged but said nothing.
I sighed. ‘Look, nothing you could tell me could make me feel more miserable than I already do. So spit it out!’
‘Okay, okay.’ She frowned. ‘The thing is . . . well, that whole drama – Wyatt rushing out and jumping in front of my car? Well, it was all a set-up.’
‘Pardon?’ I stared at her, mystified. What on earth was she talking about?
She sighed. ‘His acting career was flagging. He’d landed that part in a soap but that was years earlier and he was desperate to get himself noticed by any means possible. His journalist mate was running a Don’t Drink & Drive campaign over the Christmas and New Year period?’
I nodded impatiently. ‘Yes, yes. I remember that.’
‘Well. Put two and two together. Wyatt desperate for publicity. A drunk in the pub threatening to drive home. Me!’
‘Yes?’ I was still struggling to join the dots.
‘So what do you have? Well, as far as Wyatt was concerned, it was the perfect opportunity to display himself as a hero, with his mate right there to take the photos for the newspaper! All he had to do was bribe me to play my part by starting the engine and pretending I was about to drive away.’
I stared at her. ‘Please tell me you’re not serious?’ I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing.
‘I’m afraid I am,’ she said guiltily. ‘Sorry, Lizzie.’
‘But why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Because by the time I’d sobered up and remembered what had happened, you were already going on about the lovely guy you’d met in the pub, who was such a selfless hero and had thrown himself bravely onto my bonnet.
I was feeling pretty ashamed for having been persuaded to do it, so I couldn’t bring myself to tell you the truth. ’
‘How did he bribe you?’
‘Oh, I think he offered to buy me a takeaway or something. To be honest, I can’t remember. I was in such a rebellious mood that night, missing Dillon so badly, I’d probably have done it even if he hadn’t offered me an incentive.’
‘So you let me go on and on about how brave he was?’
‘Well, no. I’d made up my mind to tell you, but then you came home that night all happy because Wyatt had asked you out and you’d said yes.
How could I burst your bubble by telling you that he wasn’t exactly the hero you thought he was?
I might have been ruining a good relationship before it had even got going.
So I thought I’d give him the benefit of the doubt, but if he ever put a foot wrong, I was going to spill the beans then. ’
‘But you never did.’
‘No. Because you seemed happy together. And he seemed a reasonably nice guy.’
‘Reasonably nice? I thought you liked Wyatt?’
‘Well, he’s a bit of a tosser, really, the way he’ll sell his soul to be the centre of attention. And he thinks he’s hilarious when most of the time he isn’t. But, you know, you seemed to like him and that was all that mattered.’
I stared at her. ‘So even before we knew the truth about him, you thought he was a tosser?’
‘Yup.’
‘All the time we were together?’
‘Yup!’
She was so absolutely firm in her reply that I started to laugh.
‘I always thought you deserved someone much better than him,’ added Blaize. ‘But you know how it is. There’s no accounting for taste. One woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure, and all that.’
I shuddered. ‘I can’t believe he seduced that lovely woman, Judith, as an eighteen-year-old and then abandoned her when she got pregnant. It’s all so disgusting.’
‘You’ll have to tell him it’s over. Because by the looks of things, he still has no idea you’ve found out the truth.
’ She pointed over to where Wyatt was keeping his young audience enthralled with tales of the theatre.
He’d clearly forgotten all about me. And it suddenly occurred to me that this was pretty characteristic of our entire relationship.
Wyatt loved Wyatt. And there was no room for anyone else in his life, including me . . .
I glanced at my watch. Unfortunately, it was almost time for our lake scene, and I couldn’t allow my personal feelings to ruin the performance. So I’d just have to pretend things were fine, then drop the disgusting creep as soon as the acting ended!