The Marriage K.L. Slater (classic romance novels TXT) 📖

one side is more powerful, well, that really pushes Audrey’s buttons. When she met Coral, she admitted she felt sorry for her and then probably saw a way to get back at Robert, who’d never liked her and now we know why. But I think she really did care about Coral in the end and wanted to make him pay.’

‘I saw Audrey and Robert at the door of your house when I was driving past on the way to town. I went into the shop to let her know, to have the satisfaction of doing it. I’d heard she’d been bad-mouthing me around town. I did really think she was having an affair with Robert.’

‘Me too,’ I said. ‘When I looked through her kitchen window and saw his scarf, it all seemed to fit. There’s still one little mystery I’d like to unravel.’

‘What’s that?’ Bridget said, taking a sip of her gin.

‘Well, money has been tight for a while now, and after they took Robert into custody, it came to light he’d been paying a thousand pounds to Coral for a few months. I searched his office, found all his bank statements going back years. Turns out this payment business isn’t new. He’d been paying out two hundred pounds every month for the first five years of Tom’s sentence then inexplicably, it suddenly stopped.’

‘What was he paying for?’

‘Well, that’s the mystery. He’d been drawing out cash on the last day of each month from the savings account. It wasn’t for day-to-day expenses because he was also drawing cash from the current account. The regularity of it, the same amount, on the same day each month for exactly five years shows it was for something specific. Something I was completely unaware of. Twelve thousand pounds of our savings that I had no clue about.’

‘Is it possible Robert siphoned money away from your joint accounts for his own use?’

I shook my head. ‘DI Barrington asked him about it and he told her he’d been “anonymously” blackmailed about being Ellis’s father for five years but that he knew it was Coral all along. That was why, when Coral made her new demands via Audrey, he assumed she’d got greedy and wanted to reinstate the agreement. That made him doubly angry and he demanded they meet to discuss it.’

‘But you’re saying, in fact, the five years previously wasn’t anything to do with Coral?’

I shook my head. ‘Audrey categorically denies it. She claimed Coral wouldn’t have had the confidence or the knowledge to set that up on her own. It’s one reason I still can’t trust her, if I’m honest. I’d have thought more of her if she’d admitted it. Anyway, it’s all water under the bridge now. I’ve had to draw a line with lots of things, and that’s one of them. I’m moving on in every way. I want to get this place sold now and buy somewhere smaller.’

‘Exciting times for you.’ Bridget bit her lip before continuing, her voice softer. ‘Jill, where do we go from here? I’d like us to be good friends again, to meet for a coffee and chat about old times and, if it’s not too much to ask, to build some fresh memories.’

‘We can set a time to meet up for a coffee,’ I said. ‘But I start back at the library next week so I’ll have less time on my hands soon.’

‘Wow! That’s great.’ Bridget looked genuinely pleased. ‘Is it full-time?’

I shook my head. ‘It’s part-time for three months, and then there’ll probably be a full-time position coming up if I’m interested.’ I smiled, unable to keep the excitement from my face. ‘Part of my duties will be book repair.’

We both glanced at the set of shining red and gold books that took pride of place on the shelf where Robert’s community award used to live.

‘They look amazing,’ Bridget said admiringly. ‘They must have taken so much work.’

I nodded. ‘They really did but in a way they helped to set my mind straight, too. Something about clearing my head and immersing myself in the here and now … it made me realise how I’d been so stuck in the past and what had been, you know?’

Bridget nodded and said simply, ‘I know how that feels. I’ve pared back the photographs and tributes to Jesse in the house. I don’t need that stuff to remind me of my son and I know now he’d want me to live for the future, not what might have been.’

‘For most of my marriage, I’ve thought I’d be nothing without my husband. After Tom went to prison, I became so insular. I honestly believed I needed Robert to survive.’

‘And in reality you don’t need him at all,’ Bridget added.

I held up my drink. ‘Cheers to that!’ I said, and we clinked glasses.

Sixty The guest

Two months later

It was a small gathering in the garden of Jill Billinghurst’s house, so it was so lovely to get an invitation, a totally unexpected treat.

The bride looked radiant and the groom so dashing. Jill had told her they had dressed in similar wedding outfits to their special day in the prison when nobody could celebrate with them. Jill looked the happiest I’d seen her in years and we got to chat a little bit.

‘I feel like I’ve had a new lease of life,’ she told me, ‘now that I’ve got rid of that pain-in-the-backside husband of mine.’ Oh, that made me chuckle!

There were lovely nibbles and proper champagne, and I confess I thoroughly enjoyed indulging in a glass or two. It was so heart-warming to see all these nice, genuine people having a merry time on the other side of such trauma.

There were so many good things about the party, but for me, the big bonus was being able to chat to Ellis. Such a handsome boy, and although Jill had confided he spent too much time playing computer games, like so many youngsters these days, once I got him talking, I discovered