Unfaithful (The Complete Trilogy)

by Clancy, Joanne

  Charlotte's wails soon broke their peace and quiet.

  "I'll go, darling," Colm climbed out of bed and left his wife resting beneath the covers. Jackie lay there for a while, listening to Colm singing to little Charlotte in her bedroom next door. She felt completely relaxed. She couldn't believe how Colm had responded to her love making. It had felt wonderful to be in control for once. She stretched luxuriously in bed and wondered when she would see Sean again.

  Chapter 10

  Brianna hauled the last of her boxes out of the car into the trolley which she had just conveniently borrowed from the nearby supermarket. She'd found a flat in the city centre which offered free underground parking for residents, which was ideal for her. However, her flat was located on the top floor of a five story apartment block, which made moving in rather difficult, especially when she had nobody to help her.

  She'd refused Penelope's half-hearted offers of assistance, preferring instead to move alone. She had already risked leaving one trolley load of her belongings in the hall, while she rode the elevator with her remaining possessions and she hoped nobody would come along and rob it while she went to fill the other one.

  It was a struggle to push the overloaded trolley on the bumpy footpath and it was relief to see that nobody had stolen her first load. She shoved everything into the narrow elevator which creaked as it rattled its way to the fifth floor. Luckily, the lift was located just outside her flat so she was able to manoeuvre the two trolleys inside without too much difficulty.

  Finally, she opened her new front door and wheeled the trolleys inside her little hall. She closed the door behind her, dropped everything on the floor and went straight to the fridge where a bottle of white wine was already nicely chilling. She breathed a deep sigh of relief and poured herself a large glass then she took a long sip and felt herself beginning to relax slightly from the stresses of the day.

  She walked to her tiny balcony which overlooked a cafe. It wasn't nearly as spacious or as fancy as the apartment she'd shared with Penelope, but it was her own private space and she didn't care how small it was. There were a few people sitting outside on the roof terrace of the cafe, enjoying the last of the cool autumn sunshine. They were smoking cigarettes and laughing and chatting, whilst huddling close to the outdoor heater for warmth. Brianna smiled to herself as their laughter carried on the still afternoon air towards her.

  The street was busy with everyone bustling around, doing their Saturday afternoon shopping. The skyline was amazing, lots of houses painted in a rainbow of colours. Church steeples dotted the skyline and beyond the city a patchwork of fields could be seen on the horizon. The sun was slowly setting, casting a wonderful, golden glow across the landscape.

  Brianna sighed contentedly as she took in the peaceful scene, her gaze falling once again on the cafe. It was a two story building, painted red, with its name "Cafe Paris" painted in white across the front. There were tables and chairs outside on the street, where some busy shoppers had taken a break to come and sit and rest their weary feet.

  It wasn't even Halloween yet, and already the shops were decorated for Christmas. It seemed that the festive shopping rush had started in earnest. Brianna didn't mind. She loved Christmas and the childish part of her wished that it could be Christmas all year round. The season couldn't start early enough for her.

  The cafe scene below her reminded her of the weekend that she and Penelope had spent in Paris. They had both been broke students at the time, but Brianna had won employee of the week for the most sales conversions in her part-time job at a call centre. The prize was an all-expenses-paid weekend at the Best Western Left Bank Hotel St. Germain in Paris for Brianna and a friend.

  So, Brianna and Penelope had set off on their Aer Lingus flight to Paris. They had been so excited, it was their first time leaving Ireland and they could barely contain themselves. Neither of them had even been at an airport before, let alone flying in a plane.

  Penelope had started getting worried when the air hostess demonstrated the emergency procedure. She'd clutched the emergency leaflet throughout the flight, carefully studying the directions. Brianna had sat back, drinking the complementary Champagne and staring out the window of the plane. The only thing Brianna had studied was the duty free magazine.

  Eventually, they'd landed safe and sound, with Penelope dramatically vowing never to fly again, but she quickly forgot her nerves when they arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport. The girls had never seen anywhere that was so busy. The airport was thronged with people, with hardly enough room to manoeuvre.

  They'd gotten the escalator to baggage collection and when they'd arrived at the bottom of the escalator they'd banged full force into the people in front of them, because there was just nowhere to move.

  They'd gotten a bus from the airport to Paris city centre. They were starting to feel like intrepid travellers by the time they arrived at their hotel, the Best Western Left Bank Hotel St. Germain. The hotel had a three star rating and was one of the most charming hotels of the area. The hotel was superbly located in the centre of the left bank area, near the renowned tourist attractions of the St. Germain Abbey and the Notre Dame Cathedral.

  It took the girls about an hour to actually find their hotel. They'd jumped off the bus and headed straight for McDonald's as they were absolutely ravenous. Their flight that morning had been at the ungodly hour of five o' clock, and they hadn't eaten anything since then. Brianna had tried to protest about going to McDonald's when they were in France and insisted that they should be savouring French food like croque monsieur, but their hunger got the better of them and a quick and easy Big Mac Meal won.

  “We can savour France's gastronomic delights later, when we're a little less hungry,” Penelope had insisted as she lead the way into McDonald's.

  Once they'd stopped their hunger pangs they set out to locate the Best Western. Brianna, who was very organised, had even printed a map from the internet with directions to their accommodation, but their map reading was atrocious.

  They ended up in the business district, surrounded by very busy looking people in suits and were too intimidated to ask for directions. They trudged up and down the streets, feeling more and more lost, lugging their suitcases behind them. Finally, Penelope accosted a friendly, very elegant looking Parisian woman, and asked her for the way to the Hotel St. Germain, in a broken combination of French and English. The French woman was very helpful and insisted on walking with them all the way to their hotel.

  It turned out that they had been traipsing up and down the same street for the past while and their hotel had been just around the corner, hidden away behind some trees. Penelope kissed the wall of the hotel when they finally arrived outside. The receptionist gave her a peculiar look when they went to check in. Her desk was located right inside the window, so she'd witnessed Penelope's affectionate display towards the wall!

  Their weekend in Paris flew by in a blur of shopping and sightseeing and lazy days spent in the park, eating a croque monsieur and people-watching. Their evenings were spent on their tiny hotel balcony, drinking red wine and eating crusty bread and camembert cheese. Penelope was enchanted by the classic style of Parisian women. She sat gazing at them for hours and had even persuaded Brianna that they should discreetly follow one particularly fashionable young woman, just to see where she shopped!

  Penelope developed a new obsession with scarves, in an effort to copy her Parisian counterparts' style. She wasted valuable time in the morning trying desperately to mimic the fancy knots they tied on their scarves, time that Brianna would have preferred to have spent sightseeing, but she didn't really mind indulging her friend.

  Penelope even cut her gorgeous long hair into a classic bob with a fringe in an effort to look more French. Brianna couldn't stop laughing when she saw her friend's new square-like hair do. She teased her mercilessly for weeks calling her “Spongebob Squarepants” until Penelope's hair finally began to grow long again.

  Needless to say, Penelop
e had kept her hair long ever since that Parisian hair disaster. They spent their afternoons in an art house cinema that they'd discovered very close to the hotel, watching French films, without the English subtitles. Both girls were passionate about the French language and all things French. They had met at the French society in university, and this had been the common interest that had cemented their friendship.

  Brianna sighed at the happy memories she had shared with Penelope, but those memories were starting to feel more and more like they happened a lifetime ago. She was sad that her best friend had changed so much, but she felt relieved that she was living alone again. She couldn't handle Penelope's inflated ego any longer and her snide remarks about her appearance.

  Brianna was not the slightest bit interested in fashion or makeup. She went for comfort over style every time, preferring her usual uniform of jeans and a tee-shirt in the summer or jeans and a jumper in the winter. She'd worn the same parka jacket every winter for years and owned precisely one pair of sandals and one pair of battered old leather boots.

  She had shoulder-length wavy strawberry blonde hair, which she cut herself every few months. She never wore makeup. Her skin was pale and dotted with freckles and she had bright green eyes, framed with thick brown eyelashes and a pair of rather unruly eyebrows, which Penelope had tried to convince her to wax into shape on numerous occasions. Brianna accepted herself for who she was, and had always been fascinated by Penelope's almost obsession with appearances.

  All the fun was gone from their relationship. She was disappointed that it hadn't worked out living with Penelope, but Penelope had changed a lot over the years. She was no longer the friend that Brianna had so fondly remembered. Maybe some time in the future we can salvage our relationship, Brianna thought, but life's just too short to put up with someone else's tantrums and self-obsessions. Even though Penelope had asked her to stay, promising she'd change and make more of an effort, Brianna was determined to leave.

  She'd given Penelope her new address, hugged her goodbye and told her to call around some time. Brianna felt such a relief at being able to close the door on the world, and have her own place all to herself.

  She looked around her bijou apartment. Maybe a touch shabby, she thought to herself, but it will soon be shabby chic. Brianna had a magic touch when it came to redecorating. She could turn a plain, boring room into a place of character with a few simple touches. She walked around the apartment, casting a critical eye over the place.

  The living area comprised the kitchen and dining room with an open sitting space. The kitchen merely contained a few overhead cupboards which were cluttered with pots and pans, the dining area had a long, solid pine table and the living room had two rather battered looking black leather couches. Nothing that a few throws and cushions can't liven up, she mused. The carpet was threadbare in places but she knew a strategically placed rug would cover the bare bits and add character to the room overall.

  There was a large double room and a single room, which Brianna had already decided would be her storage area. The bathroom had a shower and toilet and floor to ceiling tiles. Small, but adequate, Brianna thought.

  She rummaged through her bags and found her diary, where she began writing her shopping lists; one for groceries, another for furnishings and another for cleaning products. Tomorrow she would spend shopping and cleaning, and the day after would be spent unpacking and organising. That's my weekend sorted, she smiled to herself.

  The landlord had very kindly already installed her television, so Brianna snuggled into the couch with her pillow and duvet and happily amused herself with her to do lists for the rest of the evening, while watching re-runs of her favourite show, Dallas.

  Chapter 11

  Colm studied his wife over the top of his newspaper as she helped baby Charlotte place blocks in their holes. She was beautiful, there was no denying it, but she had a certain undeniable glow about her recently. She seemed much happier, always humming and singing to herself, even over the most mundane tasks. The past few years Jackie had been consumed by the children.

  He thought Jackie had a gorgeous body, but to him she was never more stunning than when she was pregnant. She was naturally very slim, but pregnancy changed her body entirely. It was like being with another woman. Her usually small, pert breasts swelled with her belly. Her tight buttocks and hips widened and became wonderfully round.

  Colm felt himself becoming aroused at the memory of his naked, pregnant wife. He hadn't been able to resist making love to her during her pregnancies. He couldn't understand men who were turned off when their woman was pregnant. There was just something so vulnerable about her and the thought that she was carrying his babies had turned him on so much. Luckily her libido had also increased when she was pregnant so she was happy to respond to his advances.

  Colm secretly longed for another child. He was an only child himself and always wanted to have a big family, full of children when he was older. He would have loved to have had five or maybe even six children. Two seemed like such a small number. However, Jackie was insistent that two was more than enough for her.

  She agreed with him that it was unfair to leave Emmet an only child and she had been as thrilled as her husband when she'd fallen pregnant with baby Charlotte, but two was enough for her. She hated how pregnancy so dramatically changed her usually slim, taut body. She hated “feeling fat” as she described it and she worked out fanatically after each pregnancy to get her body back in shape. Colm hoped that he could change her mind in a year or two and convince her to have baby number three.

  Since Charlotte was born, almost three years previously, their love life had declined dramatically. Colm understood the demands of a newborn baby, and hadn't wanted to pressure his wife. She'd been complaining over the past few months that they needed to be more romantic, but he had fallen into such a routine that he hadn't felt comfortable initiating romance with his wife anymore.

  Their usual missionary position once a week had become enough to satisfy him. He was astounded by the change in her over the recent weeks. She was back to the vivacious, sexual woman that he had first fallen in love with. She wanted him all the time. He was barely able to keep up with her demands. Only last night he had to feign a headache, but he'd woken up in the early morning to find her on top of him, grinding herself into him.

  As much as he was enjoying his renewed sex life with his wife, there was something bothering him. She went into her own world when they were making love, her eyes closed tightly. Previously, she'd always looked deep into his eyes, he'd felt like he was making love to her, sometimes, now it felt like they were just fucking. It was an odd shift in their relationship to have her in such control. He knew he shouldn't complain. His beautiful wife wanted him more than ever, what normal man would complain about that, but there was something niggling at the back of his mind, that he couldn't seem to ignore.Jackie looked up suddenly and smiled her loving smile at him. He smiled back. Charlotte waved up at him and said "daddy, pink" showing him a pink block.

  "Good girl, pumpkin," he encouraged his daughter who laughed in delight at her father's praise. "Darling, she's the image of you," he said to Jackie.

  "Why thank you, darling," Jackie struggled to her feet and came to sit on her husband's lap. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him tenderly. He kissed her gently in return. She kissed him again, more passionately this time. He began to stir against her. She smiled and wriggled against him, teasing him.

  "You are so naughty," he whispered, biting her ear.

  "Naughty mummy," Charlotte shouted from the floor. Emmet suddenly came bursting into the living room, from the garden where he'd spent the last hour playing football with two of his friends from school.

  "Mum, can we have a drink please, we're so thirsty," he panted.

  "Course you can. Come along boys, into the kitchen with those muddy boots."

  She blew her husband a kiss over her shoulder as she left him sitting there alone.

  H
er mobile phone bleeped, interrupting Colm's rather rude thoughts of what he and Jackie might get up to later when they were alone. He tried to fight the temptation to check her phone, but he couldn't resist and picked it up. She had a text from Shona saying she'd call her later for a chat.

  He quickly scanned the rest of her inbox but there was nothing incriminating. He checked her call log, and found a landline number that he wasn't familiar with. He popped her phone in his pocket and quickly made his way upstairs to the privacy of the bathroom. He rang the number. "The Four Seasons, good afternoon" was the response on the other end of the phone. The Four Seasons, Colm thought, baffled. Why on earth is she calling The Four Seasons?

  He went back downstairs and put the mobile phone on the seat in its original position. Jackie was still busy with the boys in the kitchen. He switched on the television in an effort to distract himself from his suspicions.

  Chapter 12

  Rebecca flicked frantically through her diary, searching for the date of her last period. She'd always suffered from irregular, painful periods and so kept a regular log throughout the years of her monthly experiences. Finally, she located the date of her last period on the calendar and promptly dropped her diary on the floor.

  "Dear God, no," she whispered, sinking onto the wicker conservatory chair. "How can I be pregnant?" she said aloud to herself, "I can't be." It had been weeks since she and Mark had made love. "Oh, no," she whispered, dropping her face into her hands. Her heart sank as she remembered the night of passion that she and her husband had shared. They'd both been so caught up in the moment that they had completely forgotten to think of contraception. Rebecca was allergic to the pill, and had stopped taking it years ago. I don't want a baby in my life right now, she thought to herself, and certainly not with that man.