by Sandie Jones
‘But I can draw something up to give you more detail if it should get to that stage,’ Liz goes on. Right now, Alice can’t see any chance that it won’t.
‘Thanks,’ she says. ‘But just before you go . . . About Japan – Nathan has largely been dealing with the business end of the transaction up until now. We’ve – I’ve – already paid a hundred thousand on exchange, and I’m about to complete this afternoon. I know I’m asking a lot, Liz, but is there any way you could take a quick look at the contract, just so, you know . . .’
‘I assume a conveyancing solicitor has read through it before now?’ asks Liz.
‘Well, yes,’ says Alice. ‘My lawyer is based in Japan and he seems happy enough, but as I say, Nathan’s been dealing with that side of things. I would just appreciate you checking it through, especially if I’m going to be on my own, going forward.’
‘You’re not leaving yourself an awful lot of time,’ comments Liz. ‘And I can’t claim to be an expert on international property law, but if you send it over now, I’ll take a quick look at it.’
‘Thanks Liz, just let me know how much I owe you.’
‘If it’s all straightforward it shouldn’t take me too long. You’re lucky you’ve caught me in the office. Any other day this week and I would have been in court.’
‘Thanks Liz, I really appreciate it.’
Alice puts the phone down just as Lottie is passing her office.
‘Lottie, would you mind asking Matt for a copy of the Japan contract?’ she says, as nonchalantly as she can manage.
‘Yep sure,’ she says breezily.
A few minutes later, Matt pops his head around Alice’s door. ‘I hear you’re after the Japan contract?’ he says. ‘I believe Nathan’s put it in the safe, under lock and key.’
‘Good job I’ve got a key then.’ Alice smiles as she reaches into her desk drawer and throws Matt a small bunch of keys. ‘Would you mind?’
When he brings the contract in, he closes the door behind him.
‘Can I have a word?’
‘Sure,’ says Alice, knowing it’s unlike him to ask. ‘What’s up?’
‘The company credit card has taken some pretty hefty hits recently.’
The news is no surprise to Alice.
‘That’s okay,’ she says. ‘I’ve been hitting it hard with fabrics and furniture for Belmont House. There was some stuff we needed to pay for up front.’
‘Well, that’s the thing,’ he says. ‘I know where we are with Belmont, but it already feels as if the Japan project is running away from me.’
Alice looks at him, her brows knitted. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Large sums are already being spent, mostly with one company, and I understand that we need to be a little organic on this, but I could do with a bit of a heads-up so that I can prepare for whatever’s coming at us over the hill.’
‘There must be some mistake,’ says Alice. ‘I’ve not spent money on anything over there yet. Perhaps a couple of hotel bills and the odd lawyer’s bill, but that’s it.’
Matt scratches at his head. ‘That’s not going to have busted through our twenty-grand limit.’
‘Twenty grand?’ exclaims Alice. ‘We couldn’t possibly have spent that kind of money.’
‘We have, and most of it has gone to a company called Visions. Do you know who they are?’
Alice shakes her head. ‘Have you spoken to Nathan?’
Matt nods. ‘I mentioned it when the balance reached ten thousand and a couple of times since, but he said everything was fine and that the payments were all accounted for. But now we’re at our limit, there’s nowhere for us to go.’
‘Might our credit card have been cloned or something like that? It definitely sounds as if there’s been a breach somewhere. Can you check it out?’
‘Sure. I’ll find out what’s going on and report back.’ He offers a tight smile and turns to leave Alice’s office.
She flicks through the contract that he leaves with her, but without speaking lawyer language, it’s double-Dutch. She can’t see any anomalies, but scans a copy straight over to Liz for her to check.
I’m popping to the bank reads a text from Nathan and Alice instinctively walks over to the window.
So why do you need your car? she wonders, as she watches him hurry towards it, peering around furtively before sliding behind the steering wheel.
42
Alice watches through the windscreen as Nathan types something into his phone. There’s an uncomfortable sensation rising up from her toes, and as much as she tries to shrug it off, she just can’t shake it.
As he reverses out of the parking space, Alice grabs her keys and bolts down the stairs. She wants to know, once and for all, what the hell he’s up to.
She keeps her distance as his car manoeuvres its way through the mid-morning traffic, heading out of town.
He’s only gone a couple of miles when he slows down and indicates left, into the Holiday Inn car park. Despite herself, Alice still wants there to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for why he’s taken time out of his working day to go to a hotel. But the evidence against him is mounting.
Alice pulls into a space a few rows behind Nathan and hopes that the rain will obscure his vision in the same way it’s dulling hers. She keeps the windscreen wipers on full power, yet they still struggle to offer her a clear view through the glass.
Ten minutes slowly pass, with Nathan still in his car. Alice switches off her wipers to try and retain some level of inconspicuousness, which makes it all the harder to stake out the women she sees; squinting through her rain-splattered windscreen as they make their way to or from their cars, waiting for one of them to head towards Nathan.
A dark car reverses into the space beside Nathan’s, but Alice can’t see the make or model. It doesn’t seem to matter, as five minutes passes without movement. Alice is on the verge of leaving when she sees the car’s door open and a woman get out. There’s a flash of long dark hair, but it all happens too fast as the woman quickly gets into the passenger seat of Nathan’s car.
Alice is rooted to the spot in shock and anger, fighting off the overpowering temptation to run over there and pull her out by her hair. Her hand is on the door handle, her pride pushing her out. She wants to kill him, and then her, but just as she’s about to listen to her heart, her head steps in and attempts to take charge. Breathe, it tells her. Stop and breathe.
The two vital organs vie for control, pushing and pulling, like an internal tug of war. She slams her hands on the steering wheel and cries out, ‘You lying bastard.’ It wasn’t as if she hadn’t given him the chance to confess, to get it all out in the open – yet he’d still prevaricated.
But she’s seen it with her own eyes now. She’s not been the paranoid, needy wife Nathan has made her out to be. She’s been right all along, and the overriding emotion is one of relief. Relief that she doesn’t have to keep trying to catch him out. Relief that when he lies to her, she’ll know the truth. And relief that she’s been cast adrift in the ocean, with just her two girls by her side.
Just a few days ago, the thought would have killed her. But she feels differently now that she’s no longer beholden to anyone else. Now, all she has to do is dodge the obstacles that tie her to a marriage that isn’t what she thought it was. The house, the business and Japan suddenly seem superficial compared to the only real hurdle she’s heading towards at a hundred miles per hour: the children. She has to do everything in her power to push through the complications, animosity and bitterness that will no doubt spill over from this ultimate deceit. She has to stay strong and true to her girls in her efforts to protect them from the fallout.
There’s nothing more to see here. It doesn’t even matter who it is anymore – it won’t make Alice stay with a man who would rather be with someone else.
Just as she puts the car into gear, the woman gets out of Nathan’s car, screams something that Alice doesn’t quite catch and slams the door. A couple of
people in the vicinity automatically look in their direction, but, fearful of getting involved, put their heads back down and hurry by. Alice winds her window down to get a clearer look through the rain, just as Nathan’s car screeches forward, no doubt leaving rubber on the tarmac. The woman shouts something again and gesticulates with her arms, but Nathan’s car keeps on moving, at speed, out of the car park.
Alice wishes she’d driven away a few seconds ago, before she had seen the woman who has wrecked her marriage. Before she knew who she was.
With her heart hammering through her chest, she gets out of the car and runs across the car park, lifting her jacket over her head to protect her from the lashing rain. She has no idea what she’s going to say, as she wets her lips, desperate for some moisture in her dry mouth.
The woman’s still standing there, with her back to Alice, staring after Nathan’s car. Alice feels sick as she is faced with the gut-wrenching deceit.
‘Beth!’ she croaks, hating her voice for letting her down.
Beth turns around, her wet hair stuck to her face. Alice can’t tell if the drops on her cheek are tears or rainwater. She sees Alice and is instantaneously paralysed. It takes a few seconds for the shock to subside, but it feels like minutes for Alice, her eyes not leaving Beth’s.
‘Al-Alice,’ Beth stutters, seemingly incapable of forming a full sentence. She looks in the direction that Nathan’s car went, as if it will somehow magically tell her whether Alice had seen him or not. ‘Wh-what are you doing here?’
‘I’m not sure I’m the one who needs to answer that question,’ hisses Alice, her stare unmoving.
‘It’s . . . it’s not what you think,’ stutters Beth.
‘I can’t even begin to get my head around this,’ cries Alice. ‘How could you? How could you do this to me, again?’
‘I’m not having an affair with him, Alice,’ says Beth, pulling herself up, suddenly seeming more in control. ‘You’ve got this all wrong.’
‘Have I?’ snaps Alice. ‘What other possible explanation can there be?’
The two women stare at each other through the pouring rain.
‘Get in the car,’ says Beth eventually. ‘We need to talk.’
‘I knew it!’ cries Alice, chastising herself as she gets into the passenger seat of Beth’s car. ‘I knew something wasn’t right yesterday – as soon as Nathan saw you. It was so obvious, but I didn’t want to believe it – refused to believe it. Anyone but you, Beth. Why? Why would you do this to me? First Tom and now Nathan.’
Beth turns to look at Alice. ‘I’m not sleeping with Nathan.’
Alice takes her phone and pulls up the number of the mystery text sent to her husband. Beth’s face freezes as a ringtone emanates from her handbag on the back seat. Alice shakes her head and reaches for the door handle.
‘Wait!’ Beth calls out as she stretches across to pull the door to.
‘I’ve heard all I need to hear,’ says Alice.
‘You haven’t heard the half of it,’ hisses Beth.
Alice, sensing a shift in atmosphere, falls resignedly back onto the seat. ‘Are you in love with him?’ she asks.
‘I was once, yes,’ admits Beth. ‘But that was a long time ago.’
Alice turns, her eyes wide. ‘How long has this been going on?’ she asks incredulously.
‘Years,’ says Beth. ‘Long before I met you.’
Alice feels like her brain might explode, unable to compute what she’s being told. She can’t even form the words if she wanted to.
‘You look surprised,’ says Beth coldly.
‘This . . . this has been going on all this time and you knew Nathan was my husband all along?’
‘Yes,’ says Beth. ‘But in my defence, this started way before you two got together. I met Nathan before you did.’
‘What?’ gasps Alice. ‘How is that even possible?’
‘Because he’s not your Nathan,’ says Beth calmly. ‘He’s my Thomas.’
43
‘What the hell are you talking about?’ Alice shouts, her indignation spilling out.
‘Well it turns out that things aren’t quite what they seem,’ says Beth, her tone acerbic. ‘I met and fell in love with a man I knew as Thomas Evans some ten years ago.’
Despite having thought she’d built a barrier, to immunize herself against the hurt that knowledge caused, Alice still feels a pain slice across her chest. She wants to close her ears off to what Beth is saying, but yet she wants to know – has to know.
‘We were really happy,’ Beth goes on. ‘I was completely in love with him and thought we’d be together forever. But then I saw him with you . . .’
‘You saw us together?’ says Alice, in barely more than a whisper. ‘So you knew who I was. You’ve known all this time that I was Tom’s wife.’
‘Well, you see, that’s where it starts to get interesting.’
Alice numbly shakes her head, no longer listening to what Beth’s saying. ‘You’ve known all this time that I was Tom’s wife. You’ve sat and let me talk about him, held me when I’ve cried about him, all the while knowing that you had an affair with him. Had a child with him.’ Her shoulders convulse as a sob catches in her throat. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘It wasn’t like that,’ says Beth, her voice softer. ‘The man I knew as Thomas Evans left me for you.’
Alice looks at her with a confused expression. ‘But that’s not possible. I was his wife – how can that be?’
‘Because the man I thought was Thomas was actually Nathan.’
‘I . . . I don’t understand – you’re not making any sense.’
‘It didn’t make any sense to me either – not at first. But do you remember Nathan taking you to Albany Avenue in Guildford?’
‘When?’ asks Alice, unable to remember ever going to Guildford, let alone the road name.
‘Around ten years ago. You waited in his car – he had a silver Audi at the time – outside a flat – my flat.’
Slowly the memory begins to form, but it’s vague at best. ‘Didn’t he move from there to Battersea?’ muses Alice, her voice sounding as hazy as the recollection. ‘I think he grabbed the last few things whilst I waited outside.’
‘That was my flat,’ says Beth.
‘No,’ says Alice, more confidently. ‘He was sharing the place with a guy who was a lift engineer or something – I remember it now – Ben or Blake his name was – it definitely began with a B.’
‘You’re right – Beth. That was my place, and that was the day Nathan left me for you.’
Alice shakes her head vehemently.
‘Come on Alice, you saw me, I know you did. You looked straight at me as you went past in the car. You must have known what you were doing, or at the very least, known what he was doing. Did he tell you about me? Did you hatch the plan together? It turned out pretty nicely for you, didn’t it?’
‘I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about. I’d never seen you before you pitched up at school with Millie.’
Beth lets out a disbelieving snort. ‘When Nathan and I met, he told me he was a wine dealer. He also told me that his mother was in a care home with dementia, made me believe that I’d been burgled and even abducted my dog, before “rescuing” him back for me.’
‘Why would he do that?’ asks Alice.
Beth shrugs her shoulders. ‘For the money, in the short term – he stole some jewellery and personal possessions that might have fetched a few hundred pounds, although their sentimental value was a lot higher. And I paid a ransom, for want of a better word, to get my dog back, which would have gone straight into his pocket.’
Alice looks at her, bewildered.
‘But Nathan likes to play the long-game, so in creating those distressing situations, not only did he earn financially from them, but he earned my trust – made me think he was my saviour.’
Alice remembers Nathan making her feel exactly the same way. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.
‘And when th
e time was right, he pounced,’ says Beth with tears in her eyes. ‘When he knew he had my trust – when he knew I felt secure – he stole one hundred and fifty thousand pounds of my family’s money.’
Alice’s eyes widen, unblinking as she stares at Beth.
‘But why would Nathan need your money? He had more than enough of his own when I met him.’
‘He didn’t have a pot to piss in,’ says Beth scathingly. ‘Everything he came to you with was ours – he took every penny that my mother had, and didn’t the pair of you have a grand old time spending it. I bet you couldn’t quite believe your luck, could you? But whilst you were living the high life, my mother was slowly dying of embarrassment and shame.’
Alice’s blood runs cold.
‘It broke her heart and took her soul. It was everything she and my dad had worked for, and without it, she couldn’t carry on living in the house that she cherished, the house that she had shared with my father.’ Beth’s face crumples as the tears come. ‘And I allowed him to do it.’
A part of Alice wants to reach out to her old friend, but she stops herself – the trust that they’d once shared shattered.
‘So she sold the house, and less than two weeks later died in her sleep, her pride unable to survive the move.’ Beth blows her nose on a tissue.
‘I’m sorry, but—’ begins Alice, wondering how any of this has anything to do with her, but Beth cuts her off.
‘She didn’t speak to me again after what happened. And above all else, I’ll never forgive him for that.’ She looks at Alice. ‘So, what did you do with all our money? Did he pay off the house? Did he plough it all into AT Designs? Or did the pair of you just have a fine time spending it? Either way, you’ve not done too badly out of my family’s life’s work, have you?’
‘I think you’ve got the wrong man,’ says Alice. ‘And you’ve certainly got the wrong woman. I was more than capable of standing on my own two feet when I met Nathan, financially, if not emotionally. Tom received a significant inheritance after the death of his parents and it was largely put into the company, which in turn paid off the mortgage. I was totally self-sufficient by the time I met Nathan. I didn’t take anything from him, nor did he offer. The house is mine, the company is mine, the site in Japan will be mine.’