Page 33 of Happy Days Ahead in the Cornish Village

‘Not spying, no. I came here to give you a second chance at coming home with me or, if not, then to give you the signed copy of the divorce paper and I happened to see you two together. I don’t spy.’

Ha. He doesn’t spy, instead lies, threatens and intimidates. Right. At least he’d signed the papers.

She held out her hand. ‘Thank you for signing them.’

‘Oh, I think you’ve misunderstood.’ Looking down at the envelope, he slowly and methodically tore it into four pieces before letting it fall from his fingers.

She looked down at the pieces of paper on the dried dirt. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I’d been going to give you the choice: come home with me and I’ll forgive you for foiling my plans to build over this place…’ he signalled to Wagging Tails, his lips curling down in disgust ‘…or to take the divorce papers, the house and a fair percentage of the business profits. That’s until I realised the only reason you want to divorce me is because of him.’

Again, he pointed towards Jay.

‘He is not the reason I want a divorce. I want a divorce because I don’t feel as though I know you any more.’ She bit down on her bottom lip, forcing herself not to utter what she really wanted to, swallowing back the words telling him she didn’t love him any more. That would only rile him further. She knew that.

‘More like you want to get to know him better.’ Lyle flared his nostrils.

‘No, that’s not the reason and you know it. We broke up months ago.’

‘And I bet that was so you could come running down here and into his arms. How long has it been going on, Megan? Is he the real reason you didn’t want me digging up this sorry place?’

‘What? No. I’ve only just met him. He’s only just started volunteering here. This has nothing to do with him. You know that.’

‘Umm.’ Lyle leaned forward, resting his elbows on the gate between them, and lowered his voice. ‘Or do I? Or more to the point, does my solicitor?’

Megan opened and closed her mouth. So this was what all of this was about, then? He was planning to make it look as though she’d ended their marriage because she was having an affair. Would she be entitled to less financial gains if she had been an adulterer? She wasn’t sure, but she bet Lyle was hoping so. ‘You know I haven’t been. You know that.’

Lyle smiled slowly, a small, calculated movement, and turned around.

‘You can’t do this.’

Opening his car door, Lyle paused and looked back at her. ‘Oh, but I can.’

‘You’ve still not told me how you knew where to find me…’

It was too late, the car door was shut now, the engine rumbling to life.

Standing there, she watched him drive away, taking the corner at the end of the lane too sharply, the red brake lights pumping before he disappeared around the bend.

Great. So now he was going to make her life difficult. Now he’d make certain the divorce was long and drawn out, knowing that she wouldn’t have the money to contest his arguments. She sighed. Who was she kidding? He would have done so anyway. He wouldn’t have just handed over the divorce papers, come to a mutual agreement over their finances and gone their separate ways peacefully. No, this was just another of his games, another chance for him to get one over on her, to feel as though he’d won.

Megan walked towards the gate, then, bending down and slipping her arm through the metal bars, picked up the pieces of the torn envelope. It probably wasn’t even the divorce papers. She separated the brown envelope from the paper and looked. Huh, it was. Had he really been going to give them to her? Signed?

She turned as she felt a hand on her shoulder.

‘Are you okay, lovely?’ Flora’s voice was kind, worried.

Megan nodded and held up the scraps of the envelope. ‘He was going to give me the divorce papers.’

‘Oh, why did he rip them up then?’ Flora frowned.

Megan looked from Flora to Jay, who was still standing in front of the reception area with Percy, and shook her head. She couldn’t tell Flora why. She couldn’t tell anyone. It was just one of Lyle’s mind games. He would have found another reason besides Jay to have torn the envelope up. She was surprised the reason hadn’t simply been because she was here, helping at Wagging Tails.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Well, let’s get you inside and get you a nice strong coffee, shall we?’

Megan nodded as Flora slipped her arm around her shoulder and began walking back across the courtyard. As they neared Percy and Jay, she noticed Jay say something to Percy before walking away.

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