Page 109 of The First Mistake

‘So, you’re telling me that he brought nothing to this marriage, nothing of any financial value?’

Alice shakes her head. ‘Not a penny, and yet now I’m told he’s entitled to half of everything I own.’

‘You’ve spoken to a solicitor?’ asks Beth in surprise.

‘Yes, earlier today,’ admits Alice. ‘I’ve asked for some advice on where I stand if we separate. Something’s not been right for a while, but seeing his reaction to you at Olivia’s party yesterday, I knew for definite. I guess you must have really surprised him.’

Beth smiles wryly. ‘He wouldn’t have been expecting me, that’s for sure.’

‘Now I know why you went out of your way to avoid him,’ says Alice. ‘I’d not thought about it before, but last night, I remembered all the times you could have bumped into each other, yet every time you’d somehow manipulated yourself out of it. You must have both felt like you were sitting on a timebomb, working out ways to avoid each other whenever I was around. But yesterday you made a conscious decision to do what you did. Why now, Beth?’

‘You don’t get it, do you?’ says Beth. ‘That day, when I saw you both outside my flat in Guildford, was also the last time I sawhim– until yesterday.’

Alice feels winded. ‘What?’

‘He disappeared off the face of the earth and it was only a good few years later that I saw a picture in the paper, of you receiving a design award. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to recognize the woman in the car that day, but I knew it was you the minute I saw it. So I used you to track him down.’

That admission, more than anything else, cuts Alice the deepest.

‘Now I’m here to claim back what’s mine.’

‘You wantmoney?’ asks Alice, her voice tight. ‘That’swhat this is all about?’

‘I want what’s rightfully mine. What he stole from my family.’

‘And you’ve waited this long to get it?’

‘I needed to take my time, work out the best way to do it, pounce at the most opportune moment, just like he did with me. I had to be sure he had the money to give.’

‘So how are you going to go about getting it back?’

Beth looks down into her lap and wipes away the tear that is threatening to fall. ‘By blackmailing him.’

Alice lets out a derisory laugh. ‘With what?’

‘I had hoped that making him look like he was having an affair would do the trick. That by the time he found out it was me, he’d be so close to losing you that he’d do anything to make me stop.’

‘So, the texts ...?’ starts Alice.

Beth nods. ‘And all the other things ... the hotel bill, the earring, the flowers, the tyres ...’

‘That was allyou?’ asks Alice, disbelievingly. ‘But why? Why would you do that to us? To me?’

‘Because I hated you for having the life that I was supposed to be having. You had itall... the perfect job, the perfect children, supposedly the perfect husband ... I just wanted you to hurt as much as I had been hurt. But I went too far. Olivia didn’t deserve to be brought into this.’

Alice cocks her head to one side as a new fire sparks within her. She’ll take whatever Beth throws at her, but not if she’s going to bring her children into it. They’re off limits.

‘Olivia?’ she questions.

Beth looks anywhere but at Alice. ‘I made a formal complaint to the school about her,’ she says quietly.

‘Oh my God!’ Alice exclaims.

‘I’m sorry,’ says Beth, barely audible.

Alice goes to get out of the car before Beth leans across and grapples with the door.

‘Please – wait,’ she says.

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