Page 35 of A Secret Escape

A man broke into her house.

Milly felt a flush of shame. She’d made the mistake of judging from the outside. Of thinking that everything in Nicole’s life was pretty perfect and that she could buy whatever wasn’t. But that wasn’t true, was it? You couldn’t buy anonymity.

And while she’d been wallowing in her problems, Nicole had been battling her own. And she hadn’t known or even suspected.

“You didn’t call me. You didn’t even tell me.”

“Well, by then we weren’t really talking, and I hadn’t responded to all your trauma with Richard, so I didn’t feel particularly deserving of your sympathy. It’s fine. Everything was fine. I have a panic button. The police came quickly. I was lucky. It’s in the past.” Nicole grabbed her phone from the bed and dropped it into her bag.

Not so lucky, Milly thought, and not in the past if her reaction to Joel was anything to go by.

“How did he get in? You have massive walls and gates and security.”

“Yeah, well, it turns out that my security guy wasn’t as loyal as I’d thought. He took a bribe. The plan was to kidnap me and demand a ransom. Can we talk about something else?”

Milly was flooded with horror. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.I should have been there for you. I would have been there for you.” Emotion filled her chest and rose to her throat. “How did we reach this point, Nic? We used to tell each other everything.”

Nicole gave a tired smile. “We were kids, Milly. What we had to tell each other wasn’t exactly life-changing, was it?”

“It shouldn’t matter. Maybe the conversations get tougher, but when have we ever not been able to talk to each other? If anything, it’s even more important that we talk about the life-changing stuff. Isn’t that what friendship is?”

“In theory.” Nicole paused, as if she was about to say something else, but then she shook her head. “Maybe we just expected too much.”

“I refuse to believe that.” Milly felt as if she was holding tightly to something that was slipping through her fingers.

“I let you down,” Nicole said softly. “I wasn’t there for you, and we’ll never get past that.”

“Yes, we will. We can fix this. The blame isn’t all yours. It’s mine too.” She could see that now. “I was upset. You’d shown that you didn’t need me, and I was determined to show you that I didn’t need you either. It was easier to keep my distance than have a frank conversation. I’m not good at difficult conversations, you know that. Ask Richard if you don’t believe me. I let him leave messages so that I don’t have to actually talk to him. I’m pathetic.”

Nicole gave a faint smile. “Not pathetic. I get it with Richard. But us? If there was one thing you and I did well, it was talk.”

“And that’s still the case.” Milly felt terrible. She’d been unforgiving and unyielding. It hadn’t occurred to her that something bad might be happening in Nicole’s life. In trying to protect herself from more hurt and be more assertive, she’d kept herself at a distance, but was she really going to let pride and fear of rejection stop her from trying to fix what they’d broken?

“Don’t go. We’ll talk. Right now. I want to hear about everything that has happened to you. I want you to tell me about Justin.”

Her phone started to ring, but she ignored it.

“You have a job,” Nicole said. “People relying on you. You should answer it.”

“No, I can—” Her phone rang again, and this time she checked it and saw a message from Lorna marked urgent. She sighed. “You’re right, I do need to answer this. But promise me you won’t go anywhere. Lock the door behind me, and this evening, after Zoe has gone to bed, we’ll talk. Please?”

Nicole looked at her for a long moment and then nodded.

“If that’s what you want.”

“It is.” And it didn’t matter how uncomfortable the conversation made her, they were going to have it. “Cancel that cab.”

Chapter8Connie

Connie spent the morning cleaning the house and doing laundry. It crossed her mind that she could wander over to Forest Nest and see what was happening, but since she’d handed over the reins to Milly two years ago she’d been careful to limit her presence around the place. She was conscious that appearing too often might make it seem as if she didn’t trust her daughter. But it had been hard to relinquish something that had been such a big part of her life for so long. She made herself available for busy times, but they had a good, strong team supporting them, and she was rarely needed. Which had turned out to be both good and bad.

There were days when she wondered if she’d done the right thing by passing over responsibility. Having devoted the best part of her life to nurturing and growing the business, it felt strange that it was no longer a priority. Forest Nest featured in her earliest memories. She remembered sitting at the desk in her mother’s office with a coloring book, aged seven, waiting for Peggy to finish work for the day so that they could do their “walk around” together. When school had demanded more of her time during the week,she’d helped in all her spare moments. She’d done whatever needed doing, from sweeping floors to making up beds with fresh sheets.

She’d started working at Forest Nest full-time when she’d left school, and when her mother had decided it was time for Connie to run the place, she’d given free rein to her ideas. It was Connie who had seen the potential of tapping into the luxury end of the market. She’d watched what was happening around her and knew there were people who wanted to enjoy the wildness of nature while maintaining all their creature comforts. Connie had upgraded the cabins and built new ones. She’d offered creature comforts and more. Bookings had soared.

And now it was Milly’s turn. The café had been Milly’s idea, and Connie had to admit that it had been a good one. The place was always buzzing with people, and being able to enjoy breakfast and lunch on the deck overlooking the water had proved to be a popular option for those who didn’t want to cook.

Watching her daughter grow into the role had been satisfying, and Connie had been ready to take a step back and do more with her life, but then Richard had walked out and her life had been given over to supporting her daughter and granddaughter.

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