Page 86 of A Secret Escape

“But—”

“Don’t fuss, Milly. I really am fine.” She didn’t feel at all fine, but she had to hope it would settle in time.

“I interrupted you. I didn’t realize you had company.”

“It’s not a problem. Brian was about to leave when you arrived.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but she didn’t want Milly to feel worse than she evidently already did. “He teaches a wilderness-survival course first thing on Monday, so he doesn’t like to stay out too late.”

“How long have you—”

“Been friends? A few weeks. We met horse riding.”And bonded over the stresses of parenting adult children.“Tell me what has happened. You don’t arrive at my door with Zoe and an overnight bag unless something is wrong.”

The room started to spin, and Connie sat back down at the kitchen table.

Something was very wrong.

Milly turned to Zoe. “It’s getting late. You should probably get to bed. Is it okay if we stay here tonight, Mum?”

Stay? She’d been hoping to crawl into bed via a hot bath, but that wouldn’t happen now. She resolutely ignored how bad she felt and focused on her daughter.

“You know you’re always welcome. Have you eaten? Can I make you anything?”

Zoe shook her head. “I’m okay, thanks. Dad and I stopped for burgers on the way home. I’ll go straight to bed. But, Mum—”

“I’m fine, honey, honestly.” Milly reached out and hugged her. “Just a bit tired. It has been a long week. Don’t worry about me.”

“Right.” Zoe hesitated, as if she had something more to say, but then seemed to change her mind and instead headed upstairs to the bedroom she used whenever she stayed, her feet clomping heavily on the stairs.

That is someone carrying a heavy burden, Connie thought.

“She was with Richard this weekend.” She poured Milly a glass of ice water. “Did something happen?”

Milly sat down at the table, and her face crumpled. “Sorry. I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry.”

“Oh, sweetheart.” Connie put the glass on the table and sat down next to her daughter. Milly’s anguish transferred itself to her like an electric current. She grabbed the box of tissues from the end of the table and handed one to Milly.

Milly blew her nose. “Richard insisted on bringing Zoe right to the door, and he came into the house with her bag. I couldn’t stop him.”

Connie had always thought that Milly’s desire to keep the boathouse a Richard-free zone was understandable but impractical in the long term. “Does it matter that he has seen the boathouse?”

“Unfortunately the boathouse wasn’t the only thing he saw. Nicole arrived back while he was still there.”

“Oh dear. So now he knows she is here. Well, presumably you asked him not to say anything to anyone. Is that what is wrong? You’re worried he might tell someone Nicole is hiding out with you?” She didn’t see how that worry could have caused Milly to look as if her world had ended.

“That’s not what’s wrong.” Milly blew her nose again. “There’s something I haven’t told you. About Nicole.” She scrunched the tissue into a ball. “We had a sort of blip in our friendship. We lost touch for eighteen months.”

Whatever Connie had been expecting to hear, it wasn’t that.

The two girls had always been such good friends. Inseparable, she’d thought. She’d honestly believed that nothing would ever come between them. There had even been occasions when she’d envied their friendship and wished she could have found something similar in her own life. She had friends, of course, plenty of friends, but nothing that came close to the bond that Milly and Nicole shared.

“When I say we lost touch, what I really mean is she ghosted me.” Milly slumped over the table, the misery rolling off her in waves. “She didn’t answer my calls or messages. From the moment I mentioned that Richard had walked out and that he was having an affair, she stopped responding. We have been there for each other through thick and thin, and then I hit the lowest point of my life and she wasn’t there for me.”

And Connie knew how that would have made Milly feel.

She put her arm around her daughter.

“I had no idea. I assumed the two of you were talking all the time.” And she couldn’t begin to imagine why Nicole would have done that. It didn’t make sense to her. But it helped to explain why Milly had leaned on her so heavily since Richard had left. She hadn’t had her friend supporting her. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t want you to worry. And I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know what I’d done wrong. And then out of the blue she called and begged me to let her stay for a while so I said yes—” Milly sniffed and pulled another tissue from the box.

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