Page 4 of Surprises on the Scottish Isle

‘I’m sorry, Tara, I—’ He gulped. ‘I’m sorry.’ And before he ended the call she heard him whisper, ‘Be happy.’

As if she could ever be happy again…

Tara’s mother found her sobbing on her bed, her heart broken into a thousand pieces, her dreams of a future with Cal shattered on the rocks of her unrequited love.

Chapter 1

10 Years Later

Sod Dougie, he could have the lot as far as she was concerned. Tara McTaigh was done. If he wanted to move his mistress into the house that he and Tara had once lived, loved and laughed in, then let him. But he was going to have to pay dearly for the privilege.

Personally, she didn’t care if the damned house burnt to the ground, but shedidcare thatDougiewanted it. Since he’d informed her that he wanted a divorce, making his life difficult was what had kept her going. These past few months had been hard – seven years of marriage down the drain and very little to show for it: just this house and her memories.

Was she bitter? Yes, absolutely.

But her bitterness had finally run its course, as evidenced by her decision to let him have the house. She was simply too weary to fight any more. Anyway, what was the point? Dougie would get it one way or another, whether he bought her out as part of the divorce settlement or bought it on the open market when it was put up for sale. Dougie had always managed to get what he wanted. He had a knack for it.

Tara made the call. ‘You can have the house. Just give me my half of the proceeds.’

‘I’ve changed my mind.’ Dougie’s tone was mocking.

She didn’t rise to the bait. ‘In that case, I’ll contact the estate agent in the morning.’

Her soon-to-be ex-husband hesitated. ‘What’s the catch?’

‘There isn’t one.’

His incredulous laugh made her wince. ‘I find that hard to believe.’

‘I don’t care. Believe what you like. Let’s get this over with.’

‘It didn’t have to be like this.’ His voice had softened.

Tara recognised the tactic. He was worried she might change her mind, so he wanted to keep her onside. ‘You made certain that it did,’ she retorted, but she sounded weary and resigned, rather than bitter and angry.

She hoped it was a step in the right direction. For her own sake, she had to move on, and it wasn’t as though she still loved him. He’d killed that particular emotion when he’d informed her that the woman he’d been cheating on her with was pregnant. What a bloody cliché! Tara felt like a poorly written character in a badly scripted film.

Cheating husband? Tick.

Younger woman? Tick.

Pregnant mistress? Tick.

Unsuspecting, heartbroken wife? Tick, tick,tick!

But that wasn’t strictly true, she acknowledged, after the call ended and a sum for her share of the property and its contents had been agreed. She’d experienced true heartbreak once, and this wasn’t it. She had loved Dougie, and what he’d done had hurt, but he hadn’t been the love of her life. Which was just as well, really.

For quite some time Tara had suspected he was being unfaithful. And she was pretty certain that The Pregnant One hadn’t been the first. She also suspected The Pregnant One wouldn’t be the last. Leopards, spots, and all that jazz.

However, she had a feeling Dougie might find it more difficult to extricate himself from his newest relationship once children were involved. Yes,children– his mistress was having twins.

Tara thanked God that she and Dougie hadn’t had any kids. It would have made an awful situation completely unbearable.

In some ways, she blamed herself for allowing their marriage to go on for as long as it had. She should have ended it the first time she’d suspected him of cheating. But it had been just a suspicion, no concrete proof. He had slickly and convincingly talked his way out of it, until Tara believed she must have imagined the smell of unfamiliar perfume on his skin, and accepted his flimsy excuses for not being home when he’d told her he would be, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Bored with going over the same old thing, Tara made her way up to the large attic which she’d converted into her workroom. Now that the decision to move out of the marital home had been made, she urgently needed to start thinking about where she was going to live.

Wherever it was, it had to be big enough for her huge collection of doll’s houses and all the paraphernalia that was used to make them. The upside was that properties in Edinburgh were expensive, so her portion of the divorce settlement would be substantial. The downside was that properties in Edinburgh were expensive, so her portion of the divorce settlement wouldn’t buy her the space she needed.

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