Page 44 of My Husband's Wife
Maybe she imagined that Eva had been frowning, as she seems normal now. She has a lot of scabs on the back of her head and a lot of missing hair. Madison doesn’t see this a lot but sometimes a person comes in and it’s almost a cry for help, which is why she keeps the card of a good therapist at hand. It’s actually Theo’s therapist; she’s been wonderful and patient with him so she recommends her to everyone. She did after all recommend her to Theo after getting help herself years ago. Maybe Eva’s frown was because of the state of her head and, for a second, Madison wonders what Eva could have gone through that would make her pick her scalp until it was raw.
‘I know someone who can help.’ There, Madison has said it. She chats away about how good the therapist is, and she is sure that Eva’s eyes are glassing over. Is she about to cry? Has Madison said too much or not enough?
‘Damn, I’m running late. I have to go.’ Eva drops some money on the counter and darts away from her.
Madison feels bad now. She runs to the door and calls out, but Eva ignores her and gets into the car and drives away. She heads back into the treatment room and lies back on the couch, turning the panpipe music up. It was like Eva wanted to say more, but what? She decides to forget it. Eva is not her problem.
As her thoughts drift, they go back to the wedding ring that Theo claims to have found in their garden. Love you forever. She also knows there was someone outside watching them, and then there are the calls and messages that Theo keeps receiving. She should be looking forward to her wedding, but something is telling her to halt the plans. Everything is moving too fast. She’s going to sell the salon. They’re going to move. They have a baby. Her heart begins to bang. All the calming music in the world can’t take away the worries that are brewing inside her. Is it pre-wedding jitters? What if she’s making the biggest mistake of her life?
Orla barges into the treatment room, yanking her out of her thoughts. ‘That customer who just left was in an accident and it looks like Theo’s involved.’
Thirty-Six
Madison darts out of the salon, heart racing like she’s about to go into cardiac arrest. Theo had called earlier to say he was going to bring Emily to see her during his lunch break. What if Emily has been injured? All she can think about is her baby. She clacks up the hill in her low heels, struggling to put one foot in front of the other as her legs grow more jelly-like with each step. She sees Theo’s car ahead and it’s in the middle of the road. Then she spots Eva standing on the pavement, her car crashed into a fence. ‘Theo,’ she calls but he can’t hear her. He’s too busy talking to Eva.
Where’s Emily? He’s not holding her. She must be hurt. As she reaches them, she runs over to Theo. ‘Emily,’ she says under her breath. ‘Has anyone been hurt?’ she calls out.
‘No.’ He steps towards the car and lifts Emily out of her seat. Emily’s still asleep. Relief floods through Madison’s veins, and she almost wants to slump with relief but instead she snatches Emily and holds her closely, rocking her tiny baby in her arms.
Madison looks over at Eva. ‘Are you okay?’
‘She’s fine. I just stopped to see if she needed an ambulance but I think she’s okay. It was just a little accident.’ Theo looks at Eva coldly, and in that moment, Madison feels like she’s interrupted them. She feels like a spare part who has just turned up and isn’t welcome given the looks between her husband-to-be and Eva.
‘I am worried about you, though, Eva. You seem to think I’m someone else. You might have a concussion and not know it.’
‘No, no, no. I haven’t even hit my head.’ Eva looks at him with furrowed brows.
Emily starts to cry as Theo helps Eva back her car out of the fence. Madison knows Emily needs a feed and she needs to get her daughter away from the chaos. ‘Theo, I’m going to take her to the salon and feed her. Eva, I’m glad you’re okay.’
Madison kisses Emily’s soft head as she enters the salon and heads towards the treatment room to feed her. Her breasts are starting to leak, responding to Emily’s cries.
‘Is she okay?’ Orla asks as Madison stands in the treatment room doorway.
She nods. ‘Yes, nothing to worry about. Our last customer hit a fence and Theo was just seeing if she was okay.’ With that, Madison closes the door on everyone and sits on the treatment table. She pulls down her top and unclips her nursing bra, ready for Emily to latch on. Her baby suckles away eagerly in huge gulps until her tired eyes start to close again.
There is a slight tap on the door and Theo opens it. ‘Hi.’ He walks in and pulls up the chair from the corner of the room, the one she normally throws used towels onto. ‘She’s gone now. At least she crashed into a fence and not us,’ he says with a smile.
All Madison keeps thinking about is what she heard Theo saying to Eva: that she mistook him for someone else and that she might have a concussion. That’s the second time Eva has mistaken Theo for another person. She called him Hugo when they had their meeting at the Sea Horse Hotel. What seemed more disturbing was the way Theo spoke to her, like he was insinuating she was crazy. She’s also a bit confused about Theo and how quick he’d been to diagnose Eva with concussion when she claimed not to have hurt her head. And why did he say those things so loudly in front of Madison? Did he think she’d heard more than she had? She wished she’d appeared on the scene a minute or two earlier because she feels as though she’d interrupted something.
Madison has a feeling that Eva didn’t come to the salon just for a haircut; she’d come to see her. Could Theo be lying? Doubt creeps in and she doesn’t know what to do with that doubt. Was it pre-wedding nerves or a genuine worry? Or maybe it was the stress of being a new parent.
‘Eva seems to think she knows you. The way she looks at you…’ She doesn’t know where the sentence is going so she leaves it hanging.
‘How could I know her? That’s ridiculous. The woman is mad. She seems to think I’m someone else.’
The woman is mad. Madison doesn’t like the way he said that but she’s going to let it lie for now. It’s in that moment she realises she doesn’t know Theo as well as she thought. Their whole relationship has mostly been played out in his cottage. She feels claustrophobic, which is ironic as he claims to be agoraphobic. She wants to laugh but that would look mad. Would he then accuse her of being a mad woman?
Their wedding is just around the corner and she has this overwhelming urge to postpone everything, but she can’t put her finger on the exact reason why.
Thirty-Seven
Madison can’t wait to get back home after the odd day she’s had. She’d waved Orla and Tammy off early, as their last customer had cancelled, and now she’s pulling up outside the cottage, just as Theo is about to leave for the therapy session she insisted he booked. After a quick kiss on the drive, Theo hands Emily to her and Buster runs circles around their feet.
‘I’ll see you about seven,’ he says before he gets into his car and reverses down the long driveway, leaving only the sound of the crows squawking above.
‘Hello, my gorgeous girl.’ Emily grabs her red locks and gently tugs them.
On entering the cottage, she notices that Theo has packed a couple of boxes. There’s a pile of printouts on the coffee table. With Emily in one arm, she bends down and takes a look. It’s the specifications of a house to rent near Loch Ness. Theo has written a note on it, saying that they can view it a week after their wedding. Her lip quivers as, once again, she tries to digest how fast everything is moving. She calls Camille, but her sister doesn’t answer.
