Page 50 of My Husband's Wife
Forty-One
Yawning, Madison feels the weight of her tiredness creeping through her bones. It’s Millie and Deepak’s big day and Theo wasn’t happy that she wanted to go to work but it’s not fair to leave all the organising to Orla and Tammy. Besides, she needs to get out of the cottage for a while.
She doesn’t trust Theo and things have gone from weird to weirder. This morning, she left him with Emily and he didn’t even say goodbye. Here she was, trundling along the corridors of the Sea Horse Hotel, hoping to not bump into Eva.
She thought back to Eva’s social media and wondered if she should speak to her. Her dead husband Hugo did look a lot like Theo, but it was obvious that her husband didn’t come back to life, change his eye colour and morph into Theo.
‘Hey, boss.’ Orla drags a make-up trolley along and carries a huge bag of hair-styling gadgets and tools over her shoulders.
‘Sorry I’m running late. I had a flat and I had to change it.’ Tammy hurries down the corridor while brushing dust from her trousers with one hand and wheeling another trolley with the other.
‘No worries, ladies. Let’s get set up.’ She opens the door to the hotel spa and salon and sees three beauticians setting up in front of the mirrored wall. The smell of chlorine from the pool hits her nostrils, and the humidity makes her wonder if the bride’s hair might turn to frizz.
Someone opens the door at the other end of the room and a woman in her fifties enters with a giggle. She almost falls through the door because her slippers are too big. Madison recognises her as the bride-to-be’s mother. Then the rest of the party of women and girls gather around.
Tammy and Orla continue to wheel their trolleys towards the hair station, and Madison can do nothing but stare as Eva walks in.
‘Eva, hi,’ she says but Eva doesn’t reply. The noise around them continues but it’s as if Madison can’t hear it and that the only two people in the room are her and Eva.
‘Hi,’ Eva says with a quiver in her voice.
Madison opens her mouth to speak but she can’t think of what to say. Last time she saw Eva, the woman had crashed into a fence and Theo was acting oddly; in fact, he hasn’t acted normal since that moment. She also knows that Eva’s husband Zach came to Theo’s cabin to talk business with another woman, and that they were a couple, so what was going on? In the name of female solidarity, she should tell Eva about her husband, but then she thinks about how much she’s already upset Eva by mentioning her hair problem. The last thing she’d want to do was speak up and find that she’d got the wrong end of the stick, especially as she had been a bit ditzy lately.
With all the ladies seated, Orla and Tammy start working on the bridal party’s hairstyles. Madison turns away from Eva in order to grab five minutes to think. This staring intently at each other isn’t doing either of them any good. Madison reaches into the shoulder bag that Orla was carrying. She pulls out the curling tongs and places them on the dressing table. Again, her stare catches Eva’s in their reflections. Madison looks down.
It’s hot. Madison feels this creeping sensation reaching for her neck, then her chin and cheeks. She fans herself with a hotel flyer and gasps for breath. Why is this happening? She hasn’t been this anxious for years, not since breaking up with her ex. The little voice in her head tells her, you can’t trust him. He was out last night and he told you he wasn’t. He threw that ring in the bin. He booked a viewing on a house in Scotland and he didn’t even run it by you first. He’s been lying and you keep forgetting because you have baby brain. Baby brain, baby brain, baby brain. She wants to yell back at it. She’s not even pregnant anymore but she does wake up every five minutes wondering if Emily’s okay. She inhales sharply and catches Eva’s reflection in the mirror again. This time Eva isn’t looking at her; she’s talking to Millie and at the same time, she’s pulling at her hair and the hairpiece is coming a bit loose.
Theo was looking Eva up on Instagram. Why?
She looks up and Eva is gone. She places her hand on the dressing table to steady herself, but instead of touching the desk, she leans on the curling tongs and yells.
Orla runs over. ‘What happened?’
Madison breathes in through her teeth, trying to control the scream that is dying to burst out. In a panic, she looks at her hand. There is a thin red line across her palm, nothing too bad but enough to scare her. ‘I burnt myself.’
Orla drags her towards a sink then places her hand under the cold tap and runs it fast. ‘Just keep it there for a minute. Doesn’t look like you’ve done any real damage. Why don’t you go home? Tammy and I have got this.’
She glances back while still holding her hand under the tap. Everyone else looks a picture of calm. Millie’s mother pops a bottle of champagne and the others cheer. ‘Actually, I think I will… go home that is. Emily didn’t sleep well and I was awake most of the night.’ She doesn’t tell her it was Theo’s fault she didn’t sleep, not Emily’s. That would lead to a phone call later and Madison doesn’t want to chat to Orla or Tammy that evening. She needs to work out what is going on without any distractions.
‘I’ll text you when we’re done, so you know everything is okay.’ Orla smiles.
Madison heads out through the door that Eva came through. She leans against the wall and takes a few deep breaths, her hands shaking. Why didn’t she say something to Eva, anything? She goes through everything in her mind she wished she’d said. Eva, can I speak to you for a minute when I’ve set up? Eva, I need to tell you something, your husband came to Theo’s office with another woman and they were holding hands. Eva, I know I upset you when I mentioned your head… Eva, my husband-to-be is not your dead husband. You need to move on…
She has to find Eva. She doubts she’ll say half of what is on her mind, but she has to tell Eva that Zach is a cheat, at the very least. However odd she thinks Eva is, she doesn’t deserve to be cheated on. Madison darts from room to room. She’s checked out the ceremony room, the function room, the bar, reception. The other assistant, Hallie, is arranging a bunch of roses in a vase. ‘Do you know where Eva went?’
Hallie shakes her head. ‘No, sorry. I know you, don’t I?’
Madison forces a smile, not wanting to discuss her cancelling the Sea Horse. ‘I’m the hairdresser. Are you sure you don’t know where Eva could be? I just wanted a quick word about Millie and Deepak’s wedding arrangements.’
‘Have you tried the function room?’
‘Yes, she wasn’t there, but I’ll keep looking.’
She jogs to Eva’s office and knocks but no one answers. She nudges the door open and Eva isn’t in there. While glancing through the window, she spots Eva on the bridge, picking at her head. Eva stares into the distance before turning and walking away from the building.
Madison runs outside but by the time she reaches the bridge, Eva is nowhere to be seen. She leans on the wood and stares at her reflection in the pond. The burn on her palm stings a little. A few blonde curls are caught in the wood’s grains but there’s something more unsettling than that. There is no one else outside, not even a random smoker. The hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle. ‘Eva,’ she calls, but no one answers. Her phone beeps and she opens the message from the withheld number.
He’s a liar. You can’t trust him and he’s not who you think he is. Don’t marry him.
