Page 24 of His Best Mistake

“No wonder you let her off scot-free. Is this why you’ve been so distant recently?”

“Yes.”

“Right.”

Cora fell silent then, ashen, shaking, and Jack just didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t make this better. A moment later she swallowed hard and got to her feet. “Excuse me,” she said, her voice thick. “I need to take a moment.”

Feeling as if he was being stabbed in the heart with a thousand tiny needles, Jack watched her go into the kitchen and heard the sound of the tap running, a glass being filled, and he downed another glass of whisky, wishing he could rewind time. His sister had always been there for him, and he’d repaid that loyalty by sleeping with her enemy. After nearly thirty years of looking out for her and trying to protect her as far as he could, he’d let her down and hurt her. It was the second time in his life he’d failed someone he loved and the guilt was overwhelming.

When Cora came back and sat down, Jack looked at her warily, just about managing to keep a lid on all the stuff churning around inside him. For the first time in for ever he couldn’t read what she was thinking. Her face was chillingly devoid of any kind of emotion. He wondered if they’d ever recover from this.

“Well, I must say, you’ve got to hand it to her,” said Cora. “Pregnancy is quite a move.”

“It’s not a move. It was an accident. And very probably my fault.”

“Sure,” said his sister with a cold, disbelieving laugh. “Of course it was. I know what you said about her and Brad, and I know you believe her, but I don’t. Not one little bit. She’s a lying bitch and she’s hoodwinked you. So what are you going to do?”

“I asked her to marry me.”

Cora’s eyes widened with shock and incredulity and absolute horror. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“It seemed right.”

“And?” she said, and held her breath.

“She said no.”

“Thank God for that. Having her as a sister-in-law would be deeply unpleasant. Although I’m surprised she didn’t bite your hand off. Does she know how much money you have?”

“She’s not after my money.”

“So you think.”

“I suggested we move in together for the duration of the pregnancy, but she said no to that too.”

“She’s not being very cooperative, is she?”

“Not particularly,” said Jack with a frown.

Cora shrugged. “So you just leave her to get on with it and move on.”

“I can’t do that,” he said, and it was one thing in this whole mess that he did know. “It tears me apart to know that I’ve hurt you about as badly as I possibly could, and I’ve felt guilty about what happened every minute of every day, but I just can’t ignore this. I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry, Cora, but I just can’t. If anything happened to her and the baby I don’t know if I could bear it.”

As the moments ticked by, he saw the rigidity of his sister’s face soften minutely and a tiny crack appeared in the ice. “No. I can understand that,” said Cora flatly. “I suppose.”

“Will you be all right?”

“Will you?” she countered, pointedly looking at the near-empty bottle.

“Eventually.”

Finally Cora got to her feet. “Look, Jack,” she said, picking up her bag, her expression still pretty unforgiving. “This has all come as a massive shock and it’s way too much to process at the moment. I need some time. And right now, I can’t be here. I’m in danger of saying something I might regret for ever. So I’ll be in touch.”

And with that, she put her bag over her shoulder and left.

*

“So you’re the woman who slept with my fiancé and is now pregnant with my brother’s baby.”

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