Page 45 of Only for Christmas

‘I figured they owed me some answers.’

A silver Mercedes swept by so fast that Sarah had to pull Harper away from the road. She glared at the driver, hidden behind tinted glass. Was that…? Surely not?

‘I’m the injured party,’ Harper continued, seemingly oblivious to their near miss with the car. ‘Me and my kids. Right? But do they get that? Hell, no. They stood there all superior and made it seem like I was the one acting unreasonable.’

Sarah moved to the outside of Harper, shielding her from the splash coming up from the traffic. ‘That must have been hard.’

‘It was humiliating. She looked at me like I was a piece of shit. And then she said if I didn’t leave she’d call security. Man, I wanted to smack her pretty face. I didn’t, of course. Sense told me I’d be the one arrested, so I left. I feel so damned angry… and cheated. I never asked for any of this.’ She opened her arms, letting the rain drizzle down her face. ‘How come my life gets upended and I don’t get a say in it? It’s like, he calls all the shots. He does what he likes and I’m expected to accept it without a fuss. Well, you know, I don’t feel much like playing nice.’

Sarah managed to grab Harper before she fell into the path of a double-decker. ‘I know that feeling.’

‘You divorced?’

‘Jilted. Come on, let’s keep moving; the rain’s coming down harder.’

Harper hooked her arm through Sarah’s. ‘Jilted? You mean, on your wedding day?’

Sarah wondered how much to divulge, especially following her conversation with Lucas, where she’d offered to help Harper, only to be told she was ‘too messed up’ to be of any use. But what he didn’t realise was that only someone who had been through hell could truly understand the level of despair, rage and torment a person experienced when tossed aside like that. Harper needed an ally.

‘Yep, in front of all my friends and family,’ Sarah said, as the bridge lanterns flickered a few times before coming on. ‘If he’d wanted to back out, why couldn’t he have done it a week before? Or even the day before? Why wait until everyone was congregated at the church before deciding he didn’t want to marry me?’ She felt Harper squeeze her arm. ‘He’d made this whole speech about how weddings were outdated, and as an independent woman I shouldn’t be given away by my father. We should walk independently into the church and meet at the altar. Whoever arrived first would get the ball rolling.’ Sarah sighed. ‘Part of me wonders if he did that deliberately to maximise my humiliation.’

‘Men are arseholes.’

Sarah sighed. ‘I agree.’

‘Except Lucas. He’s one of the good ones.’

Sarah wasn’t about to be drawn into that conversation.

They reached Oxford Road and crossed by the busy Boathouse pub. It was getting close to Christmas; the office parties were in full swing.

‘Did you ever confront him?’ Harper asked as they walked up the road, arm in arm.

‘Not immediately – he disappeared off the grid. Even his family had no idea where he was. Having sent a lame WhatsApp message the day after apologising for running off and saying he needed space, he vanished.’ Sarah noticed a set of headlights switch off as they approached her building. The silver Mercedes again. Stephen wouldn’t go that far… would he?

‘What did you do?’

Sarah had momentarily lost her place in the conversation. ‘Oh… er… I didn’t do anything, not for a couple of weeks. I was too stunned. I think I kept expecting him to come back. When he didn’t, I moved in with my parents for a while.’ Sarah pointed ahead. ‘This is us. Mind the steps – they’re slippery.’

When they reached the main door, Sarah let Harper go ahead. She glanced back. The silver Mercedes was still in darkness, the engine idling.

‘That’s Lucas’s place on the left,’ Sarah said, locking the main door behind her. ‘I’m the next floor up.’

Harper wiped her feet on the mat. ‘Have you heard from your ex since?’

Sarah climbed the stairs. ‘About a month after I’d moved into this place, he showed up at my parents’ house saying he wanted to talk. They refused to tell him where I was, but I agreed to meet him. I was curious to hear what he had to say.’

‘What did he say?’

Sarah unlocked her door and headed inside. ‘He was sorry and that he’d panicked, but he still loved me, and he wanted us to get back together. Fred! I’m home!’

Frantic noises came from the bedroom, followed by the scurrying of feet on her wooden floorboards. He’d been on her bed again, the little blighter.

Harper nudged Sarah’s arm. ‘Don’t leave me hanging; what did you say to your ex?’

‘I told him to piss off,’ she said, dropping down and enveloping Fred in a hug.

‘You did?’

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