Least Said (63 page)

‘You
left
your
mobile
phone
at
home,’
I
reminded
him.
‘You
came
back
for
it
–
but
not
before
I
had
read
the
text
that
came
through.
It
was
one
that
Kerry
sent
you.
You
may
or
may
not
remember,
but
I
do,
word
for
word.
This
is
what
it
said,
and
I
quote,
“I’m
going
to
give
you
a
weekend
to
remember.
Kerry”
and
it
was
finished
off
with
a
kiss.’

‘Yes,
Tina
told
me
at
the
time
you’d
thought
I
was
having
an
affair.
So,
you
jumped
to
entirely
the
wrong
conclusion
and
decided
to
go
off
and
get
your
own
back.’

‘If
you’d
really
listened
to
her,
you
would
have
understood
why,’
I
said
sadly.
‘You
had
been
belittling
me
for
months,
Jon,
and
you
can’t
deny
that,
so
I
suppose
I
was
vulnerable.
You
were
also
working
very
closely
with
Kerry
at
that
time.
So
reading
a
text
like
that
was
all
it
took
to
tip
me
over
the
edge
and
jump
to
a
completely
wrong
conclusion.
The
wording,
as
far
as
I
was
concerned,
confirmed
there
was
something
going
on
between
you
and
Kerry
-
a
woman
who
was
even
larger
than
I
was.’

‘But...,’

‘I
know
what
you’re
going
to
say, that
I
was
wrong,
and
I
know
that
now,’
I
shrugged,
‘the
thing
was
that
I
didn’t
know
it
then
and,
yes,
I
was
angry
and
hurt
and,
yes,
I
did
want
to
get
my
own
back.
The
only
thing
I
could
think
was
-
two can play at that game
.
’

Jon
groaned,
‘But
I
wasn’t
having
an
affair.’

‘It
doesn’t
alter
the
fact
that
I
thought
you
were
and
I
acted
–
or
re-acted
–
accordingly.’

‘It
was
that
weekend,
wasn’t
it?’

I
nodded.

‘Was
it
someone
we
knew?’

I
shook
my
head.
‘No.’

‘Was
he
better
in
bed
than
me?’

Well,
I
wasn’t
expecting
that; though
perhaps
I
should
have
been.
What
was
I
supposed
to
say,
yes,
he
had
the
stamina
and
the
endurance
of
the
athlete
he
was,
and
we
made
love
time
after
time,
after
time?

I
shook
my
head
emphatically,
looked
Jon
straight
in
the
eye
and
told
him,
‘No,
he
was
not.’

‘Are
you
still
seeing
him?’

The
truthful,
and
totally
unacceptable,
answer
was
that
I
should
have
been
seeing
him
right
at
that
moment,
but
I
stuck
to
a
version
of
the
truth
that
wouldn’t
make
matters
any
worse
than
they
already
were.
‘No.
It
wasn’t
ever
an
affair.
It
was
just
the
one
time.’
I
decided
it
wouldn’t
have
helped
anything
at
all
to
have
added
that
it
was
a
one
time
that
had
lasted
all
night.

‘And
I’m
supposed
to
believe
that?’

‘I
shrugged.
‘It’s
the
truth.’

‘And
then
you
discovered
you
were
pregnant
–
with
his
baby
obviously
–
and
you
thought
you
would
pass
the
child
off
as
mine.
That’s
about
the
size
of
it,
isn’t
it,
Wendy?’

‘I
thought
it
far
more
likely
that
the
child
was
yours.’

‘You
thought
it
more
likely
that
it
was
mine,’
Jon
stared
at
me
in
disbelief,
‘despite
the
fact
we
had
been
trying
for
months
with
no
luck
at
all.
You
thought
it
was
sheer
coincidence
that
you
should
suddenly
become
pregnant
immediately after you have an affair
,
and
it
didn’t
even
cross
your
mind
once
that
the
baby
probably
wasn’t
mine.’

‘I
didn’t
know
what
to
believe
or
what
to
do,
Jon,’
I
confessed.
‘With
all
my
heart
I
wanted
to
believe
that
the
baby
I
was
carrying
was
ours,
yours
and
mine.
We
had
waited
for
so
long
and,
finally,
I
was
pregnant.
Don’t
you
remember
how
happy
we
were?’

‘
Were
,
Wendy,
and
our
happiness
was
built
on
a
lie.
Didn’t
you
ever,
not
even
once,
feel
tempted
to
make
a
clean
breast
of
things?’

I
decided
that
honesty
was
the
best
policy
in
this
case,
and
said,
‘Yes,
I
did
many
times
at
the
beginning,
but
in
the
end
I
couldn’t
take
the
chance
that
you
would
insist
I
abort
the
baby
and
end
my
dreams
of
becoming
a
mother
-
even
though
in
the
early
days
I
contemplated
abortion
myself.’