The Last Goodbye (13 page)

“Well, they really pick great times to contact people,” Ben grumbled.

We both turned back and focused on the TV.

Chapter 15

I could tell by her eyes that Nat was hungover when I saw her come through the door. She was pale and her eyes were glassy. She told me that she and Will had stayed up late over a few bottles of wine after she had gone home after the exhibition. They were still all wrapped up in one another, it seemed. I offered to go down to the deli to get her a proper coffee – I knew that the instant stuff wouldn’t cut it for her this morning.

The day flew past with people coming in for a browse. We had a well-dressed American tourist come in who seemed interested in a group of Sam Wolfson’s photos of Battersea power station with its iconic four towers reaching up to the grey sky, bleak black-and-white photos showing the landmark in a grim and pitiful manner. I walked over and enthusiastically talked him through Sam’s choice of lighting, angles and perspective.

“See, it’s taken from Chelsea Bridge. The photographer is Sam Wolfson – you may have heard of him? One of his pieces sold at our exhibition last night for over £3,000 – he’s very up and coming. We’re lucky that he started out here at Jensen’s and his work seems to be in demand. The galleries are falling over themselves to display his work at the moment. It’s likely to be a good investment piece in years to come.”

I couldn’t believe it when he said he would take all three. I secured them in bubble wrap and then wrapped them in brown parcel-paper and tied them up with string for him to take away. He thanked us profusely and went off on his way, delighted with his purchases.

“Hi, love,” I said as soon as I came in the door that evening.

Ben was sitting on the sofa – I looked around and saw that he hadn’t even started to make dinner. “What’s wrong?”

“Sit down, Kate. I need to talk to you about something.”

I did as I was told and sat on to the sofa beside him. “What is it? You’re starting to worry me now.”

“Well, you know that I had that meeting with Elliott’s mum after school today?”

“Sorry, I forgot that was today. How did it go?” My brain was gone to pot these days – it was like my body was too busy looking after Pip to put the energy into something as insignificant as actually being able to remember things.

“Well, I was correcting exercise books and I didn’t hear her come in until I saw a manicured hand with a bloody huge emerald stone stuck under my nose. She introduced herself as Thea Boucher.” He looked at me and paused.

“So?”

“Well, I told her to take a seat but she said she’d rather stand because she was in a bit of a hurry. So then I stood up because it felt as though she was talking down to me. Anyway I told her that I was concerned about Elliott because he had been falling behind the rest of the class, though he was usually one ofthe top performers. ‘I know,’ she said. ‘That’s why I sent my au pair to meet you. I don’t understand why you need to see the both of us though.’ So I lost my patience then and told her that I didn’t need to see ‘both of them’ – I needed to see
her
, as Elliot’s mother. Of course she took offence at my tone then, so I explained as patiently as I could that Elliot was making no effort – that, in fact, he had regressed. That he also had no interest in learning new songs and joining in like he usually did.”

“And?”

“Well, she said, ‘He’s a bright boy, maybe he needs more stimulation’ as if it was all my fault!”

“The cheek of her!”

“Anyway, I said that I agreed with her, that he was a bright kid but I didn’t think that that was the problem. So I asked her if there was anything going on at home? And as soon as I said that, her straight face lost its composure and I knew that I was on the money. And that was it – the poor woman broke into a million pieces in front of me. She sat down on the chair and the tears flowed. I didn’t know what to do – it wasn’t like I could exactly put my arms around her!”

“So what did you do?” I asked.

“I offered her a tissue from the box on my desk. ‘I’m sorry,’ she kept saying as she dabbed at her eyes. She said that was why she’d sent Annika her au pair to meet me – because she knew she herself would never be able to keep her emotions in check. So I asked her again what was going on and that’s when she said she recently discovered her husband was having an affair.”

Immediately an alarm bell went off in my head. It all sounded too familiar.

“Oh my God, Elliott is Will’s son, isn’t he?” I said.

Ben nodded. “When I thought about it, I remembered Will mentioning that he had a six-year-old son, that night we were in Ransan’s.”

I nodded. “So what did you do then?”

“Well, obviously I had to try and compose myself and act professionally. So I asked her if her husband was still in the family home, even though I already knew the answer to the question. But this is the worst bit: she shook her head and said, no, that she had thrown him out three weeks ago!”

“But Nat said that he left her!”

“I know,” Ben said, nodding.

“But Nat wouldn’t lie to me!”

“Well, someone is telling lies,” Ben said. “And I bet that it’s Will . . .”

“So you think his wife threw him out and then he told Nat he had left her?” I was fuming.

“Well, I wouldn’t put it past him and he would have needed somewhere to stay . . .”

“The bastard!” My blood was boiling. I’d known the whole thing about him leaving his wife for Nat was too good to be true. “Oh God, poor Nat, she’s going to be devastated.”

“So anyway, I said to her that that made sense because it was around the same time that I had first started noticing problems with Elliott. She got very upset then, saying, ‘God, I can’t believe this has affected the kids – I’ve been trying to keep it all together. I’ve been putting on a brave face and I thought the kids were doing okay but clearly not. I’m not good at anything – I thought I was a good mother but clearly I’m not even good at that. God, I can’t believe I’m telling you all of this – I’m so sorry, Mr Chamberlain – you must think I’m frightful!’ So I told her not to be so hard on herself, that she was obviously going through a difficult patch in her marriage and that it’s hard to keep it all together when you’re falling to pieces yourself. ‘That’s exactly how I feel,’ she said. ‘My heart is breaking because of what my husband has done, and then also because my boys are asking me when their daddy is coming home and I just feel as though I’m being pulled apart at the seams.’”

“Oh my God, this is just awful!”

“It gets worse . . .”

“Go on . . .”

“Well, then I asked her if there was any hope that her marriage could be salvaged.”

“You did not?”

“I had to, Kate –”

“What did she say?” I felt sick in the pit of my stomach, waiting to hear what he was going to say.

“She said that she hoped so, that she doesn’t want to raise the boys on her own and that they’re clearly suffering. She still loves him but she knows that he never really loved her in the same way and that it was probably her own fault because she had always hoped that he might one day grow to love her, especially after the children arrived. Basically she wants to fight for her marriage even though she knows that it’s going to be hard to trust him again, but that the boys have to come first.”

“Oh no!”

Ben nodded his head.

“So she’s going to take him back?”

“Well, that’s the impression I got. And it sounded as though it was her decision – like Will will do whatever she tells him to do!”

My heart broke for this woman but it also broke for Nat because this wasn’t good news for her.

“I felt so guilty watching her break down in front of me when all the time I’ve been complicit in her husband’s affair.”

“You didn’t know though.”

“It’s such a mess – are you going to tell Nat?”

“I don’t know what to do, Ben – she’s my best friend but this will break her heart. I can’t believe the bastard told her that he had left his wife for her!”

“What is he playing at?”

“Oh God, I really don’t want to be the one to have to tell her, Ben. This is going to kill her . . .”

“I know, Kate, but you don’t really have many options, do you?”

I stood up off the sofa, pulled my hands down over my face and exhaled loudly. “Shit!”

Chapter 16

I didn’t sleep that night, worrying about telling Nat and how I was going to break it to her. I took my time walking down the sandstone pavement towards the gallery the next morning, trying to delay the inevitable. I saw her outside, chaining up her bike.

“Morning!” she sang brightly as I got closer to her.

“Hi, there.”

We went inside and busied ourselves with our usual morning routine. My stomach flipped every time I thought about the conversation that I needed to have with her. After several false attempts, eventually I took a deep breath and came out with it.

“What school do Will’s children go to?” I tried to sound casual but even I could hear the nervousness in my own voice.

“Oh God, Kate . . . I’m not sure of the name of it . . . what do you want to know that for?” She used her baby finger to pull a strand of hair away from in front of her eye.

“Well, what are his kids’ names?”

“Why do you want to know, Kate?”

“I think one of them might be in Ben’s class.”

“Oh! Well, Elliott is the only one in school – the other two are in nursery.”

“Sit down, Nat.”

“Why – Kate, you’re freaking me out -”

“Will didn’t leave his wife – she threw him out.”

“What are you saying?”

“Ben is Elliott’s teacher. He had a meeting with his mum yesterday, Will’s wife – Thea – is that her name?”

“Yes, but –”

“He was concerned because Elliott was falling behind and he knew something was up so he called Thea in to meet him and she broke down in front of him and told him that she had thrown her husband out recently because she discovered he had been having an affair.”

Nat looked as though I had kicked her full force in the stomach. Her face blanched. “But how do you know she wasn’t lying?”

“Why would she lie to Ben – what reason would she have? She didn’t know that he knew you and Will!”

“Will wouldn’t lie to me.”

“Well, someone is telling lies here . . . look, there’s more.”

“What?”

“Well, she said she’s going to take him back – she sees the children are suffering and she wants to try and save her marriage for their sakes.”

“Well, then, why was he still in my place this morning, Kate? You’ve got this all wrong!” She looked at me despairingly like she was rapidly losing patience with our friendship.

“Well, it only happened yesterday so perhaps they haven’t spoken about it yet.”

“Kate, how can you be so vindictive? You don’t even know for sure.”

“But, c’mon, Nat, you have to admit it’s a bit too much of a coincidence!”

“I know you never approved of Will but this is a step too far even for you, Kate! Will wouldn’t do that.”

“But why would his wife lie to Ben?”

“Well, I’ll call him now then, shall I?” Angrily she lifted the phone and punched out Will’s number.

I looked away while she waited on him to pick up.

Eventually she left a voice message. “Hi, it’s me – look, can you call me when you get a second, please?”

We didn’t say much after that. I went upstairs and took Sam’s photos off the wall – we were moving him into the window downstairs as we were getting such a good reaction to him.

We didn’t really speak for the rest of the day. The tension was heavy in the air between us. I knew she was pissed off and I was starting to doubt myself. What if Ben and I had got this all wrong? Nat might never forgive me for it. I hoped I hadn’t just thrown away our friendship.

I saw her pick up the phone later. I presumed she was trying him again. I could see that she looked uneasy.

“Look, Nat, do you want me to go home with you – y’know, just in case?” I said when we were finishing up to go home.

“Oh I don’t think so, Kate!” she said, grabbing her bag off the desk.

I picked mine up too and put it over my shoulder. We locked up wordlessly and Nat unchained her bike and cycled off without even a goodbye.

Nat 2012

Chapter 17

I pounded the pedals on my bike the whole way home. All I could think of was fucking Kate and her stupid theories. Why couldn’t she just be happy for me for once? She always had to stick her nose in. And why the fuck was Will not picking up? We were supposed to be going out tonight but I hadn’t heard from him all day.