‘You never know if … when something might happen, and you never get that chance again to hold someone you love in your arms.’
Faye sat forward in her chair and realised the conversation had stopped being about her and Natty. She knew who Jake was talking about – Eleanor.
She reached out and touched his hand. ‘We’re not going anywhere, Natty and I.’
Jake placed a gentle hand on top of hers. ‘You’d better not.’
‘I’m making sure of it – especially where my daughter is concerned.’
Jake was studying her hand. ‘What do you mean?’
Faye withdrew her hand and stood up.
‘Are you off back to bed?’
She shook her head, and walked over to close the lounge door. ‘I swear my daughter’s hearing is superhuman. I just want to make sure she doesn’t wake up and hear what I say next. I don’t want to scare her.’
‘Scare her?’ Jake frowned. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘Yes – it is now, since I left Yousaf – or rather, ran away andtook Natty with me. You see, my father does not know why I walked out on him. We seemed so happy. We were so happy, until—’ Faye took a breath.
Jake leaned forward in his chair. ‘What is it – tell me! Did he hurt you?’ Jake swivelled his head to the door. ‘Did he hurt—’
‘Oh, no, nothing like that. Yousaf was the gentlest soul you could ever imagine.’
‘Then why did you walk out?’
‘As I said before, when we finished our courses, and Natty was born, he wanted us to return with him to Oman.’
‘But you didn’t want to go.’
Faye shook her head. ‘I just couldn’t imagine leaving England and bringing up my daughter there. I begged Yousaf to stay here, but he was torn. I think he came from a wealthy family in Oman, but there was still the pressure as the eldest son to look after his extended family. When I said I wasn’t going to go with him, at first he stayed, but then I think he was being pressured by his family to go back.’
‘Did he tell them about you and Natty?’
‘Yes. He told them I didn’t want to go and live in Oman. Then he asked if he could take Natty for a holiday to Oman.’
‘He what?’
‘I would have gone with him during the holidays, to meet his family, but he didn’t want to wait until the school holidays. He wanted to show them his beautiful daughter.’
‘Did he take her?’
‘I didn’t know how to be away from her for a week, and voiced my concerns to my father, but he said to let him take her to meet the family. He said it might be one of the few chances Yousaf’s family got to see her. So I agreed.’ Faye swallowed. ‘I nearly lost her, Jake.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘If I hadn’t overheard him on the phone …’
Jake got up and walked over, kneeling in front of her chair. ‘What happened?’
I was home early from work. There had been an incident at school, a burst pipe flooding several classrooms. The school had to close for the afternoon. Yousaf had been due to collect her from the nursery that afternoon and go straight to the airport. I wanted … needed to say goodbye to her before they left, but he’d said it was the only flight time he could find, and that meant I’d be at work when they left. It was not ideal at all. I’d also been so, so worried about her going all that way without me. I was getting seriously cold feet. The flood at school, getting off work early, just seemed to be fated. I raced back home, and before I even opened the front door, I could hear my little Natty’s chatter. They were still there.’
Faye took a breath before she continued. ‘I crept indoors, wanting it to be a surprise. I knew Yousaf wouldn’t be happy if I changed my mind about Natty going. The flights were booked. But I had checked online and discovered there was still availability on a flight during the next school holiday – he’d said there wasn’t, and I’d believed him. It didn’t sit right with me that he’d lied about it. Although I didn’t think that at the time; I just thought he’d made an innocent error when he’d searched for the flights.’
‘That wasn’t the case?’
Faye vehemently shook her head. ‘When I walked in, he was on his mobile in the lounge, calling for a taxi to pick them up and take them to the airport. I glanced in the lounge. He didn’t see me, but I saw Natty sitting happily on his knee, playing with a doll. I saw the plane tickets on the sideboard. I picked them up, and was about to walk into the lounge to tell him he’d better not forget the tickets. Then I happened to notice something odd. They were not return tickets.’
