‘I might bump into you again. See how you’re getting on. If you’re still around, that is.’ Cassia turned and walked away, her head held high and her steps confident and sure as she disappeared in the direction of another marquee.
Cally stood still for a moment, her mind reeling as she tried to process everything that had just happened. The secret of Logan's previous marriage, the revelations from his ex-wife, the exhaustion from the day: all of it swirled around her. Squeezing her eyes together, she felt like heading for the nearest exit and not even going back to Logan. Part of her couldn’t be botheredto confront him, to look at him even, but her mind raced with a thousand unanswered questions. However, right at that moment, exhausted from the full-on day, she was strangely too over it to even bother.
A million voices ranted in her head. The rational part of her brain trusted the Logan she knew and told her everything was okay and that there would be an explanation. The other part yelled doubts. Part of her wanted to just find Logan right there and talk about everything that had happened and everything that was still to come. She could just listen to his side of the story. Give him a chance to explain and defend himself. On the other hand, a sickening sense of betrayal churned in her gut.
After going to the loo, she weaved through a throng of guests and a maze of tables and chairs, made her way back through the crowd, out the exit, and headed in the direction of the main gate. As her eyes scanned the sea of faces for Logan, Cassia's words echoed in her mind. The accusations and insinuations about Logan's character and his past swirled through her thoughts. She felt as if a vile poisonous fog had swallowed her. The man she supposedly loved, the man who had swept her off her feet, was really nothing more than a player, a user. The thought made her feel sick to her stomach. She forced herself to take a deep breath and push through. Once she was home, she’d regroup and decide what to do.
As she got to the gate, Logan stood near the far side, his back turned from her as he chatted with an attendant. Even from a distance, Cally’s stomach flipped—not so much this time with love but more with the fact that she wasn’t quite surewhohe was.
She quickened her pace, her mouth dry and tight with emotion. She flicked the switch at the back of her throat and popped her old fall-back smile on her face. As she got nearer tohim, she blinked and started to hold up the sky. Things for our Cally were not good. She had been monumentally conned.
25
It was the day after the races. The evening before, after coming in for a cup of tea, Cally, unbelievably, mostly to her, had still not said anything. She’d been so furious and so tired it had made her mute. She’d somehow fobbed Logan off with the fact that she hadn’t wanted to be woken by him getting up for the horses and so he’d headed off back to the manor without a clue about what was going on in Cally’s very full head.
Once he’d gone, she’d run the bath, dissected the conversation with Cassia to within an inch of its life, and festered in her pyjamas. She’d opened carton after carton of blackcurrant, made herself almost sick with a sugar overload and in the end had collapsed into bed, not a happy bunny. She may have buried her face in her pillow and let the tears come pouring out in a long, drawn-out, cathartic flood.
It was the next morning and she was on her way to meet Eloise for coffee over at the harbour area of Lovely Bay. As she strolled along, she went over what the day before had revealed and decided she was going to give Logan the flick. Yeah, she loved him, sure she did, but he’d lied. The end. He’d wormed his way into her heart and let her down and she didn’t like how that felt one iota. Not only that, the races had yet again made it clearthat she didn’t fit into his world. The revelation via Cassia only added fuel to Cally’s already raging fire of self-doubt. She wasn’t even going to go into it too much. She would just break up with him and that would be that. Move on and forget Henry-Hicks had ever set foot in her world. Treat him as the Henry-Hicks family did other people if Cassia was correct.
She walked into the coffee shop, ordered two coffees, and mindlessly scrolled through Instagram as she waited for Eloise to arrive. As she sipped her coffee, lost in thought, she barely noticed when Eloise slid into the seat across from her. As soon as Cally looked up, Eloise frowned and made a funny face.
‘Crikey. You look like you've seen a ghost. What’s happened to the glow?’
Cally blinked and shook her head in quick little movements. ‘Sorry, I was miles away. I’m fine.’
Eloise leaned forward. ‘You’re not. You’re doing that weird voice. What's going on? How did the races go?’
Cally sighed. ‘Good and bad. I did enjoy it initially, but it got tiring having to keep up the pretence, if you know what I mean.’
‘I’m coming next time.’
Cally raised her eyebrows. ‘Trust me, there won’tbea next time.’
‘What? Oh, no, have you definitely decided to tell him to sling his hook because of the secret?’
Cally shook her head. ‘Not just because of that. I found out something yesterday, something that's thrown everything into question even more than it already had. I’m over it.’
Eloise's eyes widened. ‘What do you mean? What did you find out?’
‘You’re not quite going to believe this, but I actually met his ex-wife. And she told me things about Logan and his family that, well, that aren’t at all nice. I should have picked up some red flags in the first place,’ Cally stated glumly.
Eloise sat back in her chair. ‘His ex-wife? Oh my goodness! You met her! Blimey, Cal, that's a lot to take in.Awkward.What did she say, exactly? Hang on. What, so he now knows you know about her?’
‘No, not at all! I met her by accident. He knowsnothing.’
‘The plot thickens.’
Cally felt as if actual words were sticking in her throat. ‘She said that the Henry-Hicks boys are all the same. That they use women, have lots of girlfriends at once, and then pay them off when they're done with them. That Logan's no different from the rest of them.’
Eloise let out a low whistle, her eyes wide with shock. She swore and then wrinkled her nose. ‘Blimey. That's a lot to process all at once.’
‘I know.’
‘I'm so sorry you had to hear that, especially from his ex of all people.’
Cally felt a sting of tears prickling behind her eyes. ‘I don't know what to think. Problem is bottom line: I love him, I really do. I can’t even believe I’m saying this. I’m going to have to pull the plug on all this. I shouldn’t have got myself mixed up with him in the first place. I did say that right at the beginning. Imagine if I hadn’t found the certificate!’
‘Hang on. What, so she just came out with this? You’re standing there talking about your hats and she threw that into the ring. How did you end up talking to her if he thinks you don’t know? Really?’
