‘Morning. I’m fine.’ Cally's reply was short and clipped.
‘You okay?’
‘No, I’m not okay. Not at all. Everything's not alright. We need to talk. Can you come over, please? I think it's time we had a real, honest conversation about, well, about pretty much everything, really.’
There was a long pause. ‘What? What do you want to talk to me about? You sound weird. What’s happened?’
Cally felt tears at the corners of her eyes. ‘Can you just come over? I’ll tell you when you get here. It’s important. Really important.’
‘Alright, I’ll be there soon,’ Logan replied, his voice tinged with concern.
As she hung up, Cally felt a mixture of relief and dread at the same time. She’d kept silent long enough and had told herself once the races were over, she’d let Logan know exactly what she knew. She paced the room as she waited to hear his car at the back of the deli. About twenty minutes later, she listened to his footsteps on the stairs. Her heart skipped a beat as she heard his key to her flat go into the lock.
Logan stepped in, his expression a mix of concern and confusion. ‘Hey. You sounded awful on the phone. What’s going on?’
‘I sounded awful because Iamawful.’
‘You’re worrying me. What’s happened? Let me make a cup of tea, and then you can tell me.’
‘No need for tea. Tea is the last thing I want.’
‘I’ll make you a blackcurrant.’
‘You’re not making me anything.’ Cally hissed.
‘What is it? It can’t be that bad. What's going on? What's wrong?'
Cally tutted. 'What's wrong? Why don'tyoutellme, Logan? Why don't you tell me about the little secret you've been keeping from me all this time?'
Logan narrowed his eyes. ‘What?’
Without a word, Cally scrolled to the picture of Logan’s marriage certificate on her phone and handed it to him. Logan’s expression changed as he registered the picture and what it meant. All the colour drained from his face.
‘Where did you find this?’
‘Amongst a load of old documents when I was working for Nina.’
Logan looked up and closed his eyes for a second. ‘I can explain.’
Cally shook her head. ‘I don’t see how you can explain that you didn’t tell me about this. It’s quite the detail that you forgot to tell me about.’
Logan’s eyes darted between Cally and the marriage certificate. He ran a hand through his hair. ‘This is not how I wanted you to find out. Not at all.’
‘Find out what? That you’re married? That you’ve been lying to me? Both of the above. What else don’t I know about?’
‘No, it’s not like that. Iwasmarried. To Cassia. But it was a long time ago. We’re not together anymore, obviously. Like it wasyearsago. It meant nothing. I was young and stupid. It was over right away after a few months and we split up. I did it on a whim. You can see that by the date on there. It was just us. No big celebration or anything.’
‘Then why didn’t you tell me? Why keep it a secret?’
Logan sighed, his shoulders slumping. ‘It’s complicated. It ended badly, and I just wanted to move on, to start fresh. When I met you, I didn’t tell you and the longer I left it, the worse it got, so I did nothing.’
Cally stared at him and shook her head. ‘You should have told me. I deserved to know.’ Cally's voice was cold, unforgiving.
‘I know. I was going to, but I kept putting it off. And then things got serious between us, and it just became harder to bring up. I’m so sorry. I never meant to hurt you.’
Cally took a step back, trying to process his words. ‘Do you still have contact with her? With Cassia?’
‘No! We haven’t spoken in years. The divorce was finalised a long time ago. I’ve moved on, and so has she.’
