‘Bet it’s someone local,’ one of them muttered. ‘Some people are never satisfied with what they’ve got, are they. I feel sorry for that wife of his, nice woman she is, too. Poor bugger.’
Julia placed her basket gently in a gap on the shelf in front. Her mouth had gone dry. Her chest felt tight. She turned without a sound and walked back down the aisle, ducking her head as she passed the counter.
‘Everything all right, Julia?’ called the young girl behind the till.
She raised a hand without looking back. ‘Forgot my purse,’ she lied, the words like gravel in her throat.
Outside, the sun bore down, scorching her already burning face. Julia hurried to her car, pointing the fob and unlocking it with shaking hands. Once inside, she gripped the steeringwheel, her breath shallow, the tight ache of humiliation and rage blooming in her chest.
He was doing it again. The old wound reopened, raw and stinging. But this time it wasn’t private. It wasn’t conducted out of town with some rep he’d took a shine to or a woman he’d met at a bar on a business trip. It was being dissected in their home village over packets of tea and boxes of cereal. She’d suspected, of course. The later nights. The cocky air he had about him. But this was different. This was public. Gossip, casual and cutting, spreading like a stain over her marriage and her family.
Shane hadn’t even bothered to be discreet. She pressed her forehead to the steering wheel, fighting the tremble in her hands. Her nails dug into the leather as shame battled with fury. Her mind reeled, leaping from face to face, wondering which of her friends and colleagues knew. Who had laughed. Who had rolled their eyes and nodded knowingly and said, ‘Poor Julia.’
The betrayal stung – how could it not? – but it was the humiliation that carved the deepest gash in her heart. Not the affair, not really, but the cruelty of it. The casual, arrogant way he flaunted it. The knowing smirk he wore when he thought she wasn’t looking. The smugness of someone who believed he held all the cards.
He was trying to humiliate her. Or he simply didn’t care. Either way, it stung. Was this a warning? A power play? Or just another of his endless appetites being fed without thought? And if it was, how long before Dee or Molly heard?
Julia sat up, straightening her back, her face set. Her shame morphed into something else. Cold. Measured. A clarity she hadn’t felt in years. Let them talk. Let the village whisper.
Because soon, there would be a different kind of story making its way through those shelves. One not of affairs or arrogance, but of a woman who had finally had enough. Who stood up. Who fought back.
She started the car. The engine roared to life. She reversed with purpose, tyres squealing slightly as she swung onto the road. Her hands were steady now. Her pulse strong. Heart thudding like a drumbeat. A march toward the inevitable. Not long now.
Let Shane have his secrets. Let him park his car in lonely lanes and think himself untouchable. Let him smile at women with wide eyes and no idea. He wouldn’t be smiling for much longer. And this time, the only one caught off guard would be him.
Chapter Eleven
Julia was alone in the kitchen, the glass bi-fold doors open slightly, allowing a breath of air inside while a gentle summer shower tapped lightly against the panes, a cooling relief after the relentless heat of the past few days. Her laptop sat closed on the counter, her tea long gone cold. She couldn’t face going into work, the sheer effort of faking it too much to even contemplate.
After the incident in the village shop that morning, it had been a battle to keep her anger at bay; the hurt she was used to. It was about being patient now and dealing with what she regarded as waste. The past eight years of her life reduced to something she wished she could put in a bin bag and send to landfill. Or incinerate. Yes, burn the lot, her marriage and, if she knew how and would get away with it, her piece of shit husband.
As she watched the raindrops trickle down the glass, a memory came unbidden. The first time she saw him again. Shane Jones.
Like a bad penny, he’d turned up at ClearGlass with the easy confidence of someone who believed the past could be rewritten with a grin and a sharp suit. But Julia had known him before thesuit. Before the swagger. Back when he was little more than a sunburnt yard hand with a flirty smile and a mop of overgrown hair, more interested in sneaking cigarette breaks than learning anything of substance.
The day she walked into the marketing department and saw him leaning against a desk, holding court with a gaggle of giggling juniors physically jolted her, stopping her in her tracks. His hair was shorter, his frame filled out, the once-slouched posture replaced with a confident stance, his body language projecting ease. Reinvented, yes, but not erased.
She’d rung Nancy the second she got in her car to drive home and her sister was as rattled as she was, asking if Julia could get him sacked and then when she realised the stupidity of her question, said she’d pray he’d mess up or get bored and leave. The sooner the better.
The shock Julia had felt that day had been real. Like someone had reached back in time and dragged a shadow through the door. She never thought he’d come back and neither did Nancy.
Julia hadn’t been involved in the hiring process. HR had handled it. His CV was glossy, inflated, but who didn’t embellish? A year working in Dubai, another in New York. Logistics experience. Project management. Corporate sales. All expertly packaged. She’d accessed the files and read it in private and remembered being impressed that the waste of space had made something of himself. With hindsight she felt the sting of her own gullibility, a kind of slow humiliation that tightened its grip over the years.
Ronnie had been gone two years when Shane turned up. The house was too big. The silence too loud. Molly was surly with grief. Dee was small and clingy. The business had demanded every waking minute of her time. It had been easier to be the wife than the widow. She knew that role and had to learn a new one. Taking Ronnie’s place, being everything to everyoneat home and at work. Being Mum she could do with her eyes closed. Being Dad, who wasn’t scared of anything, burglars, thunderstorms, Dr Who monsters or spiders, was a challenge.
And then Shane had arrived. At first it was harmless. Banter in meetings. A coffee brought without asking. A compliment slipped into casual conversation. She’d brushed it off. But then came the small touches, a hand lightly on her arm, a laugh that lingered. A bottle of wine left in her office after a late finish, with a note that read –‘Thought you could use something stronger than coffee.’
She’d been flattered. Foolishly. Completely. When you’ve been part of the office furniture and the provider of fish fingers and chips at home for long enough, even counterfeit attention glows.
‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Nancy had said, voice like steel over the phone when Julia confessed they’d had dinner. ‘For Christ’s sake, Julia, think about what you’re doing and how it’ll look. He’s ten years younger than you and has all the charm of a fox in a henhouse. He wants something.’
‘Like what? Oh, and thanks for the compliment by the way. I’m not exactly ready for a Zimmer frame just yet and these days nobody cares about age gaps.’
‘Stop trying to con yourself. Yes they do. Look, I don’t know what he’s after but I don’t trust him; I never did and neither should you. Look at it from the outside in and ask yourself what he could gain from being with a woman ten years older than him. Oh, and who happens to own a multi-million-pound company. Control. Legitimacy. Security. It’s too risky, Julia, and you know it.’
Julia had laughed her off. Said she was overreacting. That the company was safe and he’d never get his hands on it. But Nancy never did that. Overreact. Nancy was always three moves ahead, always cautious. She’d planned her life meticulously fromher teenage years. Not letting anything or anyone get in her way. Nancy had flings, didn’t need anyone in her bed for longer than a night or two and certainly not a partner, kids or a family to tie her down.
Julia, on the other hand, had wanted to believe in fantasy. Fell head over heels with Ronnie and believed in true love. Got married young, threw herself into being a wife and couldn’t wait to be a mother. That had been the only blot on the horizon, how hard it had been to get pregnant – but it all turned out okay in the end.
