Chapter Twenty
Libby felt terribly burdened by the awful secret that, against her will, she was helping Jules to keep. She tried to persuade her to do the right thing and tell Angus what she had done, but Jules was adamant that she couldn’t. She begged Libby to keep her silence. Libby felt torn to breaking point.
Luca noticed something was up and asked her if everything was OK. ‘Yes, everything’s fine,’ she lied. ‘I’m just a bit stressed at work at the moment.’ He seemed worried about her all of a sudden, fussing over her and looking at her with concern. Work was her go-to cover for feeling a bit low. She had used exactly the same excuse when Angus had asked her the same question. She was clearly not as good as she would have hoped at acting normally around him. She was terrified she would blurt out the truth at any second, and yet she was equally tempted to do exactly that. It wasn’t right that Angus was sacrificing the chance of being a father to stay with someone who had been unfaithful to him. Jules didn’t deserve him.
One evening later that week, Luca went out to the shops saying that they were out of milk. His phone had been buzzing in his pocket on and off over dinner, but he kept ignoring it, despite her asking him repeatedly whether he was going to answer the call. He had shrugged his shoulders vaguely and ignored her. As he walked down the stairs, the door banging shut behind him, she heard him answer the phone. She wondered who it was.
Not long later, the key turned in the lock and Luca came back in. His entire body language had changed. He had no milk. He hadn’t been gone long enough to go to a shop. A combination of panic and worry clouded his face.
‘What’s the matter?’ Libby asked him. ‘Has something happened back home?’ Her heart began to pound as she took in the tension in his body. She knew that he must have had some horrific news.
He stood frozen to the spot as he closed the door behind him. He turned to face Libby. She saw the nervous expression on his face and in an instant she knew he was about to confess something. Something he was terrified that she would find out.
‘Libby, I’m so sorry.’ Tears filled his eyes and he trembled with emotion. He looked like a lost little boy half his age.
‘What is it?’ she breathed. ‘Who was on the phone?’
‘It was Jules.’ Luca couldn’t look at her; he was staring at the floor.
‘Jules?’ What could Jules possibly have said to make Luca react like this? Surely she hadn’t told him about her affair? ‘Luca. Talk to me! What’s going on?’
He took a deep breath and forced himself to look at her.
‘Angus just found out that Jules and I have been having an affair,’ he said. ‘He found messages on her phone—’
‘What?’ she asked, completely unable to process what she had heard.
‘I’m so sorry, Libby. I’m so ashamed of myself. I don’t know what I’ve been thinking… I couldn’t help myself…’
Time stopped as his words slowly sank into her consciousness. She felt as if a bomb had exploded inside her. Her senses reeled.
‘You?’ she whispered. ‘I knew she had had an affair but…’ She tailed off in disbelief.
‘You knew?’ he asked.
‘A couple of weeks ago I practically forced her to tell me. I could tell something was wrong…’
‘Oh my god,’ he said, rubbing his temples.
‘You?’ she said again. ‘It wasyou? It can’t be. Itcannotbe true.’ She shook her head, desperate to block out the unthinkable images that were flooding her mind of the two of them together.
‘When?’ she said. ‘When did it happen?’
‘It started a few months ago—’
‘A fewmonthsago?’ Libby shouted, wide eyed. ‘You mean this wasn’t just a one-off?’ She was still desperately trying to make sense of what he was telling her.
‘No. It wasn’t. I’m so sorry.’
‘How many times?’
‘I don’t know Libby.’
‘Tell me!’ she yelled, suddenly overcome with anger. ‘Tell me right now.’ She had to know the extent of their betrayal. Her fiancé and her best friend. How could this possibly be happening?
‘I don’t know – maybe thirty?’ he said weakly.
‘Thirty times? You have had sex, with my best friend,thirtytimes. You BASTARD!’ she screamed, running over to him and pounding her fists against his chest. Her cheeks were flushed and she felt herself shaking with shock. ‘Howcouldyou?’
