Rita’s voice was steady and certain. ‘I won’t pretend this is easy. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it. But I really don’t want that woman in your life in any capacity anymore. And that may sound totally unreasonable, but she’s trouble. I can feel it in my gut, Jago.’ Jago lifted Rita’s hand to kiss it. She smiled and looked into his eyes. ‘You just said yourself, you’re not always good at standing up to her.’
Jago nodded furiously. ‘… I… I hear you,’ he murmured, voice low, careful. His fingers now flexed against his knees. ‘I understand. I…’
Rita felt her chest tighten, a flutter of nerves she hadn’t expected. Her throat constricted with the urge to speak. Her heart melted, softened at the sight of him like this: gentle, vulnerable, caught somewhere between relief and fear. She was just about to tell him everything, the secret she had carried for weeks, and then… a voice shattered the moment.
‘Sorry, Jago, but I couldn’t stop her!’ Stan came running down the path, breathless, panic written across his face. Rita’s stomach lurched. Jago stiffened as a figure appeared at the top of the garden path. Elodie stumbled forward, hair tangled and eyes rimmed red from crying, her cardigan half-hanging off oneshoulder as if she’d thrown it on in haste. She clutched a small bag to her chest like a lifeline, and every step seemed unsteady, desperate. Every gesture, every wobble, was so perfectly timed that for a moment Rita wondered if she should be clapping.She deserves an award for this, she thought, half in awe, half in disbelief.Honestly, the Academy will be calling her any minute. That level of panic… flawless.
Her French accent cracked as she called out, voice trembling with both fear and frustration. ‘Jago… Jago…C’est moi…’
Even from a distance, the raw urgency in her movements made it impossible to look away. She was a whirlwind of emotion.
‘Oh, Rita, hello…’ Elodie’s voice cracked again. ‘Jago, oh, Jago. Amélie said I had been here with you and Donal got angry. He said he’s not paying the rent on the house until the end of the year like he promised he would… you have to help me, Jago.’
Rita stood up, squaring her shoulders. ‘Most normal people would get a job.’ Rita’s mind began to whir. ‘And didn’t you say that dear Donal had thrown you out?’
Elodie glared at her. ‘You only hear second hand and it’s not your business, but I will find work. But until I do, I don’t know what to do… I need you to help me, Jago. I can’t stay at my dad’s with Amélie. There’s no space. Can we stay here until I find something? It will be quick, I promise, as Amélie must go back to school.’
Elodie broke down, tears streaming, but Jago’s voice cut through, sharp and unwavering. ‘No. Elodie. We agreed. That’s not an option.’
Between gasps, Elodie’s voice trembled with raw urgency.
‘There’s something else…’ She shot a defiant glance at Rita before turning to Jago.
Jago’s face drained of colour. ‘What?’
‘I was afraid. I was stupid. But she is yours. Amélie… she’s really your daughter.’
Rita watched it land. The shock. The recalculation.
She had saved that card, Rita realised, holding it back until the perfect moment to trump him and every other lie before it.
‘Is this true?’ Jago asked hoarsely. ‘Why wouldn’t you tell me before?’
Elodie’s voice lowered. ‘I thought I was protecting everyone.’
Time seemed to freeze. Jago’s jaw tightened, his hands clenching into fists, eyes wide as if he were trying to comprehend a world that had just shifted on its axis.
Rita’s mind refused to catch up. Her heart thudded unevenly, her thoughts scattering in a million directions at once: pure disbelief, shock, pity for Amélie, anger at Elodie, confusion at Jago, fear for their relationship and somehow, amid it all, a brittle, aching tenderness that she had always carried for him.
Rita looked at the mess that was Elodie, then at the still-open-mouthed Jago, and finally towards Stan, frozen at the top of the path. She drew in a steadying breath and let her voice cut through the thick, golden air.
‘You’ve got a lot to work through… and fornowshe needs you, so I’m going to leave you to it.’
Neither Rita nor Jago noticed the faint, almost imperceptible smirk that flickered across the Frenchwoman’s face.
Jago’s eyes glistened in the fading sunset, tears catching the light. He didn’t speak, but the look he gave Rita said everything:Thank you.
Elodie stood trembling, sobs quieting to hiccups. She seemed smaller somehow in the long, honeyed shadows stretching across the garden. And yet, amid the chaos, amid the heartbreak and the revelation that had splintered everything, Rita Jory knew, one thing was suddenly, painfully certain: this wasn’t the right time to tell him about the little miracles growing inside her.In fact, with this newmillefeuilleof dramas added to the mix would it ever be?
Once out the front of the farmhouse, Rita looked to the steady eye of Stan. ‘Did I do the right thing, or should I have stayed and stood my ground?’
Stan put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. ‘Love isn’t about forgivingeverythingor allowing people to even tiptoe over your boundaries.’ The kind farmhand pulled off his cap and scratched his bald head. ‘You can be there if they ask, yes, but don’t lose yourself in someone else’s mess.’
‘Aw, Stan, you are such a sweetheart.’ Rita sighed. She knew he’d keep her secret, but somehow it didn’t feel like the right moment to tell him. Not yet.
They walked towards the car and Stan held the door open for her.
He paused, fixing her with a steady gaze. ‘Leave him alone. Let him find his own way. You’ve got a good heart, kid. And if he’s got any sense, that man will come running back and never leave your side.’
