Page 131 of Who’s That Girl?

‘I think it’s fucking hilarious,’ he replies dryly. ‘Me, be unfaithful to Vanessa? She’d chop my balls off and eat them for breakfast. With ketchup.’

I feel the stirrings of doubt. ‘But … I saw you in the pharmacy. You had condoms …’

There’s a prickle of embarrassment on the other end of the line, then a deep sigh. ‘OK, I confess. I’m guilty of planning to have sex with my wife, Your Honour.’

‘And my assistant saw you coming out of The Dorchester with a key to a suite.’

‘Yup, guilty of booking a suite for a dirty weekend with my wife.’

I can feel the probable fast turning into the possible.

‘And then there was the lingerie receipt.’

‘Yup, guilty of finding my wife sexy and buying her lingerie.’

I fall silent, absorbing it all. I’m getting the feeling I might have jumped to the wrong conclusion.

‘I love my wife, Charlotte.’ Julian’s voice turns serious. ‘When my colleague at work told me about his marriage falling apart, it brought me up short and made me look at my own marriage. It made me imagine for just a moment what life would be like without Vanessa, made me realise what a bloody idiot I’ve been, that I’ve been taking her for granted …’

As he continues talking, I realise I’ve definitely jumped to the wrong conclusion.

‘… and so I wanted to treat her, spend time together, get to know each other again. I know it’s not going to work like magic overnight, but it’s a start.’

I feel stupid and delighted all at the same time. ‘Oh my God, she’s going to love it!’ A smile bursts across my face. ‘So when are you going to tell her?’ I ask, turning off at the diversion and zipping down my usual short cut.

There’s silence on the other end of the line.

‘Julian?’ I glance down at the screen on my phone and see it’s blank. We’ve got cut off. Still, it doesn’t matter. At least I know they’re going to be OK, I think, feeling a glow of happiness as I glance back up at the road.

And then all of a sudden everything seems to slow right down, as if I’m watching a film in slow motion – frame by frame – only I’m in it. Smiling as I’m lifting my head, catching the blur of colour out of the corner of my eye, turning and seeing the truck heading towards me, hearing the horn blasting out, and pushing hard on the brake pedal. And now I’m opening my mouth to scream, knowing what’s going to happen but knowing I can’t stop it. I can’t do anything.

All this in a split second and then—

Boom!

Everything goes black.

Chapter Thirty-nine

‘Urgh.’ Groggily I open my eyes. Everything is blurry, kind of foggy. I can make out white shapes. It feels like there are weights on my eyelids.

‘Oh thank the Lord! She’s awake! She’s awake!’

A shrill voice jolts me out of my wooziness. I flop my head sideways and come eyeball to eyeball with Beatrice. White-faced.

‘Charlotte, you’ve come back to us,’ she gasps, her voice tremulous with excitement.

Eh? Come back to us? What does she mean, come back to us?

‘Bea, what’s going on?’ I open my mouth to ask, but all I hear is a sort of weird croak. Hang on, what was that? ‘Where the hell am I?’ I try again, but all I hear is a coarse rasp. I feel a jolt of alarm. Oh my God, is that me?

‘Nurse! Nurse, come quickly!’

Nurse? Shit, where am I?

I try sit to upright and suddenly I get the most agonising pains shooting through my body. ‘Argghhhh,’ I yell out. And this time I really do yell out. Trust me, it’s not a husky croak.

‘Ooh, there, there, be careful now.’ I see a figure in white coming towards me. For a moment I think I’m dead and it’s an angel, but then I feel a pair of warm hands easing me back down on the pillow and hear a voice. ‘You’ve had a bit of a nasty accident.’