AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Surprise?’ Ben shook his head. ‘It’s a shock. A disaster.’
Her face hardened at that, and he wanted to take it back, but it was the truth, after all. What was he going to do?
‘Okay. Fine. I just wanted you to know so you could decide what involvement you want in your child’s life. Obviously the answer to that is clear. So I’ll just—’
‘Wait. No. I just... I need a little time here, Luce.’
She nodded. ‘That’s understandable. Why don’t I meet you for lunch, later in the week, and we can talk? Come up with a plan?’
‘No! I don’t want you to go. And I don’t want to come up with a plan! This is our whole lives being turned upside down. A “To Do” list isn’t going to fix that.’
‘It’s a start.’
‘It’s an end. It’s giving up on any other options.’
Her face turned stony. ‘Options?’
Ben stared at her, his eyes widening when he realised what she thought he meant. ‘Not that. No, never that. I just... I don’t know how we could make this work right now. The business... There’s a lot going on right now, and Seb needs me to do it...’
Luce took a step back, her mouth twisted in a cruel smile. ‘So now your work matters to you? Right.’
‘There’s a new project,’ Ben started, but it sounded weak even to his own ears.
How could he explain to her again, in a way she’d understand, that he couldn’t be the man his father had been? He couldn’t lose her and his child that way, have them hating him for never being there. But he still had too much to do. He couldn’t give up his dreams for a life in an office, nine to five, never going anywhere or seeing anything. Where would they even live? A never-ending series of hotel rooms would be terrible for a child, despite the new project, and by all accounts her house was falling apart. They didn’t even have a home—how could they be a family?
‘I just need some time, Luce.’
She shook her head. ‘No. You’ve made your priorities very clear, thanks. I can do this on my own. I have my family to help me.’
‘Would that be the same family that’s trying to take your home away from you? And how the hell are you going to look after a baby in that place anyway?’
‘What? You think we’d be better off here?’
She glanced around her and Ben knew she was taking in the sharp corners and sterile white and metal furnishings. Nothing like the cottage at all.
‘I think you’d be better off with me.’
‘Living out of hotel rooms? Never settling down? Isn’t that what you said you’d never do to a child?’ The words stung as she bit them out. ‘Or will it be you, gone for months on end, sleeping with every woman who smiles at you in a hotel bar? No, thanks. A family takes more than a one-night rule, Ben.’
He swallowed back an angry denial, not least because he knew everything she said was true. His father hadn’t been able to do it, and Seb wasn’t even trying, for all his talk. Ben wasn’t content to be one of those once-a-month visiting dads. So maybe Luce was right. Maybe there was no place for him at all.
‘I can help. Financially.’
She threw him a scathing look. ‘I don’t want it,’ she said.
Ben heard, I don’t want you.
‘Money isn’t going to give you a quick fix this time.’
Why was he even surprised? he wondered as Luce walked out, slamming the door behind her. He’d never expected his father to love him more than his work, or his mother to love him more than her freedom. He certainly couldn’t expect Luce to love him more than her child.
Their child.
‘Hell,’ he whispered, and went to pour himself a very large whisky from the mini-bar.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LUCE REFUSED TO CRY.
She stayed resolutely dry-eyed while flagging down a taxi. She remained calm as they drove through the dark Cardiff streets and as she paid the driver. She didn’t even give in while she fumbled with the keys to get into her house.
But at the sight of Dolly, asleep on her sofa with a blanket over her knees, having obviously failed in waiting up for her to get home, Luce fell apart and sobbed.
Dolly awoke with a start, jerking upright and tossing back the blanket even as she stumbled to her feet. ‘What happened?’ she asked, her voice bleary.
Luce shook her head and pulled Dolly down to sit on the sofa with her. ‘I can’t... Just...don’t ask, please.’
‘Idiot,’ Dolly whispered. ‘Tell me he wasn’t more of an idiot than Tom?’
