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Sarah went to Abi and tugged her into an embrace to comfort herself. Tears threatened, but she willed them away. By the time she let Abi go, relief had settled its blanket of warmth over her. She smiled and swiped at an errant tear that slipped onto her cheek. “Who’s ready for dinner?”
“Are we going to celebrate?” Reece asked.
Mark laughed and nodded. “We’ve got champagne in the fridge,” he said.
“Can I have a glass?” Reece asked and jumped up.
“You can have half a glass if you help make dinner,” Mark said.
He held his fist out to Mark, and they bumped knuckles. “Deal.”
“And please don’t say anything to anyone,” Sarah said. “We still need to talk to your grandparents, and I need to make an announcement at work, but we won’t be doing that until after the election.”
“Sure.” Reece shrugged as if it were the most natural request in the world.
Abi nodded. Sarah went back to her office and slumped in the chair, and the energy drained from her.
“That went well,” Mark said as he entered after gently knocking. “How are you?”
The tears burst free and trailed down Sarah’s cheeks. “I’m fine.”
He came to her and held her tightly. Her heart ached for her family, and she sobbed for Kendra. She had now, in some ways, lost both. “I hope we’re doing the right thing,” she whispered.
He crouched onto his haunches, lifted her chin, and smiled. “Everything will work out. It’s early days, and it feels raw. I feel it too, but I know what we’re doing is right. It’s time for you to be you and me to be me. Even the children know it. I suppose it feels odd to split up so amicably.”
She wiped at her cheek. “Perhaps we should argue about something, so we feel justified?” She chuckled and recalled the vivid memory of her last morning with Kendra. She hadn’t explained everything to Mark. She’d just said they’d agreed to part ways. If he thought she was lying, he hadn’t challenged her on it. “I had an argument with Kendra,” she said.
He nodded. “Sometimes it helps.”
She shook her head. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“If someone tried to pay you off to stop you seeing Jane, would you take the money?”
“Depends.”
She nodded. “I would have, until Kendra pointed out who I’d become.”
He lowered his eyes, took her hands in his, and brought them to his lips. “You know, we become what we have to, Sarah. We learn to fit in, to do what’s required to get the job done.”
She pulled her hands from his and went to the window.
“You’re beating yourself up when you shouldn’t, Sarah.”
She turned to him and sensed mild desperation in his expression.
“None of us are perfect. But have I ever told you, you have a really bad habit of thinking the worst of yourself?”
She shook her head.
“You’re a wonderful woman, an incredible mum, and a brilliant politician. You just have to decide what’s right for you. The job has always come first, and your family aren’t going to desert you, love. At some point, you’ll look back on this time and laugh.”
She laughed and it sounded all wrong. “She doesn’t want to be with me.” There, she’d said the words that had tossed around her mind every unoccupied hour of every day since she’d sailed away from the huts on the lake.
He frowned. “I can’t believe that.”
“She said so.”
