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Zoë was feeling ill and could I please fetch her from school. Apparently, there was a bug going round and she was one of five kids that had thrown up since coming to school. I took the car to school and found myself in traffic all the way down.
Being in New Haven would be different, I told myself. I would in a smaller town, there would be less traffic and more trees. I had looked at the guesthouse, it was situated outside of the city, in a picturesque country setting. There were stables and horses and ten rooms decorated individually. The owner, a woman in her thirties, told me that owning her own business had been her dream come true. She’d run the place herself for five years but then became pregnant rather unexpectedly. Her husband worked at a company in town and when she started developing high blood pressure, they decided to get someone in to help run the business. The inn would be busy in fall as it was on the route to Vermont and New Hampshire and many tourists traveling this way to see the changing foliage liked to stop by at the guesthouse.
It sounded idyllic.
It would be busy but not too much. There was a cook and a cleaner as well as someone who helped with the yard work and the stables. I would manage bookings, a bit of admin and mostly be client liaison. Occasionally, there were weddings or dinners and these I would have to manage. A part of me was looking forward to the challenge. Managing a guesthouse would be more exciting that planning healthy dinners and folding socks for a family that wasn’t even my own.
I picked Zoë up and took her home. She looked pale and had a fever. I put her to bed and asked her if she wanted anything.
“I want my mommy,” she said, looking at me with what looked like pure hatred in her eyes.
“Your mommy?” Was the child delirious?
“Jade! Call Jade!” I didn’t know what to say or do. I had to speak to Will. I called him and this time he picked up. I asked him what he wanted me to do.
“Don’t call Jade, whatever you do!”
“What do I tell Zoë?”
“Tell her you couldn’t get hold of Jade.”
I didn’t like lying to Zoë, but this was what Will wanted.
“How about I make you some tea?”
“No, I wish you’d go away! Daddy said as long as you’re here my mommy will never come back!”
I didn’t know what to say.
I carefully walked out of Zoë’s room. She was usually such a pleasant child and so sweet-tempered. She was never mean or nasty. But this outburst wasn’t just about her being sick.
Zoë thought I was in the way. She clearly thought that I was keeping Will and her mother from getting back together.
It was a sign.
I would take the job in New Haven.
I would not come between a child and her mother.
Chapter 24
Will
On Wednesday afternoon, I saw something happening on the street.
The kind of thing that gives you pause, makes you rethink your life, wonder about the future, make a mental note to check on your life insurance, not that you ever do, but that sort of thing. I’d gone out for lunch, to grab some sushi and get fresh air. I walked down to a place where I could grab something off the conveyor belt, be in and out in ten minutes.
I needed the break from work and the growing concern about my company slipping away from me. I was trying to get hold of Alex, but he seemed to be avoiding my calls.
Not a good sign.
I’d left messages and sent texts, even going round to his place one day after work but either he wasn’t there or he was hiding from me.
I couldn’t be entirely sure that he wasn’t doing just that.
Alex hiding in the dark, under his bed or in the wardrobe, high on coke and paranoid that I was out to get him. But cocaine cost money and I had not heard about him getting another job. I brought some extra sushi back to the office for Maisie, which she was only too happy to receive.
Watching her expertly maneuver the chop sticks and working the raw fish into her mouth, I leaned over the reception desk and asked as casually as I could,
