AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘It seems we’re having coffee at home,’ Donna said with faint disappointment, then brightened, her eyes shining. ‘I know—why don’t you join us, as you and Rhianna are such old friends? Then you can catch up with each other’s news.’
‘I’d love to.’ He turned to Rhianna, brows lifting. ‘No objections, have you, sweet pea?’
Enough to fill a telephone directory, thought Rhianna.
‘Of course not,’ she said briskly. ‘Although it will have to be a flying visit, I’m afraid. Donna and I have an early start tomorrow.’
‘Well,’ Simon said softly, ‘instant coffee will be fine.’
She’d supposed afterwards that they must have swapped contact numbers while she was in the kitchen, because it had been within the following week that Donna’s unaccountable absences had first begun.
But even then the penny hadn’t dropped, Rhianna thought, because she’d seen Donna lunching in the canteen more than once with one of the assistant producers on the show, who was known to be something of a Lothario, and drawn her own conclusions.
I’m not her Mother Superior, she’d told herself, shrugging. If she wants to stay out all night with Hugh the Rover, she’s entitled. She just doesn’t seem the type, that’s all.
She might have remained in the dark indefinitely, their unwitting and witless accomplice, but for that opportune headache.
She’d waited in her room that night until she heard the door slam behind Simon, then she’d gone in search of Donna. She’d found her crouching in a corner of the sofa, her dressing gown thrown round her, clutching a damp ball of a handkerchief in one hand. She’d looked at Rhianna with drowned eyes.
‘I’m so—so sorry,’ she gulped.
‘Sorry?’ Rhianna repeated incredulously. ‘For God’s sake, Donna, Simon’s engaged to my best friend. The wedding’s only a couple of months away. You know that perfectly well. The invitation’s right there on the mantelpiece.’
Donna swallowed convulsively. ‘Yes, I know. And Simon’s told me all about it—how they were childhood sweethearts. But he’s not going to go through with the wedding,’ she added defiantly. ‘He can’t. Because he’s fallen in love with me.’
‘No,’ Rhianna said bluntly. ‘You’re fooling yourself. Simon may be enjoying a bit on the side, that’s probably the way he is, but he won’t let Carrie go—not when push comes to shove. I can guarantee that. So stop this now, before you, and other people get hurt.’
‘You’re just jealous.’ Donna rounded on her tearfully. ‘You wanted Simon yourself years ago, and you made a really heavy pass at him. But you were found out, and as a result you got turned out of your own home by your aunt. He’s told me all about it.’
‘Then he’s lied,’ Rhianna told her icily. ‘Not that it matters. You disgust me, the pair of you.’ She took a deep breath. ‘You’ll have to move out, Donna. I can’t let you stay after this.’
‘So what are you going to do?’ Donna demanded sullenly. ‘Spill the beans to your little friend, I suppose?’
‘On the contrary,’ Rhianna returned curtly. ‘I’m simply going to wait for Simon to come to his senses.’
Donna flounced past her to the door. She was gone within the hour—presumably to Simon. Rhianna didn’t ask, and could only look forward to when the final episode of the current series was finished, and they didn’t have to encounter each other on set any more.
Even so, she had to listen to the girl bragging about her gorgeous, sexy boyfriend, and how he was paying for her to meet up with him in Nassau.
Was Donna aware that she was simply an add-on to Simon’s stag party in the Bahamas? Rhianna wondered wearily. And if so, did she care?
And then, several weeks later, Donna made that sudden unwanted reappearance back at the flat, confessing in floods of hysterical tears that she was pregnant, and that Simon had done a total and brutal about-face, telling her the affair was over and that she had to get rid of the baby.
‘You were right about him,’ she sobbed to Rhianna when they were alone. ‘You said he’d marry her in the end. But I still love him. I can’t bear to think of life without him. And how can he tell me not to have our child?’
Quite easily, Rhianna thought, when he’d never seriously considered relinquishing his commitment to Carrie. For him the baby was just a temporary inconvenience, to be dealt with swiftly and expediently.
The last thing she’d expected was to find herself dragged unwillingly into Simon’s battle with Donna over the proposed termination, or to face its damning effect on her relationship with Diaz.
