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‘Oh, no! Is it Mum? Please tell me it’s not Mum?’
‘It’s not Mum, but you do need to prepare yourself for a shock.’
‘A shock. Are the girls…’
‘The girls are fine.’
‘Jen, will you please just tell me what’s going on? I can’t stand the suspense.’
Millie had reached the top of the stairs and sunk down on the top step, staring straight ahead at the spectacular gallery of oil paintings as she stole herself to hear her sister’s news.
‘I really would have preferred to have been with you when I told you, but I don’t want you to see it first on social media so…’
‘Jen! For heaven’s sake!’
‘Luke has just announced the birth of his baby. It’s a girl and they’ve called her Alice.’
‘Oh.’
Millie scrambled around for something suitable to say in response, but she discovered that her brain had spontaneously been washed of all cogent thought. Of course, she’d known that Luke and Donna’s baby was due soon, but she had never been presented with a similar scenario upon which to base an appropriate reaction.
Over the last six months, she had tried hard not to dwell on Luke’s imminent parenthood because even though she had moved on from the heartbreak he had caused, she couldn’t forget that during the last few weeks of their relationship, leading up to her engagement party when the affair had been made public, Donna had been pregnant with Luke’s child, and that hurt.
‘Millie? Are you still there? Millie?’
‘It’s okay, Jen. I’m still here.’
The strain evident in her voice made her sound like a strangled duck. She tried to swallow, but the acidic taste at the back of her throat caused her to gag.
‘How do you feel, darling?’
Jen’s tone was gentle, sympathetic, the same voice she used when one of Millie’s nieces needed comforting after a fall. She fervently wished her sister was sitting next to her on the step, armed with a plaster and a loving hug to make the pain go away. But she wasn’t seven years old, she was a grown-up and, like it or not, she had to deal with whatever life threw at her. She had two choices; either she could crumble into a sniffling mess, or she could straighten her shoulders, draw in a deep, fortifying breath and work on her forgiveness skills.
She briefly toyed with the first option as she explored her emotions to come up with an appropriate response to her sister’s enquiry. Her stomach muscles had contracted around something akin to a pineapple, and her chest felt as though a block of concrete was squeezing the air from her lungs which made her feel lightheaded.
‘I’m… I’m fine.’
‘If you need me to come over to Berryford I can be with you in a couple of hours. Or if you wanted to come to us, I’m sure Claudia will understand when you explain what’s happened. You’ve only got Friday’s farewell cocktail party tomorrow so I’m sure she’ll be able to manage without you.’
‘No, no, I couldn’t do that…’
Suddenly the cloud of confusion lifted, and she was able to put the whole thing into perspective. Claudia and Tim were facing a much more upsetting scenario – not only losing their business but losing their home and the support of their closest friends, yet they were facing the prospect with dignity and positivity for what the future could hold elsewhere. That was what she had to do.
As she sat on the step, listening to her sister’s soothing words, she realised that her reaction had been that of surprise rather than upset. She didn’t love Luke anymore and he had every right to make a new life with someone else, including having a family. With the benefit of hindsight, she realised that they hadn’t been the perfect fit she had thought they were, and she was grateful to him for terminating their relationship, although she would have preferred it if he could have done that as a soon as he had met Donna and realised that she was “the one”, and certainly not at their engagement party.
‘I’m really okay, Jen.’
‘Sure?’
‘Yes. I haven’t had chance to talk to you about it, but over the last six months I’ve learned a lot about myself and I’ve realised that while I had thought Luke was my soulmate, he didn’t make my heart sing or my emotions fizz as much as…’
She stopped, relishing the curl of happiness zipping around her body and causing a smile to stretch her lips.
‘As much as what?’
Millie glanced down to the bottom of the stairs and her heart performed a flip-flop of pleasure when she saw Zach staring up at her.
‘As much as what?’
