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‘Exactly,’ said Caroline, nudging Stella. ‘Go and sit in there with them and I’ll bring you a cup of tea.’
‘Are you sure you’ve got time? I thought you said you needed to get home, I’m sorry we’re a bit late, but the traffic was terrible coming back.’
‘No, really, I’ve got time. Philip’s quite capable of fending for himself for a bit longer and the traffic might have calmed down in half an hour. So, go on, go and sit down and I’ll be with you in a minute.’
Stella sat on the sofa in the sitting room with the twins, listening as they gave her a very detailed account of their trip to the theatre, while Max sat on the floor with the dog. She glanced around the familiar room, the noise of her children’s chatter filling it, and felt an enormous sense of protectiveness wash over her. More than anything, she wanted to keep the children safe and happy. Whatever mess her marriage had created, she resolved to remember the joy too. And it was here, with her, in this room.
Caroline came in with Stella’s tea and handed it to her, telling the girls to be careful as she did. She sat in the armchair opposite and got comfortable. ‘So, tell me all about it.’
Stella looked at her sister and sighed. ‘It was just magical. Honestly, one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. But I tell you what,’ she squeezed the children either side of her, ‘I’m so happy to be home.’
The women drank their tea and Caroline asked all about the trip; where they’d been, what they’d seen, sighing at Stella’s descriptions. She’d been to Florence briefly years ago and had always wanted to go back. ‘Oh, look at that view!’ she cried, peering at Stella’s phone. ‘Is that from the top of the Duomo?’
Stella looked across at the screen. ‘No, we climbed the bell tower instead. Then you get the view back towards the Duomo.’ Stella swiped at the screen. ‘See? There.’
‘Oh, look at that. So beautiful.’ Caroline took in the roofs, the skyline, the hills in the distance. Even in miniature, it still managed to take her breath away.
‘To be honest, I was a bit lazy about taking photos because we had Bridget there. She was snapping away with her camera, so no doubt we’ll have lots of lovely ones. I’ll share them when I get them.’
‘Before I go let me show you what’s in the oven for you all tonight.’ Caroline motioned to Stella, signalling towards the door.
‘Oh, OK. Sure.’ Stella followed Caroline to the kitchen. She lowered her voice. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Yes, nothing to worry about. I just thought I’d mention that the girls were a bit tearful about Simon. Nothing serious, but they asked me when I thought he might be coming home. I said I didn’t know. I wasn’t sure exactly what you’d said to them. I know you’ve been as honest as you can, but I didn’t want to say the wrong thing. So, anyway, I just said that as long as you all looked after each other in the meantime, they shouldn’t worry.’
‘What about Max, has he mentioned it at all?’ Stella’s heart leapt at the thought of her children being upset. She wished Simon could hear this conversation, see the hurt he’d caused with his actions.
‘No. In fact, I asked him if he was all right, if there was anything he wanted to talk about, and he said he was fine. Oh Stella, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.’
Stella held the palms of her hands to her eyes, stemming the tears. She shook her head. ‘Please don’t apologise. It’s not your fault. It’s just…’ She remembered how much better she’d felt on the plane just a few hours before, but now she was back in the house, it was as if nothing had changed at all. ‘I tell myself it’s all going to be all right, but actually, I feel like I might go under at any moment.’
‘What did your solicitor say? I mean, why can’t we just get the police to find Simon, force him to admit what’s going on?’ Caroline’s voice rose in an angry whisper.
‘Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. Their advice is to wait for him to get back in touch, or turn up, or whatever he’s going to do. And much as I wish I could, I can’t go to the police. It’s not like he’s done anything wrong.’ Stella’s stomach flipped at the words, knowing them not to be true. But she wasn’t ready to tell Caroline about the money for fear that her sister would insist on going to the police right then and there. Stella couldn’t face the thought of that quite yet, wanting to at least give Simon the chance to explain. He was the father of her children after all.
‘Well, what are you going to do? You can’t just sit around waiting for him to turn up, that’s not fair on you.’ Caroline sat down at the kitchen table, which, of course, she’d already laid for them.
‘Funny you should say that because that’s exactly where my thinking got to in Florence. I’ve been telling myself he’ll come back for so long. But now I know that’s not the case. And so, I’m going to go and see someone.’
‘Who?’
‘An old friend of his. At least I think she is. Or was, anyway. I found a name – Emily Parker – and number in one of Simon’s old wallets. I, well Bridget, found someone with the same name, looks around the right age and lives near Oban. Obviously I could be barking up completely the wrong tree but it’s pretty much all I’ve got to go on for now.’
‘I knew it. He’s having an affair.’ Caroline’s face fell, even though she’d been expecting to hear this from Stella for months.
‘Maybe.’ Plenty of late-night googling of reasons why men leave their marriages had told Stella this was the most likely reason. ‘But I have no proof of that. And anyway, this is about trying to find out a bit more about him in the first place. He has no family, I’ve tried all his old friends and none of them have heard from him. Nothing. He’s literally disappeared, and I need to know why. So I thought I could just ask her a few questions, see what she says.’
Carline looked dubious. ‘How do you know where to find her?’
‘Bridget found where she works on Instagram.’
‘So, what are you going to do?’
‘Go and find her, tell her what’s happened to me, then ask if she knows anything that might help me understand it all.’
‘You do realise you sound…’
‘A bit mad?’ Stella smiled.
