‘I meant Upvale, and Blackdog Moors.’
‘You seemed eager enough to run away
from it with me.’
‘That was love, and unplanned
pregnancy, and Father.’
Matt said earnestly: ‘Charlie, it
isn’t that I’m not still fond of you . . .’
‘Oh, thanks,’ I said. ‘In fact, thank
you for having me.’
He ignored that; I’m not sure he even
heard it, like most of the things I say.
‘It’s just that I’m not getting
anything out of this marriage,’ he continued.
‘You make me sound like a bank. What
were you expecting to get out? More than you
put in?’
‘At least there are no children to
complicate things,’ he said, which was a very low blow. He was starting to make
me feel quite sick.
‘I’m sorry it’s come to this,
Charlie, but we really can’t go on. I’ve been offered a long contract in Japan,
and I can’t afford to continue maintaining two households.’
‘But the house . . . the mortgage?’ I
said, my brain starting to limp onwards a bit now the first shockwave had
broken over my head. ‘What will happen?’
‘The divorce will go through quickly
if we are both in agreement – my solicitor will send you things to sign. Then
I’ll pay you maintenance every month, so you won’t have anything to worry
about. The solicitor will get in touch with you and explain everything.’
‘Will he? Is that what you’ve been
doing this week, organising our divorce? Why didn’t you talk to me about it,
instead of suddenly handing me a fait accompli on your last morning home? After
all, I haven’t done anything, have I?’
‘No, you haven’t done anything,’ he
agreed curtly. ‘Perhaps that’s just it. I’ve moved on, and you haven’t. Other
women have families and careers and interests. Perhaps it’s time you got out
there in the real world.’
I’ve been cocooned for the twenty-odd
years of my married life, and now suddenly I’m to be ripped from my chrysalis
and told to make like a butterfly?
He rose from the table. ‘I’ll ring
you from Saudi, once you’ve had time to think it over’
Questions were already beginning to
bubble scummily to the surface, like: when did he see this solicitor? How long
had he been planning this? What does he mean, he’ll give me maintenance? Was
there some other woman behind this? Who on earth would want him?
‘Hurry up and get the car out,’
snapped Alien Nation in a reasonable impersonation of my husband, ‘while I get
my bags.’
‘What?’
‘I’ve got a plane to catch. It’s time
to go.’
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