Page 102 of Spiralling Skywards
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath through my nose.
“Why did the pair of you split up in the first place?”
I think I actually felt my blood pressure rising as I waited for his answer.
“I caught her in bed with someone, you know this.”
“No, no. What led to that? What was the main issue between you?”
I studied Liam’s face, I had no clue what I was looking for, but it wasn’t the gentle look and almost smile that he was giving me right then.
He looked at Luke. He looked down at his glass of whiskey, and then he looked straight into my eyes and let out a long sigh.
“We didn’t love each other enough to stop sleeping with other people.”
My blood was no longer flowing through my veins, it was stomping, marching, pounding its way around my system as I asked him my next question.
“Were you at any stage trying for a baby?”
He recoiled as if I’d just thrown acid in his face and then laughed.
“Me and Olivia? Fuck no.”
He narrowed his eyes, and I watched him as they darted all over my face. “Why would I want to bring a child into a relationship like ours? Olivia wanted children even less than I did. The only reason she’s pregnant now is because she planned it that way. She thought that by getting pregnant she would stop Markham from leaving her and going back to his wife.”
“You’re still adamant that her baby’s not yours?”
He raised his eyebrows and lowered his chin.
“We really gonna go over all of this again?
That bitch. That devious. Scheming. Spiteful bitch. Anger bubbled and churned inside me. I gulped my wine. The alcohol, the warmth from the fire, and pure, unadulterated rage caused my chest, neck and cheeks to heat and my skin to prickle.
“Did she tell you she was pregnant that night? Is that why you left?”
Liam frowned, and I knew instantly that he had no idea what I was talking about. I watched him work it out. I watched as the realisation of what she’d told me caused his mouth to drop open and his eyes to widen.
“Did she tell you I left because she’d told me she was pregnant? Is that what she told you?”
I nodded.
“She told me that your marriage ended because she couldn’t fall pregnant, but you reconnected, and before you left Sydney, you were trying to work through your problems. Then, when she told you she was pregnant, you panicked.”
“And youbelievedher?”
I looked down into my wine glass and nodded.
“I thought I was doing you a favour. I thought if I stepped aside, you’d go back to her.”
I looked up directly into his eyes, blue met blue, and I told him the most honest thing I’d probably ever admitted to in my life.
“I love you enough that I stepped aside for the sake of your baby. I didn’t want to be the reason your child didn’t have a father around. I didn’t want to be the other woman. I didn’t want to be like her, my mother, and I didn’t want your baby to be me, to grow up with all of the issues that I have.”
I licked my top lip, not sure if I was licking snot or tears at that stage, but I didn’t care.
“I didn’t wanna be the cause of that.”
“Christ, Sarah.”
