Page 58 of Spiralling Skywards
I drank my vodka and waited for someone to explain to Sasha why the boys were at our place. I wasn’t going to. I couldn’t. My face and lips felt numb, my fingers felt tingly, and my chest felt like it had been stabbed with a sharp knife. With a serrated edge. Over and over and over again.
Stab.
Twist.
“Liam’s wife turned up from Australia, we thought it best to get out of their way and let them talk about whatever couples talk about when they’re trying to save their marriage.”
Stab.
Stab.
Twist.
Sasha knocked her glass of wine over. Will passed her a cloth and some kitchen roll to clear up the dark red mess with. It looked like blood. The blood that was pumping from my chest with every beat of my heart and stab and twist of that serrated edge knife.
I passed her the bottle of cab without her asking. I already knew she would want a top up after what Luke just told her. She’d need a drink as much as I did.
I drank my vodka and refused to make eye contact with Sasha.
“Liam has a wife?” she asked.
“Yeah, the marriage didn’t last long. They both fucked around on each other and then he caught her in bed with a business associate of his in their own home. He left her, and as far as I knew, they hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years, but according to her, they were trying to work things out before he left to come here,” Luke explained.
I struggled to hold back a sob.
He lied.
He lied to me.
I felt hot.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to fly.
I wanted to be somebody else, somewhere else.
“I can’t see that myself. He was adamant that it was over when I spoke to him at your party. The only reason he hadn’t pushed the divorce through sooner was because of the trouble it would cause between their families because the businesses had merged.”
I stared down at my finger as it traced a pattern over the breakfast bar we sat at while listening to Will.
I wasn’t sure if what he was saying was the truth or if he was just repeating what Liam had claimed, to try to make me feel better.
I didn’t really care either way.
It was done.
We were done.
Liam had lied.
He’d lied, and he would leave me.
Just like my dad. Just like my mum. Nobody stayed, because I wasn’t easy to love.
“You okay, Sunshine?” Luke asked from beside me. “You’re very quiet tonight.”
