Page 130 of For Love or Money
He turned to face her, and suddenly everything seemed very still, the air in the room charged. Stella hardly dared to breathe.
Rafe sighed, looking down at his glass again. ‘Okay, here’s the truth. People think I’m like Dad, because I’ve dated a lot of women and I’ve never settled down.’
Stella gave a little derisive laugh. ‘Like father, like son.’
‘Yeah, that’s what they say. But the truth is I’m not like him at all. I’ve never cheated on any of the women I’ve been with. But I don’t think I was in love with any of them either. Dad falls in love every five minutes. Whereas I – I don’t think I’ve ever really been in love.’
Stella could hardly breathe. She suddenly had an awful feeling she knew where this was going. Rafe was going to say something dreadful, something monstrous that would ruin everything and could never be unsaid. ‘Until’, ‘before’ – the words that would bring everything crashing down around them hung in the air. She had to stop him before he said them out loud.
‘Not completely,’ he was saying. ‘Not—’
‘Well,’ she said, cutting him off and standing abruptly, ‘I’m sure it’ll happen for you eventually.’ She brushed pizza crumbs off her pyjama top.
There was a brief flicker of anger in Rafe’s eyes as he looked up at her. ‘Yeah, maybe one day if I’m lucky I can have what you and Dad have,’ he said sourly, frank challenge in his eyes.
Stella recoiled a little at his bitterness.
He sighed, his anger quickly extinguished, replaced by a look of resignation. ‘Sorry.’ He smiled ruefully, as if acknowledging that she was right and some things were better left unsaid.
‘I don’t fall in love easily either, Rafe,’ Stella said gently. ‘Does that mean I shouldn’t want what other people have? Does it mean I can’t have a happy marriage, a family life? Do you think I should shut myself off from all that because I don’t feel what I’m supposed to feel? It doesn’t make me a bad person. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about anyone.’
He looked at her in silence for a long time. ‘No,’ he said eventually, his expression softening. ‘I know it doesn’t. You’re a good person, Stella. I see how you look after Dad, and I know you ... care for him.’
She nodded stiffly in acknowledgement.
‘You deserve to be happy. I hope you get everything you want.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, hardly able to see through the mist of tears. ‘Well, it’s getting late. I think we should get to bed.’
He nodded, standing up.
‘Thank you for today, Rafe,’ she said as he walked to the door. ‘Goodnight.’
‘Goodnight, Stella. See you in the morning.’
43
‘Revenge porn?’ Al repeated, frowning when Lesley told him what she’d found. She’d summoned him for a case conference, and they were seated at her kitchen table with mugs of coffee, the afternoon sun streaming in the window.
‘It could explain why she changed her name,’ Lesley said. She knew revenge porn could wreak havoc and have devastating consequences for the victims, completely wrecking lives and careers, and tearing families apart.
‘It could,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘And you really think this Babygirl person is Stella?’
Lesley shrugged. ‘I can’t be sure, of course, but ... yeah, my gut feeling is that she is. It all adds up.’
‘It’d certainly give her a good reason to avoid social media.’
‘And to wipe out any trace of her online history.’
‘Shit!’ Al grimaced. ‘Poor Stella.’
‘I know. No wonder she’s so private and reserved.’
‘So, you think this is it? This is what she’s been hiding?’
Lesley nodded. ‘I’d say it’s case closed.’ She tapped the file in front of her, ‘The Adventure of the Adventuress’ written on the cover in black sharpie. ‘Are you going to tell your family?’
‘There’s no need for that, is there?’
