“All I want to do is yell at him, and he doesn’t even have the decency to be here to be yelled at.”

“But how do you feel?”

“I’m mad. I’m so angry… I want to smash everything I find in my path.”

“Honey, I know you must be heartbroken…”

“I’m not heartbroken.”

“What do you mean you’re not heartbroken?”

“I told you, I haven’t had a real conversation with Will since he proposed. I’ve been in love with my wedding for the past year and the groom was just an accessory.”

“You don’t mean that.”

“If I’m being honest, yes, I do mean it. I’m afraid my relationship with Will was over a long time ago, only I didn’t notice. He noticed, and instead of coming forward and saying it, he chose to have an affair behind my back.”

“So all you feel is anger?”

“Anger, bitterness… I’m scared. I don’t have a life-plan anymore. I feel cheated of my future and stupid for not knowing something was so terribly wrong. How could I not know? How could I not see it?”

“You’re not stupid.” It’s the first time Jake has spoken since Amelia got here. “Listen, sometimes we’re our own worst enemy. We’re able to tell ourselves all kind of different lies to keep our heads cozily hidden in the sand. Look at me. I told myself I wasn’t in love with Gemma anymore. I was ready to marry someone else just to prove it and force myself to move on. You probably knew something was wrong, and instead of addressing the problem head-on, you subconsciously chose to shift your concentration onto the wedding planning. It’s not stupid, it’s human.”

“So are you saying what Will did was him being human?” Amelia asks viciously.

Jake knows better than to defend William in this particular circumstance. “No, that was evil…”

He smirks. And Amelia, despite herself I can tell, cracks the first smile of the evening.

Suddenly, she gets up, fluttering her hands in the air. “Oh, but I’m not going down quietly. Oh no. I already cheated on him.”

My mouth falls open. “You did?”

“You betcha.”

“With whom? When? For how long?”

“Oh, nothing serious. It was just a colleague in my office this morning.”

“You had sex in your office, today?”

“No, I didn’t have sex. There’s this guy I work with, he pity-kissed me.”

“Pity-kissed? Explain.”

“This guy, Dylan.” She starts pacing around the table. “He’s a bit of a D-bag, to be honest. Anyway, today during the general staff meeting he announced he’d stolen one of my clients.”

“Is that normal?”

“Encouraged even, but that’s not the thing. If you steal an account from a colleague, you do it with class. You don’t gloat about it.”