He doesn’t answer.

She feels her heart breaking a little bit more as she remembers the moment she said ‘Yes’ in New York when he’d asked her to marry him outside Tiffany’s. How she’d jumped into his arms and the doorman had clapped, before opening it so that Trent could buy her the diamond ring she’d set her heart on. How she’s so rarely ever said no to him since. Until now.

‘No. It’s too late,’ she says. ‘I can’t come back from this.’

And then she sees it in his eyes. He doesn’t want love, she realises. Or even her. He just wants someone to soothe his ego. He wants not to feel humiliated that he’s lost their home. He wants someone to make it OK that he hasn’t managed to salvage a business situation. That hasn’t turned out to be Trent Wolfe, the big I am. What she’s looking at is a rare thing: Trent with a crushed ego.

‘Where will you go?’ he asks.

‘Back to Brighton, I guess. And you?’

‘To Dad’s, just for a bit,’ he says. And although he doesn’t deserve it, Maddy feels a bit sorry for him. ‘Until the money comes through and I can decide what’s next …’

He stiffens and draws himself up, as if braced for a fight, but Maddy has no fight left in her. And now, when his eyes meet hers, she understands that their business is done. That moment was just it. The end of her marriage.

She stares at him, feeling as if they should mark the moment with a handshake or a hug, but neither of them move. After a moment, he turns and leaves and she falls on the bed and looks up at the ceiling, a sob escaping her.

36

Back on Call

Dominica cycles up to Hove station and parks her bike outside the bridal shop for her first shift back at the Samaritans. The girl in the window who is dressing a new mannequin waves to her. It’s a lovely dress, but Dominica knows that it’s a difficult business to keep afloat in these testing times.

She’s half an hour early, as is the custom, so that volunteers can seamlessly overlap and now, as she pushes in through the glass door of the Samaritans’ office, it’s as if she’s never been away. Jasmin waves from where she’s on the phone in one of the glass booths and Bill claps and comes over to kiss her. He’s bought her a welcome back cake. They have tea and she enjoys catching up with him, although hearing about how much pressure he’s been under to run the office himself, she’s glad she’s come back into the fold. Good guys like Bill shouldn’t reach burnout. She’s grateful that he’s waited for her to be ready. Not that you’re ever exactly ready for this stuff.

‘Have you been going in the sea?’ he asks.

She nods. ‘Most days.’

‘You look good on it,’ he comments with a nod. ‘I haven’t been in since Christmas when I saw you.’