I nodded, his meaning all too clear. Leo Fox was not a man used to being sidelined and he clearly had no intention of letting me go that easily. I looked up at Marcus and nodded confidently. ‘It’ll be fine,’ I said with a confident smile. ‘I’ll sort it.’

Marcus grinned back wolfishly. ‘Good girl.’

Chapter Thirty-Two

Charlotte pulled up across the road from the address Jo had given her and turned off the engine. It was only a ten-minute drive from the slightly scruffy terraced house she shared with Joe, but it seemed like a world away. She looked up at the grand white façade, set back behind ornate black iron gates. It was a hell of a house for a small family of three, especially in this part of Surrey, which was known for its expensive properties.

There were two cars parked on the luxuriously paved driveway – a pale blue Mercedes sports car and a large Jaguar SUV. Charlotte pictured the scene inside the house as they sat around the table, eating breakfast together. Were they a happy little family unit, laughing and chatting as they ate? She somehow doubted it, having seen the three of them together at the funeral. Bella definitely didn’t seem like a laughing or chatting kind of person.

As she watched, the heavy black front door opened. Instinctively, she ducked down, even though they couldn’t possibly have seen her from where they were. Bella emerged first, looking glamorous and beautiful in a designer grey skirt-suit. Then, behind her, Ben appeared. Charlotte’s heart skipped at the sight of him. He had lost a lot of weight and his cheekbones were far more chiselled than she remembered. From a distance, she couldn’t see his eyes properly but she could certainly see the dark circles beneath them.

Bella turned to say something to him and he bent down to kiss her. Charlotte’s stomach churned, as she watched Bella wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him back, before closing the door and, after a brief hesitation, striding over to the blue sports car and climbing in.

As Bella pulled out through the electric gates and headed down the road, Charlotte sat up in her seat again. She hadn’t been expecting the scene that she had just witnessed and it had thrown her. They looked pretty happy together and if that was how Bella kissed him goodbye each morning, there couldn’t be too much wrong with their relationship.

It had clearly been a waste of time coming here. Charlotte knew that Jo was genuine in her concern for Ben, but she also knew that she might also be looking for a reason why he had cut her out of his life that didn’t involve him simply deciding that he didn’t want to see her. It was desperately unfair, but Ben seemed to have made his choice and there wasn’t much anyone could do about it.

She sat for a while, thinking about how to break the news to Jo, before she started up her car again. She was about to drive off, when the front door opened once more and Ben emerged, this time leading Elodie by the hand towards the SUV. Charlotte smiled at the sight of them together. They seemed to be locked in their own happy little bubble and Ben was obviously a devoted father. Just as she had always known he would be.