“Tom hadn’t spoken to me for five days at that point. He used to behave normally while other people were around, but if you watched carefully you’d see he never spoke directly to me. He’d be quiet if I spoke, but never reply. Even Josh didn’t always notice. Tom only started talking to me again because I went to work at Sheridan’s after Christmas and he wanted to know where I was going each day.” I laughed at the memory, though it hadn’t been funny at all. “The curiosity near enough killed him.”

“Why would he do that?”

I shrugged. “I don’t really know. It didn’t have to be anything I did. It could be something I didn’t do. Something I didn’t know I was meant to do. He was always careful not to let anyone else know, though. And I was so stupid. I went along with it.” I stretched my arms behind my back, trying to get rid of the tension. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“But why didn’t you leave before?”

That question really irritated me, but it confused me, too. I didn’t know why I hadn’t left. It’s so hard to leave a marriage, to walk away from everything. It’s like leaving your family. I knew I was weak, knew I hadn’t had the courage to leave, to take that leap into the unknown. And I was always broke, too. I’d known that if I’d left I’d struggle to manage financially. I had a sick feeling that I’d only managed it this time because I had Harry to go to. I wished I was stronger, wished I was the sort of person who could just think, I’ve had enough and end it. “I kept hoping it would get better, I suppose. And then I reached a tipping point a while ago and knew I had to leave.”

“What happened?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to answer that. “I just knew I couldn’t live like that anymore.” I sat quietly for a while. “Then I met someone. Someone special.” A familiar flare of anger shot through me. “Or so I thought. It turned out he wasn’t special at all.”

Oliver sat back, staring at me. “You were seeing someone else?”

I shrugged. “Nothing came of it.”

I wasn’t going to tell him about my affair with Harry. That was private, something I held to myself even now, when I was in bed in the dark. No matter what had happened between Harry and me, nobody could take that time away from me. And I knew that wherever Harry was, whatever he was up to now, it would be the same for him.

CHAPTER 21

Ruby