Chapters (50)
- Cover
- About the Book
- Dedication
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-one
- Twenty-two
- Twenty-three
- Twenty-four
- Twenty-five
- Twenty-six
- Twenty-seven
- Twenty-eight
- Twenty-nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-one
- Thirty-two
- Thirty-three
- Thirty-four
- Thirty-five
- Thirty-six
- Thirty-seven
- Thirty-eight
- Thirty-nine
- Acknowledgements
- About the Author
- Also by Sandie Docker
- Book Club Questions
- Welcome to the Kookaburra Creek Café
- Prologue
- One
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Nicole could the feel the anger rising inside her. ‘You’ll what? Take all my money? You’ve done that. You’ll destroy my self-esteem? You’ve done that, too.’ She raised her voice. ‘Tell me, Mark, what can you possibly do to me?’
He looked at her with steely eyes. ‘This isn’t over, Nicky. I’ll …’
Nicole held his stare, her resolve unwavering. ‘The only way I’ll come back to Sydney with you, Mark, is if you kidnap me. And I don’t think your ego wants me that badly you’ll commit a felony. Think about what that would do to your career.’
Time stopped as they stared at each other before Mark broke the silence.
‘You’ll be back. I know you will. But just you watch out. By the time you come to your senses, I might not be there waiting for you.’ He stormed out the door and Nicole let out a long sigh and slid to the floor.
‘Nicole? Are you there?’ Mandy called, coming up the steps of the verandah.
Nicole let out a groan.
Mandy let herself in and threw herself on the floor beside Nicole.
‘What is going on? I ran into Danny in town and he was like a raging bull. When I asked him what was wrong, he just grunted “ask Nicole”. Did you two have a f—’
Nicole burst into tears and Mandy wrapped her in a tight embrace.
Nicole told Mandy the whole story. Everything about Mark, about what had brought her to Rosella Cove. Hearing it out loud, she saw with renewed eyes, the picture as a whole. She finished finally, and dropped her head into her hands.
‘Oh, honey. I knew something was up, but I wasn’t expecting that.’
‘Sorry.’
‘Don’t be. I just can’t believe you’ve been carrying around this burden all on your own.’
‘Oh, Mandy, when he held me in his arms last night … It would have been so easy to slip back into “us”. What if he always has that hold over me? What if I can’t do this whole “life” thing on my own?’
Mandy helped her to her feet and guided her to the kitchen where she put the kettle on. ‘I get that. I do. But let me ask you this.’ She stood in front of Nicole. ‘Look at this house, what you’ve accomplished, how you’ve embraced the cove, how it’s embraced you. Are you even the same person now as you were six months ago?’
A lot had happened since she’d fled Sydney.
‘No.’ Of course she wasn’t.