‘Put a plaster on it,’ she said as she reached for the jar of coffee. Her words were long and slow and drawn out as she yawned.

Chapter 6

Paula stood glumly in the kitchen as she poured herself a hefty glass of gin. It was early, too early really; and did she really want to be that woman?

With a flick of her wrist she tossed it down the sink and switched on the coffee maker instead.

She should be excited, should be packing suitcases and choosing outfits, but Julie’s harsh words were going round and round in her head.

Julie was wrong. Paula wasn’t losing herself. She knew exactly who she was.

But on the other hand, stranger things happened than a husband cheating. Paula’s face grew hot at the thought of Tommy trading her in for a younger model. That was what had happened to Julie. Julie had been lucky in getting half of her ex-husband’s fortune. He had been rolling in it, could afford to give it away if it meant a quiet divorce. He had willingly paid her off, despite them having no children.

Paula tipped her head back. Tommy wouldn’t do that. If anything happened, he wouldn’t be generous. He coveted his bank account and savings and bonds and stocks and shares. She would receive the bare minimum that he could get away with as a settlement.

She pushed herself away from the sink. An insurance policy was what she needed, a way to stay in this lifestyle that she had become so accustomed to. How had it come to this? Once upon a time she’d been a woman who had a science degree, an actual degree that she had earned, and yet she had never used it. Not once had she held a job or career that showed her achievements. The promise of a life of luxury had appealed to her so much that she had simply become Tommy’s wife.

Idly, she wondered where her degree certificate was now, and glanced at the wall in the study where the proof of Tommy’s qualifications hung.

She couldn’t even use her degree now, if she had to find a job for herself. Almost two decades had passed; things would have changed, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to remember anything of what she had learned.

She went up the stairs and drifted into the bathroom.

Insurance policy.

Before she could change her mind, she snatched her birth control pills from the cabinet shelf and very deliberately pushed the remainder of the month’s tablets through the foil into the palm of her hand. One by one, she tipped them into the toilet bowl, watched as they bobbed around. And then, because it wasn’t how she had planned it, because she had actually wanted this to be a mutual decision, she pulled her gaze away from the toilet.